Which movies scared you during your childhood?

[The Great Owl]

We all have movies that scared us when we were children, and these are not necessarily horror movies. Sometimes, movies that are seemingly innocuous can really freak out someone at a young age.

I'll get the ball rolling...

Once Upon a Time in the West
This Sergio Leone movie was showing on TBS Superstation once when I was eight or so. There's a scene early in the movie when Henry Fonda and his henchman shoot a father and his children from the woods behind the father's home. Seeing Henry Fonda kill the youngest son without any remorse whatsoever really got to me at that age. At the time, my family and I lived in a subdivision where our house bordered a forest, and, after seeing that film, I used to have nightmares about gunmen coming out of the woods to kill all of us.

The Earthling (1980)
Ricky Schroder (from the Silver Spoons TV show) plays a kid who watches his parents die in a tragic accident while they are vacationing in Australia. He is left alone in the vast wilderness until he crosses paths with an old man, played by William Holden, who teaches him how to survive. Until...
This was a fun childhood movie in many ways because of the whole wilderness adventure aspect, but the death of the parents at the beginning was terrifying.
(The Earthling has never been released on DVD or Blu-ray. I've got an "unofficial" DVD from a bad VHS transfer, but it does not suffice. This movie needs to be restored to Blu-ray someday.)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
I was nine when I saw Invasion of the Body Snatchers on television, and, without revealing too much in detail, the ending of the movie was quite nightmarish for me at a young age. I had seen scary movies before then, but those movies had all had happy endings or, at the very least, tidy resolutions. The outcome of this movie, along with the general paranoid cinematography, really got under my skin.

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)
If you've seen this John Carpenter film, then you know exactly why this scared me during my childhood. I was 11 when I first saw this movie, and I'll never forget seeing that ice cream truck scene for the first time. The images later in the film of the street gang lining up beneath the trees to shoot the police station got to me as well. The whole idea that a police precinct, which generally represents safety and stability, being totaled by a street gang was quite unsettling for me at that age.

Your turn...

[Jimmy Bro]

James and the Giant Peach

[Silo5]

[Jowiko96]

Apparently, according to my parents, I was scared of the tornado in The Wizard Of Oz and Jim Carrey's transformation scene in The Mask.

[animefan77]

I still remember it... it's technically not a movie but...

I was barely in kindergarden when I saw the "Thriller" music video from Michael Jackson. I remember being really scared. My first introduction to anything horror.

I think I was at first grade when I went to my friend's house and we watched the Terminator. This would be the first "movie" The robot that doesn't die and keep chasing gave me real scare.

And the first movie that really gave me nightmares and made me afraid to go to sleep was Nightmare on Elm Street. We finally got cable at this time. Watched it in elementary school while parents were a sleep. This is still my scariest movie ever. Actually I still haven't seen the original since. I've seen the almost comical sequels, but not this original (If I do see again, I'm sure it will be more funny than scary like the sequels, but still can't bring myself to watch this)


And just for fun... As an adult, I don't get scared easily now. But I saw the original "Evil Dead" just couple of years back, and it did scare me. The new one is just gory and didn't find anything scary, but the original still does it for me.

[Abdrewes]

I would always leave the room before the face melting in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

[Clark Kent]

The flying monkeys in The Wizard of Oz scared the hell out of me as a child.

[vader4]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

I would always leave the room before the face melting in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

+1

Also the "Chosen Poorly" scene in The Last Crusade.

[Mandalorian]

The Exorcist started it all. I don't think I should have seen at my age. I'm not sure exactly how young I was, but I was under 10 for sure.

The Ring and The Grudge f**ked me up in my pre-teen years. Even today I can't get past creepy women and girls with dirty dresses, long hair, and evil faces. It's my kryptonite, in case any of you plan on taking me down some day.

Nothing really, aside from those. I didn't watch much Horror back then, and things like A Nightmare on Elm Street, etc didn't scare me.

[bunkz323]

Thriller(MJ)
Childs Play, apparently i was a big p.u.s.s.y when it came to chucky lol ive been told that once my parents where walkin down the streets of Downtown LA and on the walls they had posters of Childs Play 3, that they had to walk across the street out of their way because i was screaming like a lil girl the closer we got to those posters, i didn't even wanna get near them lol

[Jennifer Lawrence Fan]

I guess stuff like the first Nightmare On Elm Street, Candyman.

Also the tongue part in Howard the Duck and the creature in it.

But probably the thing that messed me up the most had to be Chucky from the Childs Play series. Still creeps me the hell out today. Just not as much.

[kurtis21]

My first scary movie was John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN! I was definitly too young to see it (about 10 yrs old)...but my mom was out and my dad let me watch it on HBO with him. To this day it has a special place in my heart as one of my favorites!

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by vader4

+1

Also the "Chosen Poorly" scene in The Last Crusade.

That's another one. Glad to read that I wasn't the only scaredy cat as a child.

[Jennifer Lawrence Fan]

Originally Posted by bunkz323

Thriller(MJ)
Childs Play, apparently i was a big p.u.s.s.y when it came to chucky lol ive been told that once my parents where walkin down the streets of Downtown LA and on the walls they had posters of Childs Play 3, that they had to walk across the street out of their way because i was screaming like a lil girl the closer we got to those posters, i didn't even wanna get near them lol

Good to hear that I'm not the only one. I remember going into Spencer's Gift and they had Chucky dolls in there.

Another time I was in there near the dolls. And it just feel onto me. I was screaming like a little girl cause I thought it was alive, but only feel off the shelves cause someone bumped it.

[srinivas1015]

It's mostly movie promos that scared me a lot : Sleepy Hollow, Event Horizon, The Exorcist mainly.

As for full movies, I remember being really freaked out by the original Omen. It's the one movie that still gets me. Also the scene in Jurassic Park when the dismembered hand falls on the blonde doctor.

[MikeScott]

Halloween 4, Pet Sematary (and the sequel).

[KillerJuan77]

The first horror film I ever saw was Poltergeist. PG rating my ass, a man rips his face off, the extremely disturbing clown scene and the creepy metaphysical concepts are NOT for kids.

[Jennifer Lawrence Fan]

Originally Posted by MikeScott

Halloween 4, Pet Sematary (and the sequel).

Pet Sematary. Oh, yeah, that's another movie that messed me up. Oddly enough the sequel didn't effect me really much.

[Scottie]

Child's Play - need I say more?

The Sixth Sense - it scared me for a good six or seven years after I saw it. Completely petrified.

[Jennifer Lawrence Fan]

Originally Posted by iScottie

Child's Play - need I say more?

The Sixth Sense - it scared me for a good six or seven years after I saw it. Completely petrified.

This is one of the scenes that made me almost crap myself.

Child's Play Clip: "Hi I'm Chucky Wanna Play" - YouTube