10 Best PG-13 Horror Movies

The horror genre is famous for its abundance of rated-R movies. However, there are still some great options out there that are a little more family-friendly. Here are the 10 best PG-13 horror movies.

1408

1408, released back in 2007, echoes classic Stephen King adaptations like The Shining. The movie follows Mike Enslin (played by John Cusack), a skeptic author who investigated supposedly haunted sites. He spends his life traveling to, staying at, and documenting some of the most infamous haunted houses and facilities in the world. However, he’s yet to have an encounter with the supernatural himself.

In the movie, Mike Enslin visits a hotel with an incredible cursed room: the titular 1408. While he doesn’t believe the legends or heed the warnings of a foreboding Hotel Clerk played by Samuel L. Jackson, Mike Enslin soon realizes he is sorely mistaken. Throughout the film, he is literally and figuratively haunted by his past, in what ultimately makes for a surreal, psychological horror about a skeptic being faced with the supernatural.

1408 is streaming now on Peacock.

A Quiet Place

A Quiet Place became an instant cult classic when it was released in 2018, and it’s easy to see why. Directed by John Krasinski – best known at the time as The Office‘s Jim Halpert – A Quiet Place is a post-apocalyptic survival story about a father and his wife trying to protect their children. Humanity has reached near-extinction thanks to an invasion of super-predator blind aliens who hunt using sound.

Due to the lethality of the aliens and their heightened sense of sound, the world of A Quiet Place is eerily silent. As such, the film has an extremely limited amount of dialogue, gripping viewers with its atmosphere and tension. The sound design in A Quiet Place is incredible, and even though the movie lacks any on-screen gore, its alien beasts are still terrifying. The film is a tense, thrilling low-budget horror movie that is an essential watch.

A Quiet Place is streaming now on Paramount+.

Beetlejuice

The original Beetlejuice is an absolute classic. This ’80s movie is a staple of the Halloween season, seeing Tim Burton establish his iconic spooky aesthetic. The film follows a recently deceased couple whose spirits are stuck in their home as a new family moves in and seeks to change everything. To try and help kick out the unwanted guests, the couple seeks the help of the titular Beetlejuice, a long-dead, abrasive bio-exorcist with the energy of a drunk uncle.

Beetlejuice has a lot to offer. It has an incredible spooky aesthetic, an all-time comedic performance from Michael Keaton as the titular character, and all sorts of charm and wholesome fun. It’s also decidedly spooky and a bit much for young kids. However, it is mostly family-friendly, save for one of cinema’s best uses of the f-bomb.

Beetlejuice is streaming now on Max.

Five Nights at Freddy’s

Five Nights at Freddy’s – based on a video game series of the same name – adapts the source material’s characters and world without copying the story of any of the games. While it didn’t fair too well with critics, fans love it, and it’s easy to see why.

It stars Josh Hutcherson as Mike Schmidt, a troubled young man who takes a job as an overnight security guard at an abandoned children’s restaurant full of possessed animatronics. Mike is surrounded by a surprisingly interesting supporting cast for a movie of this ilk. Matthew Lillard and Elizabeth Lail are both so fun to watch on screen, as they are likable but have unclear motives.

The animatronics themselves look great and faithful to the game, with impeccable crafting and puppeteering from the iconic Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. With all this going for it, FNAF is a fun horror movie for young folks and fans of the franchise, with surprisingly good scares and a fun finale to tie it all together.

Five Nights at Freddy’s is streaming now on Prime Video.

I Saw The TV Glow

I Saw The TV Glow is a bit of an exception on this list. This surreal, psychological horror from A24 doubles as a coming-of-age movie, where the real fear comes from self-discovery. Still, it is a great PG-13 horror movie and emulates the aesthetic and energy of some eerie ’90s classics, including Twin Peaks.

Admittedly, it’s a slow burn. However, there are some truly terrifying moments in the film that still haven’t left my mind since I saw it in theaters. I Saw The TV Glow just feels instantly iconic, earning it a rightful place among the best horror movies released in 2024.

I Saw The TV Glow is streaming now on Max.

