Sleep with the Lights On: 24 Unintentionally Scary Kids' Movies

What movie scared you as a kid? While there are plenty of scary movies, including children's horror movies, some movies for kids are unintentionally scary. Maybe it was a particular scene, or the animation style hit an unacceptable level of uncanny valley for you. Or, movies featuring witches and clowns can touch on common childhood fears. (Of course, mileage may vary.) Keep reading to see a list of some of the most unintentionally scary movies for kids!

Before we begin, let's outline a few ground rules. We're specifically looking at movies intended for kids, so films like Watership Down or the animated The Lord of the Rings movie are not included. (And we're sorry if you accidentally caught a glimpse of Chucky in your early years!) The movies we're looking at are also unintentionally scary as a whole, as we can admit that children's horror movies like Coraline and Monster House will scare young children. Without further ado, let's take a terrifying trip down memory lane!

1. The Wizard of Oz (1939)

[Source: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/IMDb]

When you think about movies with characters or scenes that terrify children, one of the most iconic of them all is The Wizard of Oz. Specifically, that would be the flying monkeys. Yes, the Wicked Witch is made to be a somewhat scary villain, but we have to know if the filmmakers were surprised when it was the flying monkeys that kept countless children up at night. Also, an honorable mention goes out to the unofficial sequel, Return to Oz. The Wheelers are downright terrifying, but as the film itself is a dark fantasy, we can't say that we didn't see some scary stuff coming.

2. Pinocchio (1940)

[Source: Walt Disney Productions/IMDb]

The cute kitten Figaro and the beautiful Blue Fairy did not prepare us for the horror hidden within Pinocchio. What innocently looks like a cute movie about a puppet that wants to become a real boy also has an element of body horror that most children weren't prepared for. You could say that Pleasure Island involved a certain level of "scared straight" childhood intervention, as the kids who indulged in smoking, vandalism, and drinking all slowly changed into donkeys to be sold into slave labor. If that wasn't enough, being chased and swallowed by a gigantic, terrifying whale named Monstro also happened.

3. Dumbo (1941)

[Source: Walt Disney Productions/IMDb]

Disney does it again with another scared straight intervention! Dumbo and Timothy accidentally get drunk, and they see a host of scary pink elephants. "Pink Elephants on Parade" also features a measure of body horror as pink elephants dance and sing and use their bodies as musical instruments. Now, the point of Dumbo is not to terrify children out of seeking their vices like the movie Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue. (It's an arguably scary kids' movie that was made to be terrifying!) Instead, you watch Dumbo to see a cute elephant fly with oversized wings and beat the odds.

4. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)

[Source: Videocraft International/IMDb]

While some people love the artistic stop-motion claymation Rankin-Bass films, we cannot deny that some people can't get past the jerky movements of this animation style. Probably the most famous of all is Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, a TV special that airs every year for the Christmas season. Besides the animation itself, there's also a giant, scary, abominable snowman—who gets defeated by dentistry. Let's just say that we don't want to be near Hermey when he gets the itch to start pulling teeth!

5. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)

[Source: Warfield Productions/Dramatic Features/IMDb]

On one end of the spectrum, we have a fun, flying car capable of whisking you away on fantastic adventures. But, on the other hand, there's the Child Catcher with a crazy nose capable of sniffing out children like a dog, who locks them up in cages. Upon arriving in Vulgaria, there is an uneasy feeling as the land is oddly devoid of children. (As it turns out, children have been outlawed!) When our child protagonists are captured by the Child Catcher and imprisoned in the castle, we can only wonder about the fates of the previously captured children.

6. Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)

[Source: Wolper Pictures/The Quaker Oats Company/IMDb]

When you go to the theater to watch a kids' movie about a poor child who had his life changed by winning a golden ticket and getting a trip to a fantastical chocolate factory, you're not expecting to take a trip in a tunnel of terror. Bugs crawl on peoples' faces, and chickens get their heads chopped off, among other terrifying imagery. (If you know, you know.) However, this movie has other frightening elements as well, with Violet Beauregarde's body horror as she transforms into a human-sized blueberry, Augustus Gloop is nearly drowned in a chocolate river and gets stuck in a pipe (which likely saved his life), and the scary boat unexpectedly blasts foamy cream onto all its passengers. We count ourselves lucky that we didn't win a golden ticket.

7. Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure (1977)

[Source: The Bobbs-Merill Company/Lester Osterman Productions/Richard Williams Productions/IMDb]

Did the adults making this movie ever stop to question if this would frighten little kids? While the animated portions of the film are bright and colorful, some elements are more akin to a scary fever dream or a hallucinogenic nightmare. (And with clowns, no less!) We watch as bewildering events unfold in and beyond a child's playroom, like a terrifying Toy Story that won't allow us to tear our eyes away. Character proportions are weird and unsettling; the physics perfectly capture ragdoll movement in all the wrong places, and we're left with a nightmare-inducing children's movie. Other disturbing moments include a sea of taffy that also eats itself, inflation, and a disassociating camel.

8. The Secret of NIMH (1982)

[Source: United Artists/Aurora Productions/Don Bluth Productions/IMDb]

Did you want to see a cute animated story about mice and woodland creatures? While The Secret of NIMH may have appeared like another cute story with fuzzy critters, it was anything but. The NIMH in the title stands for the National Institute of Mental Health, a research facility in which lab rats are tortured and kept in cages for humans to conduct experiments. After undergoing terrifying procedures, these rats develop greater intellects and the ability to read, write, and basically be little humans. Other subplots involve uprooting and moving their home to a safer location and getting chased around by terrifying rats with no pupils. (How eyes are treated in animation can be a big sticking point for some kids!) Near the end of the movie, there's a swordfight with the villain rat that involves animated bloody cuts, and the antagonist is stabbed to death. Overall, the film is dark and filled with dread, enough to disturb many kids over the years.

9. The Last Unicorn (1982)

[Source: Rankin/Bass Productions/Topcraft/ITC Films/IMDb]

If you're expecting a fun, fantasy film with a pretty white unicorn and her other fairytale friends, get ready to be surprised by a surprisingly dark tale. In fact, the color palette for the entire movie is relatively muted and dark. The plot revolves around a unicorn who discovers she is the last of her kind because the rest of the unicorns have been herded into the sea, trapped by a massive red bull—that somehow has sharp, pointy teeth. It's also pupilless, like the creepy rats of NIMH. In her adventures, the unicorn runs afoul of Mommy Fortuna, a creepy witch who has a gnarly death at the hands of a massive harpy, a joyless King Haggard who looks like he's at death's door, and a talking skeleton who narks on her to said king. If that wasn't enough, Amalthea the unicorn is turned into a human and begins to forget her life as a unicorn, and she falls in love with Prince Lir, which is ultimately not meant to be when she becomes a unicorn again at the end of the movie.

10. Heidi's Song (1982)

[Source: Hanna-Barbera Productions/IMDb]

It's all fun and games until someone has a hallucinogenic nightmare sequence. In truly terrifying fashion, Heidi has a dream featuring strange goblinoid and fairytale creatures that pop out of nowhere and start following her around. The beginning lyrics of the dream song are also weirdly foreboding, practically echoing The Shining as she is beckoned to "come play with us". Things oddly seem to be okay until an entire mountain troll comes to life and terrorizes everyone, toying with them like little ants. If that wasn't scary enough for young children, the movie has menacing rats with red eyes. Again, with the eyes!

11. Unico in the Island of Magic (1983)

[Source: Madhouse/IMDb]

Another bait-and-switch unicorn movie from the 80s? Unico is a tiny baby unicorn who can grant happiness to everyone around him, but he ends up in a land plagued by an evil magician named Lord Kuruku. Lord Kuruku's goal is to turn every living thing into bizarre, zombie-like creatures that he refers to as "living puppets" who serve him as enslaved people. The living puppets are a child's worst nightmare, devoid of humanity and warmth. Also, Lord Kuruku himself hardly looks human, with strange bug-eyes, oddly flat fingertips, and a chin as pointy as a pencil. As an added bonus, the protagonist's brother is the villain's henchman. While he tries to save his family from this strange fate, he's weirdly okay with turning their entire village into living puppets for Lord Kuruku after watching the same happen to his parents.

12. The NeverEnding Story (1984)

[Source: Neue Constantin/Bavaria Film/Producers Sales Organization/IMDb]

As much as we love 80s movies, we must admit that sometimes the movies were too dark and intense for younger viewers. It was in this year, 1984 when the Motion Picture Association added PG-13 to their rating system. We also were introduced to The NeverEnding Story, the theme music that will likely pulse through your mind by now if you know it. It falls into a category of fantasy films with dark undertones, similar to Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal. (Both of which also scared kids, mind you!) The NeverEnding Story takes off the kid gloves and has children face the actual death of a character whom they have come to love—Artax, Atreyu's horse. Also, practical effects and puppetry made the wolf-like Gmork simply nightmarish, and the Nothing that was consuming the land made kids think about death and non-existence. Existential crisis, here we come!

