A vote for the most traumatising childhood film that completely messed you up

Do you ever just lie in bed at night and then get a recurring flash back to a distant memory of a film you watched in your youth? You can’t remember what the film was called or what it was about but you do remember that scary evil character or that tense chase scene and it feels like a weird nightmare.

It’s time for all those childhood nightmares to be reawakened because below is a round up of the most messed-up, traumatising and unnecessarily sad films that were meant to entertain or educate kids but instead left us completely scarred. Vote, once and for all, for the children’s film that fucked you up the most:

Coraline

Most of Tim Burton’s stop-motion films traumatised us when we were children, but Coraline was a whole different experience. Not only is the aesthetic of the film weird and grey, but the storyline is so messed up.

She nearly gets stolen from her parents by an evil woman who looks exactly like her mum, who wants to steal her eyes and replace them with buttons. She then meets all the ghosts of the past children who have scary ghost voices and no eyes and she has to save their souls.

THEN her evil mum turns into a giant spider and chases her through a tunnel. It’s too damn much.

The Witches

The look of The Witches when they’re all ugly and deformed is awful. The skin on their ears looks like it’s dripping off. Their long fingernails and wispy hairs on their head. Then their necks and chest look like all the tiny muscles are on show. It’s so explicit.

Also, when they’re not witches they look like one of us. Anyone could be a witch! Maybe my friends. Maybe me.

The Mummy

An evil Mummy comes back to life and has to steal human parts to make him human again. An especially scarring moment is when Evie falls through a trap door and finds a man with no eyeballs, then she turns around and the Mummy’s face is there made of only bones and that guy’s eyes.

Matilda

Don’t lie to yourself and pretend Mrs Trunchball didn’t nearly put you off school for life. She had a room covered in nails that she threw children in as punishment – how they didn’t get skewered to death still keeps me up at night.

She also throws a child across the playground by her pig-tails, makes little Bruce eat a giant cake in front of the whole school then smashes the glass tray over his head, and she chases Mrs Honey and Matilda through her whole house in one of the tensest scenes in all of film history.

Also Cookie the school cook is creepy af.

Bambi

Not scary but just unnecessarily sad. Obviously this is aimed towards really young children and maybe it’s cartoon talking deers but that doesn’t change the fact that his mum was shot! As a young child just wanting an easy watch, it’s pretty traumatising discovering the reality that parents dying is a thing and poor Bambi is now orphaned.

The Rescuers

I just have memories of Madame Medusa and her super long fingers, excessive blue eye shadow and skinny legs. She was so mean.

The Mini Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: Heffalumps and Woozles

Spirited Away

Watching this for the first time is when we all realised that cartoons can be fucking scary. Firstly, she loses her parents, then she finds herself on this weird island with ghosts and monsters walking around, then she finds her parents and they’re half pig!!! This is all in the first 20 minutes of the film. From then on it’s just even more terrifying animal-creatures and it’s just a lot, okay?

The Lion King

Firstly, maybe he is a fluffy lion but Scar is scary. Also, the Elephant Graveyard scene when it went silent and all you can hear is the hyenas laughing – awful. And then Mufassa’s death, it is so stressful to watch and then brings such heartbreak to a young viewer.

Labyrinth

Doesn’t the memory of this feel like a weird anxiety dream that you forgot about? Those robotic puppets are hard to forget. Also, The Goblin King is in love with Sarah, and is trying to groom her – she’s sixteen!!!

Bug’s Life

When those giant grasshoppers fly in to the ant’s home. The buzzing of their wings gets louder and louder, until BANG they all land surrounding the ants.

Also the chase scene when they’re flying on those birds and trying to avoid the giant raindrops. As six-year-old, I was on the edge of my seat.

The Little Mermaid

Just Ursula in this whole film. Her big, gravity-defying hair and her powerful voice. Also, the whole premise of stealing someone’s voice is really intense.

101 Dalmatians

The non-cartoon one obviously. Cruella De Vil wants to steal people’s puppies, kill them and turn them into coats. It’s pretty traumatic as a cartoon but real-life puppies?! No.

Anastasia

Another film where Disney made the villain too scary for children. In his song In the Dark of the Night, his bones falls apart so he’s just a bouncing, singing head. This is rated U, if you’re a 5-year-old watching this it’s going to mess you up.

Holes

One of the best films ever and if you haven’t watched it as an adult, I highly recommend. However, there were a lot of moments that left us all a little bit shaken. Most importantly, the lizards that come out of nowhere, hiss and then kill you with one bite.

Also, Madame Zeroni cursed a whole family eternally because she didn’t get carried up a mountain – a little bit unreasonable. Finally, the whole punishment of being sent to a desert to dig holes for however long is messed up.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Three words that still plague my thoughts – The Child Catcher. As a child, who doesn’t realise prosthetics are a thing, it’s easy to actually believe that’s what his face looks like. Also, as a child, I knew I would be enticed by his delicious array of sweets, and get stolen myself.

One scene in particular that probably still sticks in your brain – the silent, beautiful streets of Turville and then suddenly you hear, “Childreeen”.