Looking for suggestions on what to watch, read and do on the spookiest night of the year? This is the list for you.
Davide Bertusi
Film: Heretic
A film starring Hugh Grant. Hugh Grant plays a mysterious figure who plays with the faith of two young missionaries. A movie that will keep you and your friends on the edge for the whole night.
Book: The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde
Wilde’s tale of an old English ghost trying (and hilariously failing) to frighten a modern family is a perfect blend of humor and spooky vibes.
Activity: Creepy Mixology Night
Turn ordinary cocktails into thrilling creations and compete to see who makes the scariest and most creative drink.
Dylan Browne-Wilkinson
Film: The Thing
Alone in the Arctic desert, a research compound gets infiltrated by a nefarious alien shapeshifting spirit. The Thing is film by John Carpenter.
Book: The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
A classic which popularised the poltergeist and the séance among a generation.
Activity: Mwuhahaha
An uncontrolled “Mwuhahaha” laughter is an easy way to feel evil.
Andrea Charur
Film: Poltergeist
It’s an older movie with outdated special effects, but it’s still entertaining and creepy with good actors.
Book: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Don’t be fooled by the 19th-century language, the book will make you understand Frankenstein’s monster in a way popular media doesn’t portray.
Activity: Ghost Tours
If you want to be scared in Rome, there are ghost tours that go to the Catacombs of Rome, the Capuchin Crypt and the Basilica San Martino ai Monti.
Salvatrice D’Anna
Film: The American Backyard
This Italian gothic horror film follows a troubled young man’s obsessive search for an American nurse he briefly met, which leads him from post-war Bologna to the mysterious American Midwest, adjacent to a grim garden. As a blend of noir mystery, psychological drama, and unsettling gothic horror, The American Backyard by Pupi Avati is an atmospheric and disorienting journey into the darker corners of the human psyche.
Book: Our Share of the Night by Mariana Enriquez
By acclaimed Argentinian author Mariana Enríquez, Our Share of Night is a multi-generational horror novel about Juan, a medium, and his son Gaspar, set during Argentina’s military dictatorship. As Juan fights to protect Gaspar from The Order, a wealthy cult worshipping a cosmic entity called The Darkness, the story weaves family drama, occult horror, and political critique, exploring generational trauma and inherited evil with a haunting blend of the supernatural and historical terror.
Activity: Halloween Nights at Cinecittà World
Cinecittà World in Rome hosts spooky attractions and shows until November 2, with the main Halloween Nights on October 31 and November 1 featuring themed dinners, DJ sets, and late-night events. Highlights include Halloween Croccante with Riva Starr, Go Hard or Go Hardcore with Rebekah and others, and Señorita Halloween Night with reggaeton and pop music.
Elin Kaasa
Film: Frozen
A horror movie from 2010. Two friends get stuck in a ski lift after the ski resort closes, and when it gets dark the wolves show up. The friends either need to stay in the lift, without food and heat, or they need to jump down from the lift, where the wolves are.
Book: Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
It’s scary because by listening to the audiobooks you always imagine Voldemort when his name is mentioned. And he’s an unpredictable figure which has hurt and killed many people.
An activity: Scuba diving
The sea is large and your surroundings get darker the further down you go. It can be scary not knowing what you will see, and easy to imagine sharks showing up.
João Kerr G. Bidetti
Film: Corpse Bride
A stunning, melancholic stop-motion fairy tale. Corpse Bride (2005) masterfully contrasts the gray, repressed world of the living with a surprisingly vibrant underworld. It’s a beautifully gothic romance that finds its creepiness in stolen vows, betrayal, and the thin veil between life and death.
Book: The New Yorker’s Worst Crimes (Os Piores Crimes da Revista New Yorker)
This collection of reportages proves reality is far more chilling than fiction. It trades ghosts for the real-world horror of true crime, all dissected with elegant, sharp prose of The New Yorker magazine. The terror here is grounded and clinical, exploring the darkest side of human nature—and knowing every word of it is true.
