WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR VERY OLD MOVIES.
I’m not sure if I was just a kid growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, but most of my early childhood movie memories were traumatic memories.
From the horrors in Disney’s early animated output to never ending storythe drowning horse (which played just before intermission), it seems that no trip to the movies then went without tears or a subsequent sleepless night.
In “celebration” of Māori Television brings back Watership Down to free-to-air TV tonight (Saturday) to potentially traumatize a whole new generation, here’s a list of 10 movies that still haunt me to this day (and where to watch them now).
Snow White’s nightmare-inducing wicked witch.
READ MORE:
† How to help kids deal with the scary things in movies like The Lion King
† Lion King cast, including Beyoncé, confront their animal selves
† The 20 blockbusters you need to see in 2019
† My Life in Cinema: From Fantasia’s Trauma to Mother’s Madness!
Bambi – the shot heard all over the world.
BAMBI (1942, Disney+)
Many a child was drawn by a visit to see this apparently benign animated adventure.
While most of the film was about fauna frolicking among the undergrowth, an early scene casts a veil over the turn of events: the death of Bambi’s mother.
One minute she’s warning him of the dangers of the forest, the next we hear a gunshot signaling her doom.
Fantasia’s Night on Bald Mountain. The dancing hippo set-piece just before that was the ultimate bait and switch.
FANTASY (1940, Disney+)
Another classic ace-and-switch from the Disney team.
A summary film where images are matched to music, for the most part it’s all happy, happy, happy, happy.
But then comes the last sequence, Night on the Bald Mountainset to Modest Mussorgsky’s score, which summons a devil-like creature that summons evil spirits.
Gremlins is a parable about the pitfalls of owning pets.
GREMLINS (1984, iTunes)
Phoebe Cates is perhaps most remembered by viewers of a certain age for a dream scene in 1982 Fast times at Ridgemont Highbut younger moviegoers had a more traumatic experience two years later.
Amid all the merry chaos and comic anxieties of GremlinsKate Beringer brings her a terrible story about Christmas and Santa Claus that will test even the most ardent young believer.
The Lion King – Disney does a Shakespearean tragedy.
THE LION KING (1994, Disney+)
In simplistic terms this was: Bambi for a new generation, unexpected death and all (although I still haven’t forgiven the women behind me in the cinema who ruin it for everyone around her to warn her child ahead of time).
However, tied to a Shakespearean drama, the offending sequence plays out so powerfully that it’s hard to be moved to tears. It was also so good that Pixar pretty much repeated the trick in 2015 The good dinosaur† A Teo Reo version is currently showing in New Zealand cinemas.
Delivered
The Neverending Story has scarred a generation and recently made its way to Netflix’s Stranger Things.
THE NEVER END STORY (1984, Netflix)
A tale of a vast universe would never be tear-free (especially if the herald was a ferocious wolf), but few could have anticipated the moment that dazzled a generation of moviegoers.
Incredibly unleashed just before the break (when such things existed), our androgynous fictional hero Artreyu suddenly finds his horse Artex sinking into the swamps of grief. Cue children fleeing the room. So indelible that it even got a mention in 2016 rom-com How to be single?†
The Secret of NIMH looks at life as a lab rat.
THE SECRET OF NIMH (1982, iTunes, YouTube, GooglePlay)
Based on the novel by Robert C O’Brien, this tale of a vole’s quest for the cure for his son takes her to the terrifying world of lab rats.
Oddly enough, the main character’s name had to be changed from Frisby to Brisby due to producers’ fears of copyright infringement lawsuits from the makers of the flying discs.
Disney movies on demand/YouTube
The Disney movie that started the nightmares…
SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937, Disney+)
Disney’s first full animation adventure proved they knew how to emotionally manipulate and scare an audience.
From the terrifying forest to the heart-shaped box, the magic mirror and the true form of the Wicked Queen, there are so many moments to leave the little ones with nightmares.
Time Bandits was mainly a story about good and evil.
TIME BANDITS (1981, AroVideo and Alice’s DVD rental)
No one saw the end of this movie coming.
Terry Gilliam’s anarchic tale of a young boy who accidentally joins a group of dwarves as they leap from era to era in search of treasure to steal was not free from fear, but all seemed to have gone happily – until that final furnace-destroying childhood scar scene. Taika Waititi will write and direct a TV series inspired by the film.
Watership Down was a poignant watch.
WATERSHIP DOWN (1978, Netflix, Prime Video)
I blame Art Garfunkel.
His hit number Clear eyes made us believe (my parents included) that this animated adventure was suitable for a five year old.
What happened, however, was a dark, blood-soaked tale of life as a rabbit. Some scenes still send a shiver down my spine.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory: Scaring Kids of Being Bad Since 1971.
WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (1971)
While others will quote the earlier ones Chitty Chitty Bang Bang this was much more convincing, but this was the movie that terrified the people of my day.
Some bits towards the end are extremely confusing (Wonka’s sudden changes of mood and heart), but there’s no questioning the power of scenes like Augustus Gloop getting sucked into a chocolate pipe or Violet turning violet. All back because of those proto-grabbing Oompa Loompas with their warning lyrics.
This is an update of an article first published in 2016. Watership Down will be screened on Whakaata Māori tonight (Saturday 9 July) at 7pm.