In this thread, people are talking about movie scenes that scared the holy bejeebus out of them. Someone mentioned a Disney movie, and it got me thinking.
I remember going to Walt Disney World when I was about 8 or 9 and my parents took me on the Haunted Mansion ride. After entering the foyer with the portrait a la Dorian Grey and standing in the “stretching room” I don’t think I kept my eyes open for more than 5 minutes on the rest of the ride.
When we returned to WDW, I was dragged unwillingly on the ride again. Being a teenager at the time, I handled it better and could keep my eyes open. I still found elements of it creepy as hell.
Obviously it’s not all creepy, and there are elements of humor. But I can’t get over some of the sites I’ve visted recently that say it’s not too scary for kids. Am I just a big wimp? Just thinking about it now in my 30’s I shudder a little.
I think I’m freaked out by more subtle things. One of the things that creeped me was the creepy-ass wallpaper in the mansion. (see the little faces?). Also, the fact this thing is in Disney World/Land, place with happy little kids and cute plush Mickeys seems sorta sinister.
Anyone else have a similar reaction?
(Perversely enough, now that I’m an adult, I think it would be kinda cool to be one of the workers in the HM. According to some of the HM sites I looked at, they apparently have a blast freaking out the riders and messing with the props. I’d hate to close up at night, tho.)
You are a total wimp. Although, actually, I remember that when I used to ride the HM, until I was about 7 or 8 years old I would tell knock-knock jokes to myself to keep from being scared. Miraculously, this method actually worked. Then again, I also was scared of Pirates because I thought the smoldering timbers were actually on fire, so I guess I’m not exactly a paragon of theme-park stability. The point is that the HM no longer scares me at all.
The real reason I commented on your thread was to compliment you on your username. Mondegreens are wonderful wonderful things.
I don’t remember the very first time I went to WDW, but I was around 2 or 3 years old. I apparently screamed on every ride. Including “It’s a Small World.”
Mental note: wait to take kids to DW until age 6 or 7.
Pirates of the Caribbean is cool! Never had problems with that one. (at least when I was a bit older, anyway).
I too opened this thread to congratulate you on your username. An excellent choice.
I think kids finding things scary, or not, is extremely subjective. I always adored the Haunted Mansion, and I also think it’s intended in good fun - it’s intended not to scare little kids - but I see how it might scare some. Parents have to know their kids when they take them to theme parks.
I don’t think that the Haunted Mansion ever did anything to really scare me, but I had a very recent experience with a kid in that structure.
My wife and I took her 8 year-old niece to WDW in January of this year. We passed the Haunted Mansion and thought that the Niece o’ Finnofranco would do fine; after all, she went on the ride when she was 5 and laughed the entire way.
The moment that we entered the stretching-room all hell started to break loose. She latched onto my leg and would not let go. Being a trooper, she opted to go on. When we got on the ride itself, she went absolutely into a panic. “Uncle Finnofranco, I need to get out now!” Since we were on a moving track at that point, she settled for burying her head in my armpit.
All I can figure is that as a 5 year-old she didn’t comprehend that she was meant to be frightened by what she saw, heard, felt, etc… At 8 years of age, she had developed fear.
I doubt the Haunted Mansions at WDW and Disneyland are exactly the same, but I bet the main portions are close enough (stretching room, doom buggy through the graveyard, singing tombstones) to relate some stories.
It’s definately less intimidating when the entire room full of people is reciting the lines along with the soundtrack: “Of course, there’s always… my way.”
I used to be afraid of the little heads that pneumatically popped up from behind stones and boxes, but it was the incredibly loud “psssshoooompt!” sound before it actually flew up that got me.
At one point in the DLand Mansion, the buggy spins around and tilts backwards to go down an incline (so you’re facing the wrong way as you descend). When you’re 12, the “right and proper[sup]tm[/sup]” thing to do in this situation is to lean forward and knock on the back of the car in front of you, and cackle to yourself as if nobody had ever thought of that before.
I got dragged onto “Pirates of the Caribbean” as a kid–my family was looking for, of all things, a bathroom…and no, I don’t know why they thought “Pirates of the Caribbean” would have a bathroom–and it scared the bejezus out of me. I even got a twinge a few weeks ago when I saw the movie trailer.
Haunted House? Phooey! What a disappointment that ride was. Not scary at all! And I wanted to be scared! I enjoy it, it’s very cool, but not that scary.
