History NightmareFuel / LittleHouseOnThePrairie

** The Hardscrabble Boys are known for [[BadlyBatteredBabysitter driving out hapless teachers and even using physical violence on them]], some of them are [[DaddysLittleVillain encouraged by their father]]. One of them drove out a teacher so hard that he died from his injuries. All this in a time that MoralGuardians tend to laud as "innocent" and "simple" unlike our [[OlderThanTheyThink post-ColumbineShooting world]]....how is it those boys aren't in jail?

* A couple of moments in ''The First Four Years'': When the horses jump over baby Rose. And when [[spoiler: Boast tries to buy Rose in exchange for his best horse.]]

* "Whisper Country" was a really creepy episode, as the [[TheFundamentalist overly religious people]] made the show creepy and treated Mary like an evil outcast. Miss Peel was really a creepy character in the episode and accused Mary of being a "jezebel."

* The final destruction of Walnut Grove in "The Last Farewell" isn't pretty to look at. All those iconic building are shredded to bits in very loud and shocking explosions that are shot in slow-motion film just to make it sink in.

* A couple of AdultFear moments in ''The First Four Years'': When the horses jump over baby Rose. And when [[spoiler: Boast tries to buy Rose in exchange for his best horse.]]

* "The Music Box" is both an in-universe example and an example of something that could shake up young viewers. After stealing the eponymous music box from Nellie's room, Laura suffers guilt that manifests itself as three nightmares, one in a courtroom, one in a jail, and one where she is [[spoiler: being hanged.]] All three show Laura in a ragged dress with tangled, dirty hair and shackles on her wrists. All three also have a sadistic minor version of the music box tune as background music. The jail nightmare also features a grim-faced matron throwing scraps at prisoners, who then throw themselves on the floor and gobble them, groaning the whole time.
* The episode "The Monster of Walnut Grove" has a few scary scenes, both of Laura's nightmares are really nightmare fuel. In her first nightmare, Nels is shown chopping off his wife's head and then Nellie's, Willie's and Laura's heads are flying around screaming.

** Ma and Laura's encounter with the bear in the cow pen.

* Pretty much anything involving the grasshoppers in ''Plum Creek'', including Laura being outside when the glittering cloud appears, and grasshoppers start plunking down on her head, the ground being carpeted with grasshoppers, to the point the family can't walk to church, the creek being plugged with drowned grasshoppers, and, of course, grasshoppers climbing in through the open windows, and walking right over baby Carrie. There's a horrifyingly tactile description of young Laura repeatedly brushing her arms because she keeps imagining the grasshoppers' scratchy legs crawling on her.

* Pretty much anything involving the grasshoppers in ''Plum Creek'', including Laura being outside when the glittering cloud appears, and grasshoppers start plunking down on her head, the ground being carpeted with grasshoppers, to the point the family can't walk to church, the creek being plugged with drowned grasshoppers, and, of course, grasshoppers climbing in through the open windows, and walking right over baby Carrie.

* Laura's time at the Brewsters in ''These Happy Golden Years.'' Laura is forced to board in a house thirty miles from the nearest neighbor with a woman slowly [[GoMadFromTheIsolation going insane from isolation]]...and she doesn't like Laura. And she has a knife. It's easily one of the darkest moments in the series, particularly when the woman's openly threatening suicide, if not murder-suicide: "If I can't go home one way, I can another."

* "Whisper Country" was a really creepy episode, as the overly religious people made the show creepy and treated Mary like an evil outcast. Miss Peel was really a creepy character in the episode and accused Mary of being a "jezebel."

** A blizzard nearly kills some cattle. How? Their breath freezes their heads to the ground, and they come close suffocating. This phenomenon is addressed again in ''These Happy Golden Years'', when Almanzo, who is driving Laura home from her teaching job for the weekend, has to keep stopping to melt the ice on his horses' noses.

*** Later, the kitten, technically too young to leave its mother, gets into a fight with a mouse and nobody intervenes, despite the mouse being as large as the kitten. The fight and ensuing kitten injuries are described in detail and with pride, as the kitten wins the fight.

* The episode "The Monster on Walnut Grove" has a few scary scenes, both of Laura's nightmares are really nightmare fuel. In her first nightmare, Nels is shown chopping off his wife's head and then Nellie's, Willie's and Laura's heads are flying around screaming.

** Interestingly, Baby Carrie isn't mentioned in the malaria scenes at all, which makes sense, because while Carrie exists in the narrative, she wasn't actually born yet; the books being a somewhat fictionalized account of Laura's life. So while some readers might get some FridgeHorror regarding who exactly was taking care of the baby while the family was bedridden and hallucinating, it's good to know she wasn't actually in danger. However, that brings up some RealLife FridgeHorror. Dr. Tan, the doctor who treated the family, did so in 1870 as noted on his gravestone--the summer of 1870; Laura describes the weather as hot and the girls picking blackberries. In ''Pioneer Girl,'' Laura mentions that Dr. Tan also delivered Carrie, on August 3, 1870. Put this information together and what do you get? The horrifying realization that Ma was ''heavily pregnant'' with Carrie while ''dying of malaria'' on the high prairie.

