Scary book/movie recommendations

[hottmama]

My son (4 on the 31st) LOOOVES scary things. He's having a costume party for his birthday, he loved all the scary costumes and decorations on Halloween, we saw Monster House in 3D and he said it wasn't scary (in a disappointed way). He thinks Wallace and Gromit's The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is hilarious. He loves all things scary. However, it seems that there aren't any really scary books or movies out there at his level. They're all pretty funny as if they are trying NOT to scare the kids. I don't want to watch horror movies with him, but what good scary things have you all found for young kids? I don't mind if it's a little beyond his level, as long as it's not really yucky gory or anything.
Thanks!

[Thalia the Muse]

My daughter was like this too! Until she very suddenly wasn't, and got scared of everything ...

Eve Bunting's "In the Haunted House" is a good one. He might like some of the Ray Harryhausen stop-motion animation films -The Golden Voyage of Sinbad or Vally of Gwangi. Paul Galdone really stands out as a picture-book artist who doesn't water down his scary stories -- try The Tailypo or The Monster and the Tailor.

Kinuko Craft's version of Vasilisa the Brave is pretty scary, and the illustrations are creepy and gorgeous.

Movies are harder -- most of the ones I can think of are REALLY scary. Has he seen The Witches (from a Roald Dahl story)?

This looks interesting, if you vet the stories carefully before you read them to him: http://www.amazon.com/Ask-Bones-Scar...e=UTF8&s=books

[jrcronewillis]

Oh, this is my DS to a tee. He is four and loves all things scary. Every time we walk by the video dept. in the grocery store he tries to convince me to rent SAW II. Um ICK!!!!! Let me say that DH and I are big scary fans too, but have no interest in slasher stuff. DS really got into the classic horror films this Halloween. Creature from the Black Lagoon was a huge hit. He was also excited by the Wolfman. If I think of others I'll post them. We've really enjoyed having a little horror fan!

Juliette

[Twocoolboys]

Has he seen the Nightmare Before Christmas and the Corpse Bride? Also, the Goosebumps chapter books are scary, but maybe too scary for a 4 year old. My 7 year old was a little creeped out by a couple of the ones he read, but he still kept reading - lol.

[lolar2]

Would the first Bunnicula book be too funny? I thought it was kind of scary, though the subsequent ones aren't.

[nicole lisa]

This is DS as well. A friend of ours rents horror films with his DD every Hallowe'en (started when she was 10) and she just loves them!

DS' fave movie at 2.5 was Nightmare Before Christmas and at 6 we've gone through one VHS and two DVDs. He finds it awesome but funny now. He loved Corpse Bride but found it very funny and not at all scary.

For scary stories we write our own and usually include some kind of physical surprise to get him to jump.

Have you tried the classic ghost movies? No slashing, but good story telling? The Changeling and Ghost Story were very spooky when I was 6 or 7. My whole family loved horror films so we saw them younger than the other kids on the block - and in the theatre to boot! Ah, small town life in the late seventies/early eighties .

[nicole lisa]

Just remembered, at 4 DS really liked In a Dark, Dark Room.
http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Room-Othe...e=UTF8&s=books

We also have Truly Scary Stories For Fearless Kids.
http://www.amazon.com/Truly-Scary-St...e=UTF8&s=books

[Thalia the Muse]

The Uninvited is a good, nonviolent old ghost-story film.

There's also the classic British anthology movie "Dead of Night," but it's REALLY scary -- it gave me nightmares for weeks, and I was nine or ten when I saw it.

[nicole lisa]

Oh, another movie you might want to check out is M. Night Shyamalan's The Village. Spooky forest and red caped beings and rated PG-13 in the States but just PG here in Canada. No gore or sex.

[sunnysideup]

Some scary (but fine for young kids) movies my kids have liked are Ghostbusters, Labyrinth, Beetlejuice, The Dark Crystal.

[hottmama]

Wow, so many great ideas! Thanks guys, we'll try all of them! I've never read/seen any of them except for The Village (which would be perfect, now that you mention it!)
The only problem is that I am not as brave as he is-- I don't want to watch scary movies because they scare ME!