The 15 Best PG-13 Horror Movies

Horror is a classic genre, spawning numerous media franchises that even those who keep scary content at arms length will know by name. From popular movies like "Friday the 13th" and "Scream" to video games like "Resident Evil" and "Silent Hill," no matter how you like to consume it, there is an option for everyone interested in thrills and chills. Many of the movies tend to be rated R, with some even being awarded the adults-only NC-17 option, showing audiences just how frightening, gory, or intense they might be and providing a fair warning of the kind of content to expect. 

R-rated films, however, aren't for everyone, even if the viewer is 17 years or older. That doesn't mean there aren't scary movies at their disposal, though. While the PG-13 rating didn't come about until 1984, plenty of horror projects have been given that classification since its inception. With seemingly endless choices, we've compiled a list of the best PG-13 horror movies you can watch today, from iconic features to some for which the rating may be come as a surprise.

What begins as a bad day at work turns into something more as Alison Lohman's Christine denies an elderly woman's request for a third extension on her mortgage payment in "Drag Me to Hell." After the woman curses Christine in the parking lot, the young woman's life turns upside down as a demon does everything in its power to force her into Hell.

The movie's PG-13 rating may come as a surprise considering the mind behind it. Director Sam Raimi is known for his work in the "Evil Dead" franchise, which is firmly R-rated. However, this 2009 film takes a different approach than Raimi's gruesome Deadite adventures. Fire is used to disguise the demon that is terrorizing Christine, covering her as it tries to pull her under the Earth's surface on more than one occasion. Common horror sequences, like a séance and someone else appearing beside her in bed, do provide enough scares to startle any viewer. There's even a goat scene that gets fans laughing every time. And it's all from a curse rooted in a coat button.

"The Office" actor John Krasinski put on his director and writer's hat with "A Quiet Place," the 2017 film that is almost entirely silent. The movie is set on a farm where a family is trying to be as quiet as possible so they don't attract the vicious alien invaders that stalk their prey by sound. Things go awry as the matriarch, played by Emily Blunt, goes into labor and everyone is separated from each other in the ensuing chaos.

While most horror relies on sound in some way, from using sudden music for jump scares or weird, loud noises to create a sense of foreboding, "A Quiet Place" mostly uses the absence of it. Unlike some on this list, we see the monsters in their entirety, watching as their faces open up like grotesque, blossoming flowers as they pursue their victims on spindly, fast-moving legs. By relying on the appearance of the agile creatures to create scares, instead of music cues, "A Quiet Place" is a great PG-13 horror movie. Better yet, the sequel, "A Quiet Place: Part II," and the prequel, "A Quiet Place: Day One," share the same rating, creating the perfect evening watchlist.

A classic 1990 horror film, "Tremors" is both hokey and scary in the best way. When Val (Kevin Bacon) and Earl (Fred Ward) decide to leave their small Nevada town in search of greener pastures, they are in for a shock as an underground monster terrorizes the town and its inhabitants. Wormlike in nature, the creatures, eventually called graboids, disturb anything in their path as they attack, using long split tongues with their own set of teeth to drag victims to their deaths.

For Kevin Bacon fans interested in watching the actor in a horror movie, but unable to stomach "Friday the 13th," "Tremors" is the ideal option. While audiences see the graboid, it looks like little more than an oversized worm with a huge mouth. As the walls shake and rattle, the scares are based more on when the beast will emerge than anything overtly gory. The acting is a bit over the top in the best way, with people running for their lives as the ground is uprooted behind them. With several PG-13 sequels in the "Tremors" timeline, there's plenty to watch for creature feature fans.

With the rise of found footage films after "The Blair Witch Project" hit screens in 1999, director Matt Reeves added his own entry to the genre in 2008 with "Cloverfield." After several disasters rock New York City, including an earthquake and an explosion that causes the decapitation of the Statue of Liberty, mysterious creatures turn the city streets into their hunting grounds as one person films the devastation.

At the time, many thought it was a bit unrealistic that someone would keep their camera on the entire time, but "Cloverfield" was ahead of its time, considering someone or something is always recording nowadays. Because of the hand-held nature of the filming, which makes you feel uncomfortable, we rarely see the alien in its entirety, instead seeing silhouettes or catching glimpses of it as the person with the camera is running for their life. 

This forces viewers to let their imagination run wild, creating something that is personally scary for them. The constant feeling of dread as the characters run for cover, combined with a monster of your own design, makes for a journey that will have you second-guessing a trip to New York anytime soon.

