User blog:AustinDR/Childhood Trauma


 * 1) Mermaids. Ever since The Little Mermaid, many people have come under the assumption that mermaids are benevolent creatures. In the old myths...no, they were not. They drowned people, hunted sailors, lured people to their watery graves with their voices....Just, oh god. Pirates of the Caribbean was what really selled this for me. I do like the franchise, even though most of the movies recycle plots, but the one movie that I am absolutely terrified of was On Stranger Tides. In it, Jack Sparrow is forced to help the infamous Blackbeard search for the Fountain of Youth. Now Blackbeard himself is intimidating, what with him setting one of his crewmates on fire twice, and has no qualms with endangering his daughters' life as long as he benefits. But no; what did it for me was the mermaids. The scene starts out with a crew of pirates drifting in a life boat. You see a ripple in the water, and something slowly slither around the boat. Of course, it turns out to be a mermaid, but automatically I knew something was going to go down. At some points, you see that the mermaid's tail was underneath the boat, meaning that she could upturn it at any moment. I was in my seat quietly dreading the moment that she would do so...but it never happens. And then more mermaids come up to the surface, flirting with the men....and then the lead mermaid reveals that she is a bloodthirsty predator as she tries to pull one of the pirates into the water. Even till this day, I am still scared about watching that scene wherein the mermaid reveals her fangs. Oh, and there were also those mermaids from that mockumentary Mermaids: the Body Found by Animal Planet. Uncanny valley much?
 * 2) I am a fan of Stephen King. Granted, I haven't read most of his books as they are hundreds to thousands of pages long, but I do respect the man. Heck, half of what I write was inspired by his style. The first movie I watched based on one of his books was 1990's It. You know, about an interdimensional demon that feeds on children? Nowadays, I find the movie hilariously bad, but back then, I would get terrified whenever my aunt would pop the movie into the VCR. And this is from someone who isn't afraid of clowns. The scene where blood rises up the sink drain as well as the photo album was enough to send a chill down my spine.
 * 3) The Brave Little Toaster. Okay, I hadn't watched the film for myself, but I do know about it. Basically, you have these appliances - a toaster, electric blanket, radio, lamp, and vacuum cleaner - and their journey to find their master. A strange idea for a story, but it was entertaining. Despite being a children's film, there were several dark moments. There's the "It's a B Movie" section in which appliances are butchered for parts, or the flower that the Toaster encounters. The flower falls in love with the toaster when it sees its reflection, but when the toaster rejected it, it basically killed itself from a broken heart. What....Oh, and there's the air conditioner angrily blowing itself out. And who could forget the "Worthless" scene? After the appliances are taken to the junk yard, there is a musical sequence consisting of various cars singing about who they used to be, what they were made for, as they are being picked up and placed on a conveyor belt leading to a crusher. And then that magnet...god. If continually trying to crush the main characters wasn't enough, he places their owner on the conveyor belt as well. What kind of movie was this?
 * 4) Princess Mombi. Hey, remember that happy 1939 movie the Wizard of Oz? You know, with the singing Munchkins and the like? Well, what if I told you that an unofficial sequel was made to the film, and what if it involves Dorothy getting electroshock therapy. Family movie, yay! After returning to Oz, Dorothy finds the Emerald City destroyed, her friends turned to stone, and freaky humanoids on wheels roam the streets. Anyway, here is Princess Mombi: Mombi is a witch who takes her vanity to the next level. She cuts the heads off of pretty girls, which are still conscious mind you, and she can change into a different head much like how someone would go through their wardrobe for new duds. Dorothy escapes her imprisonment in the search for the "Powder of Life" to bring a creature known as a Gump to life. Unfortunately, the powder is found in Mombi's cabinet, meaning that Dorothy needs to be especially quiet when retrieving the magical substance. But then she accidentally wakes up the main head, which proceeds to shout "Dorothy Gale" at the top of its (nonexistent) lungs, which alerts the other heads. And then Princess Mombi wakes up - headless - and she tries to make a grab at Dorothy.
 * 5) While the Plague Dogs isn't a kids' movie, I still watched it. The movie begins at a research center where we see a dog drowned...only to be revived, and we never get an explanation for it. That dog escapes with another dog, but they find themselves being hunted by the militarty fearing that they might carry some strands of the bubonic plague. The movie has many soul-crushing scenes, but one memorable scene involves a hunter calling one of the dogs over. This guy seemed like the best choice for a new owner after everything the two dogs have been through. And so, the dog runs to him...only to step on the trigger of the gun, which shoots the poor guy in the face. Worse is when a man assigned to assassinate the two dogs perishes from a fall off a cliff. As the dogs are starving, and this body just happened to be there....
 * 6) I love Coraline, though I didn't get to see it in theaters when it first premired. Everything about this movie was terrifying to me. The thought that some evil witch was luring kids into another world, and giving the kids their heart's desires just disturbed me to no end. But then when the witch gives the kids the chance to stay with her forever, they must sew the buttons over their eyes...upon which, the witch (or Beldam) gets bored of them, drains them of their life sources, throws them out like a broken toy...and then begins to search for her next meal. Be careful what you wish for indeed.
 * 7) The Nightmare Before Christmas: I loved this movie. I love the songs; heck,  Ilisten to "This is Halloween" whenever it's nearing Halloween, or I would sing the Oogie Boogie Song a few times. Now, I didn't have any nightmares about this movie. For the most part, the residents of Halloween Town were friendly, albeit in their own way. Not so with Oogie Boogie: he stands as the only truly evil character in the movie. He is a sadistic gambler who had killed people prior to the film, and is planning on eating Sanat Claus. That, and the scene with Sally's leg....no thank you. What made me horrified however, was Oogie Boogie's death; his burlap sack acts as his skin, so Jack basically flayed him alive, and then you see all the bugs acting as his body before falling into the stew below. I could've sworn that he always said "My bones, my bones" when he was dying and his voice was getting more higher pitched.
 * 8) The Leprechaun movies are terrible, but I liked them. One in particular was Leprechaun in Space. In it, a man gets transformed into a fleshy half-man, half-spider abomination with a demonic voice. And then when that liquid nitrogen was used on him, his voice was so squeaky, it made me nearly need a new pair of undies.
 * 9) 2 Stupid Dogs: The episode that freaked me out when I was younger was the one where the two dogs and Red come upon a witch's gingerbread house. The witch tricks the dogs into fattening Red up, and when the time came, she eats her. As she was steal hungry, well, she makes a meal out of the two dogs. It was scary to see these characters possibly get digested alive by this witch, but now it's morbidly fascinating to me.
 * 10) Courage the Cowardly Dog: Yes, one of those messed up shows that made you wonder how it was for kids. I was never really afraid of this show, but one episode I watched was the final one named "Perfect." In it, Courage is saddened that he can' tdo anything right, so he imagines a strict teacher to help him with his problem. The scene in question is when Courage was trying to sleep perfectly. You hear the music lull Courage to sleep, and then without warning, some freaky CGI-fetus looking monstrosity pops onto the screen telling Courage that he wasn't perfect. And then it's never mentioned again. It's low on the list because while creepy, I had seen the episode at around 13 or so. Had I been younger, thsi would've been more effective.