The spooky season is here! Teens and tweens are looking for scary (but not too scary!) movies to watch. Does Netflix’s Nightbooks fall into this category? This parent movie review will help parents decide if Nightbooks is safe for kids to and if it can be added to your Halloween movie list!
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About Netflix’s Nightbooks
When Alex (Winslow Fegley), a boy obsessed with scary stories, is trapped by an evil witch (Krysten Ritter) in her magical apartment and must tell a scary story every night to stay alive, he teams up with another prisoner, Yasmin (Lidya Jewett), to find a way to escape.
Rated TV-PG
Watch the trailer to Nightbooks here.
Is Nightbooks Safe For Kids?
Nightbooks is a new horror film targeted for a younger audience. It’s now playing on Netflix.
Since your kids probably know more about Netflix than YOU do, you might want to take a peep at this movie before you assume Nightbooks is ok for little kids.
This parent movie review will cover language, violence, and the overall scare factor to help parents decide if this one is kid-friendly for their teens and tweens.
Language In Nightbooks: Is This Safe For Kids?
The language in Nightbooks doesn’t have a lot of heavy swears.
Just enough insult level smears like creepshow, tryhard, stupid, lame, twit, freak and minor swears like crap, h@ll, and at least one d@mn.
There is also use of the phrase “Oh my G-d.”
Is Nightbooks Too Scary For Kids?
It’s got some fairly heavy-duty moments that will definitely be scary for younger kids.
Visually there are some low-key horrifying moments that even adults won’t be able to gloss past!
There are creepy witches, an evil unicorn, kid ghosts with white eyes, a real-life Hansel and Gretel scene, a cave with skulls, a witch in a coffin, and a whole host of other moments that classify this story as a horror movie.
For some kids, Nightbooks is certainly too scary!
This isn’t Frankenweenie, folks!
Violence In Nightbooks: Is This Ok For Kids?
There isn’t a lot of gore or blood, so your teens and tweens will be safe watching Nightbooks if that’s a concern for your family. Please note: I did not say there wasn’t any— there definitely are a few moments!
Violence is on the supernatural level in this movie.
There are moments when a cat is put in physical danger (she’s ultimately ok!) and children are force choked.
The witch does kill children and turns them into statues, but it’s not a physically violent moment.
There is also violence towards the witch as the kids fight back, including a burning scene.
What Ages Is Nightbooks Appropriate For? Can Your 10-Year-Old Watch Nightbooks?
As always, you know your kids best. What works for your family may not work for others.
But here are our recommendations for ages that Nightbooks would possibly be appropriate for.
There are good messages tucked into this mini-horror movie, which make it somewhat kid-friendly for the younger crowd.
Themes of embracing what makes you different (even if it means you are a little weird) and never leaving a friend behind are reasons kids 10 and up might be able to watch this one.
However, if your child is sensitive to the dark and creepy, this show is not appropriate or kid-friendly for them. They could stick to the Addams Family and probably be fine this Halloween season.
But if they’ve already seen something like Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark, this one will be just fine.
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Patty Holliday is a parent movie reviewer, writer, and podcaster living in the Washington, DC area. Her goal is to bridge the gap between casual fandom and picky critic with parent movie and television reviews. As a lifelong fangirl and pop culture connoisseur, she’s been creating online since 2009. You can find her work at No-Guilt Disney.com, No-Guilt Fangirl.com, No-Guilt Life, and as host of the top-rated No-Guilt Disney Podcast.