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



## nikolai (Apr 16, 2004)

This has got to be good for a topic: which films scared the life out of you as a small child? Bonus points for films that when watched as an adult are not really scary. I want films which showcase the terror/fear that atmosphere and an overactive imagination can produce.


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## Jamdin (Apr 16, 2004)

I was never a fan of the slasher movies when I grew up. I did watch the Satinic movies spawned from "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Omen." There is one movie, which title that I cannot recall, that scared the life out of me. It had something to do with brides of Satan. Anyway, "Race With The Devil" with Peter Fonda made me never want to camp out or drive a RV. "The Devil's Rain" with William Shatner made me not want to play with candle wax. However, the most horrorible scene was in "Beneath The Planet of the Apes" when the underground dwellers revealed their true faces.


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## Mercule (Apr 16, 2004)

My grandparents let me watch "Salem's Lot" when I was 5 or 6.  I can ascribe (justly or not) a good many quirks to that experience.  Strangely, I've had a vampire fixation for as long as I can remember.


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## milotha (Apr 16, 2004)

I was terrified by Alien and The Thing.  

We saw Alien at a drive-in, and I was so scared after the alien burst out of the guy's chest that I hid in the back seat with my eyes closed for the rest of the movie.  I could still hear everything, and I kept imagining what was happening.  I have to admit that my imagination was much scarier than the actual movie.

The Thing gave me nightmares for weeks as a kid.


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## JoeBlank (Apr 16, 2004)

The Wizard of Oz 

Those flying monkeys still give me the creeps.


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## WayneLigon (Apr 16, 2004)

Hmm. Well, when I was a kid, all that existed were the broadcast channels and they cut so much stuff it's hard to tell what might have been scary to me as a kid.

For some reason 'Frogs' scared me. Don't know why. 

'Don't Be Afraid of The Dark'. TV-movie. Scared the living crap out of me, and by God it's still creepy today.  

Jaws. Yep. Ocean = Bad.

The #1 thing that scared me as a kid: The Patterson Sasquatch Video. For some reason that creeped me out big time.


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## Teflon Billy (Apr 16, 2004)

David Cronenberg's *Videodrome*.

Until that point in my life I assumed that when you went "crazy" you began to act like Daffy Duck.

*Videodrome* showed a guy (James Woods) who literally could not tell the difference between real/imaginary or asleep/awake. 

He also might be killing people.

I was scarred as much as I was scared


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## Crothian (Apr 16, 2004)

Videodrome scared me as did Watcher in the Woods.  Granted that one is just so mellow by todays standards.


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## Cthulhu's Librarian (Apr 16, 2004)

JoeBlank said:
			
		

> The Wizard of Oz
> 
> Those flying monkeys still give me the creeps.



 Same movie, but it was the munchkins that freaked me out. The two parts in particular are the damn twitching lollypop guild dancers, and the mayor's voice when he sings "She's reaaaaaally most siiiiiiinceeeeeerrrlly dead". Just thinking about them is giving me the creeps right now. 

  Two other scenes in films that really creeped me out were in _Poltergeist _when the assistant eats the chicken with all the maggots on it then tears his face, and in_ Raiders of the Lost Ark _when Toht's face melts off when the ark is opened. Both of those scenes made it very difficult for me to go to sleep after seeing the movies. But I love both films now, so no harm done. 

  But those damn munchkins...


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## kolvar (Apr 16, 2004)

Burried alive in black and white, alone in a back and breakfest room, the scene where he dreams of his crypt all gone wrong. One of the view movies I did not watch to the end (10 years later I had no problems with this)


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## Kid Charlemagne (Apr 16, 2004)

JoeBlank said:
			
		

> The Wizard of Oz
> 
> Those flying monkeys still give me the creeps.




I was hiding behind the couch after the witch showed up on top of that house...


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## Umbran (Apr 16, 2004)

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  

Oompa-Loompas.  Little orange guys singing spooky minor-key songs about how little kids are bad.  Not good for the psyches of small children


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## barsoomcore (Apr 16, 2004)

Yeah, _Wizard of Oz_ was very terrifying to the young barsoomcore. As was _Snow White_ -- my mom had to take me out of the theatre I was screaming in terror so much.

They used to make SCARY kid's movies. You don't see that so much anymore which is a shame I think.

On TV I remember _Jaws_ being pretty bad. That, and _The Blob_ -- the original Steve McQueen version. Did not sleep either of those nights.

Of those, only _Jaws_ still possesses much power over me. The other three are still fine movies, but don't keep me up at night. Phew.


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## Cannibal_Kender (Apr 16, 2004)

Watcher in the Woods- I was 8 and I couldn't finish that movie.

Dark Crystal- Those vulture people were scared the hell out of me as a kid.


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## Iron_Chef (Apr 16, 2004)

"The Children": about a schoolbus full of kids that passes through a toxic cloud. Their fingernails turn black and they want to hug you... which causes you to melt! A stupid, terrible movie now, but totally horrifying as a kid.

"Night of the Living Dead" (1968 B&W version) gave me zombie invasion nightmares for three months straight!

"Alien" I saw in 2nd grade, and my dad took me out right after Brett died (I was watching through my fingers, my younger sister was under the seat cringing in terror). I had to buy the photo-novel and Heavy Metal Illustrated Version to find out what happened...

"The Nightwalker": William Castle film. Still creepy today.

"Willy Wonka": Oompa-Loompas were creepy!

"Bumble" The Abominable Snowman in that Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer stop-motion animated Christmas special terrified me. Island of Lost Toys maybe?

The Patterson "Bigfoot" footage really freaked me out! I saw a Aliens/Loch Ness/Bigfoot/Abominable Snowman docu-movie (with recreations) when I was a kid... The Bigfoot recreation had a woman knitting in her living room while her husband was watching football. She heard strange noises and saw a giant shadow outside her window through the curtains, called her husband up to investigate, and when he opened the front door.... BAM! Bigfoot was standing there! I think it was implied he killed the entire family, but maybe that's my imagination. It really kept me up for nights, worried Bigfoot was gonna get me!


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## Andrew D. Gable (Apr 16, 2004)

Thank you Iron Chef!  It was The Children that scared the bejeezus out of me when I was little.  And Bug, about these weird sow bug-looking things that set your hair on fire.  I used to be terrified of fire.  Videodrome, specifically the part when the weird mutilated people jump out of like a closet or something.  Most of the old Hammer movies, vampires used to scare me crudless.

And of all things, the old Frank Langella Dracula movie, when he turned into a wolf and jumped through a window.  Scared the crud outta me.


