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I don't consider myself easily scared, but when I was a kid, I had certain movies that would get me. I'd have to run out of the room just because the commercial came on TV. Child's Play was one of these, though that's because I had a child-sized doll similar to the one on the movie. (It's okay, I hid it under the bed.) I've conquered all of these ... except one. One that chilled me when I accidentally walked into the living room while my parents were watching it and only saw glimpse I can't remember. One that gave me nightmares. One I've said to friends "I'm still not old enough to watch that." But I'm gonna try it today, while I'm home alone and feverish, because that's how I roll. That movie is ...


I'm hoping this either isn't nearly as scary as my pre-elementary school mind made it out to be or that it's aged as badly as the last movie that terrified me as a kid, but turned out to be really stupid and trashy (The Unnameable).

Here goes. I'll report back when it's over.

That movie sucks, and you're going to be disappointed IMO.

That's nuts. I saw a trailer for that movie when I was a kid, and it freaked me out too. Looking back now, it was cheesy, but for a child who slept near a big ol' window... creepy.

It won't be scary. It was a thoroughly mediocre film.

I remember being terrified of it when I was younger.

Fire in the Sky fucked me up as a kid. I saw it with my dad and he didn't think I could handle it. He was right. We saw Loaded Weapon directly afterwards to make my night a little easier to handle.

Seeing it when I was older though showed me how goofy it is.

Never saw it. But you know which movie still creeps me out even today? Darby O'Gill and the Little People.

It's your standard '50s Disney live-action movie and has a pretty good story. I saw it for the first time when I was 8. The banshee gave me chills then, and it still does now at 31.

The Omen. My cousins were spending the night on Halloween when I was little. My mom rented all the Omen movies and they stayed up all night watching it. But I was secretly watching it too when I wasn't suppose to. And being raised very religiously at the time, I was led to believe that the movie could actually happen in real life, so it freaked me out even more.

Tress said:

That movie sucks, and you're going to be disappointed IMO.

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This this this this this THIIIIIIIS.

It's an hour and a half of build-up to a 10-minute sequence, and apparently as a little kid I walked in on the one-minute torture scene that understandably scared the piss out of me. Had I walked in at any other time, I would've known they were watching "a boring growns-up movie". I did find it funny that certain tropes of 80s smalltown horror movies like Critters and Gremlins were present in this despite the beginning saying it was based on a true story.

Also, this came out in 1993?! I was so certain it was '89. I can't believe I reacted to this so harshly when I'd sat through Jurassic Park alone in the theater as a 7-year-old with a giant grin on my face. I'd seen the original Night of the Living Dead and the 70s Invasion of the Body Snatchers by the time this came out on VHS. Holy shit.

As much as I hate to admit it... More so since I watched the movie when I was older when it shouldn't have scared me...

"Signs" still creeps me out.

Let's be real here, the movie sucks and has a plot with more holes then swiss cheese, but something about the way they handle the aliens up till the end makes my blood always turn. It's one of those movies were I can't wait to get to the part when the alien and the brother have that baseball fight because the laugh out loud absurdity makes up for the scares that come before it.

ScytheRexx said:

As much as I hate to admit it... More so since I watched the movie when I was older when it shouldn't have scared me...

"Signs" still creeps me out.

Let's be real here, the movie sucks and has a plot with more holes then swiss cheese, but something about the way they handle the aliens up till the end makes my blood always turn. It's one of those movies were I can't wait to get to the part when the alien and the brother have that baseball fight because the laugh out loud absurdity makes up for the scares that come before it.

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I'll go even worse to admit--I like Signs and I don't think it's a bad movie. The details eat it apart in the last ten minutes, but before that I think it's a solid thriller and it does creep me out.

Way more than Fire in the Sky did. Goddamn, I'm glad I didn't watch this with my wife or I'd have had to apologize for boring her.

I saw Robert Patrick in the opening credits and kept searching for him in the movie ... until I realized he was playing the main character. Even though this was made around the same time as Terminator 2, that longer hair and beard threw me off. I'm too used to him looking like the T-1000.

