Five movie characters that traumatised an entire generation
When we’re growing up, all it takes is one movie to leave you scarred for life, such that, as an adult, you’re still filled with fear when you see the image of a certain character that reminds you of it, unable to shake the fear they instilled in you all those years before.
Maybe you were left reeling from a character that really wasn’t that scary at all, but as a child, it had you sleepless and afraid, tormented by visions of them appearing at the foot of the bed, whether that be as joyful as the Cat in the Hat or as terrifying as Chucky from Child’s Play.
There are some characters that linger as truly terrifying figures, though, having left a whole generation of audiences traumatised by their presence, no matter the age. Just think about the first time you witnessed the grotesque visual appearance of the Pale Man from Pan’s Labyrinth, who uses eyeballs found in the palms of his hands to see, his sagging body a truly horrific thing.
Or maybe you were much more affected by the realistic yet equally as nerve-wracking villains like Miss Trunchbull from Matilda, who was determined to make sure no child ever felt an ounce of fun. These figures shape us when we’re young, and the one that scared you the most can probably tell someone a lot about you, so here are five mostly ubiquitous choices for trauma-inducing movie characters.
Five movie characters that traumatised an entire generation:
The Other Mother: ‘Coraline’
The art style that defines Coraline, with its cosy, gothic-tinged essence, has left both children and adults captivated by this tale of an alternative universe ever since it was released in 2009.
Directed by Henry Selick, when the young Coraline enters another dimension in her new home, she comes into contact with the Other Mother, a terrifying version of her neglectful parent who attempts to consume the flesh of her victims.
While the button-eyed figure is pretty unnerving when she looks relatively human, she becomes particularly fear-inducing when she transforms into the spindly, arachnid-like figure with the tiniest waist you’ve ever seen. She’s terrifying, and anyone who grew up watching the film surely shudders at the mere thought of the Other Mother and her button eyes.
Miss Trunchbull: ‘Matilda’
We all had that teacher we were frightened of as children, but few came close to the tyrannical reign of Miss Trunchbull in Matilda, the headteacher of Crunchem Hall.
Ruling over the school with an iron fist, she explodes into an alarming fit of rage at the mere mention of the slightest bit of bad behaviour. Of course, we can’t forget when she swings Amanda Thripp over a fence with her pigtails, spinning her around in a circle before launching her into the air.
Played by Pam Ferris, she gives the character such an unmistakable presence that it’s hard to see the actor as anyone else. She commands the screen with her slicked-back hair and outfits tightly belted. She is a dictator, running the school on a twisted and tormented power trip, and for many of us, seeing her stomp across the screen was enough to send a huge shiver down our spine, leaving us to pray that we’d never come across a teacher as severe as Miss Trunchbull.
The Child Catcher: ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’
I’ve long had somewhat of a fascination with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a curious childhood classic that gets stranger every time you revisit it as an adult.
With a lengthy runtime and a large portion of the movie serving as a bizarre dream sequence, Ken Hughes’ film features flying cars, Nazi allegories, musical sweets and a woman named Truly Scrumptious, but nothing is as unforgettable as the Child Catcher.
It’s one thing to have a character as terrifying as Robert Helpmann’s top-hat-wearing villain on screen, but when he starts luring children into a cage with lollipops, well, I’d be surprised if you weren’t hiding behind a cushion as a kid. The actor’s dancing background lent a fluidity to the character’s movements, which made it feel like he was going to leap straight through the door and snatch you, and if any movie character has stood as a stark reminder not to talk to strange men, it’s this one.
Grand High Witch: ‘The Witches’
Anjelica Huston looked every part the seductive siren when she played the Grand High Witch in The Witches, sporting a sleek bob and bejewelled fingers, only to reveal a truly hideous monstrosity lurking underneath that puts the final act of The Substance to shame.
Directed by Nicolas Roeg, the movie gives Roald Dahl’s classic children’s story the silver screen treatment, only these witches are enough to give an adult nightmares.
Who can forget when the Grand High Witch waves bye-bye to a baby in a pram, sending it hurtling off towards a cliff edge as a distressed mother and a young boy run after it? The fact that the witches look so normal before revealing their true, terrifying identities was enough to traumatise a whole generation, and, quite frankly, inspire plenty of trust issues as a result.
Pale Man: ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’
I remember watching Pan’s Labyrinth at school, the DVD lent to our class from the languages department when rain called off Sports Day. Suddenly, with water battering down on the windows and a dark cloud enveloping the building, I was exposed to the Pale Man, a horrific monster with two holes for a nose, a gaping mouth, wrinkly skin, and eyes in the palms of his pointed hands, which he lifted up to see. The whole classroom erupted into shock, as we’d never seen a character so visceral and disgusting, his body, unclothed, sagging and red.
Guillermo del Toro’s longtime fascination with monsters enabled him to create a creature that was truly off-putting yet iconic, with actor Doug Jones embodying the child-eating fiend with perfect physicality, and when the young Ofelia meets the Pale Man, a banquet laid out before him, he is still, only until she takes a bite of the food, which stirs him awake with a jolt of his talons, making for pure nightmare fuel.
