15 Best Animated Movies To Watch During Halloween

The imminent arrival of Halloween means it's time to plan some creepy horror movie marathons. While many people focus exclusively on live-action spooky films, of which we have some curated suggestions, there's a whole world of animated terrors just waiting for a Halloween watch. Some are for kids and some for adults. Some come hand-drawn or animated via computer, while others are stop-motion. Some pit beloved cartoon characters against midnight mysteries, while others involve madness and murder.

The 15 films below run the gamut from playful scares to gory horror and feature stories ranging from the goofy to the bleakly disturbing. Basically, there's something here for everyone to show that animated movies can scratch that Halloween itch. And like all horror movies, they're also fun to watch the rest of the year too!

Now, keep reading for a look at the best animated movies to watch during the Halloween season.

It's the end of the world as we know it, but here comes 9, a ragdoll who awakes on Earth after all life has been extinguished. The culprit? An A.I. created by naive humans in the hope that it would help foster peace.

It's clear from that synopsis that Shane Acker's "9" isn't your typical animated fare for children, but it's hardly meant solely for adults either. The film focuses on nine disparate personalities in the form of these sentient ragdolls, and while the other eight are content hiding from the mechanized threat, it's our hero 9 (voiced by Elijah Wood) who suggests they need to actually fight back. It's a fantastic theme and message for viewers of all ages that's far too relevant now.

Of course, the reason that the film lands a spot on this list is because it emits a creepy vibe and unsettling atmosphere. Sharply crafted computer animation brinks its steampunk world to eerie life complete with haunting images of humankind's last days. The mechanical threats might be soulless, but they're no less terrifying in their aggressively violent appearances.

Alvin has been having nightmares about a wolfman chasing him down through the woods, but everyone else writes it off as a side effect of his love for scary movies. The truth is revealed, though, when a new neighbor named Lawrence Talbot starts showing some shaggy, toothy behaviors.

Far removed from the above film's bleak setting, "Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman" has fun unleashing some spooky fun in everyday suburbia. The film is a follow-up to the previous year's "Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein," and both are entertaining riffs on both the Universal monsters and the classic horror/comedy mashups by Abbott and Costello.

The filmmakers know the sandbox they're playing in, and it adds some fun notes for older viewers as the film weaves in strands of "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde" and the dangers of repressing our true selves. It's obviously no deep study on the topic, but horror fans will enjoy seeing those threads in a movie made with kids in mind while kids should have a good time with its gentle scares and transformations.

Coraline and her parents have moved to a new home in rural Oregon, but the girl soon discovers something odd in the house's wall. There's a doorway to another dimension, and while it all seems lovely at first glance, something dark is afoot.

This is the first of five stop-motion animated films on this list, and it's a telling stat on the power and effectiveness of the art form. Stop-motion uses physical characters, sets, and props which give the film a more tangible feel than standard animation can muster, and that tactile approach adds unavoidable weight to the horrors here as a young girl discovers all is not well in an otherwise perfect world.

Director Henry Selick and the artists at Laika Entertainment fill "Coraline" to bursting unsettling imagery (buttons for eyes!), creepy monsters (that spider!), and Halloween appropriate elements like ghosts, disembodied hands, and the thought of dead children, but it has some important themes at play too. Its pacing might be too slow for the little tykes, but older kids will find a lot to love in the fairy tale-like spookiness here.

An assassin drops down into the bowels of a living hell with a purpose and a bomb. He reaches his destination, but victory won't look like he imagined it.

Phil Tippett, master of stop-motion animation and visual effects behind permanent fixtures in pop culture like "Star Wars," "Robocop," "Jurassic Park," and more, takes a serious turn with the nihilistic nightmare that is "Mad God." The film offers up a litany of brutal scenes as creatures are tortured and slaughtered without respite or hope of salvation. There is no escape from this hell, but it's a visually arresting journey all the same.

There's an undeniable beauty to Tippett's stop-motion work, much of which he did himself over three decades, but the film is best described by a single word — bleak. It can be read as a standalone tale, but it offers up a clear commentary on the carnivorous world we live in that moves in a cyclical motion. Pain, death, pain, death — only the maddest, cruelest god could have conceived what amounts to life.

Every neighborhood has the one house that you just don't visit on Halloween (or any other day, for that matter) because the owner is antagonistic towards kids. Sometimes, though, it's the actual house itself that you need to watch out for.

"Monster House" leans towards the kiddies and made our list of the best kid's movies to watch during Halloween, but it comes closer to straddling that line than many of its peers thanks to some dark scenes and gags. The house is alive, possessed by the angry spirit of a woman who died in a cement mixer in the basement, and it eats a few people with its big toothy front door before its onslaught can be stopped. There are some legitimately frightening sequences here too.