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## Richards (Apr 16, 2004)

When I was little, I made the mistake of starting to watch _The Blob_ (the original version) on TV, and then I turned it off when it got too scary.  As a result, I didn't see the Army take care of the blob by dumping it into the Arctic, where it would be helpless.  So, as far as I was concerned..._the blob was still alive, out there somewhere, anywhere -- POSSIBLY UNDER MY BED RIGHT NOW!_

I also agree that _Don't Be Afraid of the Dark_ was, and is, a creepy movie.  Oh, and how about the third section of _Trilogy of Terror_ when that African doll comes to life and starts stabbing the hell out of Karen Black?  Yipes.

Johnathan


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## SpringPlum (Apr 17, 2004)

_Killer Clowns from Outer Space_ and _Howard the Duck_.  I still hate clowns and cotton candy gives me the chills but luckily I have no lasting phobia of water fowl.


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## barsoomcore (Apr 17, 2004)

Your dad took you to see _Alien_ when you were SEVEN YEARS OLD? WITH YOUR YOUNGER SISTER???!!!!

I mean, we were all reading the Alan Dean Foster novelization, and I was in, like, sixth grade. Your dad took you to see it? How did he get you in? Wasn't he arrested or something? Why haven't you sued him?

Holy crap.

Okay, so I'm totally jealous. 

The Patterson footage freaked me out, too. I had a bad Bigfoot thing going on for a while. I remember this account in some monster book about a group of miners that were trapped in a cabin by a whole family of hairy monster men, throwing rocks and climbing up on the roof, sneaking up to the windows at night...

Okay, now I'm freaking myself out.

What a stupid thread.


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## MEG Hal (Apr 17, 2004)

I think it was called _Magic_...the one where the dummy is a killer, it was so freaky that the commercials freaked me out....


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## CrusaderX (Apr 17, 2004)

Cannibal_Kender said:
			
		

> Dark Crystal- Those vulture people were scared the hell out of me as a kid.




This scared me too, but I thought the vulture things were cool.  It was the elves or elflings or whatever it was they were called that creeped me out.


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## CrusaderX (Apr 17, 2004)

MEG Hal said:
			
		

> I think it was called _Magic_...the one where the dummy is a killer, it was so freaky that the commercials freaked me out....




AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!  Speaking of creepy puppets!   The commericals for that movie *terrified* me.


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## Zappo (Apr 17, 2004)

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.


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## BobROE (Apr 17, 2004)

E.T.  And I have no idea why, I just couldn't watch it without being freaked out.


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## Wombat (Apr 17, 2004)

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...


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## Silver Moon (Apr 17, 2004)

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.


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## Tarrasque Wrangler (Apr 17, 2004)

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.


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## Krieg (Apr 17, 2004)

Iron_Chef said:
			
		

> "Willy Wonka": Oompa-Loompas were creepy!




Don't you mean Tcho-Tcho's are creepy!?   

Evil, evil King in Yellow...err I mean Willie Wonka.


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## tburdett (Apr 17, 2004)

nikolai said:
			
		

> This has got to be good for a topic: which films scared the life out of you as a small child? Bonus points for films that when watched as an adult are not really scary. I want films which showcase the terror/fear that atmosphere and an overactive imagination can produce.



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.

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 (Apr 17, 2004)

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.


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## Iron_Chef (Apr 17, 2004)

Andrew D. Gable said:
			
		

> Thank you Iron Chef!  It was The Children that scared the bejeezus out of me when I was little.  And Bug, about these weird sow bug-looking things that set your hair on fire.  I used to be terrified of fire.




BUG was awesome!!! "WE LIVE"
It was William Castle's last movie, if I recall correctly...


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## Iron_Chef (Apr 17, 2004)

barsoomcore said:
			
		

> Your dad took you to see _Alien_ when you were SEVEN YEARS OLD? WITH YOUR YOUNGER SISTER???!!!!
> 
> I mean, we were all reading the Alan Dean Foster novelization, and I was in, like, sixth grade. Your dad took you to see it? How did he get you in? Wasn't he arrested or something? Why haven't you sued him?
> 
> ...




We thought ALIEN was gonna be like STAR WARS... Oops!


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## Iron_Chef (Apr 17, 2004)

JAWS, JAWS 2 and PIRANHA scared me, too. Wouldn't go near the water for years.

The TV commercials for THE LEGACY scared me soooo bad as a kid I ran out of the house screaming in broad daylight like my pants were on fire. The part that freaked me out was when the lead actress goes to see her creepy old dying uncle who is all behind plastic sheets in an oxygen tent and when the curtain pulls back, this gnarled old scary hand jumps out and grabs her wrist!

Come to think of it, the hand coming up out of the grave at the end of CARRIE scared the poop outta me, too. What is it with evil hands jumping out that scares us so bad?


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## Krieg (Apr 17, 2004)

_Jaws, Polstergeist & Alien_ - For the reasons already mentioned.
_The Exorcist & The Omen_ - They're REALLY scary when you go to Catholic School.
_The Creature from the Black Lagoon_ - watched it on a home film projector at 5 or 6. Had nightmares for weeks.
_The Swarm_ - Awful sensationalist film about the future (it was made in the late 70's) african killer bee "menace".
_The Fog, It's Alive & Amityville Horror_ - Just because they were freakin' creepy.

There was a movie made in the 60's about Gargoyles threatening a modern day small town out west. It always gave me the willies (I didn't really care for the Sleestaks much either)!

When I was a bit older _The Day After_ terrified me in ways that no horror film ever could (which was the whole point I suppose).



			
				Iron_Chef said:
			
		

> The Patterson "Bigfoot" footage really freaked me out! I saw a Aliens/Loch Ness/Bigfoot/Abominable Snowman docu-movie (with recreations) when I was a kid... The Bigfoot recreation had a woman knitting in her living room while her husband was watching football. She heard strange noises and saw a giant shadow outside her window through the curtains, called her husband up to investigate, and when he opened the front door.... BAM! Bigfoot was standing there! I think it was implied he killed the entire family, but maybe that's my imagination. It really kept me up for nights, worried Bigfoot was gonna get me!




It sounds like we watched a lot of the same things as a kid.

There was a movie in the 70's called "Sasquatch" about a group of scientists searching for the film's namesake, the only thing I can remember is a scene of the campsite at night when a horrible howl splits the air. One guy was answering the call of nature & comes running with toilet-paper flying everywhere. The sound of the howl made my blood turn cold...combine that with the song  "The Legend of Wooley Swamp" by the Charlie Daniels Band & you have a kid who was terrified of swamps/bogs/marshes etc....


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## Dragonblade (Apr 17, 2004)

For some reason Time Bandits scared the heck out of me as a kid.

