Movies that messed with your head when you were a kid

[Solitaire U.]

Halloween (the 1978 original with Jamie Lee Curtis). The Michael Myers character really screwed me up as a pre-teen. Didn't help that I lived three blocks away from the actual 'Myers House' that was used in the movies.

 

[snafupants]

The Shining and Child's Play movies.

Spoiler

In hindsight, there should have been more parental supervision.

 

[MissQuote]

The original Night of the Living Dead. I watched it late halloween night, after trick or treating, when I was about nine or ten. We watched it at a friends house down the block and when it was time to walk home my little sister let out a hysterical shriek of laughter and ran off without me, leaving me to make it home alone in the dark. Not sure what a little girl smaller than me would have done to protect me had she not ran off, either way.

I also watched The Rocky Horror Picture Show sometime around that same year and that messed with me royally.

 

[Solitaire U.]

"In hindsight, there should have been more parental supervision. "

I also wondered about that right around the time my mother took us to see The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

 

[snafupants]

"In hindsight, there should have been more parental supervision. "

I also wondered about that right around the time my mother took us to see The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

That might leapfrog negligence and shimmy over to willful irresponsibility.

 

[Dr. Freeman]

"In hindsight, there should have been more parental supervision. "

I also wondered about that right around the time my mother took us to see The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

How old were you?

 

[redbaron]

I don't remember the name, some B grade movie with aliens disguised as FBI agents. The family sees a UFO and reports it, suddenly the FBI (Aliens) are chasing them. Super strong, fast and can hear them breathe through walls/doors.

The scariest part was when they took of their sunglasses, their eyes were like black marble.

I was only 6 when I saw it, scared the living shit out of me and I slept underneath my blankets with a lamp on every night following it for about 3 months. Eventually my mum sat down with me and we drew all the things that scared me at night on paper, then we tore them up into pieces and threw them in the bin.

By the way if anyone can figure out which movie this is from the description please share, I've been wanting to watch it again to see if it actually is scary.

 

[Dr. Freeman]

Not a movie, but when I was much younger, my parents watched the X-Files. To a three year old, this could be somewhat disturbing.

 

[snafupants]

I don't remember the name, some B grade movie with aliens disguised as FBI agents. The family sees a UFO and reports it, suddenly the FBI (Aliens) are chasing them. Super strong, fast and can hear them breathe through walls/doors.

The scariest part was when they took of their sunglasses, their eyes were like black marble.

I was only 6 when I saw it, scared the living shit out of me and I slept underneath my blankets with a lamp on every night following it for about 3 months. Eventually my mum sat down with me and we drew all the things that scared me at night on paper, then we tore them up into pieces and threw them in the bin.

By the way if anyone can figure out which movie this is from the description please share, I've been wanting to watch it again to see if it actually is scary.

This isn't the forum for such a comment but that's really cute.

 

[DeadonDreaming]

The Land Before Time, I thought it was a documentary.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

"Large Marge"

Not a movie, but when I was much younger, my parents watched the X-Files. To a three year old, this could be somewhat disturbing.

I can't think of any other movies and I'll have to go with X-Files also, and The Twilight Zone.

EDIT: Signs. Especially when the alien is spotted at the birthday party, and at the end when one of them is holding the boy. I think it's related to the uncanny valley.

 

[Proletar]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHte24GGHD4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jogNJd5azg


Life was never the same.

 

[Puffy]

Err, a surrealist/ sci-fi animation called Fantastic Planet, images from it have been with me ever since, only rediscovered it about a year ago though.

There are probably plenty of others, I frequently watched horror films when my parents weren't around as a kid (because it was mysterious, forbidden). Personally, I don't think I'd have a problem with my hypothetical future children watching more adult/ disturbing material than is generally accepted. If they're like me, they'd do it anyway, and then have to bottle up their reactions to them out of fear that the parents would be annoyed/ disappointed. I'd rather foster an atmosphere where they feel open about discussing such things with me.

I draw the line at Cannibal exploitation films though.

 

[Puffy]

"Large Marge"


I can't think of any other movies and I'll have to go with X-Files also, and The Twilight Zone.

Oh wow. Is that the Twilight Zone movie?

"Hey, want to see something real scary?..."

 

[Solitaire U.]

How old were you?

