Movies I Watched Too Young: Childhood Trauma Edition

Being born in the late 80s, I had the privilege of growing up with some of the best films ever made. My earliest memories are of watching Spielberg’s ET and other masterpieces of the era.

Then again, there are some movies that, although they might be classics, I probably shouldn’t have watched as a child. I guess parenting was just a little different back then! These are some of the (awesome) movies I saw way too young.

5

Who Framed Roger Rabbit?—Way Darker Than We Remember

I can totally understand how parents could think that Who Framed Roger Rabbit is somehow suitable for children. After all, the movie opens with a lovely cartoon in gorgeous high-quality animation, and then soon pulls the greatest party trick by combining live-action actors with animation long before computers were powerful enough to help composite these elements. So everything you see was manually created using painstaking optical compositing. It’s a great movie and a real milestone in movie history.

It’s also very much not a movie for children. This is dark, gritty, filled with adult themes (Jessica Rabbit is stuck in the imaginations of a whole generation of men), and contains one of the most terrifying scenes you could show to a kid. I’m talking about the reveal that a certain human character was actually a toon, and a certain horrible melting death scene. If you haven’t seen it, I don’t want to spoil it, but when you do, try to imagine it through the eyes of a first-grader.

4

The NeverEnding Story—Childhood Trauma in Fantasia

The Neverending Story is absolutely a children’s movie, and it’s one of my favorite movies of all time, but I have to be honest with you, there is such a thing as being too young for even a film specifically for kids. I watched this one before I started school, and honestly, the effects, creatures, and overall vibe of the movie is actually pretty damn creepy.

I remember having nightmares about those statues that fire energy beams from their eyes, and, of course, everyone was traumatized by a certain equine-themed scene. Watching the movie again today—which I own on disc, of course—it really does deal with some heavy themes and has pretty dark imagery. I actually never got around to reading the book the film is based on (which is apparently quite different), but I have actually bought a copy recently and, hopefully, at 39, I am now old enough to handle it a little better.

3

RoboCop—Violence and Corporate Dystopia

You know, Robocop is such a paradox of a film franchise. This movie practically defined my childhood, but it’s one of the most violent films ever made. In fact, the movie we all saw back in the day was a toned-down version of the original, which director Paul Verhoeved was forced to create in order to get a rating that wouldn’t sink the film’s chances.

This is why there’s a director’s cut of Robocop that includes much more blood and guts. However, even the original was absolutely and explicitly not for children. I’m pretty sure I was about 10 years old when I first saw this movie on VHS, and right out of the gate Murphy’s horrible, violent death really affected me, but I got over it real fast. I guess movie violence does desensitize us after all.

What’s really weird is that there were Robocop toys, and even a cartoon TV series—for a show that no children were meant to have seen.

I’m not mad that I saw Robocop young, but I’d hardly feel comfortable showing it to a 10-year-old child today. This is one of those rare movies where the rating is actually pretty spot-on. It’s R-Rated, which means 17 or older, and that does feel right.

2

The Terminator—Sci-Fi Nightmare Fuel

The Terminator franchise is another one that shaped my taste in films, just like Robocop, but again, the first movie is a straight-up horror slasher film. While Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a summer action blockbuster (and arguably invented it), The Terminator is Halloween or Friday the 13th dressed up in a gritty sci-fi skin.

Arnold’s Terminator is one of the best movie monsters of all time, and he’s terrifying as a relentless creature that will not stop unless you completely obliterate him. Yes, this movie freaked me out as a kid, but I kept coming back for more. I probably could have used a few more years on the clock though. Incidentally, since I was too young to catch this one in the cinema back when it released, I recently took advantage of a throwback screening, and finally got to see The Terminator on the big screen!

1

Child’s Play—Not For Children at All!

Most of the movies on this list were age-inappropriate when I first saw them, but none of them actually had any real negative effect on me—or so I tell my therapist. There are in fact only two pieces of media that actually scarred me a a child. One is Tim Curry’s version of IT, but since that’s a TV miniseries, I can’t put it on the list.

The other is Child’s Play, the story of a murderous possessed doll that absolutely instilled a fear of creepy dolls in me that lasts to this day. The worst part is that, rewatching this movie as an adult, it’s obviously a horror comedy, but I was just too young to appreciate how funny the movie is. I still don’t like being in a room with a creepy doll though…

You know, this list could probably be a little longer. We haven’t even touched on Gremlins, Poltergeist, Return to Oz, or Jumanji, but I think that’s enough childhood trauma for one day!