Best PG-13 Halloween Movies
It is that time of year when everyone is looking for scary movies, horror movies, and Halloween movies to watch for the season. If you are looking for good horror films that you can watch with your young one, especially ones that a teen or tween can watch and are in the PG-13 rating, then I have a list of some of the best! Check out this list of the best PG-13 Halloween movies to watch this season.
If you enjoyed this list of the best PG-13 Halloween movies, then check out these other articles: best black Christmas movies, best serial killer movies on Netflix, sports movies on Disney Plus, mental illness movies, scary movies for tweens on Netflix.
List of the Best PG-13 Halloween Movies
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Plot: Young boy, Cole Sear is haunted by a dark secret: he is visited by ghosts. Cole is frightened by visitations from those with unresolved problems who appear from the shadows. He is too afraid to tell anyone about his anguish, except child psychologist Dr. Malcolm Crowe. As Dr. Crowe tries to uncover the truth about Cole’s supernatural abilities, the consequences for client and therapist are a jolt that awakens them both to something unexplainable. Director M. Night Shyamalan
Star Cast: Haley Joel Osment, Bruce Willis, Toni Collette
ParaNorman (2012)
Plot: Young Norman Babcock has the ability to speak with dead people — and he often prefers their company to that of the living. Norman receives word from his strange Uncle Prenderghast that a centuries-old witch’s curse on their town is real and about to come true — and that only Norman can stop it. When zombies rise from their graves, Norman must summon all his courage and compassion and push his paranormal abilities to the limit to save his fellow townspeople.
Star Cast: Kodi Smit-McPhee, John Goodman, Casey Affleck
Hocus Pocus (1993)
Plot: After moving to Salem, Mass., teenager Max Dennison explores an abandoned house with his sister Dani and their new friend, Allison on Halloween night. After dismissing a story Allison tells as superstitious, Max accidentally frees a coven of evil witches The Sanderson sisters, who used to live in the house. Now, with the help of a magical cat, the kids must steal the witches’ book of spells to stop them from becoming immortal.
Star Cast: Omri Katz, Thora Birch, Vinessa Shaw, Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy
It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966)
Plot: This classic “Peanuts” tale focuses on the thumb-sucking, blanket-holding Linus, and his touching faith in the “Great Pumpkin.” When Linus discovers that no one else believes in the creature, he sets out to prove that the Pumpkin’s no myth—by spending the night alone in a pumpkin patch.
Star Cast: Bill Melendez, Peter Robbins, Sally Dryer
The Addams Family (1991)
Plot: When a man claiming to be Fester, the missing brother of Gomez Addams, arrives at the Addams’ home, the family is thrilled. However, Morticia begins to suspect the man is a fraud, since he cannot recall details of Fester’s life. With the help of lawyer Tully Alford, Fester manages to get the Addams clan evicted from their home. Gomez realizes the two men are conspiring to swindle the Addams fortune and that he must challenge Fester.
Star Cast: Christopher Lloyd, Raul Julia, Anjelica Huston, Dan Hedaya
Drag Me To Hell (2009)
Plot: Christine Brown has a loving boyfriend and a great job at a Los Angeles bank. But her heavenly life becomes hellish when, in an effort to impress her boss, she denies an old woman’s request for an extension on her home loan. In retaliation, the crone places a curse on Christine, threatening her soul with eternal damnation. Christine seeks a psychic’s help to break the curse, but the price to save her soul may be more than she can pay. A Sam Raimi film.
Star Cast: Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Bonnie Aarons
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Plot: The film follows the misadventures of Jack Skellington, Halloweentown’s beloved pumpkin king, who has become bored with the same annual routine of frightening people in the “real world.” When Jack accidentally stumbles on Christmastown, all bright colors and warm spirits, he gets a new lease on life — he plots to bring Christmas under his control by kidnapping Santa Claus and taking over the role. But Jack soon discovers even the best-laid plans of mice and skeleton men can go seriously awry. A Tim Burton film.
