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

[auntiehill]

The earliest was probably the witch in Snow White. I was pre-school age (4/5?) and we saw Snow White in the theater. We then went to Disneyland and my mother said I screamed through the entire Snow White ride.

The one I remember the best is the 1931 Dracula with Bela Lugosi. It was on TV some Sunday afternoon and I sat and watched it by myself. I think I was in 2nd grade; it scared the crap outta me.

I also remember the child-catcher "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" and Marley's Ghost from A Christmas Carol. I don't even remember which version it was; I just remember cowering behind the sofa because Marley's screaming scared me silly.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

This used to freak me out as a kid. Not the movie, just the commercial. They're men turned inside out! Ah, simpler days.

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[sojourner]

^

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Marley's Ghost from A Christmas Carol. I don't even remember which version it was; I just remember cowering behind the sofa because Marley's screaming scared me silly.

I remember seeing A Christmas Carol on stage at the Omaha Community Playhouse and being scared shitless by Marley rising out of the stage floor. Also the Ghost of Christmas Future creeped me out as well.

Although the film version with Albert Finney scared me even more, specifically the bit where Scrooge dreams that he falls into his own grave and ends up in hell.

 

[JD]

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.

God, I don't think I could count how many nights I had trouble sleeping because of Unsolved Mysteries when I was young. The big ones for me were the alien abduction stories, the Chubacabra, and Big Foot. At the same time, I think watching so many of those at a young and having such a strong reaction to them, has actually made me interested in Cryptozoology as an adult.
I just remembered a nothing movie that freaked me out as a kid, The Never-Ending Story. Gmort and the Darkness scared the shit out of me, and then the movie also has one of the most traumatic scenes in any movie ever. I know he comes back to life in the end, but damn.... Morla also used to kind of freak me out. Actually quite a bit of stuff that movie that freaked me out.
I've never actually watched it, but just from the clips and stuff I've seen and heard about online, I'm pretty sure The Wheelers in Return to Oz would have scared the shit out of me when I was a kid.

 

[Greg Cox]

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

You and an entire generation of kids.

 

[Mage]

I always thought I was the only one scared of abduction as a kid. Close Encounters freaked me the f*** out as a kid. I still get a bit unnerved whenever I see something with a Grey in it, simply because of remembering how I hated them as a kid.

 

[Trekkin]

As a very little kid ('couldn't tie my own shoelaces' little) I remember watching an interview with Johnny Depp.

During the interview, the show played a clip of this scene:



Even though the editors had the sense to cut the scene off before blood started spraying everywhere, and even though I had no idea what the scene was actually from... it was years before I felt comfortable sleeping on my back again.

Now Nightmare on Elm Street is one of my favourite movies. Go figure.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

^ Freddy was just trying to save him from that 19" TV crushing his crotch as he slept. He just forgot to take his glove off first.

 

[P Tom]

The scene from Ghost (the one starring Patrick Swayze & Demi Moore) where the demons drag the dead murderer's soul to hell was very frightening to the young me. Basically the movie made me hate its theme song for years

 

[Velocity]

My kids were traumatized by Large Marge in PeeWee's Big Adventure.

 

[Silvercrest]

I just remembered a nothing movie that freaked me out as a kid, The Never-Ending Story. Gmort and the Darkness scared the shit out of me

I misread and thought it said Gnort. Although he's pretty scary too.

Saw parts of Poltergeist and Altered States when I was 13 or so and they really freaked me out. But as a child: the movie which really spooked me, which they kept showing on Saturday-afternoon reruns, was The Skull with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Skulls and skeletons really had that effect on me back then. Although perversely they fascinated me as well.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

There's a scene in The Spiral Staircase when the mute woman's mouth disappears. That scared me.

The Exorcist also scared me.

As did The Night Stalker.

I'm pretty sure that my dad was watching The Haunting when I was a kid, because when I watched it years later I recognized the sounds from it. Those, or similar loud crashes coming from the TV out in the den, really scared me as a kid while I was lying in bed.

 

[Trekfan12]

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

Kor

I LOVED ET I still do. For once an Alien that wasn't hell bent on destroying Earth. He just wanted to phone home.

 

[Trekfan12]

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 can't watch horror movies. it's not my genre

 

[Jax]

Anytime Pennywise appeared on my screen as a Kid terrified me.

The scene in Alien when Dallas is in the air ducts/tunnels and turns around and the creature attacks.

 

[Greg Cox]

But as a child: the movie which really spooked me, which they kept showing on Saturday-afternoon reruns, was The Skull with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Skulls and skeletons really had that effect on me back then. Although perversely they fascinated me as well.

Based on a story by Robert Bloch!

 

[Galileo7]

Steven Spielberg's Duel (1971) made-for-television movie starring Dennis Weaver. I was a very young boy watching it with my family in '71 when it debut on network TV ABC. I remember thinking the truck driver was going to be a monster.

The original Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1973) made-for-television movie starring Kim Darby. I was a young boy watching it with my family in '73 when it debut on network TV and I never forgot the creatures.

 

[Mike Farley]

At eh impressionable young age of nine my mother took me to see Alien. I liked space movies. I liked monster movies. This should be great, eh? Had a panic attack right there in the theater and she had to practically drag me out.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

I've never actually watched it, but just from the clips and stuff I've seen and heard about online, I'm pretty sure The Wheelers in Return to Oz would have scared the shit out of me when I was a kid.

Yes! I forgot about Return to Oz. The wheelers were creepy as fuck, Oz was destroyed all to hell, and the witch (if I'm remembering right, she was a witch) had interchangeable heads she kept that fueled my adolescent nightmares.

Watching it as an adult though, it's pretty imaginative, with cool characters like the Tick-Tock Man. I'd recommend a viewing.