Not a member? Sign up now
April 15, 2011
15 Scary Movies We Were Much Too Young To See
Nerve readers on the films that haunted their childhood dreams.
By Nerve Readers
Some childhood experiences are universal: Saturday-morning cartoons, chocolate-chip cookie dough, after-school babysitters with mean children who force you to watch movies that are much too terrifying for a kid your age while their mother smokes cigarettes in the backyard... So, in honor of the release today of Scream 4, we asked our readers to reminisce with us.
When I was in the fourth grade my friend's mother — she was one of those cool, divorcee moms — let us rent, The Exorcist, widely known as one of the most terrifying films ever created. After turning out the lights and enduring the entire Satan-and-vomit-filled movie, we tried to go to sleep. In the middle of the night I sat straight up in bed and let out a bloodcurdling scream (much like the young lady in the film, The Exorcist). It turned out I also had strep throat and a fever of 102 degrees. Visions of demonic possession and crucifix masturbation had become mixed into my hallucinatory fever dreams to create a terror I've never forgotten. — Kelly
My aunts and uncles all piled into a pitch-black room to watch Child's Play, and decided to take their four-year-old nephew with them, of course. After the movie was over, they sent me back to my room full of toys. Way to go. — David
Puppet Master scared the crap out of me when I was five or so. My older brother made me watch it with him, because he was too afraid to watch it himself. To this day, I can't sleep with my feet uncovered for fear of having them cut off. Closet doors must be closed at night, and there cannot be any dolls near me in the dark. I am still mad at my brother for this, and it's been twenty-one years. — Renee
Event Horizon. I was eighteen when I rented it on VHS at the local video store I worked at in 1999. I don't know if it was all the doomsday talk running rampant or if it was just a late night with too much sugar (perhaps the fermented kind) in my system, but for some reason the tiny possibility that there might actually be a hell crept into my mind. To this day, I can't travel through space using an artificially created black hole without pissing myself. — Frank
Don't be Afraid of the Dark. 1973, seven-years old. I still think that someone is under my bed, staircase, or dining room table. Thank God my name isn't Sally. — Johanna
Fire in the Sky. I was five-years old and my mom told me not to watch it when she was flipping through the channels... then she left, so I put it back on. Basically a guy gets abducted by aliens and dragged down a spaceship hallway where the aliens stick shit in his eyes. Then the guy comes home and has flashbacks of his abduction. It's not a children's movie. — Katie
The Exorcist. I was nine-years old, and my mom left us with a babysitter. I begged and begged her to let me watch it. She relented. I was tormented for years after, and would awake thinking my bed was shaking! — Jacqueline
I was raised on scary movies and spent my childhood afraid of everything. (Thanks, Dad!) But, the first was when I was four. It was a B movie called Squirm. It can pretty much be summed up in four words: worms in the shower. I still hate it. — Krystal
The Serpent and The Rainbow. I was eleven or twelve. I wandered in and out of the room while the adults were watching. Around the scene where he hallucinates with his "spirit" jaguar and is then pulled into the ground by all the zombified hands. Finally, in my late twenties, I bought it on DVD and forced myself to watch it in its entirety. Didn’t work. I still have nightmares of being dragged into my grave and am occasionally petrified to walk over certain patches of grass. — Jamay
Nightmare on Elm Street 3, at the age of six. I might have been okay, but my then-ten-year-old brother made a glove out of real knives, and traumatized me by running them down the door jamb while I was trying to sleep. — Carla
I watched Dead Ringers with my parents when I was way too young, probably about six or seven. To this day I refuse to see a male gynecologist, yet oddly, I have a thing for Jeremy Irons. — Nicole
Children of the Corn, on a half-day from first grade. Also, my older cousin: a bastard. — Rachael
The 1988 remake of The Blob. It wasn't even the whole movie that frightened my six-year-old brain, just the preview. A man's head is sucked through a drain pipe. That this was even a possible outcome of approaching a sink crippled me. — Anthony
Stephen King's It. Clowns were already creepy. And then that clown sucked the little boy into the gutter and ate him. — Will
When I was fifteen, I spent a summer night doing two things that ended very badly: drinking a disgusting mix of alcoholic beverages all poured into one large plastic cup, and watching Requiem For a Dream. I'm not sure if it was the alcohol or the scene where that guy throws up into the instant mashed potatoes, but I definitely ended up puking my guts out that night. For weeks, all I could think about were talking refrigerators, Jared Leto's blistered arm, and crowds of men surrounding Jennifer Connelly screaming "come! come!" I still feel nauseous when someone suggests revisiting that movie. — Libby
Commentarium (151 Comments)
I was 8 when I watched Jaws and for the next years I kept checking under my bed if there's a giant shark or not (being an irrational kid, I never cared about the fact that there wasn't any water there in first place?!)
I don't remember watching Jaws, but in pools at night I irrationally fear crocodiles in the water even though I can clearly see there are none...
Saw an American Werewolf in London at age 4. Yeah, it freaked me out. I asked if the people in the movie would get band-aids or something.
My dad rented Pet Sematery for family movie night (one of many poorly chosen family movies). The movie scared the crap out of me. I remember being terrified to stand next to my bed in case some dead kid decided to cut my ankles, and I was suspicious of all our pets after. I read the book a few years ago, which is about a thousand times better and a thousand times more horrifying than the movie.
the movie didn't bother me, because I had already read the book. Although, I did have to sleep with my lights on for a week after I finished the book!
