Quentin Tarantino Was Traumatized After Seeing Bambi And Last House On The Left

It's hard to imagine the filmmaker who gave audiences the infamous ear scene in "Reservoir Dogs" being traumatized by any other movie out there. Alas, filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, a director with a penchant for the ultra-violent, was traumatized by both a Disney film and a Wes Craven film as a youngster. While a film by master of horror Craven makes sense, Disney seems like an odd choice for the "Death Proof" director to point to for lasting horrifying images.

Tarantino cited Disney's "Bambi" and Craven's "The Last House on the Left" as two of the films that traumatized him. "Bambi" is Disney's 1942 classic tale of friendship, but the film does begin with the horrifying murder of Bambi's mother by a hunter, leaving Bambi to fend for himself in the woods. "The Last House on the Left," however, is a sordid tale of revenge as parents trap and systematically kill the psychos that assaulted their daughter in Wes Craven's 1972 Vietnam-allegorical shocker. Tarantino said that these were two movies he maybe shouldn't have seen as a kid.

Quentin Tarantino talked to the Los Angeles Times about the release of his book "Cinema Speculation," in which he documents movies he saw growing up and the impacts those films made on him. He told the Times that "Bambi" and "The Last House on the Left" left him saying, "'I gotta get out of here!'" when seeing them at the theater and drive-in.

He said, "I think 'Bambi' is well known for traumatizing children. It's a cliché, but it's true. The only other movie I couldn't handle and had to leave was at a drive-in in Tennessee. I was there alone, sitting on the gravel by a speaker, watching Wes Craven's 'Last House on the Left.' So for me, 'Last House on the Left' and 'Bambi' are sitting on the f— shelf right next to each other."

Although both films made him want to run away from the screen, he stated that the heartwarming animated classic and the horrifying tale of how unsatisfying revenge can be both had something else in common. He laughs, "Both take place in the woods."

Quentin Tarantino has often filled his films with shocking imagery, such as the end fight scene in "Once Upon a Time In...Hollywood" and the gimp scene in "Pulp Fiction," but he has never directed something that could be classified as a straight-up horror film. He did write the Robert Rodriguez-directed horror film "From Dusk till Dawn," but he did not direct it. He has mentioned in interviews in the past that he might make a horror film as his last, but he hasn't committed to that yet.

Tarantino told Dana Carvey while Carvey was guest hosting for "Jimmy Kimmel Live" (via Dread Central) that the horror movie he wishes he directed was 2000's "Battle Royale." He said, "I'm a big fan of the Japanese movie 'Battle Royale,' which is what 'Hunger Games' was based on, well 'Hunger Games' just ripped it off. That would have been awesome to have directed 'Battle Royale.'"

While continuing to make the late-night talk show rounds, he told Stephen Colbert that John Carpenter's "The Thing" from 1982 was the only horror movie to truly "scare" him. He said, "I just really connected to it. This crazy suspense leads to terror to a place suspense rarely ever gets to...The paranoia amongst the characters was so strong, trapped in that enclosure for so long, that it just bounced off all the walls until it had nowhere to go but out into the audience." While uncovering all these films that traumatized and scared him, plus those he wishes he had directed, maybe it's time for Tarantino to finally make a horror movie of his own. Time will tell.