Quality All Ages Horror Movies Can Exist!

Though mentally fighting it every step of the way, my daughter is slowly coming to accept she is a major fan of the fun style of horror movies.

Amazingly, wanting to see Van Helsing again as soon as the credits rolled did not tip her off.

We’re both Tim Burton fans, but it was her decision to see Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children opening day.  Burton’s knack for serving up a family friendly horror film is still in full swing.

My daughter’s description was, “Completely terrifying but still awesome!”

Burton gets the balance.  Things can be scary without being caked in gore, or surrounded in depraved circumstances. However, completely avoiding any bits of splatter and evil would over neutralize the horror.

I won’t use any spoilers because this is the first film I’ve seen in a long while where every plot twist I was expecting based on normal Hollywood conventions didn’t happen, and the suspense was paid off in new and original ways near constantly.

In deference to my sister, I will warn that this is the most “eyebally” movie I’ve seen in my life, but even that has Tim Burton’s almost cartoony flair to it, making it passable for younger viewers.

The villains are desperately selfish and evil and the monsters are a panic inducing mix of several disparate elements of classically terrifying beasts.

They are balanced by the Peculiar Children themselves.  Originally I thought the best explanation of them would be a fantasy instead of science fiction based group of X-men.  In retrospect, that’s close, but a better one is that they embody the sense of “Ookyness” the original Addams family had that makes the viewer believe for all of their peculiarities, many of which could be terrifying on the surface, there is a sense of fun and family to them that makes the viewer drawn to being part of their group.

The main character is a boy, but there is an equal amount of rescuing going on by both the male and female Peculiars that balance things out quite nicely.

There’s not much else to say about it without revealing the excellent surprises that weave and dance throughout the entire film.

I’m just extremely excited about a new movie I can enjoy with my daughter that has equal parts laughter and screams, unexpected happenings all along the story’s route, and a gang of macabre but lovable characters.

So I felt the need to share.


Aside from encouraging others to see it and get us a sequel, I also know my daughter will ask me to read the "new post" to her, and maybe this will help her remember she'd probably like Burton's Sleepy Hollow.  

Sneaky? Maybe. But it worked for Godzilla!