Movies
Navigating an Ocean of Horror: The Perfect Horror Movies for Beginners
From the kid-friendly horror titles to the all-out screamers, this list of horror for beginners has you covered no matter which section of the pool you or your viewing partner is ready for. Remember, you can’t toss a brand-new swimmer straight into the deep end. Well, I suppose you can, but they may hate swimming for it. Introduce horror responsibly.
Scary movies exist within many levels of horror. Because of this, it can be challenging to find a scary movie to start with when you need a good horror movie for beginners.
Whether for yourself, your kid, your partner, your co-worker, your mother-in-law, or someone in between, knowing the fortitude of your audience is half the battle.
Should you start at the pool’s shallow end, where things are a bit tamer, or are you ready to dive into murkier depths of horror? No matter your or your viewing party/s horror tolerance, this list of scary movies for beginners will help you navigate the waters to find the perfect horror movie to start with.
DISCLAIMER: Swim at your own risk.
Everyone’s tolerances and the things they find acceptable wildly vary. While I have taken great care to organize this list into what I believe are different levels of horror movie tolerance, I recommend doing your due diligence before watching any title (especially with anyone aged lower than the film’s rating). This website will tell you any film’s potential triggers, e.g., “Does the dog die?” Meanwhile, IMDB has a Parent’s Guide which lists each incidence of a film’s use of profanity, sexual content, violence, drug use, etc. Also, some movies show how far they are willing to go during the opening scene; if you start a film and the opening scene is gruesome, you can expect the movie to go that far, and perhaps farther, again.
Time to dive in (and yes, I will be beating this swim lesson metaphor to death for the duration of this piece).
The Best Horror Movies for Beginners
The Kiddie Pool
Some of the best movies to serve as an introduction to horror can be found in films made explicitly for kids. Now don’t get me wrong; just because they’re kid-friendly horror movies doesn’t make them any less scary. The kiddie pool may seem harmless from the outside, but it might just give you nightmares once you know what’s in that water. That’s why these family-friendly scary movies are near and dear to many hardcore horror fan hearts. Starting up with a personal favorite of mine:
Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998)
This movie is the perfect gauge for someone’s horror tolerance. Scooby-Doo and the Mystery Inc. gang reunite to face off against real monsters for the first time. The cartoon zombies give a taste of violence, while the pirate ghosts and voodoo dolls make a fantastic introduction to the paranormal.
Coraline (2009)
Delivering light body horror via the Other Mother who replaces children’s eyes with buttons… need I say more? It’s a movie whose dark themes will have you questioning how this was made for children but being surprised by the way it serves horror in an objectively palatable manner.
Nightbooks (2021)
The only live-action option in this section is also (in my opinion) the least scary. A witch imprisons a boy who loves to tell scary stories. It’s a little like The Black Phone for kids and makes a perfect creepy movie for family night.
Water Wingies
So they let you out of the kid’s pool, but not without a little floatation device. These family horror films aren’t necessarily suitable for *all* ages; however, they are fun for *most* ages.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016)
While this film has a similar premise to many children’s movies as a boy finds a magical realm, this title has just enough unsettling imagery to see that it’s too grown up for the kiddie pool.
Beetlejuice (1988)
Take this PG title with a grain of salt, as anyone who’s seen it may remember Beetlejuice perusing the red light district or saying, “Nice f**king model.” The 80s and 90s kids’ movies were most certainly built differently. Outside of that, there’s some fun Claymation horror, great comedic moments, iconic looks, and just enough scariness to unsettle a fresh audience.
Poltergeist (1982)
Speaking of PG horror movies, the 80s “family friendly” horror film where the parents smoked some devil’s lettuce in the kitchen, the man peeled his face off, and real human skeletons swarmed the woman is a perfect introductory scary movie. The face-peeling effects have certainly aged with time, as has some of the terror it once instilled in its day, placing it safely in the safety of water wingies.
Learning to Doggy Paddle
You’re learning to swim alone now; this independence comes with scarier movies. Good for you.
Child’s Play (1988)
Child’s Play was my oldest child’s first horror movie because it has the perfect blend of suspense and violence to be expected of any scary movie but does not go over the top with it. Added to the fact that, at 35 years old, Chucky is such a known icon, the familiarity helps taper the fear. To the upcoming generation, I suppose Chucky is about as threatening as the older gentleman from Up feeding pigeons on a park bench. After all, the film will be fifty years old when most of our children graduate high school. Pardon me; I’m feeling faint.
