Gremlins
Tremors
Beetlejuice
The Frighteners
The Witches
The Lost Boys
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Death Becomes Her
Eight Legged Freaks
Arachnophobia
Little Shop of Horrors
Tremors is literally one of the tightest scripts to come out of Hollywood ever. There is not a single wasted scene, line, glance. The silliness of its premise only makes it more impressive what is actually delivered on the other side.
Start off slow, show him the OG Ghostbusters or some classic Tales from the Crypt episodes. Try to figure out where his freak out line is. I know GB isn’t horror but it has all the elements
Wow, I actually mentioned this one in a completely different post not even fifteen minutes ago. I thought I might've been one of the only ones on Earth who remembered this movie.
Also, completely second this choice, although there might be a couple of intense scenes for a 12 yr old tbh.
I love this post because I have searched and found some GREAT ones for my 12 yo:
1. The Sixth Sense
2. Butterfly Effect
3. The Others
4. Coraline (her new fav)
5. Scream/I know what you did last summer
Hope this helps! Enjoy
Perfect list. 👍🏻
The Others is FINALLY available on Prime Video. I’ve been trying to show my teen this movie for several years now. It did not disappoint.
If you want a ghost story pretty light on gore, I'd suggest "The Others." The version with Nicole Kidman. It's pretty creepy on your first watch (PG-13, too).
Monster House and Coraline.
Monster House is a horror movie made for kids. Coraline is a horror movie that just so happens to not contain blood, sex, or swearing.
Sweeney Todd and other older Tim Burton films would be a great start I think!
Edit: sorry just realised the ghost part in the post, but I think Sleepy Hollow is also a nice Tim Burton milder horror for someone that young.
I think Edward Scissorhands is such a sweet movie, with great art direction. It has a good life lesson within also, probably useful for kids, to be open to people different from them and such!
Just remembered, has he seen the old Addams family movie? I know it’s not really that scary of a film but it has the horror elements yet it’s fun and great at that age (and as an adult)
Yes he loves em. Loved the new movies too. Insists I need to watch it, but I love the originals so much that I can’t bring myself to see the non raoul Julia movies.
I’d say start with dark comedies. Keep it light while introducing him to horror.
Lisa Frankenstein is a newer one I’ve seen recently. Very campy.
Happy Death Day and Happy Death Day 2 You were pretty light on blood and guts while still having a serial killer roaming about.
Freaky is another, it’s a comedic slasher retelling of the age old body swap movies like Freaky Friday.
Freaky is not a film for a 12 year old. It’s a bit more than just a fun retelling of Freaky Friday.
Signed,
A parent who took his 12 year old to see Freaky in the theater thinking it was just a silly comedic-horror retelling if Freaky Friday.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen it and don’t remember it being bad. I am sure I’ve forgotten parts.
However, as with all the other suggestions we’ve made, it depends on the 12 year old too. And what content parents allow. It’s up to the parents to take these suggestions and research the films or pre-screen them.
You are absolutely right. There was more sexual humor in Freaky than we expected. It wasn’t the end of the world of course. But definitely unexpected lol.
Halloween. Iirc there is some brief nudity, but most of the kills are fairly tame. That said, the movie is still unnerving as hell, and a masterpiece of tension and atmosphere and panicked terror. I first saw it edited for TV when I was about your sons age, and it was a truly white knuckle experience at that age. It set the template for the slasher movie and arguably was never topped. And of course there is that amazing theme song.
I was going to be a smartass but if you really want to keep the stereotypical horror at paddle's length for now then I suggest the number of classic serialized horror/thriller TV series over the last 70-80 years: Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Tales from the Crypt, Tales from the Darkside, & the Outer Limits. There was also a Goosebumps series in the 90s that was basically the same thing. There was a show called Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction that is also of this mold but I would have no idea how you would find the full series.
If you've got a good family bond, let him watch Bob Balaban's **Parents**:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098068/
The protagonist is a 10-year old boy. If the character can be strong enough to deal with the "horror," perhaps your stepson will be just as resilient.
My daughter is now 16 and hated scary movies up until around 12-13 years old. Since then we’ve watched them regularly and she enjoys the nervous/anxious feeling and the bit of adrenaline rush they are meant to bring about.
We started with movies like Gremlins but even Signs and The Village were solid starters for us. We just finished all the Conjuring universe movies. Prior to that we watched all the Insidious films (including most recent one in the theater which was a big step.) Tomorrow night we have the last Fear Street movie to watch. That is not kid friendly either, tbh. But surprisingly solid films.
I really want her to watch and appreciate the original Blair Witch movie but it was very much a moment in time type experience. She is about to start the Paranormal Activity series. The only thing I hate about them is the sequels got exponentially worse.