I'm not sure why. Watching the movie now, its just so campy and goofy. Its not even scary at all. But the first time I saw it, I was literally terrified. My parents had to turn it off because I wouldn't stop crying and shaking. I slept with them for like a week afterward.

And then when I was in second grade, my teacher showed The Watcher in the Woods! I was all of maybe 7 years old, and that movie scared the heck out of me too. Not to the degree Time Bandits did, but that movie is way to scary for little kids. I mean the whole class was petrified. In hindsight, I don't know what my teacher was smoking showing that to a class of 2nd graders.

And then more recently, when I was living in Japan 6 years ago, I was sitting at home by myself just watching Japanese TV. I had a host family but no one was home but my host mom and she was upstairs doing something. So I start watching this movie of the week, and I was totally absorbed into it before I realized it was a horror movie. And by then I was hooked and just had to find out what happens next. Suffice it to say, the end of the movie scared the hell out of me to a degree I hadn't felt since I was a little kid.

That movie was the original Japanese version of Ring.

I was a grown adult and I admit that I slept with my light on that night.


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## Krieg (Apr 17, 2004)

Dragonblade said:
			
		

> And then when I was in second grade, my teacher showed The Watcher in the Woods! I was all of maybe 7 years old, and that movie scared the heck out of me too. Not to the degree Time Bandits did, but that movie is way to scary for little kids. I mean the whole class was petrified. In hindsight, I don't know what my teacher was smoking showing that to a class of 2nd graders.




At that time Disney didn't make "scary" movies, so she probably didn't know any better. 

That one creeped me out a bit as well.


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## The_lurkeR (Apr 17, 2004)

John Carpenters "The Thing" really creeped me out as a kid. That movie made me start checking under my bed before sleeping. While no longer as scary, it's still a great paranoia movie to watch with a classic ending.

The other movie that was disturbing was Stephen Kings "Cat's Eye". The one chapter where the little monster is trying to steal the girls breath while she sleeping was disturbing. I was older then and knew better, but it still creeped me out. Anyone else remember that one?


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## Krieg (Apr 17, 2004)

The_lurkeR said:
			
		

> The other movie that was disturbing was Stephen Kings "Cat's Eye". The one chapter where the little monster is trying to steal the girls breath while she sleeping was disturbing. I was older then and knew better, but it still creeped me out. Anyone else remember that one?




Starring Drew Barrymore no less.


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## LightPhoenix (Apr 17, 2004)

The only one that really freaked me out as a kid was _Arachnophobia_.  I could not stand spiders for a good long time after that.


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## Stone Angel (Apr 17, 2004)

Wizard of Oz.....The poppies.

Silver bullet. It still is a little intense for me, though not really much scares me anymore, but the scene on bridge with the firecrackers....eek

And this might be a little obscure but does anyone remember the Nightmare on Elm St. TV series. I hated watching them but couldn't stop sometimes.

The Seraph of Earth and Stone


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## David Howery (Apr 17, 2004)

jeez, what a bunch of kids we have on here... most of the movies you people are naming are ones I saw in college or high school...
The only movie I can remember that gave any kind of willies as a kid was a hokey old one called "Vampire Circus"... watch it now, and it seems tame as can be, but when you're 10.... scary stuff...  Horror movies have just never bothered me much....


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## Wombat (Apr 17, 2004)

MEG Hal said:
			
		

> I think it was called _Magic_...the one where the dummy is a killer, it was so freaky that the commercials freaked me out....




Tony Hopkins, Ann-Margret, Burgess Merideth

Fantastic film -- way creepy!


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## milotha (Apr 17, 2004)

barsoomcore said:
			
		

> Your dad took you to see _Alien_ when you were SEVEN YEARS OLD? WITH YOUR YOUNGER SISTER???!!!!
> 
> I mean, we were all reading the Alan Dean Foster novelization, and I was in, like, sixth grade. Your dad took you to see it? How did he get you in? Wasn't he arrested or something? Why haven't you sued him?
> 
> Holy crap.




I was eight in a drive-in.  I don't think anyone even noticed me when my family went in.  Of course, that was back in the old days.


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## Tewligan (Apr 17, 2004)

The clown doll in Poltergeist. Horrifying.


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## Ashwyn (Apr 17, 2004)

The_lurkeR said:
			
		

> Anyone else remember that one?



Not on purpose. God that one messed me up. Wizard of Oz was bad too. But what really scared me wasn't a movie, but puppets. Like Madam. And those puppets they had in some show I can't remember that did skits. Was that the same show? One was a Reagan puppet. The Emu was the worst. I'd cry when I saw it. I'm still freaked by puppets like that to this day. The Bear in the big blue house makes me very very uncomfortable. It's like he could just lash out with his snake-like neck at any time and take my head off.


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## Iron_Chef (Apr 17, 2004)

David Howery said:
			
		

> jeez, what a bunch of kids we have on here... most of the movies you people are naming are ones I saw in college or high school...
> The only movie I can remember that gave any kind of willies as a kid was a hokey old one called "Vampire Circus"... watch it now, and it seems tame as can be, but when you're 10.... scary stuff...  Horror movies have just never bothered me much....




Vampire Circus was good, but Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (also by Hammer in the early 70s) was even better. The vampires in this movie sucked the YOUTH out of buxom young girls in the woods! It still holds up as a swashbuckling good time. Vampires fighting with swords long before Blade or Buffy!


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## Iron_Chef (Apr 17, 2004)

My little sister was terrified of puppets, starting with "Smedley" on Candid Camera or whatever that show was in the mid-70s. He was a big, mute baby puppet that scared the hell out of her (she thought he was going to eat her alive!). Strangely enough, the Muppets and Sesame Street didn't bother her... just weird, creepy puppets like Smedley. He never scared me, though the dummy in MAGIC sure did!


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## KChagga (Apr 17, 2004)

I'm glad someone else said it first...
E.T. scared the beejezus out of me when I was little.
I think I was four and my mother took me to the theatre to see it.  The volume in the theatre was so loud!  Suffice it to say from the first time Elliot ran into E.T. in the field and they both screamed and ran away I just hid in my seat.  Any time I would look up I would see that freaky looking E.T. and just go back to hiding.  E.T. still weirds me out with his looks today.  They seriously should have made a more kid friendly alien.

The other movie that scared me was An American Werewolf in London.  I think I was six and I was changing channels in my house.  We had HBO and it was in the middle of the day. I flipped the chanel and there was the guy turning into a werewolf, screaming and hollering in pain.  I was so scared I couldn't even change the chanel.  I had to yell bloody murder till my mother can in and changed the chanel.  I was like a deer in headlights.


