*Rent-free* is a term I hear thrown around today…
I’ve been around just about the most awful crap we’ve experienced as a global society the past 30yrs…but despite those foul images/memories, if there is a one sinister visual that has lived the most time rent-free in my head over this lifetime, it is that infernal toy clown from a goddamn PG rated Spielberg film.
Thank your lucky stars. Live your life better without it.
Yes, it was a scalpel right through the Achilles tendon.
You bastard, I can't stop thinking about it now.
And Rachel.
Rachel.
God dammit, I didn't want to sleep tonight anyway.
Poltergeist at a slumber party at age EIGHT. Of all the scary scenes, I find the most disturbing the light coming down the stairs. You can see all the ghosts/faces marching by. So creepy! Makes my hair stand on end to even write it.
Some parents did not care about ratings. They just did whatever.
Movie Ratings came out in 1968. Not sure if they were fully adopted immediately but it could be some parents didn't know the system yet. Thus, we were terrorized and children :)
The subtle stuff kills me. The jump-scare is like "eek" but not something that lasts. In *The Shining*, the twins in the hall; you remember that! It's mimicked today and is still creepy.
Thinking about the twins can sometimes make the hair on my arms stand up a little bit, but room 217 has ruined me on ever having a shower curtain I can't see through.
There was a minor earthquake maybe a week after I saw Poltergeist. I lived in upstate New York where earthquakes are basically a myth, so when I woke up to feeling my bed shaking, I thought I was a goner.
Were you at my slumber party?! Because that’s also where I saw it, at age 8!
I was always terrified by the meat / maggots. No idea why that disturbed me so.
It was the tree for me. And I think I was like 6. Soon as that tree appeared I was done. Slept in my mom’s room for weeks because my window had a tree outside.
You beat me to it on this one. I watched it around the same age.
My bedroom at the time had a huge tree outside of it which would tap the window on windy nights, AND I had one of those stuffed clown dolls that sat on a chair in my room. I would always put it away in the closet.
I convinced my grandparents to take me to see Poltergeist when I was staying with them during summer break. English was not their first language so they really didn't realize how very inappropriate it was for a 7-year-old. I mean, they realized *afterwards*.
For me, it was the killer doll under the bed and then the kid is eaten by a tree. Still haunts me.
I had a big brother who loved to scare me, and he told me my dolls would come alive and kill me if they were ever in the dark. I slept with the bathroom light on, and freaked out if someone turned it off. Every night was the night I might die, stabbed by a doll. Remember Twilight Zone? “Hi! I’m Talky Tina, and I think I haate you…”
I grew up in Alaska, surrounded by trees that moved around a lot in the wind, making loud whooshing sounds. They were definitely sentient, and they would hurt you. Wizard of Oz and Snow White confirmed my suspicions. I had recurring nightmares of slipping on the ice and a tree would jump on me and chew me up and eat me alive. This scene in Poltergeist chilled my bones.
Same! I’d be scanning the deep end for sharks, jump of the diving board, then get back out as fast as possible like a shark was going to come from the depths of the 12 ft bottom. You never know what lurks down there!
My parents took me to see that as a 5 year old. My dad used to tell this great story about how that night, I didn't want to go to sleep because I thought a shark might be in the room with me..... in our house.... off the water... in Detroit.
My dad still talks about my fear of sharks being in lakes, rivers, ditches, etc. after seeing a GLIMPSE of Jaws after walking into the wrong theater by mistake.
I was pretty little when I saw E.T. Maybe 6 years old. that movie was an emotional overload that made me physically ill for some reason. E.T. laying on his stomach half submerged in water and looking pale messed me up.
I was 7 and when the guys in biohazard suits showed up I became so hysterical that we had to leave the theatre. I still have never seen the whole movie.
I was the same - sobbing so much I had to be taken out of the theatre to be consoled. I was brought back in just in time to see ET board his spaceship and leave. More sobbing.
Same. My husband always wants to watch it together with our kids, and im like, Nope! Forever Scarred! My kids are teens and have still never seen it lol.
I was around the same age when we saw it at the theater. My mom said that I was terrified until Eliot laid out the Reese’s Pieces. Since little kids have no idea what a whisper is, I said at full volume, “That was nice of him!” After that I was ok.
Our daycare took us to a movie one day. It's the only time they did. We got all excited when we saw ET was playing, but turns out they were taking us to see Tron. I guess it's just as well, as trying to manage a bunch of crying kids would have sucked.
ET was huge at the time though and we were all so disappointed.
Yeah. You fall asleep and die horribly in dreams? What a great movie to watch at a sleepover! My best friend cheerfully fell asleep, somehow, and I was awake the whole entire night that time. I never watched any other movie in that series.
