Nothing says family fun like kidnapping, kid eating and more kidnapping.
Children of our generation grew up with some of the greatest, albeit creepiest, Halloween movies. With that season here again, it’s time we all cuddle under the blankets with a bowl of popcorn and an appetite for terror.
However, watching these movies again makes you realize that the real horror lies in the lack of parental guidance warnings.
“Coraline”
We’re all familiar with the movie “Coraline.”
A little girl is kidnapped by an otherworldly family that is just like her own, but better, minus the fact that they want to eat her soul.
The movie uses every kid’s fantasy of delicious food and amazing parents and then destroys it with black buttons. While seemingly innocent, these sewing essentials also come with a free eye-gouging. Not really a coupon offer anyone wants!
Besides the unnecessarily graphic self-improvement scheme, the other mother left us all screaming and reaching for the remote as she shed her warm persona in favor of a more spider-like appearance.
Plus everyone knows that arachnophobia is one of the world’s most common fears.
“The Nightmare Before Christmas”
Halloween would not be complete without this classic film filled to the brim with fantastic musical numbers and spooky imagery.
Right from the beginning, we are met with clowns with tear-away faces and the Who when you call “who’s there?” If there’s anything that I was afraid of when I was little, it was definitely the unknown things lurking in the darkness of your basement and that’s exactly what the opening scene is full of.
Characters such as an evil scientist that enslaves his daughter, an untrustworthy mayor who can literally change his face, a doll that rips off her own limbs and then sews them back on and the Pumpkin King himself made their way into our hearts and our nightmares.
However, the biggest horror was Oogie Boogie.
This guy was not only a burlap potato sack but one filled with bugs, which is basically the epitome of nightmares.
He was also obsessed with cutting Santa Claus up into little pieces. Oh, and he hired children to do this for him. Father figure of the year right there.
“Monster House”
“Monster House” is the forgotten terror of our childhoods.
I remember watching this movie in the middle of the day and still not being able to sleep. The writing is fantastic; however, the plot seems like something out of a true R-rated thriller.
Three children decided to explore the haunted house down the block that was rumored to eat people. During their adventures, they encounter the real backstory of the home as well as the reasons why it steals the neighbors (and dogs) from the streets.
I don’t remember much about this movie except there being a dead wife in the basement.
Yeah. That actually happened.
That was also the moment when I realized that this should not have been rated PG. Whoever decided the guidance warning on this movie was hopefully fired because this film is terrifying, even when I watch it as an adult.
Halloween is a time for the scary, spooky things of the world to come to life. However, maybe we should define a very thick line between movies suitable for children and movies that would make even the ghosts in “The Conjuring” a little freaked out.
On the other hand, it’s never too soon to show children the terrors of the world. Maybe it’s better we start off slow before introducing the real horrors.
