Halloweenis right around the corner and whether you celebrate for the entire month of October or contain your spooky activities to a single day, there are a number of things you can do to mark the occasion. You might be heading out with the kids for some trick or treating, heading to a Halloween party, or staying in to eat candy and watch some on-theme movies. If it’s option number three, that’s where we come in.
The movies you watch when kicking back this Halloween may well be determined by the company you keep at home. Some of us don’t have the luxury of sticking on the Saw box set and letting it play. There might be kids around, and watching some old guy torture people with his gory games isn’t suitable for them. Don’t worry though as there are plenty of spooky Halloween movies that you may watch with your kids, and we’ve handpicked a few of them for you to choose from.
Updated on June 25, 2025, by Sai Vsr:In this update, we bring to you a classic kids Halloween movie that has been cherished across generations. Check it out below.
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
Sincere Pumpkin Patch Awaits
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is a beloved animated Halloween special featuring the Peanuts gang. Join Charlie Brown and friends as they celebrate Halloween, go trick-or-treating, and await the arrival of the mythical Great Pumpkin.
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown remains a treasured Halloween tradition nearly 60 years after first airing. This Peanuts special immaculately captures the joys and letdowns of childhood holidays. It follows the gang during Halloween, concentrating on Charlie Brown’s trick-or-treating misfortunes and Linus' unshakable faith in the Great Pumpkin.
The special’s strength is its skill to blend humor with poignant moments, covering themes of faith, camaraderie, and determination. Iconic scenes, like Snoopy’s imaginary WWI flying ace battles, exhibit the innovation that made Peanuts an cultural phenomenon.
The latest of three Haunted Mansion movies inspired by the ride with the same name, the 2023 edition centers around a family trying to turn their inherited home into a B&B only to discover it’s haunted. Featuring a star-studded cast that includes Rosario Dawson, Danny Devito, and Owen Wilson.
Disneyideas are so strong that sometimes all it takes is a ride at one of its parks and the next thing you know, an entire franchise of movies has been built off the back of it. It happened to Pirates of the Caribbean, and it has happened to Haunted Mansion too. This is the third time the ride has been turned into a feature film, and this might well be the one with the most star-studded cast. Somewhat overlooked at the cinema since it clashed with the arrivals ofBarbieand Oppenheimmber, if you missed it on the big screen, pick it up for a viewing this Halloween. A more fitting time of year to watch it anyway.
The Ghostbusters series has been rebooted time and time again, but more than three decades later, nothing compares to the original movies. This Blu-ray set includes both of the first movies starring Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd among other iconic Hollywood stars.
There are a lot ofGhostbustersmovies out there as the series has been rebooted multiple times. You’d think since this is a guide to Halloween movies for kids in 2024, I’d have picked one of the modern remakes, but no. The newer takes on Ghostbusters are good, but nothing compares to the original concept, and kids today need to know that. Show them these iconic films and then they can watch the newer ones and if they don’t agree that the originals are the best, well, I’d be very surprised. Fantastic actors starring in timeless classics. There’s a reason the series has been rebooted so many times. Because the originals were that damn good.
This Is Halloween
Cast
Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas is a timeless family movie for the holiday season. When Jack Skellington discovers Christmas, he does everything in his power to bring it back to Halloween Town.
Okay, I’ve held off on pushing this on you for long enough and I think I should be rewarded for that. If you’re going to pick up just one movie to watch this Halloween, then it should be The Nightmare Before Christmas. The one film on this list that I watch every Halloween (and every Christmas) without fail. Follow Jack Skellington - The Pumpkin King - on his adventure out of Halloween Town and his return, bringing Christmas back with him. A Disney classic no matter how you frame it, and one that can be watched any time of the year but feels particularly special when you watch it on October 31.
Addams Family Values is a sequel to 1991’s The Addams Family and centers around a rogue nanny who is after Uncle Fester’s fortune. Tricking Fester into marrying her, the nanny sends Wednesday and Pugsley to summer camp, fearful that the kids are catching on to what she is trying to do.
The Addams Family is almost as synonymous with Halloween as the humble pumpkin, and while there have been plenty of movies and shows depicting the creepy and kooky family, none compare to this one. If you’re struggling to place Addams Family Values, it’s the one in which a nanny brought in to keep an eye on the kids turns out to be a cold-blooded killer who marries men and then bumps them off, inheriting their fortune. Uncle Fester is her target, and when Wednesday and Pugsley start to figure her out, the pair get shipped off to summer camp. Another timeless classic and perfect Halloween viewing.
From the creator of The Nightmare Before Christmas, Coraline is an animated movie that centers around a young girl who discovers a mirror dimension in her new home. Frightened back to her own dimension by the “Other” parents who inhabit the alternate one, when she gets back, Coraline discovers her real parents have disappeared.
If you like The Nightmare Before Christmas but want to mix things up this Halloween, then you may as well stick with Tim Burton. No one does spooky animated movies quite like him, and Coraline is another terrific example of that. Coraline stumbles upon a mirror dimension in her own home, a reflection of her reality which even includes alternate versions of the people she knows. It’s her Other Mother and Other Father that freak Coraline out, sending her back to her own dimension. However, when she returns, her real parents are gone, and she thinks the Other parents she ran from have probably got something to do with it.
Tim Burton Really Likes Halloween
When the recently deceased Maitlands find out the very-much-alive Deetz family have moved into their home, they enlist the help of ‘bio-exorcist’ Beetlejuice to scare away the new tenants.
Anything and everything is eligible for a sequel or a remake nowadays, and more than 35 years after the first movie hit cinemas, Beetlejuice is getting a second movie. That means there has never been a better time to watch the original movie than this Halloween, possibly the last Halloween before we officially have a Beetlejuice 2. Return to the edge of your seat as some good-natured ghosts have a moment of weakness, consider hiring Beetlejuice, and despite deciding against it, the damage has been done. An absolutely fantastic performance from Michael Keaton, and just a year before he puts on another one inBatman. The man really was on a hot streak in the late ’80s/early ’90s.
Hocus Pocus
When a pair of siblings accidentally resurrect a trio of Salem-era witches while out trick-or-treating, they become embroiled in a battle of wits.
Speaking of 30-year-old classics getting sequels, Hocus Pocus got a follow-up movie in 2022. The actors who played the three witch sisters all returned to the roles and it was almost as if no time had passed at all. As good as the sequel is, there’s no beating the original movie. Resurrected after 300 years, the Sanderson sisters attempt to pick up where they left off, and it’s up to those who brought them back to send them back from where they came. Another Disney classic, and one that was originally released on the very same day as The Nightmare Before Christmas. Halloween 1993 must have really been something.
FAQ
Is Halloween Appropriate For Seven-Year-Olds?
Whether you think your children are ready for Halloween is naturally a decision that’s up to the parent. Personally, I would say seven is more than old enough to be celebrating Halloween and it’s likely they will have been engaging in Halloween activities at school long before that age.
Is Coraline Too Scary For A Seven-Year-Old?
Coraline might be an animated movie geared towards children, but it is still pretty scary in places. Much like deciding whether your children are ready for Halloween in general, determining whether Coraline, or any of the other movies above, is too scary for them is a judgment call. I certainly wouldn’t recommend they watch it without an adult in the room with them.
What Halloween Movies Are Not Scary?
All Halloween movies are a little scary otherwise they wouldn’t be Halloween movies. One of the animated picks above might be the best way to go if you’re looking for the least scary option, or something that’s as funny as it is scary like Hocus Pocus or Beetlejuice.
