A good many horror movies focus on younger characters, perhaps because it can be more frightening to see people inexperienced with life in general having to tackle larger-than-life and/or supernatural threats. Children and teenagers (or even young adults) are more vulnerable, much of the time, and they have to deal with the nightmares of growing up alongside more outwardly horrible things the writer could choose to throw at them.
Perhaps the greatest horror-adjacent work about the horrors of growing up is Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but that show had 144 episodes to develop its characters and introduce dozens of metaphorical villains and obstacles. As for coming-of-age movies that are scary (while not necessarily being works of horror, 100%)? That’s what these films are hopefully for; they should, more or less, scratch the same itch.
10
‘Fright Night’ (1985)
Directed by Tom Holland
The premise of Fright Night is a pretty instantly enjoyable one, as it focuses on a high school student having doubts about a very charismatic new neighbor. Everyone around him seems to be on this new neighbor’s side, so the student takes it upon himself to try and expose the truth. And, when something supernatural is indeed going on, the young man’s the only person who can save everyone else.
That’s talking around the main reveal of the movie, which might not even be too much of a spoiler, but hey, Fright Night is a good mystery until it shifts into being a good comedic horror movie, and so it’s best to enjoy as much of the ride as possible without knowing where exactly it goes. It taps into some different genres well, and is also pretty effective as both a gentle parody of some horror conventions while being more than willing to play other conventions straight, in order to elicit genuine scares.
9
‘It’ (2017)
Directed by Andy Muschietti
At the core of It is a pair of terrifying stories or, maybe more specifically, two different things that are threatening the core group of young heroes (who go on to become adults in the other part of the source material, and in the second movie released in 2019). One antagonist is a shape-shifting demon who takes on the form of a clown, more often than not, and then the other set of antagonists are some super brutal bullies.
It definitely feels like a coming-of-age story by the end of it, but it puts many kids through (near-literal) hell beforehand.
The latter are things that kids generally have to deal with while growing up, while the supernatural stuff makes everything a good deal harder and, understandably, more in-your-face on a horror front. It also manages to be about perseverance and succeeding through hardships, so it definitely feels like a coming-of-age story by the end of it, but it puts many kids through (near-literal) hell to get there.
8
‘Suicide Club’ (2001)
Directed by Sion Sono
Sion Sono is an undeniably provocative filmmaker, with his best-known film probably being the wild, untamed, and very long Love Exposure. He often puts uncomfortable, disturbing, and transgressive things in his movies, which can be said for Love Exposure, and it can also be said for the rather alarmingly titled Suicide Club, which he directed several years before Love Exposure.
It is, at its core, a movie about some very troubled youths, and the aftermath of what happens when dozens of teenage girls choose to, all at once, throw themselves into a speeding subway train. There’s a procedural element to unpacking what’s going on, and, beyond the horrific subject matter, some horror also comes about because of the discoveries made. It’s arguably made all the more unsettling because so much of the violence and death here involves young people. Suicide Club is, for all these reasons and more, very hard to recommend, but it does work as a horrific film that also deals, to some extent, with coming-of-age-related themes.
7
‘Hounds of Love’ (2016)
Directed by Ben Young
It’s hard to call Hounds of Love just a horror movie and leave it at that, as it might be more of a crime/thriller film. Though it’s also unbearably tense and claustrophobic in ways that make it feel like a horror movie a good chunk of the time, especially because the premise here centers on a teenage girl being kidnapped by a volatile couple who hold her prisoner, and themselves start to argue and have their own lives fall apart.
So, there are captors who are out of their element, a young woman forced to grow up very first if she ever wants to escape, and an overwhelming feeling of breathlessness, owing to how tense so many scenes are, and the fact that it’s so restrained setting-wise it might well be a bottle movie. Hounds of Love is an intense and uneasy watch, but it’s also admirably ambitious and is pretty much guaranteed to get one’s heart racing, no matter how many crime/horror-related movies about kidnapping you might’ve seen.
- Release Date
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October 7, 2016
- Runtime
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108 minutes
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Ashleigh Cummings
Vicki Maloney
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Susie Porter
Maggie Maloney
6
‘Raw’ (2016)
Directed by Julia Ducournau
There will be blood in Raw, if you couldn’t guess from the title and the posters the movie tends to have, which don’t show much blood, sure, but you take that little amount of blood and then you start to realize where the movie’s going, and then you’re going to be well-prepped for lots of blood. But it’s more than just a gore-fest, and it shows disgusting and confronting things with a purpose.
