What movie scared you shitless when you were a child?
What movie scared you shitless when you were a child?
For me it was Event Horizon, that was scary as hell when I was a kid, I had nightmares for months.
What movie scared you shitless when you were a child?
For me it was Event Horizon, that was scary as hell when I was a kid, I had nightmares for months.
To be fair, Event Horizon scared me as an adult.
In the vein of “kids are stupid”, the Never-Ending Story scene with the sphinxes.
You are welcome, my good man
Me watching Event Horizon… wow, a cool new sci-fi movie…. Then wtf?…… Great movie though.
The Blair Witch Project. My cousin told me it was actual found footage, which was a terrifying thought for 10 year old me.
That was the whole point. They even made the actors stay out of public view for a year, handing out flyers at Sundance that they were "missing, presumed dead". There were fake police interviews on the film's website and everything. This was the first time anything like this had been done so I can imagine people were really invested in this movie and thought it was real.
They also "leaked" copies of the film for months before it came out. I saw a leaked copy in the dorms in college. Never heard of it, my friends told me it was real footage that had been found in the woods from a group that had been lost. For the first... probably half of the movie, I was convinced it was real.
Very enjoyable experience. I feel bad for all the people who saw it after the hype and were too cool to let themselves be scared by it.
Whoa TIL! I thought my cousin was just messing with me, but the chance that all this time she may have also been sold on the idea makes me feel better.
This movie felt real. I'm still scared by it...
The aliens from Mars Attacks.
ACK ACK!
yup scared the buhjeezus out of me as a kid. Especially the scene with the fake Martian Lady that bites Martin Short's finger off.
Ack! Ack ack ack?
In its defence, many scared stoners were also casualties of that movie.
Honestly? ET scared little me more than it probably should have! That little bastard could pop up anywhere and looked even creepier when he was sick.
Hate that guy.
100% agree, this was going to be my answer. I still occasionally have night terrors about him and I'm in my mid-30s.
You're so right about how creepy he looked when he was sick - all pale and white like a 1980s dog poo.
My brother! It didn’t help that a family member made a E.T. lamp with light up eyes, finger tip, and heart. It flickered. And my parents put it next to my bed. I remember hiding under the sheets from it.
Mom had the gall to gift it to me for a house warming present lol. Its in a box….somewhere.
Apparently it was originally supposed to be a horror movie but don't quote me, haven't checked
“Apparently it was originally supposed to be a horror movie but don’t quote me, haven’t checked” -Chadsalot@lemmy.world
You can’t control me!
It seems you’re right.
Spielberg was apparently planning a horror film called Night Skies that didn’t get made but material was supposedly reused for ET.
I can't believe I just scrolled through 77 responses and nobody said "Poltergeist" yet!
Creepy clown on the chair, monster unter the bed, tree tapping at the window, coffins in the pool, whispers in the dark ("Get... out..."), little girl staring at static on the TV, etc. So much of it has become tropes now, but that's because they were so effective the first time!
That fucking tall gangly pale man with a wide smile that comes during the rainstorm.
Gremlins. My family will likely never stop making fun of me for it: "Hurr durr but it's a DISNEY movie!!1!"
Fuck you, I was traumatized.
but its PG? /s
(fun fact, Gremlins and Temple of Doom are why we have the PG-13 rating in the states)
Also, Gremlins isn't a Disney movie. It was produced by WB and Amblin.
My dad got me a poster of mogwai after watching the movie and attached it on the ceiling directly above my bed. Sure, he was the friendly one but fuck that shit! 10/10 dad humour.
Same. To this day, I never rewatched gremlins again.
The first Resident Evil movie. Not because of the zombies, it was the laser scene that got to me. I was convinced that lasers would come out of any reflective surface to get me. I didn't like how they seemed to react to the guy avoiding them, making it impossible for him to escape, like they were intelligent and trying to kill him.
That and some other horror movies i really liked, like ghost ship that had an into scene where a bunch of people got sliced up by a quick moving wire. Then there was what, cabin fever?
But yeah slice and dice was pretty gross.
Yes! That scene is forever burned in my mind as well.
I didn't have nightmares, but as soon as you said it, that was the scene i thought of!
Whenever is see that guy in films, I see him as the one who got cut by lasers in Resident Evil.
two movies came to me pretty vividly,
Spirited Away (2001), no-face is pretty scary even now, but the scene that disturbs me is at the beginning when Chihiro came back and find her parents have turned into pigs...
MirrorMask (2005), fittingly I watched this when I was sick with high fever and for so long I thought this movie was a fever dream, it haunted me for days until my fever subsides. I don't remember anything about the plot, just that the atmosphere and aesthetic are nauseating
The original aliens movie, saw it when I was far too young and was already scared of aliens haha.
I have fond memories of seeing movies with my father in the theatre. I'm often left to think... hmmm... That was not so appropriate. Alien & Animal House rise to the top of the list.
