We all have our favorite horror movie. It might be The Exorcist, the omenor the This movies. These movies are known as the scariest movies of all time. However, these movies don’t compare to the sheer horror of the scariest movies of all time: Pinocchio and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
I know what you’re thinking. You are puzzled that I chose these family films that do not even belong to the horror genre. It makes one very confused realizing that these movies might be scarier than other horror movies, but I’ll do my best to explain.
I’ll start by describing the 1940 classic Pinocchio. In one particular scene that was cut from the 2022 remake, Honest John the Fox and Gideon the Cat are at a bar where they encounter a mysterious coachman. John brags that he sold the titular puppet to Stromboli for profit. The coachman offers the two a good sum of money, in exchange for some “stupid little boys”.
However, when Pleasure Island is mentioned, John becomes anxious and the coachman puts on a creepy smile that scared me when I first saw him on VHS with my parents in that dark basement. If you don’t believe me, you can watch it for yourself.
Scary, right? I say. I remember when I first saw him and was scared of my sheets that he traumatized me for quite a while.
Before seeing this film, I also remember seeing a film by one of my favorite directors, Robert Zemeckis, called Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The scene I remember was when Judge Doom was crushed and then revived in his true toon form and it was horrific.
Check it out.
If only I could count the number of nights this scene kept me awake. I bring up those two scenes and I think they’re really scarier than other horror movies, primarily because of their genre. They are family films and not horror. That being said, people will watch these movies with their guard down while they watch horror movies with their guard up because they know what to expect. They wouldn’t expect that from family movies. Also, since this is a family movie and the majority if the movie is good and wholesome, being scared will bring it out and be a good callback to the scene and make that scene even scarier.
This is the number one reason. The second reason is the amount of scares. In horror movies, there’s a litany of scares that the more scares there are in the movie, the less memorable those scares will be because they can get diluted. If you have a really good scare, it will be the most traumatic thing ever, because the movie or scene was building up to that point and the payoff was worth it.
Do you agree that Pinocchio and Who Framed Roger Rabbit scarier than most horror movies?