13. The Adventures of Mark Twain (1985)

[Source: Will Vinton Productions/Harbour Town Films/IMDb]

Stop-motion claymation strikes again! However, there are some very dark, twisted themes at work in The Adventures of Mark Twain that go far beyond the childhood innocence of Tom Sawyer. Part of Mark Twain's The Chronicle of Young Satan was reproduced in this movie, with Satan appearing as a man with a theater mask instead of a head. Faceless theater masks are already terrifying enough on their own, but when you watch them change from a blank expression to something far more sinister, it's too much for many young viewers. (Not to mention some older audiences!) We're honestly not sure how this one got away with a G rating.

14. The Black Cauldron (1985)

[Source: Walt Disney Pictures/Walt Disney Productions/Silver Screen Partners II/IMDb]

The Black Cauldron is undoubtedly one of Disney's darkest films and has its most visually scary villain. What exactly is the Horned King? He appears as some undead, fleshy skeleton creature with horns, clawed fingernails, and glowing red eyes thrown in for good measure. He's a recipe for pure childhood terror, that's what! The Horned King uses the black cauldron to raise an entire army of skeletons, complete with a creepy green, glowing mist. The only thing helping to tone down the scenes with The Horned King is his bumbling idiot henchman, Creeper, a source of dark comic relief.

15. Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985)

[Source: Aspen Film Society/IMDb]

What do you get when you mix a beloved childhood character like Pee-Wee Herman with Tim Burton's feature film debut? You get Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. Yes, Tim Burton of Beetlejuice and A Nightmare Before Christmas fame was still in his infancy here, but we already get a taste of what is to become his signature style. There were moments in the movie where childhood Pee-Wee fans were taken entirely by surprise, but they all pale in comparison to the jump scare that is Large Marge. The truck driver picks up a hitchhiking Pee-Wee and tells him a scary story reminiscent of campfire tales, and she tops it off by completely distorting her face claymation-style! (To the horror of many, many children.) There's also a scary dream complete with evil clown doctors and devils. To be fair, the movie did garner a PG rating, but many young children were likely allowed to watch it because of their experience with the Pee-Wee Herman Show.

16. The Brave Little Toaster (1987)

[Source: Hyperion Pictures/IMDb]

A movie about sentient appliances? What could go wrong? What if animators could use these non-human items to introduce children to depression, death, and insanity? Well...they certainly did just that and more. In one of the most terrifying sequences, the brave little toaster has a nightmare where he billows black smoke, and a frightening clown firefighter emerges and simply tells him to run. At the end of it all, he lands in a bathtub full of water and violently wakes up. While PG and PG-13 ratings were now available, this movie was granted a G rating. (Let's remember that Poltergeist and Jaws were PG movies not long before this through the lack of PG-13.) Let's say that The Brave Little Toaster would grant a stiffer rating these days.

17. Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1989)

[Source: Tokyo Movie Shinsha/IMDb]

We have already encountered several children's movies with nightmarish dream sequences, so how about a film that mainly takes place in Slumberland? Anything can happen, from the fun and fantastic to the most dreadful horrors for young minds. Of course, the big bad here is appropriately named The Nightmare King, with a horde of creepy nightmare minions. One of the most frightening sequences involves a jovial ballroom scene, which is overtaken by black sludge with red eyeballs that wraps itself around King Morpheus, making him disappear. Afterward, it is immediately unknown if he perished or simply vanished. Many other scenes are simply surreal or intense, making them difficult to watch for some young children.

18. The Little Mermaid (1989)

[Source: Walt Disney Pictures/Walt Disney Feature Animation/Silver Screen Partners IV/IMDb]

By now, you have probably realized that Disney movies can be filled with terrifying moments. While we won't take the time to mention all of them, we will be bringing up The Little Mermaid. Some parts of the movie are merely unsettling, like Ursula's weird "garden" filled with cursed mermaid polyps who can't do much outside of screaming and crying in agony. Then you have the terrifying chef chopping the heads off fish, who chases Sebastian with all manner of knives and utensils, trying to kill and cook him. Finally, there's big, bad Ursula, who grows to a massive size with the power of King Triton's trident. She also has a very visceral demise, getting stabbed to death with the bow of a ship. If you'll excuse us, we'll try to distract our childhood selves by listening to "Under the Sea" again.

