“Monstober,” Disney Channel’s spooky marathon of shows, movies and songs that runs through October, helped define
Halloween for 2000s kids.
Disney didn’t start out with “Monstober,” though. In 2005, Disney called the event “Hauntober Fest.” The name was later modified to “Wiz-Tober” in honor of “Wizards of Waverly Place.” For a little while in 2010, it was renamed “October Takeover,” but it was finally titled “Monstober.” For a while, Disney used the song name “Calling All the Monsters” by former Disney star China Anne McClain as the official name for October programming.
As of 2024, the Monstober name is officially back.
In honor of its return, here’s a look back at the best Disney Channel Halloween movies that made “Monstober” unforgettable — even one filmed and set in New Orleans.
“Halloweentown High,” 2004
Marnie Piper, who is 50% human and 50% witch, finds out she has a family legacy of magic when she’s 13 years old. Marnie convinces the Halloweentown Council to permit students with powers to attend regular school.
The twist is, if something were to go wrong before 12 o’clock on Halloween, her family’s powers will vanish. Marnie almost backs out, but her grandmother Aggie is encouraging, and so the plan moves forward — the Halloweentown students are to look as if they are human in an actual human school and experience life as if they were normal.
“Twitches,” 2005
Real-life identical twins, Tia and Tamera Mowry, play identical twins born on Halloween night by a witch named Miranda. They are named after the gods of the Sun and Moon, Apolla and Artemis, and they wear necklaces with charms that symbolize their names.
Their birthplace was Coventry, a magical world, and it was being filled with dark forces, so the twins were sent to the human world to be protected. Apolla and Artemis are separated at birth and coincidentally meet again on their 21st birthday — learning that only by bringing their powers together can they bring Coventry to safety again.
“Mostly Ghostly: Who Lets the Ghosts Out?” 2008
Max is an 11-year-old who has a deep passion for doing magic tricks. His father and brother, however, highly disapprove of this. One day, Max hears voices and sees a hand move through a wall.
It turns out his house is being haunted by ghosts. Phears, the evil ghost, plans to enter the real world and cause chaos on Halloween. Max later discovers two ghost children, one played by Luke Benward, who ask Max for help figuring out how they became ghosts.
They scare Max’s bully and come together to defeat Phears, the leading ghost, and his evil “squad.” You may also recognize Madison Pettis from “The Game Plan” with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, released just a year earlier.
“Girl vs. Monster,” 2012
“Kickin’ It” star Olivia Holt stars as Skylar, a daring teen singer who accidentally releases Deimata, a monster contained by her secret monster hunter parents.
When Deimata breaks free, she begins feeding on Skylar’s fear, forcing her to confront it head-on. With help from her two best friends, Sadie and Henry, Skylar learns that courage is the key to defeating her fears and harnessing her power. Filled with catchy songs like “Fearless” and “Had Me @ Hello” the Disney Channel original movie quickly became a Monstober favorite.
“Invisible Sister,” 2015
Filmed and set in New Orleans, this movie stars Rowan Blanchard from “Girl Meets World” and Paris Berelc from Netflix’s “Alexa and Katie” as sisters dealing with a science experiment gone wrong because of Rowan’s character, Cleo.
The popular girl, Molly, turns invisible, and the shy girl must take her place until they fix it. With Halloween night approaching and the big school dance coming up, this proves to be no easy task.
“The Swap,” 2016
“Jessie”’s Peyton List and “Kirby Buckets”’ Jacob Bertrand switch bodies after a phone glitch that came from arguing about whether boys or girls had it harder, and learn to see life from each other’s perspective. As athletes, one in gymnastics and the other in hockey, main characters Ellie and Jack face pressure from sports, friendship troubles and the stress of balancing it all.
Disney kids were happy to learn that years later, the two stars began dating in real life and are the main characters in a Netflix favorite, “Cobra Kai,” together.