History NightmareFuel / WatershipDown

* The gently cartoonish rabbit CreationMyth takes on a sinister edge when Frith gives several animals predatory instincts. At their ravenous touch, the rabbits turn [[RedIsViolent red]] and fall limp. Sir Michael Hordern's narration then notes El-ahrairah's [[OhCrap sudden fear]] of '''[[TheGrimReaper the Black Rabbit of Death]]'''. A huge, silhouetted rabbit, with fearsome mouth and [[GlowingEyesOfDoom glowing amber eyes]], glides swiftly forth.

* Creator/PeterCapaldi's audiobook reading of the novel has to be given credit for how absolutely terrifying he makes Captain Holly's appearance on Watership Down. Holly's wretched howls of "Zorn! Zorn! All dead! O Zorn!" are rendered by Capaldi as a hideous, wretched keening. And this comes just before he describes, terrifyingly, how the warren was gassed out by men.

Yes it's a U-rated film (or G-rated, if you're American[[note]]in Germany, it has a 6+ rating, meaning kids over six years old can watch it, though a PG rating would suffice for something like this, and Germany doesn't have a proper PG rating. It goes 0, 6+, 12+, 16+, and 18+[[/note]]), but the movie is very disturbing and does raise questions of "[[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids How is this appropriate for children]]?" and "Why do people think this is for kids just because it has bunnies in it?" Some examples include:

* Crossing with TearJerker, Hazel getting shot at Nuthanger Farm, spawning the “[[DisneyAcidSequence Bright Eyes]]” sequence.

* In the novel, Blackavar survives the climatic battle with the Efrafans. Here? '''[[DeathByAdaptation Not so.]]''' He stays behind in an attempt to stall General Woundwort, only for him to [[CurbStompBattle easily swat him down]] and ''tear out his throat in an'' '''extremely''' ''graphic manner''. Even for its standards, this is definitely the single most violent scene in the whole film, and that’s saying a ''lot''.

* Bob arriving and mutilating the Efrafan soldiers. Before attacking Woundwort, he’s seen rising up from the ridge with a mangled bloody Efrafan bunny in his jaws...

* [[TheGrimReaper The Black Rabbit]] is no hallucination, but he's not evil.
* The [[YouDirtyRat rats]] [[JumpScare that]] [[ScareChord attack]] the rabbits while they're sleeping in a shed.
* When Tab the cat pounces on Hazel, and actually ''speaks'' (in the film, she's the only creature other than Kehaar to speak to the rabbits) as Hazel struggles in terror and expectation of death:
--> "Can you run? [[IronicEcho I think not.]] ''I think '''not."''' ''
** Fortunately, Lucy, the farmer's daughter, speaks up and tells Tab to let him go, to which she complies.

!!2018 Miniseries
* For all the miniseries got wrong, Fiver's vision of Cowslip's warren is creepy, as the tree roots become ''spinal columns''.

* The rabbit gently cartoonish CreationMyth takes on a sinister edge when Frith gives several animals predatory instincts. At their ravenous touch, the rabbits turn [[RedIsViolent red]] and fall limp. Sir Michael Hordern's narration then notes El-ahrairah's [[OhCrap sudden fear]] of '''[[TheGrimReaper the Black Rabbit of Death]]'''. A huge, silhouetted rabbit, with fearsome mouth and [[GlowingEyesOfDoom glowing amber eyes]], glides swiftly forth.

* The rabbit CreationMyth, while gently cartoonish if slightly surreal, takes on a sinister edge when Frith gives several animals predatory instincts. At their ravenous touch, the rabbits turn red and fall limp. Sir Michael Hordern's narration then notes El-ahrairah's [[OhCrap sudden fear]] of '''[[TheGrimReaper the Black Rabbit of Death]]'''. A huge, silhouetted rabbit, with fearsome mouth and [[GlowingEyesOfDoom glowing amber eyes]], glides swiftly forth.

* The sequel is a compilation of short stories, some of which are rabbit folktales and some of which expand on what happened to Hazel and his companions after the first book. Some of them are comedy... and others are flat-out CosmicHorror.
** "The Story of the Comical Field": El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle find their way into a hedge maze (the titular "comical field") and wander through it before reaching the center. They take a nap, and then try and find their way out, but realize they're hopelessly lost. Not only that, but they can hear ''something'' stalking them. They panic, and begin to run, not knowing if they're heading towards a dead end- or worse, toward whatever the thing in the maze is- before they collapse, exhausted. At this point, El-ahrairah turns back, and finally sees the thing that's been chasing them. This galvanizes him and Rabscuttle into finding the last of their strength, and when they run through a nearby hole, they see the way out, which they realize they overlooked earlier ([[GeniusLoci or did the exit move]]?). They escape, and somehow realize that the thing in the maze wasn't going to follow them. [[NothingIsScarier We never find out what it was.]]

