The 26 Most Disturbing Kids Movies Ever
Family films that will scar your children for life.
by Cole Gamble
June 24, 2008
11. Pan's Labyrinth
Okay, so technically this isn't a family film, as it is rated R, but it looked so much like a family film from the posters and trailers that plenty of families wound up seeing it, at their peril. Really just a horror movie dressed up like a fairy tale, Pan's Labyrinth follows in the long tradition of children's stories as gothic horror. Those Grimm boys never met a severed limb they didn't like. And let's face it, labyrinths are just plain scary, even when there isn't the constant threat of David Bowie's bedazzled codpiece hiding around every corner.
10. Old Yeller
Okay, we all know why we're here for this one, but you have to wait for it. There is more to Old Yeller than just — well, you know. People maintain that Old Yeller is a delightfully safe film up until the infamous end. I say hold on, bucko. Old Yeller starts awful as well. For starters, the family in this film is so poor they have never seen a dollar bill. A dollar bill! That's a bit of pathos even Charles Dickens might call "laying it on thick." There's poverty and there's "Seriously? You eat dirt?" Thanks to losing the Civil War, living conditions in the reconstruction-era South were third-world at best. Luckily for the kids watching, Old Yeller ended up contracting rabies, otherwise the good old Coates family would have ended the film eating the dog.
Now on to the matter at hand. Shooting a dog is, yes, traumatizing but let's break down what is so emotionally scarring about this particular dog-shooting. From the death of Old Yeller we learn three things:
1. New friends will always turn on you.
2. If you ever open your heart to love something it will contract rabies and try to kill you.
3. Shooting Old Yeller represents Travis's metaphorical entrance into manhood. This means that before any boy can become a man he must shoot his dog in the face.
9. The Secret of Nimh
Great movie. One of my all time favorites, kid film-wise. But you know you are in for a less-than-cheerful ride within the first minute. That's when we learn that dad mouse is dead and baby mouse is dying. Hmmm, an inauspicious start for fun family entertainment, if I may say so. What strikes me even now about this movie is how very real the peril these mice get into feels. My young brain was not prepared for a cartoon that was so gritty. Oh, and let's not forget the cat with one eye and the freaky Great Owl. The Secret of Nimh was created by Disney ex-animator Don Bluth. Apparently he and his animators drew this up in a garage and Bluth makes a point of letting you know right away this ain't gonna be no Disney movie.
8. Watership Down
I don't want to talk about this any further.
7. The Nightmare Before Christmas
I actually saw this when I was a teen, and liked it a lot. It was hard for me to judge if it's a scary one without having seen it with a child's eyes. So I employed my four-year-old to give me the "scary" thumbs up. She liked the friendly looking skeleton on the package. She liked the opening musical number. She even dug the clown with the tear-away face (where I was betting she would check out). Mr. Oogie Boogie is even kind of cute in a grungy burlap sack way, but then you discover what's in Oogie: bugs. Yep, after that Jillian was having no more of The Nightmare Before Christmas. Give her credit; she made it almost to the end.
©2008 Babble
About the Author
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Cole Gamble is a writer living in Portland, Oregon. He's working on an evil self-help guide titled Improve Your Life or Die.
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