Who says that horror always has gotta be off the charts terrifying in order to be seen as “valid” genre fare?

Crummy gatekeepers, that’s who!

Man, we hate that gatekeeping bad energy! And that is precisely why we’re sharing a list of mild to moderately spooky movies that will be perfect for tweens, teens, and family movie nights or for those who prefer less gory and less gross horror.

YA and Teen Halloween Movies for Family Movie Night

As always, we advise parents and guardians to peruse the content and trigger warnings on various websites and databases. Some of the movies on this list may contain more mature or troubling content that sensitive viewers may find uncomfortable. Many of the picks on this list do contain sexual situations, substance abuse, mild violence, etc. Please know your audience and limitations before queueing up any of the picks on this list for very young viewers or with small children present.

Afterlife of the Party

Listen, if you’re going to hate on the Nickelodeon/Disney star set? You can check yourself right out my friends circle. I love Victoria Justice and I’m not ashamed to say it. This would make a great followup to The Boy Who Cried Werewolf for the teens/tweens after the smol ones head to bed. It’s a ghost story following the formula of It’s a Wonderful Life but for the teen insta-influencer set. It’s goofy. It’s corny. It’s campy. And I loved every second of it with zero shame! Tolerable enough for adults who love cheese but relevant enough for wholesome ghostly content for YA set who don’t love hardcore horror. Grab some pizza, your besties, and a movie night selfie for the ‘gram and press play on this one!

Vampire Academy

Fans of Twilight and The Vampire Diaries and other teen paranormal fare will love this entry to the list. It’s Dark Academia meets Paranormal, making it perfect for fans of The Order and Harry Potter. It has plenty of witty retorts and snarky mean girl humor. It’s light, campy fun for the YA reader set. Sure, there’s some queerbaiting and what have you, but who cares? It’s meant for teens, not adults, and while it’s not great overall, it’s certainly still watchable enough for Halloweekend sleepovers with pizza and popcorn. Let the teens and tweens have their fun! It’s solid, mild paranormal romance fare.

House of the Witch

Make no mistake, this is not a good movie, and I didn’t find it remotely scary, but if you’ve got sensitive, jumpy teens that want mild scares without blood, guts, and gore, this would be a fair option. Less scary than an episode of 90s classic Are You Afraid of the Dark? but a little bit darker than your average episode of Goosebumps. The scares and special effects aren’t great, but put a nervous, jumpy teen in a dark room and a friend who loves to tease them and they will manage to get enough mileage out of the few thrills it has. Also could be fun enough for them to heckle the bad plotlines and terrible writing.

Before I Wake

If you’re looking for horror with heart, look no further than this one. A little boy is orphaned and adopted by a couple who are looking to fill the void in their home where their deceased son once lived. When strange things begin to happen in their home, they soon learn that their sweet adoptive son has the ability to manifest his dreams - and nightmares - while he sleeps. It’s an emotional offering in slow-burn horror from the masterful Mike Flanagan. Great for those who aren’t into gory, demonic possession horror, but instead like their horror with a side of “Oof! Right in the feels!” Good gradual easing into the scarier fare without going over the edge.

The Babysitter & Babysitter: Killer Queen

Samara Weaving’s demonic slasher cult classic is the perfect blend of Horror and Black Comedy fare. Great for those who don’t love ultra-violent terror, but rather are into campy horror content. Put the little ones and the tweens to bed and then settle in for a bonding night with your teenagers while watching these as a double feature, or let the teens party it up with their pals and back-to-back movies. Plenty of suggestive humor and over-the-top bloody horror kills to keep everyone entertained for a few hours.

Hellfest

Show me Six Flags Fright Fest but fit for the screen. This is your typical 90s style slasher fare in an updated Gen Z package. It’s got just enough jump scares and satisfying kills to keep the Blood Casserole at bay during our Rainbow Reel Club nights, so it should keep your horror loving tweens and teens satisfied. This one follows the more classic horror formula of movies like Scream, Halloween, Friday the 13th, etc.

Emelie

Perfect for the older teen set, Emelie is the best of babysitter and home invasion horror. When a couple’s usual babysitter cancels on their much needed date night, they hire Anna in her stead. Anna seems like the perfect choice: sweet, friendly, and mild-mannered with the adults, and a “rules are more like guidelines” attitude with the kiddos. But things may not be exactly what they seem on the surface. Free of spooky entities and brutal violence, this is a great alternative for teens who like thrills and chills without the blood and guts. I thoroughly enjoyed this as an adult viewer; even if it can be a touch predictable it does have enough disturbing psycho-thriller content to keep you engaged.

Follow Me

As a social media manager, I find social media horror to be an oversaturated area of the genre since it’s relevant to current popculture, but this was refreshingly fun and interesting.  When a social media influencer heads off a trip to Moscow for a vlogging live stream, things take a truly dark, sinister turn! How far will our pals go “for the ‘gram?” What are they willing to do for “Likes and subscribes” from their loyal viewership? A fresh installment in the “social media horror” subset, this clever thriller-horror will keep your bloodthirsty teens satisfied with plenty of kills and danger, but not quite up to the kill-level of more gruesome gory fare like Hostel or Saw. A perfect group-watch or movie-party virtual chat option! Full of plenty of twists, turns, and snarky influencer dunks and a dark sense of humor, I thoroughly enjoyed this entry to the genre.

Bonus Binge Watch Reccs:

• Julie and the Phantoms - Light Tween/Teen Ghost Story fare with amazing musical numbers, creative costume and fashion design, and truly charming romance.

• Scream (Series) - MTV’s Scream series reinvigorates this 90s slasher franchise in a truly bingeable format for fans of campy horror classics and where an 80 to 90 min runtime just isn’t enough content.

• The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor - Great ghost stories with heartbreaking romance and family drama from the ubiquitous Mike Flanagan. Creepy enough to include in your Halloweekend sleepovers but palatable enough for family movie night fare for older tweens and teens.

• Two Sentence Horror Stories - Two seasons worth of anthology horror shorts. Some of these episodes are truly chilling despite their diminutive size! Great for binging with a big bowl of popcorn and candy and your bffs!

• Haunted - For fans of real life hauntings and horror, you’ll want to pop this in your watchlist! This reality tv series has 3 seasons worth of bingeable haunting tales of real-life horror with everything from hauntings to possessions and then some. And when you’ve ripped through all of those, you can check out the Latinx installment Haunted: Latin America for a bonus season of content!

• Ash and the Evil Dead - If you and your teens are into campy horror classics, then you’ll be right at home with this series! It’s 30 years later following the events of the Evil Dead franchise, and Ash Williams is back to battle evil demons alongside a team of fresh new faces. Great horror-comedy fare for a Halloweend family binge sesh, or for teens to watch with their pals.

• The Fear Street Collection - Fans of late 80s, early 90s horror books and pulp novels by VC Andrews will love this trilogy of movies based on the RL Stine book series by the same name. Each movie centers on a different year and its own set of characters, with an overall wraparound content of a town cursed by an evil witch. Lots of brutal, gory, violent, bloody kills and probably more than its fair share of sexual innuendos which makes this Not remotely for younger viewers. We’d recommend 14 or 15 and up for this and only if they don’t mind bloody violent horror.

Listicle by Ellen Avigliano
Twitter: @imaginariumcs
Website: www.imaginariumarts.com
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