Sometimes movies are just downright creepy and there doesn’t appear to be any reason why, except for the fact that the visuals are just haunting in a way that tend to give people nightmares when coupled with the content. The sad part about this is that a lot of animated movies have fallen under this designation since for one reason or another they feel like bad acid trips that people were having while they were animating the story and ended up becoming a part of our childhood or adolescence that we might want to forget. There’s no denying that somewhere in the cringe and the creepy nature of it all there’s a good story, but it’s a bit difficult for some people to get past that point since really, it feels as though those that made this movies left all the creepy material in to make it even more disturbing, either for shock value or because that’s just how the story was written and there was no other way to get it done. Thinking that people made these stories this disturbing on purpose is kind of difficult since it would mean that someone was actively trying to traumatize the audience. There’s a lot to be said for the shock and awe that goes into some movies, but there’s also a point when the filmmaker should lean back and say ‘whoa, that’s a bit much’. But then again, we do have the right not to watch if it gets too intense.
Here are some of the creepiest movies that weren’t intended to be that way.
5. The Secret of Nimh
The story here isn’t all that bad really as it’s a heroic and epic tale that a lot of kids enjoyed, but the visuals are just creepy as hell and gave some kids nightmares growing up since the whole idea of intelligent rats and the way they were depicted in some cases is just, yikes. But animation back in these days had a long ways to go yet and to be fair a lot of embellishment when it came to certain characters didn’t help the terror factor that this movie held for some kids, as there are plenty of people that would admit that even though Nicodemus was a benevolent character, he looked like might suck your soul through your eyeballs.
4. Watership Down
Rabbit blood. Rabbit blood EVERYWHERE. Okay, maybe it wasn’t quite that bad, but Watership Down was perhaps regarded as one of the most violent cartoons of its time and it’s still looked at in this manner by a lot of people since cartoons that went fringe were looked at askance by lot of folks that didn’t really know how to take them. Today this kind of thing still isn’t really normal since people want animated movies to be a little more kid-friendly and cater to the whole family. But at the time this came out it was considered to be downright disturbing, not to mention nightmare-inducing.
3. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
There is something just OFF about this movie and it’s not just the creepy way that Johnny Depp took on the part of Willy Wonka. While Gene Wilder freaked out his costars with a rant on the riverboat and a sudden outburst towards Charlie and his grandpa he was more or less pleasant throughout most of the movie. Depp took this part to a very strange place and made the entire movie kind of warped wonderland that was bound to be more dangerous than anything since the penalties that were inflicted on the bad kids tended to be kind of horrific in their own way. In fact they did inspire VFX artists to make their own horror designs based on the movie.
2. Sausage Party
Talking food, ’nuff said. Normally people don’t give a lot of thought to the food they put in their mouths so long as it’s been cleaned, cooked, and is safe for consumption. But Seth Rogen and cast really put everyone through a seriously emotional and confusing wringer when this movie came out since everything from hot dogs to mayonnaise started piping up, and the fact that humans couldn’t see or hear anything that the food was saying was even creepier considering that once they could see they were horrified. Just imagine death by Mentos and soda, or a giant douche going up, well, you get the idea.
1. Return to Oz
How many people look at The Wizard of Oz and think that it was creepy in some ways? Likely not as many that will look at this movie and think that it went so far beyond creepy that it created a new meaning for the word and possibly created it’s own sub-genre. There isn’t much about this movie that isn’t disturbing in some way or another, but the fact that it was even made in the first place kind of indicates that someone was willing and ready to really disturb those that loved the original.
They might not have been intended to be creepy, but seriously, some of these just gave people chills.
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