Like the household that gave out apples instead of candy for trick or treating, Halloween can be a polarising holiday if you don’t like horror films.  Having to cover up your eyes in the cinema whenever a slasher flick trailer comes on makes you feel like a little kid again. This isn’t such a bad thing though: Halloween was better when we were kids. The Halloween films of our childhood managed to be spooky, even if they didn’t give us nightmares. They featured all of our favourite angsty teen stars who were so quintessentially emo that they were just the right people to commune with ghosts, witches, zombies or, even scarier, hormonal teenage boys. So grab some fun-size Cadbury and pop one of these campy classics in.

The only thing that’s scary about Tim Burton these days is how bloated his budget is, but back in the 1980s he was the master of cult comedy-horror films. Burton knew that picturesque New England towns could only be so quaint without harbouring a ghost or three, and this seems to be a common trope of most of the films on this list. He started the trend with 1984’s Frankenweenie, about a kid so obsessed with his dog Sparky that he resurrects the pup Frankenstein-style after it gets hit by a car. Sparky isn’t your average pet and Frankenweenie was not Disney’s average film, therefore they fired Burton, claiming a zombie pitbull was too scary for its audience. Ironically, this film now plays on the Disney channel, and the company is even remaking it as a feature-length stop-motion animation. If you can’t wait until 2012, don’t worry, the original can be found in its entirety on YouTube.

Burton made his reputation from his interpretation of the Halloween genre, but how many films contain a calypso lip-sync? That’s right, we’re talking about the infamously named Beetlejuice (just don’t say his name three times). Michael Keaton’s over-the-top exorcist of the living is the rogue ghost helping the recently deceased Maitland family haunt out the yuppies that remodelled their Victorian home. They quickly make friends with new tenant Lydia (Burton’s muse Winona Ryder), the chicest goth ever, who can see them because she is “strange and unusual” too. The most frightening thing about Beetlejuice is how attractive Alec Baldwin (as Adam Maitland) used to be, but that doesn’t stop the film from being a kooky Halloween romp that will get your toe tapping.

Speaking of spectres and melodramatic teenagers, don’t look right through Casper, even if the namesake of the film is a friendly ghost. We’re not talking about the version that Hilary Duff ruined, but the original featuring Bill Pullman as a paranormal ‘therapist’ and his acerbic daughter Christina Ricci. After moving into a haunted mansion in Maine (by the end of this feature, you should be convinced to never move to New England), they meet the Three Stooges of ghosts and ther nephew, the cute Casper. The odd romance that forms between Ricci’s Kat and Casper never quite works, because, as Kat bluntly puts, Casper lacks something her high school crush doesn’t - “A pulse.” There are enough ridiculous scenes, however, such as Pullman singing “Jailhouse Rock”, that make up for the cartoonish computer animation.

Halloween shenanigans wouldn’t be complete without the campiest and craziest of them all, Hocus Pocus. Set in Salem, Massachusetts, it’s as clichéd as a cauldron – three witches are resurrected from the dead by a foolish teenager trying to impress his crush on Halloween. We always knew hormones were dangerous. The film has a surprising amount of sexual innuendo, as Sarah Jessica Parker’s dumb blonde witch wants to mount more than just a broom. Even if a recent viewing isn’t as innocent as the virgin that is needed to restore the witches to their beauty and immortality, this is what makes it the ultimate Halloween cult classic. The talking black cat is what you remember loving as a kid, whereas head witch Bette Midler’s bawdy rendition of “I’ll Put a Spell on You” is what makes it well-worth viewing as an adult. Maybe these films aren’t frightening, but they are certainly funnier than the hangover you have after Halloween.