I have read the book and thus will never watch the movie, because I cannot be responsible for the dreams to follow.
My parents liked to show me and my brother old classics when we were kids. Although not horror films, "Ben Hur" and "Battleship Potemkin" has it's moments, especially for a child under 10. I was convinced that there was a valley full of lepers somewhere in my town, and I never quite got that baby carriage going down the stairs out of my mind. Also, I didn't even realize Jesus was in "Ben Hur" until I watched it again when I was 17; I guess I found the lepers much more interesting than Christ.
Don't feel bad E, Wizard of Oz gave me nightmares....but not because of the witch, because of the tornado.
Yeah, Wizard of Oz got me too but it was those damn flying monkeys, I still won't watch that movie. I'm 49
When I was a kid my dreams were haunted by a wolfman who closely resemebeled the 1941 movie monster. I had not seen the movie at that time only the few second clip inserted in the movie "bathoven". I was terrified of werewolves for years until I watched Digimon and my favorite character became a werewolf. Now they are my favorite monster. Take that childhood trama.
WereGarurumon!
Samantha, you are the best person ever.
in middle school maybe 5th grade i watched Mars Attacks with a friend. i couldnt sleep for a week because of the martians making skeletons out of us. after watching it in my junior year of college, i feel like a totaly pussy
I watched Mars Attacks with my dad when I was 6, and I had nightmares for years! I couldn't understand why my dad was laughing during the movie.
My uncle rented that to watch with my cousin (who was older natch). The scene were the alien in the sexy disguise bites the vice principal's finger off had me screaming out of the room. couldn't watch any more.
Also in Jurassic Park, the venomous dinosaur that kills Nedry scared the shit outta me for some reason as a kid. Hid behind the couch every time he came on screen.
That exact scene in Jurassic Park terrified me as well. I was taken to see it at the theater when I was 5 (by my uncle). It scared me so bad I had to leave the theater to throw up...now I love the movie, lol.
My daughter wanted to watch "the dinosaurs" when she was 3. She never got scared DURING the movie, but I would use threats of the velociraptors to get her to behave. I am a horrible mom.
The scene with the dilophosaurus on jurassic park didn't scare me when i watched it as a kid, but i was dinosaur freak so i already knew they couldn't do that.
Sarah_rae, your comment literally made me laugh out loud. I love it.
At about 8 with a baby sitter, we watched Night of the Living Dead and the Birds.
Both freaked me out for a while!
oh my god, i saw The Birds when i was a kid, too. Even today, if i see lots of birds hanging out on telephone wires or on the grass in a park, i head indoors!
I was so easily scared as a kid I got freaked out watching Gremlins. It wasn't until years later I realized that wasn't a horror movie...
Gremlins freaked me out too! And I remember asking my dad, looking for, oh I dunno, reassurance, "Dad, Gremlins aren't real, right? They're just puppets?" Dad's response: "I hope so." Couldn't sleep for weeks.
I was fine watching gremlins as a kid, Gizmo was cute and cuddly, but watching it now as an adult, I find it terrifying!
When I was 8 or so I had a babysitter who (much to my parents chagrin) let me watch Poltergeist with her. I'm pretty sure I spent several months convinced the tree outside my bedroom window was trying to eat me, and to this day the sight of a static-y television set (especially in a dark room) makes me nervous.
Yep, Poltergeist was horrid. Oddly, our substitute teacher brought it in to class during 4th grade. I guess it was a time before people paid attention to what teachers did in the classroom. There was a gnarly tree outside my window that looked just like the one in the movie, and I had endless nightmares about going into the bathroom.
As a kid, living in the country heightened the sense of dread... Dark skies, no one around for miles and all that. I made it through the Omen series simply by sandwiching myself between the seat and the cushions of the couch. Ha, take that you forces of evil! Unfortunatrly even this ample defense proved to flimsy for 'The Howling' which I had to abandon only a few minutes in. Still haven 't revisited it.
having accidentally seen just a few scenes of Hellraiser flashed on TV when i was a kid, and didn't even learn english yet, really did scared me for life, even years later, whenever i had nightmares, they would be replay of those scenes w/ me in them. ugh
Alien-when I was six. couldn't shake the nightmares of the chest-bursting scene until I was around...22.
Yup. Saw Alien in the theatre in 9th grade with college age brother. First horrible moment he jumps out of the chair and leaves the theatre; comes back a few minutes later. Second horrible moment I jump out of my chair and leave the theatre; I come back a few minutes later. Then it was his turn again at the third horrible moment. Then my turn at the fourth. We finished watching the movie at the back of the theatre standing up. Took a month before I could go to sleep again without a light on. For a decade I couldn't get past the headwrapping octopus scene whenever I tried to watch it again.
Yep, Alien did it to me about the same age 6-7. I wanted to be an astronaut and loved the beginning. Perfectly happy with a movie about a spaceships and sleeping astronauts. But when the chest burster broke loose I had to turn around in my seat and face the back of the theater. Once the screaming and chasing began, it was even scarier since I still wasn't facing the screen. Spent the rest of the movie waiting in the lobby. Still one of my favorite movies.
Saw Alien when I was about 10 on HBO. I believe it's the only movie that truly scared the living shit out of me.