ScytheRexx said:

As much as I hate to admit it... More so since I watched the movie when I was older when it shouldn't have scared me...

"Signs" still creeps me out.

Let's be real here, the movie sucks and has a plot with more holes then swiss cheese, but something about the way they handle the aliens up till the end makes my blood always turn. It's one of those movies were I can't wait to get to the part when the alien and the brother have that baseball fight because the laugh out loud absurdity makes up for the scares that come before it.

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I like that movie. Somewhere deep in my brain there's a voice saying it's shite (voice has a Scottish accent), but I still like it.

As for scary movies, Poltergeist jacked me up as a kid. After that movie, there might as well been a gateway to Hell under my bed. I would jump to the bed and jump from the bed. Going pee in the night sucked. I remember having nightmares the night after I watched it where the monsters had eyeballs embedded in their teeth. As an adult, I figured I'd be more scared of clowns, but I'm indifferent to them. Now, if I had watch It at that age...

Poltergeist was the big "too scary to watch" movie when I was a kid. Seems kind of silly now.

edit - hah, d_i's post was not there when I typed that. CH CH CH AH AH AH

drawn_inward said:

I like that movie. Somewhere deep in my brain there's a voice saying it's shite (voice has a Scottish accent), but I still like it.

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I'm there with you. And I'll shoot my Charlie credibility in the foot even further. I like the stupid ending. I don't know why. Probably mostly because of James Newton Howard ripping off a Jerry Goldsmith track from The Twilight Zone and then make it even more intense, and then hopeful, but I get caught up in the momentum, so even though I know the movie just went full-on stupid a la the ending to original Superman, I was already engaged and enjoyed the ending on an emotional level even if not a logical one.

Steven Spielberg put it best with the ending to Jaws. Peter Benchley pointed out that no shark would hold a tank in its mouth like that. Spielberg's response (paraphrasing) was "It doesn't matter because I've got them. I've had them for 2 hours, they'll stay with me for 3 more minutes."

As for scary movies, Poltergeist jacked me up as a kid. After that movie, there might as well been a gateway to Hell under my bed. I would jump to the bed and jump from the bed. Going pee in the night sucked. I remember having nightmares the night after I watched it where the monsters had eyeballs embedded in their teeth. As an adult, I figured I'd be more scared of clowns, but I'm indifferent to them. Now, if I had watch It at that age...

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God, I fucking love Poltergeist. It scared me too, but I couldn't stop watching it once I'd first seen it. That's a movie that does a proper build-up, hinting at the ghosts, then showing them in a gentle light, and then they stop fucking around. I love that in one scene you have a heartfelt conversation of an adult telling a child about the afterlife, right beside a scene of a guy hallucinating that his face is falling apart. And I love that every single person in the movie has no idea what's going on, even when they think they do, until the very end, even the spiritual wise woman.

Maybe I'll watch that tomorrow.

I haven't seen (most of) Jaws because my dad had this obsession with replaying any parts where someone got eaten by sharks until I was filled with terror just thinking about the movie.

Dei said:

I haven't seen (most of) Jaws because my dad had this obsession with replaying any parts where someone got eaten by sharks until I was filled with terror just thinking about the movie.

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O HAI

Dei said:

I haven't seen (most of) Jaws because my dad had this obsession with replaying any parts where someone got eaten by sharks until I was filled with terror just thinking about the movie.

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Aw, but it's one of the greatest movies ever.

... I say to my wife, and then she refuses to watch it, and refuses to tell me why.

The Exorcist messed me up. I watched it when I was about 14-15... before any kind of doubt about my Catholic faith had set in. So it was very real to me. I still shiver a little when my bed shifts at night. The logical me knows it just moved because I moved... but for half a second I think I'm about to hear Pazuzu in my head.

Walked in on head spinning goodness of the Exorcist when I was...let's say ten maybe? That image didn't leave my head for years.

