Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Movie that scared you the most as a Kid?

This is topic Movie that scared you the most as a Kid? in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=006976

Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 03-21-2014, 02:06 AM:

Just curious to see what Horror Film scared you the Most when you were a Kid growing up. The Universal Horror Films of the 30's and 40's were kind of scary but they were on TV and something on a 25inch tube thats not life size isn't the same as a theater screen. Kind of like seeing the Shark in "JAWS" on TV after you saw it on a 40 ft screen.Not as Scary...

The Film that scared me the most was the 1957 American International"I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN" The Mask/Makeup that Actor Gary Conway's Character had after his car wreck was pretty scary for a Little Kid. I think I even got underneath my bed that Night...

I was a Teenage Frankenstein-1957...Gary Conway Whit Bissell

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 03-21-2014, 02:38 AM:

Not a movie, but the Star Trek episode "The Devil in the Dark" really scared the hell out of me when I was a little kid.

I would have been almost five years old at the time and I still remember that day very clearly, which shows how much of an impression it made on me. The rock creature came out of the cave and then Kirk started blasting it with his phaser. At that point I turned the television off and I spent the rest of the afternoon curled up in a corner of the living room, afraid to move.

I really enjoy the original Star Trek shows and I was watching them on DVD a few years back when I came across that episode again. Obviously it didn't frighten me at that time, but I did get a very odd feeling when I saw that scene with the rock creature, and to be honest I can't say I'm in any hurry to watch that particular episode again any time soon.

That's one of the few things that I can actually remember happening when I was a really little kid. Funny how stuff like that can make such a big impression.

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 03-21-2014, 03:59 AM:

I remember being terrified by Poltergeist when I was a kid (around 10-11). And I wouldn't eat steak or chicken for weeks after seeing it. I watched it a couple years ago and it seemed so much more benign than I remember.

Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 03-21-2014, 06:22 AM:

Bambi...no, really...Bambi.

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 03-21-2014, 07:05 AM:

House on Haunted Hill in 5th grade.

Posted by Mark Ogden (Member # 43) on 03-21-2014, 07:24 AM:

The movie that scared me most as a kid unnerves me to this very day: Robert Wise's The Haunting from 1963 (NOT to be confused with the horrible 1999 remake). Scared the crap out of me as a young man. The ghost pounding on the walls as it approaches the bedroom where Julie Christie and Claire Bloom are sleeping still makes me turns the lights on. I would have to say that and Jack Clayton's The Innocents from 1961 are probably the two best haunted house movies ever made.

Posted by Richard P. May (Member # 3598) on 03-21-2014, 09:29 AM:

When seeing SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS on a reissue, somewhere, subliminally, when the queen changed to the witch I had a feeling that I had ducked behind the seat sometime in the past for that scene.
Related, but not actually seeing the movie, there was a Life magazine article about THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY. The photos shown made me stay away from that one until way after being a grownup.
Incidentally, visiting the Chicago Museum of Art a few years ago, what did we run into on display but the original of the painting of Dorian at his worst.

Posted by Ron Loggins (Member # 6424) on 03-21-2014, 09:43 AM:

Creature from the black lagoon. That's the most memorable but I do recall watching way too much "Creature Features with Bob Wilkins" when I was up late on the weekend.

Posted by Matthew McBride (Member # 6598) on 03-21-2014, 09:44 AM:

Mine would have to be The Exorcist. I saw it when I was about 8 years old, granted it was on VHS as I was not alive when it came out originally. For whatever reason the combination on the make-up and her spryness on Linda Blair scared the hell out of me. Though this had an interesting effect on me, ever since then there hasn't been a horror movie that has actually scared me. Though I still get those strange vibes, Frank mentioned, anytime I watch The Exorcist, not scared just a weird feeling.

Posted by Rick Raskin (Member # 1561) on 03-21-2014, 01:10 PM:

This scene from "Riders to the Stars" (1954):

I was 8 years old and walking home from the theater (we did that in those days) I kept looking up thinking the body was about to drop out of the sky. I still remember the theater; the Academy on 8th St. SE in Washington, DC. It has been a church for decades.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 03-21-2014, 01:16 PM:

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I saw it at a drive-in theater in Yuma, AZ when I was in elementary school. My parents figured my brother and I would just fall asleep in the car. That one gave me nightmares.

I was about the same age when I saw Westworld. It scared me pretty bad then. It was pretty corny when I watched the movie again years later.

Alien and Poltergeist got my heart racing good. The first Nightmare on Elm Street movie had its moments.

Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 03-21-2014, 02:18 PM:

I had posted this already on the Thread Projection Booths in the Movies but it's more appropriate for this Thread. I saw this Film a year after the Teenage Frankenstein. I wasn't really scared at Home but as it said in the post; I would always be checking out those Projection Booth Ports. When your just a Kid and your Mind hasn't started to really Mature yet, you can be frightened by some of the Goofiest Things... [puke]

When the original "THE BLOB" came out in 1958(Steve McQueen's first major film role) I was only 9 years old. I remember after seeing the part where the BLOB is coming out the Projection and Viewing Port windows.Everytime I went back to that Theater for the following few weeks I was always looking up at the Projection Ports through out what ever was Playing to make sure nothing was coming out those Ports.

