54+ Not-So-Scary Movies for Halloween!

This list of 54+ Not-So-Scary Movies for Halloween is the ultimate list of films to watch this Halloween. With movies that are suitable for young kids, through to tweens and teens, and for adults who aren’t fans of scary movies there will be a Halloween film listed here for you!

If you’re not planning on having (or attending) a Halloween party, why not pick a movie or three, grab some treats and settle in for a night of Not-So-Scary movies!

I originally compiled this list back in 2013, and there have been a LOT of movies since then! To that end, I’ve updated this Halloween movie list so there are now more than the original 54 films to choose from.

Now, when it comes to horror movies, I’m a big old scaredy-cat, so you’re not going to find the really scary, gory movies on my list of Halloween films!

There are movies for kids, for tweens, teens, and grown-ups – a Halloween movie for all the family. I’ve not categorized the films into ages as everyone is different, and you know your children and your family best as to whether the film is suitable for them to watch.

I have included the rating and synopsis of each movie as described on IMDB or Amazon. Where I have listed 2 film ratings, this is because I found a conflict, or the US/UK ratings were different.

54+ Movies for Halloween

• Casper – An afterlife therapist and his daughter meet a friendly young ghost when they move into a crumbling mansion in order to rid the premises of wicked spirits. (PG)
• It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown – The Peanuts gang celebrates Halloween while Linus waits for the Great Pumpkin. (U)
• Monsters Inc. – In order to power the city, monsters have to scare children so that they scream. However, the children are toxic to the monsters, and after a child gets through, 2 monsters realize things may not be what they think. (U)
• Scared Shrekless – Shrek gets in the Halloween spirit by challenging his fairytale friends to come up with scary stories for a contest. (U)
• The Princess and The Frog – A waitress, desperate to fulfill her dreams as a restaurant owner, is set on a journey to turn a frog prince back into a human being, but she has to face the same problem after she kisses him. (U)
• Penguins of Madagascar – I Was A Zombie Penguin – Don’t cover your eyes or you’ll miss the most daring, most shocking Penguins missions ever. Skipper, Kowalski, Private, and Rico will come face-to-face with zombies, robots, spooky noises and a whole lot of frightening fun! (NR)
• Scooby-Doo – After an acrimonious break up, the Mystery Inc. gang are individually brought to an island resort to investigate strange goings on. (PG)
• Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed – The Mystery Inc. gang must save Coolsville from an attack of past unmasked monsters brought to life by an evil masked figure trying to “unmask” the gang. (PG)
• Monsters Vs Aliens – A woman transformed into a giant after she is struck by a meteorite on her wedding day becomes part of a team of monsters sent in by the U.S. government to defeat an alien mastermind trying to take over Earth. (PG)

• ParaNorman – A misunderstood boy takes on ghosts, zombies, and grown-ups to save his town from a centuries-old curse. (PG)
• Coraline – An adventurous 11-year-old girl finds another world that is a strangely idealized version of her frustrating home, but it has sinister secrets. (PG)
• Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride – When a shy groom practices his wedding vows in the inadvertent presence of a deceased young woman, she rises from the grave assuming he has married her. (PG)
• The Dark Crystal – On another planet in the distant past, a Gelfling embarks on a quest to find the missing shard of a magical crystal, and so restore order to his world. (PG)
• The Nightmare Before Christmas – Jack Skellington, king of Halloween Town, discovers Christmas Town, but his attempts to bring Christmas to his home causes confusion. (PG)
• Frankenweenie – When a boy’s beloved dog passes away suddenly, he attempts to bring the animal back to life through a powerful science experiment. (PG)
• Beetlejuice – The spirits of a deceased couple are harassed by an unbearable family that has moved into their home, and hire a malicious spirit to drive them out. (PG)(15)
• Clue – Six guests are anonymously invited to a strange mansion for dinner, but after their host is killed, they must cooperate with the staff to identify the murderer as the bodies pile up. (PG)
• The Monster Squad – A young group of monster fanatics attempt to save their hometown from Count Dracula and his monsters. (PG-13)(15)

• The Witches of Eastwick – Three single women in a picturesque village have their wishes granted, at a cost, when a mysterious and flamboyant man arrives in their lives. (R)(18)
• The Witches – A young boy stumbles onto a witch convention and must stop them, even after he has been turned into a mouse. (PG)
• The Worst Witch – The chronicles the adventures of Mildred as she attends an unusual English boarding school, otherwise known as Miss Cackle’s Academy for Witches. Mildred is not the most competent of witches, always mucking up her spells and finding herself stuck in tricky situations–like when she accidentally turns people into her enemies! (U)
• Bedknobs and Broomsticks – An apprentice witch, three kids and a cynical magician conman search for the missing component to a magic spell to be used in the defense of Britain in WWII. (U)
• Hocus Pocus – A curious youngster moves to Salem, where he struggles to fit in before awakening a trio of diabolical witches that were executed in the 17th century. (PG)
• The Haunted Mansion – A realtor and his wife and children are summoned to a mansion, which they soon discover is haunted, and while they attempt to escape, he learns an important lesson about the family he has neglected. (PG)
• Return to Oz – Dorothy, saved from a psychiatric experiment by a mysterious girl, is somehow called back to Oz when a vain witch and the Nome King destroy everything that makes the magical land beautiful. (PG)*
• Young Frankenstein – An American grandson of the infamous scientist, struggling to prove that his grandfather was not as insane as people believe, is invited to Transylvania, where he discovers the process that reanimates a dead body. (PG)
• Labyrinth – Sixteen-year-old Sarah is given thirteen hours to solve a labyrinth and rescue her baby brother Toby (Toby Froud) when her wish for him to be taken away is granted by the Goblin King Jareth. (PG)

*Return to Oz, in my humble opinion is not a cute movie for kids! I’m an adult and there are parts of that movie that give ME, a 43-year-old the heebie-jeebies!

