History NightmareFuel / ReturnToOz

** How [[SoftSpokenSadist disarmingly pleasant the Nome King is at first glance]]. Instead of the ominous and irritated tone, he spoke earlier and in comparison to [[EvilIsHammy the more bombastically evil Mombi and especially, the Wicked Witch]], the Nome King acts comforting to Dorothy, speaks politely to the group, and never raises his voice despite his increasingly evil acts. His evil doesn't become apparent until Gump gets turned into an ornament

* When The Nome King [[VillainousBreakdown loses his temper]] and becomes a huge one-eyed giant intent on eating the main cast. It's a stark contrast from the [[FauxAffablyEvil dissonantly calm sadist he was beforehand]] and with the environment taking on a fiery exterior, it generates the feeling they've entered Hell and the group is now trying to escape being eaten by the Devil.

** Furthermore, the death scene of the Nome King as he begins to decay rapidly after eating his one weakness, a chicken egg. It starts with his eye eroding away before his face "rots" into a skull as his body crumbles away.

* The Nomes themselves are demonic in form, but the scariest ones are the ones that reach out at the Scarecrow. It's shot from a first-person perspective, [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou so it looks like they're trying to get you]].
** Then there's ParanoiaFuel of their existence, they are [[RockMonster literal rock monsters]] who can appear from any rock to spy on them as observed by the scout of the Nome King without them noticing, they can appear from walls/ceilings/etc that is made of earth, and there's no escaping them since the world is comprised of earth.

** It's also a subtle detail about Mombi's true head that deconstructs the [[AndYouWereThere infamous ending where Dorothy's friends had counterparts in Kansas that were always kind to her]]. Both the heads that Mombi used and the gallery of heads were of people Dorothy never met before. And while the Wheelers, particularly the head one, resembled the orderly from the facility, this trait wasn't as emphasized as their frightening appearance. When Dorothy opens the door, she isn't shocked that it's an ugly head, but rather that the head has an uncanny resemblance to the sinister nurse of the facility. [[MindScrew It's a metaphysical moment that flips the intent of the uplifting moment of the M.G.M.'s finale into a terrifying revelation that truly begins to blur the reality of her own life and that of Oz]]. Rather than discovering retroactively that the friendly people she met in Oz were people already knew, Dorothy discovers that somehow the horrible people she managed to escape from, have counterparts in Oz, [[SurrealHorror is an existential horror of uncanniness that reality itself is allowing these awful people to follow Dorothy no matter where she is, even it's separated by time and space]].

** Her speech to Dorothy [[TruerToTheText which is almost entirely accurate to the books but tweaked near the end to make the distinction very clear, is an observation that her counterpart, Princess Langwidere said to Dorothy]]. But the intention between the two is very clear when you read between the lines. Langwidere [[BlueAndOrangeMorality spoke of it in a casual manner of trading hats with no ill intent in spite of the morbid manner-- showing how odd she was, as her heads weren't stolen]]. Mombi [[CardCarryingVillain is fully aware of how vile her actions are but doesn't care]]-- she fully intends on keeping a young child Dorothy like an animal for years until she'll decapitate her and add it to her collection, showing how much of a vain monster she truly is.

** It's also a subtle detail about Mombi's true head that deconstructs the [[AndYouWereThere infamous ending where Dorothy's friends had counterparts in Kansas that were always kind to her]]. Both the heads that Mombi used and the gallery of heads were of people Dorothy never met before. And while the Wheelers, particularly the head one, resembled the orderly from the facility, this trait wasn't as emphasized as their frightening appearance. When Dorothy opens the door, she's isn't shocked that it's an ugly head, but rather that the head has an uncanny resemblance to the sinister nurse of the facility. [[MindScrew It's a metaphysical

* The Nome King's DeathTrap of a game. He turns the Scarecrow into an ornament, hides him in a huge room of bric-a-braces, and they have three guesses each to find the item the Scarecrow has become, and if they win, they can leave without harm. What the Nome King doesn't tell them is that if they guess incorrectly, they themselves will be turned into ornaments, what's worse is that he gives them no clues and Dorothy and her friends have to go in one by one. It gradually becomes obvious they're walking to their deaths due to this rigged game and the only other option is to be burned in the furnace. Dorothy figures out the Nome King's game, realizing Ozians turn into green-colored ornaments - and we see plenty of those during the opening pan of the room. So how many other Ozians [[AndIMustScream have fallen for the Nome King's game]]? And with each failure, the Nome King starts looking more and more human.

