They're spooky, but they probably won't leave your kids scarred for life.
It's sleepover time — or maybe family movie night. The pizza is eaten, the popcorn is popped, and now it's time to settle into the couch and put on a movie. When you ask the kids what they want to watch, the answer is always the same: "Something scary!" But you're the one who has to deal with nightmares and future therapy bills, so you're not so sure. Thankfully, we've rounded up 20 scary movies for kids that strike the right balance. There are definitely creepy elements in all of them (so you're not necessarily out of the no-nightmare woods), but they mostly keep it PG (though there's definitely a wide range of what was acceptable in a PG movie through the years, and we urge you to use your discretion based on your kid's maturity level).
In a way, these movies have the hardest job: it's much more difficult to scare someone using just their imagination, keeping the terrifying stuff off-screen. While you sit back and appreciate the directors' creativity, your kids will be chattering under their blanket.
1. The House With a Clock in Its Walls (2018)
When a newly-orphaned boy is sent to live with his eccentric uncle, it stirs up and ancient paranormal rivalry between witches and warlocks that unearths family secrets. The movie is based on the excellent YA novel by John Bellairs.
2. The Boxtrolls (2014)
This movie follows a clan of trolls, with their snarling faces and their wrinkled skin, who find an abandoned baby boy and raise him as their own. But the real monsters in the movie are the gentlemen in the society above the trolls, as the boy finds out when he tries to live among the humans again.
3. Coraline (2009)
Coraline's family moves to a new town, and they are immediately too busy to spend much time with her. Through a secret door in her new place, she finds an alternate reality where her "other mother" promises to give her everything her real mother can't. Is it all it's cracked up to be?
4. Paranorman (2012)
This stop-motion animated movie follows a boy who has the ability to speak to the dead, and must use it to save his town from a ghostly curse. It's like a kids' version of The Sixth Sense, without the twist.
5. The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008)
A family moves into a creepy old house in the middle of nowhere, only to discover a world of fairies, goblins, and other unseen creatures. The scares come from suspenseful run-ins with goblins and ogres.
6. Monster House (2006)
Lots of movies are about ghosts who haunt a house. With Monster House — a motion-capture animated film directed by City of Ember's Gil Kenan — the house is the ghost, and three kids must stop it from destroying the neighborhood.
7. The Corpse Bride (2005)
This stop-motion animated movie — from Tim Burton, the master of kid-appropriate horror — is about a groom who accidentally marries a corpse and has to travel to the Land of the Dead to set things right.
8. Spirited Away (2001)
Widely considered to be one of the best kids' movies ever, scary or no, Spirited Away is a masterpiece from beloved director Hayao Miyazaki. It's about a 10-year-old girl who moves to a new neighborhood and finds the world of enchanted beings, including some scary creatures. When her parents are transformed into pigs, she must navigate this magical world to save them.
9. The Witches (1990)
Nothing is scarier than Anjelica Houston as she turns into her true form as the Grand High Witch in this movie, adapted from the Roald Dahl book. (Really — you might want to hide the eyes of squeamish kids.) We'll see if Anne Hathaway has the same chops when she stars in the remake.
10. Beetlejuice (1988)
This trends on the edgier side of PG, but it has a mix of horror and comedy that helps mitigate the grotesque parts. This is a haunted-house movie from the point of view of the ghosts who want a family to leave, and who get a misbehaved demon (Michael Keaton) to help them.
11. Return to Oz (1985)
You can tell right off the bat this sequel isn't going to be as bright and fun as the original The Wizard of Oz: It starts with Dorothy getting electroconvulsive therapy for telling "stories" about Oz. But Dorothy isn't just telling stories, and, when she finally returns to Oz, she finds it to be a much darker and more threatening place.
12. Ghostbusters (1984)
If you have a prone-to-nightmares kid and want to make them think they've seen a scary movie when they've really seen a comedy, show them this flick — which definitely has ghosts and some intense parts, so it counts, but it has enough silliness to balance them out.
13. Gremlins (1984)
It's hard to believe that Gizmo, the cuddly Mogwai, could create something as terrifying as the nasty, brutish Gremlins, but he does, and they're pretty terrifying. Don't feed them after midnight!
14. The Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)
Superstar directors like Steven Spielberg, John Landis, and Joe Dante (the director of Gremlins) teamed up to direct segments of an anthology movie based on The Twilight Zone. Some remade famous episodes, others came up with new material. It's not a kids' movie specifically, but your older kids might enjoy it.
15. The Dark Crystal (1982)
The Dark Crystal is more fantasy than horror, set in a world of magical creatures like Gelflings and Skeksis locked in eternal struggle over the universe. But even without ghosts, man are those Skeksis scary! If your kids enjoy it, a prequel series is in the works at Netflix.
16. The Watcher in the Woods (1980)
Bette Davis appears in this live-action Disney movie, which takes place in the English countryside. The film follows a girl who moves to the countryside and finds she looks just like the daughter of Davis's character, who disappeared 30 years earlier under suspicious circumstances, and tries to unravel the mystery. The original is only available on DVD, but a 2017 made-for-TV remake starring Angelica Houston (again) is streamable.
17. Jaws (1975)
The terrors of Jaws may feel so visceral and adult, it's hard to remember that it's only rated PG (though, to be fair, PG-13 didn't exist at the time), and lots of the scariness comes from what isn't shown on screen (so there's blood, but not a ton of gore). Tweens and teens can likely handle it — so long as you don't plan on taking them to the beach right after. (Note: There's also some brief nudity in this.)
18. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
It's a classic that's been remade many times over, but the 1956 version keeps it PG. In it, a small-town doctor figures out his community is being invaded by aliens, so it's horror and sci-fi rolled into one.
19. King Kong (1933)
When your kid is ready to get into the big-monster-attacks-city genre, start at the beginning, with the groundbreaking 1933 King Kong. Even if they already know about Kong's climb up the Empire State Building, there are a lot of scares to be had on Skull Island, before he even gets to New York!
20. Dracula (1931)
Again, depending on the sensitivity of your child, Dracula might be a good start for classic monster movies — much of the gore is implied or kept off-screen.
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