The Silence of the Lambs. I was fine until Lecter's mid-movie elaborate, face-skin-wearing escape and by the time they got to the night-vision scene in Bill's basement, I was definitely not going to sleep that night. Maybe not ever again.
when i was 10 i spent a day with my grandmother and father. we walked around Lancaster, Pa and then, being big fans, they wanted to see the new, out that day, Hitchcock movie. they were expecting a mystery...we got Psycho. they were offended by the opening tryst...tsked at the shower scene, until the stabbing started. at the end when the mommy/mummy turns around i thought my grandmother was going to have a heart attack. i was just frozen. didn't sleep at all that night.
I was 6 years old when Scream came out on VHS. Yes, I said VHS. Anyway, my sister was in her freshman year of college and a friend of hers let her borrow it. I remember her begging mom to watch it with her. Well she did and told her to return it ASAP. That didn't go as planned. I took the tape and sat in my room, all alone and saw it. Well let's just say I had my mom set up my bed in her room.
Poltergeist 3, at age 7 or 8. Mirrors still kinda sometimes make me nervous.
When I was eight, I went to visit my Air Force Colonel uncle. They had cable TV on the AF base! One day my cousins and I watched a marathon of the first two Omen movies followed by the Exorcist. Not too bad until my uncle started telling us that the girl next door had been possessed and the movie was all true. I suspected my little sister was possessed for years...
That Stephen King film (I think) where the cars and machines all revolt against the humans. I had already seen many scary movies, but it had not occurred to me to fear machines. I spent most of my childhood crouched behind the couch plugging my ears because my brothers would watch scary movies and I didn't want to hear or see them, but I was so scared to be alone. Now 30, and still wake my husband up in the middle of the night absolutely terrified by nightmares. And Warlock, but that was the result of one of my friend's "cool" mom renting it for us. She also rented vampire movies and then would stand outside and scratch at the window while my friend's dad would clutch us and say, "they can only come in if we invite them. Should I ask her in for coffee?" Assholes.
The one with the machines (trucks mostly, if I recall correctly) is Maximum Overdrive:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091499/
It's less scary when you find out it starred Emilio Estevez and Lisa Simpson.
Ha! Yes, the grill of the truck with blood on it, I remember that well. And the scene in the diner?
That's true! Total coincidence, however!
Oh my gosh! I remember that movie, the one with the trucks and things. I saw it on cable when I was a kid and thought it was awesome (because I was a very strange child with selective fears), but I didn't know the name or how to find it, because this was before we had a solid internet connection and Wikipedia was invented. Now I need to watch it again. I still look every day when I go out for a truck with the Goblin's face on the grill. :D
By the way, I was startled and scared when I opened up Nerve and this was the first picture. This is several days in a row now where the front picture is some zombie looking creature. Come on!
Oh lord, "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark!" I think that cheesy bit of horror scared me worse than anything else I've ever seen. I would have been about nine when a babysitter made me watch it, and it gave me nightmares for weeks. Until the internet came along, I'd managed to mostly convince myself it wasn't real.
At age 3 my wonderful-yet-naive mother, noticing that there was a "show on music" about to come on- put me in front of The Who's "Tommy". On cable.
Acid queen? The iron maiden? Snakes? Uncle Ernie?
Now, I've been around the world twice, been to twelve state fairs and a goat-fucking contest, but I still have anxiety when I see that movie.
Im not terrified of clowns but watching "IT" & "Killer Klowns From Outerspace" definitely wasn't healthy for a 7 year old.
When I was about 5 I saw "The Beast with Five Fingers." I couldn't sleep for weeks because I kept imagining severed hands crawling under my sheets to get me.
The original "Blob" when I was about 5. I knew that it could flow under doors. There was nothing I could do to stop it.
I second that.
Jaws. I was 9. Swimming at the cottage lake was way over. pervasive nightmares for months. fucking shark.
You know what is so scary about that movie? You don't actually see the shark until 2/3rds the way through. It's the music and the editing that really messed with my mind. Notice how the shark pops up on Brodie when he's chumming off the back on the boat? No “DA DA ..... DA DA.... “music to warn us..... the editing and soundtrack do it more than the teeth.
Great line: “You're gonna need a bigger boat.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT9BeGNnCqw&feature=related
Want to know why we don't see the shark until late in the film? They couldn't get the thing working on set, and had to film around it. The "Not showing the monster" technique was an accidental bit of film genius.
You know what is so scary about that movie? You don't actually see the shark until 2/3rds the way through. It's the music and the editing that really messed with my mind. Notice how the shark pops up on Brodie when he's chumming off the back on the boat? No “DA DA ..... DA DA.... “music to warn us..... the editing and soundtrack do it more than the teeth.
Great line: “You're gonna need a bigger boat.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT9BeGNnCqw&feature=related
Want to know why we don't see the shark until late in the film? They couldn't get the thing working on set, and had to film around it. The "Not showing the monster" technique was an accidental bit of film genius.
Can we take down the scary picture from the front of Nerve? I am still not old enough to see it.
I so agree! I jumped when I saw it the first time
The Exorcist is overrated.
I watched Chuckie with my siblings when I was 5 and I fell asleep in the middle of the movie. My loving brother who was 18 at the time decided to wake me up with a Chuckie doll right in front of my face holding a very large plastic knife. Still can't play or look at dolls to this day 15 years later. Or watch any scary movies.
