What movies traumatized you as a child?

I got into a conversation with some coworkers today and somehow we started talking about movies that traumatized us as children.

Since everyone has a story about this topic, I decided to make it a blog entry.

Here are the films that made me scream and stay up all night:

• Anything with Freddy Krueger

• Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure – the scary trucker lady

• Garbage Pail Kids

• Snow White – the witch with the big bulgy eyes

• Bonus scary thing: Facts of Life – Halloween episode where Blair has the big, burned hair.

The films that made me cry and probably still do:

• E.T. – when E.T. had to go home and couldn’t stay with Elliott. Why couldn’t E.T. and his family move in with Elliott?! (Note: I still get sad looking at E.T.'s photo.)

• Bambi – his mom gets shot!

• Dumbo – he is taken away from his mom.

• Little Mermaid – the music makes me sad and I didn’t like the fact she had to choose to either be a person or a mermaid. Why can’t she be half and half – so she can visit family and friends underwater?

• Pretty much any Disney movie – with the exception of Toy Story

• Land Before Time – the little dinosaur’s family probably dies, I can’t remember what happened but I know it upset me.

• The Chipmunk Movie – They help a baby penguin who was an orphan or something. (This is a recurring theme in all children’s movies!)

• The Wizard – Billed as a movie about a kid who is good at video games, this film is really depressing. It is about a mentally unstable kid (he is partially-catatonic) who is great at video games. When he gets put in a mental facility, his brother breaks him out so they can go play at a video game tournament. Oh and the little boy’s sister also died at a young age. So this movie has mental illness, divorce, death and Super Mario Bros. No wonder I cried!

• Homeward Bound - really any movies with cute animals!

• The Ewok Movie - I really don't remember much but there were kids in the woods and they were scared.

Movies/TV shows that affected my family: My mom remains afraid of the Wizard of Oz flying monkeys and my dad said the sight of Shirley Temple still bothers him. As a child, he was apparently forced to watch her films.

So what movies/TV really upset you?