Have you ever read any of the original Grimm’s Fairy Tales? They are gruesome. Cinderella’s step sisters cut off parts of their feet to fit into the slipper kind of gruesome. Children have been dealing with this kind of stuff for a long, long time. Life leaves a lasting mark. If they’re terrified and nothing bad happens they learn they can deal with this. I wouldn’t do that deliberately to a child but lasting mark does not mean lasting harm.