Ernest scared stupid... Don't ask me why, I just remember I couldn't watch it entirely, and I would hide behind my older brothers. It just freaked me out!
The wolf from the neverending story freaked me right out when I was smol. Returned it to blockbuster and then rented Mr. Bean instead, so huge win
The part where the girl checked under her bed, then she looked back up and the monster was in the bed with her... That was the part that got me.
The Wizard of Oz. Flying monkeys, evil witch, big green head.
Pee Wee's Big Adventure. The whole movie is a trip, but specifically the Large Marge scene freaked me out for a long time growing up.
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Absolutely!
That movie didn't scare me so much as creep me the fuck out!
Time Bandits. Because of that move my childhood was plagued with nightmares about little people from out of time invading my room in the middle of the night.
I'm pretty old, but it was both Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist.
Holy shit. We'd never seen anything like that before
Oh, man, Event Horizon was such a movie. "Where we're going, we won't need eyes" haunted me for a long time. And I had no idea it was gonna be a horror movie when I watched it.
Anyway, besides that one, the original Nightmare on Elm Street did me good. It was one of the first horror movies I ever watched, as my dad wanted to share it once he deemed me old enough. There's something so terrifying about having to stay awake to not be murdered, but being powerless to do so. The most terrifying scene to me was the couple, where the woman got dragged across the ceiling and then the guy got arrested for her murder.
Jurassic Park. I was young and watched it at the cinema. I was limp with terror. On my mother's lap.
I don't remember any nightmares after, but still remember the t-rex and the car scene as particularly terrifying
That's one of the only BOOKS that's has scared me. Stephen King didn't scare me as much as that book did!
Yes, this! I don't plan to let my kids watch it on a young age.
My babysitter showed me Critters (in secret) when I was 5. Rather than be scarred, she turned me into a avid horror fan. I saw all the 80's classics when I was way too young for them thanks to HBO and Cinemax.
None phased me.
Laughably, what finally got me was so mild. In Poltergeist 2 or 3, there's a scene where the kid's reflection no longer mimics his own movements. It's not even the scare, but rather the set-up.
I started staring at mirrors when I was alone, just waiting for my reflection to break into a sinister smile. My fear was, when it did, what would I do? No adult would believe me. Mirrors are unavoidable. Something supernatural would be after me. I knew I wouldn't be able to pull off some "final girl" shit IRL.
Another victim to Event Horizon here, man that film fucked me up for a while.
Arachnophobia
The Witches (1990). The kids trapped in the picture frames at the beginning gave me nightmares for weeks.
Fire in the Sky. It's about an alien abduction and the dude has PTSD and flashbacks throughout. Ruined maple syrup for me for a long time.
Omg yes!!! That movie was so terrifying as a kid. It didn’t help I shared a name with one of the characters.
This and Communion with Christopher Walken. There was just something so bloody creepy about the greys in this movie that always freaked me out.
I'm stretching the definition of "movie", but MJ's Thriller caused me to start screaming when I wandered over to MTV while watching Mr Rogers. My mother ran in and changed the channel. It was on the transformation scene. Whoo!
I wanna add to that the MV for Pink Floyd's The Wall. Seeing all those kids with mangled faces just standing on the conveyer belt, falling one by one into the meat grinder and being turned into a mush just messed with my young brain
That video haunted my dreams for years as a child, both the werewolf and zombie scenes. Even hearing the music still gives me chills. I watched the video a few months back and it was about 50% as scary as I remembered.
Pet Cemetery.
But not, like, the zombie cat, zombie dog, or zombie kid. What scared me shitless was the short little flashback of the wife's sick sister in bed.
This! The original one.
I dreamt that the white dog/wolf jumped over me and my midsection spasmed and it jerked me awake.
Also, Arachnophobia was terrifying! I felt that it was where my fear of crawling insects came from. Because when I was younger, I was not afraid of catching spiders as large as my tiny hands.
the original
Oh yeah, there's a remake now, huh? I, too, mean the original lol
Arachnophobia I saw when I was a little older, and thought it would scare me (since I hate spiders) but it was actually kind of funny.
The Thing
Pee-wee's Big Adventure. (Hear me out)
This was back in the 80s, when TV screens were glass and shooting a suction cup gun at it was the pinnacle of child entertainment. On one of my retrieval trips, when I was arms length from the screen, Large Marge made "the face." I screamed and ran. I couldn't watch the movie for years afterward. I still get minor anxiety to this day.
Little shop of horrors (the musical). I was maybe 5 when I saw it. I was terrified of plants for a while afterwards, which was a problem because I lived on a farm.
Legend (1985). Tim Curry is a brilliant villain.
Killer Klowns from Outer Space
Totally. Seems so dumb now, but as a kid those masks were so scary. Also, clowns.
I am legend
The post apocalyptic movie with Will Smith.
The eerie way the monsters looked, plus the way they stood in a circle in the dark building. It really scared the shit out of me as a kid.