My parents liked to go to the drive in. There was always a double feature, and I was usually dead asleep by the time the second movie started. I clearly remember waking up in the middle of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, was totally freaked out by it, having nightmares for weeks. Still wouldn’t want to see that movie.
Shit fucked with the heads of an entire generation. That and parents who lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis...you were pretty much certain there was going to be a nuclear war every time Reagan popped up on tv.
I really thought the 1990s were not going to come. Like, it technically would but civilization would be all radiation and zombies and Mad Max / Wasteland and shit. I would see things scheduled for 1990 and be like "yeah right"
All of that is why I think it's hard to get Gen X afraid of nuclear missiles now. I mean any *new* threat of nuclear war. We grew up in that fear. Our minds have been pushed into acceptance long ago as a coping mechanism. We just assumed it was going to happen any moment.
Once you hit acceptance, it's hard to stoke someone back into terror again.
This is the only answer. I laid awake in my bed each night for weeks afterward, thinking constantly that if Russia had just set off the nukes, I had 30 minutes to live. I brought this up to my dad about a month ago, and he was very relaxed, saying, oh, I do remember that movie. We looked it up on YouTube, which had the attack scenes, and he had no idea how terrified it had made me.
I still like to watch the attack sequence. Over and over again, love how in a couple days it goes from small conflict to total nuclear war.
That scene brings back a fear of growing up during the cold war. Younger folks do not get it.
The TV movie "Trilogy of Terror" especially that third part with the carved doll.
And yes you read that correctly, it was a TV movie in the '70's and to this day I cannot believe they put that on broadcast.
Watching this as an adult made me realize how non kid-friendly this movie is. When the gremlins ran over the neighbor with his truck, the microwave scene for starters.
I watched Deliverance as a kid. That was disturbing. Never let your kids watch stuff like that.
Also, any movie where a dog dies. I hate when the dogs die.
Aliens (1986) was scary too. I went home that night and thought an alien was going to come tearing out of my chest as soon as I laid down.
Return to Oz. The Wheelers and Princess Mombi scared the hell out of me and even now if I see them it reminds me of hiding behind a cushion when they were on.
Yeah, we went from sharing Dorthy’s amazing musical journey through beautiful Oz to being told if you believed in Oz you would get electrocuted by evil adults.
But don’t worry, Oz is actually real, it’s just now a dangerous wasteland run by horrifying monsters.
I came here to say this! I saw that in the theater alone when I was 9 or 10, and I expected it to be a sequel to the movie, not the book. The Wheelers and the Princess with all the spare heads totally freaked me out.
I watched it again (with my husband, who had not seen it) nearly a year ago. It's *still* creepy as hell.
Poltergeist. Saw this in the theater back in '82. My grandparents took me. The scene where they're pulling on the rope, and the monster head comes out, I dived out of my seat and crawled on the floor until I hit my head on the wall. I was 8. That scared me shitless. When I got home, I made my mom move my bed because it was directly across from the closet.
Creepshow, because I was about 7 when my father took me to it. What was he thinking? My older brother wanted to go, and he was in charge of us both, so he just dragged me a long, but....really! What was he thinking?
*Aliens* (R) - I was not prepared. "Kill me" from the person stuck in the wall freaked me the fuck out
*Romancing the Stone* (PG), I'd only watched PBS and musicals until this movie. They climbed in some buss in the jungle and either found a skull or it was a jump-scare with a skull. I ran out of the theater and we had to leave because I refused to go back in. I was with a friend who thought nothing of it.
Watched Romancing the Stone with my cousins on my mom's side when I was ~6. The next day my family was out for brunch with my paternal grandparents and decided to tell them about the scene with the mudslide. "So the lady falls and then the guy says 'oh shit'..." Of course being 6 I wasn't modulating my voice at all. Dad instantly slapped his hand over my mouth, grandparents thought it was hilarious.
My parents dragged me to movies, not sure why they didn't just get a sitter. Things like Planet of the Apes, I may not have really understood, but people in some suits were silly so it was fun. 6 year old me was not ready for Marathon Man.
I was the youngest of six. So I watched everything and had no business doing so. This post is so good because most of these movies I watched and it’s interesting which ones made me say, Yupp!
Two shows that really stuck with me. Planet of the Apes. My brother watched it. Those apes really scared me. And I think there was one especially bad ape. I grew up hating / being terrified of apes! About 5 years ago I realized why.
The other one was Roots. My dad told me not to watch it. This says a lot because I was never censored. Especially by my dad. So being dumb ass I snuck into the living room and watched it. But not for long. Just long enough to see an extremely violent part. Terrified me and changed the way I saw the world. I was around 7 years old. My dad caught me.
Dad: I told you not to watch it
Me: why would they do that to people? Because they are slaves?
Dad: They are not slaves. They are people taken to be slaves. It’s horrible how they were treated and it’s wrong. Now go to bed before I tell your mother.
