Beetlejuice

Michael Keaton's best role ever, including Batman! After a recently deceased couple, Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis, has a new, annoying family move into their house, the ghosts decide to hire an expert to get rid of them, Beetlejuice. That's when thing truly get weird in this Tim Burton classic. Keaton is at his fast-talking, hyper, hilarious best.

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*All Ages

Goosebumps

R.L. Stine, the famous author of all the Goosebumps books, has a problem. If the original copy of any of his books is opened, the monster of the book comes to life...for real! Naturally, all the books get opened and craziness ensues. Jack Black stars as Stine and leads the way to save the town. Perfect Halloween campy fun for the whole family!

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Part 2, out this year, is a fun follow-up to part 1. Jack Black has a much smaller part as Stine, but his voice is still the star as Slappy the ventriloquist dummy.

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*All Ages

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

The perennial holiday classic Peanuts gang stars in the tale of the Great Pumpkin! Most of the kids head out for tricks or treats and Halloween celebrations while Linus and Sally wait all night for the Great Pumpkin to pay them a visit. Meanwhile, of course, Snoopy flies his doghouse into battle against his imaginary foe, the Red Baron! It doesn't have to make sense, it's Peanuts, and it's a classic.

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*All Ages

Halloween

Michael Myers has literally changed the face of Halloween. He has spawned countless sequels of his own series, but he arguably started the whole slasher movie craze that brought about Jason, Freddy, Chucky, and on and on. The John Carpenter classic is all about the slow burn and building the creepy intensity.

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*Teens and older, rated R

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Spaced Invaders

What if adorable little aliens showed up to take over Earth on Halloween in a small middle American town and blended in with trick-or-treating kids? This movie answers just that question, and it makes for a fun family Halloween movie. The little aliens have bad attitudes and bad intentions, but they're kind of incompetent, so you can't help but like them.

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*All Ages

Monster House

Monster House is like an animated Goonies, if the Goonies had to go up against a haunted house that eats people! Once the main kids figure out what truly is going on in the creepy house across the road, they take it upon themselves to put a stop to it.

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*All Ages

Hocus Pocus

Disney's classic tale of a goofy coven of Salem witches starring Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy is as funny today as it was when it first came out. Witches from 17th Salem are reawakened in today's world and decide to wreak havoc as they attempt to gain immortality.

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*All Ages

Scared Shrekless

Shrek and company appear in a fun TV special that is as good as the Shrek series of movies with all the original voice actors. The gang challenges each other to a contest to see who can tell the best scary story. Each story is shown acted out as all the characters attempt to spend the night in Lord Farquaad's haunted castle.

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*All Ages

Garfield Halloween Special

Follow Garfield and Odie on a night out trick-or-treating where everything goes awry when they enter and actual haunted house!

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*All Ages

Hotel Transylvania

Dracula. Frankenstein. Wolfman, The Invisible Man. The Mummy. All the classic horror movie monsters come together to ... go on vacation. Dracula runs a hotel for monsters who want to get away from their day to day. Hotel Transylvania 2 and 3 make for pretty funny follow-ups to the original.

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*All Ages

Scooby Doo

The classic kids cartoon gets the live action treatment with Scooby being computer animated of course. Scooby the movie is a fun update to the original show. When the mystery of whodunit is revealed, be ready to love the movie's choice of the culprit. Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed brings back some of the classic cartoon monsters and puts them on the live-action screen as an entertaining follow-up to this movie.

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*All Ages

Sixth Sense

"I see dead people." Who doesn't know that famous line? Now, you MAY not know the M. Night Shyamalan twist of the movie, and if you don't know it, avoid spoilers. It's one of the coolest twists of any movie ever in a movie that is already cool. A kid who sees ghosts gets sent to a psychiatrist to help him with his problems.

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*Older kids and teens

Casper

Casper the friendly ghost gets his time in a live-action movie that does a really good job bringing the little guy to life...undeath? Not sure, but the movie is really fun!

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*All Ages

ParaNorman

Similar to the kid from Sixth Sense, Norman sees dead people. Normally, he's able to deal with it and only sees odd to everyone else. However, as a centuries old curse threatens to destroy his town, Norman steps up to put a stop to the curse and the zombies that are spreading through town.  It's a cartoon, and is meant for all ages, but it's occasionally quite creepy!

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*All Ages

Eight Legged Freaks

Eight Legged Freaks is a throwback to the radioactive creature features of the 50's in all the best ways. Giant car and house-sized spiders take over a small Western town, wreaking havoc and eating everything in their paths.

