What horror movie did you happen to watch when you were way too young?
In what ways did it scar your childhood?
For example, Jaws prevented me from utilizing a swimming pool while alone until well into my teens.
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It had these giant crabs, and it would be very cheesy today, but it scared the shit out of me. I was not used to watching scary things because my family didn’t have a TV. I was at my next door neighbor’s and I think that is about the last scary movie I ever watched, except for things like The Shining and Fatal Attraction. It still scares me almost fifty years later.
When I was a kid, I watched an old horror movie (in black and white?) and all I remember is little whispering voices in the duct work, and the woman in the movie getting dragged into the ducts at the end.
I still can’t sleep with a hand or foot hanging off the bed.
Haha, I would have to say Them! I had nightmares about giant ants for years!
The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. at a drive-in. My grandparents told me the movie was for adults and I was to sleep in the backseat. Yeah right. It was scary as shite for me, especially since my grandparents lived off a rural road where the closest neighbors were at least 1.4 mile away and all the houses looked creepy being decrepit 1800’s farmhouses. Fark, that movie was gross!
Halloween II. Not understanding much English back then, my imagination had to do a lot of the work with the dialogue and plot, and it went a little too far. However, Michael Myer’s robot like physical demeanor and relentlessness did not help. I didn’t know then that he was possibly a super human. I just thought he was some normal guy, and I was like, how can one normal guy be that strong and cruel and kill so many people with such ease?
His mask showed absolutely no emotion, which for me, at the time, was very different from most horror movies I saw, where killers and all had some archetypical and evident trait that didn’t make you wonder about them too much. They were obviously evil or whacked, so it wasn’t scary. But Mikey struck it differently, by literally being a killing machine in my eyes, and one with no purpose but to kill. Most villains have a motive, some reason…and so does Myers, but as I say, I couldn’t grasp the whole thing, so I didn’t know. I just thought he was doing it for the lols.
It completely traumatized me, and the movie always has that whole helplessness feel to it, to which I fell victim to very fast.
The chase scenes were really long, especially the ending one, and it just never seemed to end. The special effects are pretty bad, even for back when I saw it, which was about ten years after its release. So that somehow made the murders look more realistic, in a way I find hard to describe. No special effects, but actual stabs or strikes being showed can do a lot. The movie is two hours long, and it just completely drones and stretches out its mood and atmosphere as much as it can, but without ever going too far away from the killer, or the fear of the people around him. I found this disturbing. Much like the novel Dracula, the killer was defined by the fear of the characters around him, as much as what he himself did.
I was eleven back then, and loved horror movies, but this one actually made me shy away from them for a while. It was just so violent without being extravagant, so that made a good field for realism, coupled with what I personally perceived of the movie. I had nightmares for weeks, and one part in the movie destroyed my childhood by making me realize that if someone wants to kill you, hiding under the blankets isn’t going to stop them. That motherfucker slaughtered some pillows, man! Pillows!
The Exorist. I had nightmares for years after watching that one.
House on the Haunted Hill, Bram Stoker’s Dracula (resulted in an eternal crush on Monica Bellucci), Event Horizon, Leprechaun, Evil Dead Trilogy, Tremors (talk about not wanting to ever set foot outside), American Psycho, The Lawnmower Man, Pet Sematary, Species, Village of the Damned, From Dusk til Dawn, Poltergeist, Thinner, The Blair Witch Project… all those I know i watched before the age of 10
Oh god, The Puppet Master…....
“Frankenstein”, the old black & white version starring Boris Karloff. It gave me nightmares for weeks.
Some idiot mother let her daughter and the rest of us watch The Shining at a Halloween party. We were all only 11 and 12.
I had nightmares for the longest damn time, and was terrified that naked, rotting women were hiding in the bathtub.
naked rotting women… you mean those hookers off of the corner of 52nd and Main?