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## Napftor (Apr 17, 2004)

I'll go along with _Alien_ but the chest-burst that really freaked me out was in _Aliens_ when the colonist pleaded for help before having the chest explosion.  It gives me goosebumps just typing it.  I couldn't watch that scene for a loooong time after the first.


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## Kai Lord (Apr 17, 2004)

*Kingdom of the Spiders* starring William Shatner.  I was six or seven and was terrified of spiders for _years_ after this one.
*Halloween*.  Was about eight years old, and I watched it on Halloween night.  Slept on the floor in my parents room for two weeks because of it.
*Jaws*.  Still get nervous swimming in the ocean because of this one.
*Watcher in the Woods* and *Something Wicked This Way Comes*.  "Watcher" was just creepy as hell and "Something Wicked", eek, again with the spiders.
*The Thing,* or rather, the first half hour of The Thing.  I was pretty impressed with myself that I slyly convinced my parents to rent and then let me watch this one by myself in 1983 (I was nine), but as soon as that dog's face split apart, that was all she wrote.  Ejected the tape, sent it back to the video store, and didn't have the nerve to watch it again until I was in junior high.
*The Amityville Horror*.  Watched this one on TV at 3:00 in the afternoon on a sunny day with tons of company over.  Still scared the crap out of me.


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## GMSkarka (Apr 17, 2004)

Krieg said:
			
		

> There was a movie made in the 60's about Gargoyles threatening a modern day small town out west. It always gave me the willies (I didn't really care for the Sleestaks much either)!




It was a TV movie from the 70s, actually, called "GARGOYLES", and was one of the first films that make-up genius Rick Baker worked.  It scared the crap out of me as a kid (along with another made-for-TV horror film, mentioned earlier in this thread, "DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK").

I was lucky enough to find a copy of it on a cheap-o DVD at Suncoast a couple of years ago.


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## WayneLigon (Apr 17, 2004)

GMSkarka said:
			
		

> It was a TV movie from the 70s, actually, called "GARGOYLES", and was one of the first films that make-up genius Rick Baker worked.



Oh, I remember that one. It was one of the first horror movies I ever saw where the good guys don't really 'win', if I recall correctly. One of the things I remember was them finding the fossil, implying that such things had been on Earth for a long, long time. That upped the creep factor considerably for me. 

The scene in _The Omen_ where they open Damien's real mother's grave.. ok, that creeped me out.

I remember being 'anti-scared' at _Demon Seed_. It was suppossed to be a horror film I think, but I was all 'awwww' at the end of it 

_Phantasm_. Can't beleive I forgot this. The ending, especially. 

Definately _Trilogy of Terror_; the doll episode is the only one I remember and the ending of it was very scary. More so to me because by that time I'd read a fair number of occult-ish books and I was thinking 'Oh crap, destroying it is about the worst thing you can do...'

_The Devil's Daughter_ (I think this is the correct movie); the scene where they have the devil-in-human-form using a walker (cause of the hoof thing, obviously); someone who's figured out what's going on shoots him, but really just shoots himself. And the end, where she finally marries the guy of her dreams, only to find out he's the demon they wanted her to marry all along. 

_Willard_, the first one. Oooh. 'Tear him up!' It had never really ever occured to me that small cute lil' furry rats could actually be dangerous until then....

I vaguely remember being scared by _Burnt Offerings_ but can't remember why.


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## Elric (Apr 17, 2004)

Am I the only person who was scared of The Fugitive?  I had nightmares about the one-armed man and that was only from seeing the previews!  When I watched it years later, it was one of my favorite movies.


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## Hand of Evil (Apr 18, 2004)

The Abominable Dr. Pilbes - his 'traps' freaked me out.


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## Cannibal_Kender (Apr 18, 2004)

KChagga said:
			
		

> I'm glad someone else said it first...
> E.T. scared the beejezus out of me when I was little.
> I think I was four and my mother took me to the theatre to see it.  The volume in the theatre was so loud!  Suffice it to say from the first time Elliot ran into E.T. in the field and they both screamed and ran away I just hid in my seat.  Any time I would look up I would see that freaky looking E.T. and just go back to hiding.  E.T. still weirds me out with his looks today.  They seriously should have made a more kid friendly alien.




Heh. That reminded me of my E.T. experience. My Dad took me to see it when I was 3. After the cornfield scene I hid under my seat for the rest of the movie.


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## David Howery (Apr 18, 2004)

besides "Gargoyles", there's another TV horror movie that was pretty good: "The Night Stalker".   I thought it was pretty creepy at the time I saw it (I was 11 or so), but it didn't keep me awake at nights.  Still, for a made for TV flick, it was extraordinary....


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## hafrogman (Apr 18, 2004)

There's a movie called Lady in White.

It wigged me out to such a degree when I was a child that I have still not ever watched it again as an adult to determine if it's actually scary or not.


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## Alzrius (Apr 18, 2004)

I wasn't a child, per se, when I did this, but when I was around 15 (give or take a year or two) I watched the modern remake of that old Vincent Price movie, "The House on Haunted Hill". I watched it alone. At night. With all the lights turned off. What's more, when the movie would rapidly flash a montage of horrific images at us, I slowed down the tape, so I would know exactly what I was seeing.

...needless to say, when it was over, I turned on all the lights and stayed up until dawn. I still try very hard not to think about that movie at night when I turn out the lights...(of course, now it's too late, thanks to this thread)


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## barsoomcore (Apr 18, 2004)

Okay, _Poltergeist_ was a pretty special experience for our whole family because the little girl in that (Heather O'Rourke) looked EXACTLY like my little sister at the time. I mean, EXACTLY like. People come over to our house and see pictures of her when she was five and they say, "Hey, you know the little girl from _Poltergeist_? Cool!"

So of course we were all of us completely psychotic at the end of the film. Worst of all though was my little sister, who had just watched herself get sucked into a closet of death.

She still, to this day, cannot sleep if the closet door is open.


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## barsoomcore (Apr 18, 2004)

This isn't a childhood story but it's another great example of how important context can be in a cinematic experience.

I was 18 when _Aliens_ came out. Went to see it in what was (for Vancouver, at least) a pretty new-fangled kind of theatre with super surround sound, big seats and a HUGE walloping screen.

Just so happened that I was sitting directly in front of four or five rows of Army cadets. Who, naturally, got pretty excited when they discovered the movie was going to be about a bunch of military joes JUST LIKE THEM.

Now, _Alien_ still ranks as one of the scariest frickin' movies I'll ever see. It's right up there with _Night of the Living Dead_ as just bad-news scary-a$$ crap that makes my brain freeze right up. So I've spent the first forty-five minutes of the sequel huddled on my big seat, dreading the first time these things are going to show up, because I know exactly how bad it's going to be.

