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When film fans want to find the scariest horror movies of all time, they typically go straight for the most visceral and graphic choices. However, the best PG-13 horror movies not only deliver many of the same kinds of jump scares and horrific monsters of R-rated movies, but some of them are also even counted as the most iconic examples of the genre. Genuinely scary PG-13 movies aren’t as rare as some may think they are, so much so that some film fans’ favorite horror movies ever might have significantly lower ratings than they had assumed.
The best PG-13 horror movies prove that terrifying scenes are the product of skillful direction and great acting, not gore or any other kinds of explicit material that are prevalent in R-rated slasher movies like Friday the 13th. As the old saying goes, the most frightening things to a person exist in their own imagination and these movies stimulate that imaginative part of the viewer’s brain. Whether they’re taking a comedic approach to the genre or telling a story that’s deadly serious, these PG-13 horror movies never sacrifice quality to hit their rating.
25 Signs (2002)
Available to stream on HBO Max
An intimately dramatic sci-fi horror film about one family’s experiences on a secluded farm as the world begins to realize that an alien invasion is coming, Signs is packed full of jump scares and monstrous frights but all of them work because the audience is able to invest itself in the characters. Writer and director M. Night Shyamalan slowly raises the tension throughout most of the film until the invasion begins in the third act, bringing every simmering plot point to a boil before tying it all together beautifully in the final scene.
24 Carriers (2009)
Available to stream on Pluto TV and Paramount+
Chris Pine shines in this post-apocalyptic road movie about a small group of survivors trying to evade a deadly virus that has already wiped out most of civilization. As the chaos of the world ending exposes the darkness lurking within humanity, the plot of Carriers develops into an interesting PG-13 vehicle for the conventions of zombie movies, delivering a lot of the same kind of social commentary and survival scenarios seen in shows like The Walking Dead but with significantly less blood.
23 The Mothman Prophecies (2002)
Available to rent or purchase on Amazon Prime Video
A film that is ultimately just as enigmatic as its subject, The Mothman Prophecies revolves around sightings of a mysterious figure known only as the “Mothman” as a reporter (Richard Gere) is drawn into the inexplicable events that surround his chilling appearances. Elevated by its central performance from Gere and strong support from veteran dramatic actors Laura Linney and Will Patton, the film is a haunting meditation on the uncertainty that surrounds death, with its brazen lack of answers making the experience feel all the richer.
22 The Woman In Black (2012)
Available to rent or purchase on Amazon Prime Video
It would be a mistake to assume that The Woman in Black skimps on the darkest aspects of ghost stories just because of the story’s theatrical roots and the inclusion of Daniel Radcliffe in the lead role, even if he was fresh off of his run as fantasy hero Harry Potter at the time of making it. The Woman in Black may not reinvent the ghost story, but it plays all the hits of the format and goes for maximum creepiness in its scares without hesitation, dealing with some dark ideas in its story of a struggling lawyer (Radcliffe) and the haunted house that he’s sent to put in order.
21 Arachnophobia (1990)
Available to rent or purchase on Amazon Prime Video
One of the best horror comedies of 1990s, Arachnophobia revolves around a sinister species of spider that overruns a sleepy little town. A father who’s deathly afraid of spiders (Jeff Daniels) must protect his family when a deadly Amazon spider crossbreeds with a brown recluse, producing a spawn that makes the town’s unsuspecting citizens their prey. There are definite notes of Joe Dante’s Gremlins–the film which famously helped to inspire the creation of the PG-13 rating–in this creepy-crawly creature feature, blending practical-effects-based horror with old-fashioned slapstick comedy.
20 Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark (2019)
Available to stream on Pluto TV
Guillermo del Toro is the undisputed champion when it comes to modern monster movies, and there are few better PG-13 monster movies than this adaptation of Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark, which he produced. Based on the children’s books of the same name from author Alvin Schwartz and directed by André Øvredal, the movie takes not just the overall ideas for the monsters from the page, but the horrifying illustrations as well. The film manages to be scarier than the books while maintaining a PG-13 rating and barely spilling a drop of blood, although many of the movie’s kills are worse than a bloody mess.