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*Older kids and teens

The Thing

Revered by many as one of the greatest horror movies of all time, this creature feature is John Carpenter's 2nd entry in this list. Regular co-collaborator Kurt Russell stars in a movie that keeps you guessing who's who since the alien bad guy can look like anyone or anything it wants! Carpenter continues his ability to slow build the creepy tonality of his movies and purposely makes everything in this movie feel claustrophobic to add to the scares. 

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*Older kids and teens

Monsters, Inc.

Pixar's fun buddy movie stars monsters working the daily grind at a scream factory, where screams of kids power their city. However, not everything is as it seems, and conspiracies are afoot. Mike and Sully team up to save the town, save each other, and save Boo, the little human girl they vow to take care of. Of course, the two bicker the entire way.

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*All Ages

Killer Klowns from Outer Space

Killer Klowns is hilariously kampy and kooky. The classic horror premise of weird aliens dropping down into a middle American town to begin taking over the world is presented like never before...or since. The aliens are creepy looking clowns with gadgets and weapons that are all circus-themed. Hilariously cheese on purpose!

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*Older kids and teens

Disney's The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad

The Ichabod portion of this movie is "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."  Nothing says Halloween like a Jack-o-Lantern throwing headless horseman. I'll admit, this movie gave me some nightmares when I was really young, but it's Disney, so it's for everyone.

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The Tim Burton/Johnny Depp version of "Sleepy Hollow" is also pretty good and watchable by most ages. 

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*All Ages

Cabin in the Woods

At times graphic and very scary, at other times hilarious, this is a very creative take on a number of classic horror movie cliches all rolled into one really cool story.

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*Older Kids

Addams Family

The lovable Addams Family gets into new movie adventures with an updated cast that includes Raul Julia, Angelica Huston, and Christopher Lloyd! Christina Ricci is a great example of perfect casting as Wednesday. Addams Family Values, the sequel, is a fun watch as well.

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*All Ages

Frankenweenie

Tim Burton deserves a couple of spots on any Halloween movie list. The man has made a career out of making weird, creepy movies. So, naturally, his movie about a zombie dog back from the dead jumped right onto the list. 

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*All Ages

The House with a Clock in its Walls

Jack Black is soon to make a name for himself as the new master or horror, family horror that is, since he's the star of both Goosebumps movies and this fun Halloween treat. Warlocks, witches, ghosts, and man-eating jack-o-lanterns! This movie has a lot happening in it, making it a good creepy mystery for all ages.

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*All Ages

Haunted Mansion

Disney's movie made about their popular ride of the same name is a lot of laughs as Eddie Murphy tries his best to get his family out of the trouble they find themselves in when he goes to try to sell an old mansion.

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*All Ages

Poltergeist

Poltergeist is the all-time haunted house movie! Watch and learn the difference between a regular ghost and a poltergeist as poor little Carol Anne gets pulled into that TV.

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*Older kids and teens

Monsters vs Aliens

​Here's another throwback to the radioactive creature features of the 50's. This one includes all the best monsters from those days, the blob, the Fly, the 50-Foot Woman, and the Creature From the Black Lagoon. This time, though? They're the good guys sent to stop an alien invasion in this great Dreamworks send up to all the best things about the old horror movies.

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*All Ages

Monster Squad

If the Goonies had to take on Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Wolfman, you'd have Monster Squad. A group of horror fanboys defend their town against the famous horror baddies.

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*Older kids (because some of the scenes are actually scary but would only scare the really little kids!)

Arachnophobia

As if one movie on this list about spiders wasn't enough, Arachnophobia brings an onslaught of spiders with it. This time, though, they're normal sized spiders...so it's even more realistic as they start attacking everyone in a small town.

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*Older kids and teens

Silver Bullet

As mentioned above, the only way you can have a horror movie list that isn't littered with Stephen King is if it's a family horror movie list! The king of horror does have one or two that can chop their way into the list, though. Again, it's not IT! Silver Bullet, though, is a classic tale of werewolves adapted from King's Cycle of the Werewolf short story. The movie is pretty tame by King's standards but is still rated R because of the violence and gore.

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*Teens

Coraline

Coraline tells the story of a little girl that finds a passageway to a parallel universe where everyone seems blissfully happy and nice, only they have buttons for eyes. It doesn't take long for Coraline to learn nothing is as it seems and the niceness was just meant to lure her into a trap! My sons were scared of buttons for quite some time.

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*All Ages

Ernest: Scared Stupid

Ernest did a great job of making holiday movies that your kids will want to watch over and over again, whether you want to see them anymore or not! This one is fun, though, as Ernest accidentally releases a troll onto a town.

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*All Ages