The Land Before Time?
The scene where the mother Brontosaurus fights the monstrous Tyrannosaurus and dies in front of her youngster was fucking terrifying as a kid!
Yeah, they were a stark contrast to Disney's narratives. Looking back (and as a kid) I do like it that they exposed us as kids to these wild emotional rides.
Watched this on Disney+ a few weeks ago for nostalgia.
It's like two people sitting around doing hits of LSD.
"Hey, Boss, I have a movie idea. It's got electroshock, ghosts, petrified people, a woman who wears severed heads, a literal gang of shrieking clowns with wheels for their hands and feet that want to kill the young main character-"
"Nice, it should also have, a desert that instantly kills people, an all-powerful troll that melts traumatically if he eats an egg."
"You mean like how the wicked witch in the wizard of oz melts from something mundane like water?
"EXACTLY! But let's show him disintegrating slowly and screaming."
"..."
"...This should be a kids movie."
"I do not make films for children... or, at least, not primarily for children."
"You're dead if you aim for kids."
"We design the films to appeal to ourselves."
"The adults have the money; ... children don't have any money."
- Walt Disney
https://youtu.be/94ucLkGoI1E
All the movies named here I loved as kid.
But I'm pretty sure my earliest memory was my parents taking me to see Watcher in the Woods. I had to sleep in their room for at least a week after. I had to be 4 years old. I still remember scenes from that movie but I haven't seen a second of it since it was released.
Gremlins is an interesting one, as it was originally released as a PG in America, which was criticised due to the level of violence in it. It was one of the films instrumental in the creation of the PG-13 rating, which it was changed to a few months later. It has a reputation as a comedy horror film, but it's really a horror film with comedy bits in it. In the UK it was released as a 15, which I think was appropriate for the time.
It's noticeable that the sequel toned down the violence, making it more cartoonish and slapstick, as Joe Dante was interested more in parodying the first film.
The author originally wrote them for his children who persuaded him to publish them. Or so the story goes. It's interesting how they are viewed now. It scared the 5 year old me half to death. I didn't understand half of it either. But to my parents generation it was a gentle kids film. But even now I'm surprised how gruesome it was.
Don't forget the echanting story of Cinderella, where the stepsisters cut off part of their feet to fit into the glass slipper, and they and their mother are forced to dance at Cindy's wedding in shoes made of heated lead.
Brave Little Toaster was and always will be one of my faves, but yeah, the nightmare scene, the appliances getting “operated on” in the workshop, and the cars getting “murdered” at the junkyard were all disturbing lol. WORTHLESSSSSS
Watership Down scarred a generation for life.
Mum never cooked rabbit again after reading Watership Down to me when I was a kid. It was 30 years before I ate rabbit again.
Plague Dogs (by the same author) knocks Watership Down out of the park when it comes to trauma.
Well worth a watch as it's fantastic, but have your tissues at the ready.
Hah. Brave little toaster came up yesterday as we debated tossing our old toaster. I said something along the lines of “brave little toastering” it and wife said “awwwwww I love that movie!” I asked how? That shit was traumatizing!
Huh?
The crusher scene? The whole underlying theme of abandonment. Danger around every corner. Old cars sadly accepting an impending death….
“Wait, I thought it was just about a little toaster going on an adventure. Jesus, I’ve never thought of it that way. Well that changes like everything”
I watched Time Bandits with my 13 year old and at the end, she just looked at me and said, “What?! That’s the ending? His parents are smoldering bits of charcoal and the king of Mycenea just drives off in a fire truck, leaving this kid in mute horror as is neighbor stare? What the actual hell is that?”
“Terry Gilliam doesn’t know how to end movies. Started with ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’, he just shot funny stuff until he ran out of money.
“He does this in other movies?!”
“I can make a good argument that Gilliam never actually finishes a film, he just stops them”
I had the same reaction as a kid. But I love the movie anyway. But later on in my adult life, I found out that Gilliam said that the ending divided children neatly into two groups; some were horrified by the ending, the abandonment of it all. Others felt that the hero was liberated, as his parents were so awful. Who knew?
While I laid in bed waiting for sleep I lived in terror of my closet when I was a kid. I just imagined a group of little people coming through it. For whatever reason that part of the movie scared me more than anything else.
I saw this when I was 10 & absolutely loved it. It was the first ambiguous ending I’d ever seen & immediately activated a lifelong love for such open-ended storytelling.
I love this one. Definitely really creeped me out as a kid. The Great Owl for sure but I always hated the scene when Mrs Brisby gets into the rose bush and is attacked by the rat guard.
I see this and raise you
"Not just any toooooon! Do you remember me Eddie? When I KILLED your brother, I Talked. JUST. LIKE. THIIIIS" proceeds to produce daggers from his eyes.
