Halloween 2026 lands on October 31, and Hindustan Times has put together a ten-film horror watchlist for the night. It mixes Indian titles that shaped the genre with two Hollywood chillers that raised the stakes.
For Bollywood fans, the list is also a quick history lesson: Hindi horror did not begin with Stree, and some of its strongest entries took years to find their audience.
The ten picks at a glance
- Tumbbad (2018): Sohum Shah plays Vinayak Rao, whose greed for gold pulls him toward a monster’s cave. Declared a flop on release, it became a cult favourite and earned its commercial due in a 2024 re-release.
- Bhoot (2003): Ajay Devgn and Urmila Matondkar star in Ram Gopal Varma’s possession story set in a new Mumbai home.
- Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007): Priyadarshan’s palace-set psychological horror-comedy is built around an iconic climax and a spirit believed to be back for revenge.
- Raaz (2002): Bipasha Basu and Dino Morea debuted here. The Ooty-set supernatural hit is widely credited with making Bollywood horror popular.
- 13B (2009): R Madhavan’s character finds a TV serial that mirrors events in his own home, every day at 1 pm.
- Shaitaan (2024): Ajay Devgn and R Madhavan face off in a black-magic thriller about a stranger controlling a young girl.
- Stree (2018): Shraddha Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao lead this hit about a woman’s spirit haunting Chanderi, which produced a sequel.
- Bramayugam (2024): Mammootty anchors a black-and-white, 17th-century supernatural drama built on ancient mythology.
- The Conjuring (2013): The real-life Warrens investigate a farmhouse haunting in a franchise-starting Hollywood hit.
- Hereditary (2018): A family is hunted by a demon-worshipping cult trying to put a dark force into the bloodline.
That line-up gives every kind of scare a place: possession in Bhoot, greed and mythology in Tumbbad, folk dread in Bramayugam, and lighter self-aware fun in Stree.
Why this matters beyond one night
The titles tell a larger story. Raaz’s 2002 success opened the door for mainstream Bollywood horror. Bhoot and Bhool Bhulaiyaa became cult favourites through repeated viewing. By 2018, Tumbbad and Stree proved that two opposite approaches – grim period atmosphere and playful small-town horror – could both work. Bramayugam’s monochrome experiment in 2024 pushed the form further.
There is also a box-office lesson in Tumbbad’s arc: a film dismissed as a flop can still become a theatrical success when a re-release meets the audience it built through word of mouth.
How to plan your Halloween binge
Start with the fear you are in the mood for. For slow-burn dread, pair Tumbbad with Hereditary. For a lighter night, Stree and Bhool Bhulaiyaa make an easy double bill. To trace the genre’s commercial arc, begin with Raaz and end with Shaitaan.
Source: Hindustan Times