Skinamarink (2022)
Much of the horror of this film comes from the tension building and its ability to tap into old childhood feelings of fear – not so much the horrific imagery. As such, this is a great place to begin for anyone who still needs to prepare for the gruesome likes of The Outwaters but is interested in liminal horror.
Fall (2022)
While this film isn’t a scary movie in the sense that there’s a monster or paranormal event, this film is the perfect family night horror movie, assuming our doggy paddlers can handle extreme heights and perhaps a corpse or two. When two girls are stranded at the top of a 2,000-foot radio tower, the ensuing tale and ending are hauntingly unforgettable.
Strong Swimmer
This section equates those who passed the lifeguard test at the public pool to be allowed to swim in the deep end.
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
If it weren’t for the headless horseman decapitating the pregnant woman’s fetus, Sleepy Hollow would’ve been at a more shallow end of the pool, but here we are. It’s an excellent introduction to gore, as aside from regular decapitation, it’s pretty minimal. Plus, everyone gets to enjoy Christopher Walken’s memorable performance as the Hessian. Between the shot of his mouth with the pointed, bloody teeth, and the witch in the woods, some moments will stick with you long after watching.
The Others (2001)
The complete lack of gore, minor violence, and ensuing horror make this film excellent for anyone beginning to watch scary movies for the first time. To this day, it’s a unique horror tale that belongs on everyone’s watch list. The intense reveal at the end makes it a title that is likely unsuitable for all viewers.
Happy Death Day (2017)
Sometimes the best way to accustom oneself to horror is to laugh at it shamelessly. This PG-13 Blumhouse horror comedy is the perfect avenue for just that as the main character relives the same day repeatedly (in Groundhog Day fashion), all for her to be murdered by the same unknown, masked assailant each time. The film follows her journey as she tries to unravel the mystery of who is behind the mask. It’s a great introductory slasher, as since time rewinds each day, the deaths never really mean anything. (Or don’t they?)
Adult Swim
Finally, these are the honest-to-goodness scary movies that make the perfect horror movies for beginners ready to be terrified. This category is for people who can’t handle the gore but want to be scared. Sink or swim.
Sinister (2012)
The folks behind Sinister tried desperately to achieve a PG-13 rating, so there are few moments where violence is shown head-on. Despite this, the film’s subject matter nevertheless landed an R rating. If your viewing party can handle the dark journey of a true-crime writer investigating families ruthlessly annihilated by a demonic entity, this is the film for you.
Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016)
Mike Flanagan is one of my favorite directors, and this film is a testimony to his expertise in the horror genre. There is little violence, but the imagery is so disturbing that it makes for a wonderfully terrifying time. A family who runs a fraudulent séance operation sees absolute horror as one of them becomes demonically possessed.
The Conjuring (2013)
This movie marks the rare occasion where a scary movie receives an R rating despite having few scenes of violence, nudity, or profanity. It’s rated R simply for being terrifying. Based on the real-life investigation of an allegedly haunted Connecticut home by Ed and Lorraine Warren, this film is a jump off the diving board straight into the deep end of horror.
From the kid-friendly horror titles to the all-out screamers, this list of horror for beginners has you covered no matter which section of the pool you or your viewing partner is ready for. Remember, you can’t toss a brand-new swimmer straight into the deep end. Well, I suppose you can, but they may hate swimming for it. Introduce horror responsibly. Let us know in the comments or on social media if there are any beginner horror movies you wish had been included!
Movies
How Lucha Libre Birthed Mexico’s Wildest Horror Films
Though schlocky B-horror is often associated with American films of men in cheap rubber monster suits and small casts running around in the desert, past our southern border Mexican pop culture has a strong, storied history of B-horror surrounding luchadores, masked wrestlers. Movies where the kings of the ring beat down on anything demonic or alien that crosses their path. But those films themselves have a wild origin, stemming from a post-war hunt for identity and censorship on the basis of sex. Truly, the luchador films that became the bulk of mexploitation cinema as we know it today didn’t come from a strong desire to uplift lucha but from attempts to suppress it. To understand lucha libre and how it became popular enough to be banned from television, we have to get back to the first half of the 20th century, with the end of the Mexican Revolution.
Today’s story is one of domino effects. Of how cultural moments and political decisions can send out ripples that no one can see coming, to the most unlikely of places sometimes. It’s about the unpredictable and ephemeral nature of life, on and off film. And about how cool it is to see a guy in a silver mask elbow-drop a werewolf. This is the story of how Lucha Libre birthed some of Mexico’s wildest horror films.