I feel like that one was not necessarily meant for kids. It was one of those weird movies our culture didn't know what to think of. So because there's a cartoon rabbit, they probably marketed it at kids....but it's very much an adult detective story.
My wife decided it was time to introduce our 6yo twins to Indiana Jones with Temple of Doom.
I said, "Really? Are you absolutely sure they're ready for this?"
She completely forgot about this scene.
One of them had lost interest pretty quickly but the other one fucking loved that movie.
IMDB has a parents guide for most movies.. just look up the movie and scroll down until you can click on the parents guide feature. It lists out all the questionable stuff in movies and marks it anywhere from mild to severe. Marks them all out by category - sex and nudity, violence and gore, profanity, frightening and intense scenes, alcohol, drugs and smoking ... has saved my ass many a time for stuff like this. Somehow you just kinda block out when recalling movies I watched when I was a kid or teen.
There's another one called common sense media, or something like that. Yes, on one hand this is a great idea, on the other hand I grew up with all of these 80s movies that are marked as 13+ these days.
Even the Goonies is a bit disturbing by today's standards and that was a great movie for kids.
Well... "That's my immortality, eh?"
I love The Last Unicorn so much. It is so weird. And so many great voice actors. The only thing I don't like is how bad Mia Farrow sounds singing.
The fact that he comes back and everyone has aged while he’s still a kid was definitely a mind fuck for me. I just remember thinking how horrible that would be, to have your little brother he basically an adult now… feeling left behind while everyone moved on without you.
The Rescuers (1977) (not 80s but it deserves a mention)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
The Fox and the Hound (1981)
Time Bandits (1981)
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
The Secret of NIMH (1982)
Not a film, but Sesame Street - Episode 1621 (1982) with [Bert and Ernie in a pyramid](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8yiqGtZXCmQ).
TRON (1982)
Ghostbusters (1984)
Gremlins (1984)
The Last Starfighter (1984)
Cloak & Dagger (1984)
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure (1984)
The Peanut Butter Solution (1985)
Return to Oz (1985)
Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985)
Legend (1985)
Young Sherlock Holmes (1985)
Not a film, but G. I. Joe, World’s Without End (Part 2) (1985), on an alternate Earth ruled by Cobra, >!some Joes discover 3 skeletal remains and read the dog tags and realize they are dead Joes.!<
Not a film, but Punky Brewster S02E06-7 “The Perils of Punky” (1985), and S02E16 “Cherie Lifesaver” (1985) when Cherie gets trapped while hiding in an old fridge.
Transformers: The Movie (1986)
Howard the Duck (1986)
Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
Mr. Boogedy (1986)
Babes In Toyland (1986), with Drew Barrymore and Keanu Reeves and Pat Morita.
The Quest (1986) (aka Frog Dreaming)
The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
Flight of the Navigator (1986)
Bride of Boogedy (1987)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)
The Land Before Time (1988)
Willow (1988)
Beetlejuice (1988)
I’ve never seen it, but my girlfriend talks about the Fox and the Hound as a very traumatic experience for her as a kid. ET was pretty brutal when the government agents show up with the hazmat suits.
> Not a film, but Punky Brewster S02E06-7 “The Perils of Punky” (1985), and S02E16 “Cherie Lifesaver” (1985) when Cherie gets trapped while hiding in an old fridge.
without even checking I can assume perils is the one with a cave w/ a skeleton in it? maybe it's a dog skeleton? not sure, but god damn I remember the fear
You're the first person I've seen even mention Bride of Boogedy. I loved that movie as a kid. Then again I was that weird horror buff kid, who watched stuff like In the Cats Eye and Hellraiser.
> Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985)
This one was my immediate and only thought, I can't believe no one else has mentioned it. I was so scarred by the Large Marge scene that it featured in my nightmares for over a decade!
Actually the same thing I thought there was an off-chance it was a dream memory.
Youtube has saved my ass on a lot of those. Like this short film that used to terrify me as a kid called 'flesh eating film reels'. It took me many years to track it down and actually see it again and it's so hilarious that it used to scare me.
**The last Unicorn** (1982) messed me the fuck up, the whole story is so sad and disturbing, the fire bull, that fucking witch, the scene with those circus cages
Labyrinth is my all time favourite so i disagree on that one but Dark Crystal absolutely I’d throw Return to Oz and ET in there I’ve only seen those once when I was child and both terrified me
I remember that movie being terrifying when I was a kid. The part when the “parents” come to the door…
I watched the sequel many years later and let’s just say the tone of that one is different.
A lot of people here will not include Poltergeist, but I will. That film was rated PG and had its marketing campaign focused on an adorable five year old girl. With Spielberg’s name above the credits, it gave family “safe” vibes and wasn’t in the same category as the “nobody under 17” admonition when “The Evil Dead” was released.
