
It's that time of the year again where our TV and cinema screens get plastered with horror films, guts, gore and spookiness. However, if you are not the sort of person that likes these types of films, then it can be hard to find something to watch that suits the Halloween spirit. Do not fear!! Here we have a list of child friendly films that are suitable to watch over the Halloween period.

20 years old next year, Casper is a film that many kids have grown up with at Halloween. The story revolves around a young ghost called Casper who lives with his three ghost uncles: Stretch, Fatso and Stinky. Casper gets Dr James Harvey, a paranormal therapist, and his daughter Kat to visit the house. Harvey’s job is to counsel ghosts and help them to complete unfinished business so they can move on, however he is using this ruse as a way to find the ghost of his wife, Amelia. Meanwhile throughout the film, the heir to the house that Casper haunts, Carrigan, and her attourney Paul, search the house for missing treasure. It’s not only spooky (but not scary-spooky), but humorous too!

A Tim Burton classic, Corpse Bride is a great watch at Halloween (or any other time of the year!). Victor Van Dort (Johnny Depp) and Victoria Everglot (Emily Watson) are preparing for their arranged marriage, in a small Victorian village somewhere in either England or France. Despite first worrying about marrying a stranger, they fall in love instantly. Victor clumsily ruined the wedding rehearsal and so went to practice his vows in a forest, where he slips the ring onto a branch of a tree. Except, the branch isn’t a branch, it is the finger of a dead woman!! Again, don’t worry, it’s a cartoon, it’s not scary at all. The woman rises from the grave and claims Victor as her husband. All matters of bad things seem to happen to Victor whilst he tries to set things straight in this wonderful stop-motion film.

Some would not originally see this as a suitable Halloween film, because it’s generally one you watch at any time of the year. But it’s a film about monsters! So therefore, it has to be put on the list.
Sully and Mike are two monsters with amazing children-scaring talents. Well, more precisely, Sully scares the kids, Mike does all of the paperwork and other less scary jobs. However, they run into a spot of trouble when a child escapes from her bedroom into their world, wreaking havoc on everyone and everything. Well, not really, she is only a child, but monsters are brought up to believe that children are dangerous. Sully and Mike must return the child back to her room and restore peace once again. A childhood classic.

Hocus Pocus seems to be a lot like Marmite: You either love it or you hate it. A trio of witches - Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy - once wandered a small township, stealing children to absorb their life-force through witchcraft, until they were killed. However, before their death, one of the witches performed a spell allowing them to be resurrected one All Hallow's Eve. 300 years later the witches are resurrected by a teenager, his younger sister and his crush, and the witches must now absorb the life-force of another child before the end of the night... otherwise they will turn to dust.

This one is slightly creepier than the others. Just look at those button eyes! A dark fantasy film, Coraline begins in another world, where a witch is making a doll of an 11-year old girl. Meanwhile, Coraline and her parents move to their new mansion home in Ashland, Oregon. Coraline, ignored by her parents, decides to explore the house and comes across a small wooden door that is blocked off by a brick wall. However, when she returns to the door later in the night, she finds the wall gone. She enters through the door into a long, dark corridor that leads her to another world with doppelgangers of her parents. A very creepy, yet immensely enjoyable film.