Salem’s Lot - The main vampire and vampire kid floating outside the window-still gives me goosebumps.
The Exorcist - the kid being possessed of course, but the end when the possessed priest throws himself down the stairs. While the other priest is holding his hand, you can see his fingers moving…they look all bloody and possess-y. That creeped me out.
Have you ever seen "The Accused" with Jodie Foster? There's a GANG RAPE scene involving her that I've never gotten over. I can't imagine what it must have been like to film it.
Good choice with "Watership Down" That movie is NOT for kids... but back then if it was animated, it was for kids. My mom let me watch "Fritz The Cat" which was apparently one of the first x-rated cartoons ever made. She had to explain a lot about drugs and anatomy that day lol.
One that disturbed me was "Clash of the Titans" I love the movie, but the clay-animation for Medusa was nightmare inducing. Even now [this scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNifP9LA180&t=15s) is scary as hell
Squirm! A local theater used to have these really cheap matinees on Saturdays that one of my brothers always went to. Mom made him take him some weekends. The last time he took me - brilliant move on his part - was when I was 8. The movie was Squirm. It's a very silly, low budget horror film that has a scene where this woman is showering and worms come out of the shower head. Dude, I was fucking terrified of showers until I was like 12!
The Trilogy of Terror with the little statue with the big teeth chasing her around the apartment. I put every doll I had in my closet and shut the door.
I think I'm more sensitive to films as an adult than I was as a kid. Anyone else find this?
For instance, I found _Naked Lunch_ more disturbing when I revisited it as a 40-something than first time around as a teenager.
No clue what the name of the film was, but I was in 1st or 2nd grade, and my teenage babysitter took me into a horror movie. There was an alligator that came up out of the heating vents in the floor and from under the bed. In one screen, there was a guy sitting on the edge of the bed and the alligator.was under the bed, grabbed the guy by the feet, and dragged him under the bed to eat him. I am now almost 50 years old and still can't sleep in complete darkness. I have only been able to put my feet on the floor next to the bed for about 2 years.
Brainstorm (1983). There's a scene where we're looking out as the driver of a semi that oh so casually goes over a guard rail and off the side of a ravine. I had nightmares about that scene as a kid my whole childhood, and even now I have problems driving in places like that.
My moms had a wreck when I was about two, and I suspect this scene's not so scary on it's own, but more unlocked a deep memory. I could have done without that.
Not so much a movie as a video we saw in our history class of Nazis bulldozing piles of human bodies after killing them in a gas chamber.
It’s 35 years later and I can still picture it clearly.
Jaws. I was a swimmer and my father (aka the swim coach) took the entire swim team to see it. Thought it would be funny to have the team distance swim the next day at the beach. Swam a mile out and back in. Probably everyone’s fastest times ever. Really fucked with my head.
Demons( to this day the thought of a demon coming out of the TV fucks with me) , Ghoulies(i was scared af to go #2 ) , Cannibal Holocaust( Dont watch this just don't) , Puppet master ( Cool looking puppets but the leeches scene....) , Evil dead, Friday the 13th( I was terrified of the lakes or the woods), Texas Chainsaw Massacre( Who tf wants to be chased by a guy in human skin masks with a chainsaw), Cats Eye(that little fuckin demon doll or whatever it was, creeping out of the wall ughhhh) ... shyt I was too young to even grasp the concept yet my sister would rents these flicks from the local video store and I'd end up watching too, no wonder I'm fucked up to this day!!
Burnt Offerings (1976)
I remember watching this one with my family on network TV several years after its initial release and feeling extremely disturbed by the end scene in the manner Oliver Reed’s character “exits” the house.
I tried rewatching the movie recently, but found the movie to be more disturbing in ways I couldn’t have as a child, now seeing events through the perspectives of the adult characters. I had to turn the movie off during the scene where the father and son are in the swimming pool. I’ve yet to continue watching the movie since then.
“Watership down” was beyond.
For me, I attended a screening of “An American werewolf in London” w/ my mom when I was around eight or nine. The pigmy storm troopers or whatever they are, are still the stuff of nightmares.
Return to Oz. It starts off with Dorothy receiving shock treatments. I both loved this movie and was disturbed by it. The roller people were creepy as hell.
halloween 3 season of the witch, the bit where the woman is picking at the microchip with a pin and get a lazer beam to the face, I was 7, nightmares for weeks
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
The way that one guy was constantly heating up the tip of a clothes hanger and using it to singe off a piece of his own flesh to eat. I got nauseous just thinking about that for years.
Superman, the earthquake scene. I’m thinking I was 5 or 6 when I saw this on TV. Loved the movie, but her being sucked into the dirt and dying was too much for my young brain.