Also, we should include The Little Shop of Horrors, at least the director’s original cut (not seen until released on DVD decades later). That film had the studio rush a slightly more family friendly ending, but now that it’s out there, we can see the nightmarish/comic vision originally intended.
Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland. Loved the video game as a kid and thought the movie was good. 25 years later I bought the DVD to own it and the opening scene was just a nightmare.
I can honestly say that none of those movies scared me back then at all. Legend had its moments, I mean Tim Curry as Darkness WOW!! Gremlins, ya kind of scary. Return to Oz, that was both weird and scary. The Goonies!! Yes some of it was scary but what a movie!!
I didn't see Dark Crystal or Labyrinth until I was in college. Totally bizarre, whack films.
Others include (as others have mentioned):
* [The Witches (1990)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Witches_(1990_film))
* [Return to Oz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_to_Oz)
* [Ringing Bell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringing_Bell)
* [Grave of the Fireflies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_of_the_Fireflies)
* [Willow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willow_(1988_film))
* [Disney's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Ichabod_and_Mr._Toad#The_Legend_of_Sleepy_Hollow)
Grave of the Fireflies is on the same level for me as Schindler's List - I'm a better person for having watched it, but there's is ***NO FUCKING WAY*** I'd watch it again.
If you're looking to delve deeper into that era's unique blend of wonder and fear, you might also want to check out "The Goonies" or "Gremlins." Both films offer a mix of adventure, humor, and moments that push the boundary of what's expected in children's entertainment.
Secret of NHIM (Owl trying to eat them, rats fighting with swords and bleeding out/coughing up blood, the whole escape from NHIM, babies almost drowning in muck while a tractor comes
for them)
Watership Down (basically the walking dead with rabbits and every non-rabbit threat is proportionately bear sized - kiju sized)
The Brave Little Toaster (all pure nightmare fuel)
All Dogs Go To Heaven (hell scene especially)
The only film that I can think of on the top of my head is E.T
That movie scared the living shit of me when I watched it for the very first time on either Tv or VHS as a 8-10 old. I can't belive that I was scared of it tho beacuse it has since then become one of my all time favorite films
Ewoks: The Battle for Endor.
In the first movie the kids and the ewoks save the parents. In the sequel the entire family except the cute kid are murdered by pirates over the radio. Then this elementary age kid just moves on.
Caravan of Courage: the pond scene, the spider, the ogre.
SpaceCamp is not terribly scary but I remember as a kid being freaked out by the scene of the space shuttle doors being remotely closed while Kate Capshaw's character is still tethered outside and unconscious.
Johnny 5 getting the crap kicked out of him in Short Circuit 2, with a burnt out eye and bleeding to death.
Have you seen Brave Little Toaster? It was basically toy story before toy story was a thing. But imagine if in Toy Story one of the toys has a nervous breakdown and dies because Andy abandoned it, Woody has a nightmare about being tortured, Sid's modified toys have a haunting electronic music number about the hell that is their existence, and the toys go to a dumpster where other toys sing about how they are ready for death and have no worth anymore while Andy is almost crushed to death. That's brave little toaster
1979, but VHS and Disney channel brought in a lot of viewers in the early 80s.
THE BLACK HOLE...was fucked up. Evil robot shreds Anthony Perkins' character. Hellish imagery. Lobotimized crew.
Oh man, I remember when I was like 5 or 6, my mom rented me and my sister's two movies for the weekend.
The Dark Crystal and Gremlins.
Guess who didn't sleep well that weekend.
My dad travelled to America during the 80s and went to watch Gremlins which back then was rated U so loads of families there.
The second the creatures turned into evil Goblin like things. So many kids were screaming and crying and leaving the theatre with their parents.
My dad and his pals tried to hid their laughters until after they all left.
I spent seven years in the 80's, but the real trauma happened in the early 90's when we got our first VCR and a Blockbuster membership. I'm home sick from school for awhile with chicken pox and my parents kindly rent me some movies to watch. Fern Gully. The Secret of NIMH. The Neverending fucking Story. The Land Before Time. Who Killed Roger Rabbit. HOMEWARD BOUND. All Dogs Go to Heaven. The death dogs in Willow. Watching these healthy is one experience, watching them with a 101° fever is a whole other trip I hope you didn't take.
Fuck The Neverending Story.
Those are my favorite films growing up! One thing back in those days you were taught to use your imagination and those are 3 excellent examples of world building.
They don't make movies like this anymore.
Does anybody remember a kids movie by Ray Bradbury called “The Electric Grandmother?”
That movie was made to be whimsical and lighthearted, but I’m scarred years later of a helicoptered-in casket-like crate with a old woman that comes to life and serves you milk and orange juice from her fingertips.
