Pop Culture | Movies | 90s | 80s
10 Scenes From (Mostly) Non-Scary Movies That Traumatized You As A Kid
Renowned animator Don Bluth once said that he felt you could subject kids to anything in a movie, so long as it had a happy ending. Well it looks like a lot of filmmakers took that advice to heart, because these 10 movies had some totally horrifying scenes totally come out of nowhere, and I'm pretty sure some of them scarred us for life.
FernGully: The Last Rainforest - The Machine
Leave it to a movie about preserving nature and stopping pollution to make a friggin construction vehicle terrifying. FernGully's message is anything but subtle, and it drove that home by turning this deforestation device into a friggin demon.
And that's of course before an actual demon made of pollution comes to play as a result, which of course just turns the whole movie into an unintentional horror movie.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - The Witch
Snow White isn't exactly short on spooky imagery (both the Queen herself and the forest Snow has to escape through get pretty terrifying in their own right), but the movie lulls you into a false sense of security once the hilarious and loving dwarfs show up. What could possibly go wrong now?
And then BAM, THIS happens.
The Queen turning into her witch form is still one of the most terrifying scenes in animated film history, and pretty much every scene with her afterwards is pure nightmare fuel. Disney set the tone for their later, jarringly scary scenes in their movies right from the get-go.
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial - E.T.
So I can't be the only one that found E.T. (the alien, not the entire movie) terrifying as a kid, right? I mean, just look at this little bastard!
How could you not find that scary as a kid? He's just so weird and has those dead eyes!
Pinocchio - The Donkeys
What was it with early Disney and filling their movies with genuine grade-A nightmare fuel. I mean, Pinocchio was already pretty bad between the super angry circus ringmaster and the gigantic, scary-ass whale that he has to escape from.
But no, by far the scariest part comes when the puppet ends up at Pleasure Island, where all sorts of misbehaving boys are turned into donkeys, corralled into pens by demonic-looking shadow men, and SOLD INTO LABOR IN SALT MINES!
Think you're tough eh? None of these scared you? Well keep scrolling...
Jurassic Park - This F***ing Scene
You know for a fact that you screamed at this the first time you watched this movie. Don't even pretend you didn't.
We're Back - Eaten By Crows
Okay to be fair, as soon as Professor Screweyes enters the picture in general, what was a funny and whimsical kid's movie takes a hard left turn into nightmare town and doesn't really leave until close to the end.
After the deranged scientist's plans are foiled and people leave his circus en masse though, the creepiest moment in the whole movie happens when his pet crows friggin EAT HIM ALIVE!
The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh - Heffalumps and Woozles
It's not exactly a shock for a nightmare sequence to show up in a kid's movie, but what is a shock is for it to be almost pure Lovecraftian horror that is definitely not cool for kids.
Whether it's Pooh floating around in a grey abyss while Tigger's words echo hauntingly, or the slew of bizarre and messed up creatures that attack him for his honey, this is pretty nuts.
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure - Large Marge
Who could have possibly guessed that a big movie adaptation of Pee-Wee's Playhouse would have a moment of sheer pants-soiling terror? I guess this is what happens when you give a beloved franchise to Tim Burton.
When Pee-Wee Herman needs to hitchhike across the country to get his bike back, he ends up in the truck cabin of Large Marge, a trucker who might actually be a ghost that haunts the highways. How do we know this? Mainly from the story someone tells about her, and also THIS!
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? - Toon Doom
All it takes is one line of dialogue from Christopher Lloyd to turn this awesome and hilarious mystery/cartoon movie into pure terror:
"Remember me, Eddie? When I killed your brother, I talked... just... like... THIS!"
Fantasia - Night On Bald Mountain
What starts off as a magical and frankly beautiful tribute to the power of animation combined with music ends up taking a turn in its second-last section, "Night On Bald Mountain."
It features a gigantic demon (who the narrator introduces as Satan but in other material is referred to as the Slavic deity Chernabog) toying with the souls of the dead before condemning them to the flames below again. I mean... just look at this:
Or this:
Or even THIS:
I mean sure, he's eventually banished by the morning sun and a beautiful rendition of "Ave Maria," but man is this ever one of the most traumatizing bits of animation for a kid.