GasBandit said:

O HAI

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Just in case: Hai is the german word for shark.

Cajungal said:

The Exorcist messed me up. I watched it when I was about 14-15... before any kind of doubt about my Catholic faith had set in. So it was very real to me. I still shiver a little when my bed shifts at night. The logical me knows it just moved because I moved... but for half a second I think I'm about to hear Pazuzu in my head.

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You have one wish left, Professor.

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Just Me said:

Just in case: Hai is the german word for shark.

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It's a layered joke.

Cajungal said:

The Exorcist messed me up. I watched it when I was about 14-15... before any kind of doubt about my Catholic faith had set in. So it was very real to me. I still shiver a little when my bed shifts at night. The logical me knows it just moved because I moved... but for half a second I think I'm about to hear Pazuzu in my head.

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Pazuzu was so worthless in Devil Survivor.

But anyway, what'd you think of Exorcist II: The Heretic?

Never saw it.

GasBandit said:

Poltergeist was the big "too scary to watch" movie when I was a kid. Seems kind of silly now.

edit - hah, d_i's post was not there when I typed that. CH CH CH AH AH AH

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And I posted nearly the same thing as Quotemander. Ninja of a ninja'd post? [DOUBLEPOST=1383161666,1383161467][/DOUBLEPOST]

Dei said:

I haven't seen (most of) Jaws because my dad had this obsession with replaying any parts where someone got eaten by sharks until I was filled with terror just thinking about the movie.

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My dad had the habit of sneaking off and then bang on the windows outside right at the scariest parts. We finally caught on to his shenanigans and would pause the movie if dad left the room. I clearly remember him doing this with Cujo, Jaws, and an episode or two of X-files.[DOUBLEPOST=1383161766][/DOUBLEPOST]

Cajungal said:

The Exorcist messed me up. I watched it when I was about 14-15... before any kind of doubt about my Catholic faith had set in. So it was very real to me. I still shiver a little when my bed shifts at night. The logical me knows it just moved because I moved... but for half a second I think I'm about to hear Pazuzu in my head.

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I was too old when I saw this. I just laughed at it. It would have sent me into hysterics if I watched it before I was 13.

Cajungal said:

Never saw it.

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I just wanted people to watch the goofy trailer with the goofy music.

When I was around five or six, I was staying at my aunt's one night, and she let me watch Nightmare on Elm Street (against my mother's wishes).

Scared me shitless. I was terrified to sleep in my bed, because of that scene where Freddy mutilates Johnny Depp by coming up through the bed.

After that, my mom made me sit down and watch the making of Nightmare on Elm Street, so I could see how the makeup was applied to Robert Englund, how the special effects were done for the movie, and reinforced to my young mind that it was all just pretend and make believe. From that point on I was never afraid of scary movies again. In fact, I thought most of them were funny.

Your mom sounds cool.

Cajungal said:

Your mom sounds cool.

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Yeah, but after that we'd watch scary movies together all the time, and I'd always laugh at her for yelling, because she gets scared really easily.

Ravenpoe said:

When I was around five or six, I was staying at my aunt's one night, and she let me watch Nightmare on Elm Street (against my mother's wishes).

Scared me shitless. I was terrified to sleep in my bed, because of that scene where Freddy mutilates Johnny Depp by coming up through the bed.

After that, my mom made me sit down and watch the making of Nightmare on Elm Street, so I could see how the makeup was applied to Robert Englund, how the special effects were done for the movie, and reinforced to my young mind that it was all just pretend and make believe. From that point on I was never afraid of scary movies again. In fact, I thought most of them were funny.

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We had to do something similar with my cousin so he wouldn't be scared by The Hunger Games, to the point that we staged a reenactment in my living room so he could understand camera trickery and the like. Stuff like this is probably why I had a higher temperance for scary movies than I was supposed to as a kid. I'd watch Movie Magic on Discovery channel whenever it was on.

Funny, when we got my dad Gremlins on DVD one year, and I told him there were making-of features on it, he said "No thanks. I want to keep seeing them as real." I think he was messing with me, but I understood.