And when they work their unsuspecting patrol all the way down into the bowels of the creatures' lair, and then the bastards start COMING RIGHT OUT OF THE WALLS, well, I must have lost ten pounds in terrified sweat alone.

Immediately added to that was the sudden jolt of adrenalin I received when I nearly got blown into the screen by the ROAR of fifty or sixty freaking out cadets as Vasquez and Drake start rocking and rolling. The rest of the film was a blur, the cadets behind me nearly drowning out the thunderous soundtrack in cheers and screams and laughter all the way through.

One of the greatest cinematic experiences of my life.


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## johnsemlak (Apr 18, 2004)

When I was a kid I saw 'Nightmare on Elm Street' and had trouble sleeping for nights.

I'd probably not be scared by it now though.

As an Adult the creepiest movie I ever saw was Silence of the Lambs.  It was a different kind of creepiness though.


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## Dimwhit (Apr 18, 2004)

The Shining (original Kubric version). I saw it when I was 9 or 10 (when I wasn't supposed to). That movie scared the crap out of me. I still can't sit through the whole thing...


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## Kahuna Burger (Apr 18, 2004)

I have vestigal memories of seeing an old black and white version of the Hunchback of Notre Dame on TV as a small child. I remember almost nothing about the movie (except that the last scene was of him falling) but I know I was *terrified* to sleep that night and probably the one after. And I don't even remember what about the film scared me so much, only the fear itself.   When I heard disney was making it their big cartoon cuteness of the summer I wouldn't even consider seeing it. I barely knew the plot, but in my mind there was no way that story should be a musical with a happy ending.   

Kahuna Burger


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## Villano (Apr 18, 2004)

*Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark*.  Someone mentioned this one before.  A couple buy a old house.  They are told not to remove the metal plate on the chimney in the basement.  Of course, they do and end up releasing some evil, little creatures.

Scared the hell out of me as a kid, especially the ending.  Everyone thinks the wife is insane (since she's the only person to see the things), so she's given a sedative.  She can't move but is still conscious when the creatures start dragging her down into the basement...

*Tourist Trap*.  The film opens with a guy whose car has broken down or run out of gas on a deserted, dirt road.  Walking along, he finds a gas station.  

He looks around, trying to find somebody, when he sees someone lying on a cot with their back to him in a back room.  The man walks up and touches the person.  Suddenly, the "person's" head spins around 180 degrees!  It's a mannequin!   The eyes pop open and it's jaw drops like a ventriloquist's dummy and it screams!   

The guy tries to run out, but the door slams shut.  Everything in the room begins to shake.  The mannequin won't stop screaming.  The closet door opens and another screaming mannequin falls out.  Then a screamming mannequin head comes crashing trough the window.

Finally, a pipe on the floor flies through the air and impales the man through the back.

And that's just the beginning!  

This film is scary because you never know exactly what's going on.   Chuck Conners is crazy and dresses like a little kid?  Screaming and laughing mannequins?  What the hell?!

On TV, there was an episode of *Tales From The Crypt* where David Warner was a child psychologist in a death house where a rotted zombie girl lived.  

Also, does anyone remember Commander USA's Groovie Movies?  Occassionally, he would show this shorts.  Three stick out in my mind:  The woman in the house with the ventriloquist's dummy.   The guy who hears the mannequins in the shop upstairs moving around at night.   And Richard "Rocky Horror Picture Show" O'Brien as a guy who builds a giant mousetrap to commit suicide.

The last one isn't scary per say, but it is unsettling.


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## kingamy (Apr 18, 2004)

_Sleeping Beauty_

When the queen turns into the dragon, she is the most terrifying on-screen depiction I have seen of a dragon, to this day.

Mike Haakstad
Grande Prairie, AB, Canada


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## Iron_Chef (Apr 18, 2004)

Villano said:
			
		

> *Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark*.
> Also, does anyone remember Commander USA's Groovie Movies?  Occassionally, he would show this shorts.  Three stick out in my mind:  The woman in the house with the ventriloquist's dummy.   The guy who hears the mannequins in the shop upstairs moving around at night.   And Richard "Rocky Horror Picture Show" O'Brien as a guy who builds a giant mousetrap to commit suicide.
> 
> The last one isn't scary per say, but it is unsettling.




I loved Commander USA and his pal Lefty (he used his cigar butt to draw a face on his left hand for those of you not in the know). The shorts were great, but you forgot the one about the lady driver who picks up the hitchhiker and gets killed at a stoplight (in the rain?). The dummy in the apartment short was the scariest, though.

And what about USA Network's SATURDAY NIGHTMARES? Every Saturday, they'd show a different horror movie. Saturday was horror day on USA. Commander USA in the mornings, Saturday Nightmares in the evening...


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## Harp (Apr 18, 2004)

I'm relieved to see that I'm not the only one that had issues with Sasquatch as a kid.  I was semi-obsessed, really, and would watch anything that came on related to the beast.  The pattern seemed to be that I'd watch some documentary or low-budget horror movie featuring Sasquatch on a Saturday afternoon.  Then, somehow, I had to try to go to sleep that night.  I was not often successful.  

The one that still stands out in my mind is "The Legend of Boggy Creek", about a bigfoot monster down in the swamps of western Arkansas.  Scared the snot out of me.  My brother managed to find a DVD of the movie and bought it for my birthday last year.  The opening sequence with the young boy beating feet across the farm fields at dusk, with the creature screaming in the background, still touched some deep, primal fear in me.  Too much fun.


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## Alzrius (Apr 18, 2004)

Villano said:
			
		

> On TV, there was an episode of *Tales From The Crypt* where David Warner was a child psychologist in a death house where a rotted zombie girl lived.




I remember that one! It *was* damn scary! I think the only reason it didn't terrify me more was because I watched it with a few other people at the time. But still, it was freaky...


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## Villano (Apr 18, 2004)

Iron_Chef said:
			
		

> I loved Commander USA and his pal Lefty (he used his cigar butt to draw a face on his left hand for those of you not in the know).




The Commander ruled!  You might want to check out this Yahoo Group dedicated to the show: 

http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/commanderusasgrooviemovies/




> And what about USA Network's SATURDAY NIGHTMARES? Every Saturday, they'd show a different horror movie. Saturday was horror day on USA. Commander USA in the mornings, Saturday Nightmares in the evening...




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.