The computer animation is paired with motion-capture, and while that can sometimes add an unintended and unappealing creepiness (we're looking at you "The Polar Express"), it works here to make the characters actually feel livelier. They're believable preteens caught up in their own antics and fears, and the house gives them a common focus with an unexpectedly empathetic backstory making for a fun, creepy tale with heart.

Jack Skellington is the king of Halloween and the big kahuna of Halloween Town, but when he discovers Santa Claus and the colorful joys of Christmas Town, he wants to make a drastic change.

Debating whether or not "Die Hard" is a Christmas movie is so yesterday. Today's cool kids are fighting over whether "The Nightmare Before Christmas" belongs to Halloween or Christmas. Sure, the latter holiday is right there in the title, but the film itself is all about the glorious scares, creeps, and fashion choices that scream Halloween. It's a film that embraces the holiday horrors as purely and truly fun, and that's something we should all remember.

As fun as it is, as entertaining as some of the songs are, and as important as some of its themes are, director Henry Selick — yes, this is another Selick film and not a Tim Burton-directed one — also delivers some terrifically creepy sequences and playfully visceral imagery (some inspired by a classic horror film). The villainous Oogie Boogie may be a fantastic song and dance man, but he's also a burlap sack filled with bugs. This is pure nightmare fuel.

Norman is a boy with a secret who lives in a small town with an even bigger one. He can talk to the dead, and thanks to a centuries old curse, the town is about to be overrun as the dead rise from their graves.

Laika's second feature film feels like an Amblin adventure brought to life via stop-motion animation as a ragtag group of kids band together to save their town from a menacing threat. It's funny and full of heart, and the kids are more than mere caricatures as they deal with bullies, curses, generational guilt, and the walking dead. The family element is always strong in Amblin films, and that holds true here, especially as the dead start rising.

There's something of a nod to George Romero, too, as "ParaNorman" imbues its zombie tale with social commentary and human depth. We get set pieces big and small involving witches, zombie hordes, and puritanical injustice fueled by fear, and all of it works hand in rotting hand with a sweetly humorous coming of age story. You also have to respect the title pun as that's an artform we just don't see enough of these days.

A former pop star turned actress finds herself targeted by a deranged fan, but that might not be her biggest problem. A series of murders begins, each victim connected to her in some way, and she begins to worry that she might actually be the killer.

It would be easy enough to fill this entire list with Japanese anime films featuring monsters, demons, psychos, and more, but we're settling for three (with the other two appearing further down the page). Satoshi Kon's "Perfect Blue" is a dark psychological thriller delving headfirst into a woman's psyche, and it's fitting company with filmographies from the likes of David Lynch and Darren Aronofsky.

It's a sharply twisted tale that puts its protagonist through the wringer with no guarantee she'll make it out the other side. The film messes with your mind almost as severely as it does the character, but Kon is equally sure to craft a satisfying thriller element into the mix offering a suspenseful throughline and exciting finale. It fits right into a decade known for its erotic thrillers like "Basic Instinct" and "Color of Night," while also cranking up the psychological terror.

The Mystery Inc. gang — Daphne, Fred, Shaggy, Velma, and Scooby-Doo — disband with the understanding that real supernatural threats just don't exist. They reunite a year later, though, and discover that maybe, just maybe, they actually do.

The entire shtick of Scooby-Doo cartoons has always been that the monsters and ghosts they're encountering are actually just greedy people in disguise. What "Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island" presupposes, though, is that sometimes a supernatural threat involves very real zombies, voodoo rituals, and werecats. Yes, werecats. This is a lot of fun, especially for fans of the original cartoon, as the gang goes through the expected steps fully thinking a masked real estate developer is waiting at the end.

The film handles that expectation beautifully — and in a way that immediately shows a slightly creepier edge than the show — by having Fred remove a zombie mask only to have the undead creature's head come off instead. Beautiful. Add in voice-work from genre veterans like Adrienne Barbeau and Mark Hamill, and you have a fun time for all ages and a solid double feature with the Alvin and the Chipmunks adventure above.

A teenager running from a bad situation and a desperate father in pursuit find themselves caught up in something bigger than them both with the start of a violent, zombie-like pandemic.

Yeon Sang-ho's animated "Seoul Station" is a prequel to his own live-action original "Train to Busan" and makes the cut on our list of the scariest animated films. With that warning, the film delivers a grim and gritty fight for survival against increasingly insurmountable odds. The infected grow in number and ferocity, and the violence soon becomes paired with some genuinely upsetting human conflict too.

Yeon's animated films in particular tend to have a grimly cynical view on humanity — if you haven't seen them yet, both "The King of Pigs" and "The Fake" are well-worth seeing — and this is no different. The infected may be the deadliest monsters on the screen, but they're far from the cruelest. That emotional toll ends up being every bit as horrifying as the physical carnage as we're reminded that we don't always get to wake up from a nightmare.

