With Halloween quickly approaching, I think its only fair that we talk about some scary moments. But not just any scary moments, I'm talking about scary moments we saw when we were kids. Despite childhood being the "age of innocence", movies and TV shows geared children seem to have a werid desire to scare the cr*p out of their young audiences. These scary moments impacted so much, that the "scary" moments we see as adults don't really hold up as well. Today, we are going to look at 5 of the scariest moments that made us grow up faster than we wanted.
5. "With These Hands" (Ren and Stimpy)
Ren and Stimpy often used disturbing imagery in order to generate comedy. When that imagery is shown with the intention to scare, you know what's gonna haunt your nightmares for the next few days. This particular scene comes from the episode "Stimpy's Fan Club", where Ren starts to become jealous of Stimpy's popularity. To make Ren feel better, Stimpy makes him the president of his fan club. However, that move backfires, as Ren's job is to read and answer fan letters to Stimpy. Ren tries to make the most of it by sending nasty replies to the fan mail, such as shaming a boy for admitting that he wets the bed and telling a girl that the reason why her boyfriend is "mean" to her (dirty mind translation: hits her) is because she's stupid. However, Ren eventually loses his mind, as he goes on monologue where he contemplates killing Stimpy in his sleep. The whole episode is disturbing in general, but this scene takes the cake.
4. The Wicked Witch (Wizard of Oz)
For many people, The Wizard of Oz is the first movie they ever saw. As such, the Wicked Witch of the West was the first villain they ever saw, and she gave them quite the introduction to villainy. If the world of Oz can be seen as the representation of every kid's dreams, the Wicked Witch was the embodiment of their worst nightmares. As if she wasn't scary enough, Margaret Hamilton (the actress who played the Witch) was a school teacher before taking the role. I wonder what her former students thought about their teacher also being one of the most famous villains of all time.
3. The Child Catcher (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang)
Remember how your parents always told you to never take things from strangers? If they ever wanted to give you a reason, they would have shown you this creepy bastard from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. This guys is practically the biggest example of stranger danger you'll ever see. He looks werid, he's got a creepy voice, and he loves luring kids with free candy (he's even got a wagon as a stand in for a van). If you see this guy, don't get your lollipops.
2. Wonka's Tunnel (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory)
Despite being a classic, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory remains one of the more puzzling family movies of all time. On one hand, its colorful and imaginative with the heartwarming (if not totally true) moral that people who are kind and compassionate will eventually get their reward. On the other, you get the feeling that there is a more sinister side to Wonka's motives. The infamous "tunnel scene" is a prime example of that. The movie takes a brake from its mostly upbeat and positive tone to bring up some of the creepiest imagery you'll ever see, with Wonka reciting a scary as hell poem. What makes this moment even more disturbing, is that they never mention it again afterwards. The internet has referred to these kind of scenes as "Big Lipped Alligator Moments", and this scene certainly earned that distinction.
1. Night on Bald Mountain (Fantasia)
You know, for a company that likes to call itself "The Happiest Place on Earth", Disney sure does have a lot of horrifying moments in their film catalog. Seriously, I could have made this list with just moments from Disney movies if I wanted. But, I decided to go with the scariest of them all, and that is the Night on Bald Mountain sequence from the ending of Fantasia. How scary is this scene?
Even to this day, Disney is still getting complaints from parents that the scene was too scary for their children. In fact, when Fantasia was first released to home video, this scene was included (future home media, including the version that is currently on Netflix, have featured the scene).
The scene is simply nightmare fuel at its finest, with demonic creatures, hell fire galore, and bare breated harpy demons (I'm not making that up). This is one Night you certainly won't forget.