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## Villano (Apr 18, 2004)

Harp said:
			
		

> I'm relieved to see that I'm not the only one that had issues with Sasquatch as a kid.  I was semi-obsessed, really, and would watch anything that came on related to the beast.  The pattern seemed to be that I'd watch some documentary or low-budget horror movie featuring Sasquatch on a Saturday afternoon.  Then, somehow, I had to try to go to sleep that night.  I was not often successful.
> 
> The one that still stands out in my mind is "The Legend of Boggy Creek", about a bigfoot monster down in the swamps of western Arkansas.  Scared the snot out of me.  My brother managed to find a DVD of the movie and bought it for my birthday last year.  The opening sequence with the young boy beating feet across the farm fields at dusk, with the creature screaming in the background, still touched some deep, primal fear in me.  Too much fun.




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.  

We need more scary Bigfoot movies today, me thinks.


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## Andrew D. Gable (Apr 18, 2004)

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.


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## GMSkarka (Apr 19, 2004)

Villano said:
			
		

> 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


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## Kesh (Apr 19, 2004)

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.


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## monkeygrrl (Apr 19, 2004)

tburdett 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.




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*


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## Particle_Man (Apr 19, 2004)

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.


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## Ashwyn (Apr 19, 2004)

I forgot the worst one: The Wall.


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## Joshua Randall (Apr 19, 2004)

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?!)


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## Sarigar (Apr 19, 2004)

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.


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## barsoomcore (Apr 20, 2004)

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

Homer + Rashomon = Not In This Unverse, Baby


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## Harp (Apr 20, 2004)

Villano said:
			
		

> 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.




			
				Villano said:
			
		

> 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.


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## trancejeremy (Apr 20, 2004)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind. For some reason, UFOs have always scared the heck out of me. To this day I still get nightmares about them.


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## Krieg (Apr 20, 2004)

Harp said:
			
		

> The one that still stands out in my mind is "The Legend of Boggy Creek", about a bigfoot monster down in the swamps of western Arkansas.  Scared the snot out of me.  My brother managed to find a DVD of the movie and bought it for my birthday last year.  The opening sequence with the young boy beating feet across the farm fields at dusk, with the creature screaming in the background, still touched some deep, primal fear in me.  Too much fun.




THAT was the film that I associated with CDBs "The Legend of Wooley Swamp" as a child.

I miss the 70's when Bigfoot was a giant hairy monster & not a cuddly house-pet for John Lithgow or some sort of mascot for Sierra Club Jane Goodall wanna-bees! 

The only film to creep me out as an adult?

Misery

God I hate Kathy Bates.


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## demiurge1138 (Apr 20, 2004)

This choice shows both my age (young) and how much of a wuss I was when I was a kid. I mean, here we've got _Alien_, _The Howling_, real classics and movies that were intended to be scary. Mine was...

_The Little Mermaid_.

Especially Ursula the Sea-Witch. Nothing with tentacles should be allowed in Disney movies. Maybe it triggered some deep-seated Fruedian complex in my four-year-old mind, but I was absolutely horrified.

Now, I eat calamari while reading Lovecraft. So either I'm over it, or the complex has merely evolved...

Demiurge out.


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## MaxKaladin (Apr 21, 2004)

Barsoomcore:  I remember that story about the miners in the cabin being attacked too and it creeped me out just like the Patterson film did.  I got creeped out by all sorts of Bigfoot/Alien type stuff, but I went and sought it out anyway.  

I saw Wizard of Oz as a very young kid (preschool age), but I wasn't scared at all.  That's about the only one mentioned here that I can remember seeing prior to my teen years.  Frankly, I just didn't see that many movies when I was a kid, not even the usual Disney stuff.  I've still never seen about 99% of the Disney kids movies.  I think I saw 101 Dalmations once when I was a kid and was in the same room as the Lion King a few years back but that's about it.


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## Ao the Overkitty (Apr 22, 2004)

I'm surprised I didn't see Gremlins on anyone's list. (maybe i just missed it).  But, that's definately on mine.  I had to leave the theatre.
Oh, and the reptile baby on V really scared me too (because of gremlins).

Now, Creature from the Black Lagoon didn't scare me, but my best friend was freaked out by the hand and the mood music.  We got to see it in 3-D at the local arts cinema.


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## Desdichado (Apr 22, 2004)

_Watcher in the Woods_ by Disney of all things.


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## knitnerd (Apr 22, 2004)

*Old Twilight Zone*

One episode of the old B&W Twilight Zone terrified me as a child. Little Girl Lost, where a child fell through a wall into another universe. I wanted to move my bed away from the wall.


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## Harp (Apr 23, 2004)

Ao the Overkitty said:
			
		

> I'm surprised I didn't see Gremlins on anyone's list. (maybe i just missed it).  But, that's definately on mine.  I had to leave the theatre.




Perhaps it's an age thing, but I was about 13 when it came out and remember howling with laughter at some story Phoebe Cates' character told about why she didn't like Christmas.  If I remember correctly, her dad had tried to play Santa one year and had broken his neck when he tried to come down the chimney.  The family didn't find him until weeks later when he started to smell.  Apparently, my mirth was not appreciated by the movie-going crowd and in retrospect was likely not particularly respectful.  But, hey, I was 13 and a bit of a punk.  And for all I know, the scene was meant to be ironic and funny.  I was too young to be able to discern intent at the time and haven't felt the need to go and re-watch the movie.


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## Bill Scott (Apr 23, 2004)

I think the movie that scared me the most as a kid, and still gave me the creeps the last time I saw it which was around ten years ago, was a movie called Shock Waves. It starred Peter Cushing, who was a nazi scientist who was exiled to a deserted island, who created a pack of aquatic zombies. The zombies rising out of the water, even a darkened pool, made me afraid to go swimming a for a few weeks after that. Here is the IMDB link if anyone is interested http://amazon.imdb.com/title/tt0076704/.

As far as tv is concerned, I remember three specific things that scared me but I can't remember what series they were from;

1, Roddy McDowel played a rich young adult who left his father's, or grandfather, window open and he died of exposure. The old man was buried across the way in the family cemetary. In the house, there was a painting which showed the front of the house and cemetary. Now every time the RM character looked at the painting, which he does several times, he sees the old guy climb out of the grave and walk closer and closer to the house.      

2, A man killed his wife and partner and buried their bodies under the tool shed out in the yard. Then he hears scratching noises coming from it. He checks it out and sees that the graves are disturbed. Thats all I remember of this show but I remember it scared the crap out of me as a kid

3, A movie tech, I can't remember what field, finds out that actual ghosts of movie monsters are killing off the people he works with. To stop these ghosts, he has to break into the film warehouse and burn the movie


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## GoodKingJayIII (Apr 23, 2004)

I watched _Aliens_ when I was 8.  I still have nightmares about facehuggers, chestbursters, and being chased around by the huge drones from time to time.

