The yellow brick road is in shambles and the Emerald City is in ruins and all its citizens turned to stone. When a lightning storm hits the mental hospital, Dorothy escapes with a strange girl, and winds up back in Oz. Auntie Em is worried, and brings her to a well-meaning but misguided psychiatrist who prescribes shock treatments. We all know about The Wizard of Oz, but what happens after Dorothy clicks her heels and returns to Kansas? Turns out everyone thinks she’s gone insane. That’s why our list includes some information on the types of scares you can expect, who would likely be scared by them, and a highly scientific* “fright factor” scale measured in (what else) silly little ghost emojis! 👻 This can help you navigate which movies might be just scary enough and which you might want to skip until next Halloween. The trick is figuring out just what kind of scary your kid can handle, and a lot of that comes down to age: what’s scary for a preschooler isn’t going to be scary for a tween. But don’t worry: balance can be reached, as evidenced by these scary movies for kids that you can watch as a family! Because, yeah, we want them to be able to get in the spirit, but we don’t want them crying at bedtime and sleeping in with us until New Year’s Eve because they’re scared of monsters they saw on TV. Kids like to get into it, too, but “scares” and “kids” is a sensitive matter.

Whomst among us doesn’t love the spooky thrills of Halloween season? This is the time of year for atmospheric creepiness and exhilarating scares.

Watch casper the friendly ghost