Highest-Rated Movies about 'Traumatic Childhood'

The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Udaan (2010), Mary and Max (2009), Stand by Me (1986), Pink Floyd - The Wall (1982), Saving Mr. Banks (2013), Starred Up (2013), Natural Born Killers (1994) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Traumatic Childhood movies.

#1. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Storyline: F.B.I. trainee Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) works hard to advance her career, while trying to hide or put behind her West Virginia roots, of which if some knew, would automatically classify her as being backward or white trash. After graduation, she aspires to work in the agency's Behavioral Science Unit under the leadership of Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn). While she is still a trainee, Crawford asks her to question Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Sir Anthony Hopkins), a psychiatrist imprisoned, thus far, for eight years in maximum security isolation for being a serial killer who cannibalized his victims. Clarice is able to figure out the assignment is to pick Lecter's brains to help them solve another serial murder case, that of someone coined by the media as "Buffalo Bill" (Ted Levine), who has so far killed five victims, all located in the eastern U.S., all young women, who are slightly overweight (especially around the hips), all who were drowned in natural bodies of water, and all who ...

Plot Keywords: serial killer, psycho thriller, cult film, bad guy wins, strong female character, strong female lead, murder of a police officer ...

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#2. Udaan (2010)

Storyline: After being abandoned for eight straight years in boarding school, Rohan returns to the small industrial town of Jamshedpur and finds himself closeted with an authoritarian father and a younger half brother who he didn't even know existed. Forced to work in his father's steel factory and study engineering against his wishes, he strives to forge his own life out of his given circumstances and pursue his dream of being a writer.

Plot Keywords: father son conflict, domineering father, alcoholic father, tyranny, absent father, abusive father, father son relationship ...

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#3. Mary and Max (2009)

Storyline: In the mid-1970's, a homely, friendless Australian girl of 8 picks a name out of a Manhattan phone book and writes to him; she includes a chocolate bar. She's Mary Dinkle, the only child of an alcoholic mother and a distracted father. He's Max Horowitz, an overweight man with Asperger's, living alone in New York. He writes back, with chocolate. Thus begins a 20-year correspondence, interrupted by a stay in an asylum and a few misunderstandings. Mary falls in love with a neighbor, saves money to have a birthmark removed and deals with loss. Max has a friendship with a neighbor, tries to control his weight, and finally gets the dream job. Will the two ever meet face to face?

Plot Keywords: stop motion, black comedy, understanding, traumatic childhood, suicide, shoplifting, rooster ...

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#4. Stand by Me (1986)

Storyline: It's the summer of 1959 in Castlerock, Oregon and four 12 year-old boys - Gordie, Chris, Teddy and Vern - are fast friends. After learning of the general location of the body of a local boy who has been missing for several days, they set off into woods to see it. Along the way, they learn about themselves, the meaning of friendship and the need to stand up for what is right.

Plot Keywords: friendship, childhood, treehouse, teenage boy, based on the works of stephen king, friendship between boys, no opening credits ...

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#5. Pink Floyd - The Wall (1982)

Storyline: Rock star Pink Floyd is a tortured soul. Because of his childhood, he has always tried to make meaningful emotional connections to other living creatures. That childhood includes not having a male role model with his father having been killed in the war, his overprotective mother smothering him, and an oppressive school system quashing his natural creativity. Being a rock star, he is often wanted more because of what he is than who he is. The most recent failure in that true connection to someone or something else is his marriage, when on tour, he discovers that his wife back home is cheating on him. His response is to go in the opposite direction, by building a figurative wall around him to isolate himself from the rest of the world, but not before showing graphically his feelings on different gut levels. The question becomes if he or anyone else can do anything to tear down the wall in a meaningful way.—Huggo

Plot Keywords: drugs, loss of father, angst, anti conformity, car, cat, conformity ...

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#6. Saving Mr. Banks (2013)

Storyline: When Walt Disney's daughters begged him to make a movie of their favorite book, P.L. Travers' Mary Poppins (1964), he made them a promise - one that he didn't realize would take 20 years to keep. In his quest to obtain the rights, Walt comes up against a curmudgeonly, uncompromising writer who has absolutely no intention of letting her beloved magical nanny get mauled by the Hollywood machine. But, as the books stop selling and money grows short, Travers reluctantly agrees to go to Los Angeles to hear Disney's plans for the adaptation. For those two short weeks in 1961, Walt Disney pulls out all the stops. Armed with imaginative storyboards and chirpy songs from the talented Sherman brothers, Walt launches an all-out onslaught on P.L. Travers, but the prickly author doesn't budge. He soon begins to watch helplessly as Travers becomes increasingly immovable and the rights begin to move further away from his grasp. It is only when he reaches into his own childhood that Walt discovers ...

