This Halloween, people across the country will watch ""The Shining,"" ""The Exorcist,"" ""Dawn of the Dead"" and a host of other films your kid sibling isn't supposed to see without Mom or Dad. But there's no reason to stretch the MPAA's limits when looking for horror this Tuesday; as anyone reared on Disney, Grimm fairy tales or the Bible knows, it's often the stuff deemed MOST appropriate for kids that ends up being the scariest. Here, the Cardinal Arts Staff examines the most terrifying films to ever receive the film industry's tamest rating.
""Alice in Wonderland""
Walt Disney's 1951 adaptation of Lewis Carroll's beloved childhood novel is one of his true classics—and the epitome of a terrifying acid trip. True, the film is beautifully rendered and performed, but from the moment Alice tumbles down the rabbit hole she's in the middle of a child's worst nightmare. So many of the film's scenes seem like they'd be better suited to David Cronenberg or Terry Gilliam than Disney: a caterpillar plying Alice with hashish, a deck of cards out for her blood and a full chorale flower patch. The atmosphere is made even worse with the rapid mood changes, going from the paranoia of the clock room to the psychedelics of the tea party. This is a film that never should have been intended for children, unless it's a warning to stay off drugs. More likely, Walt took some bad mescaline and started screaming at his animators to get it down before the demons ate his face.
—Les Chappell
""An American Tail""
On its surface, Steven Spielberg's story of animal immigrants in turn-of-the-century New York might look innocuous, but it's anything but when it's seen for what it easily could be: a prequel to Art Spiegelman's Holocaust graphic novel ""Maus."" Plucky Jewish mouse Fievel leaves Russia believing there are no cats (in ""Maus,"" Nazis; in ""American Tail,"" pogroms?) in America. But of course there are cats in America. Cats force Fievel to work in a sweatshop, live in a tenement and participate in a protection racket so Fievel won't be offed by cat gangs. And don't forget the lurching mechanical ""Giant Mouse of Minsk"" that shows up at the end. What's a good fear-inducing Jewish folktale without a golem?
—Dan Wohl
""Bambi""
For whatever reason, the scene when Bambi's mom gets shot and killed in the very beginning is absolutely terrifying. Imagine staring wide-eyed up at that screen, circa age five. There's a little bowl of graham crackers on the floor somewhere nearby, right next to a glass of juice. But what good are juice and crackers when hunters are maiming and killing animals on the screen? There's all this fire and fighting and whirling around with the wind and voices and screaming.... This is probably not exactly what happened, but a childhood memory knows what it saw. And if it's ""Bambi"" in question, it saw pain, blood and a poor, dead mama deer. Geez.
—Tarah Scalzo
""Escape to Witch Mountain""
There are two mysteries in this film: What the secret is behind the orphans Tony and Tia's paranormal powers, and how this profoundly disturbing story of existential dread was ever turned into a ""children's"" movie. The orphans' hazy, nightmarish repressed memories leave an indelible fear on the brain of anyone who watches them. When these kids without a home, background or understanding of their freakish abilities finally learn the otherworldly truth, the viewer is left not with a feeling of relief but of how pointless their quest, and life, is—which is the most scary thing of all.
—Dan Wohl
""Fantasia""
It's hard to believe that an animated movie featuring absolutely no dialogue would have this famous of a scary scene, but ""Fantasia"" is definitely not a movie to be taken lightly. Mickey Mouse is experimenting with magic after a sorcerer leaves him alone. At first, everything is going well and Mickey is quite cocky about his ability to command a broom to do his chores. Eventually, however, the broom stops listening to Mickey and instead floods the room with water.
When Mickey tries to end his spell by chopping the unstoppable broom with an axe, it only generates more brooms, with even more buckets of water that completely fill the room. In a panic, Mickey hops onto the spell book and rides the waves that fill the room and threaten to drown everything. He has clearly tapped into some power that he is not strong enough to handle.
—Emily Semmelman
""The Little Mermaid""
""The Little Mermaid"" is a classic Disney movie that is scary in its own unique way. While it has the typical Disney too-scary-for-little-kids-villain, Ursula, and her creepy razor-toothed sidekick eels, Flotsam and Jetsam, ""The Little Mermaid"" is also the first Disney film that involved itself in a bit of controversy surrounding sexual ""mishaps"" placed in the film. The first offense stood firmly on the cover of the original 1990 video release cover. Behind Ariel and her love, Prince Eric, we see a large sparkling sand castle. If you look closely, one of the towers of the castle unmistakably looks like a giant phallus. If that wasn't enough, later in the film, during a wedding scene, the priest performing the ceremony has a close up, during which he appears to be getting an erection. ""The Little Mermaid"" is considered as one of the greatest animated movies of all time, but a small child's exposure to such obscenities would undoubtedly scare and corrupt them beyond repair.
—Brien Barrett
""The Santa Clause 2""
Fans of the ""The Santa Clause"" thought they were in for another dose of Christmas cheer with its sequel, ""The Santa Clause 2."" Instead, they were greeted with ultimate horror. ""The Santa Clause 2"" was frightening on so many levels, but the Santa robot tops them all on the fright meter. Mothers had to cover their children's eyes as an overweight, robotic Tim Allen stood buck naked in the middle of Santa's workshop. Not only did the evil robo-Santa engage in indecent exposure, he also enslaved the innocent elves, forcing them into endless labor. The robo-Santa dictator is a fiend that children should never have to witness. Face it, people would rather be comforted by Leatherface's embrace than to ever say the words, ""Heil Santa.""
—Eunice Abraham
""Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory""
""...Are the fires of hell a-glowing? Is the grisly reaper mowing? Yes, the danger must be growing ‘cause the rowers keep on rowing. And they're certainly not showing any signs that they are slowing..."" Fires of hell? Grisly reapers? Whose bright idea was it to turn a Roald Dahl book into a kids movie? Orange midgets, kids turning into blueberries, Charlie Bucket and Grampa Joe coming THIS CLOSE to being sliced and diced in the fizzy soda pop room, not to mention the acid trip we take with Wonka down that dark cave river—all of these things are chilling enough to scare moms, dads and even the creepiest of uncles.
—Tarah Scalzo
""The Wizard of Oz""
Although in retrospect the film is one of the more affable pictures of its time, ""The Wizard of Oz"" in present day has to be one of the most horrific movies available with a G rating. In the first 20 minutes of the film, we have a hellacious tornado that tears through a humble Kansas farm town, a girl is sent into a coma-induced slumber where her house crushes a woman with ruby slippers and a nation of little people dressed to look like glorified lawn gnomes arrive promptly to congratulate her with song and dance. If this isn't the making of all of your worst nightmares then your bravery is far beyond human standards.
Whether it's the wretched cackle of the Wicked Witch of the West, the shocking realism of walking, talking animals and lifeless creatures that become demonically enchanted (Scarecrow and Tin Man), or the fearfully ominous Emerald City outlined by psychedelic poppies and home to a tyrannical, vengeful Wizard, this film portrays unimaginable fears that cannot possibly be fruitful to a child's psyche.
—Andrew Dambeck