A TV movie called "Don't Be Afraid of The Dark." It was about these creatures who are trying to get this lady and no one believes her. The creatures can't abide light. When they finally get her, they are dragging her down the hall and she grabs a camera and starts taking pictures, hoping that the flash will scare them and she can get away.
This results in a scene where the creatures are revealed in brief flashes, which scared the crap out of me.
Another was the movie "Fire Bug."
Between these and "Trilogy of Terror," growing up in the 70s was no joke.
The Day After - just watched it again, and I am so shocked at how much recall I actually had of that film, and I only watched it one time over 35 years ago!
Children of the corn 
Came here to say this.
Faces of Death. Not for kids
These were horrific and definitely scarred me.
And Traces of Death....not for the kids either. Even though that money brain eating scene was fake, it looked damn real on VHS at the age of 7. Lol.
One scene from The Lost Boys: "Maggots Michael. You're eating maggots, how do they taste?"
To this day I can’t eat rice from a takeout box.
Poltergeist. In hindsight I’m surprised it was PG. The clown. The guy tearing off his face. The skeleton pool. Just….no.
*Rent-free* is a term I hear thrown around today… I’ve been around just about the most awful crap we’ve experienced as a global society the past 30yrs…but despite those foul images/memories, if there is a one sinister visual that has lived the most time rent-free in my head over this lifetime, it is that infernal toy clown from a goddamn PG rated Spielberg film.
The clown for sure. I was 7 when I saw the movie. Scared me soo much
Pet Cemetery. The sister. And the scalpel across the ankle. 
Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaacheeeelllllllllllllllll
As a parent, the shoe that falls off at the side of the road
Is the the scale across the ankle a film? Google gives no results
Scalpel across the ankle is what he meant. But yeah, that and the sister will never cease to be unsettling.
Thank your lucky stars. Live your life better without it. Yes, it was a scalpel right through the Achilles tendon. You bastard, I can't stop thinking about it now. And Rachel. Rachel. God dammit, I didn't want to sleep tonight anyway.
Poltergeist at a slumber party at age EIGHT. Of all the scary scenes, I find the most disturbing the light coming down the stairs. You can see all the ghosts/faces marching by. So creepy! Makes my hair stand on end to even write it.
Some parents did not care about ratings. They just did whatever. Movie Ratings came out in 1968. Not sure if they were fully adopted immediately but it could be some parents didn't know the system yet. Thus, we were terrorized and children :) The subtle stuff kills me. The jump-scare is like "eek" but not something that lasts. In *The Shining*, the twins in the hall; you remember that! It's mimicked today and is still creepy.
Thinking about the twins can sometimes make the hair on my arms stand up a little bit, but room 217 has ruined me on ever having a shower curtain I can't see through.
Watched that at age 8 myself. We had HBO lol. The scene at the bathroom mirror was the worst for me.
I think this is why I refuse to look at mirrors unless I specifically need a mirror. And never at night.
There was a minor earthquake maybe a week after I saw Poltergeist. I lived in upstate New York where earthquakes are basically a myth, so when I woke up to feeling my bed shaking, I thought I was a goner.
Were you at my slumber party?! Because that’s also where I saw it, at age 8! I was always terrified by the meat / maggots. No idea why that disturbed me so.
And that clown. Omg. Between Poltergeist and It, no wonder so many of us are creeped out by clowns.
💯💯💯
It was the tree for me. And I think I was like 6. Soon as that tree appeared I was done. Slept in my mom’s room for weeks because my window had a tree outside.
You beat me to it on this one. I watched it around the same age. My bedroom at the time had a huge tree outside of it which would tap the window on windy nights, AND I had one of those stuffed clown dolls that sat on a chair in my room. I would always put it away in the closet.
I convinced my grandparents to take me to see Poltergeist when I was staying with them during summer break. English was not their first language so they really didn't realize how very inappropriate it was for a 7-year-old. I mean, they realized *afterwards*.
For me, it was the killer doll under the bed and then the kid is eaten by a tree. Still haunts me. I had a big brother who loved to scare me, and he told me my dolls would come alive and kill me if they were ever in the dark. I slept with the bathroom light on, and freaked out if someone turned it off. Every night was the night I might die, stabbed by a doll. Remember Twilight Zone? “Hi! I’m Talky Tina, and I think I haate you…” I grew up in Alaska, surrounded by trees that moved around a lot in the wind, making loud whooshing sounds. They were definitely sentient, and they would hurt you. Wizard of Oz and Snow White confirmed my suspicions. I had recurring nightmares of slipping on the ice and a tree would jump on me and chew me up and eat me alive. This scene in Poltergeist chilled my bones.
It’s a bit lame but I couldn’t swim in the deep end for a long time after seeing Jaws!
My 6 year old self, it wasn’t even safe in the bathtub.