Pre-pubescent.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

Oh wow. Is that the Twilight Zone movie?

"Hey, want to see something real scary?..."

It's from Pee-wee's Big Adventure, haven't seen the TZ movie.

 

[Puffy]

It's from Pee-wee's Big Adventure, haven't seen the TZ movie.

@EyeSeeCold Nevermind. I was thinking of this scene:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPlp-WK0XBo&feature=related

That's another one I remember from childhood.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

@EyeSeeCold Nevermind. I was thinking of this scene:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPlp-WK0XBo&feature=related

That's another one I remember from childhood.

I see, Dan Aykroyd reminds me too much of the Blues Brothers, Coneheads and Ghostbusters comedies, it spoils the atmosphere.

 

[SMO]

Pet Sematary - not sure how old I was but I was with a couple of older guys and did not want to appear squeamish or scared so I watched it. The scenes that stuck out were the sister with spinal meningitis, kid with grandfather and the wife coming back from the dead, it disturbed me for a long time.

 

[nanook]

the little match girl ( a cartoon movie about a child freezing to death )

a movie-scene about a boy who can't swim, drifting of on a raft without paddles or sail, from a fjord or river onto the open sea ...

a story about a child tramping all alone through countries unknown to him (italy or morocco something), without having a real target ...

(scenes that rub my weak spot, the Se shadow)

the black and white version of The Fly (the scene where a police guy smashes the spider with a human head with a stone)

Jodorowsky - The Holy Mountain, but honestly i could handle it, found it mostly curious and confusing, because i had never known any grown up who would make a movie like that, all i knew was conservative 1960 type people, so it was more like a general culture shock, than the experience of the movie ...

 

[TriflinThomas]

An American Tail. The giant water monster, and the giant rat contraption scared the shit outta me when I was little. I actually had a nightmare about being on a ship and seeing a water monster because of that movie.

Edit: Also, The Blob. I was scared of jelly for a little while after I saw that. And Eight-Legged Freaks (because I used to be deathly afraid of spiders).

 

[H1N1]

I used to dream of Pinhead and Barbie getting married.

 

[DeadonDreaming]

I guess my movie messing with me experience was different. I used to think all movies and TV were based off real life, so it became difficult for me to figure out how they translated dinosaur into English, and how humans were able to figure out what these dinosaurs were doing.

 

[nanook]

i was always certain, that in soft sex movies like schoolgirl report, they must be using some kind of invisible tape, so that the actors never get to see the sex organs of other actors and it also blew my mind how they could motivate those actors to do something like that ... i could not believe, that the characters in those stories are remotely similar to the characters of the actors, because having so little shame and well 'decency' was not imaginable to me. i somehow understood that the conservative mentality of the 50es and 60es is not authentic, but fear related, but i felt that everyone must necessarily have this fear and only super high amounts of money and the fact that it's 'just for show' could motivate people to have sex related interaction with strangers. needless to say my parents are of an older generation.

 

[Cheeseumpuffs]

Spirited Away.

I'm not sure how much explanation is necessary.

NEVER make your kid watch this movie. Honestly, this movie marks the most traumatic cinematic experience of my life. Followed only by the Peter Jackson version of King Kong. (Seriously, I had nightmares for weeks about that one bug pit.)

The Land Before Time, I thought it was a documentary.

You are a hero to me.

 

[Tempestas]

Echoing the Spirited Away sentiment.

Others: when I was little, my parents would have my grandpa babysit me while they were at work. After my grandma died, my grandpa eventually found a woman named Laura who was kind of his girlfriend, and he spent most of his days and nights over at her house for company and so she could take care of him in case anything happened. (She was close to his age)

So my parents dropped me off with them at her house (she ran a mental disabilities home, that always freaked me out) and my two options were sitting in front of the TV for those hours or roaming the Home, risking interaction with its patients.

She left the scary movie channel on once. I don't know what movies played, but I will never forget that person-thing that crawled through the air vents of an office building and killer people, or the bodies with the writhing muscle swirl for a face.

To this day I can't watch scary movies, my nightmares are already bad enough

 

[Dr. Freeman]

When I was 8-ish, I woke up at about 1:30 on Christmas eve and couldn't get back to sleep. I turned on the TV and watched a fun little show called Read or Die. Looking back, I'm surprised I wasn't really disturbed by the scene where a woman reaches into some guy's chest and messed around with his internal organs.