When I was about six, my family moved to a new town and while we were still moving in, we didn't have cable or anything. We ended out getting out the TV anyway and popped in a tape while we ate dinner one night. It was the Picture of Dorian Gray. I remember liking it pretty well (I was a weird kid, I adored the Penguin in Batman Returns and the Puppetmaster series, and Killer Klowns from Outer Space made me laugh), but when it got to the scene when the painting was revealed, I threw up. I can't watch it now, nor read the book, or see any other version. I'm even freaked out by the Dorian Gray from that silly League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which is a shame, because he was pretty hot, even if the movie was terrible.
When I was six, my parents took me to see Jurassic Park. I ended up hiding underneath the seats the entire time when the T-rex scene came on.
AHAHA ME TOO! Well, not hiding under the seats, but I would cover my ears for some reason...not my eyes, but ears.....I was about 6 too.
When I was around six years old, my mom took me trick-or-treating. We stopped at the house of a friend of her's, and while they visited I got bored and started watching their TV. "Child's Play" was on. It was the most frightening thing I had seen yet, but I couldn't keep my eyes off the screen.
I saw almost every scary movie of the day before the age of six thanks to my older cousins being terrible babysitters. Jurassic Park really got to me, mostly because we were spending the night in this old creaky trailer. Every noise was a T Rex that night.
Fucking "Poltergeist" when the guy rips his face off. It looks terrible SFX-wise, but I still have a visceral reaction as though the 4-year-old version of myself is watching it on Showtime at 2 p.m. on a Tuesday.
i watched all those movies over and over when i was about five. no one stopped me. and whenever i hear the national anthem on tv, or see an opened cupboard, i almost have a panic attack.
I don't remember any of this you guys have mentioned from "Poltergeist" because I think I blocked it out, but what really got to me was the old lady who had the creepy baby voice. She was also in "Teen Witch" and scared me then too!
Poltergeist is an evil movie!
I showed "The Forbidden Planet" to my son when he was about 8. I figured it was safe. Aft all, it was 50s camp with an invisible monster...no creepy costumes to haunt his dreams, right?
He had nightmares for a week.
The scariest monster is the one you never see.
I was about 7 when I watched Mars Attacks and it scared the hell out of me for years... I had a big bedroom in the attic as a kid, and I would constantly build secret forts and hiding places for me to go in case of an alien invasion.
Also... Twister. I know it's not a horror movie, but I saw that when I was 7, too, and to this day, tornados are one of my biggest fears.
For some reason my (single parenting at the time) dad let me watch both The Exorcist and Poltergeist on HBO when I was around 4 or 5 years old, setting me up for years of nightmares and a horror film near- phobia which persists to this day. I also remember catching glimpses of Hellraiser and Prince of Darkness (walking dead filled with bugs was the image that haunted me from that one). As a child and teenager I couldn't even handle scanning the horror section of the video shop. I still don't understand why my dad allowed me to watch these things, thanks to him I have probably missed out on some good films which seemed too horror-ish for me to handle. It took me several years to agree to watch Shaun of the Dead, and it's not even scary!
Shaun is a comedy. How could you not know it's not scary.
The dead baby scene in Trainspotters- oh yeah, and Amityville Horror at 9- this explains a few things, really.....
I almost watched part of Chuckie once. My constant screaming and hysteria made my parents shut it off pretty quickly. I fucking hate dolls.
I was like... 6 & my brother was 4 when my parents took us to see "Dr. No" @ the drive-in. When that damn tarantula crawled beneath those white sheets in 007's bed we were paralyzed in complete shock unitl we got home. We begged our parents to let us sleep with the lights that night. They laughlingly agreed & yet we still had to overturn everything in our room to see if there were any giant spiders there.
I eventually came to really like spiders (blame Peter Parker & Marvel) & have handled quite a few tarantulas.
speaking of tarantulas, my parents rented "Arachnophobia" for a family movie when my sister & I were pretty young. I made it about five minutes in, and then I was too scared and my parents made me leave the room. I'm 24 now, and a couple years ago, I saw the ending with all the spiders falling from the ceiling and everything and it scared me just as much.
As a kid I watched that puppet movie Dark Crystal and loved it! I watch it now and it totally creeps me out! It's so weird.
Haha I'm the opposite! I wasn't scared of any movie when I was a kid, but when my mom put in The Dark Crystal, I LOST it! (I was around 4). I think it was the Skeksis that did me in.
I'm 36...when I was about 4 'Watership Down' was released. I suppose I could forgive my Mum for thinking 'ooh cute fuzzy bunny cartoon movie'. (Just look it up in images, all you younguns). I was terrified. I sat there quivering in horror. I was permanently traumatised. And so...my Mum tucked me up that night. The street light outside shone through my curtain, outlining a shape in my windowsill. The ghost rabbit. The effing ghost rabbit was in my window! Re-traumatised, I stared and stared at the ominous black shape, waiting for it to poke it's ghostly ears out from the curtain's edge. I lay there, quivering in horror...
I bought that movie a couple of years ago. Haven't convinced myself to watch it yet. I think what gets me the most is that my mother made me sit through the whole damned thing.
"Dawn of the Dead" at age 9. About 15 years later I was a retail manager working in a mall. One morning, after letting myself into the store and locking the gate behind me, I had flashes of the movie and wondered if the gate would save me in case of a zombie apocalypse. I have pondered my safe place at every job since then. I am also 41. Thanks, Mom!
