Five Horror Movies You Can Show Your Kids
Filed under: Horror, Fandom, Family Films, Lists
As 'secular' holidays go, Halloween is easily my favorite. You can keep your Valentine's Day hearts and your St. Patrick Day benders, and give me a jack o' lantern any day of the week. It's a holiday that I never fail to celebrate with too much candy and as many horror movies as I can get my hands on, and even though I may not trick or treat anymore, I am highly observant when it comes to All Hallows' Eve. Maybe my love for the season is that it really is the perfect holiday for the movie lover, and I always remember gearing up for the big day as a kid by watching scary movies. I still keep that tradition alive as an adult, but like they say; it's all about the kids -- unfortunately for parents, most horror movies aren't.
There is plenty of horror for the grown-ups of the world, and we've got our choice from everything to high concept ghost stories to so-called torture porn, but it's a lot trickier when you start to look for something for something that is a little more family-friendly. So there has to be some middle-ground between G-rated fare like The Great Pumpkin and a Dario Argento splatter fest, right? Well, of course there is, so I thought I'd share five movies that you could show kids without worrying about dooming them to a lifetime on a therapist's couch:
After the jump; my recommendations for kid-friendly scares...I decided to rank these flicks in order of their 'spook-factor' so let's start off with something for the littlest Trick r' Treater in your life, and then we'll work our way up to something for the 'tweens:
1. The Monster Squad
There is nothing that kids love more than knowing more than the grown-ups, and this 80's classic will thrill your little ones with the story of a group of creature-feature loving youngsters tasked with saving the world when the classic cabal of Universal monsters (Dracula, The Mummy, The Wolfman, and The Creature from The Black Lagoon) look to tip the scales between good and evil. Not to mention, director Fred Dekker (and screenwriter Shane Black) answers the eternal question: Does The Wolfman have 'nards?
2. Silver Bullet
Now, stepping up the scare-factor we come to Stephen King's story of a young handicapped boy and his sister who track down a werewolf that's knocking off the local townspeople. Bullet starred Corey Haim and Megan Follows as the brother and sister team, and what sets the movie apart from your average werewolf flick is that mixed in with all monster action is a fairly touching story about a trouble relationship between siblings.
3. Fright Night
Ask any child of the 80's what their favorite horror movies are, and I can guarantee Fright Night is going to come up. The story of a vampire who lives next door is pretty tame by today's standards of horror, and Roddy McDowall as a late night movie host keeps things pretty light -- but even if this movie doesn't scare the rugrats, at least you can remind your kids that not all vamps are of the sparkly variety.
4. Poltergeist
This movie still has the ability to scare the crap out of me (laugh all you like...it's not just me), but if your kids are ready to graduate into a ghost story that's a little more intense than Beetlejuice, Poltergeist is a great place to start. Most importantly, it teaches a valuable lesson for any child: the suburbs are a very scary place.
5. Trick r' Treat
OK, this one is definitely for the pre-teens and up, because this 2008 horror does get fairly scary. But just like some the other suggestions on this list, Treat has a pretty good sense of humor mixed in with the horror. The gore is fairly contained (compared to the average slasher film) and is much more concerned with scaring you than making you nauseous -- but it really does depend on the 'tween, so watch with care.
Leave your suggestions for kid-friendly horror movies in the comments below...
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
10-18-2009 @ 8:18PM
Wormwood said...
The movie "Something Wicked This Way Comes" should have made the list.
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10-20-2009 @ 10:00AM
Lori said...
Yes! That one was awesome. Another one that scared the crap out of me as a kid, was "Dark Night of the Scarecrow". That one still kind of gives me the willies, lol. And I cant watch any of the poltergeist moves, but especially the one with the clown doll in the brother's room (the one where the tree tries to eat him, LOL). I have been afraid of clowns most of my life because of that movie, LOL.
10-24-2009 @ 1:56PM
Ria said...
i luv that movie its awesome i watch it all the time
10-18-2009 @ 8:30PM
pavement714 said...
trick 'r treat has nudity, sexual situations and the f-word. do you want preteens to see that?
i do recommend monster squad highly, though. first saw it as a little kid and have loved it ever since.
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10-18-2009 @ 9:17PM
Creep said...
How about Drag Me To Hell? I can imagine loving it as a kid. Then again, the Evil Dead 2 would also be good (maybe kids won't entirely get the "nature love" scene). Lost Boys might also be a good choice. Possibly Christine as well. Slither, too. Then there's the handful of horror anthologies like Campfire tales and Creepshow, through it's been a while since I've seen those, so i'm not sure about nudity and gore.
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10-18-2009 @ 9:22PM
dcp said...
Fright Night has nudity as well.
