Movies that Terrified you when you saw them as a kid

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foghorn67

Lifer
Jan 3, 2006
11,885
53
91
Arachnophobia. I saw it when I was 7, and for the next 10 years I was convinced that anything with 8 legs was instant death. That movie made me so paranoid that I would check under the toilet seat every time I used it. I was convinced they would get me in the shower, or crawl into my shoes, or hats, or food; if I saw a spider anywhere, I would run screaming from the room. And the insomnia from spider-based nightmares? Forget about it. I'm fine with spiders now, but I'm pretty sure that my parents wanted to kill the film-makers for just how much that traumatized me during my formative years. Apparently it's a comedy, but it will always be the most terrifying movie I ever saw.

Jaws was pretty bad too. I would be scared of running into sharks in the deep end of swimming pools. Or my bathtub. It was ridiculous. If I was taking a shower and closed my eyes and got an image of a shark, I'd have to leave the shower immediately. Actually, between being afraid of sharks and spiders getting me while I bathed, I spent a good portion of my childhood extremely filthy. Not much has changed, really...
I saw the Jaws movies thinking nothing of it. But it crept in later. I would have nightmares about sharks. Only scared of it during bedtime. Never really got me when I swam though.
My dad cured it when he re-enacted the landshark bit from SNL. Funny as hell.
 

dwell

pics?
Oct 9, 1999
5,189
2
0
When I was a kid my brothers told me this was a real guy and there was a wanted poster at the post office for him. The fact that it looked old and stuff made it seem more scary and real.

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Also when I was like 9 or 10 my brother made me watch Night of the Living Dead which scared the shit out of me and gave me nightmares for years and years after. Loved it though.
 

KidNiki1

Platinum Member
Oct 15, 2010
2,887
126
116
Alien.
I thought I was just a little weirded out by it, but when my brother woke up in the middle of the night later that week crying from a nightmare, I was CONVINCED he was being eaten by an alien. Freaked me out.

Also Carrie, Phantasm, Rosemary's Baby and It's Alive.
 

sourceninja

Diamond Member
Mar 8, 2005
8,805
65
91
I've never been scared of horror movies, but I did once have a re-occuring nightmare about being murdered in a corn field by Joe Pesci.
 

purbeast0

No Lifer
Sep 13, 2001
52,834
5,713
126
aliens
the fly
nightmare on elm street
friday the 13th
salems lot
it
the shining
children of the corn
the omen
pet semetary
candy man

my dad watched a lot of horror movies and he let us watch em, and they used to scare the shit out of me. however that said, i love horror movies to this day and i really don't get scared at all, especially w/these new "horror" movies that aren't even trying to be scary other than making you jump.
 

BrownShoes

Golden Member
Dec 28, 2008
1,055
0
0
The Beast Within was my scariest movie as a child.
It's being streamed on Netflix now and it's just corny.
 

Squisher

Lifer
Aug 17, 2000
21,207
66
91
Psycho, parents took me to the drive-in figuring I'd be asleep as usual before the feature started. I stayed up. I don't think they even noticed.
 

cardiac

Platinum Member
Oct 9, 1999
2,090
14
81
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (The original) I couldn't cut wood with a chainsaw for 20 years!
 

MagnusTheBrewer

IN MEMORIAM
Jun 19, 2004
24,135
1,594
126
The Sorcerer's Apprentice from Fantasia. I never did trust the broom under the stairs after that.
 

Paladin3

Diamond Member
Mar 5, 2004
4,933
877
126
The Exorcist (1973) scared me pretty bad when I saw it at about 11 or 12. I didn't see it again until my freshman year in college when it played in the student lounge.
 

qliveur

Diamond Member
Mar 25, 2007
4,087
69
91
Heheh, I watched 'Return of the Living Dead' when I was about 6 or 7, and it scared the bejeez out of me. Of course I grew to love it as one of the great comedies of the past 30 years, but at the time it freaked the hell out of me.
Mine was Creepshow. There was just something about slimy, half-rotten, reanimated corpses that really freaked me out when I was a kid. I couldn't sleep for days after watching it, and it was supposed to be funny.
 

2Dead

Senior member
Feb 19, 2005
886
1
81
Poltergeist when I was 6 or 7. There was a tree outside my bedroom that had its shadow cast on the window shades due to streetlights outside and was always swaying in the wind.