Scary Movies for Tweens and Teens To Watch For Halloween
Do you have a tween or teen who wants to get into the Halloween spirit by watching something scary but you don’t want them seeing too much? We have you covered with this list of PG and PG-13 rated movies for your tweens and teens to eat popcorn and scream at all night long.
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Scary Movies For Tweens and Teens
My kids are teenagers and sometimes we want to watch something scary or creepy. Usually around Halloween time or if there happens to be a Friday the 13th.
But have you ever looked up scary movies before?
Most teen horror movies are Rated R and rightly so. Sex, blood, gore, foul language and nudity plague those movies.
We do not watch movies with our kids if it isn’t PG-13 or lower. Sometimes finding movies that are within those limits is hard.
Well I am here to do some of the work for you. So sit back and relax and let me tell you our list of family-friendly halloween movies tweens, teens and their friends can watch together.
Rated PG Can be watched on Hulu
This movie happens to be a favorite of mine. My son discovered it when he was 4 and he was obsessed with it.
It is mildly scary for the littles but has great one liners in it for the adults too. I quote this movie still to date.
Monster House is about 3 pre-teens who discover that the house across the way seems to be alive somehow but the grown ups do not believe them. With halloween just around the corner they need to try and figure out how to stop the house from grabbing kids from off of the lawn because the house does not like when kids touch their grass. It is suspenseful and funny and does not disappoint.
Rated PG and can be watched on Tubi
I love movies that have sequals because you have more opportunities for watch creepy stuff together. And even though they all have the same story line, you just can’t look away. Jaws is no different.
A shark kills a woman swimming near Cape Cod and the local sheriff wants to close down the beaches until it is found. The Mayor of the town thinks this will be detrimental to the towns economy without tourist supporting their businesses and let’s the beaches stay open.
So the sherrif, a marine biologist, and a professional shark hunter seek out to find and kill the great white shark before it kills anyone else.
Steven Spielberg directs this and does such a good job. It is just the right amount of scary and suspenseful.
Rated PG
I grew up on this movie. It was always so creepy and scary for me. The good news is there is no blood or gore. It is all suspense with quite a few jump scares.
When your teen or tween is dying for something scary to watch but you don’t think they are ready for blood, this one is perfect.
A family moves into an old British country house and immediately their daughter starts seeing and hearing things. Turns out the first owner’s daughter went missing at the same age years and years ago and is trying to get back home through the new occupants.
Give this one a shot. It is a great story.
Rated PG Can be watched on Disney Plus
This family-friendly film is great for the spooky season and is a cult classic. As of last year they finally made a sequel so now you have two you can watch.
This movie takes place in Salem where everyone is aware of its history with witches. All of the kids in the area know the same superstitious story and a group of kids not believing in the realness of the tale, accidentally awaken a coven of witches named the Sanderson sisters.
Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy play those roles and do an amazing job!
With the help of a magical cat the kids must steal the witches magical book of spells in order to stop the witches from becoming immortal again.
This is definitely one you want to add to your list for any halloween movie marathon. It is one of America’s favorite halloween movies of all time and one the whole family can enjoy together.
Rated PG 13 Can be watched on Pluto, Netflix or Paramount
The Ring is definitely not for younger kids. This is a horror/mystery movie and would be great for the older kids to watch on halloween night.
The Ring is about a journalist who hears about an urban legend of a video tape where you die 7 days after watching it. If the legend is correct, she has 7 days to figure out what to do to stop it or her and her small son who watched the tape accidentally, will both die.
This one is very suspenseful and has creepy graphics. Great for tweens and teens.
Rated PG Can be watched on Philo
A Tim Burton cult classic, this movie is about a young couple who died unexpectedly in a car accident. For some reason they do not cross over into the next life but instead linger at their house and can’t leave it.
When a new family, who may or may not be a tad weird and obnoxious, move into their home they do everything in their power to haunt them so they’ll leave. The new family has a young girl who can see the ghost and they kinda become friends.
