Looking back at the kinds of movies that used to be aimed towards children you can only come to one logical conclusion: kids these days just aren't as tough as they once were. Or, at least, theyre not given the opportunity to be as tough. Its not necessarily their fault - for one reason or another, the world just seemed to be far more relaxed about what you could and couldn't put into a childrens movie in the past. With this unspoken leniency, many filmmakers, whether consciously or unconsciously, tended to infuse their creations with their own adult sensibilities. And as you could imagine, those results varied from fairly innocuous to quite sadistic. This list will be shedding a light on movies that were meant for children featuring scary moments that more closely resemble a horror movie that John Carpenter or Dario Argento would have directed. Headless corpses, psychotic witches, attempted genocide, gruesome impalement, torture chambers, vivid depictions of hell, body horror and much more are put on full display for all the kiddies to enjoy. So, grab your pacifiers, set your speed-dials to Mommy and relive some surprisingly bloodcurdling moments from seemingly harmless childrens movies.
Honorable Mention: The Entire Movie - Felidae (1994)
Felidae doesn't make it on the official list because one look at the film's synopsis - "A cat must investigate brutal murders of other cats in a neighborhood he has moved into with his owner" - and you'll quickly realise that this German-released film was never intended for children. However, unlike other adult-themed animated films like Heavy Metal or Fritz The Cat, Felidae has the slick commercial look of the type of Hollywood productions that filmgoers are used to seeing from the likes of Disney and Don Bluth. If you were a kid or a parent when this film was initially released, you'd be forgiven for thinking that this is just your run-of-the-mill kitty cat family adventure. You'd be gravely mistaken. These felines prowl, fight, defecate, have sex and otherwise come as close as possible to real animals. There's also feline rape, pregnant cats getting murdered and a particularly gruesome scene featuring dozens of dead cats strung up on strings. In other words, don't let the cutesiness fool you.