Star Cast: Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, Catherine O’Hara
The Mothman Prophecies (2002)
Plot: Supernatural thriller focusing on a journalist whose wife experienced a strange moth-like vision immediately before she was killed in a car accident. Two years later, driving to an interview, he suddenly finds himself hundreds of miles out of his way in the remote small town of Point Pleasant, where there has been a proliferation of `mothman’ sightings. His research concludes that the visions are omens of disaster.
Star Cast: Laura Linney, Richard Gere, Mark Pellington
Practical Magic (1998)
Plot: Sally and Gillian Owens, born into a magical family, have mostly avoided witchcraft themselves. But when Gillian’s vicious boyfriend, Jimmy Angelov, dies unexpectedly, the Owens sisters give themselves a crash course in hard magic. With policeman Gary Hallet growing suspicious, the girls struggle to resurrect Angelov — and unwittingly inject his corpse with an evil spirit that threatens to end their family line.
Star Cast: Nicole Kidman, Goran Visnjic, Sandra Bullock, Aidan Quinn
Dark Shadows (2012)
Plot: In 18th-century Maine, Barnabas Collins presides over the town of Collinsport. A rich and powerful playboy, Barnabas seals his own doom when he breaks the heart of a witch named Angelique. Angelique turns Barnabas into a vampire and buries him alive. Two centuries later, Barnabas escapes from his tomb and finds 1972 Collinsport a very different place. His once-grand estate has fallen into ruin, and the dysfunctional remnants of his family have fared little better.
Star Cast: Johnny Depp, Eva Green, Michelle Pfeiffer
Happy Death Day (2017)
Plot: Tree Gelbman is a blissfully self-centered collegian who wakes up on her birthday in the bed of a student named Carter. As the morning goes on, Tree gets the eerie feeling that she’s experienced the events of this day before. When a masked killer suddenly takes her life in a brutal attack, she once again magically wakes up in Carter’s dorm room unharmed. Now, the frightened young woman must relive the same day over and over until she figures out who murdered her.
Star Cast: Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Rachel Matthews
Beetlejuice (1988)
Plot: After Barbara and Adam Maitland die in a car accident, they find themselves stuck haunting their country residence, unable to leave the house. When the unbearable Deetzes and teen daughter Lydia buy the home, the Maitlands attempt to scare them away without success. Their efforts attract Beetlejuice, a rambunctious spirit whose “help” quickly becomes dangerous for the Maitlands and innocent Lydia. A cult classic.
Star Cast: Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin, Catherine O’Hara, Jeffrey Jones, Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton
The Haunted Mansion (2003)
Plot: Workaholic real estate agent Jim Evers is accused by his wife, Sara, of neglecting his son and daughter, so he takes the family on a vacation. Along the way, the family stops off at a sinister mansion that Jim has been asked to sell, only to discover it’s haunted by Master Gracey; his stern butler, Ramsley; and two other servants who need some help breaking a curse.
Star Cast: Eddie Murphy, Marsha Thomason, Marc John Jefferies, Aree Davis, Nathaniel Parker, Terence Stamp
The Woman in Black (2012)
Plot: Arthur Kipps, a lawyer, is recently widowed and grieving the loss of his wife when he is sent to a remote village to put a deceased eccentric’s affairs in order. Soon after his arrival, it becomes clear that the villagers are hiding a terrible secret. Kipps discovers that his late client’s house is haunted by the spirit of a woman who is trying to find someone and something she lost, and that no one — not even the children — is safe from her terrible wrath.
Star Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Janet McTeer, Liz White
The Ring (2002)
Plot: It sounds like just another urban legend — a videotape filled with nightmarish images leads to a phone call foretelling the viewer’s death in exactly seven days. Newspaper reporter Rachel Keller is skeptical of the story until four teenagers all die mysteriously exactly one week after watching just such a tape. Allowing her investigative curiosity to get the better of her, Rachel tracks down the video and watches it. Now she has just seven days to unravel the mystery.
Star Cast: Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, David Dorfman
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019)
Plot: The shadow of the Bellows family has loomed large in the small town of Mill Valley for generations. It’s in a mansion that young Sarah Bellows turns her tortured life and horrible secrets into a series of scary stories. These terrifying tales soon have a way of becoming all too real for a group of unsuspecting teens who stumble upon Sarah’s spooky home.
