Films that terrified you when you were a child...

[Andrew D. Gable]

Not really a movie, but all this talk of people being scared of Bigfoot brings it up. I used to be TERRIFIED of 'real monsters' back in the day. I remember a little book with extremely frightening (to the 6-year-old me) pictures of the Piasa Bird, Jersey Devil, and Momo. And then a short time later I found one of those Daniel Cohen books with an extremely freaky picture of Mothman looking in someone's window.

 

[GMSkarka]

Those were good times. Growing up, I had Groovie Movies, Son Of Svenghoulie, Dr. Morgus, Uncle Ted's Monster Mania, Saturday Nightmares, and Friday Night Frights.

Sadly, all those shows are gone.

You can thank the invention of the infomercial for that.

Back from the 50s through the 80s, almost every mid-size and larger TV market had at least one "hosted horror movie" show, usually on one of the local UHF channels. A member of the staff would dress up as a goofy "creepy" character and host a monster movie. It was a way to pad out the stations' schedule, to meet FCC requirements. Once the infomercial started up, though, stations were able to find advertisers to PAY them to fill that time, rather than having to come up with something themselves....and a big part of the childhood and adolescence of at least 2 generations disappeared.

Most folks are familiar with Elvira, who is the LA-area host who made it big, but there were tons more. Here in the KC area in the 80s, we had Crematia Mortem, who hosted "Creature Feature" on Friday night.

I miss that stuff. Most of the Fridays of my high school years were spent with friends, gaming until 11 or so, and then watching Crematia.

-Gareth

 

[Kesh]

I was maybe 8 or so when my Cub Scout group went to the cabin where the Boy Scouts did their meetings, for a party. We had the option of sleeping over, but most of the guys my age didn't. I stayed, watched some movies.

However, once it got late, the older guys put in The Howling.

I spent the rest of that movie hiding in my sleeping bag, occasionally peeking at the screen before hiding again when something died horribly.

To this day, I love werewolf movies, but that was the scariest damn thing for me to see at that age. I bought it on DVD recently... but haven't quite brought myself to watch it yet.

 

[monkeygrrl]

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.

I remember that movie, too, though I can't for the life of me remember the name of it. I remember her talking on the phone with the police and they're saying "he's in the house! get out of the house!" and she's being all uselessly petrified with fear.

Willie Wonka for me, too, though the oompa loompas never scared me. what always freaked me out was the scene when they drank the fizzy drink and were floating up towards the fan. I could hardly watch that scene as a child... *shudder*

 

[Particle_Man]

The Thing (1982). I was hard to scare as a kid. But a friend had previously seen it and knew just when to shake me and yell -- the critical part of the blood test scene. So that was one. Didn't last, though (the fear).

The only other time for movies was as an adult, after Blair Witch.

But TV scared me bad once. It was Sesame Street. There was a character called Sam the Robot. Big as Big Bird, with ping pong ball eyes, a dalek's voice (though I didn't know that at the time) and a HUGE mouth (looks like a metal clam shell). I only saw it once. Maybe it scared other little kids too, so they took him out (voted him off Sesame Street, in reality parlance). Anyone else remember Sam the Robot?

Anyone remember the old black and white "Twillight Zone"s? Those didn't scare me, but man they were cool.

 

[Ashwyn]

I forgot the worst one: The Wall.

 

[Joshua Randall]

I agree that the Sleeping Beauty dragon was spectacularly scary.

I was also terrified of the ear-burrowing creatures in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

The evil robot Maximillian in Disney's The Black Hole scared the crap out of me. (Can you imagine Disney making that movie today?!)

 

[Sarigar]

Invasion of the Body Snatchers with Donald Sutherland. I thought my brothers and sisters had to be pod people. The end freaked me out, especially that sound the pod people make.
Alien. My sister bought one of the original VHS VCR's, the one's that weighed about fifty pounds, and bought Alien as her first movie. She's a sci-fi/fantasy geek like me. The teeth of the aliens is what unnerved me most.

 

[barsoomcore]

Sarigar, I just have to say, your sig makes me love The Simpsons all over again.

Homer + Rashomon = Not In This Unverse, Baby

 

[Harp]

I love those old Bigfoot (and Yeti) movies. Boggy Creek has some great moments, but the best (to me, anyway) was Creature From Black Lake. I can't remember if the two friends are researching Bigfoot or what, but, at the end, Bigfoot tips over their van and chases them through the woods.

A celluloid classic, indeed. The part that sticks out the most for me is the creature reaching up from the water to pull a swamp rat (I think it was Jack Elam) down into the water. 'Bout swallowed my tongue on that one. Oh, and I seem to remember the two leads playing a tape of the screaming monster in a cafe in town, freaking everybody out. Big fun.

We need more scary Bigfoot movies today, me thinks.

I'd buy the ticket tomorrow. Anybody else not buying the de-bunking of the Patterson film? The little cryptozoologist in me just has trouble accepting it.