Ravenpoe said:

When I was around five or six, I was staying at my aunt's one night, and she let me watch Nightmare on Elm Street (against my mother's wishes).

Scared me shitless. I was terrified to sleep in my bed, because of that scene where Freddy mutilates Johnny Depp by coming up through the bed.

After that, my mom made me sit down and watch the making of Nightmare on Elm Street, so I could see how the makeup was applied to Robert Englund, how the special effects were done for the movie, and reinforced to my young mind that it was all just pretend and make believe. From that point on I was never afraid of scary movies again. In fact, I thought most of them were funny.

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That was kind of my mom's tactic with Poltergeist. Also, when I was a youngling my folks volunteered at local Haunted House and took me along (I guess b/c they didn't have a baby sitter). I watched them all set it up with the lights on and the whole make-up costume process. That took all the scare out of it and all future houses.

The movies that bug me as an adult usually involve "real" people and not monsters/ghosts, e.g. The Strangers. Or Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs.

drawn_inward said:

The movies that bug me as an adult usually involve "real" people and not monsters/ghosts, e.g. The Strangers. Or Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs.

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My wife says this every time I'm considering whether we should watch a horror movie. Monsters, ghosts, etc. don't scare her, just people.

Yeah, tell that to me after we watch a Paranormal Activity movie and she's bugging me because she's too jittery to sleep.

Or when there's a certain eyeball monster scene in Pan's Labyrinth. "Don't let me see it kill them." Waits for moment, covers her eyes. "Stop it, I can handle it!" Scene happens, she shrieks. "Why did you let me watch that?!"

For the most part I'm pretty indifferent to scary movies. I have a much harder time with certain horror games. (Like, everytime I try to play Amnesia, psych myself out, then just say "Nope!" and quit)

Zero Esc said:

I just wanted people to watch the goofy trailer with the goofy music.

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OMG, I saw that movie when I was younger and MAN was it horrible to me even then. When your go to terrifying thing is locusts, your movie is not going to be scary.[DOUBLEPOST=1383166035,1383165945][/DOUBLEPOST]I think what you believe to be in the realm of possibility has a lot to do with what will scare you and what will not. When I was very religious, the Exorcist 3 scared the shit out of me. Now that I'm an atheist, it barely raises and eyebrow. Same with ghost movies.

The James Brolin Amytiville, Poltergeist, IT and The Exorcist are the first scary movies I remember seeing as a kid.

I was afraid to sleep facing open windows, TVs, pitch-black rooms and always walked as far from sewer drains as possible.

GasBandit said:

O HAI

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Is that supposed to be some kind of Megalodon/Megamouth hybrid?

I found The Believers (1987) to be downright scary...right up until the ending, which I found so horribly cheap and trite that it caused me to dismiss everything that came before it.

--Patrick

PatrThom said:

Is that supposed to be some kind of Megalodon/Megamouth hybrid?

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It's somebody's artwork I think, titled simply "Machine Boy and the Leviathan."

Bigger version:

Dei said:

For the most part I'm pretty indifferent to scary movies. I have a much harder time with certain horror games. (Like, everytime I try to play Amnesia, psych myself out, then just say "Nope!" and quit)

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I can't play Amnesia either

It, I can't remember how old I was when it was on TV, but the only scene I saw was the restaurant scene with the fortune cookies followed by the scene with the bloody sink (possibly not in that order). It scared the holy God damn bejesus out of my young self. I was under the impression for years that the entirety of It was terrifying. Funny, once again, seeing it years later that it's mostly incredibly boring.

Frank said:

It, I can't remember how old I was when it was on TV, but the only scene I saw was the restaurant scene with the fortune cookies followed by the scene with the bloody sink (possibly not in that order). It scared the holy God damn bejesus out of my young self. I was under the impression for years that the entirety of It was terrifying. Funny, once again, seeing it years later that it's mostly incredibly boring.

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You were (YourCurrentAge - 23) years old.

