halloween films for children

[jobotic]

My four year old likes Nightmare Before Xmas, Frankenweenie and (apparently) The Corpse Bride.

And Coco is a favourite here too.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Spirited away is on Netflix - could be a good choice

YES

[Shit Good Nose]

Beetlejuice might be okay at a push.

The pre-watershed TV version would be absolutely fine (IF it's on TV again before 9pm any time soon), but I'd warn against the full uncut version - it is still a 15, and for good reason.

I'd echo Monster House and the Hotel Transylvania films - little Nose loves those. 

The first Goosebumps went down quite well with all of them when we put it on at a halloween party we had last year, and it's one that the adults can walk away easily without getting engaged.

Hocus Pocus often tops most kids lists, but little Nose got bored with it quite quickly and never went back to it.  Your kids' mileage may vary.

There seems to be a million Halloweentown films which, again, have gone down well in the past.  Absolutely terrible in my opinion, but, like The Descendants, popular with pre-teens.

[El Unicornio, mang]

I remember watching Salem's Lot when I was about 5 or 6, and loving it but not being traumatised by it (unlike The Fly 1958 version). I just thought the vampires were "cool"

It does have possibly the scariest jump scare ever (if you've seen it you'll know what I mean) but is otherwise pretty PG with some standard horror cliches, creaky sets and misty graveyards.

[Mister Six]

oh man, little shop of horrors is a good shout

It does have some rough stuff about Steve Martin's character beating Audrey, though. Dunno if parents would be sensitive about that.

[Mister Six]

What about The Goonies? Rude enough to make kids laugh, and I recall it being quite scary (in a safe way) as a kid, with Sloth originally appearing quite frightening, the skeletons of the pirates, being a bit gross, and isn't there a bit where one of the kids is bundled into the back of a van with a dead body? Although maybe it's not enough of a "proper" horror movie and too much of an adventure one, I dunno.

[AsparagusTrevor]

oh man, the effects on little shop of horrors are ace

It's astounding how good the puppetry is, the lip syncing is perfect.

Don't splice in the original ending though

The blu-ray has both endings, the original ending plays if you choose the Director's Cut version as opposed to the Theatrical Version.

[Mister Six]

A few more that I don't think have been mentioned - Coraline, Monster House (the CGI looks like shit these days but maybe kids won't care) and the two Barry Sonnenfeld Addams Family movies. There was also an animated Addams Family film out last year but I don't know if that was any good.

The adaptation of The Witches was much loved when I was a kid in primary school but may be best saved for ages 7-8ish as I recall it being incredibly grotesque and fucked up (although that was about 30 years ago, admittedly). There's a new version with Anne Hathaway that just came out (or is coming out this month) that will, I'm guessing, be a bit less gross and weird.

Erm, what else? Arachnophobia seems like a good shout if Ghostbusters goes over well. Labyrinth and Dark Crystal? Although maybe they're creeping away from horror and into dark fantasy. Likewise Time Bandits, which isn't really horror but has an ending that could fuck a kid up (I was definitely troubled by it as a nipper).

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Monster House
Coraline

The Addams Family 1&2 (90s)

[DukeDeMondo]

Hotel Transylvania is quite fun, but a little distasteful in the treatment of the zombies throughout. Virtually everything in the film are all monsters or undead or whatever, but all the characters treated the zomvies like an underclass of slaves.

Sorry for being a wet lib about it.

By contrast, Hotel Transylvania 3 is delightfully Wet Lib for the duration. It could hardly be any more obviously a story about a raging homophobe coming to realise that her inherited prejudices stink to ninth Heaven. It's like a jukebox musical in which everyone's favourite bit of putrid homophobic raving on (literal raving on in one bit, if memory serves) gets a seeing to, up to and including "they shouldn't be around children / they shouldn't be allowed to adopt children." Less delightful is the extent to which it leans into the old "bigot learns to love someone belonging to a group that s/he has up until that point despised because the representative in question proves themselves useful or kind or whatever the fuck" trope. I'd have preferred "this representative of whomever among the marginalised is, in fact, an absolute fucking arsehole. But you're still the cunt."

Regardless, I reckon it's a Good Thing overall, the Hotel Transylvania 3. I haven't seen the others, and wouldn't have seen this one had my stepdaughter not wanted to see it in the pictures, but I left the cinema smiling.

[thugler]

Come And See.

In a double bill with Threads perhaps?

[The Mollusk]

I watched John Carpenter's The Thing when I was 10. I know your little mate is 9 but I don't think a year will make the world of difference. Kids these days witness the woke horrors of social injustice and oncoming global extinction so comparatively a dog's head splitting open like a banana with all tentacles and blood flying everywhere is probably a breeze.

[Polymorphia]

I watched John Carpenter's The Thing when I was 10. I know your little mate is 9 but I don't think a year will make the world of difference. Kids these days witness the woke horrors of social injustice and oncoming global extinction so comparatively a dog's head splitting open like a banana with all tentacles and blood flying everywhere is probably a breeze.

