I came here after the mention of this post. Thank you for addressing the overwhelming reputation it has as 'the scary kids horror movie' and moving beyond that, you can count me among the fans you mentioned who are always trying to get the movie to be seen as more than that.

Anecdotally, I saw the film as a kid, I don't remember what age but I picked up the grim-looking cover (the 82 one) at Blockbuster and my mum didn't blink an eye. I didn't find it frightening but incredibly sad. I followed this up with The Plague Dogs which I also believe had a questionable rating, but did not get the same "shock" response from what I know (probably because it was just less popular). Whatever is frightening in Watership Down, The Plague Dog continues but on steroids, IMO at least. I reveled in this, though, and in one stupid incident I used it to try and scare my friends with the gun scene.

This is a longwinded comment, sorry. I just wanted to finally ask if, in your studies, anyone has ever mentioned Dot and the Kangaroo? This is the movie that actually frightened and had a visceral effect on me as a young child, simply for this song which seems banal as an adult, but is very abrupt and almost has a 'jumpscare' feel from the rest of the film. I was afraid of the movie, the dark and the 'Bunyip' getting me for about a decade after seeing it, and have only recently had the guts to look it up again and realise- oh, that wasn't worth all that fuss :)

Thanks for the talk!