Accidental Horror

Whether it is misremembering or a sickening form of nostalgia, something sinister hangs over memories of movies from our youth. 

Never in my life has any current movie given me the same sense of primal fear as some childhood movies have given me. The heart racing and stomach sinking feeling that films like “Where the Wild Things Are” and “James and the Giant Peach” have given me have not been matched by any modern horror movie I have watched recently. 

Yes, “Where the Wild Things Are” and “James and the Giant Peach”. The two titles are not a mistake. I am convinced these two movies have forever altered how I feel about fear.

“James and the Giant Peach” directed by Henry Selick:

Credited to: Henry Selick. 1996. James and the Giant Peach [Film]. Walt Disney Pictures.

Childhood movies are obsessed with surrealism. The fantastical imagination and whimsical storyline is captivating for a younger audience, yet at the same time terrifying for my child self. Live action and stop motion claymation was fuel for nightmares to come. 

The mindbending transition of James changing from a real boy to a doll-like figure while also being aware of his own change was horrifying to me. The hyperawareness of James's ability to process his physiological change gave me goosebumps and made the younger me think it was a real-life situation. 

The color shift was jarring as well. The live action scenes are washed in a gloomy blue haze. James is pale and his aunts look sickly and villainish under such a dull light. Their colorful clothes are washed out and dimmed, making once vibrant clothes look old and weathered with time. 

The claymation causes a brutal shift to vibrance. Colorful light dances across the screen and every color seems pitched to the brightest potential. It was as overwhelming as a funhouse and my eyes couldn’t adjust fast enough. 

To add disorientation, “James and the Giant Peach” introduces a cast of wacky talking bugs that act as his guardians, yet they are equally as antagonistic at times to James on their journey to help him find a better life. 

The film also plays on common childhood fears. As James and his unsettling companions travel through their quest, sailing on a giant peach in the ocean, you witness their near death when they are almost eaten by sharks, nearly drowned, and their peach boat is nearly sunk in the middle of the ocean, leaving them stranded. 

As a result, I gained a new fear of oceans that day and have yet to step foot into one at 20 years old. 

What scared me the most was witnessing a story of an abused child cope through escapism. This story at the end of the day is about James escaping the abuse and neglect of his aunts. This fantastical world is the imagination of a boy finding solace in a surreal world where he escapes and starts his life over again. 

The ending can be interpreted in different ways, but when I was younger I always thought of it as a childish interpretation of a daydream. A daydream in which James dreams of the promise that life will get better once he’s older. This unsettled me to my core as a child, and made me process some of the dark realities of life that are usually avoided or considered taboo to introduce to kids. 

I couldn’t recommend a better movie this Halloween. Even though this movie haunted me as a child, it is an interesting watch to dive into as an adult. I found myself appreciating the way they tackled such a topic. 

“Where the Wild Things Are” directed by Spike Jonze

Credited to: Spike Jonze. 2009. Where the Wild Things Are [Film]. Warner Bros. 

My parents set me up for failure with this movie. While I was safely at home watching “James and the Giant Peach”, they threw me to the wolves when we sat in a movie theater to watch “Where the Wild Things Are”. 

I was met with a child in instant peril as gigantic, humanoid, animalistic, growling, sharp-toothed  and clawed monsters chase the main character, Max, through the woods trying to eat and or maim him. On the big screen, I witnessed Max running for his life while I was stuck in a dark movie theater between my parents who couldn’t care less for the peril this kid was in. 

If you strain your ears through the pounding of paws on the ground and the snarls of the Things, you can hear Max screaming and crying through the woods. The sheer volume of this scene made me burst into tears in the theater. 

This is an intense scene for a kids movie, and it scared a few years off of my life at that very moment. 

Easing my heart, a friendly Thing saved Max, and everything was settled within the Things and Max’s presence on the island. He even becomes the King of the Wild Things and rules over them by problem solving and handling the Things’ outbursts—which are equally as terrifying to witness. 

Carol is one of the Things that has the biggest conflicts with Max. They are a representation of anger and aggression. Their outbursts are violent and rage induced, and on multiple occasions almost hurts Max and other Things during an episode. It is distressing to witness a child in genuine danger, especially when you are a child yourself. 

The theater really expands that fear, with a screen so wide there is no way to truly distance yourself from what you are seeing and hearing. I remember feeling the rumble of the fights and the yelling in my chest. 

Guilt and self-accountability is another theme within this movie that struck a different type of fear into me, when I was younger… reflection over my actions. 

The whole premise of “Where the Wild Things Are” is about how Max, as a young boy, is learning to cope with big feelings as he grows up. In this story of self-discovery, he acts out towards his parents and gets into fights with them that leaves both them and Max hurt by each other. 

In the end, of course, it concludes with Max understanding and processing his emotions and his actions, while being forgiven by both himself and his parents for the past. 

Well, younger me didn’t understand the memo and began overthinking everything I have ever done and said within the short amount of time I was alive. This movie gave me a taste of a midlife crisis at the ripe age of five years old. 

The experience of “Where the Wild Things Are” left such an impacting fear in me, I refused to rewatch the movie in preparation for this article. I also refused to look through scene clips because to this day I still feel such a powerful sense of dread.

From these two movies, my opinion on horror will forever be set to a high standard. Horror doesn’t have to be a slasher or supernatural. Sometimes horror is created accidentally through the unsupervised mind of a child, which leaves a lasting mark in their mind.