Watching it now, at age 21, still kinda freaks me out.

_E.T._, _Close Encounters_, and _Jurassic Park_ all kinda got to me as well.  Steven Spielberg must have it out for me or something...

And let's not forget _They Live_.  Although that movie was kinda cool.


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## Castor-Pollux Galae (Apr 23, 2004)

*Movies that scared me*

Well, little Castor-Pollux was a bit of a messed up girl.

The MGM lion scared the nine hells out of me for some reason... I'd hide every time it came on. 

And Old Yeller scared me a lot, my quote was apparently, "He turned into a Yion and they shot him." (I couldn't say "L"s)

Oh, and the Twilight zone where the little boy has all the powers and he turns his dad into a jack-in-the box.  

The scene with the wolf in Never Ending Story scared me a lot too.

Now that I'm all grown up I'm just scared of zombie movies, but for some reason I can't help but watch them. I've seen them all, almost, except for the really bad ones.  

And the Japanese version of the Ring... aaaaaah!  I thought it was much creepier than the American version.  I definately had to sleep with the light on afterwards... and my television off. 

Oh, and Naked lunch.  That scared me in a special way.   

That being said, does anyone know where I can get an army of robot-ninja zombies?


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## Aeolius (Apr 23, 2004)

WayneLigon said:
			
		

> 'Don't Be Afraid of The Dark'. TV-movie. Scared the living crap out of me, and by God it's still creepy today.




"Saaaallllyyyy.......Saaaaallllyyyy....."



			
				Hand of Evil said:
			
		

> The Abominable Dr. Pilbes - his 'traps' freaked me out.




That one ranks as my all time favorite flick.  "Theater of Blood" is up there, as well. 



			
				Ao the Overkitty said:
			
		

> ...Creature from the Black Lagoon didn't scare me, but my best friend was freaked out by the hand and the mood music.




   When I was 5 or 6, "Creature From the Black Lagoon" came on an afternoon show called "Sci Fi Flicks" (it's theme "Popcorn" by Hot Butter remains my favorite song to this day). After watching Creature, I stayed awake all night with the covers pulled tightly over my head. For some reason, that experience changed me. From the time I was 8 years old, I enjoyed staying up past midnight to watch the cheesiest of B-flicks on network TV.


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## Mercule (Apr 23, 2004)

johnsemlak said:
			
		

> When I was a kid I saw 'Nightmare on Elm Street' and had trouble sleeping for nights.
> 
> I'd probably not be scared by it now though.



But you don't know, do you? Heh.

NoES scared the crap out of me, too. I tried watching it few years back again and was fine until she started dreaming in class. Of course, my problem may have something to do with the fact I was alone at home -- and my home, as one of my good friends put it, "looks like the house from Psycho".

This thread reminded me of one of my blunders as a parent. Back in February or so, my wife took my off to see her family for a weekend, but I stayed back. We decided that it would be fun for my oldest daughter (age 3 1/2) to stay home and have some bonding time with Daddy.

I don't remember what movie we were supposed to go see at the 2nd run theatre, but when we got there it had just come down. My daughter was so excited about seeing a movie in a big theatre, though, that we looked at what was there.

She's pretty mature for her age, so I figured she could handle a kid-friendly PG movie -- especially one based on a Disney ride and starring Eddie Murphy (in his new, family-oriented career). Besides, _Haunted Mansion_ was the only option other than going home and she liked the poster.

She was fine until the crypt scene. Heck, she was fine with the first zombie. It was when oodles and oodles of zombies burst from the walls and swarmed everyone that she freaked. So, now I need to go rent it to see the rest. All she'd say for the next hour was, "That was scary."

Tough girl, though. She insisted on sleeping in her own room that night. And she doesn't have a night-light.

Edit:  Oh, yeah.  She thinks the dragon in Sleeping Beauty is a hoot.


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## Villano (Apr 23, 2004)

Bill Scott said:
			
		

> I think the movie that scared me the most as a kid, and still gave me the creeps the last time I saw it which was around ten years ago, was a movie called Shock Waves. It starred Peter Cushing, who was a nazi scientist who was exiled to a deserted island, who created a pack of aquatic zombies. The zombies rising out of the water, even a darkened pool, made me afraid to go swimming a for a few weeks after that. Here is the IMDB link if anyone is interested http://amazon.imdb.com/title/tt0076704/.




That's one of my favorite movies of all time.  The zombies rising out of the water are creepy.  



> As far as tv is concerned, I remember three specific things that scared me but I can't remember what series they were from;
> 
> 1, Roddy McDowel played a rich young adult who left his father's, or grandfather, window open and he died of exposure. The old man was buried across the way in the family cemetary. In the house, there was a painting which showed the front of the house and cemetary. Now every time the RM character looked at the painting, which he does several times, he sees the old guy climb out of the grave and walk closer and closer to the house.




The Night Gallery pilot.  There were 3 stories, I think, but the only other one I remember is where a rich, blind woman buys a man's eyes.  Spielberg directed that one, I believe.    



> 3, A movie tech, I can't remember what field, finds out that actual ghosts of movie monsters are killing off the people he works with. To stop these ghosts, he has to break into the film warehouse and burn the movie




The only thing that rings a bell is an episode of Friday The 13th The Series.  A student gets an old camera that lets him bring to life the Wolfman.  Later he turns into a werewolf himself.  They had to strangle him with the movie film (which was silver nitrate).

Also, Roger Corman's made-for-tv movie for AMC, The Phantom Eye, has a similar plot.  I never saw the whole thing.  I really wish someone would release this on DVD.


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## Thorntangle (Apr 24, 2004)

Phantasm definitely.  It was so far beyond the veil of anything I had seen at the time.  A flying ball guardian.  Dead people shipped off to another dimension as Jawas.  Tall, gaunt mortician staring at you.  Sheer genius.

Original Dawn of the Dead.  Watched in on Beta at 1:00 in the morning by myself.  Big mistake.

And much younger, Wizard of Oz.  Like many others, I just couldn't stay in the room and watch that movie.  It was just so old and creepy.  Midgets and witches.  Wicked, the book, made up for it.


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## Andrew D. Gable (Apr 24, 2004)

Villano said:
			
		

> There were 3 stories, I think




I think the one was about an ex-Nazi who gets lost in Buenos Aires or something and gets stalked by Jews.  Or something like that.  I remember it was definitely a Nazi in South America, not sure about the rest.  I recall the segment ended with a watercolor picture or something of the Nazi's corpse strung up.  I haven't seen that movie for a while...


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## Fiery James (Apr 24, 2004)

WayneLigon said:
			
		

> .
> 
> 'Don't Be Afraid of The Dark'. TV-movie. Scared the living crap out of me, and by God it's still creepy today.




