Excitingly Scary, Almost Kid-Friendly Movies for Halloween

Malena A. Jackson
Oct 21, 2015
2 min read

It is a tradition that I began about six years ago. The Jackson Family Spooky Night. It is an evening of two preplanned movies, usually one to two weeks before Halloween, complete with a taco bar, fun pumpkin beer for the hubs and I, a Halloween themed cake and popcorn. We gather in the family room to watch and eat.

When we first started the tradition, my two oldest were only five and four so we stuck with Goosebumps movies. We are absolutely THRILLED that the series is coming to the big screen this year but back then, we just rented the movies from the library. Goosebumps wasn't too scary but scary enough to keep us huddled up and jumping every few seconds. So exciting!

Now that the kids are older, we have to step it up a notch for the "scare factor". Honestly, I believe that there isn't a "set" list of kid-friendly movies for ages 5-11. You know your child best. When considering what to watch, ask yourself, does my child scare easily? Is the plot line too complicated to follow? These are the factors to consider.

For example, I couldn't wait until my kids were old enough to watch my childhood favorite, Jaws. The day had finally come when AMC was having a marathon. I called in my two older kids and they were excited, too. After 20 minutes, they started talking a lot, going to the bathroom, etc. The plot was too complicated. There was too much dialogue for them to be scared. The movie didn't move fast enough. So you see, it's not necessarily the fact that it's scary or the rating, there's a lot more than that to consider.

Here are my favorite, kid-friendly and borderline kid-friendly movies to watch during the Halloween season. I dare not list ALL of them. Some titles would make you question my judgement as a mom. The kids begged me to watch. Don't judge :/

Malena's Top 21 Spooky and Not-So-Spooky Family Movies

(alphabetical order)

Casper

Child's Play

Coraline

Fankenweenie

Goosebumps (all of them)

Gremlins

Halloweentown

Hocus Pocus

Jaws

Leprechaun

Monster House

Mostly Ghostly

Nightmare Before Christmas

ParaNorman

Scooby Doo Monsters Unleashed

Scooby Doo Spooky Island

The Goonies

The Haunted Mansion

The Haunting Hour (all of them)

The Lovely Bones

The Worst Witch

Are there any kid-friendly Halloween movies that you like to watch that's not listed? Please share them in the comments below.

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