I'm glad I got over that; You miss a lot of the Movie your watching worrying if that OLE BLOB is gonna get you or not..LOL! [uhoh]

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 03-21-2014, 03:49 PM:

"The Other" (1972)

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 03-21-2014, 05:07 PM:

At my age, I remember being frightened when I saw UNIVERSAL's THE WOLF MAN in the mid forties on the big screen in a theatre.

-Claude

Posted by Geoff Jones (Member # 3668) on 03-21-2014, 05:44 PM:

quote: Bobby Henderson
The first Nightmare on Elm Street movie had its moments.

Scary movies really didn't scare me much as a kid, but I remember being unnerved as I walked home from the theater after that one at dusk when I was 13.

Eight years earlier, I remember getting scared at a much tamer movie. I told my father I wanted to go home just a few minutes after it started. We walked up the aisle and watched from the back for a few minutes until I decided I was willing to stay. After that, I was hooked for life. (Star Wars)

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-21-2014, 06:05 PM:

I remember seeing "The Birds" on TV as a kid and it was pretty scary, but not to the point of making me afraid of birds or anything. I never really saw any horror movies in the theatre when I was a kid.

I was 20 when "Jaws" came out. I happened to be in Billings for a conference for my day job. A co-worker and I went and saw "Jaws" in a Billings theater. It rattled me enough that I missed the exit leading to our hotel and I wound up going down the "wrong way" of an on-ramp (there was zero traffic and I didn't want to drive 10 miles to the next exit), got spotted by a cop and got chewed out, but didn't get a ticket.

Posted by Geoff Jones (Member # 3668) on 03-21-2014, 06:34 PM:

That reminds me. Next year is the 40th anniversary of JAWS (and I guess the big six-oh for Mike!).

Universal, please re-release JAWS next year.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 03-21-2014, 07:40 PM:

The Day The Earth Stood Still for sure. I was probably about 5 or 6 then. It's creepiness was certainly heightened by the Bernard Herrmann score. The space man and robot both scared the bejesus out of me.

Mark

Posted by Don Furr (Member # 1469) on 03-21-2014, 07:41 PM:

No doubt in my mind. It was Hammer's "X-The Unknown" 1956. I was 9 years old. I'll never forget that one.

Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 03-21-2014, 09:07 PM:

quote:
Mike Blakesley wrote: I was 20 when "Jaws" came out. I happened to be in Billings for a conference for my day job. A co-worker and I went and saw "Jaws" in a Billings theater. It rattled me enough that I missed the exit leading to our hotel and I wound up going down the "wrong way" of an on-ramp (there was zero traffic and I didn't want to drive 10 miles to the next exit), got spotted by a cop and got chewed out, but didn't get a ticket.

Mike; That would of been The Fox Theater 1975. I was the COP! (just kidding ). I would bet you jumped at the same 2 scenes that the whole Audience did through 4 showings of that Movie that I watched.(1) The Scene where Dryfuss goes underwater to check out Ben Gardner's Fishing Boat and Ben's head comes out of the haul with one of his eyeballs out of the socket.(2) When
Brodie is tossing Chum out of the Stern of Quint's Boat and the Shark jumps out of the Water.(This is the JAW'S that should have been shot in 3D.If it scared people in the audience in 2D; some
would probably had a heart attack in 3D.It was kind of neat after the 3rd time I watched it to know when that audience was gonna get the crap scared out of them.I would start Laughing and people thought I was a Nut Case. [beer]

Brodie's Famous Line after the Chumming incident: "WERE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BOAT" [thumbsup]

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-22-2014, 12:19 AM:

Oops I was off...we didn't play Jaws here until '76 so I keep thinking it came out that year. I was 18 when I saw it at the Fox Theatre...didn't turn 19 until November so I'm 57 now. The "big six oh" is close enough, thanks, don't make it any closer! [Big Grin]

Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 03-22-2014, 01:04 AM:

Claude S. Ayakawa wrote:

quote: Claude S. Ayakawa
At my age, I remember being frightened when I saw UNIVERSAL's THE WOLF MAN in the mid forties on the big screen in a theatre.

Not that I want to be any older than I am now but I envy you Claude that you got to see the Universal Monsters on a Theater Screen.I don't think Universal released any of their Horror Films to Network TV until around 1957. The first I remember seeing was Frankenstein meets the Wolfman and A&C meet Frankenstein that same year.I still to this day have never seen any of the 30's 40's Monster Films any Larger than my Film Library Screen; which
is 12 feet. They look pretty impressive at that Width but I would like to see them on a full size Theater Screen.I can't remember any of our theaters ever showing those films through out the 1950's yet they would show Serials from the 40's and Three Stooges 2 Reelers from the 30's and 40's(Curley Episodes)

I'm sure I would have been Scared at 9 if I had seen "Son of Frankenstein" in a Theater. It was pretty scary even on TV with those Big Elaborate Sets.

Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 03-23-2014, 10:42 PM:

I got to see a lot of movies that were before my time in the theater since my family moved to India when I was young. And there are no age checks over there. So I got to watch The Omen, Jaws, and other 70s horror stuff before I hit 10. The biggest fun scary type movie I saw was Alien. My mom saw Jaws in the US when I was younger and I remember her expression when she came back and I thought to myself that I needed to watch this movie as soon as I get the chance and that chance came 3 or so years later in India.

Alas, the first time I saw The Exorcist was on VHS when I was 16. THen I saw it in the theater during a rerelease. I wish I saw that earlier. I remember watching the trailers for that as a lil kid and wanting to watch that movie. But since I was 7 or 8, my cousins and I would recreate what the movie scenes were based on details given to us by our older relatives who saw it. So even though I saw the movie much later, it seemed like I already visualized every one of the classic horror scenes multiple times prior to that.

Nightmare on Elm Street was when I was in High school and that was a great trip to watch at the time before the franchise became a campy mess.

Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 03-24-2014, 12:37 AM:

In the theater, the movie that scared me the most was "The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad".
I must have been about 8yrs old when I saw it with my cousin in one of those HUGE
old movie palaces in Brooklyn, NY. This was the first time I'd seen a movie outside
the small neighborhood theater in my home town in Long Island. The creatures in the
movie (especially the Cyclops) and the cavernous darkness of the old theater really
scared the crap outta me. I also remember being really scared by two movies I saw
on TV as a kid: 1) The original "Invaders From Mars"; and 2)the orignal GODZILLA,
which gave me nightmares for weeks. Many years later, I had a good laugh when,
for the first time, I saw a picture of 25 year old Harou Nakajima (the guy in
the Godzilla suit) and realized I'd been scared sh_tless by a sort of geeky
looking skinny kid my grandmother could have probably won a fight with.
It still makes me laugh. . .

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 03-24-2014, 03:01 AM:

For some of us that grew up in the Cold War Era: I was 7 yrs old and went to a sat matinee show with friends of mine. Now, this was one of the first experiences that I attended a theatre (I laugh at it now..).

That afternoon showing was an obscure film called, "The Lost Missile" 1958. A 70 min B/W film that had all the crazy stories of massive destruction from a missile gone wild-like it came from the USSR.

Danged movie gave me nightmares for a couple of days.

Yet, there was another one that I can kick myself for being scared to watch, esp. the giant squid attacking the Nautilus of James Verne: Yes, it was "20K Leagues Under the Sea".

My dad wanted to see that movie so bad and he took me, a 5yr old I was, to it. That squid attack scene terrified me to no end and I cried and cried. Only good thing about this film that I remember was how vivid and crystal clear the image was on the screen..and little did I know of IB Technicolor and Stereophonic Sound, for I remember that the action sound came from the wall speakers surrounding the auditorium

Dad had to take me out and take me home. He did go back the next day to watch it again, but without me this time.

Little did I know that 22 some odd years later, I would be Chief Projectionist at this theatre that I attended to see both films above.

-Monte

Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 03-24-2014, 10:25 AM:

Rodan, the Flying Monster (Toho Studios)….as a seven year old at the Fun-Lan drive in in Tampa, Florida….plenty of Nightmares.

Posted by Joe Elliott (Member # 4006) on 03-24-2014, 11:43 AM:

Maybe it was because I grew up in a "haunted" house, that I was never really scared by horror movies. I say it as "haunted" because i was too young to investigate for myself. I am a skeptic, but regardless, there was a lot of strange stuff that happened in our house.

The only movie that really seemed to get me, wasn't until I was a teenager. It was poltergeist 3. The mirror scenes were, at times, subtle enough that it made me think twice about looking in the mirror for a couple of weeks after that.

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 03-25-2014, 10:25 PM:

Several films on TV in the mid '60s scared me (I was 9 or 10YOA): "Invasion USA", with its scene of a nuke bombing of Boulder Dam and subsequent flood scene definitely got to me. "Fail Safe" - I remember not being able to fall asleep that night due to the sound of a helicopter continuously orbiting over our trailer. "The Man from Planet X", "It! The Terror from Beyond Space" and of course "Godzilla King of the Monsters" all scared me the first time I saw them. But in the LA area at the time the station that ran those (either KTLA channel 5 or KHJ channel 9) used to run them once a day for a week each with two showings on Saturdays - so I got to watch some of them several times and got used to them.

In high school I got to run the two classics mentioned above - "The Innocents" and "The Haunting" - both in B&W 16mm 'scope. Maybe not really scary by the time I first saw them, but they both had some good scares in them. Great stuff!;

Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 03-26-2014, 12:08 AM:

quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
The Day The Earth Stood Still for sure. I was probably about 5 or 6 then. It's creepiness was certainly heightened by the Bernard Herrmann score. The space man and robot both scared the bejesus out of me.

I'm almost positive "The Day The Earth Stood Still" was the first film that premiered on NBC's "Saturday Night At The Movies"
in 1961. GORT was pretty scary even on a Television Screen. You knew when that visor shield opened up that someone/something was History... [Eek!]