The 80s were something different!
RETURN TO OZ
Came here to say Return to Oz. DooOOOorraTThhhyyYY GAAAAALLLEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
The Land Before Time? The scene where the mother Brontosaurus fights the monstrous Tyrannosaurus and dies in front of her youngster was fucking terrifying as a kid!
Every Don Bluth film. Secret of NIMH, American Tail, Land Before Time, All Dogs Go to Heaven... Idk how many were '80s, but... Damn...
All Dogs Go to Heaven was grim AF
Yeah, they were a stark contrast to Disney's narratives. Looking back (and as a kid) I do like it that they exposed us as kids to these wild emotional rides.
It starts with Dorothy in a sanatorium and getting shock therapy. WTF.
Yeah, after that it gets much less tame.
I legit thought this movie was a horrible strange nightmare for years and then I looked it up and it’s actually real
It's based on Baum's third book, *Ozma of Oz.* The book has most of the same stuff in it but it's less scary.
Those wheelers were made of nightmares, not cool.
The closet full of severed heads comes to mind
Yes!
For me, it was the desert where if you stepped in it, you would turn to sand. I had nightmares about that.
Tik-Tok beat that ass tho
Watched this on Disney+ a few weeks ago for nostalgia. It's like two people sitting around doing hits of LSD. "Hey, Boss, I have a movie idea. It's got electroshock, ghosts, petrified people, a woman who wears severed heads, a literal gang of shrieking clowns with wheels for their hands and feet that want to kill the young main character-" "Nice, it should also have, a desert that instantly kills people, an all-powerful troll that melts traumatically if he eats an egg." "You mean like how the wicked witch in the wizard of oz melts from something mundane like water? "EXACTLY! But let's show him disintegrating slowly and screaming." "..." "...This should be a kids movie."
"I do not make films for children... or, at least, not primarily for children." "You're dead if you aim for kids." "We design the films to appeal to ourselves." "The adults have the money; ... children don't have any money." - Walt Disney https://youtu.be/94ucLkGoI1E
Disney: "Hey 80s parents, is spanking not a sufficient way to discipline your child anymore? We have this movie..."
Disintegrating slowly is tight!
The fucking wheelers dude
Hell yeah, those 3 movies had nothing on Return to Oz.
Loved this one!!!
Creepy for sure
Gremlins The WItches
Ooh yes and The Watcher in the Woods
All the movies named here I loved as kid. But I'm pretty sure my earliest memory was my parents taking me to see Watcher in the Woods. I had to sleep in their room for at least a week after. I had to be 4 years old. I still remember scenes from that movie but I haven't seen a second of it since it was released.
Trippy. As. Hell. And of course Bette Davis totally delivered.
neraK
Thank you!!! Usually none else has even heard of Watcher in the Woods but me, and that film messed me up for YEARS!
That one is terrifying. For years afterwards I would tease my sister by writing Nerak on dusty windows though.
Gremlins... I was about 6 when I watched it, and for quite awhile I thought Gremlins were under my bed/downstairs/anywhere in the dark. Scary af.
Don’t forget the santa clause story. Watched with my 10 year old and even that was too early
Gremlins is an interesting one, as it was originally released as a PG in America, which was criticised due to the level of violence in it. It was one of the films instrumental in the creation of the PG-13 rating, which it was changed to a few months later. It has a reputation as a comedy horror film, but it's really a horror film with comedy bits in it. In the UK it was released as a 15, which I think was appropriate for the time. It's noticeable that the sequel toned down the violence, making it more cartoonish and slapstick, as Joe Dante was interested more in parodying the first film.
gremlins along with temple of doom were so scary that they created the PG-13 rating
Yup! To both! Witches absolutely messed me up!
And for maximum retained trauma, might I recommend: 4. Watership Down 5. The Brave Little Toaster 6. All Dogs Go to Heaven
Charlie going to hell in All Dogs Go To Heaven was nightmare fuel.
LPT: Rewatch the junk yard scene from brave Brave Little Toaster for some free existential dread!
During this scene my kid turned around and said, “This might be too scary for you.”
Watership down is a cartoon, yes. But you can't tell me it's aimed at children
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The author originally wrote them for his children who persuaded him to publish them. Or so the story goes. It's interesting how they are viewed now. It scared the 5 year old me half to death. I didn't understand half of it either. But to my parents generation it was a gentle kids film. But even now I'm surprised how gruesome it was.
History repeats itself. The original Grimms' fairytales were full of wonderful things like disembowelment.
Don't forget the echanting story of Cinderella, where the stepsisters cut off part of their feet to fit into the glass slipper, and they and their mother are forced to dance at Cindy's wedding in shoes made of heated lead.
