15 great horror films for scaredy cats
For an evening of spooky entertainment that won't leave you traumatized, check out these mildly frightening features alone or with the whole family
Film Features Films
Every October, horror filmmakers and fans come together to celebrate the season, eagerly seeking out entertainment laced with blood, gore, violence, and terror in the lead-up to Halloween. If that’s your jam, you’ll find no shortage of cinematic frights to get your pulse racing, many of them released just this year. But not everyone enjoys being scared senseless. To those who still like to get into the spirit without the anxiety: we see you. And we’ve got you covered with this list of milder delights. While they’re still considered horror movies, or at least horror adjacent, watching them won’t feel like subjecting yourself to long-lasting psychological damage.
We’ve rated each of these recommendations by “fright factor” on a scale of one to five, an admittedly subjective measure based on how intense they get. A factor of one means even the most sensitive viewers should feel assured that they won’t encounter anything too terrifying, while a five indicates that the film contains material that may have you peeking through your fingers during some scenes. We’ve tried to include a range of options, from classics to recent favorites, so there should be something here for everyone to enjoy.
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I watched the original Creepshow last night. Not scary but a lot of fun.
9 year old sarahmas would DISAGREE. I still think waterlogged zombies are going to come get me in the shower.
And the segment with Stephen King as a farmer who gets infected with space moss was pretty creepy. Even if it clearly is ripping off Lovecraft’s “Colour out of Space” without acknowledging it.
Carry on Screaming surely fits the bill. Arguably the best of the long-running saucy humour British film series, it includes one of the all-time great gags…
Trick R Treat is a lot of fun but way more gory and disturbing than this suggests. Multiple on-screen child murders, to start.
Yes, Trick ‘r Treat is weird choice considering it features the decapitated head of a kid.
I mean, it was a tragic accident and all, but why not use this misfortune in the movie? It saves on the special effects budget!
I wouldn’t call it exactly scary, but the scene at the end of Frankenstein where the villagers burn the monster in the windmill is disturbing as he screams in terror and pain.I found the murder of Arbogast in Psycho scarier than the shower scene mainly because pop culture osmosis had prepared me for the famous scene. But the less well known scene of Arbogast falling backwards with that look on his face knowing he’s about to die very painfully… that got me.
How are we counting the original Ghostbusters in this?Also, Wolfman’s got nards.
He wears pants so can’t see his… wolf-dork.
I’ll throw in as well the Amicus anthology, Dr Terror’s House of Horrors.
Can Evil Dead 2 be considered funny enough to not be scary?Also no Gremlins?
I just rewatched the kitchen scene from Gremlins for the first time in 30 years. It’s just amazing how heavily that movie was marketed to children.
I think the story of why the girl doesn’t like Christmas makes it not child safe even ignoring the actual gremlins and their antics entirely.
Probably a little too gruesome for scaredy cats. I was a huge horror coward as a kid, and it wasn’t until I was in my early 20s I was able to watch those movies. I love them now, but I had to build up my gore tolerance to get there.
They may have an easier time with Army of Darkness.
Evil Dead 2 is gory, which is as much a turnoff as scariness for weak-hearted viewers (especially when humor comes from the gore, and the audience’s familiarity with the genre). And Gremlins? You can’t go watching a Christmas classic at Halloween!
Yea I get the gore levels. It must just be my messed up sense of humour because the crazy amounts of blood are like comical for me (especially knowing it’s corn syrup and food colouring). Throw in the stop motion weird head snake thing and Ash fighting his own hand and it’s practically a comedy for me.
Couldn’t agree more – there’s a great bit in Bruce Campbell’s autobiography about trying to make a TV edit of Evil Dead 2 for basic cable, and they found that without the gore the movie is kind of grim and unpleasant. But people’s aversion to gore can be hard to overcome.
Many a child been scared shitless by Gremlins
These are pretty much my speed as I am a chicken.
Side note – just took the kid to see Little Shop on stage and somehow after all this time I finally realized Somewhere That’s Green and Part of Your World are basically the same song.
Sadly, LSH doesn’t have a version of “Under the Sea” (the best LM song)
Both by Menken and Ashman.