Activity: Gothic Investigation Night
A perfect mix of both. Set up a true crime investigation board to solve the central mystery of Corpse Bride. Use character photos, string, and notes to channel the book’s journalistic rigor. The goal: figure out who murdered Emily before the film reveals the answer.
Alessandro Marchiello
Film: Coraline
Coraline (2009) is dark, strange, and visually beautiful. It perfectly mixes childish curiosity with something deeply unsettling, like a fairy tale gone wrong. The story follows a young girl who discovers a secret door leading to an alternate version of her home, one that seems perfect at first, until she realizes her “Other Mother” wants to keep her there forever.
Book: Misery by Stephen King
Misery is one of the most disturbing portrayals of obsession and control. The story follows a famous writer who is kidnapped by his number one fan, and what begins as admiration soon turns into pure madness. A novel that feels terrifyingly real and is scarier than any monster.
Activity: Creepy Baking Night
A perfect activity would be baking cookies shaped like Coraline’s button eyes and Misery’s typewriter keys. A cozy but eerie way to celebrate spooky season.
Rocco Matone
Film: The Shining
Kubrick’s horror classic. Duvall’s stairway-with-knife scene — shot endlessly by Kubrik — feels frighteningly real and worth the whole film.
Book: Salem’s Lot by Stephen King
Slow-building dread, small-town secrets, and a frightening vampire atmosphere.
Activity: Blackout Storytelling Night
Host a blackout storytelling night: phones off, one candle, everyone tells a true scare, windows open, October air creeps in.
Anjolaoluwa Osunfisan
Film: Madam Koi Koi
If you’re looking for something eerie and refreshingly different this Halloween, Madam Koi Koi (2024) is a great pick. Inspired by a famous West African urban legend, the film follows the haunting of a boarding school by a mysterious ghost known for her red heels. What makes it stand out is how it blends African folklore with modern horror storytelling it’s creepy, stylish, and offers a new cultural twist to the horror genre.
Book: Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
It’s the kind of horror that creeps up on you slowly full of eerie tension, old mansions, and haunting family secrets. Mexican Gothic (2020) by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is beautifully written and unsettling without being gory, making it perfect for anyone who likes their spooky with a bit of elegance.
Activity: Try a Virtual Reality Horror Experience
If you’ve ever wanted to know what it feels like to be inside a horror movie, VR is the way to go. VR lets you experience fear in the most immersive way possible every sound, every shadow feels real. It’s thrilling, heart-racing, and definitely not for the faint-hearted.
Matilde Risi
Film: Psycho
Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) redefined the grammar of cinematic fear, turning the ordinary roadside motel into a stage for psychological disintegration. More than six decades later, its shock edits and moral ambiguity remain essential to the study of suspense and horror filmmaking.
Book: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
A gothic masterpiece of isolation and madness, Jackson’s novel dissects the fragile boundary between domestic safety and psychological terror. Its quiet dread and unreliable narration make it a touchstone for understanding how women’s fears and agency are portrayed in modern horror.
Activity: Horror Escape Room
An immersive experiment in collective fear and problem-solving, the horror escape room transforms spectators into participants. It offers a real-world case study of how contemporary audiences seek not just to watch terror, but to inhabit it.
Joe Toolan
Film: Hocus Pocus
Three witches, the Sanderson sisters, are resurrected on Halloween night after 300 years. With the help of a cat called Binx, Max, his sister Dani, and friend Allison must stop them from stealing the life force of children to stay young. This Halloween comedy classic is sure to get you in the spooky mood.
Book: Stephen King
If you really want to get into the spooky mood and lose yourself in a book, Stephen King is the answer. Whether it’s Carrie or The Shining, King should be your first port of call when it comes to horror fiction.
Activity: Carving Pumpkins
A classic Halloween activity is to carve a scary face in to a pumpkin. This is the perfect activity to do with friends. What’s more, putting a lit candle in the pumpkin and leaving it outside your house is said to ward off ever spirits!