"Insidious" is the first installment in the multi-film franchise from James Wan, the writer, director, and producer behind "The Conjuring," "Saw," and "Malignant." Viewers of 2010's "Insidious" are introduced to The Further, a liminal space that is home to some less than ideal spirits ready to hitch a ride back to reality. Some individuals, like Dalton (Ty Simpkins), can travel there while astral projecting their consciousness, both intentionally and unintentionally.

A family moving to a new house is horror gold, and "Insidious" puts a new spin on the tired trope by making the child, not the house, the problem. From iconic spooky scenes with the lipstick demon, who arguably looks incredibly similar to Darth Maul from "Star Wars," to a creepy sequence connected to the song "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" that is popular online, there's plenty to unsettle audiences here. Most of the spirits are more mundane, like a pair of women in white dresses or a young boy dressed in a cap and vest, making the truly hideous ones stand out. All five films in the series are PG-13, making it the perfect franchise to binge for the tween crowd if they want to venture deeper into The Further.

Creepy dolls are a horror staple, but "M3GAN" took that to a new level while maintaining a PG-13 rating. Technically a humanoid robot, M3GAN is the next innovation in children's toys until she takes her objectives a bit too far while trying to protect the newly orphaned Cady (Violet McGraw). Built by designer Gemma (Allison Williams), the machine should be the answer to Gemma and Cady's problems, but there's something off about M3GAN from the start.

What follows will have you questioning the next high-tech toy you see in stores, but despite the robot's actions throughout the film — including an eerie dance that went viral online — the 2022 movie contains very little that would warrant an R rating. Many of M3GAN's dangerous actions are implied, with well-timed edits so the viewer rarely sees a body or blood. Unlike other possessed toys, M3GAN barely uses explicit language, instead focusing on overriding her programming so she can do whatever she wants in her efforts to take care of Cady — and she's willing to go quite far.

Naomi Watts — in a role the actress almost rejected – stars in "The Ring" as journalist Rachel Keller, who starts investigating a disturbing VHS tape after her niece Katie becomes a part of the growing number of people who have watched it and died. The 2002 American remake of the groundbreaking 1998 Japanese film "Ringu" did well at the box office, pulling in $249 million against its $48 million budget.

Unlike other popular entries at the time such as "Saw" or "Dawn of the Dead," "The Ring" relied on unnerving imagery over bloody kills to scare audiences, retaining its PG-13 rating. The cursed tape contains images of a woman combing her hair, a chair spinning on its own, and a well in the middle of a sparse forest, all accompanied by unsettling static and buzzing noises. Think the "American Horror Story" title sequences, only with the blue filter from "Twilight." "Scream" may have left a generation terrified of the phone ringing, but "The Ring" only built on that, combining frightening occurrences and the evil child trope to create a lingering sense of dread long after the tape is ejected from the VHS player.

The "monster of the week" gimmick is a television staple, with series like "Supernatural" running for years. "I Saw the TV Glow" incorporates the concept by introducing Owen (Justice Smith) and Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine), two teens who bond over their mutual love for "The Pink Opaque," a show starring two young girls with psychic powers who battle a different supernatural menace each week. After Maddy runs away and returns years later, she claims she spent the last several years inside the show, confusing Owen as he tries to understand the series finale with this new information.

"I Saw the TV Glow" is pure psychological horror, forcing viewers to consider their lives and the world around them more than anything, while also asking us to question our own identities. Mundane things, like glowing pink ghosts, take on a new meaning as Owen grapples with his life and thoughts. Is his life real or is he actually watching it play out in front of him on television? The 2024 film has also been cited as an allegory about the experience of transgender people, as both Owen and Maddy grapple with who they really are and living their authentic lives.

There are plenty of movies that feature aliens, but none of them execute it quite as well as M. Night Shyamalan's "Signs." Starring Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin, and Abigail Breslin in one of her first roles, "Signs" focuses on a family sheltering in their home after crop circles appear globally, including on their own farm. Will they survive the night? 

The 2002 film's most frightening scene — a video of an extraterrestrial crashing a birthday party — presents a terrifying image of a humanoid alien with textured skin. It's tall and fast and undeterred in its mission. The iconic Shyamalan twist — that water is harmful to the aliens — is mind-blowing in how ordinary it is. As far as PG-13 offerings go, this is easily one of the most effective on this list. With almost no gore or violence, all Shyamalan needs to make you pull the covers over your eyes are strange lights and shapes, unknown entities, and the sounds of something breaking into a house.

This wouldn't be a list of best horror films without including an Alfred Hitchcock classic. 1963's "The Birds" preys on a viewer's ordinary fear of things in the sky by focusing on something we can't control: our feathered friends. What starts as a simple romance, with socialite Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) delivering lovebirds as a gift to lawyer Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor), turns into a nightmare as all kinds of fowl inexplicably begin attacking everyone and everything in sight.