Though schlocky B-horror is often associated with American films of men in cheap rubber monster suits and small casts running around in the desert, past our southern border Mexican pop culture has a strong, storied history of B-horror surrounding luchadores, masked wrestlers. Movies where the kings of the ring beat down on anything demonic or alien that crosses their path. But those films themselves have a wild origin, stemming from a post-war hunt for identity and censorship on the basis of sex.
Truly, the luchador films that became the bulk of mexploitation cinema as we know it today didn’t come from a strong desire to uplift lucha but from attempts to suppress it. To understand lucha libre and how it became popular enough to be banned from television, we have to get back to the first half of the 20th century, with the end of the Mexican Revolution.
Mexicanidad and the Rise of Masked Wrestlers
To those unfamiliar with the particulars of the Mexican Revolution, it stands as one of the most violent times of political upheaval in human history. After the deposition of decades-long oligarchical dictator Porfirio Diaz and his regime, multiple parties began to fight for control of the country as its residents sought economic relief, agrarian reform, and the cession of land back to indigenous populations.
The Revolution saw a revolving door of commandants, a cadre of different political groups fighting for a variety of different reasons, and the loss of (by the most conservative estimates) over a million lives in a civil war never before seen in Mexico. Needless to say, the Mexican national identity had been wounded severely by the conflict as doubt and fear filled the populace, and political figures like Lázaro Cárdenas, who found themselves in power following the Revolution, began to try and restore that identity.
From this turning point comes the concept of Mexicanidad, a push for Mexican pride and a reaffirming of the image of the Mexican people that was driven by the tastemakers of Mexican society in politics and media. And for Mexican men, and specifically Mexican working-class men, that evolved into an emphasis on masculinity, virility, athleticism, and what would eventually evolve into our modern conceptions of machismo.
The Television Ban That Birthed Lucha Libre Horror Films
And so came the revitalization of lucha libre, for many reasons. Wrestling as a sport had and still has a fairly low barrier to entry, making it the perfect cheap entertainment for the working class. It had previously captured the hearts of Mexican citizens as far back as the late 1800s when wrestling made its way to the country. It involved masculine displays of strength and agility, which was perfect for the Mexicanidad crowd to endorse. The sport also had a rotating cast of colorful characters, usually the same guys you saw last week but fighting with different masks on, which was the perfect draw for young audiences who soon began to see their favorite luchadors at the comic stands and in wider media.
The craze of professional wrestling spread like wildfire, and more importantly, it spread to a female audience. As female athletes became a point of cultural interest, luchadoras became a very popular element of lucha libre despite being in the minority of performers. There began a melding between the rigid roles of masculine and feminine energy, undesired by many of the political and cultural elites of mid-century Mexico.
The cultural thermometer rapidly cooled due to lucha, and in 1954, federal authorities imposed a 30-year-long ban on lucha libre on Mexican television to prevent the waters from being muddied by such “dangerous” concepts. Soon, lucha had gone from a sport beloved by all people to a brutish, lowbrow event. Which, couldn’t be further from the truth, but cultural hegemony is a hell of a drug!
CDMX’s airwaves had become a no-fly zone for masked wrestlers, and a lost media massacre ensued that caused little to no recordings of those classic matches from the 40s and 50s being kept in circulation. Whole careers had evaporated from record overnight.
But…that didn’t stop luchadors from going to the movies.
Gothic Horror Revival in Mexican Cinema
The film wasn’t just a smash hit at the box office, it was a superkick to the mouth of Mexican cinema that ended up causing a true gothic horror revival. The film’s producer and star, Abel Salazar, found enough success with the film that the Mexican market was soon saturated with gothic horror of his own design, as Hammer Horror took over the British film market.
EL SANTO, BLUE DEMON, AND THE RISE OF LUCHA LIBRE IN HORROR
Despite the television ban, you couldn’t make Mexico forget its masked heroes so easily. The two most significant of which were El Santo y Demonio Azul (more commonly referred to as Blue Demon). Well, technically both of them began as rudos (heels, or bad guys) and later became tecnicos (faces, or heroes). The point is, Santo and Blue Demon’s rivalry was a legendary one, with their masks becoming a piece of indelible Mexican iconography and recollections of their matches being burned into people’s brains.