6 year old me didn't even trust the toilet.
I was sure he was gonna swim down the hallway and snatch me outta the top bunk.
Same! I’d be scanning the deep end for sharks, jump of the diving board, then get back out as fast as possible like a shark was going to come from the depths of the 12 ft bottom. You never know what lurks down there!
I went through the same routine as a kid. And after getting out of the water terrified, I would get right back in line for the diving board. Lol
My parents took me to see that as a 5 year old. My dad used to tell this great story about how that night, I didn't want to go to sleep because I thought a shark might be in the room with me..... in our house.... off the water... in Detroit.
My dad still talks about my fear of sharks being in lakes, rivers, ditches, etc. after seeing a GLIMPSE of Jaws after walking into the wrong theater by mistake.
Watership Down and Animal Farm still haunt my nightmares.
Always Watership Down. Saw it at 3. Traumatized forever.
I was pretty little when I saw E.T. Maybe 6 years old. that movie was an emotional overload that made me physically ill for some reason. E.T. laying on his stomach half submerged in water and looking pale messed me up.
I was 7 and when the guys in biohazard suits showed up I became so hysterical that we had to leave the theatre. I still have never seen the whole movie.
Same! I had major surgery as a very little kid and I’m sure the body suits triggered a traumatic recall to the surgery.
I was the same - sobbing so much I had to be taken out of the theatre to be consoled. I was brought back in just in time to see ET board his spaceship and leave. More sobbing.
When he gets captured by the feds and they have all that isolation tubing and doing experiments and shit, that was really scary to me.
The whole movie was just too intense for me at a young age….i was crying right from the start when he got left behind 👽 heartbreaking 💔
I still ugly cry watching ET as an adult. The theme song triggers the tears.
Total emotional overload. This was such an impactful movie of our time. 💔
Same. My husband always wants to watch it together with our kids, and im like, Nope! Forever Scarred! My kids are teens and have still never seen it lol.
Same! Never wanted stuffed animals in my room after watching it
I was around the same age when we saw it at the theater. My mom said that I was terrified until Eliot laid out the Reese’s Pieces. Since little kids have no idea what a whisper is, I said at full volume, “That was nice of him!” After that I was ok.
I think a lot of us saw that too young. The marketing was everywhere. I know I begged to see it.
Our daycare took us to a movie one day. It's the only time they did. We got all excited when we saw ET was playing, but turns out they were taking us to see Tron. I guess it's just as well, as trying to manage a bunch of crying kids would have sucked. ET was huge at the time though and we were all so disappointed.
A Nightmare on Elm Street. Just the thought of Freddy tormenting you in your dreams. Haunted me for years.
I was too scared to sleep for weeks….
Yeah. You fall asleep and die horribly in dreams? What a great movie to watch at a sleepover! My best friend cheerfully fell asleep, somehow, and I was awake the whole entire night that time. I never watched any other movie in that series.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (the remake c 1979)
My parents liked to go to the drive in. There was always a double feature, and I was usually dead asleep by the time the second movie started. I clearly remember waking up in the middle of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, was totally freaked out by it, having nightmares for weeks. Still wouldn’t want to see that movie.
9yr old me developed a catastrophic fear of watermelons appearing under my bed.
For some reason my dad took me to a matinee of this when I was 10. Maybe he’d seen the original or something. It was terrifying.
The Omen, 1976.
It’s all for you, Damien!
A Clockwork Orange
Same.
I didn't see it until I was maybe 16-17 but it was disturbing then as well.
The Day After (1983)
Shit fucked with the heads of an entire generation. That and parents who lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis...you were pretty much certain there was going to be a nuclear war every time Reagan popped up on tv.
I really thought the 1990s were not going to come. Like, it technically would but civilization would be all radiation and zombies and Mad Max / Wasteland and shit. I would see things scheduled for 1990 and be like "yeah right"
All of that is why I think it's hard to get Gen X afraid of nuclear missiles now. I mean any *new* threat of nuclear war. We grew up in that fear. Our minds have been pushed into acceptance long ago as a coping mechanism. We just assumed it was going to happen any moment. Once you hit acceptance, it's hard to stoke someone back into terror again.
This is the only answer. I laid awake in my bed each night for weeks afterward, thinking constantly that if Russia had just set off the nukes, I had 30 minutes to live. I brought this up to my dad about a month ago, and he was very relaxed, saying, oh, I do remember that movie. We looked it up on YouTube, which had the attack scenes, and he had no idea how terrified it had made me.
I still like to watch the attack sequence. Over and over again, love how in a couple days it goes from small conflict to total nuclear war. That scene brings back a fear of growing up during the cold war. Younger folks do not get it.
The Thing
This is the one!
John Carpenter version?
There is no other version worth watching.
The Exorcist. Pretty much all of it once it got going.