Is that the movie with the little monkey-guys who live in the walls and basement?  If so, my sister and I still talk about it, like 20 years later.  I'd love to have a copy of that some day!

- JB


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## Richards (Apr 24, 2004)

Yep, that's the one.

Johnathan


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## TracerBullet42 (Apr 24, 2004)

*I'm so lame!*

Darn near everything scared me as a child.  The earliest thing I "remember" being scared of was "Who Framed Roger Rabbit".  Judge Doom was too much for me.  I demanded to leave the theater.  I'll bet E.T. freaked me out too...but I can't remember that far back.  But nearly everything freaked me out.  Most things still do.

Heck, I was scared the night I saw Signs...funny story...

I had seen Signs in the afternoon.  It's good to see scary movies earlier, because when you leave the theater and it is still daylight when you come out, it's just easier to handle for some reason.  It was bright and sunny when I entered that theater.  I handled the movie fine, I thought.  Didn't cover my eyes or anything.  Then it came time to leave.  Wouldn't you know it, but a storm rolled in while I was in the theater.  It was dark, rainy, and just downright scary outside when I left.  So I went with my friends back to their house and we played some video games and whatnot for much of the evening...and night...and then it got to be really late and time to go home.  No problem, I could handle it.  As long as I'm with company, I do just fine.  I drove my friend home, dropped him off...and then I was alone...and then my imagination took over.  It was dark, rainy, and really creepy and everywhere I looked I swore I could see the silouettes of aliens running around.  I race home, and pull up into my driveway, my mind racing to get inside the safety of my home.  I fling open the door and sprint into the house.  Standing just inside the door are my two older brothers...who immediately ask, "What's the matter?  It looked like you just pulled up half a second ago?"  I merely said, "I saw Signs today."  They understood...and gave me grief.  And I occasionally still get grief about it.  Ready for the saddest part of the story?  I'm 26.  So I was probably 23-24 at the time...

And I still get freaked out by scary movies...



			
				Castor-Pollux Galae said:
			
		

> And the Japanese version of the Ring... aaaaaah!  I thought it was much creepier than the American version.  I definately had to sleep with the light on afterwards... and my television off.




That's my way of getting to sleep when scared...I leave my tv on.  So I had better NEVER watch "The Ring".


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## Mercule (Apr 24, 2004)

TracerBullet42 said:
			
		

> That's my way of getting to sleep when scared...I leave my tv on. So I had better NEVER watch "The Ring".



That's a fact.

I don't creep easily.  For the next week after seeing "The Ring", I looked sidelong at the TV all the time.  Even now, it kinda gives me the heebie-jeebies.

Of course, it wouldn't really matter if you kept your TV on or off, since it'll turn itself on when it's time.


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## TracerBullet42 (Apr 24, 2004)

Mercule said:
			
		

> Of course, it wouldn't really matter if you kept your TV on or off, since it'll turn itself on when it's time.




See...just _READING_ that is enough to creep me out...some night I'll roll over onto my remote, turn the tv on, and wake up screaming...thank you very much.

Although I'd probably scream anyway, even if you hadn't said that.  So, um...carry on.

And yes, I know I'm a pansy.


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## TracerBullet42 (Apr 24, 2004)

Oh, and I'd like to add that the Michael Jackson "Thriller" video scared me as a child too...

And Michael Jackson scares me now.  Now HE'S frightening...

And yes, I just thought of that because South Park is on right now and the Zombie Jackson is featured in it...


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## Bill Scott (Apr 24, 2004)

Villano said:
			
		

> The Night Gallery pilot.  There were 3 stories, I think, but the only other one I remember is where a rich, blind woman buys a man's eyes.  Spielberg directed that one, I believe.
> 
> The only thing that rings a bell is an episode of Friday The 13th The Series.  A student gets an old camera that lets him bring to life the Wolfman.  Later he turns into a werewolf himself.  They had to strangle him with the movie film (which was silver nitrate).




I have no doubt that you're right on the Night Gallery thing but the second and third items goes way back before the Friday the 13th series. I recall that I watched them between the mid 70s to early 80s. I think the show was called either Chillers or Thriller, if I'm not mistaken, which was in a similiar series to Night Gallery


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## Haradim (Apr 24, 2004)

Bill Scott said:
			
		

> 1, Roddy McDowel played a rich young adult who left his father's, or grandfather, window open and he died of exposure. The old man was buried across the way in the family cemetary. In the house, there was a painting which showed the front of the house and cemetary. Now every time the RM character looked at the painting, which he does several times, he sees the old guy climb out of the grave and walk closer and closer to the house.




One of the few shows I can recall offhand that freaked me out.

In fact, it still kinda creeps me out; the memory of it returns to me often...

The American version of The Ring (haven't watched the Japanese version...yet) gave me the chills as well. Weird events and creepy backstory slowly build up to what would have been the ending in a good number of movies...and then you realise the movie isn't over, and that this particular supernatural nasty isn't easy to get rid of...

I'm sure there are others, but I tend to get more chilled than really scared, so they may not have stuck as easily in my memory.


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## MaxKaladin (Apr 24, 2004)

Mercule said:
			
		

> Of course, it wouldn't really matter if you kept your TV on or off, since it'll turn itself on when it's time.



It's a good thing I haven't seen (and don't intend to see) this movie.  See, my TV has this feature that allows me to program it to turn itself on at a preset time.  I use it along with my alarm clock to wake myself up in the morning but I can see how that could really creep someone out given what you're saying about this movie.


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## Villano (Apr 24, 2004)

Andrew D. Gable said:
			
		

> I think the one was about an ex-Nazi who gets lost in Buenos Aires or something and gets stalked by Jews.  Or something like that.  I remember it was definitely a Nazi in South America, not sure about the rest.  I recall the segment ended with a watercolor picture or something of the Nazi's corpse strung up.  I haven't seen that movie for a while...




Okay, this jogged my memory.  It's about a Nazi (head of a concentration camp) hiding in South America, on the run from the Isrealis.  Everyday he goes to a museum and stares at a painting of a man fishing on a placid lake and wishes he could be inside the painting.

When the Isrealis track him down, he ends up at the museum.  He throws himself down in front of the picture and begs God to place him inside of it. Finally, he looks up and screams.

Museum guards are attracted by the screaming and run to the spot, only to find no one there.  Then we discover that the museum has rearranged the displays.  Where the fisherman picture once hung is now a painting of the Holocaust, with a jew crucified in the foreground.  The camera zooms in on the picture we see that the jew is now the Nazi, screaming in agony for all eternity.


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