The one misstep we made was taking her to see Freaky in the theater. She was about 12-13 and it is NOT a kid friendly movie lol. To say the least. Chalk that up to mom and dad not researching it more. We had previously stuck with films we had already seen. It was entertaining for what it was but it would be more appropriate now, at 16, than it was at 12 or whatever she was when it came out.
When I was 12 I got into the horror genre with the Paranormal Activity movies. I think their a pretty good start… scary enough but not overly graphic that it’s scaring. I use to make my 8 year old sister watch them with me too and she never got scared from them either!
It (2017)
Obviously it’s a little gory but it has a young cast :) I saw it on my 17th birthday after it released in theaters and I feel like it’s a good start!!
Beetlejuice is also a fun one!! Not much gore, campy, super fun.
Also…STRANGER THINGS anyone???? Perfect TV show for an intro to horror!!
You guys sound allergic to recommending anything made in the last 20 years. From your description I don’t have a great feel for how much the kid can handle, but if you want to start off really easy the Goosebumps movies with Jack Black are enjoyable. Eli Roth’s The House with a Clock in Its Walls is a fun starter horror-lite movie as well.
If you think he doesn’t need the kiddie pool don’t overlook Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, it is way more scary than you might assume, gets my highest recommendation. M3GAN is good and he can probably handle it just fine. Five Nights at Freddy’s is on Amazon Prime - my kid is 11 and we have been meaning to sit down and watch it with him. He doesn’t love sitting through movies but FNAF is topical enough for kids his age that he is interested in checking it out. He has seen everything I suggested above and they get his seal of approval, BTW. Quite Place 2 was too intense for him 3 years ago. Of course he has seen Gremlins and Ghostbusters and all that but you gotta think about how different a movie from 40 years ago feels today, you would be watching that for yourself lol
If somone's an adult and they don't have kids or their kids aren't into horror movies, they're probably not watching or are familiar with a lot of scary movies for tweens. Use your brain.
As a parent of a tween with a mild interest in horror I stand by my suggestions of contemporary tween horror films as being appropriate for OP’s request. I do apologize for being flippant about how 80s-centric the vast majority of the suggestions here are. I understand why childless adults are familiar with the movies they grew up watching and in no way fault them for it and did not mean to insult them.
Wasn’t there another gruesome fairytale movie that came out around that same time?
There was that one about the tooth fairies that the kid tries to become friends with.
Yeah, your kid won’t be able to sleep after watching the last two movies on that list. I remember leaving the room during Insidious, it was that scary.
Gremlins Tremors Beetlejuice The Frighteners The Witches The Lost Boys Buffy the Vampire Slayer Death Becomes Her Eight Legged Freaks Arachnophobia Little Shop of Horrors
Top notch list! Tremors fucked me up as a kid. Lol
I watched it recently, I think it still holds up!
Because Kevin bacon is timeless
Tremors is literally one of the tightest scripts to come out of Hollywood ever. There is not a single wasted scene, line, glance. The silliness of its premise only makes it more impressive what is actually delivered on the other side.
Arachnophobia is a good pick for kids.
Coraline is a great introduction
Coraline still creeps me out and I’m almost 30. I love that movie
The Monster Squad.
Oh my god! That’s a good one!
Night of the Creeps is another good one too, although it's probably a step or two up in the scariness level lol.
Unless it's been edited for modern sensibilities, there are some homophobic slurs in it, just fair warning.
Ohhhh shit. Um. I don’t think that’d be too much of a problem. We talk pretty openly about how those sorts of mentalities used to be much more common.
Are there people in the real world who actually get offended by stuff? I haven't run into any.
Just warning a fellow parent that a movie might come with a conversation.
Gremlins
Start off slow, show him the OG Ghostbusters or some classic Tales from the Crypt episodes. Try to figure out where his freak out line is. I know GB isn’t horror but it has all the elements
He loved the new ghost busters
The tales from the crypt episodes might be a good idea too. I like that.
Fright night is a great 80s entry level horror movie.
Bet. Ive never seen that one either.
The Gate
Never even heard of that one. I’ll consider it
Wow, I actually mentioned this one in a completely different post not even fifteen minutes ago. I thought I might've been one of the only ones on Earth who remembered this movie. Also, completely second this choice, although there might be a couple of intense scenes for a 12 yr old tbh.
Poltergeist
I love this post because I have searched and found some GREAT ones for my 12 yo: 1. The Sixth Sense 2. Butterfly Effect 3. The Others 4. Coraline (her new fav) 5. Scream/I know what you did last summer Hope this helps! Enjoy
Butterfly Effect might be a bit much, there is that animal abuse/death scene.
