20 90s Movie Scenes That Traumatized Us All

The 1990s were a crazy time to be a movie fan, and this decade produced so many glorious gems that many of us treasure to this day. Through these ten years, viewers laughed, cried, were thrilled, chilled, and utterly enthralled, and you know what else? They were quite frequently traumatized. 

In this decade, boundaries were constantly pushed, with mainstream movies going darker and more violent than ever before, while the '90s also produced numerous tear-jerkers and many impressively adult family films that weren't afraid to spook the kids. There are so many scenes from these years that shook us all up, and the following 20 movie scenes - ranging from gory death scenes to scream-inducing scares to some of the saddest movie moments ever - are great examples of this. 

Having said that, people have grown to love them for the most part. These scenes might've been shocking, but they were also incredibly powerful bits of cinema so, as much as 'traumatize' is a word with negative connotations, in the realm of film perhaps it's... not such a bad thing after all? Sometimes, when a movie traumatizes you, that's really a reminder of how good that movie is.

Jumanji is an infectiously fun fantasy flick that was a defining part of many childhoods, which might've surprised adults at the time. After all, this movie is pretty bloody scary, and several reviewers criticized the film for being too frightening for its intended audience. From young Alan Parrish being creepily sucked into the titular board game to the many convincing animal and human antagonists that the game later unleashes, this one is absolutely packed with frights. 

But critics were wrong to bash Jumanji for being scary because, in fact, that's one of its greatest strengths. Like quite a few family films from this time - including several more that will be discussed on this list - Jumanji was such an exciting watch for kids because it didn't pander to or mollycoddle them. It wasn't afraid to frighten them, and it was a far more thrilling experience in the process, for it wasn't what youngsters were necessarily used to. One could compare it to, say, the best eras of Doctor Who, which provided so many with some of their earliest experiences of horror storytelling. 

One could even say that Jumanji traumatized kids in the very best kind of way. And besides, for all the scares this movie unleashes - the lion, the crocodiles, the spiders, the stampede, that ruthless hunter (Jonathan Hyde) - it's all wrapped up in the most heart-warming of ways in the end, so all's well that ends well.