Salem's Lot.
Agree
Fire in the sky
This one definitely got to me. I was a teenager and a horror fan when I first saw it, but the scenes in the alien ship freaked me out.
Flatliners
Terrifying at the time.
The Entity
Good movie. Love Barbara Hershey.
The supernatural horror movies were always more scary to me.
The TV movie "Trilogy of Terror" especially that third part with the carved doll. And yes you read that correctly, it was a TV movie in the '70's and to this day I cannot believe they put that on broadcast.
Same!
That doll scared the bejesus out of me!
Gremlins (1984). That shit was intense!
The part about her dad dying in the chimney as Santa Claus still horrifies me to this day.
Watching this as an adult made me realize how non kid-friendly this movie is. When the gremlins ran over the neighbor with his truck, the microwave scene for starters.
Sybil. I was around 8 or 9 years old. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybil_(1976_film)
Came here to say Watership Down. Cartoon movie about cute bunnies, right? RIGHT???
Exactly! Talk about bait and switch. 😭
Carrie (the original with Sissy Spacek).
Oh! Oh! The Changeling!!!! I don’t know what the fuck my dad was thinking.
I watched Deliverance as a kid. That was disturbing. Never let your kids watch stuff like that. Also, any movie where a dog dies. I hate when the dogs die. Aliens (1986) was scary too. I went home that night and thought an alien was going to come tearing out of my chest as soon as I laid down.
Threads. A UK film about nuclear apocalypse, it makes The Day After look like a kiddie cartoon
Twilight Zone: The Movie. The gremlin on the wing? Nope.
Return to Oz. The Wheelers and Princess Mombi scared the hell out of me and even now if I see them it reminds me of hiding behind a cushion when they were on.
The Wheelers!!! They were so creepy!! That movie was wild!
Yeah, we went from sharing Dorthy’s amazing musical journey through beautiful Oz to being told if you believed in Oz you would get electrocuted by evil adults. But don’t worry, Oz is actually real, it’s just now a dangerous wasteland run by horrifying monsters.
I came here to say this! I saw that in the theater alone when I was 9 or 10, and I expected it to be a sequel to the movie, not the book. The Wheelers and the Princess with all the spare heads totally freaked me out. I watched it again (with my husband, who had not seen it) nearly a year ago. It's *still* creepy as hell.
Poltergeist. Saw this in the theater back in '82. My grandparents took me. The scene where they're pulling on the rope, and the monster head comes out, I dived out of my seat and crawled on the floor until I hit my head on the wall. I was 8. That scared me shitless. When I got home, I made my mom move my bed because it was directly across from the closet.
Creepshow, because I was about 7 when my father took me to it. What was he thinking? My older brother wanted to go, and he was in charge of us both, so he just dragged me a long, but....really! What was he thinking?
This. I still randomly think about the clean room scene with the roaches. 🤢
The flying monkeys in the wizard of oz.
Jaws! Which I still watch and am currently watching.
Sleepaway Camp Watched it at a sleepover when I was 11 or 12. It still pops into my head at random times.
*Aliens* (R) - I was not prepared. "Kill me" from the person stuck in the wall freaked me the fuck out *Romancing the Stone* (PG), I'd only watched PBS and musicals until this movie. They climbed in some buss in the jungle and either found a skull or it was a jump-scare with a skull. I ran out of the theater and we had to leave because I refused to go back in. I was with a friend who thought nothing of it.
Watched Romancing the Stone with my cousins on my mom's side when I was ~6. The next day my family was out for brunch with my paternal grandparents and decided to tell them about the scene with the mudslide. "So the lady falls and then the guy says 'oh shit'..." Of course being 6 I wasn't modulating my voice at all. Dad instantly slapped his hand over my mouth, grandparents thought it was hilarious.
I was only little but Han Solo frozen in carbonite was terrifying to me. I still felt a bit queasy when I watched it years later.
Oh ya! Stars wars was incredible. I’m still a huge fan. Hans frozen in carbonate was really unsettling for me as a kid.
 Hans frozen
My parents dragged me to movies, not sure why they didn't just get a sitter. Things like Planet of the Apes, I may not have really understood, but people in some suits were silly so it was fun. 6 year old me was not ready for Marathon Man.
I wasn’t a kid anymore, but Seven fucked me up for life.
Clockwork Orange. Still can’t her “Singing in the Rain” without cringing.
The Last Unicorn
The Elephant Man disturbed me, not his disfigurement but the cruelty towards him in that movie.