 

[jantling]

I can't remember what it was called anymore but it was this anime (I think) where this tall really pale guy was running around infecting the world with these spores that either killed you or made you slaves to either his or his master's undying will. There was one scene with all these children were in the back of a van or something and looking up at him with really smiley faces saying, "Please ... (I can't remember his name.) infect us! We want to be infected too!" By this point all their parents were either dead or enslaved by this guy's company that produced the spores and it freaked me out too much. I was in first kindergarten/ first grade, so 5/6, and my mom was working the late shift and I was alone in the dark, too scared/ fascinated to get up and turn on the light. The kids scared me the most. They were so HAPPY and mindless.

Then Ghost in the Darkness about man eating lions.
But the worst was Alice in Wonderland.

 

[Cognisant]

The only movie that ever really scared me was ironically enough one of the "Scary Movie" series, I was so shaken I had my dad take me out of the theatre, he couldn't understand it, I'd been watching scary movies all my life and was never really bothered by them but that comedy hit a nerve with me, I think the problem was that unlike a legitimate horror film the character's motivations made no sense and death wasn't being treated with proper gravity, I just couldn't understand it so the mock tension really got to me.

I grew up singing along to the Rocky Horror Picture show (much to my preschool tearcher's dismay), idolizing Hannibal Lector, and predicting the twist endings to such movies with disturbing accuracy, but that comedy, fuuuuuuck

But I'm okay with clowns, I think it's because when a clown's being scary in a movie it's intended to be scary, I can contextualize it and that undermines the horror because I know it's trying to scare me.

 

[Jennywocky]

Having trouble remember what "scary" movies I watched when young. I don't think VHS got really popular until I was in late middle and/or high school. So by the time I got to see anything really horrific, I was already an adult.

I think I found the "Nightmare on Elm Street" movies pretty unsettling, namely the first two. Those really messed with your head, as it was impossible to tell when one was asleep or awake until it was too late. Later movies got to be more camp, where you were going to watch Freddy's antics, but he seemed horribly malevolent in the first two movies.

I might have also seen "Alien" by that point as well, which has a slow build but was pretty crazy for its time and triggered a bunch of copycat horror flicks over the years.

TBH, I've seen more horror flicks as an adult (considering what has come out over the last twenty years) that were more unsettling than most movies I saw when I was young.

Didn't help that I lived three blocks away from the actual 'Myers House' that was used in the movies.

That is rather cool.

The Shining and Child's Play movies.

Ha -- "I'm your friend 'til the end... which should be in the next three minutes!!" *stab stab stab*

I didn't see The Shining until I was an adult and had already read the book and loved it. The movie was a bit of a different experience, but some of the imagery of the movie was definitely unsettling. I'm less into gore, more into creepiness and disjointed imagery.

Spoiler

In hindsight, there should have been more parental supervision.

Spoiler

My supervision was a joke. My mother stole my Alien novelization from me when I was in 7th grade -- I think I even bought it through the school book fliers -- but I ended up seeing the movie somewhere anyway and she didn't know.

 

[Dr. Freeman]

The only movie I have ever seen that gave me nightmares was Darby O'Gill and the Little People. I don't know why, but there was something about that scene with the banshee that gave me nightmares for roughly two years... It got bad enough that I taught my self a limited amount of lucid dream control so I could kill the darn thing. And then there were rocket launchers.

 

[Jennywocky]

The only movie I have ever seen that gave me nightmares was Darby O'Gill and the Little People. I don't know why, but there was something about that scene with the banshee that gave me nightmares for roughly two years... It got bad enough that I taught my self a limited amount of lucid dream control so I could kill the darn thing. And then there were rocket launchers.

Yes, "You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling." -- Eames, "Inception"

 

[Dr. Freeman]

Yes, "You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling." -- Eames, "Inception"

I feel like starting a thread about nightmares, if one doesn't already exist.

 

[CronusEtzel]

Cannibal Holocaust! I didn't know what I was getting myself into, and I was 12 :S

 

[Fukyo]

Rasputin's skeleton moments in the animated film Anastasia.
Some episodes from Courage the cowardly dog, notably king Ramses.
Him from the Powerpuff girls.
X-files and other gray alien series/movies focusing on abduction. This was a major one.
Borg from Star Trek.

