Top 10 Nightmare-Inducing Childhood Movies

I wavered between using the above title or going with an equally descriptive alternative: Traumatic films our parents shouldn't have let us watch until we hit the age of majority. Both get right to the heart of the countdown for from monstrous winged monkeys to creepy classic clowns, every one of these flicks had the stuff childhood nightmares were made of. Revisit the traumatic films of our youth and see how many of them still have the power to send chills down our spines!

10. The Wizard of Oz

You may be incredulous upon seeing this age-old classic included in this list but let’s take a moment to really look at all the elements of Oz. You’ve got tornadoes carrying whole homes across worlds, dark forests and castles full of who knows what, violent anthropomorphic trees, vengeful villainous witches and, most importantly, the creepiest winged monkeys to grace the big screen in the past 100 years. The Wicked Witch of the West even had her own chilling theme music, essentially a predatory fairytale version of the ominous two-note shark theme that terrorized movie-goers decades later. So on closer examination, it’s really got all the ingredients for one traumatic youthful experience. I know I never looked at monkeys or apple trees the same way again.
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9. The Watcher in the Woods

A largely forgotten Disney gem, The Watcher in the Woods is perhaps the least kid-friendly movie the studio ever produced. Released in the early '80s, it followed a teenage girl who tried to uncover the truth behind a young girl’s disappearance in the middle of a séance thirty years before. The kicker? The girl looked just like our heroine and appears to be trying to contact her from beyond the grave. Okay, the ending was a bit crazy and made little sense but with those eerie English sets and a chilling Bette Davis as the lost girl’s mother, I bet I wasn’t the only one afraid to look in the mirror after the credits rolled.
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8. The Dark Crystal

From Jim Henson and Frank Oz, the wonderfully creative minds that brought you both 'The Muppets' and David Bowie as a goblin king in spandex, came this fantastically strange “family” film. The quest to save the fictional world of Thra draws in even the most timid child in from the get-go but with a plot full of genocide, war, and torture, it’s not surprising that many of us count this among one of the darkest, most terrifying movies of our childhood. Chilling from its very first moments, the film is full of amazing puppets, from the gentle Gelflings to the wise Mystics to the adorable Podlings, but it’s really the frighteningly evil and skeletal Skeksis and their violent minions the Garthim that still send shivers down our collective spines. Just keep repeating to yourself “they’re just puppets” over and over. It’ll help, I swear.
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7. The Haunting

I confess this one’s more of a personal choice since very few of my childhood chums spent time watching as many classic films at Halloween as I did. One of the best old-fashioned ghost stories to ever open in theatres, this 1963 hit follows a group of paranormal experts as they investigate the legendary haunted Hill House...and what a house it is! The thing that sets this one apart from other similar scare-fests? Not once do you see anything supernatural. Director Robert Wise uses sound and shadow to create a multitude of eerie possibilities and allows the audiences imagination to do the rest. What’s real and what’s just in your mind? The fear factor multiplies exponentially when seen through the creative eyes of a child and the illusions of evil and malevolence in every shadow and corner of the impressive old mansion become just that much scarier. This one led to many a light being turned on in my house in the vain hope of staving off things that go bump in the night.
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6. Jaws

Admittedly childhood is full of irrational fears but you know you weren’t alone if an ominous two note trill and one annoyed shark meant you thought twice before heading to cool off in the water even as you got older. Was it safe or was there something malevolent lurking under the surface of the waves? Steven Spielberg counted on our fear of the unknown to terrify us almost more than the shark itself and man did he have us pegged. While the menacing Great White of movie legend wasn’t picky when it came to choosing his victims – lithe young women, pre-teen boys, or kindly sailing instructors, everyone was equally unsafe – it was the creepiest musical score in history, courtesy of John Williams, that gave the film enough run-and-hide moments that it’s surprising anyone actually ever ended up seeing the whole film! Is it safe to go in the water yet? I’m still not so sure.

5. Child’s Play

I have a slight suspicion that this movie was penned by parents fed-up with greedy children. Or maybe it was just a chance to capitalize on the fact that dolls creep people out. Whatever the reason for its creation, Child’s Play turned every toy store from a roomful of happy possibilities to a potential minefield of horrors. The movie follows adorable six-year-old Andy Barclay as he asks for the most popular toy around, a Good Guy doll, for his birthday. Unfortunately for Andy, though his wish certainly comes true, his Good Guy also happens to be possessed by a serial killer who decides that the boy’s body would make a better living space than a ginger-haired toy. Sociopathic Chucky may be pure fiction but don’t tell me you didn’t get instantly suspicious of your very own toys and have a little more trouble falling asleep while they stared at you with their vacant, vaguely sinister expressions. I thought so.
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4. The Shining

Heeeeeeeeeeere’s Johnny! Okay…maybe Jack Nicholson isn’t the scariest thing in the film but you’ve got to admit a manic actor is enough to frighten any child. What’s the element then that puts this Stephen King-penned terror near the top of the list? Simple…creepy kids. There is nothing more traumatizing to children then other creepy children and the Overlook Hotel has them in abundance. Not only are there the famous “come play with us” Grady Twins, who leave quite the spine-chilling impression despite such a brief appearance, there’s also Danny. Forget Children of the Corn, The Omen or The Bad Seed, the Torrance’s son is the most unsettling youth ever committed to celluloid. From his ESP abilities to his chilling demeanor to his insistent and manic repletion of “redrum”, he’s easily the thing that sticks in your contemporary nightmares long after visions of an axe-wielding "All work and no play" Jack have faded away.

3. Alien

The upside? This movie gives kids the one of the most kick-ass movie role models of all time in heroine Ripley. The downside? You had to sit through one of the scariest movies of all time to watch her in action. More gory than most on our list and possibly number one in the ‘I Can’t Believe My Parents Let Me Watch This” sub-category, Ridley Scott's horror flick is scariest when you don’t see anything at all. The terror lies in the torturous anticipation of the alien popping out from any one of the spaceship alcoves (or even personnel!) to attack and devour one of the six civilians stranded floating in space. If you watched this one when you were young, you may not remember it at all if, like me, you’ve repressed it completely rather than risk dealing with the inevitable nightmarish dreams. Denial isn’t always a bad thing.
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2. The Exorcist

Yup, this one is darn scary. It was scary then and it’s still scary now. The film tells the story of the exorcism and harrowing rescue of Reagan, a 12-year old D.C. girl, whose torture through ritual is both disturbing and traumatizing to watch. The film, on the surface, is an almost deceptively simple cautionary tale of a good girl gone bad but when you factor in demonic possession, things get a tad more complicated and childhood-scarringly messy. And don’t be fooled into thinking its effects were just felt on the youths in the audience, you can bet many of our parents needed a stiff drink or counseling after viewing this one too.
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1. Stephen King's It

Let’s be honest, clowns are downright creepy and I’m willing to bet that most current cases of coulrophobia (a fear of said freaky funsters) can be traced right back to viewing the terrifying miniseries from the king of fright himself, Stephen King. Of course Pennywise, the villainous clown in question, takes things to a whole new traumatizing level as he shape-shifts while taking the time to chow down on children by feeding off their biggest fears. Definitely the stuff nightmares were – and still are – made of.
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What film from your childhood scared you the most? Tell us the terrifying pick below!