I know dat
I’d go heavier than a 2 on Nightmare before Christmas. Oogie Boogie’s scenes are pretty damn scary.
“Kidnap the Santy Claus”, gives me the creeps because of that one kid
The Monster Squad was my gateway to horror as a kid, and for the most part, I would say it serves that role well for kids who are intrigued by but a little too scared to watch real horror. (My parents had previously tried to show me The Lost Boys, and that did not work out well at the time.)Shaun of the Dead is one where you need to know your audience. I do not do well with traditional zombie horror, and Shaun, while very funny, is also at it’s core, a traditional zombie horror movie. I enjoyed it, but it bothered me just enough that I’m unlikely to ever rewatch it.And this does leave out the all-time classic horror comedy that is great for scaredy cats: Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein. It’s the original monster mash (long before Monster Squad). It’s super silly and fun and remains so to this day. I’d recommend it to anyone who likes comedy or classic Universal monsters.
I enjoyed Shaun of the Dead while it was mostly a comedy. It seems once they got the Winchester, the tone suddenly got much darker and it definitely became more of a pure zombie movie. Especially when the zombies started graphically ripping David apart, which was played completely for shock without even a slight hint of dark humor.
The scene where Shaun shoots his mum is similar – it’s genre pastiche, but by that point the characters are so well established that there’s no room for comedy. Instead, the movie releases tension by having David act like a huge fucking asshole. Then David gets ripped apart, which is a reference to George Romero, but it’s so intense and well-executed that it doesn’t register as parody. But they do add a comedic button with Lucy Davis brandishing David’s leg as a weapon. Still, that’s less than ten minutes of the movie, and it comes in between “David, kill the Queen!” and the happy ending.
I loved The Monster Squad as a kid, but there are parts that have aged poorly. Although I’m sure my kids would ignore the word “homo,” the part where the boys bribe the older sister with nude pictures they’ve secretly taken, or all the stuff about virginity, just like I did when I was little.
Adams Family Values is one of my all-time favorites. The scene between Raul Julia and Nathan Lane in the police station is just perfect in every way. Also, the entire summer camp storyline is gold.
I don’t remember liking it.
Hey, Hereditary is a family film. Of sorts.
It’s about a family who never really understood their grandmother’s faith eventually embracing it. It’s heartwarming, really.
I’m sad that this scardey-cat’s Halloween favorite, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, didn’t make the list. Coraline isalso a beautifully made film with just the right degree of creepiness for me. The Craft would also be a solid addition to this list, methinks.
Having recently recalibrated what I consider “possibly the not fun kind of scary” due to new friends, I strongly recommend doesthedogdie.com even for these films. It’s really helpful with movies you haven’t seen or haven’t seen in quite some time, and it’s good to be able to warn folks in a spoiler-light way that certain hot-button triggers might come up—gore, slurs, fires, it tracks an impressively large number of things.We’ve found that being able to say “Oh, this one has jump scares, heads up” or “Oh this one has someone losing a hand, let’s watch something else” means a much better movie night for everyone.
Little Shop of Horrors, are you nuts!! (Calm down Rob, this is a you thing, remember?)
*Sigh* So yea. It’s funny I can handle the hardcore stuff, yet Little Shop of Horrors, is actually a ‘light’ horror movie that makes me squirm. Because I have a thing about puppets… Not all, just the big ones, like the trash heap in Fraggle Rock or even Mr. Snuffleupagus. (I know, I know- is he even technically puppet? Well, whatever he is). Needless to say, Audrey II is nightmare fuel to me. I nearly passed out when I discovered the alternate ending.
Disappointed not to see The Hunger, with Bowie and Deneuve. Scary, sexy, a classic.
I am a big fan of “Only Lovers Left Alive.” Fabulous, fabulous vampire movie, that really isn’t scary. It’s the reason that Tilda Swinton was in the first season finale of “WWDitS” series. Swinton, Hiddleston, Anton Yelchin, Jeffrey Wright, John Hurt, cool ambient music being made by vampires, make this a cool one to watch. Fucking fungi.
The best horror films for scaredy cats are NONE.
Cast a Deadly Spell ought to be on this list. On many lists, in fact.