Somehow in the process of trying to get the new tenants out of their house, the ghosts meet a “bio-exorcist” named Beetlejuice. He is devious and rambunctious and his “help” ends up causing more chaos to the already troublesome group.
This is a great film because it is classified as a fantasy horror comedy. Who doesn’t love some laughs while they are being scared.
Other Tim Burton Halloween movies for tweens and teens are The Corpse Bride, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Edward Scissorhands, and Dark Shadows.
Rated PG-13
A young boy is plagued with a dark secret. He can see and hear dead people. Ghost come to him to help them solve a problem so they can cross over to the other side but with him being a little boy, he doesn’t want this scary responsibility. He can’t even tell his mom because he is afraid of what it will do to her.
He finally opens up to a child psychologist and tells him everything but the doctor is not convinced he really has these supernatural abilities. Will the doctor believe him and help him or will he be doomed forever.
Another great movie for older kids who can handle suspense and a few jump scares.
Rated PG-13 Can be watched on Max, Hulu and Amazon Prime
Do you believe in Aliens? This movie centers around a family who has endured tragedy and is still healing. But now they are dealing with something new; crop circles??
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan comes this Sci-fi/Thriller that is sure to have the hairs on your arm stand straight up. This would probably give little kids nightmares so it is for sure for those pre-teen and teens who want to be scared but not too scared.
We saw this is movie in the theatre while in town on a camping trip. Needless to say I think we were all scared to go to the bathroom in the dark that night.
Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark
Rated PG-13 Can be watched on Hulu, Amazon Prime and Pluto
First of all Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark was one of my favorite books growing up. I still have my copies from when I was in 5th grade. When they made it into a movie I was skeptical.
The first time I saw it I didn’t like it that much. But then I showed it to my teenagers and they really enjoyed it and I enjoyed it much better the second time around.
A young girl has a tortured life and decides to turn her horrible secrets into a series of scary stories. A group of teens find her book and begin to read her stories only to find themselves become a part of them.
This movie did a great job of being intense and suspenseful without being too gory. Classified as a horror thriller, it will sure be a hit with your group of teens and tweens.
Rated PG Can be watched on Netflix
Goosebumps is the perfect movie for early tweens wanting to get started in scary movies. It is very mild yet suspenseful and if you grew up reading the Goosebump books (which, who hasn’t) you will love seeing different characters and tales in the movie.
When one of the classic books gets opened it unleashes a monster from it and RL Stine himself, his daughter and their next door neighbor do everything they can to get those monsters put back into the books where they belong.
Jack Black plays R.L. Stine and does a phenomenal job.
Rated PG-13
This movie takes place during World War II. A mother moves her and her two kids to the coast while waiting to hear back from their husband/father who is has gone missing during war. She is trying to protect her kids from a rare disease that causes them harm if they go near the sun.
The daughter tells the mother that she saw a ghost. While the mother just thinks the new servants are playing tricks on them she slowly starts to experience chilling events that has her second guessing her daughters claims.
Haunted House or not, they have to figure out what they are going to do about their new life. Maybe they are friendly ghost?
Needless to say it is a spooky movie with many jump scares and zero blood and gore. Perfect for tweens and teens.
Rated PG-13
A poisonous spider hitchhikes its way into the united states in rural California small town and wrecks havoc on the town. Residents start showing up dead and it is up to the doctor who just moved into town to figure out that it could be the work of spiders.
The doctor is deathly afraid of spiders and must face his fear and try and take them all out before they take out the whole town. If you do not like spiders this would be a rough one for you.
I will warn you there is a shower scene where you very briefly see a naked girl in the shower but you don’t really see anything. This movie is PG-13 rating. Minus the very brief slight nudity, the movie is fairly clean and will definitely give you the creeps.
Rated PG
Poltergeist was my favorite growing up. It has three separate movies and in recent years it even has had a remake.
It is a horror fantasy film about evil forces whom at first seem to be friendly. They communicate with a little girl through her tv set but eventually the playfulness is over and she goes missing.