As a teenager I adore scary movies-I can't watch them without my hands covering part of my face but i do love them. My first was "the ring" and I think I was 7 or 8. It was at a friends birthday party(she looked about twelve so we were able to rent it without her mam knowing).For years after I wasn't able to use the video player-luckily that became obsolete when DVD came in. I watched it the other day and laughed really hard -it's not terrifying at all!
the only thing that bothered me about that movie was when the horse jumps off the boat and dies-I wasn't expecting it and started screaming and crying. I was 16 at the time. I'm very emotional when it comes to animals in movies.
Probably The Omen, which I saw as an elementary schooler. This was the original 70s version, not the Liev Schreiber version. The part, where the priest falls on the wrought iron fence and is impaled on it, is still burned into my brain. I didn't watch that movie again until I was an adult.
All the Poltergeist movies were amazingly scary too. And if I ever have a teenage relative who starts experimenting with hard drugs and thinks they'll be a-okay, I'm sitting them down for a screening of Requiem for a Dream. That movie does more in 2 hours than Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" campaign did in 2 decades. (Probably because Nancy Reagan didn't include a seriously demeaning prostitution scene or a gangrenous arm amputation in her propaganda. Well, maybe she should have!)
That is an awesome idea! I think I'll have my son watch Requiem when he's around 8-10.
The one movie that has stayed with me all these years is The People Under the Stairs. I saw that when I was about 10 at a friends house and it still creeps me out to this day. That mom was a complete whack-job.
Nightmare on elmstreet (the original) I saw it when I was about 9 and those little girls singing that creepy song (1,2, freddy's coming for you...) still kinda freaks me to this day!!!
"When a Stranger Calls" (the 1979 version). I did some babysitting a few years after seeing that, and after the kids went to bed, the house being dark and silent really creeped me out. I always had to check all the doors, and would flip on lights and check rooms & closets in case anyone was in the house.
I still haven't watched it since, but did see "When a Stranger Calls Back" a few years ago on the recommendation of a friend. It actually had a couple very creepy moments, but still doesn't measure up to what I remember about the original.
Ghostbusters scared the crap out of me. Saw it when I was about 5. No, not the library scene. Anything with Zuul, especially the part where the arms rip out of the couch and pin Dana, who is then dragged out the door screaming.
The only movie I remember being terrified by as a child was "Twister". I saw it on TV once and every night after, I just knew that a tornado was going to tear through my house while I was sleeping. Never mind the fact that I live in Florida which isn't exactly Tornado Alley. Oddly enough, now I'm fascinated by them and would kill to be a stormchaser.
Howard the Duck scared me more than any other movie I remember from my childhood. I'm pretty sure it wasn't even a terribly scary movie, but to this day I feel sick thinking about it.
I was not a kid when I saw it, but I agree! Seriously creepy film, with subconscious-haunting bestiality elements. It was a great comic made into a horrorfest.
My cousins were always egging me on to watch their scary movies... I was 6 when The Craft came out and somehow got caught up in watching it in their dark basement.
I didn't follow any of the plot and had no idea what was going on - all I remember was Neve Campbell's screams when the doctors tried to laser beam the scars off her body. Her cries definitely echoed in my head for weeks :/
Watching The Shining when I was around 8 or 9. I was wary of my dad for weeks after that. The scariest scene for me was probably when Jack Nicholson was trying to axe murder the nice lady from Fairy Tale Theater. What kind of monster would want to hurt her??
Same here. I was 8 or 9 when I first attempted to watch it and was terrified of my dad for years. It wasn't until I read the book ~19 that I could finally finish the film. Now its one of my favorite movies. The decor is the most horrifying aspect..
Im suprised not many Stephen King movies other than It got mentioned. The one that scared me the most when I was younger was Storm of the Century. Watched it with my grandma (shes nuts about SK). Kinda bothered me but not really. At least not until 2 months later when I was visiting my aunt in Oregon and it snowed like crazy and we got snowed in. I didnt sleep for 2 days.
Storm of the Century scared me too! That floating cane thing with the dog head, I can't even really remember, but I was afraid to sleep at night thinking it would just appear by my bedside. So so creepy... glad I wasn't the only one.
"It's Alive!" That picture of the baby still gives me the creeps. Maybe that's why I don't want kids...deep seated trauma of seeing that in elementary school. :\
I saw "Cat's Eye" when I was about 7. I was glad I had a cat to protect me from the evil trolls living in my walls. Also, I never smoked.
Loss of reality = fear from movies. They're all fake. What's really scary aren't even movies. It's the fact that shows like Jersey Shore are hits in America.
well, way to get into the spirit of things. global warming and cancer are scary too, but the topic is a chortling discussion of horror movies that scared you when you were a kid, with responses typically coming from movie lovers.
My father had me watching The Fly when I was about 10 or 11. I never had nightmares, but I was terribly disturbed for weeks. I watched it again now, ten years later, and the image of that half-man beast will never leave me.
I probably have the most ridiculous movie memory, and possibly the oldest... my mom dragged me along when she saw Westworld at a drive-in with her boyfriend. It was released in 1973, so I must have been five or six. I've seen it as an adult, and it's a fun movie with great Yul Brynner black-hat-cowboy references, the first known use of computer graphics, and dark humor. At the time, though, I was haunted by the people who weren't people, the scientist suffocation scene, and the COWBOY WHO WOULDN'T DIE. He can see your hot horse footprints on the stream bed! There is no escape! Everyone is DEAD! AIIIEEE!!!!!
