A Grizz-O-Ween Movie List For The Family (Kinda)

Some parents have been showing their kids classic horror movies like Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, and Friday the 13th since before those kids could walk. But for other parents, boobs and blood aren't the common standard for a month long October movie marathon, especially when it comes to their lil monsters.

I was actually one of those young babies who grew up watching every kinda movie there was with my dad and I grew up just fine! As an adult who is now taking care of a young human, I actually don't feel comfortable showing my niece some of the stuff that I was watching at her age. But honestly, I forget how many of those movies had WAY TOO MUCH sex and gore for a kid! I have been working on finding movies that are scary and full of jump scares for someone her age who loves being spooked, but that won't include a bunch of random nudity and adult situations BEYOND someone being possessed by a demon or chopped up into little pieces. You know, the normal stuff.

So I figured since I was already searching, I would put together a list of a few spooky movies for your family friendly horror watch parties!

DISCLAIMER: This list will absolutely include movies that have curse words, blood and gore, and that talk about stuff that will be inappropriate for most preteens or teenagers. You should absolutely read through the descriptions and be sure you're okay with letting your kids watch these films. The Grizz-O-Ween list will be a mix of PG, PG-13, and R rated movies that could vary from no blood or curse words at all, to a very large amount of blood and curse words. Parent Discretion Is Advised!

The (Kind Of) Family Friendly Grizz-O-Ween Movie List

• Monster House (2006) Rated PG

We are starting the list off mild but wild! Monster House is probably not gonna scare any kids that already have a horror background but it is a GREAT introduction to horror for younger audiences. The movie is also good for kids most ages though closer to the preteen age might be best. The movie not only gets plenty intense for a kids movie, it also has some semi-adult humor that kids probably wont understand but parents will definitely get a chuckle out of.

• Trap (2024) Rated PG-13

Trap might be a movie that will play better for kids who are older or who have good movie watching training. Luckily, because the movie is about a young girl going to her first concert with her dad -- it actually has a lot of relatability and kept my nieces attention the whole movie! She even said how much she liked it later on when we were choosing a different movie. Surprisingly few cuss words for a PG-13 and the plot involves little to no blood or gore.

• Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark (2019) PG-13

The people who grew up with this classic horror book series might enjoy getting to relive some of these stories through a newer narrative! This one has no nudity or sex but the age of the main characters is high school aged and does involve language that your average high schooler uses. So they may make a few jokes about boners or hot girls but nothing actually graphic on screen aside from creepy monster designs or a few horror movie deaths. This is another solid beginner horror movie that has plenty of fun jump scares for young fans new to horror but isn't so innocent that parents will be bored watching. Plus if you were a fan of the books before, it's interesting to see the way they weave in the stories for this movie.

• Scooby-Doo (2002) and Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004) Rated PG

`The 2 live action Scooby-Doo movies are about as family friendly as you can get and I recommend them for family friendly and normal Halloween marathon playlists. Both are goofy and silly but also written by James Gunn who did all of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy movies and who is now making movies for DC including the HBO Max show Peacemaker and the new Suicide Squad movie which are both much more adult. So the humor is the kind that is pretty fun for any grown ups out there who may have never seen the flicks but also keeps up a good energy for younger audiences too.

• The Evil Dead Franchise (Original Trilogy: 1981-1992) Rated NC-17, R, PG-13

Okay so this is where things start to get a bit controversial on this list and where I recommend parents do their due diligence and make sure they are paying attention. The original Evil Dead movies are MOSTLY slapstick comedy types with minimal sexual content aside from the very first Evil Dead movie. The original Evil Dead contains a notoriously graphic scene of one of the women being sexually assaulted by a sentient group of tree branches or vines. Aside from this, the first movie is also brutal and could be deeply terrifying with themes of demonic possession that go very far.

The other 2 films however have a bit of a different tone. Evil Dead 2 is kind of a remake that revisits the cabin from the first movie but that leans more heavily on horror comedy and does not have any graphic sexual horror, though it does still have plenty of regular graphic horror. Army of Darkness, the 3rd film in the original trilogy, is the most mild of all of them. Army of Darkness is mostly very silly and leans more on the fantasy side of things with Ash, our main character, going back in time to help a medieval kingdom fight off a horde of goofy skeletons. Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness would be the biggest recommendations with the original Evil Dead being one that parents should watch first and decide for themselves if its appropriate for their own kids. Honestly, Evil Dead 2 is one to be a little careful of as well but it is far better than the original.

• The Evil Dead Franchise (New Trilogy: 2013-Present) Rated R

Here we get EVEN MORE controversial. This series is really only recommended for parents who are okay with their kids watching intense horror. Once again, this series mostly stays away from sexual stuff except for the first Evil Dead remake in 2013. That entry in the new trilogy has an homage or reference to the original Evil Dead involving the sexual assault of a woman by tree roots. Aside from that, Evil Dead Rise and Evil Dead Burn are mostly just very bloody. Lots of gore, lots of jump scares, and some obscene amounts of blood. Seriously, I think for a while the 2013 Evil Dead held the record for most fake blood used in a movie. So, this whole series is one to be careful of especially since the language in the films is also very adult, hence the R ratings.

• Five Nights At Freddie's 1&2 (2023, 2025) Rated PG-13

The FNAF franchise is HUGE with younger audiences already since it is based on a video game franchise, so it is a fairly safe bet as far as the movies go. The language is even more mild than the rest of the movies on this list and these films are really great movies to ease your kids into the horror world. None of the content is sexual whatsoever and the gore is present but nothing compared to some other horror movies in the PG-13 category! The games are more known for their jump scare style gameplay than their violent content so even the games are pretty mild if your kids have been asking about them.

• Backrooms (2026) Rated R

The R rating might look bad here but the rating is mainly for gore and violence as well as some language. Similar to Five Nights At Freddie's, Backrooms comes from a franchise that came before and that has gained a lot of popularity with younger audiences on the internet. Some of your kids may have already explored some of this creepy content on their own but it all mainly deals with liminal space horror. Stuff like the fear of being alone in a big empty space or spaces that feel uncanny and weird. Backrooms is mostly rated R for the violence than anything else, nothing sexually graphic, just good ole fashioned violence!

• Good Boy (2025) Rated PG-13

Good Boy follows a haunting from the perspective of a dog and it is another great introduction to horror for any parents wanting to scare their kids without fully traumatizing them just yet. There is some violence in the film but nothing sexual and the language is relatively mild compared to some others on this list. I do want to spoil one little thing here for anyone who just can't watch a horror movie where an animal gets hurt, read on if you NEED the spoiler, but if you want to keep the mystery alive then ignore the rest of this paragraph. (Seriously, stop reading now if you don't want spoilers. Are you done reading? Are you still reading if you are still okay with spoilers?? okay okay. Here it is.) If you are the type who cannot watch a dog die, the main character of this film, the Good Boy from the title, survives.

• The Conjuring (2013) Rated R

The original Conjuring movie which kicked off a series that now spans 10 films including the Annabelle movies, the Nun series, and even one critically hated movie about la Llorona. The majority of the series stays away from graphic sexual content, choosing to focus mostly on jump scares and stories of hauntings or demonic possession. The first movie in the series is a classic that feels like it borrows from the playbook of the original Poltergeist movie from the 80s. Mainly in that it lulls you in with a story about a family moving into a new home before things start to get very creepy. Jump scares in this first entry are very well done and the tension is enough for any younger horror movie fan to get some good jumps in.