In observance of that autumn spell when we celebrate the primal, compulsive instinct of fear, Rainestorm highlights 31 days of spooky scares to season the eerie atmosphere of Halloween.

Reign of terror: 2006

The horror… the horror: The perfect Halloween family film. Frightening enough to scare the kids, funny enough to amuse the adults and clever enough to entertain everyone. The motion capture technique does a fine job of emulating natural human movement, but the characters are rendered as cartoon caricatures so the effect is less creepy than in the pioneer motion capture animated movie The Polar Express. Look no further than the title for a breakdown of the plot, though there’s enough interesting mystery to keep the narrative zipping along. It manages to maintain that nice balance of humor and horror without skimping on either. The family-friendly coda may be something of a cheat but it does not detract from the movie and may be something of a welcome revelation and relief.

Halloween haunt: The entire film takes place between the day before and the night of Halloween. Director Gil Kenan had his animators paint the film in gorgeous orange fall colors. The house itself is a classic haunted design, with dark shadows, dimly-lit rooms, creepy basement, open staircase and hanging uvula… I mean chandelier. Did I mention the house is alive?

Tastiest treat: Jon Heder’s cameo as video game wizard and local urban legend authority Reginald ‘Skull’ Skulinski, who once played for “four days straight on one quarter, a gallon of chocolate milk and an adult diaper.”

Check the candy for: The motto of the local police force, stenciled across the side of their patrol car, meekly proclaims “We Wanna Help.”

Devilish discourse: “Did we just get upchucked?”

Goes great with: Coraline (2009). A different kind of animation and a very different kind of nightmare, but on the same level as Monster House. This film does Tim Burton far better than Tim Burton himself ever could. I recommend either of these over the generally favored The Nightmare Before Christmas.