I have two daughters, 9 and 7, they both seem to enjoy scary type stuff, especially the 9 year old. They’ve watched Goosebumps and Are You Afraid of the Dark and enjoyed them. Since it’s the season I’d like to find some scary movies for them.
From what I’ve gathered they’ve seen Poltergeist and maybe Gremlins. I know they’ve seen Ghostbusters and Temple of Doom. Other then that I don’t know exactly what they’ve seen.
I’ve seen that Something Wicked This Way Comes is supposed to be good, but after that don’t really know of any. My oldest says she’s scared of clowns, though I’m not sure if that’s something she just thinks she is or not. Not looking for slasher or torture stuff either. Best if it can be found on Netflix, or Amazon Prime.
One movie that we loved when we were kids was Watcher in the Woods. Compellingly spooky, no gore, happy ending. Now, keep in mind that the last time I saw this I had no idea how wince-inducing most Disney films were, but I’m pretty sure there’s no bizarre racism in this film at least. It should probably be a sleepover classic just as much as Labyrinth or Top Secret. Those are still popular sleepover films, right?
Speaking of Pee Wee’s – Beetlejuice (by the same director) has some spooky elements, albeit played for laughs.
From 1983 is Ray Bradbury’s story Something Wicked This Way Comes, which they should be able to follow (rated PG). There are some scenes that will be more scary to adults frankly (the pages of the book for example).
I seem to remember The Cantervile Ghost being good but it has been many years since I’ve seen it.
Animated movies like ParaNorman, Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride should be fine if they were ok with Ghostbusters. I guess the non-animated Edward Scissorshands could be thrown in there.
Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Bee… too.
I think most of the movies I mentioned except CanterVile were PG, so take that into account.
If you can take the 7yo to a PG-13 movie, you might want to try The Visit, currently in theaters.
Here’s a chance to plug a good site for questions like this: http://kids-in-mind.com/ . It essentially looks for stuff that will offend pretty much about anybody and breaks down these “objectionable” items into 3 categories: Violence, Swearing, & Sex. Here’s their review for The Visit, to get an idea as to what the site offers.
Strongly recommended is the half of Disney’s Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad that features Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman. The chase scene is thrilling, and animated, and scary, but I wouldn’t think they’d need therapy afterward.
I also recently discovered that Creature From The Black Lagoon is rated G, but the pacing might be a bit slow for them.
That was a bit after my time, but it looks good, and the DVDs are cheap, $22 at Amazon, I’ll try it.
You mean House from the mid 80s? That’s rated R, though I don’t really remember stuff from it. I’ve also forgotten what Tremors is like at all.
I remember Explorers from when I was a kid, I’m going to have to watch that one with them. They’ve seen Labyrinth and enjoyed it, though they couldn’t make it through The Dark Crystal. Big Trouble was a WTF kind of movie for me, don’t know if they’d like it at this age.
That might work if I can find a copy.
Looks like I’m off to Amazon to order a few things.
No, no, Monster House is a scary animated movie. Spooky, but suitable for children. Actually, now that you mention it,* ParaNorman* wasn’t bad, either.
The eighties comedy horror movie House, on the other hand, wasn’t TOO scary, but it wasn’t kid stuff, either, and had some themes that your kids might have a tough time understanding (survivor’s guilt, PTSD from war, and so on.)