* Mombi when initially introduced, doesn't seem as threatening as the Wheelers, being a seemingly normal princess in an elaborate dress. She then takes Dorothy into a room where there are 29 life-like heads that all glare at her. She unlocks a door and [[LosingYourHead removes the head like one would remove a hat and proceeds to get another head]], she then looks at Dorothy with the currently bodiless head in her arms and asks [[DissonantSerenity what do you think?]]. It becomes very apparent that [[TheCollector rather than being a simple princess, she's some sort of headless monster that steals the heads of other beautiful women to fulfill her own sense of vanity]].

** You're probably wondering, where did she get all those extra heads to begin with? Well, remember those headless dancing lady statues outside?

* The head scene when Dorothy went to retrieve the Powder of Life from the 31st head of Mombi in a corridor of heads. When she finally opens the door and gets the powder, the head comes to life and says "Dorothy Gale" in a CreepyMonotone, then the other heads wake up to scream loudly as she runs away from the headless Mombi.

* When The Nome King [[VillainousBreakdown loses his temper]] and becomes a huge one-eyed giant intent on eating the main cast. It's a stark contrast from the [[FauxAffablyEvil dissonantly calm sadist he was beforehand]] and with the environment taking on a fiery exterior, it generates the feeling they've entered Hell and the group is now trying to escape being eaten by the Devil.
** And shortly before that when he shrieks in rage at Mombi in an utterly inhuman voice, ''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis "YOU HAD HER AND YOU! LET! HER! ESCAPE!"]]'' The Wheelers are shown [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere quickly getting the hell outta there]] during that.
** Furthermore, the death scene of the Nome King as he begins to decay rapidly after eating his one weakness, a chicken egg. It starts with his eye eroding away before his face "rots" into a skull as his body crumbles away.
--->'''Nome King:''' Don't you...know that...eggs...are...poison...\\
'''Billina:''' Poison indeed!\\
'''Nome King:''' Poison...poison...to...Nomes!
** Also, listen closely to the way his voice slowly begins to distort worse the more he decays. It’s sure to give you chills.

** Her speech to Dorothy [[TruerToTheText which is almost entirely accurate to the books but tweaked near the end to make the distinction very clear, is an observation that her counterpart, Princess Langwidere said to Dorothy]]. But the intention between the two is very clear when you read between the lines. Langwidere [[BlueAndOrangeMorality spoke of it in a casual manner of trading hats with no ill intent in spite of the morbid manner- showing how odd she was]]. Mombi [[CardCarryingVillain is fully aware of how vile her actions are but doesn't care]]- she fully intends on keeping a young child Dorothy like an animal for years until she'll decapitate her and add it to her collection, showing how much of a vain monster she truly is.

'''Mombi''': You will be very attractive, one day. Not at all beautiful, you understand but you have a certain prettiness. Different from my other heads. I believe I'll lock you in a tower for a few years till your head is ready and then I'll take it.

-->"You'll have to come out sooner or later and when you do... we'll tear you into little pieces and throw you in the deadly desert!"

** With her replaced head, the previously dazed expression is replaced by a piercing stare like she's eyeing and touching Dorothy's face like one would eye an animal that they intend to turn into a fur coat. Because that's essentially what she's intending to do to Dorothy once she's matured enough to be qualified for her collection- decapitating her and robbing her individuality to become an extension of Mombi.

* The Nome King's DeathTrap of a game. He turns the Scarecrow into an ornament, hides him in a huge room of bric-a-braces, and they have three guesses each to find the item the Scarecrow has become, and if they win, they can leave without harm. What the Nome King doesn't tell them is that if they guess incorrectly, they themselves will be turned into ornaments, what's worse is that he gives them no clues, and Dorothy and her friends have to go in one by one. It gradually becomes obvious they're walking to their deaths due to this rigged game and the only other option is to be burned in the furnace. Dorothy figures out the Nome King's game, realizing Ozians turn into green-colored ornaments - and we see plenty of those during the opening pan of the room. So how many other Ozians [[AndIMustScream have fallen for the Nome King's game]]? And with each failure, the Nome King starts looking more and more human.
* Dorothy and the mysterious girl escaping from the hospital, and winding up getting swept up in a river during a terrible storm. Dorothy only survives because the girl helps her climb onto the porch, which broke off the hospital, and wounds up floating in the water, so they can use it as a raft. [[NothingIsScarier The girl herself just vanishes beneath the water]]... Don't worry, she's okay. But that still must have been terrifying for Dorothy, who, as far as she knows, just watched a child and her only ally die.
* During the scene where Dorothy blames The Nome King for turning The Gump into an ornament at the guessing game, he invites them to visit his Fiery Furnace where we get to see flames appear briefly.
* The fact that Nome King comes extremely close [[NearVillainVictory to triumphing]]. Dorothy was down to her final guess in the game described above--and she was the last of the heroes to play. The Nome King's line, "Soon, there'll be ''no one'' left who remembers Oz," indicates that something much darker was happening: if Dorothy had failed, the truth about Oz and its original state would have been lost forever, giving him presumably-unlimited power. And keep in mind that the only reason Dorothy gets her final guess right is ''pure luck''--she closes her eyes and spins around to select an ornament, and only just happens to see the emerald-green paperweight on a table. Had that last desperate guess failed, Oz would have become a desolate wasteland, and every single non-Wheeler or Nome inhabitant would have either been [[TakenForGranite permanently trapped in stone]] or [[AndIMustScream trapped as an ornament forever.]]

