10 Family Friendly Horror Films To Scare Kids (And Their Parents) This Halloween

If you only have time for one movie with family-appropriate scares this Halloween, make it Coraline.

Director Henry Selick was already responsible for one spooky season stop-motion classic with The Nightmare Before Christmas before making this 2009 3D stop-motion adaptation of Neil Gaiman's creepy childrens' fantasy story. Nightmare is a great movie, but with Coraline Selick went even further.

Gaiman's brand of gothic fantasy has become increasingly popular for screen adaptations, but Coraline is the film that best captures the American Gods and Stardust author's sense of the mundane ordinary world with something uncanny, magical but dangerous just out of the corner of your eye.

In the case of Coraline, that is the other world to which the titular girl (voiced in the movie by Dakota Fanning) travels through a tiny door in her living room. There she finds an idealised version of her own world, brighter and more colourful, with attentive parents, delicious food and big musical numbers. The only problem: everyone's got buttons sewn where their eyes should be and Coraline's "Other Mother" wants to do the same to her.

Coraline is a resourceful and engaging heroine, accompanied by plausible childhood flaws and fears. Meanwhile, the Other Mother (voiced by Teri Hatcher) shifts gears from tempting to terrifying very effectively.

I mentioned before how studio Laika's beautifully crafted three-dimensional miniature worlds are full of magic, attention to detail and something just a little off-centre and Coraline is where that all began. The design and animation is stunning. From the visuals to the score the whole thing has an atmosphere of the eerie and uncomfortable.

Coraline is that rarest of things: a scary movie with the ability to feel creepy to anyone of any age. That's what makes it the perfect family film for Halloween.