To me, The Black Phone is one of the best horror films to come out in a while.

I always have loved the horror films and stories that center around people. What is it Steven King said? The worst monsters are humans?

In this film, young men are going missing in a small town. Finney's friends begin to go missing, and he eventually finds himself falling to The Grabber, the man everyone is blaming for the abductions.

In this thrilling movie, Finney connects with the young men who are or have been trapped by The Grabber in order to attempt to find a way out of captivity.

It's definitely a horrifying movie. Ethan Hawke plays a terrific mad man, and the young actors and actresses do a fantastic job portraying their characters. I'd highly recommend checking this one out.

Centering on an LGBTQ+ conversion camp, Jordan (who identifies as They/Them) is perplexed by the camp owner, who seems to be accepting at first. But things quickly turn South as the camp counselors become sinister.

Amidst the horrific things the campers experience, people at the camp begin to die at the hand of an unknown killer. But who is it?

I really love the twist in this one and feel like it sheds light on an important issue: conversion camps. 

I've always been a huge fan of Hocus Pocus, so I was of course excited to watch the new one on October 1. 

Everything about the casting was perfect, from the young Sanderson Sisters, to the new characters of Izzy, Cassie, Becca and Gilbert.

The returning cast did a phenomenal job, and there were awesome nods to the first movie that made it highly entertaining and exciting to watch nearly 30 years later. 

It is on Disney Plus to watch for free. I am excited to watch it again over the holiday season. I hope that you take some time to watch it and really appreciate the work that went in to making this a great sequel. 

I particularly love the music in this one, and how it sheds a positive light on the Sanderson Sisters. You'll have to watch to know what I'm talking about.

Another really great horror movie that came out this year was Smile. I was fortunate to see it in theaters with my family this weekend.

It follows the story of a therapist who is confronted by a young woman who claims to see sadistic smiles on strangers and loved ones, and even says she is seeing those who have passed come back from the grave in her visions.

Through a series of events I don't want to spoil, the therapist starts also seeing these smiles as dedicates a week of leave from work toward trying to discover a cause and solution to this curse.

It was a really creepy movie, for sure. I loved the use of anti-jump scares and how they used sound and silence as a mode for a scare. I would just warn that this is probably the scariest one of the list, so if you don't do well with horror, it might be best to skip this one.

This Marlon Wayans movie is a great "horror" movie for kids. It follows a family that moves from New York to a small, safe town.

The family, made up of a husband, wife and teen daughter, runs into the curse after the daughter finds a haunted item in the attic of their new home. 

The dad and father work together to figure out the cause of the curse and find a solution. Through it, they work through their own problems.

As I mentioned, it is really aimed toward children, but does contain some language. The subject itself can be comical. It seems a lot like Goosebumps to me!

Marlon, as always, does an amazing job at making moments of the movie funny, and the young actors and actresses do a great job, too!

At the beginning of the second Hocus Pocus, we see an elder witch who was luring the Sanderson Sisters to eat them before she realized they had witchy potential.

If you look closely at her outfit, it will look familiar.

She has the red and yellow fringe, which can also be seen at the top of the witch's cloak. 

Could it be a famous witch we never heard of? It couldn't be Dani because this was 300 years before the first movie! What do you think?!

In the original, Dani and Max's mom wears this Madonna costume to the Halloween party. If you look closely in the "flash mob" scene, you'll see another character dressed in the same outfit, which is certainly a nod to the first movie. 

We all were a little confused when Gilbert said he had seen the Sanderson Sisters in 1993, but obviously this encounter took place off screen.

He does, however, mention that bullies stole his candy. We can chock that up to Jay and Ice from the first movie, as they were seen stealing kids' candy baskets all night.

At the end of the movie, there is a nod to the fact that Becca, Izzy and Cassie had formed their own coven. Did you noticed the clever color-blocking throughout the movie?