** Interestingly, Baby Carrie isn't mentioned in the malaria scenes at all, which makes sense, because while Carrie exists in the narrative, she wasn't actually born yet; the books being a somewhat fictionalized account of Laura's life. So while some readers might get some FridgeHorror regarding who exactly was taking care of the baby while the family was bedridden and hallucinating, it's good to know she wasn't actually in danger. However, that brings up some RealLife FridgeHorror. Dr. Tan, the doctor who treated the family, did so in 1870--the summer of 1870, as Laura describes the weather as hot and the girls picking blackberries. In ''Pioneer Girl,'' Laura mentions that Dr. Tan also delivered Carrie, on August 3, 1870. Put this information together and what do you get? The horrifying realization that Ma was ''heavily pregnant'' with Carrie while ''dying of malaria'' on the high prairie.

** Interestingly, Baby Carrie isn't mentioned in the malaria scenes at all, which makes sense, because while Carrie exists int he narrative, she wasn't actually born yet when this occurred in Laura's life; the books are a fictionalized account that sometimes sacrifices accuracy for the sake of a unified narrative. Thus, while there is some fictional FridgeHorror of just who is taking care of her while the family is bedridden and hallucinating, she was in no danger. However, a little digging does bring up some RealLife FridgeHorror from this event. Dr. Tan, the doctor who treated the family for malaria, is noted on his headstone to have done so in 1870--the summer, as Laura picks blackberries and the weather is hot. In ''Pioneer Girl,'' Laura notes that Dr. Tan also delivered Baby Carrie, on August 3, 1870. Put all of that information together and what do you get? The horrible realization that Ma was ''heavily pregnant with Carrie'' while coming close to ''dying from malaria'' on the high prairie.
** The consistent fear of attack from local Native American tribes; at one point, Pa stays awake for several days while the war cries can be heard in the distance. Particularly salient as the Ingalls' house is built in "Indian territory," which they didn't know when they built it. However, the family's interactions with the Native Americans themselves are positive.

** Interestingly, Baby Carrie isn't mentioned in the malaria scenes at all, which makes sense, because the books are a fictionalized account and sometimes describe events out of order for the sake of a more unified narrative. However, both the fictionalized account and the real events bring up two different FridgeHorror moments. In the book, Carrie exists when the Ingalls are sick, meaning just who is taking care of this helpless infant in between the time her family gets sick and the neighbors find them? The other is the RealLife FridgeHorror. Some research has been done on Dr. Tan, the doctor who treated the family. His gravestone notes that he treated them for malaria in 1870; in Laura's memoir, ''Pioneer Girl,'' he is also noted to have delivered Carrie on August 3, 1870. Since ''Little House on the Prairie'' places the bout with malaria in the summer, when the blackberries and watermelon are ripe. Which means Ma was ''pregnant with Carrie'' while deathly ill with ''malaria'' and alone on the prairie.
** Laura's malaria-induced fever dreams are pretty trippy.

* The Whisper Country was a really creepy episode, the overly religious people in that episode made the show creepy and treated Mary like a evil outcast. Miss Peel was really a creepy character in the episode and accused Mary as a "jezebel."

*** Also the description of each of the malnourished family members' thin bodies and hollow cheeks, and hunger-induced apathy, where "only the storm seemed real."

* Laura's time at the Brewsters in ''These Happy Golden Years.'' Laura is forced to board in a house thirty miles from the nearest neighbor with a woman slowly going insane from isolation...and she doesn't like Laura. And she had a knife.
** When Almanzo picks Laura up and drives her home for the weekend, he has to remind her to stay awake, lest she ''die'' of hypothermia.

* ''Farmer Boy'' usually isn't the most exciting book but has a few nightmarish moments.
** Ma and Laura's encounter with the bear in the cow pen.

* Her first childbirth is likewise a little out there. From a [[ScienceMarchesOn medical standpoint]], the fact that the doctor gives her ''chloroform'' (now known to be very toxic) is pretty horrifying, too.
* In ''The Long Winter'', a blizzard nearly kills some cattle. How? Their breath freezes their heads to the ground, and they come close suffocating. This phenomenon is addressed again in ''These Happy Golden Years'', when Almanzo, who is driving Laura home from her teaching job for the weekend, has to keep stopping to melt the ice on his horses' noses.
* Laura's time at the Brewsters in ''These Happy Golden Years.'' Laura is forced to board in a house thirty miles from the nearest neighbor with a woman slowly going insane from isolation...and she doesn't like Laura. And she had a knife.

* Pretty much anything involving the grasshoppers in ''Plum Creek'', including Laura being outside when the glittering cloud appears, and grasshoppers start plunking down on her head, the ground being carpeted with grasshoppers, to the point the family can't walk to church, the creek being plugged with drowned grasshoppers, and, of course, grasshoppers climbing in through the open windows, and walking right over baby Carrie.
* The hideous needle-grass that screws itself through Mary's stocking, followed by Pa's description of cows eating said grass, forcing it to be cut from their lips and tongues.

* In ''Little House on the Prairie,'' Laura is awoken in the middle of the night to wolf howls. Pa lifts her up to look out the window, where a pack of them have ''surrounded their cabin.'' The cabin that was recently built and has ''no door or window panes.''
* Laura's malaria-induced fever dreams in ''Little House on the Prairie'' are pretty trippy.

* The Whisper Country was a really creepy episode, the overly religious people in that episode made the show creepy and treated Mary like a evil outcast. Miss Peel was really a creepy character in the episode and accused Mary as a "jezebel."

* The Whisper Country was a really creepy episode, the overly religious people in that episode made the show creepy and treated Mary like a evil outcast.