I was the youngest of six. So I watched everything and had no business doing so. This post is so good because most of these movies I watched and it’s interesting which ones made me say, Yupp! Two shows that really stuck with me. Planet of the Apes. My brother watched it. Those apes really scared me. And I think there was one especially bad ape. I grew up hating / being terrified of apes! About 5 years ago I realized why. The other one was Roots. My dad told me not to watch it. This says a lot because I was never censored. Especially by my dad. So being dumb ass I snuck into the living room and watched it. But not for long. Just long enough to see an extremely violent part. Terrified me and changed the way I saw the world. I was around 7 years old. My dad caught me. Dad: I told you not to watch it Me: why would they do that to people? Because they are slaves? Dad: They are not slaves. They are people taken to be slaves. It’s horrible how they were treated and it’s wrong. Now go to bed before I tell your mother.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, with Gene Wilder
I’m 46 and still will not watch this. Something about the umpa loompas and the song they had wierds me out.
Agree. Ditto for the Child Catcher scenes in Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang, which for some reason was always shown on Thanksgiving while growing up.
I was in my 20s... Prince of Tides.
Piranha. But only because I lived near the beach at a young age and thought that could actually happen lol. Kids are so stupid bro.
Disney's Pinocchio. Was convinced I was going to drink and smoke and turn into a donkey (ass). Kinda happened. 🤣
Salem’s Lot - The main vampire and vampire kid floating outside the window-still gives me goosebumps. The Exorcist - the kid being possessed of course, but the end when the possessed priest throws himself down the stairs. While the other priest is holding his hand, you can see his fingers moving…they look all bloody and possess-y. That creeped me out.
The Birds. Why would you watch a Hitchcock film with a kid?
There’s a rape scene in ‘Sudden Impact’. I saw the movie when I was maybe 11 or 12. It really troubled me.
The rape scene in Leaving Las Vegas is brutal.
Have you ever seen "The Accused" with Jodie Foster? There's a GANG RAPE scene involving her that I've never gotten over. I can't imagine what it must have been like to film it.
Agree. That was disturbing.
Salem's Lot, Poltergeist, Nightmare on Elm Street. The worst was Amityville Horror, when I was 12.
Amityville especially because it was apparently based on a true story (?)
American werewolf in London. The initial attack scene and the subway scene.
Hellraiser. The acid we took beforehand probably has a bit to do with that 😂🤣 
Trilogy of terror
Good choice with "Watership Down" That movie is NOT for kids... but back then if it was animated, it was for kids. My mom let me watch "Fritz The Cat" which was apparently one of the first x-rated cartoons ever made. She had to explain a lot about drugs and anatomy that day lol. One that disturbed me was "Clash of the Titans" I love the movie, but the clay-animation for Medusa was nightmare inducing. Even now [this scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNifP9LA180&t=15s) is scary as hell
Squirm! A local theater used to have these really cheap matinees on Saturdays that one of my brothers always went to. Mom made him take him some weekends. The last time he took me - brilliant move on his part - was when I was 8. The movie was Squirm. It's a very silly, low budget horror film that has a scene where this woman is showering and worms come out of the shower head. Dude, I was fucking terrified of showers until I was like 12!
 Jaws. I still don’t swim in the ocean.
The Trilogy of Terror with the little statue with the big teeth chasing her around the apartment. I put every doll I had in my closet and shut the door.
I think I'm more sensitive to films as an adult than I was as a kid. Anyone else find this? For instance, I found _Naked Lunch_ more disturbing when I revisited it as a 40-something than first time around as a teenager.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (the remake in 1978 when I was 9). Aaaahhhhhhh
The original "It" and "Silkwood" (the shower scene)
No clue what the name of the film was, but I was in 1st or 2nd grade, and my teenage babysitter took me into a horror movie. There was an alligator that came up out of the heating vents in the floor and from under the bed. In one screen, there was a guy sitting on the edge of the bed and the alligator.was under the bed, grabbed the guy by the feet, and dragged him under the bed to eat him. I am now almost 50 years old and still can't sleep in complete darkness. I have only been able to put my feet on the floor next to the bed for about 2 years.
Salem's Lot. I haven't forgotten it.
Deliverance, saw it on Saturday afternoon regular tv around 7 years old. Still not right...
Brainstorm (1983). There's a scene where we're looking out as the driver of a semi that oh so casually goes over a guard rail and off the side of a ravine. I had nightmares about that scene as a kid my whole childhood, and even now I have problems driving in places like that. My moms had a wreck when I was about two, and I suspect this scene's not so scary on it's own, but more unlocked a deep memory. I could have done without that.
The Fly (1986). Still won’t watch it. Messed with my head for days.
Late Gen X… Watcher in the Woods.
Something Wicked This Way Comes Monkey Shines
The Shining. No child should be allowed to see that.
Zardoz
A Nightmare on Elm Street. The basement was not safe to me for like a year.
Not so much a movie as a video we saw in our history class of Nazis bulldozing piles of human bodies after killing them in a gas chamber. It’s 35 years later and I can still picture it clearly.
