Scores of parents have used Where the Wild Things Are to help put their children to sleep.  Unfortunately, a viewing of Spike Jonze‘s film adaptation could reportedly leave those same children with a few nightmares.

Jonze, the Oscar-nominated director behind Being John Malkovich, has been in the process of bringing Maurice Sendak’s children’s book to the big screen.  Unfortunately, poor test screenings may have forced Warner Bros. to push the film’s release date to 2009.

According to internet reports, children were so frightened by the scary images, they left the theater crying.  (Well that’s no good.)  One tester supposedly said, “The things are not cute. Max comes off a bit weird and off-putting. He slaps his mom! And he seems confused and not charming at all.”

Well, if it makes Spike feel any better, I thought Tim Burton would do great things with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - and that movie creeped me out as well.  So if nothing else, at least he’ll be keeping good company.

(To see a clip of some leaked screen test footage, click here.)