This Should Be Counted As Horror!

Ava Bestulbi

Nov. 14 2024

New horror movies come out every year, each more unsettling than the last. However, the scariest movies are the ones that were not meant to scare! 

Hundreds of movies are marketed to kids every year, but the movies we loved as kids are some of the most unsettling movies I have seen. Now as an adult rewatching these ‘innocent’ movies that were directed towards a young audience, is terrifying. Let’s look at some examples: 

 “Coraline” directed by Henrik Selick

Hear me out with this one. I love this movie, and it is a Halloween staple. However, I should not have watched it at the ripe age of four years old. 

Coraline’s mother has got to be one of the creepiest villains of all time. She wanted to replace her “daughter's” eyes with buttons, and she threw her into a room until she was more loving. I was scared of my mom after this but I made sure I told her I loved her. 

The idea of “Coraline” was scary enough to be considered horror, but how about that scenery? It was so descriptive and visual, that it almost felt real. Yes, I called a cartoon real. It sounds crazy but it emphasizes the fear factor when it’s visually stimulating to the eye

“Matilda” directed by Danny DeVito 

 Matilda suffered physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her family and that was targeted to children in her age range!

 She was also shown attending  a violent school. I’d imagine as a kindergartener watching this movie they would think that is what school looked like. That is traumatizing! 

“The chokey” was an unrealistic but, visually stimulating addition to the movie. It looked so real, and Mara Wilson, acting as Matilda, played into it so well. The idea of the chokey is inhumane- and not to mention beyond illegal. If you remember correctly; tThe chokey was a closet with walls filled with rusty needles and screws and, it was filthy and dark inside.. Not to mention it has the word ‘choke’ in it. It was a torture device with All things that could easily hurt someone, or become life threatening. And yet it was portrayed as completely normal!

The Willy Wonka Series by Roald Dahl 

I had to save the most controversial for last. Willy Wonka was traumatizing, especially the one with Johnny Depp, who was creepy in his own right. 

First off, what happened to all the kids, did they die? The chocolate tube scene always throws me off, I was scared to eat chocolate for at least a month. I still think about the tunnel of terror scene 15 years after watching that movie. There is no way it should be targeted for kids. 

Reflecting on the movies listed above, most of the ‘horror’ is stemmed from negative parental figures. Why is that such a common theme in children's movies? As a child it is not as scary compared to looking back at these figures as an adult. 

It is not normal to have such a negative view on parenting at such a young age, and that is something we did not notice until we were older. Now, it gives us an unsettling feeling as we re-watch these movies.

Parental figures are blessings, in my opinion, that’s what should be shown to a child audience. A childs’ mind is still developing Which means that movies they watch on repeat should be  a positive influence. 

As we got older, we grew up to watch real horror movies for  our age group, such as “Halloween”, “Scream”, “Friday the 13th”, etc. However, I fully believe all these children’s  movies were equally as scary, if not scarier. The kids' movies are the unsettling ones,and we should rethink our target audiences and genres.

 These movies should be counted as horror!