Don't play The Forest anytime soon then xD
It's like I am Legend on steroids.
gotta agree on event horizon, I loved scary movies but that one was something else.
Pan's Lanyrinth. The Pale Man haunted 12yo -me's nightmares for a long time.
Poltergeist. Hated that fucking movie so much. The tall gangly pale man with the wide smile and ghastly voice, that... Thing in the spirit world. Etc
Watership Down. It's supposed to be a kids movie but damn is it dark.
The ring. I had a tv in my bedroom... Dear god I did not sleep the next weeks
Yeah... The Ring. That movie did a number on me... and I thought I was well-past the age when a movie could do that. J-horror is not your friend.
The ring.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? I went for the cartoon characters. The reveal for Judge Doom near the end was terrifying.
The voice really… fucking hell!
I watched The Ring and The Grudge when I was 12. I had trouble sleeping for the next year or two because I kept imagining I could see Kayako watching me from the ceiling of my closet, and slept with the TV on because it scared me less than the blank screen.
I was not a smart child.
Still remember a print ad for The Grudge "Runs circles around The Ring!".
Aliens. Me and my brother sneakily was watching it when our parents were gone, and when that chest-burster came out of that woman, I was out of there like a bat out of hell. Never told my parents, of course - had to protect our VHS privileges and all that.. It's still one of my favorite movies - the original cinematic cut, not the overly long director's cut (which seems to be the only one you can find these days.]
Threads, Growing up near Sheffield and watched it when I was about 12...
Quick! Let’s name a social network after it!
Threads, A gritty dire warning to mankinds folly, Also a film from 1984...
Definitely Stephen King's IT, the 90's miniseries. Tim Curry is absolutely terrifying as Pennywise. That lip curl he does when he says "Oh yes, Georgie, they float".
Nightmare on Elm Street... my sister was not a great babysitter.
The 1st one was so insanely well crafted. It's the only horror movie that has ever genuinely scared me to the core. The body bag scene is so haunting. And the mom putting the bars on the windows is one of the most well crafted twist to increase the plot tension in all of horror.
I apparently had recurring T-Rex-chasing-me nightmares after my grandparents let me watch Jurassic Park when I was like 5 or 6 (they thought it was just a dinosaur movie or something)
Tbf, it… it is just a dinosaur movie.
For me the "shoot her" scene at the start was the scariest. How quickly it flips from "hehe gotcha, you thought it was a dinosaur but it was just a crate" to utter human terror as they try to save someone from an unseen monster
Ernest scared stupid. That troll going around at night, sneaking into kids rooms and turning them into wooden figurines was terrifying to my kid brain.
When I was a child, Pet Sematary scared the living hell out of me.
At age 8 Critters. I couldn't go to the toilet alone for weeks after seeing once come out of the toilet. It's a PG too!
For reference I'd already watched exorcist by that age as my cousin and I snuck the copy out of my uncle's video shop. Exorcist didn't bother me anywhere near as much!
Critters or Ghoulies? Never watched the latter but the vhs tape cover had one coming out of the toilet:
I never watched Ghoulies, but I'll never forget walking through the rental store and the box was eye-level with tiny kid me. Scarred me pretty bad. After that I was terrified of flushing the toilet, so toilet lid always had to be down and as soon as I flushed I would run from the bathroom.
Took me probably twenty years to completely get over it.
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Salem's Lot (the 1979 mini series). The window scene with the floating kid messed me up real good.
Sound of Music. Still does. Those fucking puppets. I have to leave the room for that scene when my wife watches it.
GREMLINS scared the shit out of me
When I was little, the Gremlins movies terrified me! Not sure why since they're super campy, but 🤷♂️ kids are weird.
The first one is pretty scary. The second one is super campy
I just rewatched gremlins, and beside some jumpscares it's pretty camp and tame.
But then the scene comes where the Santa Claus gets stuck in the chimney, discovered due to the smell. This is not shown, just a story that gets told pretty off handed.
I realized that that was the part that made the movie scary to me when younger. And it colored the rest of the movie darker, too.
You watched Event Horizon as a child? Damn, that's rough! I watched it as a young adult on TV thinking it was just normal sci fi and was scared shitless by the end...
As a child there was a part of a movie I watched that gave me nightmares for days. It was someone rubbing a bloody chickens paw on a womans leg. That's it, that's all I saw before my parents yelled for me to go to bed but it haunted me for days.
yeah I was about 18 or 19 like you went in just expecting entertainment and couldn't sleep that night afterwards
Yeah, I think I was like 8 or 9. I was an adventurous kid, setup the VHS recorder to record it automatically from TV and then watched it when I was home alone.
You even watched it alone? OMG dude xD
James and the giant peach was already an all around unsettling movie, but that thunderstorm rhino scared the bejeebes out of me as a kid.
I'm glad I'm not the only one. That movie sent me into a screaming terror when I was a kid. My mom still makes fun of me for it.