Halloween Movies for Kids, Sorted by How Scary They Really Are

Halloween Movies for Kids, Sorted by How Scary They Really Are

The best Halloween movies for kids match the scare to the age: short G-rated films like Room on the Broom for ages 3–5, silly PG monsters like Hotel Transylvania for 6–8, real jump-scares like Coraline for 9–12, and gateway horror like Gremlins from about 12. Below are 23 kid friendly Halloween movies on that ladder, each with its MPA rating (checked on FilmRatings.com), UK BBFC rating, runtime and one scene to know about.

SubhSandesh makes greeting pages, not films: 48.3% of pages shared on SubhSandesh are opened on a phone, and the average page is viewed 11.1 times (platform-wide figures, not Halloween data).

What makes a Halloween movie right for a kid's age?

A kid-appropriate Halloween movie is one whose scary parts match what frightens that age. A 2008 review in The Future of Children by Barbara J. Wilson reports that children aged two to seven are most frightened by things that look or sound scary, such as ghosts, witches and monsters, while eight-to-twelve-year-olds fear injury, violence and events that could really happen.

The MPA's ratings guide draws a similar line, placing "scary images" generally at PG and "frightening images" a step up at PG-13.

Ages 3–5: zero-scare Halloween movies (5 picks)

1. It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966)

A 24-minute TV special with no MPA rating; BBFC U. Heads-up: Linus waits alone in the pumpkin patch all night and nobody comes.

2. Room on the Broom (2012)

A 26-minute TV short, no MPA rating; BBFC U. Heads-up: a dragon catches the witch and plans to eat her, until her animal friends scare it away.

3. Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie (2005)

MPA G, BBFC U, 63 minutes. Heads-up: Tigger's tale of the Gobloon, which turns anyone it catches into a jack-o'-lantern.

4. Spookley the Square Pumpkin (2004)

MPA G, BBFC U, 45 minutes. Heads-up: a night-time thunderstorm sends the round pumpkins rolling toward danger.

5. Monsters, Inc. (2001)

MPA G, BBFC U, 95 minutes. Heads-up: when Sulley demonstrates a full roar, Boo cowers and cries.

Ages 6–8: giggly-spooky movies (6 picks)

6. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)

MPA G, BBFC U, 85 minutes. Heads-up: the moonlit transformation is played for laughs but is loud and sudden.

7. Casper (1995)

MPA PG, 100 minutes. BBFC 12A since 2023 (PG in 1995) for moderate bad language. Heads-up: Casper explains that he is a boy who died.

8. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

MPA PG "for some scary images", BBFC PG, 76 minutes. Heads-up: Oogie Boogie's lair, where Santa is tied over a vat and Oogie unravels into bugs.

9. Hotel Transylvania (2012)

MPA PG, BBFC U, 91 minutes. Heads-up: a flashback shows a torch-carrying mob starting the fire in which Dracula's wife dies.

10. The Addams Family (2019)

MPA PG, BBFC PG, 87 minutes. Heads-up: the opening wedding is broken up by an angry, torch-waving crowd.

11. Coco (2017)

MPA PG "for thematic elements", BBFC PG, 105 minutes. Heads-up: a skeleton fades away for good once nobody remembers him.

Ages 9–12: real jump-scares (6 picks)

12. Frankenweenie (2012)

MPA PG, BBFC PG, 87 minutes. Heads-up: Victor's dog Sparky is hit by a car early on.

13. Hocus Pocus (1993)

MPA PG "for some scary sequences, and for language", BBFC PG, 96 minutes. Heads-up: in the opening, the witches drain a young girl's life.

14. Goosebumps (2015)

MPA PG, BBFC PG ("frequent scary scenes"), 103 minutes. Heads-up: Slappy, the talking ventriloquist dummy, is the one kids remember at bedtime.

15. Monster House (2006)

MPA PG, BBFC PG, 91 minutes. Heads-up: the house itself attacks, swallowing people through its front door.

16. Coraline (2009)

MPA PG "for thematic elements, scary images" and more, BBFC PG, 100 minutes. Heads-up: the Other Mother's offer to sew buttons over Coraline's eyes.

17. ParaNorman (2012)

MPA PG, BBFC PG, 93 minutes. Heads-up: the final act reveals the town once condemned a child.

