I came here just to say this but wasn’t expecting to see it at the top of the thread, I’d seen scary movies before but holy hell this one chilled me to my core and even as an adult I still squinted when I watched it
It's a seriously disturbing movie. What made it worse for me is that I didn't even know it was horror. I'm big on sci fi, and that's what I thought it was. I was lulled in by the story but it gave nightmares...
I first saw this movie at the age of 13, in a very dark and creepy unfinished basement. It was terrifying.
Even after all these years, this movie still holds up very well to modern standards and stands out as one of the best sci-fi horror movies of all time. I just watched it again in October (my designated horror movie month) and it still never fails to make me uncomfortable and on edge while watching.
I'm using "scare" a little loosely here, but I was waaaay to young to have seen clips of Alien when I did. It really fucked up to the point that I wasn't able to sleep in pitch black into my adulthood. Nowadays, Alien is one of my favorite movies, specifically because it's so scary, but I avoided horror movies like the plague at least up until high school
I can certainly watch that movie no problem now, and I wouldn't say it scares me in the same way it did when I was little, but I wouldn't love it as a horror movie if it wasn't still one of the most frightening pieces of cinema
Alien was actually my first movie, although I was too young to remember. But I remember Aliens. That movie scared the shit out of me. I slept with the lights on for a long time. I still don’t like those movies.
I watched the old movie from the 50s, it was playing on tv during an afternoon on a weekday, I was homesick. That was in the mid 80s. It scared me a lot, and I never watched the remake with Jeff Goldblum because of this.
When I read the thread title, that's what I instantly thought of. I was about the same age and it was about the same situation, and I had the same reaction. And still do.
Child's Play came out when we were around 5. My friends parents rented it and planned on watching it after putting him to bed even though he wanted to see the movie (and of course theu told him he was too little). They started watching it and his dad noticed my friend had snuck back down and was watching the TV from the stairs.
Well his parents decided to act like they didn't notice and left him there to watch the whole movie.
The next day while my friend was at school his parents went out, bought a my buddy doll, and left it sitting up on his bed waiting for him. He had nightmares a good while after that one. Lol
Yeah that was traumatic. Even if it’s a little cartoon creature…watching a life snuffed out like nothing is scary. Watching someone kill a live mouse or rabbit on screen would be fucked up too.
The first movie I ever saw was Popeye, in 1980, with Robin Williams. I cried my little eyes out. It's not a scary movie, but I was expecting a cartoon, and seeing it with live actors freaked me right the fuck out.
I'm sure it wouldn't scare me now, but I haven't watched it since.
Sort of a similar thing with The 'Burbs with Tom Hanks 9 years later. Probably wouldn't scare me, but nah.
Funny I had not seen the movie but went on the Jaws ride at Universal studios and freaked the fuck out as a child. It was the 80’s and I guess my parents didn’t realize it was too scary.
Same here. I was twice your age (8) when I saw it. Still don't like being out of my depth in the sea - even the deep end of swimming pools gives me a bit of a shiver...
It's only been very recently that I've been able to watch that movie and then sleep with the lights off. It just hit at that right time when I was in middle school that it cemented in my mind for life.
I feel like the practical effects still hold up, and the acting definitely holds up from the entire family. Just seeing a mom that freaked out onscreen messed with me as a child.
Also, anyone who watches that now needs to understand the social and cultural context of the 70s and 80s. We had this new technology that could allow recording and sharing of video, but it was slow and low resolution. There was nothing like ubiquitous cell phone cameras of today. So there was this constant sense that maybe mysterious things were happening just beyond your ability to see and document them. Like having bad glasses in a foggy room.
The advent of cell phone cameras really washed away that sense, and made the world feel much more concrete and exposed. But back then, there was still a sense that something like Poltergeist might really be out there happening.
Saw it in the theater the night before 5th grade started. Jesus. Didn't sleep (for 2-weeks!), didn't eat the crappy cafeteria food, passed out in the 105° heat with no classroom AC. Yeah, I remember Poltergeist.
Watched it not long ago, and so much hold up like you said. That scene where she turns around and the kitchen stairs are stacked perfectly. Fuck. Me. Got goosebumps typing that.
That movie STILL creeps me out and I watched it as an adult the first time. I don't know what it is exactly that did it, but the way they hid their appearance from you much of the movie was a big impact.
