Children’s Horror Films Were Scary! A Look Back on Movies That Made Us Shiver.

Katy Whelan on 22 October 2024

Image Credit – IMDb

Halloween season is upon us, and with it comes arguably one of the best film genres: horror. 

Today, I’m being nostalgic and looking back at some of the spooky films I watched as a child while trying to answer the question: why did I find them so terrifying?

Coraline 

Having recently celebrated its 15th anniversary, Coraline has a cemented position in society as one of the creepiest children’s films. It was sure to leave children scared to find their parents with buttons for eyes, wanting to steal their souls. But why is this stop motion picture film seen as scary? When the other mother transforms into The Beldam, she may be seen as scary due to her likeness to spiders, a typically scary creature that children and adults alike run from. But the main creepy part of the story was that the two worlds were interconnected. Simply leaving the tunnel didn’t make the other mother go away: she still existed and was able to manipulate the real world. The lack of a safe place for Coraline is what becomes unsettling for audiences, especially as the other mother’s powers are shown later in the movie via the kidnapping of her parents from the real world. 

Monster House

While marketed as a children’s movie, many parents didn’t want their children to watch Monster House due to its creepy themes. The depiction of the house as alive with windows for eyes, and its door opening like a mouth with a red carpet as a tongue gives this movie its unnerving feel that caused children to be afraid of old houses for years to come! Many adults who were once scared of this movie now lean more into its comedy aspects, which arguably were put into the film so it could be marketed to children.

Image Credit – IMDb

Scooby Doo

The fundamental idea of Scooby Doo in the past was that the monsters were never real.  There’s always a human behind the mask. This real-world idea made the franchise palatable for children. But the Scooby Doo live-action movies turned this completely on its head. In the 2002 movie, the gang go to Spooky Island, where alien-like creatures try to take over the bodies of the people at the resort, including the Scooby gang. While the movie tries to play a comedic spin on this with lots of gruesome jokes, it’s a far cry from the usual comedic relief provided in its animated counterparts. This idea is carried over in ‘Monsters Unleashed’, where the creature versions of the group’s previously caught villains come to life and wreak havoc on the city.  

Image Credit – IMDb

The Witches (1990)

While this live-action movie can be seen as comedic to children due to the turning of the boys into rats, the opening sequence of the movie is nerve-wracking. The idea that an evil witch could be anywhere and want to steal you made a young me scared of talking to strangers or being alone. This isn’t even close to the fear you felt when Anjelica Huston, the grand high witch, peeled back her face and transformed into arguably one of the most terrifying creatures a young child could imagine. While the movie has controversial undertones of antisemitism taken from the book in terms of the witches’ appearance, it must be admitted the 1990s movie gave children and adults alike nightmares.

Image Credit – IMDb

Overall, a large part of what makes the films on this list terrifying is the fact that antagonists are made-up creatures and not real people. Explaining the idea that these creatures aren’t real to children becomes harder as you have no real proof. This could be why you were afraid of these films as a child. 

These are only a few of the amazing children’s movies you could delve into this Halloween season, or that you remember from your childhood, and while they may not be as scary to you now, I think we can all remember one movie from when you were younger sent a shiver down your spine.

Words by Katy Whelan

Carbon capture: an answer to net zero pledges or continued fossil fuel usage?

Katy Whelan on 18 October 2024

On the 4th of October, Prime Minister Kier Sarmer announced that £22bn was going towards climate funding, specifically into carbon capture and storage. With the UK closing its last coal power station, making it the first G7 nation to phase out coal completely, the UK is looking to win another race on the energy front. But what is carbon capture? Is it the golden opportunity Kier Starmers Labour Party is making it out to be, or is it simply a scapegoat for oil and gas companies?

In its simplest form, carbon capture and storage is when you take the CO2 emissions directly from a power station or factory and transport them to a unit via pipes or ships to a location where they are typically stored by being injected into porous rocks deep underground. 

The UK government has cited that carbon capture is necessary for Britain to reach its climate targets set by the secretary of state, Ed Milliband. This is because carbon capture will greatly help reduce the CO2 emissions escaping into the atmosphere in heavy industrial operations like cement and glass making. This isn’t even to mention the 2,000 skilled jobs it would create and the foreseeable private investments spoken about by Chancellor Rachel Reeves. In addition, Starmer mentioned that on a large scale, it could create 50,000 jobs in the future.

So, in the government’s eyes, carbon capture is ideal for the UK as it provides more skill-based jobs while helping reach its COP pledges. Furthermore, the UK is at a prime spot geologically to provide storage for carbon as the UK’s continental shelf holds ⅓ of all the exploitable carbon storage space in Europe. Including access to the North, North Atlantic and Irish seas, as well as the English Channel. Insinuating that the UK’s economy could thrive if carbon capture and storage is introduced not just in the UK but globally, as it could become a hub for storage. 

While this sounds promising, there are some large concerns over using carbon capture and storage on a large scale. The general public and climate scientists worry that oil and gas companies recently urged governments to introduce carbon capture. It’s believed that carbon capture will still allow companies to keep using fossil fuels as it doesn’t equate to green or renewable energies. This implies that these large corporations can continue to exploit fossil fuels, depleting the already finite resources and further damaging the planet. Therefore making it harder to reach our net-zero targets. 

Studies into carbon capture have shown that it is not 100% effective at removing all the carbon. While the technology boasts the claim to remove 90% or more, scientists have found that it only removes around 70%. Moreover, climate scientists instead believe that the UK should be introducing cleaner, green, renewable energy sources like solar and wind instead of allowing the continued use of carbon via the vastly more expensive practice of carbon capture.

Overall, carbon capture and storage seems like a good idea on the surface for British people as it will advance the economy, create new jobs and seemingly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. Simply looking deeper into the technology shows us that it won’t help the future of our planet, allowing elevated fossil fuel exploitation. Therefore, contributing to our rising sea levels and global temperature by allowing big companies to offset their carbon production without any real sustainable practice taking place.