El Santo was convinced by fellow wrestler, Fernando Osés, to join him on the set of a film he was shooting, as the recent TV ban opened up opportunities in film for wrestlers. Santo was initially signed to star in one of the first lucha films called El Enmascarado De Plata (The Man in the Silver Mask), but backed out last minute because of fears the film would fail and damage his reputation.
Santo’s actual debut pulled him into the world of monster movies that had begun to thrive in Mexico, with his first film being Santo Contra El Cerebro Del Mal (Santo vs. The Brain of Evil) in 1961. From there he went on to do Santo Contra Los Zombies (Santo vs. The Zombies), and by the time he had shot Santo vs. The Men from Hell and Santo in The Hotel of the Dead, he had been locked in as a b-horror icon.
He was of course reunited with Blue Demon throughout his career, and the two often teamed up like superheroes to fight a wide variety of fiends. Ranging from alien spiders to vampire women to Mesoamerican mummies on a rampage, there was nothing they weren’t willing to powerbomb into oblivion. Blue Demon starred in 25 films over his lifetime– Santo starred in more than 50. The two were prolific actors and artists, and despite the often irreverent nature of the films they made and the questionable quality of many of them, the two were horror icons that most of the world is simply unaware of.
Many of their films were not distributed widely, let alone localized to English-speaking territories; only a total of 4 Santo films ever got English language versions. But even if those dubs never came, we can stand and salute the wild history of b-horror that these luchador legends have given us.
Top Lucha Libre Horror Films to Watch Today
Arañas Infernales (Hellish Spiders) is a really fun piece of schlocky, monochrome, nuclear bug horror from the late 60s; the little evil alien spider puppets in this film are so doofy looking, I want ten of them. It’s pure ham and cheese as far as content goes, but it’s impossible to say it isn’t fun.
Santo y Blue Demon Contra Los Monstruos (Santo & Blue Demon vs. The Monster Men) is some oh-so-glorious technicolor nonsense that brings us a six-man grudge match between the heroes, a mummy, a werewolf, a vampire, and a Frankenstein. I don’t even have to say anything else, you know it’s too hype of a concept to turn down.
Santo Contra Las Mujeres Vampiro (Santo vs. The Vampire Women) has some genuinely unparalleled ambiance and set design, with this black and white gothic horror mixing a modernized Mexican aesthetic with the pseudo-Victorian mansion where the finale takes place. Santo dives into a nest of female vampires in white dresses to rescue a damsel in distress, and hilarity ensues. It is probably the most technically competent of all of these when it comes to its directing.
The Mummies of Guanajuato was ultimately one of if not the biggest moneymakers, as it brought the three most famous luchadores together: Santo, Blue Demon y Mil Máscaras united to put the squeeze on some mummies killing Mexican citizens. Those monsters by the way, actually look great thanks to their makeup! All the ring exhibition stuff of them wrestling in the film is impressive as well. This one is my true favorite. If I could only watch one, it would be this.
And that’s all! Well, I’m off to go watch Santo vs The Zombies again, stay chill Horror Press rea–
What’s this?
ITS EDITOR JAMES-MICHAEL WITH THE STEEL CHAIR?
HES COMING IN BECAUSE OF MY HELLBOY ARTICLE BEING TOO LONG?!
LORD HAVE MERCY!
***
Major thanks to Marjolein Van Bavel, a professor of Modern Cultural History at Radboud University, whose writing formed most of the research on the historical part of this article. She discusses luchadoras in much more detail in her article “Morbo, lucha libre, and Television: The Ban of Women Wrestlers from Mexico City in the 1950s”, which I highly recommend you check out. Her writing was one of the major resources used for this article, and as such, deserves a shoutout.
And another shoutout to Brian Schuck of Films From Beyond, who pointed me towards Doyle Green and his book Mexploitation Cinema, which is a huge resource on lucha libre in horror. Both of them are incredible, please show them some love!
And as always, good luck, and happy watching horror fans!
Movies
Menstruation Meets Mayhem: 5 Horror Films That Bleed Terror
While periods are not quite trending in horror, there are more movies than one would suspect in this niche subgenre. Obviously, Carrie’s shower scene is historical for a reason. However, using a soaked tampon as zombie bait in It Stains the Sands Red is fantastic. Even finding a gruesome murder while using a truck stop bathroom to change a tampon in Candy Land felt like relatable cinema for me as a Midwesterner. So, I thought I would pull five bloody horror movies about “Aunt Flo” going to the “Red Wedding”. These titles know that being “on the rag” is great for the genre. This is why I am cordially inviting you to step into the restroom with me so I can show you some pretty wild shit. Here are five movies that will make you hesitate the next time someone asks you what your favorite period film is.