 

[Jennywocky]

I feel like starting a thread about nightmares, if one doesn't already exist.

It sounds like it would be a decent thread. I just wish I had something to contribute... I rarely remember my dreams.

 

[7even]

Postman Pat ... Not even kidding, that guy still gives me the shivers today. Do not be deceived! .. I actually want to find him and kill him, he is the fucking devil. The theme song doesn't make it any better, I get pretty immediate suicidal thoughts from that show.
I feel pretty vulnerable even sharing that. Out of all the phobias you could have .. Postman fucking Pat. Fuck sake.

Oh, and the Mummy (1999) scared the living shit out of me when I was a little dude, had vivid nightmares from it; you know the scarabs beetles? Yeah, well I have an image in my head (a re-imitation in the movie of when they gather in vast numbers) of them killing my family. Not cool. I was hidden and the beetles couldn't get to me, but I could see everything.

It sounds like it would be a decent thread. I just wish I had something to contribute... I rarely remember my dreams.

I dream daily, and remember each one temporarily after waking up, I write them down if I don't want to forget.

 

[Architect]

Star Wars. Made a big impression on my life.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

I rarely remember my dreams.

Do you mean after sleeping you wake up like you didn't dream at all, or do you mean that you just forget easily?

 

[Architect]

Do you mean after sleeping you wake up like you didn't dream at all, or do you mean that you just forget easily?

I think most people (including myself) have dreams but don't usually remember them. My suspicious is that we wake up long enough after REM sleep that the dream fades. Thinks of the times that you woke up in the middle of a dream and so remember it vividly.

 

[Vidi]

Alexander Nevsky film, the battle on the ice. Quite a highlight of my cinematic experience... I was 8 when I saw it. Parents gave me a present, children's pool with table and everything, while I was watching it, and I'd never felt more grim in my life. Normally I would had given half of my toys to own it, but for that movie. Nevsky film had very weird effect on me, I was in a very black mood afterwards and the game became somehow linked to it in my mind, needless to say I don't play it to this day.

Spoiler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXr0m7SaGvs

 

[Jennywocky]

Do you mean after sleeping you wake up like you didn't dream at all, or do you mean that you just forget easily?

I mean that I don't recall having dreams. I assume I have them, everyone is supposed to, but unless I wake up during them, I don't remember even having a dream at all. (If I wake up during, while I might forget the dream itself, I'll still know I had one.)

If I think about it, I can recall maybe 5-10 dreams I've had over the course of my life, but that's it, and usually it was because it was a painful dream.

----

... for kicks and giggles, there was one dream I had when I was ten or eleven, where I don't remember the dream itself: I just remember walking into my parents' bedroom in the middle of the night carrying a pair of sneakers in my hand, and I stood there and said, "Bilbo's dead."

No one moved.

I was like, "Why on earth am I standing here, and why did I say that?" So I took my sneakers and went back to my room. I have no idea what the dream was about.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

I mean that I don't recall having dreams. I assume I have them, everyone is supposed to, but unless I wake up during them, I don't remember even having a dream at all. (If I wake up during, while I might forget the dream itself, I'll still know I had one.)

If I think about it, I can recall maybe 5-10 dreams I've had over the course of my life, but that's it, and usually it was because it was a painful dream.

----

... for kicks and giggles, there was one dream I had when I was ten or eleven, where I don't remember the dream itself: I just remember walking into my parents' bedroom in the middle of the night carrying a pair of sneakers in my hand, and I stood there and said, "Bilbo's dead."

No one moved.

I was like, "Why on earth am I standing here, and why did I say that?" So I took my sneakers and went back to my room. I have no idea what the dream was about.

I was curious because I can relate, it's like I haven't dreamed regularly since being a kid. More than 5-10 total, but I'm aware of my dreams less than once a month.

Weird, sounds like you were a sleeper assassin.

 

[7even]

Aw, man, you guys are missing out. Dreamland is so sick.

Edit: I wonder what makes one person more likely to dream than another.

 

[Jennywocky]

Weird, sounds like you were a sleeper assassin.

I bet the Dwarf Acrobatic Team brainwashed me, and Gloin is pulling the strings behind the scenes.... *gasp*

Next thing I know, I'll be infiltrating Rohan.