As someone obsessed with Halloween, hauntings and all things autumnal, here is my essential viewing list that will get you into the All Hallows Eve or Gilmore Girls mindset because spooky season doesn’t end until 1st December.
Read:
If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio – M.L. Rio’s debut novel is perfect for October, it offers murder, Macbeth and sickeningly pretentious theatre students. For fans of The Secret History, get ready to become invested in another strange friendship group that would irritate you in real life. As an English Lit student I loved the deconstruction of Shakespearean archetypes and the homoerotic friendships; my only gripe is that there’s not enough of it.
‘The Queen of Spades’ by Alexander Pushkin – For the academics, Pushkin’s novella presents a classic moral tale on the pitfalls of greed as Hermann loses his “small capital” and sanity in pursuit of vast wealth. Upon embroiling himself in a mystical gambling saga Hermann is plagued by the ghostly Queen of Spades but is this madness or magic? You decide. Pushkin’s tale is a quick, eerie read for those too lazy to read Dostoyevsky.
Beloved by Toni Morrison – As it’s Black History Month it would be remiss for me not to mention Morrison’s gothic magnum opus. ‘Beloved’ follows Sethe’s life after escaping slavery, exploring the idea of mental and physical hauntings. Sethe’s trauma materialises in the form of her dead daughter Beloved who returns to her in adult form. Morrison’s prose is beautiful and itself haunting, providing a devastating tale that will stick with you through the long, dark nights.
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern – “The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.” For a whimsical autumnal read I require you to read Erin Morgenstern’s debut novel. Morgenstern’s lush descriptions will make you yearn for a Victorian Era Circus (without all the P.T Barnumness), plus it has magicians and a love story based on life-long rivalry. If you like Jane Austen, you’ll probably like this too.
I also recommend:
- We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
- Amy Levy’s Poetry (read ‘A Minor Poet’, ‘In A Minor Key’ and ‘In the Black Forest’ for some dark Gothic angst.)
Listen To:
Jekyll and Hyde – The Gothic Musical Thriller: as someone who had to struggle through the novel in school I can wholeheartedly say the musical is better. Here I am talking about the 1995 recording NOT the 2005 version which in my expert opinion, is rubbish. The soundtrack is angsty, sexy and dark – the holy trinity of spooky season – Anthony Warlow’s vocals are ridiculously impressive as both Jekyll and Hyde, his ballads make the soundtrack. If you’re only going to listen to one song it needs to be ‘Confrontation.’
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (2015) – Hunchback is another essential, for autumn and winter and spring…Blending the music of the film with the darkness of the original Victor Hugo novel, it is the ultimate Gothic fantasy. The 32 person choir generates an otherworldly sound and the cast is stellar; Michael Arden’s Quasimodo would have swept the Tonys if it had gone onto a Broadway run (I am still bitter.) There’s always well-shot bootlegs (shock, horror) floating around on YouTube but if you morally or technologically object, give the soundtrack a listen, you won’t regret it.
I also recommend:
- The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall (2011)
- No Need To Argue (1994) – The Cranberries
- Grace (1994) – Jeff Buckley
- The Civil Wars (2013) – The Civil Wars
- Hozier (2014) – Hozier
- Evermore (2021) – Taylor Swift
- The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We (2023) – Mitski
Watch:
The Haunting of Hill House (2018) – Mike Flanagan’s interpretation of the Shirley Jackson novel is an essential for anyone interested in complex families, old houses or vindictive ghosts. Or maybe old ghosts and vindictive houses. The show portrays the five stages of grief through the Crain siblings whose summer in Hill House haunts them throughout their adulthood. This will make you cry then sleep with the light on.
What We Do in the Shadows (2019-2024) – For the scaredy cats, maybe give Hill House a miss and watch this instead. Taika Waititi’s comedy mockumentary following a household of vampires is hilarious; Matt Berry plays himself as a sexually lascivious aristocratic vampire, there are some corker one liners and the found family aspect is genuinely heart-warming. 
I also recommend:
- Don’t Look Now (1973)
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
- Coraline (2009)
- BBC’s Merlin (2008-2012)
- Get Out (2017)
- Mindhunter (2017-2019)