Star Cast: Zoe Colletti, Austin Abrams, Michael Garza, André øvredal
Igor (2008)
Plot: Lab assistant Igor dreams of becoming a mad scientist like his master, Dr. Glickenstein. When the doctor runs afoul of his own invention, Igor seizes the chance. With the help of his friends Scamper and Brain, Igor plans to win the kingdom’s annual science fair by building the most-evil monster ever. The problem is that Eve, as the monster is called, is sweeter than sugar and would rather be an actress.
Star Cast: John Cusack, Steve Buscemi, Sean Hayes, Molly Shannon
Monster House (2006)
Plot: No adults believe three youths’ assertion that a neighboring residence is a living creature that means them harm. With Halloween approaching, the trio must find a way to destroy the structure before innocent trick-or-treaters meet ghastly ends.
Star Cast: Mitchel Musso, Spencer Locke, Sam Lerner
The Craft (1996)
Plot: After transferring to a Los Angeles high school, a teenage girl named Sarah finds that her telekinetic gift appeals to a group of three wannabe witches, who happen to be seeking a fourth member for their rituals. Bonnie, Rochelle and Nancy, like Sarah herself, all have troubled backgrounds, which combined with their nascent powers lead to dangerous consequences. When a minor spell causes a fellow student to lose her hair, the girls grow power-mad.
Star Cast: Robin Tunney, Neve Campbell, Rachel True, Fairuza Balk
The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008)
Plot: Of the three Grace children, Jared has always been thought of as the troublemaker. So when strange things happen after his family’s move to a relative’s dilapidated estate, sister Mallory, twin brother Simon and their mother assume that Jared is behind it all. However, magical creatures roam the grounds, and they all want a special book that Jared has found: a field guide to fantastic creatures, penned by Arthur Spiderwick.
Star Cast: Freddie Highmore, Sarah Bolger
The Cabin in the Woods (2011)
Plot: When a college student and four friends arrive at a remote forest cabin for a little vacation, little do they expect the horrors that await them. One by one, the youths fall victim to backwoods zombies, but there is another factor at play. Two scientists are manipulating the ghoulish goings-on, but even as the body count rises, there is yet more at work than meets the eye.
Star Cast: Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford
The Last Exorcism (2010)
Plot: After years of gulling the faithful, cleric Cotton Marcus feels remorse and decides to expose his chicanery through filming a documentary. With a crew in tow, Marcus arrives at the Louisiana farm of devout Louis Sweetzer, who believes that his daughter, Nell, is possessed. When the usual stunts fail, he realizes that he is face-to-face with real evil and must summon true faith to protect Nell, the others and himself from demonic power. The perfect PG-13 Halloween movies.
Star Cast: Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell, Iris Bahr
Casper (1995)
Plot: Casper is a kind young friendly ghost who peacefully haunts a mansion in Maine. When specialist James Harvey arrives to communicate with Casper and his fellow spirits, he brings along his teenage daughter, Kat. Casper quickly falls in love with Kat, but their budding relationship is complicated not only by his transparent state, but also by his troublemaking apparition uncles and their mischievous antics.
Star Cast: Malachi Pearson, Bill Pullman, Christina Ricci
The Darkness (2016)
Plot: Peter Taylor, his wife Bronny and their two children return to Los Angeles after a fun-filled vacation to the Grand Canyon. Strange events soon start to plague the family, including young son Michael’s increasingly erratic behavior. The Taylors learn that Michael brought back some mysterious rocks that he discovered inside a cave. Unfortunately, something followed them home as the clan now find themselves in a battle with a supernatural force that preys on their worst fears.
Star Cast: Kevin Bacon, Radha Mitchell, Lucy Fry
The Boogeyman (2023)
Plot: High school student Sadie Harper and her younger sister, Sawyer, are still reeling from the recent death of their mother. They’re not getting much support from their father, Will, a therapist who’s dealing with his own intense pain. When a desperate patient unexpectedly shows up at their house seeking help, he leaves behind a terrifying supernatural entity that preys on families and feeds on the suffering of its victims. Based on the Stephen King short story. The perfect PG-13 Halloween movies.
