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10 Seemingly Innocent Films You Wouldn't Expect to Give You Nightmares


Sometimes, the most seemingly innocuous movie is anything but innocent, rejecting our expectations in ways you never expected, employing unnerving or unsettling imagery in order to provoke a powerful psychological response.

In many ways, these movies are especially disturbing because you assume a degree of innocence from the outset, meaning any deviation into darkness is accentuated tremendously, resulting in some genuinely disconcerting - legitimately harrowing - experiences.

These movies sucker you into the experience, exposing you to themes and images you simply weren't expecting, lulling you into a false sense of security and keeping you hooked before sinking their teeth into you in a horribly unexpected way.

The result: plenty of sleepless nights, resulting from these seemingly innocent movies...

  1. The Gate

    The Gate – released in 1987, directed by Tibor Takács – is a supernatural horror, essentially a gateway movie opening up an entire genre for younger audiences. It’s disturbing despite its innocent appearance, the practical effects – including the forced perspectives – are disturbingly realistic, and there are some genuinely unnerving images sprinkled throughout.

    The story revolves around two young boys who accidentally discover a gateway to Hell – which they proceed to open – unleashing a horde of demons into their neighbourhood.

    The impish creatures are repulsive, and several scenes are especially nightmarish – including the arms in the bedroom, aimlessly reaching out from beneath the bed. Besides that, the wandering eye which appears on the boy’s hand is equally distressing, and one of the concluding sequences – in which our protagonist tumbles into the portal – is frightening stuff.

  2. Gremlins

    Gremlins was actually responsible for the creation of MPAA’s PG-13 rating, criticised for its excessive depictions of violence, yet praised for just about everything else. In the film, a young son receives a mysterious present from his father, Gizmo – a Mogwai with a fatal aversion to sunlight, capable of spawning countless copies once exposed to water.

    Eventually, the Mogwai transform into impish Gremlins – vulgar iterations of their adorable counterparts, with a penchant for misbehaviour – intent on plunging the town in anarchy.

    Released in 1984, Gremlins is an absolute classic with a more mature sensibility. In fact, throughout the film, the Gremlins themselves are dispatched in some astoundingly gruesome ways: they’re drowned, incinerated, stabbed, crushed and electrocuted. Most disturbingly: towards the middle of the movie, one creature is put in a blender, reduced to a bloody heap of mush and splattered across the walls, which is enough to give anyone nightmares.

  3. Alice

    Based on Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice – directed by Jan Švankmajer, and released in 1988 – follows the story of a young girl, transported to a mysterious world after having fallen down a rabbit hole. The film – a surprisingly faithful interpretation of the original novel – accentuates the more bizarre, otherworldly elements into a grotesque and nightmarish plethora of practical effects and visual delights.

    In particular, the stop-motion emphasises these elements, giving many of the characters this strange, uncanny movement, making them somewhat inhuman, or unearthly. The movie disregards the happier, optimistic qualities of similar interpretations, replacing those aspects with repulsive creatures and strange, incomprehensible imagery. It’s absurd – an experience in repugnance, complete with some genuinely unnerving characters and disturbing sequences – which many will appreciate, especially enthusiasts of the writer’s work.

  4. Return To Oz

    From Alice in Wonderland to The Wizard of Oz…

    Released in 1985, Return to Oz – written and directed by Walter Murch, and starring Fairuza Balk, Nicol Williamson and Jean Marsh – was a commercial disappointment upon release, perhaps as a result of its departure from the source material. In the film, a young girl, Dorothy must return to Oz and overthrow a villainous king responsible for numerous atrocities.

    Based on the novels by Frank L. Baum, Return to Oz is set sixth months after the original – yet, despite borrowing several concepts from the original – manages to introduce a whole cast of original characters, including Jack Pumpkinghead. That said, the film is completely nightmarish, coming across most as though a surrealist fever-dream than a light-hearted fantasy adventure film for children. In particular, the sequence in which the Wicked Witch is especially unnerving, involving multiple interchangeable heads mounted in glass displays, several of them watching Dorothy in the background with lifeless abandonment.

  5. Eraserhead

    From director David Lynch, Eraserhead is a wonderfully strange and beautiful movie about the pressures of responsibility, and the realities of childbirth. In the film, Henry (John Nance) moves in with his girlfriend, Mary X (Charlotte Stewart) after getting her pregnant inadvertently. Straightforward enough, right? Well, the resulting infant is far from normal, appearing more akin to a lizard, or a mutated calf, or an extra-terrestrial.