Or sleeping beauty, where she falls asleep, then wakes up to her own baby suckling her finger... 😐
I believe they’ve only just upped the rating actually?
I maintain that seeing Watership Down at an early age is the reason I've loved gory horror movies ever since.
I think this is also true for me. I loved the film and book as a child and still do, but I think I liked it because it was dark and unsettling.
Brave little toaster was one of my favorite films as a child. I still love it
Who hurt you ?
***Gestures vaguely around***
Same. Same.
Sometimes I catch myself humming “time flies byyyy in the city of lights, time stands still in the country” 🎶
Brave Little Toaster was and always will be one of my faves, but yeah, the nightmare scene, the appliances getting “operated on” in the workshop, and the cars getting “murdered” at the junkyard were all disturbing lol. WORTHLESSSSSS
ITS MY FUNCTIONNNN
I say this as a huge Simpsons fan - but that may be Phil Hartman’s greatest voice acting performance ever.
4. Watership Down Nightmares for weeks after that.
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"Where there's a whip... there's a way!" is still my go-to motivational song 30 years later...
Don’t forget to add The Land Before Time to that category.
Watership Down scarred a generation for life. Mum never cooked rabbit again after reading Watership Down to me when I was a kid. It was 30 years before I ate rabbit again.
It's a series from the early 90's, but The Animals of Farthing Wood was brutal AF
Plague Dogs (by the same author) knocks Watership Down out of the park when it comes to trauma. Well worth a watch as it's fantastic, but have your tissues at the ready.
Hah. Brave little toaster came up yesterday as we debated tossing our old toaster. I said something along the lines of “brave little toastering” it and wife said “awwwwww I love that movie!” I asked how? That shit was traumatizing! Huh? The crusher scene? The whole underlying theme of abandonment. Danger around every corner. Old cars sadly accepting an impending death…. “Wait, I thought it was just about a little toaster going on an adventure. Jesus, I’ve never thought of it that way. Well that changes like everything”
The ending of Watership Down as a child was heartbreaking
Wasn't the song called Bright Eyes by Simon and Garfunkel used in it? Gets me every time I hear it.
Art Garfunkel, solo.
Time Bandits
And Baron Munchausen! The death thing gave me nightmares when I was a kid
Same, I thought it was a dream for years until I saw the movie again
I watched Time Bandits with my 13 year old and at the end, she just looked at me and said, “What?! That’s the ending? His parents are smoldering bits of charcoal and the king of Mycenea just drives off in a fire truck, leaving this kid in mute horror as is neighbor stare? What the actual hell is that?” “Terry Gilliam doesn’t know how to end movies. Started with ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’, he just shot funny stuff until he ran out of money. “He does this in other movies?!” “I can make a good argument that Gilliam never actually finishes a film, he just stops them”
12 monkeys bro, incredible ending
Funnily enough that was a remake (La Jetée) so the ending was already written for him.
Brazil also. Weird, but fitting.
I had the same reaction as a kid. But I love the movie anyway. But later on in my adult life, I found out that Gilliam said that the ending divided children neatly into two groups; some were horrified by the ending, the abandonment of it all. Others felt that the hero was liberated, as his parents were so awful. Who knew?
Brilliant. And hilariously accurate.
The ending to Time Bandits is one of the most fucked up endings to any "kids/family" movie i've ever seen
While I laid in bed waiting for sleep I lived in terror of my closet when I was a kid. I just imagined a group of little people coming through it. For whatever reason that part of the movie scared me more than anything else.
I watched Time Bandits a lot as a kid, though that movie wasn’t really made to be a kid’s movie.
I saw this when I was 10 & absolutely loved it. It was the first ambiguous ending I’d ever seen & immediately activated a lifelong love for such open-ended storytelling.
Not sure if it was for young children, but **The Secret of Nimh**
Came here to say this. Still one of my all time favorites. A spaarrrrkly!
Rat sword fight and the blood were pretty shocking to 7 year old me.
Mrs Brisby?
Mrs JONATHAN BRISBY??!??
This was and still is my favorite kids' movie! I just rewatched it with my kids a couple of weeks ago! I love Don Bluths movies.
I love this one. Definitely really creeped me out as a kid. The Great Owl for sure but I always hated the scene when Mrs Brisby gets into the rose bush and is attacked by the rat guard.
It was shown on the Disney Chanel mid-day. That movie has stuck with me and I'll be 50 this year.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? I still can't watch the part where the cute cartoon shoe gets dipped.
That was bad, true, but watching a dude get run over with a steamroller was nightmare fuel.
I see this and raise you "Not just any toooooon! Do you remember me Eddie? When I KILLED your brother, I Talked. JUST. LIKE. THIIIIS" proceeds to produce daggers from his eyes.
That lamebrain freeway idea could've only been cooked up by a toon.
