10 Scary Movies To Watch While Tripping This Halloween

When tripping, your mind can be more impressionable and imaginative. This is great most of the time, but it can mean if you somehow find yourself at a screening of Nightmare on Elm Street you may find it harder to rationalise that Freddy Kruger is safely locked inside the screen, and not about to chase you through your dreams. 

Should You, Could You, Mix Shrooms and Scares?

However, on Halloween a lot of people throw caution to the wind and mix substances — shrooms and horror. If you enjoy the horror genre, relish rather than recoil from the chills, maybe this is something you do regularly — or have at least considered. It takes all sorts after all! Perhaps, if you’re easily spooked, you’d rather not risk it. But! There are films that still have a Halloween-y vibe — but don’t elicit pure terror — that might be just the ticket to watch while a lil’ bit altered. 

Dosage Is Key

Naturally, we don’t want anyone to feel left out. That is definitely not the way of the shroom. And of course, the dosage you take makes a huge difference to your experience. We would recommend taking a micro, small, or moderate dose for watching movies. Anymore, and you probably won’t be able to focus on — or follow — the plot so hot. If it’s your first time mixing shrooms and spooky flicks it’s probably best to be conservative with the amount of psilocybin you ingest.

For a more in depth look on how to work out your perfect dose, check out our magic mushroom and truffle dosage guide. 

Now you’ve got your dosage planned, it’s time to pick your movie. We’ve picked 10 movies that range from a light tickle of terror (baby steps!) to the fully nightmare-ish, but all with fabulous visuals. This way you can make an informed decision on what thrills and spills you wanna witness this Halloween. 

Scaredy Cat Shroom-Heads

Scooby Doo The Movie (2002)

Based on the classic Hanna-Babera animation, this movie is not just a slice of silly spookiness, it’s also a time capsule of Y2K style. With an animated Scooby, big stoner energy, and a silly voodoo subplot, the bright colours and goofy humour are a great entry level choice. If anything the hairdos are the scariest thing about it!

Corpse Bride (2005)

Tim Burton is the king of soft spookery, and always delivers a feast for the eyes. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and Frankenweenie (2012) are also kooky animated delights with a Halloweeny bite, but we’ve picked Corpse Bride because of the cool skeleton dance sequences. Perfect trippy visuals!

Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

This musical spectacular is both a kitsch classic and a gently scary treat. All singing, all dancing, and with Steve Martin as a demented dentist (and Bill Murray cameo-ing as a masochistic patient) if you havent seen it, you gotta try it. Seeing the audacious Audrey II (the plant) wreaking havoc will make you thankful for the kindness of shrooms, who actually have our best interests at heart. 

Midrange Monsters for Magic Mushers

Beetlejuice (1988)

Another Tim Burton Halloween classic (he used to be good didn’t he?!) A recently deceased couple return to their home as ghosts only to find that a family has moved in. When scaring them away fails, they decide to use the services of a sinister spirit called Beetlejuice to try and rid them of the interlopers. However, he turns out to be total evil (surprise!) It is then up to the ghostly couple and the family’s goth-princess teenage daughter (played by winona Ryder with amazing hair) to rid the house of the stripey-suited demon. A silly spookfest with some real scares. 

Eraserhead (1977)

This black and white flick from king of weird David Lynch is where things begin to get scary. Henry (Jack Nance) lives in a gloomy industrial apartment, he marries his pregnant girlfriend, but when she gives birth to the baby…. let’s just say it’s not what you’d expect… Creepy diversions include a disfigured woman who lives inside his radiator (?!) 

Mother! (2017)

This film is noted for its descent into hysteria. Jennifer Lawrence plays a wife devotedly renovating her and her poet husband’s beautiful home. A magical crystal, creepy strangers and heavy-handed biblical symbolism makes this film polarizingly wackadoo. A total trip without shrooms, imagine it with…

Midsommar (2019)

A couple travels to Scandinavia to take part in a once-in-a-lifetime midsummer festival. The picturesque summer trip takes a turn when they become involved with the sinister and disturbing rituals of the locals. Featuring terrifying psychedelic sequences and pure weird weirdness, this is one for fans of Druids and owners of a strong constitution. 

Top Level Terrors For The Truly Brave 

The Shining (1980)

One of Kubrick’s many masterpieces, this is both a movie that you study in film class and one that will leave the indelible print of horror on your soul. You’ve probably seen it spoofed a million times, but on watching caretaker Jack’s (Jack Nicholson) descent into madness and subsequent terrorising of his family in the psychedelically patterned hotel, you’ll be shaking in your boots — ‘forever, and ever, and ever…’

Suspiria (1977)

Although the remake is also worth a watch, the 1977 original is just a glorious, gory, feast for tripping eyeballs. One of the last films to be processed in Technicolour, this witchy surrealist tale focuses on a young American ballerina who travels to a Berlin dance school. Incredibly stylish and blood-soaked murders ensue, all to the disturbing chords of Italian prog-rock group Goblin. 

The Exorcist (1973)

The ‘70s spawned a host of iconically bloodcurdling movies (hello Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween etc.) which still terrorise today, but for many people The Exorcist remains #1, even in a post Saw world. The film centres around 12 year old girl Regan — a normal girl — until she’s not… This film, which was both banned in many countries and spawned a renewed interest in exorcisms and demonic possession — yes in the 20th century — needs to be seen to be believed. If you’re brave enough to trip during The Exorcist, you’re brave enough for anything…

Finally, There’s Always Charlie Brown…

Finally, just cos it’s Halloween you don’t have to watch anything remotely scary! You could always brew some magic truffle tea and settle in with It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown…. The choice is always yours. 

Have you ever watched any horror flicks while tripping? Did we miss your favourite? Let us know in the comments below!