Film
A Monster Calls
A tearjerker with teeth: Conor's mother is dying, his home life is fraying, and each midnight a towering yew-tree monster arrives to tell him three brutal stories before demanding the truth he's hiding. J.A. Bayona directs beautifully — the animation sequences for the monster's tales are gorgeous — but this is a properly sad film for children and adults alike, unflinching about grief. Bring tissues.
If you liked this
Bridge to Terabithia2007
Two lonely kids build an entire kingdom in the woods together, and the film trusts the fantasy as much as it trusts the gut-punch of real loss waiting at the end.
But The marketing sold it as a Narnia knockoff, so the grief that arrives midway can catch unprepared viewers off guard.

Pan's Labyrinth2006
Guillermo del Toro's fairy tale runs alongside fascist Spain, and its lonely heroine escapes into a mythic underworld that's every bit as dangerous as the war outside — gorgeous, ferocious filmmaking.
But It's genuinely violent and frightening in places — this is fantasy for adults grieving childhood, not a children's film.

Big Fish2003
A son tries to make peace with his dying father by finally believing his tall tales, and Tim Burton turns that reconciliation into a string of gorgeous, impossible stories.
But Burton's whimsy can tip into cuteness, and some find the father's mythologising more grating than moving.

The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
The Babadook2014
Same core idea as A Monster Calls — grief given a body and a voice — but pushed into full horror register, with the monster as an unwanted houseguest rather than a storyteller.
Essie Davis is extraordinary as a mother unraveling under grief and a demanding child, and the monster in the walls is one of horror's great metaphors — this is grief that refuses to be tidy.
But It's a horror film, full stop — tense, upsetting, and not remotely gentle with its young characters.

More like this (8)
Where the Wild Things Are2009no page yet
Spike Jonze takes Max's inner chaos and gives it fur and teeth, turning a boy's loneliness and anger into a whole island of monsters who feel exactly as complicated as childhood does.
But It's melancholy and slow rather than adventurous — younger kids expecting a romp may get restless.
The Iron Giant1999
A boy befriends a towering, mysterious machine in this beautifully animated Cold War fable about fear, loneliness, and choosing who you become.
But It's gentler and less overtly sad — the grief here is buried under adventure rather than sitting at the centre.

Room2015
Brie Larson and young Jacob Tremblay anchor a story about protecting a child's inner world when the outer one is unbearable — tender, clear-eyed, never exploitative.
But There's no fantasy cushion here at all — it's realism about trauma, which can be a harder watch.

The Book Thief2013no page yet
Death itself narrates this story of a girl finding words and family amid WWII's horrors, with the same instinct to soften unbearable truths through storytelling.
But Some critics found its whimsical narration sits oddly against the very real historical horror underneath.
Coco2017
Pixar's vivid Land of the Dead turns grief and memory into something joyful rather than frightening — a gentler, more colourful way into the same conversation about loss.
But It's aimed younger and resolves more warmly — don't expect the same weight or ambiguity.

My Girl1991
A sweet, funny, ultimately heartbreaking film about an eleven-year-old's first real encounter with death, anchored by a wonderful performance from a young Anna Chlumsky.
But It's a much smaller, more old-fashioned film — no fantasy element, just plain grounded childhood grief.

Grave of the Fireflies1988
Same premise, stripped of comfort — a child leaning on a sibling and on stubborn imagination to survive loss, but animated, wartime, and without any monster arriving to help make sense of it.
Studio Ghibli's devastating wartime story follows a boy and his little sister trying to survive alone, and it's often called one of the most heartbreaking films ever animated for good reason.
But There's no fantasy scaffolding and no mercy — this is one of the bleakest, saddest films you'll ever watch.

Forbidden Games1952
Decades before Conor built his own private ritual to survive his mother's illness, this French classic showed two children constructing an elaborate secret world — a graveyard for dead animals — to process death during wartime.
A quietly devastating French classic about two children inventing their own private ceremony for death because the adult world offers them nothing useful — tender, strange, and quietly furious.
But It's black-and-white, in French, and from 1952 — a real tonal and stylistic leap for a modern audience.

People
Cast
Lewis MacDougallConor
Sigourney WeaverGrandma
Toby KebbellDad
Ben MoorMr. Clark
James MelvilleHarry- Oliver SteerSully
Dominic BoyleAnton
Jennifer LimMiss Kwan- Max GabbaySteven
- Joe CurtisPeter
Morgan SymesLawyer
Directing
- J. A. BayonaDirector
- Fernando TrullolsFirst Assistant Director
- Glòria BlanesScript Supervisor
- Jan ZalarSecond Assistant Director
- Marc RialSecond Assistant Director
- Mónica SánchezSecond Assistant Director
- Ruben GoldfarbSecond Assistant Director
- Eugenio MiraSecond Unit Director
- Anna CapdevilaThird Assistant Director
- Jesus EspinThird Assistant Director
Writing
- Siobhan DowdIdea
- Patrick NessNovel
- Patrick NessScreenplay
Production
- Lyndsey HaluszczakAssistant Production Coordinator
- Josué CorralAssistant Production Manager
- Shaheen BaigCasting
- Layla Merrick-WolfCasting Associate
- Sandra HermidaCo-Producer
- Álvaro AugustínExecutive Producer
- Bill PohladExecutive Producer
- Enrique López LavigneExecutive Producer
- Ghislain BarroisExecutive Producer
- Jeff SkollExecutive Producer
- Jonathan KingExecutive Producer
- Mitch HorwitsExecutive Producer
- Patrick NessExecutive Producer
- Patrick WachsbergerExecutive Producer
- Sandra HermidaExecutive Producer
- Carmen RomeroExtras Casting
- Sarah WhealeLine Producer
- Inés FontPost Production Coordinator
- Belén AtienzaProducer
- Maryllis GonzalezProduction Accountant
- Jen RooksProduction Coordinator
- Goyo GámezUnit Manager
- Margarita HuguetUnit Production Manager
Recommended by
Pan's Labyrinth, Big Hero 6, Bridge to Terabithia, The Red Balloon, The Orphanage, Rabbit Hole, The Devil's Backbone, My Life as a Zucchini, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl