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Nostalgic Nightmare Fuel: The 7 Scariest Characters in Children’s Movies

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Mombi – Return To Oz

scariest characters in children's horror

Holy hell, where do I even begin with this gem. This was one fucked up film from beginning to end set in the OZ universe. However, if you’ve actually read any Baum’s books in the original series, the tales are pretty dark and twisted. Thus this film being the closest to the actual writings in the books and making way not for one, but two characters on this list! That’s damn impressive Disney.

The headless witch dubbed as Princess Mombi, stole the heads from some of the most beautiful women that dwelled within the Emerald City and claimed them as her own. Using them as sort of an accessory to her daily wardrobe, switching heads on a religious basis was a pretty horrifying concept for any child to see in an OZ film. But hey, you have to also admit it was pretty damn cool too. Especially when the wench ran around headless chasing a young Fairuza Balk. Maybe that’s where that scene with the headless nun in Exorcist III derived from? Ok, probably not but the scene does ring some tubular bells for me.

 

 

 

The Wheelers- Return to Oz

scariest characters in children's movies

As stated previously, Return to Oz is so fucked up that two of the film’s characters get a spot on this list, with he second being the Mombi’s Wheeler Gang. To be perfectly candid, I’m not sure who was more terrifying, the servant or the master. If we’re just talking one, Mombi easily wins as in the film we see a lone Wheeler sink to a pathetic status when confronted by the ‘Royal Army of Oz’ and Dorothy. However, the Wheelers travel in numbers, and as a whole they are piss your pants terrifying.

The Horned King- The Black Cauldron

Ok, let’s talk about one of the darkest, and coolest damn villains Disney ever made- The Black Cauldron This guy and the film, gets almost no recognition throughout the Disney community and seems like the movie time just forgot. Why is this movie so damn great? NO SINGING. That’s right, Disney made an animated picture with ZERO musical interruptions, and the movie all around is just dark as hell. I mean, just look at this guy!

The Horned King is about as evil and sinister as a villain can get, which is most likely why this movie didn’t favor so well with the children, and thus resulting in a box office flop. It also garnered a PG rating due to its dark content revolving around his majesty, the Horned King and his army of the dead. The King’s dead army is certainly reminiscent to Sam Raimi’s Army of Darkness visually, but the kicker here is, Disney’s army of the dead is actually way more horrifying if you can believe that! He’s also voiced by the late, great John Hurt, so that alone makes the character all around bad-ass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moH836kyAqw

Judge Doom- Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Judge Doom from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is everything nightmares are made of. A clever man-toon in disguise throughout the majority of the film, gave me the skeevies from the moment he stepped on-screen. The guy’s first five minutes in the movie involved him demonstrating how to kill a ‘toon’ efficiently and that one scene alone with this poor little cartoon shoe screaming in agony as it get’s executed, is enough to make even the toughest adult squirm a tad.

That aside, the real fucked up scenes come towards the end when Doom reveals to actually be a ‘toon’ himself. After the Judge is flattened by a steamroller, the compressed Doom acrobats himself up, and manically introduces his true form to Eddie. With his red, putrid eyes bulging, the insane freeway loving Judge, proudly proclaims he killed Eddie’s brother. His eyes then turn into a spinning red and white ferris wheel of nightmares as he wields a hand-saw extended from his body towards Eddie. And that my friends, is when Christopher Lloyd shed that lovable Doc Brown image for good, while making kids all over crap their pants upon a first viewing.

Welp. There you have my opinion on the most fucked up, scariest character’s in children’s movies. Now let’s hear from you. Who would you add to this list? Is there someone not mentioned here that made your mind silently scream with terror? Also, if you dug this little piece, you might also enjoy the sister article here on iHorror examining the scariest family films from our childhoods. 

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News

Brad Dourif Says He’s Retiring Except For One Important Role

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Brad Dourif has been doing movies for nearly 50 years. Now it seems he is walking away from the industry at 74 to enjoy his golden years. Except, there is a caveat.

Recently, digital entertainment publication JoBlo’s Tyler Nichols talked to some of the Chucky television series cast members. During the interview, Dourif made an announcement.

“Dourif said that he’s retired from acting,” says Nichols. “The only reason he came back for the show was because of his daughter Fiona and he considers Chucky creator Don Mancini to be family. But for non-Chucky stuff, he considers himself retired.”

Dourif has voiced the possessed doll since 1988 (minus the 2019 reboot). The original movie “Child’s Play” has become such a cult classic it’s at the top of some people’s best chillers of all time. Chucky himself is ingrained in pop culture history much like Frankenstein or Jason Voorhees.

While Dourif may be known for his famous voiceover, he is also an Oscar-nominated actor for his part in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Another famous horror role is The Gemini Killer in William Peter Blatty’s Exorcist III. And who can forget Betazoid Lon Suder in Star Trek: Voyager?

The good news is that Don Mancini is already pitching a concept for season four of Chucky which might also include a feature-length movie with a series tie-in. So, Although Dourif says he is retiring from the industry, ironically he is Chucky’s friend till the end.

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Editorial

7 Great ‘Scream’ Fan Films & Shorts Worth a Watch

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The Scream franchise is such an iconic series, that many budding filmmakers take inspiration from it and make their own sequels or, at least, build upon the original universe created by screenwriter Kevin Williamson. YouTube is the perfect medium to showcase these talents (and budgets) with fan-made homages with their own personal twists.

The great thing about Ghostface is that he can appear anywhere, in any town, he just needs the signature mask, knife, and unhinged motive. Thanks to Fair Use laws it’s possible to expand upon Wes Craven’s creation by simply getting a group of young adults together and killing them off one by one. Oh, and don’t forget the twist. You’ll notice that Roger Jackson’s famous Ghostface voice is uncanny valley, but you get the gist.

We have gathered five fan films/shorts related to Scream that we thought were pretty good. Although they can’t possibly match the beats of a $33 million blockbuster, they get by on what they have. But who needs money? If you’re talented and motivated anything is possible as proven by these filmmakers who are well on their way to the big leagues.

Take a look at the below films and let us know what you think. And while you’re at it, leave these young filmmakers a thumbs up, or leave them a comment to encourage them to create more films. Besides, where else are you going to see Ghostface vs. a Katana all set to a hip-hop soundtrack?

Scream Live (2023)

Scream Live

Ghostface (2021)

Ghostface

Ghost Face (2023)

Ghost Face

Don’t Scream (2022)

Don’t Scream

Scream: A Fan Film (2023)

Scream: A Fan Film

The Scream (2023)

The Scream

A Scream Fan Film (2023)

A Scream Fan Film
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Movies

Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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