I’m told when I first went to Disneyland (I must have been about 5) my folks took me on the HM. When the room started stretching and that creepy voice said ‘There’s no way out now…’ I’m told I sung out with ‘OH, yes there is!’ and caused such a commotion that they stopped the ride and let my mom and I off.
Mom loves telling that story. I’ve got no memory of it myself.
My four year old loves all things scary (appropriately scare for a four year old - I’m talking Scooby Doo here, not Nightmare on Elm Street) and was really looking forward to the HM last year at Disney World…
He didn’t make it through the line. Credit to the fact that it was after lunch and the kids were getting tired. He wouldn’t come close to it for the rest of the trip.
We go again this year - he will be five. He talks a good talk about going, but we will see when he gets there. We certainly won’t make them go.
He is a HUGE pirate fan - like other little boys are about dinosaurs - pirates are his thing. But he’s pretty tentative. He got through PotC sitting between Daddy and Grandpa and being told that this was how you got to the ‘pirate store.’ He didn’t scream or cry, but he was scared.
Lots of kids do like the HM. My first trip was when I was seventeen - so I was pretty equiped to find it funnier than scary.
Now - Alien Encounter? I know adults who have done that once and will never do it again.
HM is a great ride and I was about to suggest the Doombuggies.com site but Walloon beat me to it!
Oh well…it’s a great ride,not at all scary. The only remotely creepy thing (IMO) was the floating head inside the crystal ball at the fortune teller’s table. Dangerosa–Disney has been discussing changing Alien Encounter to be more…well…cute and cuddly as well as include that blue fuzzy guy Stitch (from Lilo&Stitch).You’re right…it IS a very scary attraction. I have witnessed children being severely traumatized by it because Mom and Dad thought it would be a GOOD idea to take them to see it.Despite the 'it may be too scary for small children…etc" warnings PRE-SHOW!When will parents learn?:rollseyes:
IDBB
Hmmm. This doesn’t look good. Looks like most of the current votes are for “wimp.”
I wonder if there’s something about child development that has a relationship to that. Maybe older kids have a better sense of what death (and “undeath”) is about around age 8 or so. I know that’s the age when I was traumatized.
Oh, too cool! Now, instead of the hanging skeleton showing up in the ceiling, they just need to lower Frank N. Furter from the rafters on a swing, while he sings “Sweet Transvestite.”
I guess it would be really inappropriate for kids then.
I would like to see the “Nightmare before Christmas” version of the ride. That sounds fun.
Yeah, I’ve heard the rumor. My guess is that they will replace the cute alien that is supposed to be transported in with Stitch, but keep the rest of the attraction the same. So you’ll still get the scary part, they will just be able to sell Stitch toys to you on the way out.
My mother has a story about the first time she took me onto the Haunted Mansion ride, when I was about 4 years old. She tells me that I was a trooper going through the line, and seemed interested until I actually got onto the ride. About a minute in, she says I completely snapped and wouldn’t stop screaming–they stopped the ride so they could get me out of there (this was back in the 70’s).
It wasn’t until my late teens until I could actually keep my eyes open throughout the entire ride. So, if you’re a wimp, then so am I.
But, I have to say, we just recently went to Disneyland over the holidays and rode the HM decorated up like The Nightmare Before Christmas. I absolutely LOVED it. If the line wasn’t a two-hour wait, I’d have done it again.
I don’t know about wimp…because I don’t consider myself a wimp and the ride scared me. I remember going on that ride when I was 6. I closed my eyes and hid my face in my dad’s side the entire time because I was absolutely terrified. Dad tried to convince me to look (“It’s not that bad!”), but I refused.
The next time I rode on it, I was 17 and with my best friend who was in prime snarky form. We made fun of it the whole time and I did like it, but to be perfectly honest, parts of it still creeped me out a bit. I don’t like the dark very much.
Pepper Mill and I took our five-year-old daughter MilliCal to The Haunted Mansion in Forida recently. She’d been talking about going there the whole time. But once sh got n and heard th cary voice and the Dorian Gray portrait, she bolted for the door. We took her to “It’s a Small World” – which she still refused o go on, at fist.
Just for the record, she behaved the same way at the Witch Museum in Salem, Masachusetts. robably for the same reasons – you go into a big dark room, and a bodiless scary voice starts talking. It’s the atmosphere that’s scary. MilliCal can shrug ff beheadings and blood, apparently, but a spooky atmosphere scares her verytime.
Am I just a big wimp? Just thinking about it now in my 30’s I shudder a little.