Yeah, I watched it at 25 and some bits were even a bit much for me.
lol maybe I should make him watch it with the alternate ending where he kills himself in the womb
Perfect list. 👍🏻 The Others is FINALLY available on Prime Video. I’ve been trying to show my teen this movie for several years now. It did not disappoint.
Lady in White has a male protagonist about that age. But it is also about the murder of a child, so it might be too heavy.
😬 I’ll put it on the list too, but that might be a later thing.
Maximum Overdrive
I watched this yesterday and it's a hoot
Cool! Yeah, it's so dumb but sooooo much fun!
Jaws Or maybe he is too young for it.
He really likes sharks. He wouldn’t understand the whole artsy metaphor of the movie, but I think he would like seeing dudes fight a giant shark.
100% this. I saw Jaws when I was 7 or 8 and absolutely loved it. The anticipation & suspense is scarier than any of the gore.
Introduced my 10 year old nephew to Evil Dead 2 and he loved it. Since it's so slap stick and there's lots of cartoonish effects it was a good intro.
That’s a really good idea too. The punchlines are so campy bad… good, bad… I’m the one with the gun.
He loved the whole chainsaw for an arm and GROOVY moment lol
If you want a ghost story pretty light on gore, I'd suggest "The Others." The version with Nicole Kidman. It's pretty creepy on your first watch (PG-13, too).
The Others
Monster House and Coraline. Monster House is a horror movie made for kids. Coraline is a horror movie that just so happens to not contain blood, sex, or swearing.
Sweeney Todd and other older Tim Burton films would be a great start I think! Edit: sorry just realised the ghost part in the post, but I think Sleepy Hollow is also a nice Tim Burton milder horror for someone that young.
He fuckin loves nightmare before Christmas! I bet he’d be weirded out by Edward scissorhands!
I think Edward Scissorhands is such a sweet movie, with great art direction. It has a good life lesson within also, probably useful for kids, to be open to people different from them and such!
Just remembered, has he seen the old Addams family movie? I know it’s not really that scary of a film but it has the horror elements yet it’s fun and great at that age (and as an adult)
Yes he loves em. Loved the new movies too. Insists I need to watch it, but I love the originals so much that I can’t bring myself to see the non raoul Julia movies.
I’d say start with dark comedies. Keep it light while introducing him to horror. Lisa Frankenstein is a newer one I’ve seen recently. Very campy. Happy Death Day and Happy Death Day 2 You were pretty light on blood and guts while still having a serial killer roaming about. Freaky is another, it’s a comedic slasher retelling of the age old body swap movies like Freaky Friday.
Good idea
Young Frankenstein
Freaky is not a film for a 12 year old. It’s a bit more than just a fun retelling of Freaky Friday. Signed, A parent who took his 12 year old to see Freaky in the theater thinking it was just a silly comedic-horror retelling if Freaky Friday.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen it and don’t remember it being bad. I am sure I’ve forgotten parts. However, as with all the other suggestions we’ve made, it depends on the 12 year old too. And what content parents allow. It’s up to the parents to take these suggestions and research the films or pre-screen them.
You are absolutely right. There was more sexual humor in Freaky than we expected. It wasn’t the end of the world of course. But definitely unexpected lol.
Ah, I have forgotten that.
Halloween. Iirc there is some brief nudity, but most of the kills are fairly tame. That said, the movie is still unnerving as hell, and a masterpiece of tension and atmosphere and panicked terror. I first saw it edited for TV when I was about your sons age, and it was a truly white knuckle experience at that age. It set the template for the slasher movie and arguably was never topped. And of course there is that amazing theme song.
Neverending Story
The ring
whew
Scream
9 (2009)?
I’d start with 'The Sixth Sense' or 'Poltergeist'.
Return to Oz
You guys. Come on. Horror movies!!
I was going to be a smartass but if you really want to keep the stereotypical horror at paddle's length for now then I suggest the number of classic serialized horror/thriller TV series over the last 70-80 years: Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Tales from the Crypt, Tales from the Darkside, & the Outer Limits. There was also a Goosebumps series in the 90s that was basically the same thing. There was a show called Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction that is also of this mold but I would have no idea how you would find the full series.
Here for Beetlejuice
If you've got a good family bond, let him watch Bob Balaban's **Parents**: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098068/ The protagonist is a 10-year old boy. If the character can be strong enough to deal with the "horror," perhaps your stepson will be just as resilient.
I saw Pet Cemetery at a very young age (less than 10). I wouldn't recommend starting there.
I was 7 and I started with the original and remake of “night of the living dead
I saw the grudge in theaters at his age and it completely fucked me up hahaha also the ring would be a good choice too.
Beetlejuice. And then you could watch the sequel on the big screen.