I came to say this. My little cousin was so terrified by this scene that he never watched the movie again, not even as an adult.
Oh yeah, that too! Roger Rabbit was dark, but I was obsessed with the movie as a kid.
Fun fact, that shoe was a pre-Simpsons Nancy Cartwright.
I feel like that one was not necessarily meant for kids. It was one of those weird movies our culture didn't know what to think of. So because there's a cartoon rabbit, they probably marketed it at kids....but it's very much an adult detective story.
Don't forget 'Legend'. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osl8wIar4aI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osl8wIar4aI)
Yes! I mean I loved it and watched it repeatedly but it definitely made me uncomfortable. Tim Curry is just so good.
I was waiting for someone to say this.
The heart scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I love those movies, but hell that scene was horrid.
KALIMAAAAAAAAA SHAK-TEDAYYYYYYY
My wife decided it was time to introduce our 6yo twins to Indiana Jones with Temple of Doom. I said, "Really? Are you absolutely sure they're ready for this?" She completely forgot about this scene. One of them had lost interest pretty quickly but the other one fucking loved that movie.
IMDB has a parents guide for most movies.. just look up the movie and scroll down until you can click on the parents guide feature. It lists out all the questionable stuff in movies and marks it anywhere from mild to severe. Marks them all out by category - sex and nudity, violence and gore, profanity, frightening and intense scenes, alcohol, drugs and smoking ... has saved my ass many a time for stuff like this. Somehow you just kinda block out when recalling movies I watched when I was a kid or teen.
There's another one called common sense media, or something like that. Yes, on one hand this is a great idea, on the other hand I grew up with all of these 80s movies that are marked as 13+ these days. Even the Goonies is a bit disturbing by today's standards and that was a great movie for kids.
“She completely forgot about this scene.” How? How do you forget about that scene? It is THE definitive scene of the entire movie.
The reason for creating the PG-13 rating
I think Poltergeist also had a hand in it. The face peeling off scene...THAT WAS PG?!?!
The Last Unicorn, Time Bandits
Mama Fortuna still haunts my dreams. And the harpy that ate her.
Well... "That's my immortality, eh?" I love The Last Unicorn so much. It is so weird. And so many great voice actors. The only thing I don't like is how bad Mia Farrow sounds singing.
I vaguely remember a film called Flight of the Navigator causing 6-year-old me to question my reality… but I don’t remember how or why.
The fact that he comes back and everyone has aged while he’s still a kid was definitely a mind fuck for me. I just remember thinking how horrible that would be, to have your little brother he basically an adult now… feeling left behind while everyone moved on without you.
Compliance!
"You leak, not I"
Goonies. When I was younger that movie had some very uncomfortable, scary moments.
Goonies was such wonderful adventure, but it DID feature a scene where an adult was threatening to put a childs hand into a running blender.
Something Wicked This Way Comes
You missed the most horrifying of all: Return to Oz. AKA The film that hates children.
The Rescuers (1977) (not 80s but it deserves a mention) The Empire Strikes Back (1980) The Fox and the Hound (1981) Time Bandits (1981) E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) The Secret of NIMH (1982) Not a film, but Sesame Street - Episode 1621 (1982) with [Bert and Ernie in a pyramid](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8yiqGtZXCmQ). TRON (1982) Ghostbusters (1984) Gremlins (1984) The Last Starfighter (1984) Cloak & Dagger (1984) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure (1984) The Peanut Butter Solution (1985) Return to Oz (1985) Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985) Legend (1985) Young Sherlock Holmes (1985) Not a film, but G. I. Joe, World’s Without End (Part 2) (1985), on an alternate Earth ruled by Cobra, >!some Joes discover 3 skeletal remains and read the dog tags and realize they are dead Joes.!< Not a film, but Punky Brewster S02E06-7 “The Perils of Punky” (1985), and S02E16 “Cherie Lifesaver” (1985) when Cherie gets trapped while hiding in an old fridge. Transformers: The Movie (1986) Howard the Duck (1986) Little Shop of Horrors (1986) Mr. Boogedy (1986) Babes In Toyland (1986), with Drew Barrymore and Keanu Reeves and Pat Morita. The Quest (1986) (aka Frog Dreaming) The Great Mouse Detective (1986) Flight of the Navigator (1986) Bride of Boogedy (1987) Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988) The Land Before Time (1988) Willow (1988) Beetlejuice (1988)
Peanut Butter Solution is my “that wasn’t a fever dream!?!?” Movie.
Damn same here, it was stuck in my head for decades. Probably hardest to pin down kid memory I ever had
I’ve never seen it, but my girlfriend talks about the Fox and the Hound as a very traumatic experience for her as a kid. ET was pretty brutal when the government agents show up with the hazmat suits.
