As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
- While still a horror film, most agree that the film is not a scare fest. However, almost everyone agrees that the ending to the school bus story is the most chilling moment in the film.
- While we don't see anything of what's happening down below as Rhonda reaches the top of the cliff in the lift, the sounds of the kids screaming as they're torn apart - and then the sounds of the school bus kids apparently settling down to eat - are extremely creepy.
- Rhonda's facial expression as she hears everyone be killed makes it worse, sort of hinting she’s either undergone a Sanity Slippage.
- The story of the the Halloween School Bus Massacre that precedes the above, told in flashback. Thirty years ago, there were a group of eight mentally disabled children in the town, who were sent every day by bus to a school in a different town. One day, their parents, tired of taking care of them, paid the bus driver to kill them. The driver chained the children to the seats and drove to a lake in an abandoned rock quarry, intending to drown them. One of the children managed to free himself but accidentally drove the bus into the lake, drowning everyone...except for the driver, who escaped and is alive and well.
- The emotionless way Macy tells the story just makes it worse. She's talking about how a bunch of kids were murdered for being disabled, and she sounds like she couldn't care less.
- "Wrong way...wrong way...wanna go home...wanna go home...home!" Doubles as a Tear Jerker. One can only imagine how terrifying this was for the poor kid.
- The shot of the bus sinking into the lake. No sound, no screams or struggling are heard, nothing...and a pumpkin is seen drifting in the lake, followed by the children's smiling masks floating on the surface of the water.
- The very idea that even one parent or set of parents, let alone eight, would pay someone to kill their mentally disabled child is terrifying in itself.
- The kids themselves (pre-death, anyway) are not malicious at all, at least from what the audience can tell. But some of their costumes/masks are absolutely terrifying. One is dressed as a clown, one as a terrifying devil. Post death, however? Chills.
- From the original animated short, Seasons' Greetings, it has a spooky atmosphere and absolutely no dialogue. And then after the credits, it ends with a pitch-black screen and a child's voice saying "Trick or Treat."
- Laurie being stalked throughout her story by a mysterious man dressed as a vampire is highly unsettling, especially when you fully realize the implications of a young, pretty woman in a revealing costume, being followed by a stranger on a night when everyone is in costume, so it's harder to tell who's who, not to mention drunk, sugar-high, partying, or otherwise distracted. Hoo boy. Fortunately, Laurie turns out to be able to handle herself just fine. Her turning into a werewolf is creepy, too, but the fear is mostly overshadowed by the urge to cheer her on. "My, my... what big eyes you have..."
- The beginning of the movie. It shows a young woman named Emma who despises Halloween. When she takes down the decorations, she's attacked by a Bedsheet Ghost with Sam underneath it, and he slits her throat with a jack-o-lantern lollipop and dismembers her. When her boyfriend comes out of the house, he takes off the sheet to reveal Emma bloodied, dismembered and with a lollipop stuck in her mouth. What's especially disturbing is that she wasn't evil or profoundly mean like everyone else who died in the movie, she was just understandably stressed, yet Sam goes for the kill anyway.
- The ending to the Principal's story. "Don't forget to help me with the eyes..."
