Inside the Guide: Live-Action Scary Movies & Shows for Kids
Ask horror fans when their love affair with the genre began and most will open their stories by saying, “When I was a kid…” So many horror fans started loving the genre during the formative years of their lives. Scary content is an active part of children’s entertainment, including in live-action films and TV shows.
When Disney branched out into young adult movies, they had a hit with the ghost story The Watcher in the Woods. The 1980 movie, adapted from the 1976 novel by Florene Engel Randall, tells the story of a teen girl who discovers a ghostly secret in the old English manor where her family has moved.
In Gremlins, a modern classic from 1984, a teenage boy is gifted a mysterious, cuddly creature that is extremely dangerous. After rules for its care are disregarded, a slew of viciously violent little monsters go on a destructive and murderous spree. Given a PG rating, the movie was so shocking that it influenced creation of the PG-13 rating.
Return to Oz is a 1985 movie based on the Oz books by L. Frank Baum that sees Dorothy returning to the Land of Oz where a villainous king and vain witch are damaging the magical world. There are scenes with a headless princess, Dorothy getting electroshock therapy, and character designs distorted from cute to bizarre.
Most horror for kids puts them in the heroic role, and 1987’s The Monster Squad capitalized on that storytelling device. A group of kids who idolize classic creature movies face Universal-style monsters including Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, the Wolf Man, the Mummy, and Gill-Man. They try to save their town from Dracula’s plans of taking control of the world.
In the ‘90s, two TV shows used the anthology format to present frightening tales made for kids. Are You Afraid of the Dark? featured a group of teens who gather in the woods to tell scary stories, and Goosebumps adapted the books by R.L. Stine. Episodes had ghosts, vampires, werewolves, spooky magic, haunted houses, bad animals, and more.
In 1993, Disney released the Halloween holiday gem Hocus Pocus. Three kids unleash a trio of witches on Halloween who plan to gain eternal youth by sucking the life out of children. As the witches, Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy steal every scene they are in. It’s more comedy than horror, though the youth-sucking moments are frightening for younger viewers.
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Inside the Guide: Live-Action Scary Movies & Shows for Kids
Ask horror fans when their love affair with the genre began and most will open their stories by saying, “When I was a kid…” So many horror fans started loving the genre during the formative years of their lives. Scary content is an active part of children’s entertainment, including in live-action films and TV shows.
When Disney branched out into young adult movies, they had a hit with the ghost story The Watcher in the Woods. The 1980 movie, adapted from the 1976 novel by Florene Engel Randall, tells the story of a teen girl who discovers a ghostly secret in the old English manor where her family has moved.
In Gremlins, a modern classic from 1984, a teenage boy is gifted a mysterious, cuddly creature that is extremely dangerous. After rules for its care are disregarded, a slew of viciously violent little monsters go on a destructive and murderous spree. Given a PG rating, the movie was so shocking that it influenced creation of the PG-13 rating.
Return to Oz is a 1985 movie based on the Oz books by L. Frank Baum that sees Dorothy returning to the Land of Oz where a villainous king and vain witch are damaging the magical world. There are scenes with a headless princess, Dorothy getting electroshock therapy, and character designs distorted from cute to bizarre.
Most horror for kids puts them in the heroic role, and 1987’s The Monster Squad capitalized on that storytelling device. A group of kids who idolize classic creature movies face Universal-style monsters including Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, the Wolf Man, the Mummy, and Gill-Man. They try to save their town from Dracula’s plans of taking control of the world.
In the ‘90s, two TV shows used the anthology format to present frightening tales made for kids. Are You Afraid of the Dark? featured a group of teens who gather in the woods to tell scary stories, and Goosebumps adapted the books by R.L. Stine. Episodes had ghosts, vampires, werewolves, spooky magic, haunted houses, bad animals, and more.
In 1993, Disney released the Halloween holiday gem Hocus Pocus. Three kids unleash a trio of witches on Halloween who plan to gain eternal youth by sucking the life out of children. As the witches, Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy steal every scene they are in. It’s more comedy than horror, though the youth-sucking moments are frightening for younger viewers.
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