The opening scene involves direct upsetting emotional abuse of a child. He expresses vulnerability to his father and is immediately taken aside and intensely criticized for this perceived weakness.
Bullies chase and catch the protagonist. There's a brief moment of restraint (they even pull his head back by the hair) but this situation resolves very soon, and in a way that is more cartoonish than uncomfortable.
There's a recurring theme where the protagonist reads a book, and the characters in the book slowly become aware of him which is very unsettling for him. Near the end, the theme expands to mention the viewer of the movie as well, but only in theory.