Ages 12 and up: gateway horror (6 picks)

Four were rated before 1990, when the MPA says descriptors joined every PG rating, so FilmRatings.com gives no reason for them.

18. The Witches (1990)

BBFC 12 today (PG at its 1990 release), 91 minutes. Heads-up: the Grand High Witch peels off her face.

19. Ghostbusters (1984)

MPA PG, BBFC 12A since 2011 (PG in 1984), 105 minutes. Heads-up: the library ghost in the first minutes becomes a screaming skull-face.

20. Gremlins (1984)

MPA PG, BBFC 12A since 2012 (15 in 1984), 106 minutes. Heads-up: the kitchen fight, where a mother kills gremlins with a blender and a microwave.

21. Beetlejuice (1988)

BBFC 12A since 2018 (15 in 1988), 92 minutes. Heads-up: the couple die in a car crash in the opening, and Lydia writes a suicide note.

22. Poltergeist (1982)

MPA PG, but BBFC 15 for "strong supernatural threat, gory images", 114 minutes. Heads-up: a clown doll attacks a boy, and a man hallucinates tearing his own face off.

23. The Others (2001)

MPA PG-13 "for thematic elements and frightening moments", BBFC 12A, 104 minutes. Heads-up: a child in a communion veil suddenly appears with an old woman's face.

All 23 films compared: rating, runtime and scare level

The scare score (1 = none, 5 = genuinely frightening) is our judgement, not a ratings-board figure.

"n/v": FilmRatings.com search returned only the remake or sequel. The takeaway: one PG letter covers everything from Hotel Transylvania to Poltergeist, and five of these films now carry a different BBFC rating than at release, so read the scene note, not just the letter.

Is your kid ready? What a 150-student fright study found

Wilson's review describes a study by Kristen Harrison and Joanne Cantor in which 90% of 150 college students could describe a film or programme that had frightened them in a lasting way; 26% still felt residual anxiety as adults, and 52% reported disturbed sleep or eating afterwards.

Should you warn them about the scene? In a 1990 experiment by Hoffner and Cantor, forewarning children of a threat increased their anticipatory fear, while knowing the happy outcome in advance reduced it. So tell kids how the scene ends, not just that it is coming.

Readiness signs: your child can explain pretend versus real, asks to watch, and slept fine after the previous rung.

What to do after a scary scene

Match the comfort to the age. Wilson reports that "cognitive" strategies, such as explaining special effects or that fantasy cannot happen in real life, work especially well with older elementary-school children; for younger children, physical comfort and turning the programme off work best.

• Under about 8: pause, cuddle and switch to something gentler.
• 8 and up: pause and look up together how the puppet, dummy or animation was made.

A movie-night setup that keeps it fun

Our rule: lights on for anything scoring 3 or higher, remote in a grown-up's hand, credits well before bed (remember that 52% sleep figure). Snacks: clementines with celery-stick stems, popcorn in face-drawn paper bags.

We do not list where to stream each film: licences change by country and month, so any list here would soon be wrong for some readers.

SubhSandesh's interactive Halloween card has a Kids mode that is spooky-cute: round blushing ghosts, no blood, no gore, no jump scares, confetti spiders for the trick, nothing goes dark, and the No button waits as "maybe later?". It is free and opens in any browser; 38.5% of SubhSandesh creators password-protect a page before sharing, worth doing for a child's photos. For a grandparent who wants to record a goodnight, the premium Halloween page adds a voice note of up to 60 seconds, and in kids mode the No button never appears.

When a card or a film is the wrong pick

A greeting page is not a movie night: if the child is in the room, just watch together. The card suits one child you cannot sit beside (up to six photos and a letter); it will not organise a class party, and its interface is English only.

Some films are wrong at any age. A child who has just lost a pet should skip Frankenweenie (2012); a child grieving a grandparent may find Coco healing or too much, and only you will know which.

Sources

• Wilson, B. J., "Media and Children's Aggression, Fear, and Altruism", The Future of Children 18(1), Spring 2008.
• Hoffner & Cantor, Human Communication Research, 1990 (abstract only).
• Motion Picture Association, Ratings Guide, filmratings.com (undated).
• BBFC release records, Casper and Poltergeist (undated); all ratings checked 12 October 2026.