10 Terrifying Children's Movies You Used To Watch on Repeat

By Kevan Roche /

2. The Last Unicorn

This list€™s second Rankin/Bass film is easily the saddest of them all; it€™s also one of my absolute favorite films. The Last Unicorn is a truly beautiful film, both visually and thematically, that also doesn€™t pull any punches when it comes to the scary stuff. I was so scared of the Red Bull when I was a kid that I had to leave the room whenever it showed up. Another film that really excels in the voice acting department; the cast includes a very young Jeff Bridges, Alan Arkin, Mia Farrow, Angela Lansbury, as well as Christopher Lee as the King Haggard: who taught me to fear the Voice of Saruman long before the LOTR films. The film was adapted by the book€™s original author Peter S. Beagle and is now, in my opinion, one of the most underappreciated films of all time. Not many children€™s films go this deep into the emotional center of it€™s characters, or get€™s you to care about them so deeply; and I doubt there are any other kid€™s films that are okay with being this depressing: it€™s a wonderful story that€™s a bit of a downer. I already covered the Red Bull, that€™s truly the scariest element in the film, but there are a few other scenes that rank up there on the horror scale boasted by this film. The movie includes a variety of mythical creatures during it€™s run, but aside from the Red Bull the scariest of them by far is the immortal harpy Celaeno, the scene where she murders her captors is terrifying. There€™s also a scene that€™s both funny and strangely scary in which Schmendrick the Magician (Alan Arkin) incorrectly casts a spell and brings an enamored voluptuous tree to life. Unicorn is probably the most obscure film on the list (I€™ve only ever met one other person in my generation who€™s seen it), but it€™s absolutely incredible so if you haven€™t seen it yet I highly suggest you track it down.