To be fair, Event Horizon scared me as an adult.
In the vein of “kids are stupid”, the Never-Ending Story scene with the sphinxes.
The Blair Witch Project. My cousin told me it was actual found footage, which was a terrifying thought for 10 year old me.
That was the whole point. They even made the actors stay out of public view for a year, handing out flyers at Sundance that they were "missing, presumed dead". There were fake police interviews on the film's website and everything. This was the first time anything like this had been done so I can imagine people were really invested in this movie and thought it was real.
They also "leaked" copies of the film for months before it came out. I saw a leaked copy in the dorms in college. Never heard of it, my friends told me it was real footage that had been found in the woods from a group that had been lost. For the first... probably half of the movie, I was convinced it was real.
Very enjoyable experience. I feel bad for all the people who saw it after the hype and were too cool to let themselves be scared by it.
Honestly? ET scared little me more than it probably should have! That little bastard could pop up anywhere and looked even creepier when he was sick.
Hate that guy.
100% agree, this was going to be my answer. I still occasionally have night terrors about him and I'm in my mid-30s.
You're so right about how creepy he looked when he was sick - all pale and white like a 1980s dog poo.
I can't believe I just scrolled through 77 responses and nobody said "Poltergeist" yet!
Creepy clown on the chair, monster unter the bed, tree tapping at the window, coffins in the pool, whispers in the dark ("Get... out..."), little girl staring at static on the TV, etc. So much of it has become tropes now, but that's because they were so effective the first time!
The first Resident Evil movie. Not because of the zombies, it was the laser scene that got to me. I was convinced that lasers would come out of any reflective surface to get me. I didn't like how they seemed to react to the guy avoiding them, making it impossible for him to escape, like they were intelligent and trying to kill him.
Gremlins. My family will likely never stop making fun of me for it: "Hurr durr but it's a DISNEY movie!!1!"
Fuck you, I was traumatized.
but its PG? /s
(fun fact, Gremlins and Temple of Doom are why we have the PG-13 rating in the states)
Also, Gremlins isn't a Disney movie. It was produced by WB and Amblin.
The original aliens movie, saw it when I was far too young and was already scared of aliens haha.
two movies came to me pretty vividly,
Spirited Away (2001), no-face is pretty scary even now, but the scene that disturbs me is at the beginning when Chihiro came back and find her parents have turned into pigs...
MirrorMask (2005), fittingly I watched this when I was sick with high fever and for so long I thought this movie was a fever dream, it haunted me for days until my fever subsides. I don't remember anything about the plot, just that the atmosphere and aesthetic are nauseating
Ernest scared stupid... Don't ask me why, I just remember I couldn't watch it entirely, and I would hide behind my older brothers. It just freaked me out!
The Wizard of Oz. Flying monkeys, evil witch, big green head.
Pee Wee's Big Adventure. The whole movie is a trip, but specifically the Large Marge scene freaked me out for a long time growing up.
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Time Bandits. Because of that move my childhood was plagued with nightmares about little people from out of time invading my room in the middle of the night.
Oh, man, Event Horizon was such a movie. "Where we're going, we won't need eyes" haunted me for a long time. And I had no idea it was gonna be a horror movie when I watched it.
Anyway, besides that one, the original Nightmare on Elm Street did me good. It was one of the first horror movies I ever watched, as my dad wanted to share it once he deemed me old enough. There's something so terrifying about having to stay awake to not be murdered, but being powerless to do so. The most terrifying scene to me was the couple, where the woman got dragged across the ceiling and then the guy got arrested for her murder.
I'm pretty old, but it was both Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist.
Holy shit. We'd never seen anything like that before
My babysitter showed me Critters (in secret) when I was 5. Rather than be scarred, she turned me into a avid horror fan. I saw all the 80's classics when I was way too young for them thanks to HBO and Cinemax.
None phased me.
Laughably, what finally got me was so mild. In Poltergeist 2 or 3, there's a scene where the kid's reflection no longer mimics his own movements. It's not even the scare, but rather the set-up.
I started staring at mirrors when I was alone, just waiting for my reflection to break into a sinister smile. My fear was, when it did, what would I do? No adult would believe me. Mirrors are unavoidable. Something supernatural would be after me. I knew I wouldn't be able to pull off some "final girl" shit IRL.
Jurassic Park. I was young and watched it at the cinema. I was limp with terror. On my mother's lap.
I don't remember any nightmares after, but still remember the t-rex and the car scene as particularly terrifying
Pet Cemetery.
But not, like, the zombie cat, zombie dog, or zombie kid. What scared me shitless was the short little flashback of the wife's sick sister in bed.
Arachnophobia
The Witches (1990). The kids trapped in the picture frames at the beginning gave me nightmares for weeks.
The Thing
Fire in the Sky. It's about an alien abduction and the dude has PTSD and flashbacks throughout. Ruined maple syrup for me for a long time.
Another victim to Event Horizon here, man that film fucked me up for a while.
I'm stretching the definition of "movie", but MJ's Thriller caused me to start screaming when I wandered over to MTV while watching Mr Rogers. My mother ran in and changed the channel. It was on the transformation scene. Whoo!
Watership Down. It's supposed to be a kids movie but damn is it dark.
gotta agree on event horizon, I loved scary movies but that one was something else.
Pee-wee's Big Adventure. (Hear me out)
This was back in the 80s, when TV screens were glass and shooting a suction cup gun at it was the pinnacle of child entertainment. On one of my retrieval trips, when I was arms length from the screen, Large Marge made "the face." I screamed and ran. I couldn't watch the movie for years afterward. I still get minor anxiety to this day.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? I went for the cartoon characters. The reveal for Judge Doom near the end was terrifying.
The ring. I had a tv in my bedroom... Dear god I did not sleep the next weeks
The ring.
Poltergeist. Hated that fucking movie so much. The tall gangly pale man with the wide smile and ghastly voice, that... Thing in the spirit world. Etc
Pan's Lanyrinth. The Pale Man haunted 12yo -me's nightmares for a long time.
Legend (1985). Tim Curry is a brilliant villain.
I am legend
The post apocalyptic movie with Will Smith.
The eerie way the monsters looked, plus the way they stood in a circle in the dark building. It really scared the shit out of me as a kid.
Threads, Growing up near Sheffield and watched it when I was about 12...
Salem's Lot (the 1979 mini series). The window scene with the floating kid messed me up real good.
When I was a child, Pet Sematary scared the living hell out of me.
I watched The Ring and The Grudge when I was 12. I had trouble sleeping for the next year or two because I kept imagining I could see Kayako watching me from the ceiling of my closet, and slept with the TV on because it scared me less than the blank screen.
I was not a smart child.
Sound of Music. Still does. Those fucking puppets. I have to leave the room for that scene when my wife watches it.
GREMLINS scared the shit out of me
Definitely Stephen King's IT, the 90's miniseries. Tim Curry is absolutely terrifying as Pennywise. That lip curl he does when he says "Oh yes, Georgie, they float".
Little shop of horrors (the musical). I was maybe 5 when I saw it. I was terrified of plants for a while afterwards, which was a problem because I lived on a farm.
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