Plot Keywords: disney, based on true story, death of father, filmmaking, alcoholism, father daughter relationship, mistrust ...

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#7. Starred Up (2013)

Storyline: Eric Love is a 19 year old teenager who is so violent he has been 'Starred Up' (Moved to Adult prison) where he finds his father Neville who Eric hasn't seen since he was 5 (since he was put into care). Neville tries to get Eric to settle down, so Eric gets a chance to go through therapy with Oliver.

Plot Keywords: male frontal nudity, prison, male nudity, therapist, gay, father son relationship, prison cell ...

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#8. Natural Born Killers (1994)

Storyline: Mickey Knox and Mallory Wilson aren't your typical lovers - after killing her abusive father, they go on a road trip where, every time they stop somewhere, they kill pretty well everyone around them. They do however leave one person alive at every shootout to tell the story and they soon become a media sensation thanks to sensationalized reporting. Told in a highly visual style.

Plot Keywords: media, satire, controversy, black comedy, murder, television, pop culture ...

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#10. One Deadly Summer (1983)

Storyline: Oozing sensuality, the seductively alluring, Eliane Wieck, arrives with her demure German mother and her disabled father in a rural southern French town, in a frilled dress and with a small suitcase in her hand. Pin-Pon, a car mechanic and volunteer firefighter, instantly falls for the charms of the mysterious newcomer--and before long--they get married. However, was it love at first sight for Eliane, too? What links her enigmatic presence to the family's old and dust-covered mechanical piano in the barn? It seems that the stage is set; but, what drives the cryptic young woman? Is it hungry curiosity or is it something far more sinister?—Nick Riganas

Plot Keywords: revenge, breast suckling, pregnant from rape, lesbian kiss, flashback, 1970s, small town ...

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#11. The Home Song Stories (2007)

Storyline: Rose, a Shanhainese songstress singing at nightclubs in HongKong during the 60's, marries an Australian sailor and migrates with her young son and daughter to Melbourne. Her past filled with lost innocence, she begins a cycle of dependence and desperation to create a family for herself and her children, culminating with her affair with Qi, an illegal immigrant from HongKong. Watched through the eyes of her young son, the mother's journey reveals painful truths about the human condition, the love of family and self, and the price we pay for growing up.—Anonymous

Plot Keywords: single mother, brother sister relationship, mother son relationship, mother daughter relationship, unfaithful wife, traumatic childhood, suicide ...

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#12. Brothers (2009)

Storyline: Before leaving on his second tour in Afghanistan, Marine Captain Sam Cahill, a leader, an athlete, a good husband and father, welcomes his screw-up brother Tommy home from prison. He'd robbed a bank. In country, Sam's helicopter is shot down and all are presumed dead. Back home, while Sam wastes away as a prisoner in a remote encampment, Tommy tries to take care of the widow and her two children. While imprisoned, Sam experiences horrors unbearable, so when he's rescued and returns home, he's silent, detached, without affect, and he's convinced his wife and brother have slept together. Demons of war possess him; what will silence them?

Plot Keywords: afghanistan, presumed dead, bare chested male, torture, murder, prisoner of war, suspicion ...

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#13. The Girl Next Door (2007)

Storyline: In a quiet suburban town in the summer of 1958, two recently orphaned sisters, Meg and disabled Susan are placed in the care of their mentally unstable aunt Ruth. But Ruth's depraved sense of discipline will soon lead to unspeakable acts of abuse and torture that involve her young sons, Willie, Ralphie, and Donny the neighborhood children, and one 12-year-old boy, David whose life will be changed forever.

Plot Keywords: physical abuse, bound and gagged, abuse, underage drinking, bondage, torture, teenage girl ...

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#14. Mandy (2018)

Storyline: Taking place in 1983, Red is a lumberjack who lives in a secluded cabin in the woods. His artist girlfriend Mandy spends her days reading fantasy paperbacks. Then one day, she catches the eye of a crazed cult leader, who conjures a group of motorcycle-riding demons to kidnap her. Red, armed with a crossbow and custom Axe, stops at nothing to get her back, leaving a bloody, brutal pile of bodies in his wake.

Plot Keywords: lumberjack, cult, surrealism, biker, revenge, cult leader, year 1983 ...

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#15. The Voices (2014)

Storyline: Jerry (Ryan Reynolds) is that chipper guy clocking the nine-to-five at a bathtub factory, with the offbeat charm of anyone who could use a few friends. With the help of his court-appointed psychiatrist, he pursues his office crush (Gemma Arterton). However, the relationship takes a sudden, murderous turn after she stands him up for a date. Guided by his evil talking cat and benevolent talking dog, Jerry must decide whether to keep striving for normalcy, or indulge in a much more sinister path.

Plot Keywords: psychiatrist, talking dog, talking cat, hearing voices, psychopath as protagonist, schizophrenic, date ...

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