Nightmare Fuel / Animal Farm

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Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Image by Ralph Steadman.

General/The Novel Specifcally

• The entire book is nightmare fuel if you happen to be a farmer.
  • Or just have a job that requires taking care of animals.
• The book is an allegory for the horrific outcome of the Russian Revolution: a people who dreamed of a freer and more just society wound up with a leadership that was even worse.
• "It was a pig walking on his hind legs." One edition of the book has this sentence as the first one on a left-hand page, forcing the reader to turn the page before finding out exactly "what Clover had seen." For someone not expecting it, it can be a Wham Line that can force the reader to put down the book and walk away to catch their breath.
• Napoleon deciding to have the dogs chase out Snowball, who at that point had been the Reasonable Authority Figure and Token Good Teammate of the pigs. Especially in the 1954 film.
• The Kangaroo Court that Napoleon holds to execute falsely accused animals with the aforementioned dogs eating them as punishment. This is supposed to represent Josef Stalin killing some of his subjects during his reign.
• Napoleon claims that Boxer is being sent to the vet when he's injured and can't work any more, but really he's sending him to the slaughterhouse because he's of no more use to Napoleon. Imagine how kind, trusting Boxer must have felt when he realized where he was really going and how the pigs had betrayed him right before he was killed. And just when you think it can't get any worse, the pigs buy whiskey with the money given to them for selling Boxer to the knacker and have a feast in his honor.
  • And combined with Tear Jerker - only Benjamin and Clover understand what really happened to him, and both knowing it will happen to them if they try to tell anyone else.
• The infamous final scene of the book, where the humans and pigs all start resembling each other in such a way that none of the other animals can tell them apart anymore.

Specific to the 1954 Film:

• Snowball's implied death is even worse in the film. In the book, it's not clear if he was just chased off or mauled to death but the film makes it more clear. The scared expression he has and, as the chase continues offscreen, we hear Snowball's pained squeals and when the dogs return to Napoleon, they give him an approving nod, leaving far less ambiguity than the book had that the job was done.
• Napoleon sending his dogs to round up the hens. The scene in general is nightmarish as it takes place in a dark setting and the dogs appear almost demonic as they charge, but it gets worse when the cat, who did nothing wrong and just happens to be there, is caught by them and killed. While most animal deaths in the film are either peaceful (like Old Major’s) or subject to a Gory Discretion Shot, you see the cat mauled to death onscreen.
• The horror of the abovementioned Trials scene gets so bad in the 1954 film, that the crow (possibly Moses) that had nonchalantly watched Snowball's death at the hands of the dogs turns its back on the scene, being absolutely horrified at this cruelty. Then the camera pans lower and gives us a view of the "No animal shall kill any other animal" law changed to "No animal shall kill any other animal without cause" — the last two words written in blood.
• The second attack on the farm is surprisingly violent with multiple animals being killed onscreen, with a particularly disturbing shot of a human farmer strangling a goose. Boxer is also shot at close range and we even see blood spurting from the wound.
• The pigs' banquet at the end has a frightening moment where the secretly watching Benjamin sees Napoleon's face turn into that of Mr. Jones. The camera then pulls back to show that all of the pigs suddenly have Mr. Jones's face, thus showing that the Full-Circle Revolution is complete and the pigs have become exactly like the man that they overthrew.
• The ending, which sees the pigs on the receiving end of a Bolivian Army Ending, seesaws between this and Moment of Awesome. On the one hand, there's the fact that the filthy swinish bastards are finally going to get what's coming to them. But on the other hand, the scene itself, with hordes of red-eyed animals ripping and tearing their way into the house like a swarm of zombies where their former oppressors, the pigs, are cowering in terror at their strongly implied imminent, terrible death at the hooves, paws, claws and mouths of the animals they once lorded over... it's chilling.
  • To punctuate this, Napoleon at first confidently calls for his guard dogs, only for them to be drunk and incapacitated. The scowl he had the entire film, even in the most intense moments, slowly disappears, and as the animals corner him, his eyes widen in panic. He's screwed, and he knows it.
  • Out of all the animals, the flock of sheep are the creepiest of the bunch during the ending. Especially during shots where we see silhouettes and shadows of the sheep complete with enraged eyes.
• The way the sheep are repeating "Four Legs Good, Two Legs Bad" throughout the film is downright haunting since they bleat out the word "ba-a-a-d" making them sound like zombies. Especially since the sheep and the pigs are the only animals in the entire film that are heard talking.

The 1999 film by Hallmark

• The Public Execution scene for the chickens, sheep, ducks, and a rat in this film. To instill fear into the rest of the animals, Napoleon and Squealer recorded the murders and showed them to the animals.
• First is when Old Major's skull is revealed. It's like a jumpscare. And what's worse is that when the sheep understandably back away, Napoleon threatens them with how only "criminals" fear a DEAD BOAR'S SKULL!
• Then there's Napoleon threatening Moses to hang him by the flag pole. And in the end, when the Animals return to the destroyed farm, they see that Napoleon did exactly that.
• Squealer is much creepier than he was in the animation. Not helped by the fact that his voice while fitting, gives a air of anxiety to the other animals. Mainly when Jesse tries to tell the others what she saw earlier. His lying and Faux Affably Evil tendencies are much more half hearted than in other takes, this Squealer favouring a tacit threatening tone, knowing no one would dare anger Napoleon, with at least one or two cases he straight up cuts the formalities and snarls at animals to shut up and get back to work or else.
• When Jessie sees the meeting between Napoleon and Mr. Pilkington through a warped window, their faces have become so distorted that she cannot tell the difference between them.
• And while the duck's song is silly and catchy, there is one part that is creepy. Around the halfway point, we see Napoleon standing on his hind legs and wearing clothes! And to cap the song off, Napoleon decides that he's planning on building weapons! Thankfully he doesn't get that far.
• While it spells karma for the pigs, the Nothing Is Scarier downfall of Animal Farm. All the animals have gone into hiding and now just watch as the farm literally crumbles and dilapidates. When they come back, only one dog, now humbled from whatever has happened, has survived. The collapsed statue of Napoleon (giving the appearance of a corpse) doesn't leave much to the imagination as to what happened.