Share your childhood memories of movies that scared the hell out of you!

[Greg Cox]

There's an age where you're at an ideally vulnerable to being super freaked out by a horror movie. Too young and you can't really comprehend what's happening on the screen, too old and you're mature enough to handle it, but when a scary movie hits you at that sweet spot:

With me, it was "Count Yorga." With my brother, it was "Trog" with Joan Crawford. With my sister, it was "The Last Man on Earth" with Vincent Price . ....

(Yes, we saw a lot of drive-in movies back in the day.)

 

[Nerys Myk]

My dad would only take us to the drive in. He hated walk in/seated theaters.

 

[Awesome Possum]

Two things scared me as a child. One was the chestburster from Aliens and that part where the Queen Alien stabs her tail through Bishop and rips him in half. I somehow got the impression that the chestburster was the tail and the Queen was just going around killing people with it. I was also pretty sure that it was hiding under my bed waiting to do the same to me.

Also E.T., mainly that bit where Elliot finds him in the cornfield and he screams. I never could get past that scene for years.

 

[sojourner]

It's funny, the earliest thing I can remember being scared of as a kid was on an episode of In Search Of with Leonard Nimoy. It was an episode about ghosts. If you've ever seen an episode they would have re-enactments of eyewitness accounts. One of the accounts told of a woman in her room at night having just gone to bed. The lights were on and as she looked over at her open closet she saw a face appear and then it looked like "someone" walked past the closet door opening from inside the closet. That re-enactment scared the daylights out of me and for years I had a fear of closets at night.

Other than that, slasher/monster/jump scare films never bothered me. Supernatural stuff like The Exorcist and The Shining are scared me and I still can't really watch those at night, at least not alone.

 

[Awesome Possum]

All those paranormal shows about alien abductions used to horrify me. Especially Unsolved Mysteries and Sightings, both did some pretty great re-enactments. Just something about the greys just deeply terrifies me. I think it's the eyes.

 

[retroenzo]

Not really one for horror but I have watched two films when I was younger that gave me sleepless nights.

The first was Poltergeist. To be honest I was fine all the way up until the last scene but the ghostly skeletons did it for me. Slept with the lights on for the next week after that.

The second was Ghostwatch. It wasn't a film as such but was broadcast one Hallowe'en on BBC TV in the UK in the early 90s. It was presented as a live broadcast from a haunted house and instead of starring actors, it starred British TV presenters of the era (Michael Parkinson, Mike Smith, Sarah Greene). Although I worked out half way through that it wasn't real, there were several scenes unnerving enough to give me nightmares for weeks. Incidentally I have since re-watched this special and it is still scary now.

The only other film I saw which unnerved me was The Andromeda Strain - but that was only because of the unsettling images of the virus at work.

 

[USS Firefly]

Predator. I 8 or 9, when Blaine is shot in the back and his whole chest explodes.
I didn't like trees for a long time.
And I whould't advise anyone to watch Jaws before going to the see

 

[Aragorn]

The Punky Brewster Halloween special was not a family-friendly sitcom experience at all.

 

[Mage]

Also E.T., mainly that bit where Elliot finds him in the cornfield and he screams. I never could get past that scene for years.

Me too!! I was so scared of ET for so long.
Another one for me was (although I didn't know at the time) The Wrath Of Khan. I must have or something, and I remember seeing the scene with the Ceti Alpha earworms... freaked me out. About 6 or 7 years later I became a total Star Trek fan.

 

[Greg Cox]

My dad would only take us to the drive in. He hated walk in/seated theaters.

What was his objection? We mostly did drive-ins as kids, but my dad and I saw lots of horror movies in theaters when I older: Carrie, The Thing, The Fog, The Fury . . ..

And, yes, Carrie, scared the heck out of me, too. My heart was still pounding walking out to the parking lot afterwards.

 

[Nerys Myk]

What was his objection? We mostly did drive-ins as kids, but my dad and I saw lots of horror movies in theaters when I older: Carrie, The Thing, The Fog, The Fury . . ..

And, yes, Carrie, scared the heck out of me, too. My heart was still pounding walking out to the parking lot afterwards.

I was never sure. He was a smoker, so maybe that had something to do with it.

 

[Kor]

I found E.T. The Extra-terrestrial to be quite terrifying. I was a sensitive kid, so sue me.

Kor

 

[Admiral2]

All those paranormal shows about alien abductions used to horrify me. Especially Unsolved Mysteries and Sightings, both did some pretty great re-enactments. Just something about the greys just deeply terrifies me. I think it's the eyes.

Which brings me to my pick: Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

I get that these are supposed to be the nice greys cause they talk with music and bring all the abductees back. It's easy to get in your forties.

I first saw it when I was like seven. I stayed up two nights straight waiting to hear "boo-bee-bee-boo-boo" and see lights out my bedroom window...

 

[Awesome Possum]

Which brings me to my pick: Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

I get that these are supposed to be the nice greys cause they talk with music and bring all the abductees back. It's easy to get in your forties.

I first saw it when I was like seven. I stayed up two nights straight waiting to hear "boo-bee-bee-boo-boo" and see lights out my bedroom window...

That giant one at the end was scary as hell to me. Now it just looks like a proto-E.T.

 

[locutus101]

I found E.T. The Extra-terrestrial to be quite terrifying. I was a sensitive kid, so sue me.

Kor

When you stop to think about it. Clowns are kinda creepy, especially if you are a kid.

 

[dahj]

Clowns are kinda creepy, especially if you are a kid.

Clowns are always creepy.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I was a bit scared by the clown doll under the bed in Poltergeist, but I was an adult. (mostly)

 

[lurok]

I remember catching Christopher Lee's Dracula on TV, and it scaring the living **** out of me. Had genuine terror nightmares of vampires after, resulting in tears.

Ironically, as grew older, came to absolutely love vampire genre both in literature and film and couldn't get enough.

 

[LJones41]

The child snatcher from "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" scared me so much that I have yet to recover from that fright.

 

[Greg Cox]

I was never sure. He was a smoker, so maybe that had something to do with it.

Sounds like a plausible theory. My dad was a heavy smoker--even after he supposedly quit.