Star Cast: Sophie Thatcher, David Dastmalchian, Vivien Lyra Blair
What Lies Beneath (2000)
Plot: It had been a year since Dr. Norman Spencer betrayed his beautiful wife Claire. But with Claire oblivious to the truth, Norman’s life and marriage seem so perfect that when Claire tells him of hearing mysterious voices and seeing a young woman’s image in their home, he dismisses her terror as delusion. Claire moves closer to the truth and it becomes clear that this apparition will not be dismissed, and has come back for Dr. Spencer and his beautiful wife.
Star Cast: Harrison Ford, Michelle Pfeiffer
Disturbia (2007)
Plot: A troubled high school student becomes convinced he is living next door to a wanted serial killer. Struggling to come to terms with the death of his father, the teen lands himself in hot water after a fight with a teacher and is put under house arrest. During his domestic confinement, he begins to spy on his mysterious neighbour, believing him to be a murderous psychopath on the run from the authorities.
Star Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Sarah Roemer, David Morse
A Quiet Place (2018)
Plot: If they hear you, they hunt you. A family must live in silence to avoid mysterious creatures that hunt by sound. Knowing that even the slightest whisper or footstep can bring death, Evelyn and Lee are determined to find a way to protect their children while desperately searching for a way to fight back.
Star Cast: John Krasinski, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe
Insidious (2011)
Plot: The story centers on a married couple whose boy inexplicably enters a comatose state and becomes a vessel for a variety of demonic entities in an astral plane. The perfect PG-13 Halloween movies.
Star Cast: Leigh Whannell, Lin Shaye, Rose Byrne
Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)
Plot: During the Battle of Britain, Miss Eglantine Price, a cunning witch-in-training, decides to use her supernatural powers to defeat the Nazi menace. She sets out to accomplish this task with the aid of three inventive children who have been evacuated from the London Blitz. Joined by Emelius Brown, the head of Miss Price’s witchcraft training correspondence school, the crew uses an enchanted bed to travel into a fantasy land and foil encroaching German troops.
Star Cast: Angela Lansbury, David Tomlinson
The Conjuring (2013)
Plot: In 1970, paranormal investigators and demonologists Lorraine and Ed Warren are summoned to the home of Carolyn and Roger Perron. The Perrons and their five daughters have recently moved into a secluded farmhouse, where a supernatural presence has made itself known. Though the manifestations are relatively benign at first, events soon escalate in horrifying fashion, especially after the Warrens discover the house’s macabre history.
Star Cast: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Lili Taylor, Ron Livingston
Hotel Transylvania (2012)
Plot: When monsters want to get away from it all, they go to Count Dracula’s Hotel Transylvania, a lavish resort where they can be themselves without humans around to bother them. On one special weekend, Dracula invites creatures like the Invisible Man, the Mummy and others to celebrate the 118th birthday of his daughter, Mavis. However, an unforeseen complication unfolds when an ordinary human unwittingly crashes the party and falls in love with Mavis.
Star Cast: Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez
The Haunting (1999)
Plot: This horror tale focuses on a group of people to the secluded mansion of Hill House who have been called to the isolated location by Dr. David Marrow as part of a study on insomnia. However, Marrow is really investigating fear, and he plans to scare the subjects, including the introverted Nell and the seductive Theo. Unfortunately for Marrow and everyone staying at Hill House, the manor is actually haunted by an evil spirit out to torment its guests.
Star Cast: Liam Neeson, Lili Taylor, Catherine Zeta-Jones
Ghostusters (1984)
Plot: After the members of a team of scientists lose their cushy positions at a university in New York City, they decide to become “ghostbusters” to wage a high-tech battle with the supernatural for money. They stumble upon a gateway to another dimension, a doorway that will release evil upon the city. The Ghostbusters must now save New York from complete destruction. The perfect PG-13 Halloween movies.