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s (Sorcerer’s) Stone – An orphaned boy enrolls in a school of wizardry, where he learns the truth about himself, his family and the terrible evil that haunts the magical world. (PG)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – An ancient prophecy seems to be coming true when a mysterious presence begins stalking the corridors of a school of magic and leaving its victims paralyzed. (PG)
• Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban – It’s Harry’s third year at Hogwarts; not only does he have a new “Defense Against the Dark Arts” teacher, but there is also trouble brewing. Convicted murderer Sirius Black has escaped the Wizards’ Prison and is coming after Harry. (PG)
• Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire – A young wizard finds himself competing in a hazardous tournament between rival schools of magic, but he is distracted by recurring nightmares. (PG-13)(12A)
• Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix – With their warning about Lord Voldemort’s return scoffed at, Harry and Dumbledore are targeted by the Wizard authorities as an authoritarian bureaucrat slowly seizes power at Hogwarts. (PG13)(12A)
• Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince – As Harry Potter begins his sixth year at Hogwarts, he discovers an old book marked as “the property of the Half-Blood Prince” and begins to learn more about Lord Voldemort’s dark past. (PG)(12A)
• Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 1 – As Harry, Ron and Hermione race against time and evil to destroy the Horcruxes, they uncover the existence of the three most powerful objects in the wizarding world: the Deathly Hallows. (PG-13)(12A)
• Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2 – Harry, Ron, and Hermione search for Voldemort’s remaining Horcruxes in their effort to destroy the Dark Lord as the final battle rages on at Hogwarts. (PG-13)(12A)
• Bram Stoker’s Dracula – The centuries-old vampire Count Dracula comes to England to seduce his barrister Jonathan Harker’s fiancée Mina Murray and inflict havoc in the foreign land. (R)(19)

• The Addams Family – Con artists plan to fleece an eccentric family using an accomplice who claims to be their long-lost uncle. (PG)
• The Addams Family Values – The Addams Family try to rescue their beloved uncle Fester from his gold-digging new love, a black widow named Debbie. (PG-13)(PG)
• Gremlins – A boy inadvertently breaks three important rules concerning his new pet and unleashes a horde of malevolently mischievous monsters on a small town. (PG)(15)
• Gremlins 2: The New Batch – The Gremlins are back, and this time, they’ve taken control of a New York City media mogul’s high-tech skyscraper. (PG-13)(12)
• Ghostbusters – Three former parapsychology professors set up shop as a unique ghost removal service. (PG)
• Ghostbusters II – The discovery of a massive river of ectoplasm and a resurgence of spectral activity allows the staff of Ghostbusters to revive the business. (PG)
• The Goonies – A group of young misfits who call themselves The Goonies discover an ancient map and set out on a quest to find a legendary pirate’s long-lost treasure. (PG)(12)
• Scary Movie – A year after disposing of the body of a man they accidentally killed, a group of dumb teenagers are stalked by a bumbling serial killer. (R)(18)
• Little Shop of Horrors – A nerdy florist finds his chance for success and romance with the help of a giant man-eating plant who demands to be fed. (PG-13)(PG)

• The Lost Boys – After moving to a new town, two brothers discover that the area is a haven for vampires. (R)(15)
• The Sixth Sense – A boy who communicates with spirits seeks the help of a disheartened child psychologist. (PG-13)(15)
• Shaun of the Dead – A man’s uneventful life is disrupted by the zombie apocalypse. (R)(15)
• The Rocky Horror Picture Show – A newly engaged couple have a breakdown in an isolated area and must pay a call to the bizarre residence of Dr. Frank-N-Furter. (R)(12-A)
• Dark Shadows – An imprisoned vampire, Barnabas Collins, is set free and returns to his ancestral home, where his dysfunctional descendants are in need of his protection. (PG-13)(12A)
• Sleepy Hollow – Ichabod Crane is sent to Sleepy Hollow to investigate the decapitations of three people, with the culprit being the legendary apparition, The Headless Horseman. (R)(15)
• Teen Wolf – An ordinary high school student discovers that his family has an unusual pedigree when he finds himself turning into a werewolf. (PG)
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street – The infamous story of Benjamin Barker, aka Sweeney Todd, who sets up a barber shop in London which is the basis for a sinister partnership with his fellow tenant, Mrs. Lovett. (R)(18)
• From Hell – In Victorian-era London, a troubled clairvoyant police detective investigates the murders of Jack the Ripper. (R)(18)

I realise some of these may be a little on the scary side, but honestly, if I can watch them on my own, then they’re not-so-scary – I really am a horror movie chicken! As I said at the start you know your family best as to what Halloween movies they should watch, so pick the ones that are most suitable for you and yours.

I hope you have a fun Halloween movie night!

This post is part of my long-running Crafty October series on The Purple Pumpkin Blog. Since 2012, I’ve shared Halloween recipes, printables, and crafts every October. While I don’t officially run the series anymore, all my new Halloween posts are still part of this decades-long celebration of spooky fun! Browse past Crafty October years for even more inspiration: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, and 2012.

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