My parents were very careful about not letting me see any scary movies, though I was able to sneak Saturday afternoon movies on television. I think the scariest movie I saw as a child was The Birds, and I did have a few nightmares, but nothing I would hide under the bed for.
@filmfann Why would you hide under the bed? That’s where the fucking monsters are, man!
@WillWorkForChocolate I used to sleep under my bed. I figured if I got there first the monsters would have to go hide under my sister’s bed, then she would have to deal with them.
There was an episode of the Twilight Zone which was in black and white about a man that was calling his wife from the grave. There was a downed phone line lying on his grave and he kept calling her. That spooks me to this day.
Oooooh, there was another episode of Twilight Zone that I accidentally saw, in which this man’s puppets (or toys) all come to life and tortured him because he didn’t take good care of them or something like that… After that, I made sure to treat all my dollies and stuffed animals with respect and love, and told them all “good night” before I fell asleep. I also swapped them out in my bed every night, so they each had a turn on the bed. OMG that show creeped me out so bad!
The Blob with Steve McQueen – - -1958.
@Tropical_Willie I saw The Blob and Day of the Triffids (1962) in a summer movie program at a local school – I think I was 8 or 9. They both scared me, and it didn’t help that my older brother tormented me about it. I loved Them about the giant ants though, and still do.
I saw the Twilight Zone where the mannequins come to life when i was four, I was scared of department stores for a couple of years.
@bewailknot I saw Day of the Triffids in the spring of 1964 at a 25 cent kids matinee, I was 8. I was by myself and got so scared I ran out crying half way through.
@chyna Ah yes, Night Call. That’s one of my favorite episodes :P
I guess I saw The Amityville Horror a little young. That story is truly horrifying on every level. The demonic pig and the secret room in the basement painted in blood were the scariest parts for me.
The first one I saw was Brides of Dracula it was free in the park. I was 6 or 7, and the movie was cut short by a severe thunderstorm just as it was reaching its climax.
What about the twilight zone Nightmare at 20,000 Feet with William Shatner? I had a friend that was so scared by that as a kid he still shudders if you mention it.
Friday the 13th Part whatever and Nightmare on Elm Street.
I turned the cable on at a family friend’s house and Jason was chopping up someone with an axe. Unfortunately, the same cable thing happened while Freddy was using someone’s veins to control them like a puppet.
First—both scared me plumb to death, and second, I became scared of turning on the TV after 10PM.
All of them. It was a perk of having completely indifferent parents. After we got our first VCR we went to the only video rental store anywhere near us and rented two movies: Annie and Amityville Horror. I guess my dad was too frustrated to look any further. My mother tried to make us cover our eyes, to no avail.
Also, when I was growing up, our neighborhood had an old theater where you could see a double feature for like 3 bucks. I remember seeing Evil Dead, Re-animator, Friday the 13th, all kinds of crazy movies I can’t even remember anymore.
I think this is the reason I never feel comfortable in the woods, or any secluded area.
Every one that was available. I had the good fortune to have a dad who is a huge movie buff, and he had quite the knack for taking me to the scariest fucking movies at the most inappropriate times or places. The best example I can think of is Jaws, which I saw with him when I was 7 or 8 years old… while we were on vacation at the beach. Nice, dad. Anyway, though, I wasn’t really tormented by them. I loved scary movies then, and I still do today. Ok, maybe I was a little scared to go in the ocean, but I still did it. After seeing many more scary-ass movies, I did jump from one piece of furniture to the next to avoid something under the couch or bed grabbing me, though. ;)
Any musical, take your pick…The Sound of Music, Seven Brides…....My Fair Lady, Oliver.
The thought of an entire community randomly breaking into show tunes en masse, terrified the fucking life out of me.
Seriously, just imagine the carnage….....:¬(
I saw It and Leprechaun when I was in Kindergarten.
”I still can’t sleep with a hand or foot hanging off the bed.”
Neither can I. I don’t feel “safe” if I do.
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