Don't be Afraid of the Dark scared me so to death as a kid. I had my parents turn on my bedroom light before I would go in there for months. When they quit I would close my eyes to turn on the light knowing those dang creatures were ready to get me. Watched it again years later and still didn't like it. Now that I am much Older looking forward to the remake.
My cousins were always watching the scary movies when they watched us as kids. Sure I'll have the scene from Friday the 13th pt 3, where the guy in the wheelchair gets a machete to the face, stuck in my head forever. However, the movie that messed me up most was Raiders of the Lost Ark. After the snake scene, I was sure that snakes were going to pour out of a bookcase in the corner. Took about half a second to get through that room at night.
I remember watching this with my dad and little brother in the theatres. The final scene when the Ark is opened was s*&t your pants scary for two under 10 year old boys. When the guy’s face melts right off I was cowering under the seats with the stale popcorn.
You know what is so scary about that movie? You don't actually see the shark until 2/3rds the way through. It's the music and the editing that really messed with my mind. Notice how the shark pops up on Brodie when he's chumming off the back on the boat? No “DA DA ..... DA DA.... “music to warn us..... the editing and soundtrack do it more than the teeth.
Great line: “You're gonna need a bigger boat.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT9BeGNnCqw&feature=related
Want to know why we don't see the shark until late in the film? They couldn't get the thing working on set, and had to film around it. The "Not showing the monster" technique was an accidental bit of film genius.
i alway watched shark films i always hideded under the pillow
The Duel. Before I got a driver's license. Can't stand seeing Mack trucks in the rear view mirror.
When Dawn of the Dead came out in 2004 a friend and I went to see it in the theater. I had to sleep with the lights on for nearly a month. My girlfriend thought I was nuts. 28 is too young for apocalyptic nightmare scenarios.
"Salem's Lot" (the first version) at age 9. Little kids as vampires scratching at the window. After that, I was not able to look out the window at night until I was in college.
one morning i woke up and i saw a gost in my kitchen and it was bending down i was so terrorfied i ran up the stairs like i never before i was only hade forgot it i wouldn't get so scared!!!!!!!.
i would be so scared!!!!!
28 days later. The whole rage-infected zombie thing was bad enough but then when they got to safety and it took that weird "I promised them women" impending gang rape turn... WHOA!
I'm also terrified of "The Nothing" the movie itself didn't scare me but damn, that's one scary "monster".
Oh, and put a child (or children) somewhere they shouldn't be without a guardian of any kind in sight. Freaky. And if the kid starts singing?? Hell no. I'm out.
It sounds silly now, but the first movie I saw that really frightened me was "Godzilla Vs. the Thing" (AKA "Godzilla Vs. Mothra"). Hey, I was eight, okay?
I'd seen "Gorgo" at the local drive-in with my parents a year or two previously, and it didn't bother me at all. Maybe it was the ears. But the idea of an unstoppable, fire-breathing monster as tall as a thirty-story building was a different matter entirely.
Even apart from that, Godzilla was just plain scary looking, especially in his early form before the rubber suit was changed and the films began getting a bit silly in the late Sixties when they were aimed more at children than adults. Godzilla even became a "good guy" for a time, defending Japan from other monsters.
There was nothing campy or hokey about the first film; the creature was an allegory for the A-bomb, which had been dropped on Japan less than a decade previously. Godzilla Vs. Mothra" was only one film removed from that, and its mood reflects it.
The way Godzilla made his entrance at the beginning of the film, emerging tail-first from mud that had washed ashore during a typhoon, was very well done. What the hell is that? A giant worm? Oh, shit!
I always thought Mothra was lame, though. Only the Japanese would come up with the idea of a giant moth as a monster.
It sounds silly now, but the first movie I saw that really frightened me was "Godzilla Vs. the Thing" (AKA "Godzilla Vs. Mothra"). Hey, I was eight, okay?
I'd seen "Gorgo" at the local drive-in with my parents a year or two previously, and it didn't bother me at all. Maybe it was the ears. But the idea of an unstoppable, fire-breathing monster as tall as a thirty-story building was a different matter entirely.
Even apart from that, Godzilla was just plain scary looking, especially in his early form before the rubber suit was changed and the films began getting a bit silly in the late Sixties when they were aimed more at children than adults. Godzilla even became a "good guy" for a time, defending Japan from other monsters.
There was nothing campy or hokey about the first film; the creature was an allegory for the A-bomb, which had been dropped on Japan less than a decade previously. Godzilla Vs. Mothra" was only one film removed from that, and its mood reflects it.
The way Godzilla made his entrance at the beginning of the film, emerging tail-first from mud that had washed ashore during a typhoon, was very well done. What the hell is that? A giant worm? Oh, shit!
I always thought Mothra was lame, though. Only the Japanese would come up with the idea of a giant moth as a monster.
My parents would send us to Saturday matinees in our little town (winkwink). One Saturday "Bullit." The garrotted lady dressed only in a man's dresshirt is burned in my mind. I hate violence in movies. Why do people subject themselves to that? Oh, I forgot - we live in horror so we must experience something more vile to feel better by comparison.
Wow, I don't even remember that scene.
Of course, being a guy, the first thing I think of when I hear of "Bullitt" is the car chase.
Stop wasting time hating violence in movies and start hating violence in real life.
Oh I asked my mom about that years later. She said she thought it was about a dog.