Star Cast: Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray
The Dark Crystal (1982)
Plot: Jen, raised by the noble race called the Mystics, has been told that he is the last survivor of his own race, the Gelflings. He sets out to try to find a shard of the dark crystal, a powerful gem that once provided balance to the universe. After the crystal was broken, the evil Skeksis used sinister means to gain control. Jen believes that he can repair the dark crystal and bring peace back to the world, if he can only find the remaining shard.
Star Cast: Stephen Garlick, Jim Henson, Frank Oz
The Visit (2015)
Plot: Becca and younger brother Tyler say goodbye to their mother as they board a train and head deep into Pennsylvania farm country to meet their maternal grandparents for the first time. Welcomed by Nana and Pop Pop, all seems well until the siblings start to notice increasingly strange behavior from the seemingly charming couple. Once the children discover a shocking secret, they begin to wonder if they’ll ever make it home.
Star Cast: Olivia DeJonge, Ed Oxenbould, Deanna Dunagan, Peter McRobbie
Corpse Bride (2005)
Plot: Victor and Victoria’s families have arranged their marriage. Though they like each other, Victor is nervous about the ceremony. While he’s in a forest practicing his lines for the wedding, a tree branch becomes a hand that drags him to the land of the dead. It belongs to Emily, who was murdered after eloping with her love and wants to marry Victor. Victor must get back aboveground before Victoria marries the villainous Barkis Bittern.
Star Cast: Johnny Depp, Emily Watson, Richard E. Grant
Goosebumps (2015)
Plot: Upset about moving from the big city to a small town, young Zach Cooper finds a silver lining when he meets his beautiful neighbor Hannah. The teen is surprised to learn that Hannah’s mysterious father is R.L. Stine, the famous author of the best-selling “Goosebumps” series. When Zach accidentally unleashes the monsters from the fantastic tales, it’s up to Stine, his daughter and Cooper to return the beasts back to the books where they belong.
Star Cast: Dylan Minnette, Odeya Rush, Jack Black
More PG-13 Halloween Movies
Frankenweenie (2012)
Plot: A monster movie about Victor Frankenstein, a science nerd and outsider at school, but he does have one good friend: his dog, Sparky. But then, tragedy strikes, and Sparky shuffles off this mortal coil. Victor is heartbroken, but his science teacher gives him an idea of how to jolt old Sparky back to life. The experiment is successful, and all goes well, until Victor’s fellow students steal his secret and use it to resurrect other dead animals — with monstrous consequences.
Star Cast: Charlie Tahan, Martin Landau
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Plot: Shaun is a 30-something loser with a dull, easy existence. When he’s not working at the electronics store, he lives with his slovenly best friend, Ed, in a small flat on the outskirts of London. The only unpredictable element in his life is his girlfriend, Liz, who wishes desperately for Shaun to grow up and be a man. When the town is inexplicably overrun with zombies, Shaun must rise to the occasion and protect both Liz and his mother.
Stars: Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright, Nick Frost
Scream (1996)
Plot: Wes Craven re-invented and revitalised the slasher-horror genre with this modern horror classic, which manages to be funny, clever and scary, as a fright-masked knife maniac stalks high-school students in middle-class suburbia. Craven is happy to provide both tension and self-parody as the body count mounts – but the victims aren’t always the ones you’d expect.
Star Cast: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette
I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
Plot: A year after running over a fisherman and dumping his body in the water, four friends reconvene when Julie receives a frightening letter telling her that their crime was seen. While pursuing who he thinks is responsible for the letter, Barry is run over by a man with a meat hook. The bloodletting only increases from there, as the killer with the hook continues to stalk Julie, Helen and Ray.
Star Cast: Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ryan Phillippe, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr.
The Amityville Horror (2005)
Plot: When George Lutz and his wife, Kathy, find a beautiful new house in the small town of Amityville, N.Y., they think the place is too good to be true. After they move in with their kids, they find out the cheap price tag is thanks to the house’s sordid history: The former tenant murdered his family after supposedly being possessed by the devil. Believing the home is haunted, the couple find a priest to help them rid the place of evil spirits.
Star Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Melissa George, Philip Baker Hall