19 The Exorcism Of Emily Rose (2005)
Available to rent or purchase on Amazon Prime Video
When movie fans hear the word exorcism, they immediately think of one of the best horror films of all time, William Friedkin’s The Exorcist, so any horror movie featuring even a reference to exorcism in the title automatically has a high standard to live up to. Scott Derrickson’s horror drama The Exorcism of Emily Rose is based on the real life case of Anneliese Michel, who died during an exorcism, and follows both a traditionally horror-like narrative thread, depicting the exorcism itself, and a more thoughtful legal drama thread, also showing the trial of the priest involved. Woven together, they both make for a uniquely interesting approach to the genre.
18 Devil (2010)
Available to stream on Starz
Based on a story by M. Night Shyamalan, Devil follows a group of strangers as they are trapped in an elevator, with the audience having to guess which character in the group is the supernatural killer picking the rest of them off one by one in the style of a classic Agatha Christie murder mystery when the lights go out. The film’s story has a very interesting concept that encourages engagement from the viewer and also aims for a fairly uncommon degree of theological depth for what is–for the most part–a claustrophobic thriller movie.
17 Lights Out (2016)
Available to rent or purchase on Amazon Prime Video
Before David F. Sandberg directed the acclaimed DC superhero movie, Shazam!, he directed the hit horror movie Lights Out, which was based on his highly popular short film of the same name. The central concept of the movie revolves around a deadly specter that can only exist in the dark. Dealing with heavy themes involving chronic illness, both physical and psychological, Lights Out has a more conceptually complex story than is first apparent, so it’s a much more thematically intriguing film than most PG-13 horror movies while still focussing on crowd-pleasing jump scares.
16 The Final Girls (2015)
Available to rent or purchase on Amazon Prime Video
Much more a comedy movie than a horror movie in terms of tone, but pure horror in terms of setting and subject matter, The Final Girls sees a young woman (Taissa Farmiga), still emotionally processing the sudden death of her mother (Malin Åkerman), sucked into an old 80s slasher movie that her mother starred in. It’s a fun deconstruction of the frequently-picked-apart slasher subgenre in the spirit of Wes Craven’s Scream films and the even more meta New Nightmare, but its emphasis on emotional catharsis sets it apart from most films that satirize the horror genre, which tend towards bleaker endings.
15 Insidious (2010)
Available to stream on HBO Max
James Wan created his second successful horror movie franchise–after Saw but still before The Conjuring–with this supernatural chiller. Patrick Wilson, who plays Ed Warren in the Conjuring movies, and Rose Byrne are excellent as the scared but determined parents of a young boy who’s beset by evil spirits. Though the film is in many ways a proto-version of the interconnected supernatural universe of the Conjuring movies, the suspense and gradually ramped-up intensity of the horror help the original Insidious movie attain the feel of an R-rated classic without the gore that usually comes with them.
14 Mama (2013)
Available to rent or purchase on Amazon Prime Video
It director Andy Muschietti struck a chord with another gothic coming-of-age story spun around a deadly supernatural force. Mama follows a musician (Jessica Chastain) who embraces an uncharacteristic maternal role after the nieces of her partner (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) are discovered alive after being presumed dead for years, having lived feral in the woods for some time. The girls claim that a protective presence that they call “mama” saved them, and this malevolent maternal force follows the pair back to their new lives. The family drama makes for an interesting dynamic between the characters and the horror strikes an interesting balance between modern ghost stories and dreamlike fantasy.
13 1408 (2007)
Available to stream on The Roku Channel
Adapted from a short story by the prolific horror icon Stephen King, 1408 is one of the more underrated movies made from King’s work and delivers a huge amount of variety from what may initially seem like a very limited setting. The plot follows a skeptical writer (John Cusack) who, after checking into the titular New York hotel room, finds himself trapped in an endless realm of ghosts and ghoulish tricks. The movie extracts a smorgasbord of scary scenarios as the dark history of the room comes to life before him, and it plays with his own guilt and regret.