A woman is abducted by a vampire, and fearing the worst, her family hires an infamous dhampir — half human, half vampire — named D to recover her... dead or alive.

"Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust" is a follow-up to 1985's anime "Vampire Hunter D," although it's a standalone adventure rather than a direct sequel. It's also an improvement on that earlier film in every possible way, from the animation style to the story to a scope that feels big and populous in the best ways. Backstory threads throughout without ever hampering the current tale, and even newcomers to the legendary character's adventures will find themselves thrilled and satisfied.

Vampires are the core threat here, but the film explores a whole world of creatures and lore in ways that keep the energy and curiosity high. Werewolves, shapeshifters, mutants, nightmarish sanctuaries floating in space, resistance fighters, Countess Carmilla Bathory — there's a lot packed into the film, and the result is a densely entertaining adventure overflowing in carnage, bloodletting, and horror. It's a gothic action/adventure, mashing genres with abandon and delivering stylish thrills.

Two friends celebrate the end of school with a hike into the mountains, but the adventure they're looking for isn't quite the one that they find. Monsters, robots, bodily fluids, and more await them.

The first thing to point here is that "Violence Voyager" plays fast and loose with the animation label as it's what's known as geki-mation. Instead of single frames bringing images to life, cutout characters are moved against a drawn backdrop — think paper dolls but lensed like a complete narrative. The second thing to point out here? This is one f***ed up movie.

What starts as a legitimately fun-sounding adventure with kids play-acting against an alien invasion shifts to a desperate fight for survival, as kids are mutated, melted, and murdered with abandon. The film's mad scientist behind the terror feels like a nod to both real-world wartime atrocities and early entries in Japan's notorious "Guinea Pig" franchise. Seriously, things unfold here involving children that you'll never see in live action movies (and nor should you want to), and the clash between guignol-like set-pieces and paper doll innocence works to create a nightmarish, off-kilter atmosphere. It being weirdly entertaining is just icing on the cake.

A small town's Giant Vegetable Competition looms near, but someone — or some thing — is eating the prized produce after midnight. Wallace and Gromit are on the case, but they're not alone as another party is hoping to kill the beast before it strikes again.

Our final stop-motion entry comes from the makers of "Chicken Run" and delivers laughs, goofy scares, and action through the combined powers of imagination and clay. "Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit" plays around in the Universal monster sandbox with its tale of a menacingly nocturnal creature who's an innocently amiable goof by day — fans of the Wallace & Gromit characters should already know who's been cursed into gnoshing vegetables at night.

Fast and funny dialogue, frequently heavy on produce and horror-themed puns, goes hand in hand with humorous gags and pratfall-laden physical comedy. The horror elements are light but a good time for kids and older fans of classic horror films making for a fun Halloween watch for all ages. Bonus, you can't knock a film that encourages kids to eat their veggies!

A rabbit colony is forced out of their den by the encroachment of humans, and so begins a journey to find a new home. Danger is everywhere, though.

Opinions vary as to whether or not "Watership Down" is suitable for kids, let alone intended for them, but there's a real argument to be made that children's entertainment has grown far too soft, saccharine, and simple over the years. This late 1970s feature is none of those things and instead deliver a challenging, heartbreaking, and horrifying tale of survival set within the world of cuddly (and not-so cuddly) rabbits.

The film features some straight-up nightmarish sequences grounded in the real-world as rabbits are killed by predators, trapped by humans, and engaged in battle with aggressive members of their own species. It's a tale of loss and perseverance that balances its horror and "humanity" on a very fine line, and its metaphor for the evils and compassion of humankind lands with both hugs and gut punches. Fans should seek out "The Plague Dogs," an adaptation of another Richard Adams novel by the same filmmakers, a film that made both our lists of the best dog films and the scariest animated movies.

A fragile treaty exists between humankind and demons, but time is running out for its renewal. Now two people, one from each side of the divide, are in a race against time and evil to secure peace once again.

While a few of the films on this list should be considered off limits for children, none make their case as graphically as Yoshiaki Kowajiri's "Wicked City." There's violence and gore aplenty, but this being late 1980s anime, there's also some fairly graphic sexual violence involving humanoid demons. It's brutal and over the top, captured in sharp, colorful animation, but it's also part of the film's thematic narrative.

The demons only know sex as violence, but as the story hurtles forward on a rail greased with all manner of bodily fluids, the importance of a consummated love rears its head. It's integral to the survival of humans and demons alike, and while getting there is a splash of carnage and assault, the end result speaks to the power of love both emotional and physical. Don't mistake this to mean the film softens in its back half, though, as its horrifying offenses are legion.