Oh my god thank god I am not the only one scarred by that movie (sorry).
I was also around that age I believe and that night I had a nightmare of an alien coming into my room.
I even watched war of the worlds before signs which tells kind of a more grim story but it didn't come close to signs in scare factor. I guess signs feels really relatable with the family setting and them getting attacked in their house which most people would consider the safest and most comfortable place in earth.
Office Space. I could handle horror movies but that one instilled a fear of losing my life to the grind. I pretty much set up my whole career to avoid it. On the other hand, I'm in a pretty good place because of it. So I guess thanks, Mike Judge
Corporate Accounts Payable Nina speaking, just a moment! Corporate Accounts Payable Nina speaking, just a moment! Corporate Accounts Payable Nina speaking, just a moment! Corporate Accounts Payable Nina speaking, just a moment!
Coraline. I can watch breakdowns of that movie on YouTube, and even watched a several hour long breakdown of the Beldam and the entire story, but I still can't watch the movie itself
I see you man they forced us to watch it when I was 5 or 6 at school, since it lasted longer than an hour I have never seen the end ... I had nightmares for years I still can't see that movie I'm 21 and I fear nothing except that ducking movie ...
Oh man this scene haunted me when I was 8 or 9. A couple years ago I convinced my wife to watch this movie, and I eagerly waited to see her reaction to this scene. And when it finally happened, nothing. No reaction at all. I asked her, "wasn't that scary?" And she replied, "That?! That was the worst costume I've ever seen."
It was all the build up to that point. The fields, the dogs, the encounters where the characters never actually see them. The denial, trying to convince themselves it's nothing. Animals, or prankster neighbors. Then in an instant, all their worst fears are true.
The scene in the start of Jurassic Park in the rain scares the shit out if me... similarly in poltergeist when the graves start floating up in the flood.
I saw it on a VCR in 1983, the year after it came out. I had spent the morning in a grammar exam for a Latin intensive program and then on to the funeral of a fellow speed freak.
Then I partied with some friends after the funeral until about midnight. Weed and beer. No hallucinogens.
So I told a shortcut through this sort of underpass that went under the church and saved me a block.
First thing I see is a passed out dude in a polka dot costume, just like the monster in the movie.
As if that wasn't enough, he's next to a shopping cart full of body parts. I'm sure it was just some . mannequin parts he got from some clothing store on Telegraph Avenue.
But some kind of warning bell went off in my head: just keep walking. The memory is still vivid many years later.
The "just keep walking" thing has kept me out of a lot of shit in life.
And yeah, I haven't had speed in several decades .
You just changed my whole perception of time lol. I was like, "Tales from the Crypt didn't start until the 80s though." I had no idea there was a movie in the 70s (and a comic series before that.) I only knew the iconic HBO Cryptkeeper
you didnt know it was a comic? All the episodes would say something like originally presented in The Haunt of Fear or something to that effect if I'm remembering correctly
Monster house. I vividly remember watching part of it in a best buy when i was younger. I had nightmares that my house was gonna eat me. Ive gotten over houses eating me, but the art style is still rather creepy.
This one didn't happen to me, but I have a friend who is still scared of clowns because he saw Killer Klowns from Outer Space when he was like 8. We're in our 40s now lol
I couldn't shower with my eyes open for weeks because of Fire in the Sky, I was afraid I was gonna see an outline of the aliens behind the shower curtain.
The Wizard of Oz, those monkeys scared the shit out of me. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the child catcher, was so creepy that he gave me nightmares. And the show Sliders was not at all appropriate, I just remember creepy cannibal sewer people that kept me from sleeping well for months.
Yeah I'm not sure what the adults were thinking in that situation. My guess is they weren't thinking at all. They knew I was into sci-fi and space so maybe they thought it was just going to be a cool sci-fi space movie.
Who knew there would be monkey murders, creepy voyeuristic killer computers, and giant space babies?
Aliens. It wasn't the movie itself, it was the TV adverts for it. A two-second shot of a door buckling as something pounded against it from the other side. I was exactly the right age to be shocked by the thought that you can't shut the monsters out with just a closed door.
Not technically a movie, but the 1990 It mini series has always gotten me. I can watch the newer movies and it won't bother me at all, but that show was masterful in terrifying me as a kid.
