Beast master

I was really into He-Man and honestly all things medieval so thought it'd be great for me, but that film kinda fucked me up for a while as a wee one.

I dunno what the movie was called, I was 7 and had fallen asleep in front of the TV. When I woke up there two 'grey' aliens of in hindsight terrible costumes crouching in some bushes.

I had never seen a depiction of a grey alien before that and my uncanny valley sensor peaked higher than ever at any other point in my life and I ran to my room without even shutting off the tv.

It's funny to look back and remember that as a moment of legit fear, knowing what I do now.

My family bought in to cable television very early on, and we had HBO as part of the service. My parents forbid me from watching it alone, but of course that just upped the intrigue and I would sneak viewings when they weren't around.

The first mistake was The Thing. I had no idea what the movie was about, and so the first part of the film seemed unremarkable; they're at an arctic base, there's the shootout, all relatively tame. Then the dog scene. Holy crap that one is burned into my memory forever. I was utterly terrified but glued to the screen. That gave me screaming nightmares for a bit but I could never admit what the issue was, since I wasn't supposed to have watched it!

The second a few years later was Aliens. Wasn't nearly as bad of an experience but the scene with the people glued to the walls in the tunnel was a bit much. I recovered from that one much quicker than The Thing.

Horror Express and Poltergeist, or how to gain a fear of of glowing red eyes in the dark, televisions, closets, windows near trees, and mirrors.

The Brood, the captures of the film adverted at our movie theater fucked me up as a kid and I will never watch it.

Alien & Aliens by the 4th grade, the Terminators, Robocop...I had action figures for all those movies.

I also learned a lot from USA Up All Night.

Also got into my dad's playboy stash in the 3rd grade.

~~Homey the Clown~~ Shakes the Clown. Dad took that shit out after three lines. Maybe. The movie started with a group of clowns/men discussing their pussy preferences.

I caught Robocop 2 on late night cable at some point when I was definitely too young to see the scene when the criminal robot picks up his girlfriend by her head and snaps her neck.

Death Wish (1974). There is a rape/murder scene at the beginning that really affected me as a seven or eight year old. It made me afraid of NYC as well lol.

My mom took me to watch Superman (with Christopher Reeves). I was 3. I had to sleep with the light on for 2 years because the moment I was in the dark, my brain would freak out giving me flashbacks of the movie very bright scenes.

Basically I had cinematic PTSD at 3yo.