Back in the 70s (I was just a little 'un) one of the networks had a Tuesday Movie night that featured scary made for tv movies. There were some pretty good ones that were good for at six months of bad dreams or even more. I don't remember the titles but one I'll remember to this day has a scene where the townsfolk are killing someone they believe to be a witch by putting a door on top of her and then stacking heavy stones on it until she was crushed. For some reason I could totally imagine what that would feel like and would wake up thinking that was happening to me.
Turned out my mom had just tucked the sheets in too tight.
The name of that movie is Crowhaven Farm . I remember it well it starred Hope Lange and john Carradine. I have been watching horror movies as long as I can remember and was never really scared because those things don't happen. But movies about serial killers and such bother me and keep me awake after watching them. The most frightening movie I ever saw was Failsafe with Henry Fonda ( not George Clooney) My husband made me watch that when we were first dating 30 years ago and I still haven't totally forgiven him.
The freakin' cold war nuclear bomber flick? WTF?
My scariest experience was when I was at a friend's party (I was barely 12 years old) and my friends decided to watch The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, because one of their dad's decided it was ok to let a group of 12-13 year olds see it. I remember watching the first few scenes and then getting to the part where the group in the van picks up a girl from the side of the road; she pulls out a gun from between her legs and shoots herself in the head point blank...the camera then shifts and you see the horrified look on everyones faces as the camera pans back and you see the hole in her head and the broken glass and the girl's head just...crumbles. After seeing that I ran, practically sprinting, home, in the dark, by myself, on a deserted street, (I lived close by) and couldn't sleep for weeks.
Also, years later, I saw The Hills Have Eyes (the recent film) and I watched it calmly during the day. It was only when I tried to go to sleep that night that I couldn't stop picturing the mutated inhabitants in my head; I imagined them appearing out of nowhere in the middle of my room or bursting through the door or simply just their faces or voices. I got in bed at about 10pm and didn't fall asleep until daybreak and I still sometimes get glimpses in my head of their faces whilst I try to sleep.
I think the most most scariest movie I've ever seen was the first version of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" . I had such vivid nightmares for weeks afterward. The scariest part of it, was the fact that it was basd on a true event.
I think the most most scariest movie I've ever seen was the first version of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" . I had such vivid nightmares for weeks afterward. The scariest part of it, was the fact that it was basd on a true event.
I think the most most scariest movie I've ever seen was the first version of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" . I had such vivid nightmares for weeks afterward. The scariest part of it, was the fact that it was basd on a true event.
Saw "Trilogy of Terror" when I was 6 and to this day I cannot sit on a sofa without thinking there's a little nast troll doll under the sofa who's going to hack my ankles to shreds with his little knife. Irrational? Hell yeah but there you have it.
When I saw James Cameron's 'Aliens' in the theater back in the eighties, the young guy in front of me had brought his 3 year old son. By eavesdropping, I learned that it was the kid's first movie in a theater. Parenting classes...................
Lugosi's Dracula (Mum knew him, Bela, not the Count when the play was on Broadway) kept me awake for months.
More contemporary we always liked the first few Hellraisers. There was one in space that was a stinker.
Also these crazy movies about an undertaker, these flying slicing orbs, and aliens invading ort dimension through the undertaking parlor - very scary - forget the name. Anyone recall the name?
Phantasm--the part where the undertaker picks up a coffin and tucks it under his arm was creepy, but the flying orb thing scared me completely witless when I was about 10!
Congo scared me SO BAD. I know it technically isn't a horror movie, but those mutant apes were terrifying when I was 8! I watched it again recently, and it still gave me the creeps.
When I was about 5, a teenage babysitter took me and my best friend to see the original (e.g. Michael Rennie) version of "The Day The Earth Stood Still". I was scared like crazy and had bad dreams about Gort coming to my window, opening that eye-slit and vaporizing me and my family. I've always remembered, just in case, "Klaatu barada nikto". Thus far, I haven't had to use it, however.
When I was little, maybe 5 or 6, my mom, dad, older sister and brother, and I watched Pyscho. My sister took delight in reminding me that we had a fruit cellar under our kitchen, and asking if I'd like to go see Mummy. To top that off, I desperately needed to use the bathroom, but not only did I have to pass the fruit cellar door, the bathroom also had a shower with a shower curtain! My parents wound up making my brother escort me. *headdesk*
One night when I was about eight or nine, I was watching TV way past my bedtime and stumbled upon a post-apocalyptic nightmare called The Day After. I was so terrified by the scenes right after the blast, I don't think I slept for days after that.
It when I was Five I will be 31 on Wed. and I still hate clowns. I also didnt like the light bulb people, do not like glass dolls.
Way back when, we used to watch monster movies with dad on Sundays (Godzilla and the like). Loved em. My grandparents took me, at age 9 (!) to see Phantasm. Didn't bother me; I thought it was awesome. Babysitting one night at age 12, watching the late late late show sat in a large recliner in the middle of the living room, which happened to be Night of the Living Dead, scared the ever-loving poo out of me. Spent the rest of the night terrified to look behind the chair, and weeks swearing all the people outside the windows were zombies.
LOLOL... My post got edited. A lot.
"Island Of Terror" with, as I recall, Peter Cushing. I was about 8 (?) years old, and it scared the living fucking jesus out of me and gave me nightmares for a decade. Really cool shit, but pretty cheesy in retrospective.
"Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark" with Kim Darby. Scarred me for life.