Monster Squad, ok... haven't seen silver bullet, but the I'm not seeing the other three as even close to "kid friendly", unless by "kid" you mean adolescent or older, and even then I'd say a few skew older.
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10-18-2009 @ 9:47PM
Shadi MIrza said...
Is this post an elaborate troll? At least two of the movies on your list have graphic violence and nudity. You could have at least suggested some classic black & white films like Nosferatu, which is creepy as hell without being violent. It doesn't even have dialogue.
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10-18-2009 @ 10:01PM
Jessica D said...
fright night? the beginning and the end are both about teen sex, and don't forget the night club and bite scenes... a little too kinky for kiddies.
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10-18-2009 @ 10:42PM
Travis Tidmore said...
I've got to agree while Monster Squad is pretty kid friendly, I first saw it in about 4th grade, some of the others are not.
As it's already been said Trick'r'Treat contains nudity and some fairly gory scenes which I would say warrant at least 15 and up, not exactly kids.
And as for Poltergeist, that movie is far to intense and scary for kids. It was almost ot much for me in college, no kid needs to see this.
I haven't seen Fright Night, but if it has nudity it's not for kids, teens maybe, but not kids.
My main question after reading this is Are you a parent? Based on the list I'd say no, and if you're not maybe a parent should write this, as your prospective changes alot when you have kids of your own.
As for suggestions I'd recommend, The Peanut Butter Solution, which isn't strickly horror, but is one of those messed up kids movies that is sure to scare, and also the Boogedy movies from Disney, The Ghost of Mister Boogedy and The Bride of Mr. Boogedy. All three are classics, although you may have to use "alternate" means to get them as they're not out on DVD.
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10-18-2009 @ 11:58PM
Creep said...
Mister Boogedy! Holy crap! I watched that on the Disney channel way back in the day. Thanks for stimulating the dusty part of my brain where those memories were lost.
Oh! The Lady in White starring Lucas Haas. Definitely kid friendly and definitely scary.
The Burbs might be kid friendly. Tom Hanks! Creepy family movies in the burbs.
Gremlins. Yeah!
10-20-2009 @ 12:55PM
Brendan said...
Good call on the Mr. Boogedy movie(s), though I have only ever seen one. Thought it was just the right level of scariness for me when I was, oh, somehwere around 11-12.
10-20-2009 @ 3:05PM
Travis Tidmore said...
Yeah the Boogedy films are great I've got them on DVD thanks to eBay, they're really short, much shorter than I remembered, and they're pretty silly, but still good fun for kids and those of us who watched them when we were kids.
10-18-2009 @ 11:51PM
Brandon said...
Other than Monster Squad and maybe Poltergeist, I don't really think these are kid-friendly horror movies at all.
I would suggest:
Something Wicked This Way Comes
The Watcher in the Woods
Gremlins
The Sixth Sense
classic horror movies like The Birds, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and the Universal Monster Movies
Reply
10-19-2009 @ 12:21AM
Reuben said...
You'd suggest Six Sense? Really?
10-19-2009 @ 7:15AM
The Good Doctor said...
My brother and I saw Sixth Sense at ten and eleven respectively (I guess it had just come out on video). Scared the crap out of us both; instilled in us both a lifelong love of scary movies. Go figure.
10-19-2009 @ 1:23AM
Jo said...
I've let my 10 (almost 11) yr old DD watch The Lost Boys and apart from one scene it's pretty tame by todays standards. She was quite freaked out by Beetlejuice & Gremlins the first time although she saw them.
A lot of the suggested movies?? No way in hell! Sixth Sense scared me first time I saw it (yes, I'm a wuss!) & I think Poltergeist would be to intense as well - particularly the little girl disappearing.
I'd highly recommend using IMDB and checking out the parent content for movies on there.
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10-20-2009 @ 12:18PM
nerdgurl said...
I really liked the frighteners with Michael J. Fox as a kid
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10-24-2009 @ 11:25PM
Rich said...
Amen to The Frighteners. Anything with Michael J Fox, Jeffrey Combs and R Lee Ermy in it can't be all bad.
10-19-2009 @ 2:52AM
Drake said...
WHat the hell I am ready here? Show Poltergeist to children? I was 10 when I have seen him the first time and cannot sleep a long time. I had no problems with other movies, but Poltergeist was definitely the wrong movie for that age!
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10-19-2009 @ 4:44AM
Midnight13 said...
"Poltergeist" came out in a world before PG-13 existed. "Gremilins" as well. I wonder if these movies had come out today they would be given PG-13 status. Movies that I think can be frightful for younger viewers and still kid-friendly? "The Never-Ending Story". How about the animated version of "Sleepy Hollow"? NOT the Tim Burton film.
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