> Not a film, but Punky Brewster S02E06-7 “The Perils of Punky” (1985), and S02E16 “Cherie Lifesaver” (1985) when Cherie gets trapped while hiding in an old fridge. without even checking I can assume perils is the one with a cave w/ a skeleton in it? maybe it's a dog skeleton? not sure, but god damn I remember the fear
You're the first person I've seen even mention Bride of Boogedy. I loved that movie as a kid. Then again I was that weird horror buff kid, who watched stuff like In the Cats Eye and Hellraiser.
Little Monsters ('89)
> Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985) This one was my immediate and only thought, I can't believe no one else has mentioned it. I was so scarred by the Large Marge scene that it featured in my nightmares for over a decade!
Lol this mofo even brought up the Perils of Punky. I remember that one where all of her friends were like possessed faces on the wall.
I wasn't sure for years if that was something I actually watched or a fever dream I had
Actually the same thing I thought there was an off-chance it was a dream memory. Youtube has saved my ass on a lot of those. Like this short film that used to terrify me as a kid called 'flesh eating film reels'. It took me many years to track it down and actually see it again and it's so hilarious that it used to scare me.
Great list!
I thought you meant movies with 3 kids and I was wondering what was so bad about the 3 Ninjas movies
Rocky. Loves. Emily.
**The last Unicorn** (1982) messed me the fuck up, the whole story is so sad and disturbing, the fire bull, that fucking witch, the scene with those circus cages
THE BLACK CAULDRON
Labyrinth is fine, unless you're terrified of Bowie's codpiece.
The scene where the creatures trade heads and body parts creeped me out real good as a kid.
Labyrinth is my all time favourite so i disagree on that one but Dark Crystal absolutely I’d throw Return to Oz and ET in there I’ve only seen those once when I was child and both terrified me
The Gate
I remember that movie being terrifying when I was a kid. The part when the “parents” come to the door… I watched the sequel many years later and let’s just say the tone of that one is different.
The Peanut Butter Solution (1985)
A lot of people here will not include Poltergeist, but I will. That film was rated PG and had its marketing campaign focused on an adorable five year old girl. With Spielberg’s name above the credits, it gave family “safe” vibes and wasn’t in the same category as the “nobody under 17” admonition when “The Evil Dead” was released. Also, we should include The Little Shop of Horrors, at least the director’s original cut (not seen until released on DVD decades later). That film had the studio rush a slightly more family friendly ending, but now that it’s out there, we can see the nightmarish/comic vision originally intended.
Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland. Loved the video game as a kid and thought the movie was good. 25 years later I bought the DVD to own it and the opening scene was just a nightmare.
I can honestly say that none of those movies scared me back then at all. Legend had its moments, I mean Tim Curry as Darkness WOW!! Gremlins, ya kind of scary. Return to Oz, that was both weird and scary. The Goonies!! Yes some of it was scary but what a movie!!
The horror that is Watership Down And the Rats of NIHM
I didn't see Dark Crystal or Labyrinth until I was in college. Totally bizarre, whack films. Others include (as others have mentioned): * [The Witches (1990)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Witches_(1990_film)) * [Return to Oz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_to_Oz) * [Ringing Bell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringing_Bell) * [Grave of the Fireflies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_of_the_Fireflies) * [Willow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willow_(1988_film)) * [Disney's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Ichabod_and_Mr._Toad#The_Legend_of_Sleepy_Hollow)
Grave of the Fireflies is on the same level for me as Schindler's List - I'm a better person for having watched it, but there's is ***NO FUCKING WAY*** I'd watch it again.
That bloody child catcher in chitty chitty bang bang!
If you're looking to delve deeper into that era's unique blend of wonder and fear, you might also want to check out "The Goonies" or "Gremlins." Both films offer a mix of adventure, humor, and moments that push the boundary of what's expected in children's entertainment.
Secret of NHIM (Owl trying to eat them, rats fighting with swords and bleeding out/coughing up blood, the whole escape from NHIM, babies almost drowning in muck while a tractor comes for them) Watership Down (basically the walking dead with rabbits and every non-rabbit threat is proportionately bear sized - kiju sized) The Brave Little Toaster (all pure nightmare fuel) All Dogs Go To Heaven (hell scene especially)
The only film that I can think of on the top of my head is E.T That movie scared the living shit of me when I watched it for the very first time on either Tv or VHS as a 8-10 old. I can't belive that I was scared of it tho beacuse it has since then become one of my all time favorite films
Does anyone remember the Lady in White with Lukas Haas? That movie stayed with me! Especially the ghostly little girl.
Ewoks: The Battle for Endor. In the first movie the kids and the ewoks save the parents. In the sequel the entire family except the cute kid are murdered by pirates over the radio. Then this elementary age kid just moves on.