Silent Night, Deadly Night
Junior
The Wizard of Oz (scary as hell when I was little)
Puppet Master
The Fly
This site is like a caslsorom, except I don't hate it. lol
This info is the cat's paajams!
My fourth grade teacher played 'The Birds' for the class... but that didn't scare me nearly as much as 'Terminator' did when I was 5 or 6.
Hands down Poltergeist , The Exorcist, & Stephen King's It! 3 of the top scariest movie classics! I was only 4 when I watched them & to this day they still mess with my head!
How about the origional version of WAR OF THE WORLDS pretty creepy in that farmhouse with that martian laying its creepy fingers on her shoulder
Has anyone seen a 1973 TV movie called "Satan's Triangle"? My brother and I couldn't sleep the night we accidentally watched it on cable TV in the 90's. It has the scariest ending I've ever seen. i think youtube has a clip of the last scene if you wanna give it a try
My mum watched Signs and she said it was the ONLY horror movie that scared the living daylights out of her! Well basically, it's about these aliens that come to earth and there purpose was to eat humans. When they came down to earth they landed in a cornfield. After this my mum was traumitized and found it as scary as hell to go and shut the chickens up when she went up the garden..... I haven't watched it yet.
I watched a lot of "not kid" movies as a kid, horror movies were a little scary but nothing that really terrified me - though I do remember being incredibly creeped out by Outbreak. I couldn't stop thinking about it for months after I saw it.
Weirdly enough I've seen more movies as an adult that have affected me. Not gore or anything, more the supernatural stuff. After seeing Prince of Darkness I cringed anytime I had to get something from the basement. I saw Ringu 10 years ago, at least, and still creep myself out by looking at a TV that's off sometimes (because of the scene in the movie where she's sitting in the room alone, but in the reflection on the TV screen you see another figure - anytime I catch a glimpse of something in the reflection on the TV that looks like a person I get shivers) Kairo also stuck with me, it's one of my favorites but whenever I watch it (not often) I get startled at every shadow I see for weeks.
mom watched a film about 10yrs ago, the horror sher crapped herself on was to do with a camera height of a baby, and the baby's hand (and possibly evil looking face) crawling from under the bed. WHAT IS THIS FILM??????? help plz really want to watch it :)
Ever hear of Happy Birthday To Me? My sister watched.it with me when I was a kid. Then she made me get up to turn on the lights. Worst scene was when all the bloody people the girl killed were set up around a table and she sang happy birthday to me. I still hate that movie.
in 1980 when I was 5, my older Brother and Sisters watched ''It's Alive'' and the little Monster Baby freaked me out, only because after we watched the movie they told me if I went into their room the monster baby would come out of the attic and get me. :/ so then I was terrifyed of going any where NEAR the attic door or their rooms. rotten siblings. lol!
to this day I can't watch Children of The Corn once the sun starts to go down.And the subway scene in The Wiz with that creepy guy giggling and making his orange paper men grow, UGH!
When I was 5 or 6 I saw this movie where i can't remember the name of it but it had where this tat lady was putting her clothes away when all of a sudden she gets pulled into the dresser. The part scared the living deals out of me i wouldn't put my clothes away again.
My Dad let me watch the original Nightmare on Elm Street when I was about 4 and then continued to let me watch horror movies frequently. Oddly, I don't really remember being particularly scared of them at the time, although I'm sure I was - I'm a big wuss! :) However, I have struggled my whole life with psychological issues including but not limited to PTSD, depression and extremely severe, crippling anxiety. I can't help but wonder if I would have the same issues to the same degree if I had watched age appropriate entertainment.
I watched way too many movies too young. many I saw as a result of being dropped in screening rooms while my geeky mother went and did whatever people did at sci-fi conventions. it was scary enough being a very young child alone in a theatre with loud rambunctious adults, but then the glory of all that mind bending and horrifying cinema.
Original Amityville Horror. simply the idea that hell was a place and there were portals into it, and you could fall in. it terrified my imagination to no end and made the world seem unstable.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (78 version) near the end, the dog with the human face scared the bejesus out of me, again, just being too far beyond what my imagination could cope with. incidentally it was only recently on perhaps my 8th viewing of that version that I caught earlier scenes that make that dog part of the narrative. Donald southerland's accusatory outing squawk was also horrific.
The Thing. kinda the whole of it. the chest cavity growing teeth and chomping down and the head sprouting spider legs and skittering off were stand out moments. I still watch this film, rapt and tense at least once a year.
The Dark Crystal. the pod people having their life essence drained from them. The Garthin also scared me.
Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings. the blood drenched sillouette battl scenes. the orcs. the nazgul. the whole movie was so heavy with dread and danger, i felt one with the littl hobbits so far out of their league.
Watership Down. the voice of God. Hazel's visions. blood soaked fields. Bigwigs near death experience. It still amuses me that parents mistake this for a children's movie.
Alien. the claustrophobia and sense of being trapped. the helplessness. the way the alien would uncoil/unfurl slowly from out of nowhere. and of course the infamous first chestburster (when that wasn't a word) scene.
Even aspects of Logan's Run were scary, though I can no longer remember what or why.
I could go on and on. To this day I have a great love for the cathartic value of movies being able to make one uncomfortable, distressed, disturbed, frightened, repulsed and even just uneasy. many of these movies that traumatized me are movies i watch over and over again, being easily brought back to a place of innocence. Really enjoyed the comment thread on this one.