Wizard of Oz. Those munchkins freak me out... To this day, I can't watch that film. Same for Willy Wonka...!!

A film and book ostensibly aimed at children but that pulls absolutely no punches about life... and death - and is all the better for doing so.

If you think this was bad you better not read Richard Adams' Plague Dogs - now that is savage. I've never seen the film of that shown on TV despite having the same director and John Hurt voicing the lead role again. I'll have to see if I can muster the bravery to hunt that down and watch it.

My childhood trauma film was Time Bandits and those cow skull monster things.

Such Pilgrims. My childhood trauma was "Them!" (Giant meat/Human eating ants the size of automobiles that prowl day or night.) Or was that "The Black Scorpion"? (Giant meat/Human eating Scorpions the size of city transit buses that attack at night.) Oh wait a minute, it was "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms"! (Giant meat/Human eating radioactive Dinosaur that comes out of the sea day or night.) If it doesn't eat you, contact with it's disease-ridden blood will kill you! Still, the world is a dangerous place; real estate developers can put you in the ground or on the street if you have what they want. Plus, the workplace is a Darwinian Animal Farm with so-called coworkers who are out to get you.

Very funny! Yes, I too recall being rather disturbed by Watership Down when I was very little. Though I have seen it in more recent times, and actually kind of liked it.

@rudely_murray said:

Even today as an adult I cannot think of Watership Down without getting the shakes.

The flying monkeys in The Wizard of Oz also used to freak me out.

And a less well known film, but if anyone has seen Dot and the Kangaroo and remembers the song about the bunyip... well they know what I mean.

This one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtrYO-Mog60

There weren't any movies that traumatized me as a child (I was pretty fearless). But when I was 7 we went to the drive-in & saw 'House on Haunted Hill' (Vincent Price version), 'The Thing That Couldn't Die' & one other I can't remember the name of. Anyway, it was the only time in my life (& I'm as old as dirt) that I have had a nightmare.

The demonic turtle of Bermuda Depths scared me as a child.

@catmydogs said:

The demonic turtle of Bermuda Depths scared me as a child.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNz5wW4E7Ps

HAL. Definitely HAL from the film "2001: A Space Odyssey".

My Dad, who had been a fan of this movie, let me watch it with him when it was on TV when I was about 7 or 8. And that computer, voiced by Douglas Rain, scared the crap out of me.

To this day, I have an abiding distrust of computers and technology in general, in large part because of that movie. I have the film in my home collection, and still occassionally watch it, and am still freaked by that silently menacing, insane computer.