It’s October, and that means nights filled with costumes, tricks, way too much candy, and movies that make you want to sleep with a nightlight. Getting scared as a kid was as important on Halloween as eating your weight in peanut butter cups and candy corn. Fear made the sugar taste better. Many of us weren’t ready for the Jasons and Freddy Kruegers, but we still had a wide array of “family friendly” October movies that left us questioning every bump in the night, even into adulthood.
These creepy movies for kids may have left us with some psychological scarring, but they also taught us how to confront scary things in a safe environment. If you want to give your kids the same experience, or if you just want to revisit your childhood, here’s a list of 10 of those creepy October must-sees from least to most traumatizing.
10. Return to Oz
Set near Halloween, Return to Oz is full of the creeps and chills that fit perfectly into the season. Rather than being a sequel to The Wizard of OZ starring Judy Garland, this movie takes inspiration from the original L. Frank Baum books. There are no flying monkeys, but there’s still plenty to haunt your dreams.
The movie starts with Dorothy being sent to a sanitarium to undergo risky and experimental electroshock therapy. Escaping the sanitarium during a storm, Dorothy is thrown into a raging river where she drifts until she washes up in the land of Oz. Once there, she finds the Yellow Brick Road and the Emerald City have been destroyed and her friends have been turned into stone. Oz has been taken over by the evil Nome King, who doesn’t mind snacking on heroes, and the ominous Princess Mombi with her gallery of talking heads. There are also Wheelers, creatures with grotesque masks and bizarre makeup that terrorize Dorothy as they glide around on the wheels that grow from their elongated limbs. Though tame compared to some of the movies on this list, Return to Oz will still engrave its way onto your psyche.
9. The Goonies
This adventure movie is a perfect romp for the Halloween season. Though not exactly scary, it can be intense. The movie follows a group of boys who call themselves The Goonies, led by a young Sean Astin in the role of Mikey. After coming across the treasure map of the famous pirate, One-eyed Willy, the boys decide to search for the buccaneer’s lost gold in hopes that they will be able to save their neighborhood before it is sold to a developer. They are joined on their journey by Mikey’s older brother Brand (played by Josh Brolin), Brand’s crush, and her best friend. Cory Feldman and Oscar Winner Ke Huy Quan are also notable members of the cast.
The kids find themselves in a complicated network of caves beneath the Oregon coast, trying to avoid booby traps and the Fratelli family, criminals on the run from the law who also want the treasure. With murder victims, pirate skeletons, child intimidation, and plenty of peril, this fun autumn adventure offers enough thrills to perfectly fit the season. The movie can feel genuinely dangerous and scary. Sadly, one of the most loveable characters can be frightening on first watch, or even the second. But this movie is a great way to teach kids not to judge a book by its cover.
8. Labyrinth
This cult classic starring the legendary David Bowie and a young Jennifer Connelly fits right in with the Halloween season. The story follows Sarah, a teenage girl who prefers the world of fantasy to the reality of babysitting her infant stepbrother, Toby. Frustrated with her brother’s crying, Sarah accidentally summons the Goblin King who steals Toby away. The only way Sarah can get him back is by solving the goblin’s labyrinth before the clock strikes thirteen.
Whether it’s the supernatural child kidnapping or the somewhat dubious costume choices for the Goblin King, this movie scarred more than a few young minds. The Jim Henson puppetry is on point, but occasionally disturbing with creatures like the Helping Hands and the Fireys. And there’s also the creepy factor of an immortal goblin king’s fascination with a teenage girl. The David Bowie music, the fairytale-inspired story, and the puppets keep the movie from getting too dark, but most people still find it deeply weird.
7. Hocus Pocus
This Halloween classic has been a part of almost every millennial’s Halloween since its 1993 release. The movie combines slapstick humor and fun musical numbers with some truly dark and mature themes. In Puritanical Salem, the Sanderson Sisters use witchcraft to lure a young girl to their cottage where they suck out her life force in order to recover their youth. The sisters are almost immediately hanged for their crimes, but with the promise that they will be back. Exactly 300 years later, teenager Max accidentally awakens the sisters while showing off. Max, his sister Dani, his crush Allison, and an immortal boy-turned-cat named Binx spend Halloween night trying to stop the Sanderson sisters before they can steal the lives of all the children of Salem.
The top-tier performances from Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy are so engaging that it’s easy to forget the witches have literally sold their souls to the devil. The movie has dark magic, raising the dead, books bound in human flesh, and the hunting and murdering of children, making it more than a little disturbing when you think about it. But it’s so entertaining that the trauma probably won’t kick in until years later. Learning about danger in a safe and accessible way is good for you, right?
6. The NeverEnding Story
Not traditionally a Halloween story, this movie based on the Michael Ende book of the same name still has all the weird vibes and monsters to fit the season. This dual storyline starts with Bastian, a young boy struggling with bullies and grief. After stealing a rare book, Bastian locks himself away on a stormy night and begins to read about the magical world of Fantasia. This fantasy land is being destroyed by a great evil called the Nothing. When the Childlike Empress, the one with the power to save Fantasia falls ill, only the young warrior, Atreyu can find the cure and rescue the land. As the story goes on, we start to see that the story and the real world are closely connected.