Related: 10 Scariest Horror Movies of All Time

Insidious

It’s still genuinely shocking to me that Insidious is only rated PG-13 because it’s a truly terrifying horror movie. Released in 2010, this supernatural horror is widely regarded as one of the scariest movies of its decade, becoming an instant classic. Insidious follows a married couple, as their home and young comatose son become victims to supernatural elements.

Insidious has all the hallmarks of the genre; there are ghostly apparitions, unexplainable phenomena, and a creepy kid. However, what makes it special is its suspense, which pays off in some of the scariest and most iconic jump scares ever. Insidious also has a perfectly unsettling score and incredibly eerie character designs.

Insidious is streaming now on Peacock.

Lisa Frankenstein

Here’s something completely different. Lisa Frankenstein isn’t really a scary movie. However, it does borrow elements from the classic Universal monster movies, as well as 1980s coming-of-age films, to wonderful effect.

Lisa Frankenstein follows its titular character, played by Kathryn Newton, who is consistently proving herself as one of her generation’s best Scream Queens. She’s a high schooler in a small town in the 1980s, with a love for gothic romance. She feels like an outsider in her family and community until a young man from the 1800s resurrects from a local cemetery.

What follows is a delightfully odd romantic comedy with horror elements, where Lisa collects body parts from those who’ve wronged her to make her new lover (played by heartthrob Cole Sprouse) more complete. Lisa Frankenstein is a loving tribute to classic horror literature, gothic romance films, classic slashers, and 1980s John Hughes movies. While it’s rarely ever scary, it is still such a wonderful movie that fans of the genre just have to see for themselves.

Lisa Frankenstein is available to rent on Prime Video.

M3GAN

Released just a few years back in 2022, M3GAN has already achieved classic status. This horror movie follows a young woman who designs high-end toys as she adopts her niece after her sister dies in a tragic accident. Gemma – the toy designer – is working on the titular AI-enabled Robot. It is said to be able to form genuine friendships with children, and Gemma brings the robot into her and her niece’s home to test the theory.

M3GAN and Cady (the niece) end up getting too attached to each other. They both begin to defy authority, forming a parasitic bond with one another. However, the horror in the movie comes when M3GAN becomes murderous toward anyone who wrongs Cady or tries to keep them apart. What follows is a hilarious slasher, with some great comedy and a genuinely unsettling villain. This movie isn’t super serious, but it’s a great time, made instantly iconic by moments like M3GAN’s infamous dance scene.

M3GAN is streaming now on Starz.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark – based on the series of books of the same title – is another truly terrifying horror movie despite its PG-13 rating. Brought to the screen by horror maestro Guillermo del Toro, this supernatural horror sees the stories from the books coming all too real for a group of Pennsylvania teens.

What makes Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark truly terrifying, especially for younger audiences, is its incredibly horrific character designs. The drawings accompanying the classic horror books terrified young readers in the ’90s and 2000s. This film brings those designs to life to terrific effect, with some of the coolest and freakiest-looking monsters you’ll ever see on screen.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is streaming now on Netflix.

World War Z

World War Z is a lot of things; it’s as much a horror movie as it is a globe-trotting thriller and blockbuster action movie. That being said, it is still super scary. World War Z participates in the trend of extremely fast-moving zombies that seems to have taken over the genre in the last 15 years. However, World War Z does it better than anyone else. The movie’s zombies cause absolute chaos as they stumble over each other in massive hordes, which sees its peak in an epic set piece where a massive group of undead form a hill to scale the walls of Jerusalem.

The movie has tons of intense action, with some of the craziest and most memorable set pieces of its decade. However, moments of the film are much more subdued, allowing tension to build in the third act. It also certainly doesn’t hurt that World War Z has some incredible star power, with Brad Pitt as its leading man. He plays Gerry Lane, a UN crisis responder who’s called back into the field to try and investigate the origins of this Zzmbie apocalypse in hopes of finding a way to stop it and make the world safe once again.

World War Z is streaming free on Pluto TV and Sling TV. It is also available for Netflix and Paramount+ subscribers.

And those are the best PG-13 horror movies.