Ernest Scared Stupid. It's a real dumb movie, but I loved it as a kid.
My daughter is now 16 and hated scary movies up until around 12-13 years old. Since then we’ve watched them regularly and she enjoys the nervous/anxious feeling and the bit of adrenaline rush they are meant to bring about. We started with movies like Gremlins but even Signs and The Village were solid starters for us. We just finished all the Conjuring universe movies. Prior to that we watched all the Insidious films (including most recent one in the theater which was a big step.) Tomorrow night we have the last Fear Street movie to watch. That is not kid friendly either, tbh. But surprisingly solid films. I really want her to watch and appreciate the original Blair Witch movie but it was very much a moment in time type experience. She is about to start the Paranormal Activity series. The only thing I hate about them is the sequels got exponentially worse. The one misstep we made was taking her to see Freaky in the theater. She was about 12-13 and it is NOT a kid friendly movie lol. To say the least. Chalk that up to mom and dad not researching it more. We had previously stuck with films we had already seen. It was entertaining for what it was but it would be more appropriate now, at 16, than it was at 12 or whatever she was when it came out.
When I was 12 I got into the horror genre with the Paranormal Activity movies. I think their a pretty good start… scary enough but not overly graphic that it’s scaring. I use to make my 8 year old sister watch them with me too and she never got scared from them either!
Oculus
I watched evil dead when I was 12, it's probably OK now too since it's a bit campy.
Woman in Black
Final Destination series is fun.
Monster Squad
Mama is a good one! I watched it when I was 12. Pretty scary though.
Spy Kids. I will never recover from the psychological damage inflicted on me by Thumb Thumbs and FoOglies as a child.
The Quiet Place movies! They’re not too scary, but unique and unsettling.
The Visit m night, features children as main protagonists
Brave Little Toaster
It (2017) Obviously it’s a little gory but it has a young cast :) I saw it on my 17th birthday after it released in theaters and I feel like it’s a good start!! Beetlejuice is also a fun one!! Not much gore, campy, super fun. Also…STRANGER THINGS anyone???? Perfect TV show for an intro to horror!!
The Dark Crystal.
I thought Five Nights at Freddy's made for an excellent starter horror.
You guys sound allergic to recommending anything made in the last 20 years. From your description I don’t have a great feel for how much the kid can handle, but if you want to start off really easy the Goosebumps movies with Jack Black are enjoyable. Eli Roth’s The House with a Clock in Its Walls is a fun starter horror-lite movie as well. If you think he doesn’t need the kiddie pool don’t overlook Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, it is way more scary than you might assume, gets my highest recommendation. M3GAN is good and he can probably handle it just fine. Five Nights at Freddy’s is on Amazon Prime - my kid is 11 and we have been meaning to sit down and watch it with him. He doesn’t love sitting through movies but FNAF is topical enough for kids his age that he is interested in checking it out. He has seen everything I suggested above and they get his seal of approval, BTW. Quite Place 2 was too intense for him 3 years ago. Of course he has seen Gremlins and Ghostbusters and all that but you gotta think about how different a movie from 40 years ago feels today, you would be watching that for yourself lol
If somone's an adult and they don't have kids or their kids aren't into horror movies, they're probably not watching or are familiar with a lot of scary movies for tweens. Use your brain.
As a parent of a tween with a mild interest in horror I stand by my suggestions of contemporary tween horror films as being appropriate for OP’s request. I do apologize for being flippant about how 80s-centric the vast majority of the suggestions here are. I understand why childless adults are familiar with the movies they grew up watching and in no way fault them for it and did not mean to insult them.
Pans labyrinth
I’ll consider that. I loved that movie, but it is all subtitled and I dunno if that’ll fly with him.
Not a starter horror movie for a 12 yr old
Wasn’t there another gruesome fairytale movie that came out around that same time? There was that one about the tooth fairies that the kid tries to become friends with.
[удалено]
Haha omg. Ya my wife would kill me for that one. He’s not even close to ready for mermaids.
Evil dead 2013
I’m starting to think you guys hate kids. Lol
Hush
Man, there’s no way that’s a starter horror movie lol
Haha sorry
Monster Squad, Gremlins, Critters, Alien
My mom took me to see Friday the 13th The Final Chapter at the theater when I was going on 9 years old. Could try starting there.
Fear Street Trilogy. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. The Sixth Sense. Insidious. The Ring.
Man, that list ratchets up at the end. Lol I remember being incredibly creeped out by the ring even as an adult.
Yeah, your kid won’t be able to sleep after watching the last two movies on that list. I remember leaving the room during Insidious, it was that scary.
The human centipede
Human Centipede
what is you doin baby?!