8 Great Halloween Movies That Are Perfect For Both Kids & Adults, Including Coraline

Published Oct 10, 2026, 5:00 PM EDT Sky Blanton is a Movie Contributor at ScreenRant with professional experience covering movies, television, and pop culture. Her published work spans news, interviews, features, and opinion pieces, with a focus on film, franchise storytelling, and the entertainment industry. She earned her bachelor's degree in Communications with a concentration in Professional Writing and a minor in Business Writing from Southern New Hampshire University. Picking a Halloween movie gets harder when there are kids and adults on the same couch. There are always the usual favorites, whether that's Hocus Pocus, The Nightmare Before Christmas, or Goosebumps once the kids are ready for something a little scarier. They've earned their place in the October rotation, but there are only so many times a family can go back to the same movies. Finding something the kids will be excited to watch and the adults won't just tolerate is where things get trickier. Halloween also happens to be one holiday where making a family movie too safe can work against it. Kids want ghosts, monsters, witches, creepy houses, and at least a few moments that make them nervous about walking down the hallway afterward. Some family movies understand that better than others. They get surprisingly dark, put their young characters in real danger, and occasionally introduce a villain that sticks around in your nightmares for years. They just know when to pull back before scary stops being fun. The best choices also have to hold up once hiding behind the couch is no longer part of the experience. Maybe there are jokes you completely missed as a kid, a story that hits differently once you're older, or practical effects and animation you appreciate much more now. That's what earns a movie a spot here. These eight bring enough ghosts, monsters, magic, and general weirdness for Halloween night without feeling like something the adults have to endure until the kids go to bed. 8 Corpse Bride (2005) Corpse Bride is macabre enough for Halloween without making its world of skeletons and corpses too frightening. The Land of the Dead is actually brighter and more welcoming than Victor's dreary life above ground, with musical numbers and visual jokes making death part of the fun. Kids get the weirdness of a groom accidentally marrying a corpse, while adults have a much sadder story to unpack about Corpse Bride's narrative. Emily was murdered by the man she planned to marry, while Victor and Victoria's marriage began as a financial arrangement between their families. Beneath all the supernatural fun, the movie has quite a bit to say about love and what people owe each other. Emily's final decision makes that especially clear. 7 Coraline (2009) Few family movies can make a pair of buttons feel as threatening as Coraline does. The Other World initially gives Coraline everything she thinks she wants, but the price of staying is letting the Other Mother sew buttons over her eyes. From her increasingly spindly form to the severed hand that follows Coraline home, the movie isn't afraid to give younger viewers some genuinely frightening images. Those scares don't lose much of their power as an adult, either. The Other Mother figures out exactly what Coraline feels she's missing at home and creates a world designed to win her over, using attention and affection to gain her trust. Kids get a creepy adventure with a memorable monster, while adults can recognize the manipulation behind everything she offers. That's a big reason Coraline remains such a good Halloween watch at any age. 6 ParaNorman (2012) ParaNorman is surprisingly willing to scare its younger audience. Dead people casually hang around Norman, zombies dig themselves out of their graves, and the movie has a lot of fun with the fact that its hero is basically living inside the kind of horror movie most kids aren't allowed to watch yet. Its gross jokes and exaggerated stop-motion keep things from getting too grim, but the creepy parts are still allowed to be creepy. Agatha is where the movie becomes much more than a zombie story. She was a child with Norman's same ability who was executed by adults terrified of something they didn't understand, and centuries later, she is still an angry, frightened kid. Instead of fighting her, Norman realizes that what she really needs is someone willing to listen to her. Kids can come for the zombies and ghosts, but Agatha's story gives ParaNorman a reason to stick with them long after those things stop being scary. 