Whenever I see threads like this elsewhere on the internet, I always see stuff like The Thing and Alien recommended, which I always initially think might be a bit much, but then I realise I'd watched all the gory scenes of The Thing, Nightmare on Elm Street and Scanners by the age of 12, and it didn't phase me much, though the age of 12 is different again (I think just having the plot of Alien described to me traumatised me at 8 years old)

[The Mollusk]

"So there's this alien right..."

FUCKING HELL WHAT

[Sebastian Cobb]

Tremors?

[Dr Rock]

Legend?
Carry On Screaming?
Creepshow?

[Jerzy Bondov]

Joe Dante's The Hole is an underrated horror for younger viewers but it does get quite scary. It's about a hole.

[Mister Six]

Tremors?

Watched this with the missus and it still stands up - rollicking good fun, scary and tense for the nippers with the odd bit of light gruesomeness, but with an overall lightness of tone (and ace banter) that stops it from being too oppressive. And the three heroes are a female scientist and two smart working class guys, so it's woke too.

Tremors 2 is great too, though obviously low budget, with an even smaller cast. Haven't seen the rest or the TV shows.

[Huxleys Babkins]

Whenever I see threads like this elsewhere on the internet, I always see stuff like The Thing and Alien recommended, which I always initially think might be a bit much, but then I realise I'd watched all the gory scenes of The Thing, Nightmare on Elm Street and Scanners by the age of 12, and it didn't phase me much, though the age of 12 is different again (I think just having the plot of Alien described to me traumatised me at 8 years old)

There's nothing less instilling of confidence than some barely functioning forum manchild proclaiming that they saw Alien when they were six and it didn't do them any harm, so I tend to take such recommendations with a grain of salt. Plus you can't rely on people's memories as most 80s/90s kids grew up with edited-for-TV versions of movies anyway.

I find the BBFC site is really good in terms of breaking down movies for parents. For a start they have reclassified a ton of quite soft 15s to 12A, plus it lists all of the potentially objectionable stuff for each film. It's a very exhaustive resource.

[Noodle Lizard]

I find the BBFC site is really good in terms of breaking down movies for parents. For a start they have reclassified a ton of quite soft 15s to 12A, plus it lists all of the potentially objectionable stuff for each film. It's a very exhaustive resource.

Yeah, there were a lot of baffling 15s before the 12 rating was created (Airplane, Gremlins etc.) But I don't think they often choose to reclassify something out of the goodness of their hearts, it usually occurs when the film is re-submitted for a new theatrical or home video release as it has to be rated each time.

Incidentally, the IMDb page for each movie has a Parents Guide, but it's user-submitted so not always entirely reliable.

[thenoise]

Dr Terror's House of Horrors - lurid title aside, its PG and a fun scary introduction to classic Amicus anthology films.

Depending on their tolerance of old/b&w films, some of the old Universals could qualify. I remember being obsessed with the original Invisible Man when I saw it on tv around that age.
The Abbott and Costello meet titles are fun too, gently spooky with juvenile humour.

Also Bert I Gordon films,Ray Harryhausen monster films. Maybe even Godilla?

[thenoise]

This website is very thorough, covering films books video games etc. with 'content' guides for parents.
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/reviews

[studpuppet]

My two are 14 now so I'm going to sit them down in front of Ghostwatch with no preamble other than, "This went out live on the BBC in the nineties..."

I was also thinking of Dead Of Night because that's spooky but twee until the vent turns up. They tend to baulk at really old films, though.

I'd echo Monster House and the Hotel Transylvania films - little Nose loves those. 

[bgmnts]

Is The Lost Boys a bit too adult?

[Brundle-Fly]

Mad Monster Party (1967)

Here is the brilliant opening. The Bond theme that never was.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwoLyTrgJmk

[JaDanketies]

My two are 14 now so I'm going to sit them down in front of Ghostwatch with no preamble other than, "This went out live on the BBC in the nineties..."

That's pretty scary.  I think 14 year olds would be equipped to cope with it. The most mature part of it is probably the self-harming bit, but 14 year olds see that at school every day

[El Unicornio, mang]

Ghostwatch terrified me, and I would have been 14 at the time, but I did think it was real. Looking back I'm kind of amazed that even the possessed Michael Parkinson bit at the end wasn't enough to make me realise it was fake.

[Shit Good Nose]

I never understood - and still don't understand to this day - how so many people thought Ghostwatch was real.  Everyone in it was obviously acting - some VERY obviously - I spotted a few continuity gaffes (on account of some of the "live link" footage actually being pre-recorded and played back on video tape) and the fact that a writer was credited as well.  Honestly, I thought the Enfield haunting stuff was more realistic, and those two fucks couldn't convince their way out of a bag made of wet bog paper.

I know I'm not alone in this thinking though, as other CaBbers have said much the same every time Ghostwatch gets a mention.

[JaDanketies]

Ghostwatch terrified me, and I would have been 14 at the time, but I did think it was real. Looking back I'm kind of amazed that even the possessed Michael Parkinson bit at the end wasn't enough to make me realise it was fake.

Was it not that the Autocue was possessed? I'd imagine the people who were convinced by it were so freaked out that they missed all the things that revealed it was obviously fiction.

[Hand Solo]

I never understood - and still don't understand to this day - how so many people children thought Ghostwatch was real.