Surely there’s one from your childhood that you’ve never forgotten, for better or for worse.
Lauren McCormick
I don’t know if this really counts as a kids movie because it’s so bloody terrifying, but Coraline. I have never been more scared than watching that film. I hate feeling like my life could not really be my life and it could possibly be a whole illusion and I could be in a world that isn’t the real world. These sort of movies creep me out because they dig into my subconscious and make their home there to come out just when I’m about to go to sleep and freak me out to where I’m up all night!
Lily Connerton
It’s more common for a movie to make me stressed than for it to make me afraid, but honestly I have to piggyback on what Lauren said: Coraline TERRIFIED me when I watched it as a kid. My family never got the chance to watch it in theaters, but for some reason this movie had a really hardcore campaign to view it in 3D. When it came out on DVD, you could even get a DVD copy that came with its own sets of 3D glasses that were supposed to work on your very own TV (so 2000s). Needless to say, this made the movie even more overwhelming to a kid!
Nina Fichera
Okay, so Muppet Treasure Island. I had so many nightmares as a kid about the Black Spot that I legitimately have never seen the movie since I was in third grade. I don’t think I’ll ever want to go back and watch it again, either, no matter how funny the Muppets are.
Taylor Bramhall
I’m not sure if this really counts as a kids movie, but as a child I was PETRIFIED of the movie Kangaroo Jack. I’m not exactly sure where this fear came from, but I remember watching the scene in the movie where the main characters have a dream that Kangaroo Jack is talking to them and throwing their money in the air, and for some reason, this talking kangaroo struck fear into my little heart. I had nightmares about kangaroos for the next year, and each time I laid my head on the pillow and heard my heartbeat thumping in my ears, I convinced myself that the thumping was Kangaroo Jack coming to get me. To this day, whenever I go to the zoo I have a hard time looking at the kangaroos. They still freak me out!
Jessica Marinaro
As a kid (and still to this day), I was obsessed with the Halloweentown movies. I dressed as Marnie for the first Halloween costume I chose myself, and watched all of them religiously every October. I remember my first time watching Halloweentown; the scene where Kalabar freezes the kids’ mother and grandmother in the movie theater was terrifying to me. The idea of being paralyzed like that definitely planted a seed of irrational fears, and also Kalabar himself was just super unpleasant to look at. I used to get freaked out by any scene with his creepy, ghostly demon face. Now I am a self-proclaimed horror-lover, and I look back on that fear with very fond memories. I still look forward to watching Halloweentown every October.