Films that terrified you when you were a child...
- Thread starter nikolai
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Zappo
Explorer
There are very few movies, if any, that made me feel afraid even after they were over, even as a child... Body snatchers I found pretty unsettling, and also a bit Howard the duck though in retrospective I absolutely can't figure out why. Hmm, thinking hard I seem to remember a cartoon where a girl was cursed to turn into a swan that for some reason scared me as a kid. No movie has ever scared me to the point of crying or losing sleep over it, though.
Wombat
First Post
Two films come to mind.
First was the old Vincent Price film The Last Man on Earth. I didn't watch it the first time, I only heard it -- this was in pre-cable days and the picture was out from KTVU that night. Since most of the film was in voice overs, I got the full impact of the film, much like an old radio program. It was terrifying! When I actually saw the film years later, it was a disappointment -- the images I had created in my own mind were far more terrifying than the lumbering vampire-zombies actually in the film.
But let me speak of Alien. When I die, a friend still owes me 10 years on my life! He calls me up out of the blue and says, "Hey Wombat, come on! I'm going to see Alien!" "What is that?" "Never mind; you'll like it!"
So, yes, I went off to the film, on the big screen, first time with absolutely no warning.
My thought process was like this. A) the film is called Alien, so it is sci fi. B) Star Wars was the most recent sci fi film I had seen ERGO this must be Star Wars-esque.
No tv, didn't read entertainment sections, and while waiting in line, due to talking to my friend, I did not see the posters.
To top it off, John Hurt was (and remains) one of my favourite actors.
I saw him die TWICE in the same film!
Needless to say, I only go to films now if I know at least something about them...
First was the old Vincent Price film The Last Man on Earth. I didn't watch it the first time, I only heard it -- this was in pre-cable days and the picture was out from KTVU that night. Since most of the film was in voice overs, I got the full impact of the film, much like an old radio program. It was terrifying! When I actually saw the film years later, it was a disappointment -- the images I had created in my own mind were far more terrifying than the lumbering vampire-zombies actually in the film.
But let me speak of Alien. When I die, a friend still owes me 10 years on my life! He calls me up out of the blue and says, "Hey Wombat, come on! I'm going to see Alien!" "What is that?" "Never mind; you'll like it!"
So, yes, I went off to the film, on the big screen, first time with absolutely no warning.
My thought process was like this. A) the film is called Alien, so it is sci fi. B) Star Wars was the most recent sci fi film I had seen ERGO this must be Star Wars-esque.
No tv, didn't read entertainment sections, and while waiting in line, due to talking to my friend, I did not see the posters.
To top it off, John Hurt was (and remains) one of my favourite actors.
I saw him die TWICE in the same film!
Needless to say, I only go to films now if I know at least something about them...
Silver Moon
Adventurer
It was sometime in the mid-to-late 1960's when I wandered downstairs one night and turned on the TV. The movie playing was an old western horror film, where a giant bear was terrorizing the cowboys. There was a scene where a cowboy was decaptitated by the bear. Give me nightmares for years.
Tarrasque Wrangler
First Post
Ghostbusters scared the crap out of me when my dad took me to see it as a little kid. Yes, I was a wussy little kid. The opening in the library with the old woman, Zuul and Vinsclortho coming to life, but especially when Sigourney Weaver is held down in her chair and pulled into the kitchen. I had to leave the theater after that.
What else? The Thing, especially the scene with the "blood test".
Psycho, because right after I watched it my mom snuck into the bathroom while I was showering and "attacked" me with a butter knife. She screwed me up for life with that little joke. I still can't shower without locking all the doors. But the shower scene itself didn't scare me as much as A) When Martin Balsam gets it, and B) the reveal at the end of who Mother is.
What else? The Thing, especially the scene with the "blood test".
Psycho, because right after I watched it my mom snuck into the bathroom while I was showering and "attacked" me with a butter knife. She screwed me up for life with that little joke. I still can't shower without locking all the doors. But the shower scene itself didn't scare me as much as A) When Martin Balsam gets it, and B) the reveal at the end of who Mother is.
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
Jaws. Because of this I would only swim in pools as a child. I still wonder what is lurking in the depths whenever I get near a natural body of water.nikolai said:
I also remember a movie where a young girl is on the phone with the police and they are telling her to get out of the house because the person who has been threatening her on the telephone is calling from the house that she is in.
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ConnorSB
First Post
Well, I'm only 18 now, so my childhood wasn't too long ago.
So here are mine:
Tank Girl, Pi, and Reqiuem for a Dream. I dont know who directed Tank Girl, but there is this one scene where this buisnessman sticks an associate in the back with a pump that sucks all his blood out, and filters it into water, which the buiesnessman then drinks.
But as to Pi and Reqiuem, well, damn you Darren Aronofsky! Never direct anything like that again. Images of a guy sticking himself with a screwdriver through the ear and another guy doing all sort of crazy drugs- I didn't need to know that kind of thing when I was 12 and 15, respectivly.
So here are mine:
Tank Girl, Pi, and Reqiuem for a Dream. I dont know who directed Tank Girl, but there is this one scene where this buisnessman sticks an associate in the back with a pump that sucks all his blood out, and filters it into water, which the buiesnessman then drinks.
But as to Pi and Reqiuem, well, damn you Darren Aronofsky! Never direct anything like that again. Images of a guy sticking himself with a screwdriver through the ear and another guy doing all sort of crazy drugs- I didn't need to know that kind of thing when I was 12 and 15, respectivly.
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