I hate having a period. I know that is a cold take for many people who menstruate. No one enjoys the cramps, migraines, or a three to seven-day disruption from certain fun activities. Who among us is giddy when Aunt Flo arrives unless we are having a pregnancy scare? However, the thing that salts my tines the most about this painful and bloody part of life is the stigma surrounding it. Many places still charge the tampon tax. Tons of Republicans take office without understanding basic anatomy but want to regulate AFAB bodies anyway. This pisses me off, and that is why I love horror films that shove periods right in the audience’s faces. After all, menstruation is a goldmine for body horror and the perfect excuse to add buckets of blood to any movie.
While periods are not quite trending in horror, there are more movies than one would suspect in this niche subgenre. Obviously, Carrie‘s shower scene is historical for a reason. However, using a soaked tampon as zombie bait in It Stains the Sands Red is fantastic. Even finding a gruesome murder while using a truck stop bathroom to change a tampon in Candy Land felt like relatable cinema for me as a Midwesterner. So, I thought I would pull five bloody period horror movies with a visit from “Aunt Flo” or going to the “Red Wedding”. These titles know that being “on the rag” is great for the genre. This is why I am cordially inviting you to step into the restroom with me so I can show you some pretty wild shit. Here are five movies that will make you hesitate the next time someone asks you what your favorite period film is.
5 Must-Watch Horror Films That Turn Periods Into Terrifying Tales
Blue My Mind (2018)
Where You Can Watch: Prime Video and Tubi
A teen gets her period and begins to experience radical body transformations. Director and co-writer Lisa Brühlmann crafted a moody world, uninterested in playing by the rulebook. While Mia (Luna Wedler) has much bigger fish to fry than her period, I do not think we should overlook that moment in the film. It is easy to forget it in the grand scheme of things. However, nothing ushers in frightening bodily changes quite like menstruating. That moment also firmly plants this body horror movie as a unique coming-of-age tale.
Excision (2012)
Where You Can Watch: Fandango at Home, Plex, and Tubi
A high-school outcast with medical career aspirations concocts a wild plan to save her ailing sister. So much happens in this movie! There are plenty of cameos in front of this bloody backdrop, which is Pauline’s (AnnaLynne McCord) canvas. While she spends a lot of time fantasizing about blood and worrying about her sister, she does not let that stop her from cashing in her V-card. She is very upfront about her plan to lose her virginity while on her period, and she gets her bloody way. If you are looking for a movie with a period sex scene, Excision is your girl.
Ginger Snaps (2000)
Where You Can Watch: AMC+, Peacock, and Shudder
Two sisters who are loners in their suburban neighborhood find their relationship changing when one gets bitten by a werewolf. No list of period films is complete without Ginger Snaps. Both Brigitte (Emily Perkins) and Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) are teens who are so late to get their period it has become a household concern. So, it is pretty awful timing for Ginger to get hers right when her life is about to be changed forever. We love when periods are the beginning of the horror story because that is all too relatable.
Read our review of Ginger Snaps here.
Tiger Stripes (2023)
Where You Can Watch: AMC+ and Shudder
An 11-year-old girl’s world is changed when she gets her first period and begins to change into something ferocious. Writer-director Amanda Nell Eu definitely has the cutest movie on this list. I enjoyed watching Zaffan (Zafreen Zairizal) learn that it is okay to be different. More importantly, she learns that sometimes you need to rip a guy’s head off to get peace. This coming-of-age body horror movie has a lot of heart, and I am so glad it is finally streaming. Please insert this into your watch list to break up your steady diet of nightmare fuel.
Read our review of Tiger Strips here.
Verónica (2017)
Where You Can Watch: Netflix and Pluto TV
An evil entity attaches itself to a teen girl who made contact with a Ouija board. This Spanish film is inspired by true events and is possibly the most sinister period film on the list. Poor Verónica gets her first period while battling the demonic spirits invading her body. That is a lot for anyone to deal with at any age, and I am not surprised this movie lives rent-free in so many of our minds. If you enjoy this movie, you might want to watch the prequel Sister Death, also available on Netflix. However, in my opinion, Verónica is the better film.
Hopefully, some of these period films will leave you wanting more. If so, I suggest checking out what Alter has to add to the conversation. I also encourage you to boost filmmakers who know the real meaning of period horror.
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