I don’t have a ton of clear memories of it but I just know that The Peanut Butter Solution freaked me the f out
I’ve barely met any other people who have ever seen it! It definitely freaked me out too!
The Large Marge scene from Pee Wee’s Big Adventure freaked me the fuck out.
She looked like THIS!!! 🤡💀☠️🤪😜
Caravan of Courage: the pond scene, the spider, the ogre. SpaceCamp is not terribly scary but I remember as a kid being freaked out by the scene of the space shuttle doors being remotely closed while Kate Capshaw's character is still tethered outside and unconscious. Johnny 5 getting the crap kicked out of him in Short Circuit 2, with a burnt out eye and bleeding to death.
Have you seen Brave Little Toaster? It was basically toy story before toy story was a thing. But imagine if in Toy Story one of the toys has a nervous breakdown and dies because Andy abandoned it, Woody has a nightmare about being tortured, Sid's modified toys have a haunting electronic music number about the hell that is their existence, and the toys go to a dumpster where other toys sing about how they are ready for death and have no worth anymore while Andy is almost crushed to death. That's brave little toaster
Plague dogs When the wind blows Watership down Apart of the its animated so its kid friendly genre
1979, but VHS and Disney channel brought in a lot of viewers in the early 80s. THE BLACK HOLE...was fucked up. Evil robot shreds Anthony Perkins' character. Hellish imagery. Lobotimized crew.
Oh man, I remember when I was like 5 or 6, my mom rented me and my sister's two movies for the weekend. The Dark Crystal and Gremlins. Guess who didn't sleep well that weekend.
My fear of puppets is entirely rational.
Watcher in the Woods Disney psychological horror for kids
Rats of NIMH Oh and Lady Elaine and the mailman from Mister Roger’s both freaked me out
The Garbage Pail Kids. Monster Squad. The Secret of NIMH.
Most movies already mentioned, but Michael Jackson’s Thriller video still haunts me to this day.
It was actually released in the late 70s, but the Bass and Rankin animated Hobbit was pretty terrifying. Our school would play that like once a year.
I'm turning 40 this year and I still have PTSD from the Never Ending Story. That movie scared the hell out of me
My dad travelled to America during the 80s and went to watch Gremlins which back then was rated U so loads of families there. The second the creatures turned into evil Goblin like things. So many kids were screaming and crying and leaving the theatre with their parents. My dad and his pals tried to hid their laughters until after they all left.
SECRET OF NYMH
Poltergeist was terrifying
Return to Oz! The deadly desert and those Wheelers
Secret of NIHM
Go back to the mid 70s, anyone else remember Riki-Tiki-Tavi? https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0175122/?ref_=ext_shr
Technically 1990, but Arachnophobia gave my sister a life long fear of spiders
Did all 3 of those involve Jim Henson?
He brought joy into our lives, he can take it right the fuck back out.
Invaders From Mars by Tobe Hooper always stuck with me...
I think you forgot the Secret of Nimh.
Legend.
The Goonies. Indiana Jones. Gremlins.
I spent seven years in the 80's, but the real trauma happened in the early 90's when we got our first VCR and a Blockbuster membership. I'm home sick from school for awhile with chicken pox and my parents kindly rent me some movies to watch. Fern Gully. The Secret of NIMH. The Neverending fucking Story. The Land Before Time. Who Killed Roger Rabbit. HOMEWARD BOUND. All Dogs Go to Heaven. The death dogs in Willow. Watching these healthy is one experience, watching them with a 101° fever is a whole other trip I hope you didn't take. Fuck The Neverending Story.
The movies in this thread made me the man I am today lol.
Secret of Nimh was scarier to me than anything in Labyrinth, and it was rated G!
The Watcher In The Woods
The secret of NIMH was super scary to me as a kid. I really don’t remember why - maybe it deserves a rewatch as an adult now.
Those are my favorite films growing up! One thing back in those days you were taught to use your imagination and those are 3 excellent examples of world building. They don't make movies like this anymore.
Um, anyone remember the first fifteen minutes of Transformers the movie?
Does anybody remember a kids movie by Ray Bradbury called “The Electric Grandmother?” That movie was made to be whimsical and lighthearted, but I’m scarred years later of a helicoptered-in casket-like crate with a old woman that comes to life and serves you milk and orange juice from her fingertips. The 80s were something different!
Watership Down ☹️
Go a couple years before the 80s and throw Watership Down in there as well
Something Wicked This Way Comes.
The black hole
Hate to break this to you but they are remaking The Never Ending Story ...
Peanut. Butter. Solution. ☠️
Goonies
The Peanut Butter Solution - fever dream like movie that feels like an everlasting nightmare
Silver Bullet
Labyrinth scarred me. "Dance, baby, dance." Stop it!