The parents do everything in their power to get her back from the evil spirits that have taken her. The special effects back then were amazing. It is one of the best movies for teens and tweens to feel scared.
Rated PG-13
A teenage girl starts her birthday by waking up with a hang over and ends with her murder, only for her to wake up and relive that same horrible day over again and over again. She will relive this day until she can figure out who murdered her. Basically a scary version of Groundhog Day.
This movie is a little adult. It falls under the PG 13 category but may be more for older teens with some of the subject matter like drinking. Still creepy and still fun to watch if you approve of your teen or tween to do so. I know I would not love to relive my murder day and day again.
Rated PG-13
This movie revolves around a journalist whose wife sees a moth like vision right before he tragic death. While doing research the journalist finds himself in a remote town of Point Pleasant where there have been a bunch of mothman sightings.
He soon discovers that these mothman sightings are a sign of something bad coming. Creepy movie with an interesting outcome. Great acting and the story line has some twist and turns. Not gory but just some suspenseful fun.
Rated PG-13
A nurse quits her job to work for a couple. The husband is in poor health following a bad stroke. While the nurse is there to cater to his needs, she also does some snooping around in their rundown Bayou mansion and starts to find strange artifacts.
She soon learns there might be more to the cause of the man’s illness. This movie is in the horror genre but is also dark and thrilling. Figuring out a mystery while trying to keep it a secret is always fun to watch. This one is sure to keep your teens guessing at what is going on.
Rated PG-13
I watched this movie by myself while my husband was out of town. It seemed like a good idea at the time. But soon I was getting the creepy crawlies and jumping with every bump in the night.
This movie has twist and turns and just when you think you have figured it out, it will shock you. Very great film for the tweens and teens to get creeped out and for lots of jump scares. Also, I love movies with a twist and this one certainly takes you through it.
Rated PG
Another classic! This film was cutting edge special effects at its time.
Now a days it is almost comical to watch but still worth it! It is not a typical scary movie. No serial killer, no haunted mansion. Not even a halloween spirit or witch in sight.
Instead there are deadly giant worms under the ground wanting to feed on humans. Yup you read that correctly. Everyone should see this film at least once in their lives.
Rated PG-13 Can be watched on Hulu, Sling, Amazon Prime and Paramount+
Family movie night should consist of this movie. It is such a well made film. It is a sci-fi thriller.
A young man has the desire to make his own zombie movie. He has a super 8 camera, a group of friends, and a script. But while out filming late one night they witness a horrifying train crash and they barely escape with their lives.
Through a series of unexplained events, they realized that it was no accident and there could be an alternate world that has been kept a secret from everyone.
Rated PG Can be watched on Tubi
Gremlins is another classic that is a must watch for any tween/teen who is wanting something fun and creepy.
A young man gets a Christmas gift from his father. A new pet. But what is it? There are three rules about the pet that you must never break.
But what young man follows all of the rules all of the time? He breaks several and soon the town is overrun with weird, mischievous little gremlins taking over and killing people. They must figure out how to stop them.
No One Will Save You
Rated PG13 can be watched on Hulu
This movie is just a bit different and absolutely worth the watch. It’s full of suspense and creepy moments that create a tense watching experience without being over the top for tweens and teens.
“An exiled anxiety-ridden homebody must battle an alien who’s found its way into her home.” (IMDB) It’s basically a heart-pounding showdown between Brynn and what seems like a never-ending onslaught of aliens, jeopardizing her future and compelling her to confront her past.
Halloween Movies For Teens
Next time your teen wants to have friends over for a movie and some popcorn, you now have a list of movies that are age appropriate ready to go. No slasher films here! But instead scary, suspenseful and creepy fun for all.
DO YOU HAVE A GO-TO SCARY MOVIE THAT ISN’T ON THIS LIST THAT YOU APPROVE FOR YOUR TEEN? LET US KNOW IN THE COMMENTS. WE LOVE HEARING FROM OUR READERS.