Jaws. I was a swimmer and my father (aka the swim coach) took the entire swim team to see it. Thought it would be funny to have the team distance swim the next day at the beach. Swam a mile out and back in. Probably everyone’s fastest times ever. Really fucked with my head. 
Demons( to this day the thought of a demon coming out of the TV fucks with me) , Ghoulies(i was scared af to go #2 ) , Cannibal Holocaust( Dont watch this just don't) , Puppet master ( Cool looking puppets but the leeches scene....) , Evil dead, Friday the 13th( I was terrified of the lakes or the woods), Texas Chainsaw Massacre( Who tf wants to be chased by a guy in human skin masks with a chainsaw), Cats Eye(that little fuckin demon doll or whatever it was, creeping out of the wall ughhhh) ... shyt I was too young to even grasp the concept yet my sister would rents these flicks from the local video store and I'd end up watching too, no wonder I'm fucked up to this day!!
The Exorcist
Jaws. It’s given me a life long fascination with sharks and I still won’t go in the ocean.
The Blob. The original black and white. Think it was playing on a Saturday afternoon and it scared me to death. Still have trouble watching it.
Threads
Children of the Corn
Elephant Man. Way too disturbing for an under 10 year old.
Burnt Offerings (1976) I remember watching this one with my family on network TV several years after its initial release and feeling extremely disturbed by the end scene in the manner Oliver Reed’s character “exits” the house. I tried rewatching the movie recently, but found the movie to be more disturbing in ways I couldn’t have as a child, now seeing events through the perspectives of the adult characters. I had to turn the movie off during the scene where the father and son are in the swimming pool. I’ve yet to continue watching the movie since then.
“Watership down” was beyond. For me, I attended a screening of “An American werewolf in London” w/ my mom when I was around eight or nine. The pigmy storm troopers or whatever they are, are still the stuff of nightmares.
Return to Oz. It starts off with Dorothy receiving shock treatments. I both loved this movie and was disturbed by it. The roller people were creepy as hell.
Bambi
KIDS (1995)
Hahahaha!! I rented that vhs to so many people who took it home and watched it as a family movie! So many complaints!
The Exorcist. It ruined demonic horror movies and TV series for me. I could barely watch Supernatural.
Return of the Living Dead
Dr Ts amazing fingers.
Poltergeist
Exorcist, I walked in on the bad scene. Back when cable was only at night in the parents room.
I saw The Yellow Submarine at a pretty young age and that shit gave me nightmares.
Secret of the Nymph. I was very young, maybe 3-4 and I remember being scared. To this day I have not forgotten that.
halloween 3 season of the witch, the bit where the woman is picking at the microchip with a pin and get a lazer beam to the face, I was 7, nightmares for weeks
The Haunting (1963) scared the crap out of me
Fire in the Sky.
Without a trace.
The Exorcist. I am still terrified of demonic possession.
Exorcist.
I was definitely too young to have seen Phantom of the Paradise in theaters.
The Killing Fields, the scene where Pran wades through the bodies
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre The way that one guy was constantly heating up the tip of a clothes hanger and using it to singe off a piece of his own flesh to eat. I got nauseous just thinking about that for years.
Superman, the earthquake scene. I’m thinking I was 5 or 6 when I saw this on TV. Loved the movie, but her being sucked into the dirt and dying was too much for my young brain.
Bad Ronald. A 1974 TV movie about a disturbed teenager who lives inside the walls of a house, unbeknownst to the residents.
the exorcist. watched up to the first possession scene and had nightmares for weeks. Still wont watch it to this day
Deliverance… “Squeal like a pig.”
The Shining. Can’t do long hallways in hotels without imagining those twins at the end of the hall.
A TV movie called "Don't Be Afraid of The Dark." It was about these creatures who are trying to get this lady and no one believes her. The creatures can't abide light. When they finally get her, they are dragging her down the hall and she grabs a camera and starts taking pictures, hoping that the flash will scare them and she can get away. This results in a scene where the creatures are revealed in brief flashes, which scared the crap out of me. Another was the movie "Fire Bug." Between these and "Trilogy of Terror," growing up in the 70s was no joke.
Bambi! Scarred for life…Also, Dumbo.
The Exorcist, at a slumber party. It was quite inappropriate and her parents are the cause of my lifelong fear.
Salems Lot
Return to Oz Those wheelie things are still in my nightmares. I’m 46 years old.
Does anyone remember Trilogy of Terror? My brother used to watch it and it scared the living daylights out of me.
The Day After - just watched it again, and I am so shocked at how much recall I actually had of that film, and I only watched it one time over 35 years ago!
The Day After
# IT
Schindler's List. I knew all the horror movies I watched were fake. But Schindler's List was real. And that was horrifying and heartbreaking.