The movie is both enchanting and genuinely weird with plenty of trauma to unpack. If the words “Swamp of Sadness” don’t make you feel something, you haven’t seen this film. The Nothing is both a villain and a metaphor for the loss of hope, but it’s not just the existential dread that gives this story a touch of horror. Some of the people of Fantasia are beyond strange, the experience with the Southern Oracle is deeply unsettling, and Atreyu’s faceoff with Gmork, the wolf-like minion of The Nothing is downright chilling.
5. Something Wicked This Way Comes
This film based on the Ray Bradbury novel is the epitome of “be careful what you wish for.” After a mysterious circus appears in town overnight, young boys Will and Jim are drawn into a dangerous conflict with the circus master, Mr. Dark. This ominous but powerful figure has the ability to make dreams come true for a terrible price. He has a plan for the town and the souls inside it, and he doesn’t intend to let anyone stop him. The boys witness Mr. Dark’s evil deeds and soon become the target of his sinister designs.
Jim and Will’s allies include a traveling salesman who is more than what he seems, and Will’s father Charles who has had some previous experience with Mr. Dark. The creepy circus imagery, ironic consequences, the boys being chased by everything from tarantulas to enslaved townspeople, and the demonic Mr. Dark make this creepy Disney offering at least a little scarring.
4. The Watcher in the Woods
Another surprisingly dark Disney movie, Watcher in the Woods, is based on the novel by Florence Engel Randall. In the movie, sisters Ellie and Jan begin to experience unsettling events after moving to an estate in the English countryside. Mysterious lights in the woods near their home hint of something supernatural, something that might explain the disappearance of a young girl named Karen almost 30 years before. Together with their new friend Mike, they uncover secrets of that fateful night with the hopes they might be able to bring Karen home.
With the disappearance of children, ghostlike visions, and otherworldly trances, this movie is full of scares that will make you want to avoid mirrors at night. In short, it will definitely leave kids and adults feeling more than a little unsettled. The happy ending is the only thing that really saves this movie from becoming permanent nightmare fuel.
3. Lady in White
Perfect for those who like their movies a little more contemplative, Lady in White will make you think even as it leaves you disturbed. While locked in at his elementary school over Halloween night, main character Frankie sees the ghost of a young girl who is reenacting the night of her own murder. Soon after, he is attacked by a masked man and almost strangled to death. Frankie later learns that he was very nearly the victim of a serial killer, and the ghost was the murderer’s first kill. Throughout the year, Frankie continues to see the ghost girl, as well as an ethereal but spooky woman in white. We also see the trial of the school janitor, a black man accused of the killings due to local hysteria and racism.
Though not the scariest movie on this list, Lady in White may be the most disturbing and mature as it explores themes of grief, child murder, trusting the wrong people, and racism in 1960s America. It’s also the only movie on this list with a PG-13 rating. The kids will be haunted by the images of ghosts and killers, while the grownups will be troubled by the realization that the spirits aren’t the scary part of this movie.
2. The Witches
This take on the classic Roal Dahl book has haunted the dreams of children since its 1990 release. It is only the touch of campy horror that prevents this movie from being number one on this list. In the story, young boy Luke is left in the care of his grandmother after his parents are killed in a car accident. The grandmother teaches Luke all about Witches, terrible creatures who disguise themselves as regular women. Witches hate children and will do everything they can to get rid of them.
While staying at a hotel with his grandmother, Luke realizes that the resort is also hosting a convention of witches. The witches have a terrible plan to rid the world of children completely. Anjelica Huston plays the Grand High Witch to chilling effect, and anyone who watched this movie as a child will remember the moment she peeled off her mask to reveal her true witchy exterior. Jim Henson’s effects are at their weirdest worst (or best) in this cautionary tale. Full of gruesome special effects, child snatching, and body horror, this movie will definitely leave your kids with the childhood trauma millennials and Gen Xers are known for.
1. Coraline
The newest movie on this list, Coraline is the most frightening. Based on a Neil Gaiman novel of the same name, this story follows the titular character as she explores her new home. Having just moved to the area and without any friends, Coraline is left to herself while her parents are busy with work and deadlines. The lonely girl stumbles on a magical “other” world where she meets her “other mother,” a woman who looks exactly like her real mother save for the sewn-on buttons that have replaced her eyes. The Other Mother caters to Coraline’s every whim and even invites her to stay forever. But beneath all the fun is a horrifying reality that quickly turns into a vivid and disturbing nightmare.
Replete with body horror, missing children, scary visuals, a truly evil villain, and the slightly unhinged, uncanny feeling that stop motion inherently has, this movie will scare adults and children alike. My advice: watch with the lights on.