I didn't get to see much of it (since I wasn't in the country at that time), but from what I have seen, I remember wishing John Ritter and Harry Anderson would do something funny more often. They weren't wasted in their roles, I was just so used to seeing them be brilliant at comedy, and this was not supposed to be a comedy.

--Patrick

So, I was 7.

It on its own merits is boring and shlocky, and as an adaptation is a failure in nearly every imaginable way.

But I love Tim Curry.[DOUBLEPOST=1383188920,1383188724][/DOUBLEPOST]Didn't watch Poltergeist tonight, but got my wife to watch The Thing (John Carpenter one), which is cool because it's such a fucking great movie. I must've seen it a dozen times before night and I'm still left guessing on some of the ambiguous elements.

Then afterward I got to hear who my wife thought was the thing before.

Also, nice surprise seeing Keith David here. I must have last watched this before I took notice of his voice acting in recent years.

You know what movie scared the crap out of me as a kid? Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Especially that scene with the fan.

Also, I can't play Amnesia either.

I think THIS was way more traumatizing from that movie:

bhamv3 said:

You know what movie scared the crap out of me as a kid? Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Especially that scene with the fan.

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You must have been terrified by Highlander 2.

--Patrick

E.T scared me when I was a kid. And it still kind of does. I just can't make it through the opening sequences without looking away from the screen. Normally, after the first..I dunno, 20 minutes, I'm okay, but..those opening moments still scare me.

The scene where ET gets taken away is the one I had nightmares about.

I have shared this before, but the scene in superman 3 where the sister gets sucked into the computer and turned into a robot gave me nightmares for years.



I still find it pants-shittingly scary.

Bowielee said:

I have shared this before, but the scene in superman 3 where the sister gets sucked into the computer and turned into a robot gave me nightmares for years.

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That gave everyone nightmares.

Edit ninja'd

Bowielee said:

I have shared this before, but the scene in superman 3 where the sister gets sucked into the computer and turned into a robot gave me nightmares for years.

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That reminds me of the Twilight Zone Movie, the one part about the kid who gets whatever he wants. The scene where it's revealed to the camera (but not to the protagonist) that the kid's older sister no longer has a mouth because she said mean things to him...



Yeah, it's super corny now, but to little GB, that was an image that stuck in my brain for years.

That whole movie scared the crap out of me when I was younger.

Jaws. I refused to swim in lakes or oceans.

Ghostbusters 2. Yes, I know, I know. I was 4 years old (possibly just turned 5...) when I saw it in theaters, and that might have been just a tad too early. When I had to get up at night to go to the bathroom, I didn't dare flush the toilet or wash my hands because I was afraid pink goo would come out. I knew it was fake, but at night in a dark and creaky house....nope.

As a kid, ghost stories in That's Incredible were more scary than any movie I remember.

Cog said:

As a kid, ghost stories in That's Incredible were more scary than any movie I remember.

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There are definitely better ways to get scared as a kid than movies. The worst I had was in sleepovers at parents' friends' houses when those friends had older kids who told ghost stories.

Not that I haven't done the same . Both my cousins believe in Krampus now as much as they believe in Santa Claus.

Zero Esc said:

The worst I had was in sleepovers at parents' friends' houses when those friends had older kids who told ghost stories.

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Worst I had was a sleepover at a friend's house after watching an Ironsides episode and some old monster flick.

--Patrick

PatrThom said:

Worst I had was a sleepover at a friend's house after watching an Ironsides episode and some old monster flick.

--Patrick

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But it had Captain Nemo! How could anyone be afraid with Captain Nemo around?

I'm not sure that's the right movie, since I'm pretty sure it was one of the Hercules movies, but "That 60's movie with Hercules and the giant crab" turned up too many hits.

--Patrick

PatrThom said:

I'm not sure that's the right movie, since I'm pretty sure it was one of the Hercules movies, but "That 60's movie with Hercules and the giant crab" turned up too many hits.

--Patrick

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I don't know that one.