    It’s absurd, but strangely disturbing – and, despite the humour and ridiculousness – there’s a sinister, uncanny atmosphere encapsulating the burgeoning, incomprehensible occurrences, each more nonsensical than the last. That said, there’s a strange sense of logic which pervades the narrative, which you eventually accept – which makes the seemingly random sequences make sense in a strange way – which is perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the film.

  6. Labyrinth

    Released in 1986, Labyrinth – directed by Jim Henson, and produced by George Lucas – is an exceptionally sinister movie with several creepy undertones, as well as narrative implications. In the film, a young girl is forced to rescue her infant brother from The Goblin King – David Bowie – after inadvertently willing him to be kidnapped, transporting her to an otherworldly maze of seamlessly boundless proportions.

    Despite the whimsical tone and musical numbers, Labyrinth is surprisingly darker than most would expect, the suggestive relationship between The Goblin King and the protagonist coming across as particularly unsettling – especially considering the character is around fifteen. There’s also a surprising amount of violence, and some of those puppets are genuinely disturbing.

  7. The Holy Mountain

    The Holy Mountain – directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky – is about a young thief, tasked with ascending a mysterious tower in hopes of discovering a secret treasure. Eventually, the protagonist meets an alchemist – played by the director himself – who performs numerous miracles, including transforming his own excrement into gold, yeah.

    The movie – a satire on consumerism and militarism – is visually stunning, yet equally unnerving and strangely unsettling, despite its vibrancy, colourful costumes and appealing cinematography, which is downright breath-taking at times. That said, there are some genuinely uncanny and distressing images peppered into the running time – which might not affect you right way – but has a tendency of lingering in the mind. In that respect, the film is effective in its portrayal of madness, eventually culminating in a maddening display of indecipherable, nauseating imagery and sound. 

  8. Legend

    Directed by Ridley Scott – starring Tom Cruise, Mia Sara and Tim Curry – Legend was far from a commercial success when it was released back in 1985. Regardless, the film was nominated for numerous awards – including an Academy Award for Best Makeup – and was generally a tremendous success with casual audiences, especially children.

    With that being said, the film is surprisingly dark, the plot borrowing heavily from ancient mythology, emphasising the darker aspects of those stories. Visually, the film references everything from Snow White to Pinocchio – but, in terms of atmosphere and aesthetic – the movie is much more mature, revolving around murder, animal cruelty and human sacrifice.

    Tim Curry’s portrayal of Darkness – essentially, Satan – is especially unnerving, the actor almost unrecognisable in the role, wreaking havoc in his plunging of the world into darkness. Besides that, Robert Picardo is equally unsettling as a hideous witch – Meg Mucklebones – which continuous to resonate to their very day. 

  9. Time Bandits

    Time Bandits – co-written and directed by Terry Gilliam – is about a young boy, tasked with travelling through time and stealing objects of worth from various points throughout history, including “The Most Fabulous Object in the World”, which is being held in the Fortress of Darkness, safeguarded by Evil – a vindictive being capable of manipulating reality itself. 

    The very first entry in “The Trilogy of Imagination”, Time Bandits is completely whimsical, complete with loveable characters and an imaginative premise. That said, there are several moments which are suggestive of a more mature audience. In particular, the antagonist tends to murder his subjects, blowing them into smithereens at a moment’s notice. Likewise – in the closing moments of the film – the protagonist’s parents are inadvertently disintegrated, leaving him a helpless, homeless orphan in the streets, which is pretty grim in of itself.

  10. The Dark Crystal

    Released in 1982, The Dark Crystal – directed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz – was censored in several countries, including Iran in which the movie was completely banned due to its depictions of ritualism and ceremonial imagery. That said, the film – with its gothic sensibilities, practical effects and stunning visuals – was criticised for its darker subject matter.

    In the film, a young boy must return a broken shard to a powerful gemstone in order to harmonise his environment and bring balance back to the world. The antagonists, the Skeksis – a race of reptilian birds, sporting curved fangs and large robes – are especially nightmarish, deteriorating throughout the movie as their bodies decompose. Besides that, there are some genuinely unsettling sequences throughout the movie, accentuated by Jim Henson’s puppetry which renders even the playful aspects of the film strangely uncanny.

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