Basically, Raw is about a teenage girl whose life spins out of control after she eats raw meat for the first time, and finds herself having, let’s say, “new” cravings in her life. Each scene gets a little more alarming and disgusting than the last, with the escalation of it all being really impressively done, in hindsight. It’s a challenging sit, and an uncompromising movie about how one might well change in the years between childhood and adulthood, but it’s exceptionally well-executed and genuinely harrowing.
5
‘Carrie’ (1976)
Directed by Brian De Palma
Even more than It, the definitive Stephen King story that pairs the nightmares of growing up with some more traditionally King-esque supernatural-related nightmares is Carrie, which was the first published novel of his. Therefore, it unsurprisingly became the first novel of his to get a big-screen film adaptation, coming out in 1976 and being mostly true to the text, even if the scale had to be reduced a little (and the structure made somewhat more straightforward).
Whether you choose to read or watch Carrie (or be cool by doing both), what you get is a very intense and emotional story about a bullied girl finding some relief from her horrible life, but then having it thrown away in an instant. She reacts with anger and, since she has telekinetic powers, this ends up being very bad news for everyone involved. It’s not a subtle story when it comes to its anti-bullying message (nor is it nuanced regarding what it has to say about overbearing and abusive parents), but it’s still pretty damn effective nonetheless.
4
‘The Night of the Hunter’ (1955)
Directed by Charles Laughton
This is a bit of an unusual pick, seeing as The Night of the Hunter doesn’t really start out feeling like a coming-of-age movie, nor is it fully a work of horror, either. Instead, it’s a particularly nightmarish thriller that crosses over into horror territory at times, and while there are a pair of children introduced early on, they don’t really become the “main” characters until the film’s second half.
They’re on the run from a serial killer, basically. There’s plenty else that happens, but that’s the gist of it. And the nightmarish – and always slightly off – world they exist in forces them to make it on their own for a while, and grow up fast, or else risk getting killed (or worse) by the man following them. Does it all come together? Does it have to? It’s The Night of the Hunter. It’s just as wild and untamed a movie in 2025 as it would’ve been in 1955.
3
‘I Saw the TV Glow’ (2024)
Directed by Jane Schoenbrun
I Saw the TV Glow is best experienced and then thought about once it’s over, rather than having the plot get explained. What exactly is happening here on a narrative front is sometimes ambiguous and ultimately character-focused. It’s a film about memory, identity, and losing oneself, be it physically, emotionally, or sexually. Maybe just losing oneself wholly.
That’s a massive reason why it lingers in the mind long after it’s over. Lots of horror movies can feel haunting or even haunted, but few to the extent that I Saw the TV Glow does. It has a uniquely unsettling quality few movies can offer quite so powerfully, and though vague at times, it still evokes an overwhelming number of things about growing up, being oneself, and losing things that matter to you.
- Release Date
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May 3, 2024
- Runtime
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100 minutes
- Director
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Jane Schoenbrun
- Writers
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Jane Schoenbrun
2
‘Let the Right One In’ (2008)
Directed by Tomas Alfredson
If you want vampires to be goofy, or romantic, or cool, then there are numerous movies and stories in other mediums out there that will satisfy. Weirdly enough, vampires being shown as genuinely horrifying and disturbing are rarer, but you do get that with Let the Right One In, which plays by some well-established vampire-related rules while also doing its own thing, and pairing vampire horror with a surprisingly tender coming-of-age story.
You do think it’s about two young people finding each other and then trying to find their way through their changing lives, but one of them isn’t actually all that young, what with the vampire thing being present in the plot. So, further layers of horror and unease are added, but all the while, there is still a strange sort of heart to Let the Right One In; one that stands out all the more because the warmth of it is heavily contrasted with all the violence and authentically bleak coldness (like, weather-wise) shown on-screen.
1
‘Christiane F.’ (1981)
Directed by Uli Edel
To cap things off, here’s what’s probably the scariest coming-of-age movie of all time, and it’s not even something that can be called a horror movie. The film is Christiane F., and it’s a masterpiece, but it’s also so confronting and difficult to watch that no one can be blamed for not wanting to sit down, watch it, and subsequently feel absolutely miserable and emotionally drained.
Christiane F. is a blunt and in-your-face anti-drugs movie, but it shows quite effectively how a young person might, without proper knowledge, easily fall into such a lifestyle.
It’s about a young girl who falls in with the wrong crowd, and experimenting with less dangerous drugs soon gives way to experimenting with genuinely dangerous ones, all to the point where her life is entirely changed and there’s never any peace of mind. Christiane F. is a blunt and in-your-face anti-drugs movie, but it shows quite effectively how a young person might, without proper knowledge, easily fall into such a lifestyle. And, in that sense, it’s an excellent feature-length warning regarding what drugs and addiction can do to a young person already overwhelmed by the other things that come with growing up.