19. Ferngully: The Last Rainforest (1992)

[Source: Kroyer Films, Inc./Youngheart Productions/FAI Films/IMDb]

Darkly-colored, oozing, slimy substances can be unsettling for some young viewers, including the toxic Hexxus from Ferngully: The Last Rainforest. Sure, he had a strangely seductive song number by Tim Curry, but the way the character moves and contaminates the environment can make your skin crawl. You could conclude that the animators were trying to scare young viewers straight about the environment—and scare some kids it did! On the plus side, this movie also brought critical awareness to a young audience in an easily digestible way. We guess we can forgive Ferngully for the occasional weird goop-man nightmare.

20. We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993)

[Source: Amblin Entertainment/Amblimation/IMDb]

We're Back! A Dinosar's Story is one of those movies that many people may have only seen once, and there's a lingering sense of deja vu combined with dark, repressed memories about a fever dream of a movie. Not only was this movie dark and brooding, but it was also incredibly bizarre. A time-traveling scientist and his alien assistant go to the past and collect a few dinosaurs, feed them cereal that gives them intelligence and adorable personalities, and take them back to the future so that children can love dinosaurs even more. (Or something?) Then there's Professor Screweye and his Eccentric Circus horror show that turns kids into monkeys, and he also makes the dinosaurs feral again. The icing on the cake is the bizarre presumed death of Professor Screweye. He is covered in crows under a spotlight, and like some bizarre magic trick, they all fly away, leaving only his screw eye. Was he just eaten in front of our very eyes? Who knows!

21. A Troll in Central Park (1994)

[Source: Don Bluth Ireland Ltd./IMDb]

Dark and often unsettling imagery was a hallmark of many Don Bluth movies, but they were usually offset by a sense of magic and likable characters. However, a Troll in Central Park is cited as one of Bluth's worst feature films, making a mere 71k on a 23 million dollar budget. If that gut punch wasn't enough, this dark, dreary fever dream of a movie was a nightmare for some children. The muted color palette gives a sense of unease, and foreboding that sticks with you throughout the film, even through the weird sequences with singing and dancing flowers. Evoking transformations of nightmares past, a child character is turned into a troll against his will. What's a kids' movie without a touch of body horror?

22. Matilda (1996)

[Source: TriStar Pictures/Jersey Films/IMDb]

Some movies have frightening moments because a character or scene is scary, whereas others are deemed unsettling because they're unbearably gross. For anyone with a degree of emetophobia, the chocolate cake-eating scene is a very difficult one to watch without turning away. Miss Trunchbull is a scary brute and often a source of childhood fear in Matilda, but she is ruthless when she forces a child to consume an entire chocolate cake in front of a room full of his peers. Having a slice of chocolate cake is a delightful experience, but being forced to eat an entire cake is unsettling and even nausea-inducing. Even when you're not eating that cake, you're feeling second-hand nausea for him. Will there be barf? You honestly hope not, because you're feeling mighty uncomfortable watching this scene.

23. Spy Kids (2001)

[Source: Troublemaker Studios/IMDb]

At first glance, Spy Kids looks and sounds straightforward, like a James Bond movie for kids. This is why, when you encounter Thumb Thumbs, you immediately recoil because that's the last thing you were expecting to see in a super spy movie. Once described by director Rodriguez as a fusion between James Bond and Willy Wonka, there's a lot more weird here. (It almost feels like it's preparing us for the uncanny valley movie The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D, which debuted in 2005. And it's also by Rodriguez.) As it turns out, the bad guy runs a children's program where he features Fooglies—kidnapped and mutated enemies that look like weird, colorful nightmare creatures. There's a lot of weird going on here, and it's too much for some kids!

24. Spirited Away (2001)

[Source: Studio Ghibli/IMDb]

As much as we love a good Ghibli movie, they can have some absolutely terrifying moments for kids! Probably one of the most commonly watched by young children is Spirited Away because of its colorful visuals and young protagonist. However, we're also introduced to characters like No Face, a ghostly blob who slowly takes form. It culminates in an utterly terrifying rage in the bathhouse, where he eats guests and staff, and grows to a gigantic size, complete with weird limbs and a giant mouth in his gut. And he's not the only giant, bizarre thing! There's a disturbingly large baby, the stink spirit, and a disproportionate witch with a massive head. As if all that wasn't enough, Chihiro's parents turning into pigs is another terrifying sight. And there's a dragon who appears to be bleeding to death. Honestly, it may be a little intense for its PG rating!

We hope you enjoyed this terrifying trip down memory lane! Do you remember any movies you thought you forgot? Do you feel the sudden urge to watch some movies you never had the chance to experience yet? Maybe you'll let your kids watch a few of these with you—if they're old enough! Don't forget to check out our movie gifts to quench that nostalgia.