5 Monster House (2006) In Monster House, the haunted house doesn't need ghosts jumping out of closets, because the house itself is the monster. Its windows become eyes, its front door opens into a mouth, and anything unlucky enough to reach the lawn can get swallowed whole. Setting the worst of it on Halloween makes the idea even better, since DJ, Chowder, and Jenny have to stop a house hungry for people just as the neighborhood is about to fill with trick-or-treaters. Then the movie reveals that the house is Constance, Nebbercracker's wife, who died there after a lifetime of being mocked and mistreated. Nebbercracker hasn't spent all those years terrorizing neighborhood kids because he's a grouchy old man, either. He's been trying to keep them away from her. It's a surprisingly sad turn for a movie about a house that eats people, and it completely changes how you see the man everyone spent most of the movie fearing. 4 Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) Of course Wallace would accidentally turn himself into a giant rabbit. He and Gromit spend their nights protecting gardens from hungry bunnies, only for Wallace to become the creature tearing through the town's prized vegetables himself. Even when the Were-Rabbit is looming over rooftops or charging through the streets, there's something inherently funny about all that destruction coming from an enormous bunny. It's enough of a monster movie to give kids some Halloween scares without ever getting nasty. The joke gets better the more seriously everyone else takes it. Wallace transforms under a full moon, an angry mob goes hunting for him, and Victor Quartermaine comes armed with a golden bullet as though the town is facing some legendary beast. Aardman gives a ruined vegetable garden the same urgency another horror movie would give a trail of bodies, and the older you are, the easier it is to appreciate just how committed The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is to the bit. 3 Halloweentown (1998) Imagine finding out that Halloween isn't just one night a year, but an entire town you can visit. That's basically the dream Halloweentown hands Marnie when she follows her grandmother home and discovers a place where witches, ghosts, goblins, and skeletons are simply the neighbors. Even the cab driver is a talking skeleton. Better yet, Marnie learns she belongs there, because she comes from a family of witches. Few movies on this list capture the childhood excitement of Halloween quite as directly. The movie is also wonderfully comfortable being a late-'90s Disney Channel movie. The costumes are obvious, the effects are dated, and Halloweentown itself looks more like an elaborate Halloween display than a polished fantasy world. None of that hurts it. Debbie Reynolds commits completely to Aggie, the Cromwell family is genuinely fun together, and all that handmade weirdness has only become more charming with age. 2 The Halloween Tree (1993) The Halloween Tree asks a question most Halloween movies never bother with. Why are we dressing up as ghosts, witches, and mummies in the first place? While trying to save their friend Pip, a group of kids follows the mysterious Mr. Moundshroud through different moments in history, watching familiar Halloween traditions take shape along the way. It's an unusual idea for a children's movie, especially one that still finds room for flying pumpkins, skeletons, gargoyles, and plenty of spooky adventure. The movie also takes death seriously without making it too frightening for younger viewers. Saving Pip gives the kids a reason to confront what all those costumes and traditions have been circling around, while adults get a surprisingly thoughtful look at why people have found so many different ways to remember the dead. 1 The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018) The House with a Clock in Its Walls starts with the kind of home most kids would love to explore. Lewis moves in with his uncle Jonathan and finds furniture that moves on its own, stained-glass pictures that come alive, and a mysterious clock ticking somewhere behind the walls. Then Lewis accidentally raises a dead warlock from his grave. Suddenly, he's dealing with possessed toys, creepy mechanical dolls, a room full of sinister mannequins, and a clock counting down to the end of the world. Jack Black and Cate Blanchett keep things playful, but the movie never completely defangs its horror. Director Eli Roth lets corpses look like corpses and gives the house plenty of dark corners where something might actually be waiting. It's a great next step for kids who have started finding the usual Halloween movies a little too safe. Release Date February 6, 2009 Runtime 100 minutes Director Henry Selick Cast Dakota Fanning Coraline Jones (voice) Teri Hatcher Mel Jones / Other Mother (voice) Writers Henry Selick Producers Bill Mechanic, Claire Jennings, Harry Linden, Mary Sandell, Henry Selick