bunkaroo

Disney's The Black Hole is a pretty dark film for them. Maximillian definitely freaked me out a bit as a kid.

Numanoid

Most of the characters you guys are listing are quite intentionally scary.

OldBoy

while i didn't think it particularly scary, i could see kids getting a little creeped out by "Monster House". some of the imagery was kinda over-the-top for a kids aimed film.

Premise

Something wicked this way comes. I also thought,while not scary, The Little Princess and The Secret Garden had a lot of tension in them for kids films.

redcon1

Although I was in my twenties when Gremlins came out, I could see how that may have freaked out some little kids.
Not to mention parents freaking out when Phoebe Cates explained what happened to Santa.

DaveCole

While it didn't really scare me, I did have a dream I was in hell when I was 11 and it looked like the roof top scene from Mary Poppins.

Ghostface180

The opening bedtime story scene in The Witches always used to scare me. The whole thing with the little girl disappearing and then showing up in a painting freaked me out.

Breton

I found some clips of "5,000 Fingers of Dr. T" on YouTube. Wow, it was way weirder than I even remembered it. Scary, and maybe a little ahead of its time (the only full-length movie written by Dr. Suess). Maybe Tim Burton should remake it? And it's partly a musical, too, which I didn't remember.

ukywyldcat

The man in the candy store is creepy, and the looks he gives the children.

mike45

Agreed. I saw Darby O'Gill and the Little People at a Drive-In theater with my family as a kid. The Banshee on the huge screen had me and my brother and sister hidng behind the seats. I can still remember it vividly.

RagingBull80

I always found the Santa thing creepy as hell.

UAIOE

I don't remember catching the Santa thing as a kid. Seeing it as an adult made me wonder how I missed it.

There is an entire generation of people who will freak at the mention of the name "Large Marge".

Kevin Phillips

Another vote for Willy Wonka. Not just the boat ride. The oompa-loompas are pretty scary looking. Also every time something happens to one of the kids where they're in mortal peril: Augustus getting sucked up the tube that goes to the boiler, Violet about to explode, etc.

zombiezilla

I'm surprised no one has mentioned "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom". It's the one film that caused the ratings board to create the PG-13 rating! It was PG on it's initial release, and many parents were pissed off at the violence/gore/weird stuff.

zombiezilla

....but, then again, the title of this thread is "UNINTENTIONALLY" scary family movies. My bad.

Breton

The Banshee was particularly frightening because she represented death. I can't recall many kid's movies with an apparition of death itself. The Banshee scene is also on YouTube, which refreshed my memory, and it's very scary (I decided not to put direct links to YouTube stuff on posts, because of the anti-piracy stance of this site).

I also recall being scared by characters in animated movies. In the category of unintentionally scary, I was afraid of the dwarves in "Snow White," Doc and Grumpy in particular. As an adult, I can't figure out why (I own the DVD), but those dwarves freaked me out when I was about three or four.

Giles

and the giant fan, that really scared me (considering at age 6 my face came in contact with a rather large attic exhaust fan - 46 stitches later and all I have are two remaining scars) ... the whole movie is geared to evoke nightmares. Even the bleak, obtuse ending suggested that Willy Wonka was passing on the factory to Charlie so he'd be responsible for the children's implied demises, the book and remake made it more clear that the kids made it out okay, albeit in altered form.

slappy

When I was a kid, the evil book from "The Care Bears Movie" really freaked me out. Especially when it possessed the boy.

And... I just went and found that scene on Youtube. I hadn't watched it since I was small... not quite the same effect now, but I didn't like it then.

Leather Face

The Wizard of Oz!
Flying blue monkies,wicked witches,tornadoes,and the oz himself made for terrifying viewing for any young kid.

The Bus

That's the first movie I remember seeing in the theatre.

Shannon Nutt

Don't know about "unintentional," but JUMANJI was pretty intense...still can't figure out how it got away with a PG rating (should have been at least a PG-13).

Palpadious

Return to Oz is one fucked up kids movie.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=WM0RFE3QGAU

http://youtube.com/watch?v=7XjC_0lGm0E

Anubis2005X

The villain in Roger Rabbit freaked me the crap out...

"Remember me Eddie?? When I killed your brother...I talked...just...like...THISSSS!!!!"

(Shudder)

UAIOE

You didn't like those dagger eyes?

William Fuld