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi gave me nightmares as a young child, for years. Still, remembering how much I loved it, downloaded it to show my young kids, gave it a watch while they were out. Hell. No.
Let's just say Orson Wells had no business narrating a children's cartoon.
Uff, I watched Threads just as there was a "no to nuclear weapons" campaign going on in Norway (1986'ish), so the threat of nuclear war felt very real, to 12 year old me. So yeah, that movie left a mark.
Terminator 2, when he took off his skin from his arm, I NOPED out of there. I did finish it the next day though. It's also now in my top ten movies of all time.
There was some movie on TV that I caught a glimpse of when I should’ve been in bed. I was probably about 3 yo. It was some blobby monster which in my memory was a bit like a skinny Michelin Man, emerging from a pond or river. Scared the shit outta me and the memory stuck.
Robocop. I was around 9 at the time and saw it at a schoolmate's place (his parents sucked). The scene where Red shoots Murphy's hand off shocked me. I had nightmares about losing my arm.
My dad used to watch horror movies when he was supposed to be watching me, then fall asleep the couch with the movies still going. I don't watch horror movies at all as an adult, I can't handle them, but here's a list of the ones I can remember that I got exposed to while dad was sleeping:
Scanners
Cat's Eye
The Thing
Any old Twighlight Zone episode
The Lost Boys
Gremlins
Whatever show that was with Elvira
There was some show with a talking skeleton at the beginning all the time, I forget what it's called
Needless to say, ANY horror movie scares me, and i avoid them all, even the "funny" ones
The Grudge. I saw it when I was maybe 7 or 8? I was at an Aunts house with some older brothers that had it on. Honestly I barely remember actually watching it, but good lord it scarred me until I was at least 18 or so. I could never get the image of hair growing out of random places, turning into something terrifying out of my head whenever I was showering and stuff. I still haven’t rewatched it :D I’m quite a scaredy cat when it comes to horror movies already and I could totally see it giving me nightmares again if it’s anything like I remember as a kid
Nightmare on elm Street. That scene where he's walking menacingly down alley, his arms stretching so long so his metal fingers scrapping along alley walls... terrifying.
Early 80s b-grade movie. Absolutely laughable from a modern cinematic perspective, but I haven’t touched it in over a third of a century due to how it scared the fark out of young-teenaged me. I have also taken a disliking to horror movies (in general) for that same reason.
Ok so before I say the name I want to explain the story. I was 6 or 7 when my aunt and her friends brought it home and they were insistent I could not watch this movie but I snuck into the living room and eventually sat with my aunt. It took 1 scene to send me into such a panic I to this day can't sleep for days after I willingly watch it. This movie warped my sense of horror and not a single movie has lived up to it. The movie is the exorcist from 1973 and the 1 scene was the bedroom scene where the bed starts moving and her body begins to change.
When I was 7, I caught a glimpse of this movie from the top of the stairs as my parents watched it in the living room below. It just happened to be the scene when she first twists her head around. It was the only time I've ever been paralyzed by fear and could only run to my room after the shock had passed.
So when it was a little too young, I slept in the same room with my grandmother during the summer and she would like to watch TV very late at night, even while she slept. Because of that, i would sometimes happen to come across some of the more mature movies that they would be airing. This is a little too specific, but one night they were airing Superhero Movie 2008. I don't remember if I was paying attention or not, but when my grandmother put the channel with this movie on, it was around the funeral scene.
Yeahhhh my young ass was traumatized. Necrophilia is a no no.
My older brother really did a number renting and bringing that movie to my house. I remember I saw it on a summer afternoon with him. You know, the time of the year when mosquitoes are everywhere.
I should watch it again now, I'm sure the effects aged poorly, and maybe that heals my wounds from the past.
Bruce Lee's - The Big Boss where they put some dead bodies into the ice in a ice factory and the big ice saw is sawing them into smaller pieces.
I watched it through a crack in the door from a different room when my dad and my uncle watched it after I supposedly went to sleep. Needless to say that I didn't get much sleep that night. But I never told my dad that I've seen it :D
From someone who needs an emotional connection to make sex palatable, I absolutely agree. Never saw the point of porn, engaging with it always made me feel dirty and hollow on the inside. One-night stands are much the same, which is why I have never had any - I’ve backed out every time. No puritism anywhere here, I’m an atheist dude.