12 The Skeleton Key (2005)
Available to stream on Starz
One of the most underrated supernatural horror movies of the 21st century, The Skeleton Key has a story that may seem conventional enough at first but incorporates complex historical subtext. The Southern Gothic style story follows a care nurse (Kate Hudson) who takes work at a secluded former plantation in Louisiana to care for a man paralyzed by a stroke (John Hurt). A hidden room within the house reveals a history of hoodoo ritualism, however, and themes of aging and guilt blend with deeper plays on identity and transformation. It’s certainly a prime example of a movie that needs to be seen twice to fully appreciate all of its nuances.
11 What Lies Beneath (2000)
Available to stream on HBO Max
Much more well-known for his adventurous comedies like the Back to the Future movies, director Robert Zemeckis broke type for this relatively small-scale–but still big-budgeted–haunted house story. What Lies Beneath hasn’t quite retained the level of pop-culture prominence that it once held but remains a methodically slow-burning approach to the genre with plenty of detail to chew on and an uncommon degree of star power from leads Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford. Pfeiffer stars as a woman who slowly unravels the mystery behind the haunting of her picturesque home, which naturally leads to a killer third-act twist when the truth is unearthed.
10 Cloverfield (2008)
Available to stream on Amazon Prime Video, The Roku Channel and Paramount+
This rollercoaster ride of a found footage horror movie follows a group of friends as they try to get out of New York City before it is totally destroyed by a monster of gigantic proportions. Even though the story offers no explanation as to what is happening or why it is happening, the movie’s almost non-stop mayhem and destruction successfully keep the audience from caring too much. Considering that Cloverfield is a found-footage horror film with a high kill count, the fact that it didn’t receive an R rating may seem surprising, but the language is subdued, and the violence, though bloody at times, isn’t dwelled on.
9 A Quiet Place (2018)
Available to stream on Paramount+
To sit in a theater in total silence is an experience that most moviegoers relish, but to sit in total silence when the movie is low on dialogue is an uncomfortably unusual feeling for many, which worked very much in A Quiet Place‘s favor when it was first released. The movie is about a family who is forced to live in silence because the world has become overrun by sightless monsters that hunt and kill anything they hear. The real-life husband and wife team of John Krasinski and Emily Blunt star as the struggling parents fighting for the survival of their children, and it makes for a very authentic experience.
8 Tremors (1990)
Available to stream on Tubi
One of the most beloved horror comedies of all time, this monster movie began its own long-lasting franchise of sequels and prequels thanks to some memorably endearing characters and a fun take on the blockbuster Jaws formula. In Tremors, the monsters move quickly underground and snatch their prey from below, turning a sleepy Nevada town into a battleground between the inhabitants and an unseen foe. The film has some gruesome kills in it but, all in all, it’s too enjoyably silly to warrant anything higher than its original PG-13 rating.
7 The Sixth Sense (1999)
Available to stream on Peacock and Paramount+
The Sixth Sense is the film that made the line “I see dead people” part of cinematic history and made M. Night Shyamalan an iconic figure within the industry. The plot of the movie follows a psychologist (Bruce Willis) as he tries to help a young boy (Haley Joel Osment) who claims that he can communicate with ghosts. The Sixth Sense doesn’t rely on special effects or jump scares to make its horror work and instead makes audience members think along with it, slowly building the suspense towards a powerful ending that entices everyone to watch it again to see the hidden clues that were missed.
6 Drag Me To Hell (2009)
Available to stream on Starz
Sam Raimi brought a classic kind of horror to the modern multiplex with Drag Me to Hell. Mixing the technical wizardry of a modern comic book blockbuster and the suspense thrills of the Evil Dead movies, Drag Me to Hell lives up to Riami’s most famous achievements. The plot follows a bank worker (Alison Lohman) who denies an elderly woman (Lorna Raver) a loan, leading to them being cursed to be terrorized by a demon for three days before it takes them to Hell. It’s a fiercely intense movie with an interesting level of subtext that fans have explored in the years since its release.
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