** "The Hole in the Sky": El-ahrairah hears about something called the "Hole in the Sky", and sets out to find out what it is. On his journey, he's attacked by a predator, and manages to fight it off, but he's badly wounded, and begins hallucinating from pain. After several days of agony, he stumbles, he looks up at the sky, and finally sees the Hole... only it's not really a hole at all. It's a giant ''wound'' ripped in the sky, with flies crawling on it. [[SurrealHorror A rabbit corpse falls out of it, and disappears in mid-fall]]. Even worse, it's moving and descending toward him. He panics, falls down a hill, and passes out. When he wakes up, he's feeling better, and hears the voice of [[{{God}} Frith]] telling him to take it easy. El-ahrairah asks him why he allows something as horrible as the Hole to exist, but Frith tells him it was just a hallucination. El-ahrairah starts to ask him how the other rabbit had the same hallucination, but Frith just tells him not to talk about it, because rabbits who've seen it won't want to and rabbits who haven't won't understand.
** "The Terrible Hay-Making" manages to be chilling without any {{EldritchAbomination}}s at all. A warren of rabbits have settled near a farmhouse, and have begun making a nuisance of themselves, eating everything in the garden that they can and scratching bark off the cherry trees. El-ahrairah warns them that the humans are going to notice and go after them, but they refuse to listen. Then they kill one of the farmers' daughter's pet cats in cold blood (described in [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath graphic detail]]), and the farmers corner the rabbits and beat and shoot all of them to death.

* Yes it's a U-rated film (or G-rated, if you're American[[note]]in Germany, it has a 6+ rating, meaning kids over six years old can watch it, though a PG rating would suffice for something like this, and Germany doesn't have a proper PG rating. It goes 0, 6+, 12+, 16+, and 18+[[/note]]), but the movie is very disturbing and does raise questions of "[[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids How is this appropriate for children]]?" and "Why do people think this is for kids just because it has bunnies in it?" Some examples include:
** The rabbit CreationMyth, while gently cartoonish if slightly surreal, takes on a sinister edge when Frith gives several animals predatory instincts. At their ravenous touch, the rabbits turn red and fall limp. Sir Michael Hordern's narration then notes El-ahrairah's [[OhCrap sudden fear]] of '''[[TheGrimReaper the Black Rabbit of Death]]'''. A huge, silhouetted rabbit, with fearsome mouth and [[GlowingEyesOfDoom glowing amber eyes]], glides swiftly forth.
** The story starts off very whimsical and sweet with the cutesy animals embracing and eating together. Even when El-ahrairah acts selfishly it seems set up to be a simple parable about pride and sharing...only instead for all the cute creatures to suddenly take on sinister feral designs and start killing the rabbits. Even El-ahrairah's solace has himself take on a colder design, left fending for his life against his demonic former friends.
** Fiver's vision at the beginning of the film is ''terrifying''. "The field...[[OverdrawnAtTheBloodBank it's covered with blood!]]"
*** The ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-3nKZ_Z3VM music]]'' that plays during that scene does not help ''at all''.
** Cowslip's warren. It's a nice little place with good food and shelter, but then Cowslip does some creepy rambling about [[GrimReaper the Black Rabbit.]] Turns out that the warren is near a farm that leaves the food in order to fatten and trap the rabbits.
*** The latter scenario is further supported by the succeeding scene of Bigwig almost choking to death in the snare, which is portrayed ''extremely'' graphically and realistically and in line with the novel's depiction of it, [[BloodFromTheMouth with blood and frothing spittle pouring from his mouth]] as he struggles to breathe. It's a horrific scene, and one of the movie's [[SignatureScene most iconic images,]] considering the fact the director chose to depict it right front and center in the movie's poster, albeit with Bigwig framed entirely in shadow, to subtly let those coming to see the film that it was most certainly ''not'' going to be a fun, family-friendly experience.
** The flashback to the gassing of the warren, with the [[GlowingEyesOfDoom glowing-eyed]] rabbits crammed into the tunnels clawing each other, trying to get out of tunnels that only narrow and spiral into dead ends. Holocaust parallels, anyone?
*** Holly appearing to tell the rabbits about it. The first the rabbits and the audience hear of him, he is moaning, "Zorn, zorn![[note]]Translation: Destroyed, destroyed![[/note]] Bigwig, Bigwig!" Bigwig immediately assumes it's the Black Rabbit of Inlé, until Holly drags himself to the edge and falls into the ditch they're in, completely battered and moaning, "All zorn!" We don't know who did this to him, until Holly tells the rabbits of his time in Efrafa.
** Crossing with TearJerker, Hazel getting shot at Nuthanger Farm, spawning the “[[DisneyAcidSequence Bright Eyes]]” sequence.
** The disturbing parallells between Efrafa and Nazi Germany - or any fascist state.
** In the novel, Blackavar survives the climatic battle with the Efrafans. Here? '''[[DeathByAdaptation Not so.]]''' He stays behind in an attempt to stall General Woundwort, only for him to [[CurbStompBattle easily swat him down]] and ''tear out his throat in an'' '''extremely''' ''graphic manner''. Even for its standards, this is definitely the single most violent scene in the whole film, and that’s saying a ''lot''.
** The brutal fight between Bigwig and Woundwort gives many unnerving shots of both severely wounded rabbits...
*** During this, it cuts in the middle of the fight to Hazel and the runners leading Bob the dog to Watership Down. It then cuts [[JumpScare suddenly]] [[NightmareFace to]] [[http://i.ytimg.com/vi/jPxr7hjBQqo/hqdefault.jpg this]] no less!
** Bob arriving and mutilating the Efrafan soldiers. Before attacking Woundwort, he’s seen rising up from the ridge with a mangled bloody Efrafan bunny in his jaws...
** When Woundwort attacks Bob, if you're watching on Website/YouTube, [[SchmuckBait pause at the right time]] and Woundwort will look like something out of your worst nightmares (pictured).
*** The [[ScareChord music]] that plays is definitely a [[{{Understatement}} bit]] unnerving...