Birds seem to attract worrisome ideas, from the conspiracy theory that all pigeons were created by the government to watch us to the use of hooting owls to create creepy atmospheres. So an entire movie dedicated to how scary they can be was bound to happen. Different types of birds come together, from ravens to crows to small finches, attacking humans and causing destruction in seemingly random fashion. The birds are ruthless, as in one of the most well-known scenes in horror cinema in which they relentlessly pursue a group of schoolchildren. If you weren't already a little afraid of birds, you certainly will be after watching this.

International movie fans, never fear, we have a great PG-13 option for you. The 2016 Persian-language film "Under the Shadow" boasts the highest critic score of any on this list, with 99% on Rotten Tomatoes. It's set in 1980s Tehran, where Shideh (Narges Rashidi) and her daughter Dorsa (Avin Manshadi) are trying to survive a war with Iraq, though Shideh refuses to leave their home despite the frequent air raids.

After interacting with a new child in a neighboring apartment until a missile lands in their building, Dorsa begins to act out, believing her doll will protect her from everything. Shideh has nightmares and begins to see strange apparitions, including several that look like her daughter, causing her to question reality. This combination of events, all set against the backdrop of the conflict, creates an impactful horror story of a mother doing what she feels is best to protect her daughter from both the fighting between countries and an entity she can't see. A demon that travels on the wind can follow you anywhere, providing audiences with a more natural scare that they can't forget after the credits roll.

M. Night Shyamalan has another entry on this list with "Split," his 2016 sequel to "Unbreakable." James McAvoy plays the role of his career as Kevin, a man with dissociative identity disorder who goes to therapy to manage his symptoms and some 23 alternate personalities. One of the "alters," Dennis, abducts three teens from a parking lot, and the situation only spirals from there.

The horror of "Split" comes from watching McAvoy portray the different characters. Some are more passive than others, and one has a terrifying reputation, leading the kidnapped teens to struggle for their lives as they attempt to determine which alters are on their side and play them against each other. Anya Taylor-Joy is the lead teen, Casey, who interacts with the alters the most. Her fear is palpable as she assesses the situation and tries her best to make it out alive. It's a great option for viewers looking for a PG-13 offering that is less reliant on common horror tropes and more rooted in realistic actions and psychological suspense.

Since "Groundhog Day," movies of all genres have used the well-worn "time loop" device with various degrees of success. "Happy Death Day" shows just how well it can be used in horror, forcing college student Tree (Jessica Rothe) to relive her birthday over and over again as she tries to work out the person behind the babyface mask who keeps killing her.

It's a hoot to watch Tree connect the dots as she investigates her own demise on repeat, and her reactions to waking up every morning in a bed that isn't hers are hilarious every time. While most horror masks are frightening, the babyface mask is just on the other side of "uncanny valley." With a single buck tooth and bright blue eyes, you can't take your eyes off it, no matter how hard you try. And even though it looks like a baby, it's all too easy to believe the person behind it is as menacing as they are. The 2017 film took over a decade to hit theaters, but it was worth it.

A period paranormal horror tale, 2001's "The Others" features Nicole Kidman as Grace Stewart, a woman living with her children in the Channel Islands after the end of World War II. Her daughter Anne (Alakina Mann) begins experiencing supernatural activity, making friends with a ghost boy named Victor and his family. However, nothing is quite what it seems, and by the end of the movie there is more happening under the roof than Grace thought possible.

"The Others" walks that fine line between supernatural and psychological horror, though the truth isn't fully clear until the end, when it executes the best twist of any of the films on this list. Who is a ghost and who isn't? That's a question you'll only be able to answer if you watch all the way through. Grace could be considered an unreliable narrator, so take everything she says and does with a grain of salt. Fans of confusing timelines, elegant ghost stories, and stellar lead performances should be adding "The Others" to their watchlist.

The three volumes of "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" are staples in school book catalogs, and a compendium of some of those tales came to screens in 2019 with an adaptation produced by acclaimed filmmaker Guillermo del Toro. Directed by André Øvredal, seven different stories from the series come to life in the movie, including stories in which a woman looks for her big toe, a creepy scarecrow goes after a jock, and tons of baby spiders erupt from a teen's face.

The movie's framework, in which the stories are discovered in a book the characters find in an abandoned house, is reminiscent of the device of Tom Riddle's diary in "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets." "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" is nostalgic for those that grew up reading the books, and the way the creative team behind the film took those fears and brought them to life is imaginative and terrifying.