* While somewhat silly out of context, the sudden revelation that the Nome King is wearing the Ruby Slippers and used them to cause the events of the story is harrowing and visually unnatural just for the sight of an iconic item being worn by a villain and being warped to do vile things . It's especially disturbing on Dorothy's end as she realizes it's her fault that the Nome King came to such power due to an accident.

The first half has threats of brain damage via late 19th century shock therapy in a very bankrupt mental hospital heavily implied to be an asylum, when she gets to Oz, it's not the pleasant fairy tale land she went to before, but a decaying and destroyed wasteland, now ruled by [[GrotesqueGallery human-headed/wheels for feet laughing monsters, a vain sorceress who takes the heads of living women to add to her collection, and the equivalent of the Devil and his legions of hell if they were made of rock clay-motion]].

* Outside of the more fantastic scares of Oz, there's the fact that Dorothy gets there after escaping a [[BedlamHouse mental hospital]] where she was about to get electroshock therapy. Let's say that again: Dorothy, a little girl, was about to get electroshock therapy. It's made even worse if you know your history; electroshock therapy and even ''[[MindRape lobotomies]]'' were not unknown for children in early 20th century psychological 'treatment'. And mind you, electroshock therapy can ''kill'' and there are many cases where patients actually died from the treatment; as for those who survived the torture, many were left with burns and are severely traumatized. Granted, modern psychiatric medicine has refined the idea into electroconvulsive therapy, a less traumatic form which is useful for treating certain serious illnesses (depression and mania), but this is clearly ''not'' that kind of ECT.
** The mental hospital was creepy enough on its own. At first, it seems like a perfectly nice, reputable place. Then we see the rest of it. It's got all the staples: dirty, dimly lit hallways, [[OrderliesAreCreeps creepy orderlies]], [[BattleAxeNurse an even creepier nurse]], and a doctor who seems a little ''too'' enthusiastic about trying his new therapy on a preteen girl. And then there are the "damaged" patients who've been locked in the cellar...
** The way the doctor tries to anthropomorphize his electroshock machine to Dorothy is even worse. "Look! Those are his eyes, he's happy to see you!" [[ParanoiaFuel One wonders if he's done this with the 'failed' patients kept in the basement]].
* The Nome King's DeathTrap of a game. He turns the Scarecrow into an ornament, hides him in a huge room of bric-a-bracs, and they have three guesses each to find the item the Scarecrow has become, and if they win, they can leave without harm. What the Nome King doesn't tell them is that if they guess incorrectly, they themselves will be turned into ornaments, what's worse is that he gives them no clues, and Dorothy and her friends have to go in one by one. It gradually becomes obvious they're walking to their deaths due to this rigged game and the only other option is to be burned in the furnace. Dorothy figures out the Nome King's game, realizing Ozians turn into green-colored ornaments - and we see plenty of those during the opening pan of the room. So how many other Ozians [[AndIMustScream have fallen for the Nome King's game]]? And with each failure, the Nome King starts looking more and more human.

** If the theory that the whole film is all just in Dorothy's coma dream is really correct, she'd be an unconscious living, breathing corpse.

* Mombi when initially introduced, doesn't seem as threatening as the Wheelers, being a seemingly normal princess in an elaborate dress. She then takes Dorothy into a room where there are 29 life-like heads that all glare at him. She unlocks a door and [[LosingYourHead removes the head like one would remove a hat and proceeds to get another head]], she then looks at Dorothy with the currently bodiless head in her arms and asks [[DissonantSerenity what do you think?]]. It becomes very apparent that [[TheCollector rather than being a simple princess, she's some sort of headless monster that steals the heads of other beautiful women to fulfill her own sense of vanity]].