The darkest moments from your childhood films

The stars of My Girl: Anna Chlumsky and Macaulay Culkin. Photo / Getty Images

There are many family movie favourites from our childhood that contain dark scenes that still haunt some of us today.

Heapsofstuff has compiled a list of the most traumatic scenes from these family films.

Here are just a few:

THE FLYING MONKEYS FROM THE WIZARD OF OZ

The Wizard of Oz has been entertaining families since 1939. However, the scene where the Wicked Witch of the West sends her winged monkeys to collect Dorothy and friends is particularly spooky.

Much of the scene ended up on the cutting room floor as it was deemed to be too frightening but what made it into the released version is still enough to make us call out for our mums.

ARTAX THE HORSE DROWNS IN THE NEVERENDING STORY

Artreyu's quest sends him to the adviser Morla the Ancient One in the Swamps of Sadness.

Though the Auryn protects Atreyu, his beloved horse Artax is lost to the swamp, as he sobs and desperately tries to free him. He is forced to continue his mission alone without the help of his trusty steed.

THOMAS J DIES IN MY GIRL

None of us saw this one coming but we are nevertheless forced to confront the death of Macaulay Culkin's character Thomas J in My Girl. Being attacked by hundreds of bees is enough to fill any child with nightmares.

However the scene where Anna Chlumsky's Vera looks at his dead body and wails over his corpse, saying "he can't see without his glasses" made us all grow up a little too quickly.

WILLY WONKA'S CRAZY BOAT RIDE

Everything seems to be going fine at the chocolate factory until Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder) takes the kids and their parents on a boat ride. Wonka starts singing a song, all the while creepy visions appear outside the boat.

It is hard to say if the singing, Wilder's stare or the visions are the scariest thing about this moment but it is one that all children will remember from the film.

DISNEY CHARACTERS DEALING WITH THE LOSS OF A PARENT

Some say that because Walt Disney's own mother died in 1940 due to a faulty furnace in a house he bought her, he decided not to include mother figures in his films.

Whether it is Simba in The Lion King, Bambi, Cinderella, The Fox and the Hound or Nemo, many of Disney's characters must face life without one or both of their parents.
It is hard to imagine something that would scare kids more than the death or loss of one of their parents.