For me it was Event Horizon, that was scary as hell when I was a kid, I had nightmares for months.
The aliens from Mars Attacks.
ACK ACK!
yup scared the buhjeezus out of me as a kid. Especially the scene with the fake Martian Lady that bites Martin Short’s finger off.
Ack! Ack ack ack?
In its defence, many scared stoners were also casualties of that movie.
Time Bandits. Because of that move my childhood was plagued with nightmares about little people from out of time invading my room in the middle of the night.
My babysitter showed me Critters (in secret) when I was 5. Rather than be scarred, she turned me into a avid horror fan. I saw all the 80’s classics when I was way too young for them thanks to HBO and Cinemax.
None phased me.
Laughably, what finally got me was so mild. In Poltergeist 2 or 3, there’s a scene where the kid’s reflection no longer mimics his own movements. It’s not even the scare, but rather the set-up.
I started staring at mirrors when I was alone, just waiting for my reflection to break into a sinister smile. My fear was, when it did, what would I do? No adult would believe me. Mirrors are unavoidable. Something supernatural would be after me. I knew I wouldn’t be able to pull off some “final girl” shit IRL.
The Blair Witch Project. My cousin told me it was actual found footage, which was a terrifying thought for 10 year old me.
That was the whole point. They even made the actors stay out of public view for a year, handing out flyers at Sundance that they were “missing, presumed dead”. There were fake police interviews on the film’s website and everything. This was the first time anything like this had been done so I can imagine people were really invested in this movie and thought it was real.
They also “leaked” copies of the film for months before it came out. I saw a leaked copy in the dorms in college. Never heard of it, my friends told me it was real footage that had been found in the woods from a group that had been lost. For the first… probably half of the movie, I was convinced it was real.
Very enjoyable experience. I feel bad for all the people who saw it after the hype and were too cool to let themselves be scared by it.
Whoa TIL! I thought my cousin was just messing with me, but the chance that all this time she may have also been sold on the idea makes me feel better.
This movie felt real. I’m still scared by it…
Gremlins. My family will likely never stop making fun of me for it: “Hurr durr but it’s a DISNEY movie!!1!”
Fuck you, I was traumatized.
My dad got me a poster of mogwai after watching the movie and attached it on the ceiling directly above my bed. Sure, he was the friendly one but fuck that shit! 10/10 dad humour.
Same. To this day, I never rewatched gremlins again.
but its PG? /s
(fun fact, Gremlins and Temple of Doom are why we have the PG-13 rating in the states)
Also, Gremlins isn’t a Disney movie. It was produced by WB and Amblin.
Pet Cemetery.
But not, like, the zombie cat, zombie dog, or zombie kid. What scared me shitless was the short little flashback of the wife’s sick sister in bed.
This! The original one.
I dreamt that the white dog/wolf jumped over me and my midsection spasmed and it jerked me awake.
Also, Arachnophobia was terrifying! I felt that it was where my fear of crawling insects came from. Because when I was younger, I was not afraid of catching spiders as large as my tiny hands.
the original
Oh yeah, there’s a remake now, huh? I, too, mean the original lol
Arachnophobia I saw when I was a little older, and thought it would scare me (since I hate spiders) but it was actually kind of funny.
yeah, looking back, I’m surprised that it affected me that much. You never really know what could trigger a lifelong change in your state of mind. Specially wen you think about it. I have actual first hand experience of catching a spider, yet a movie with made up scenarios made me not trust my experience and drove me to be afraid of spiders for probably the rest of my life.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? I went for the cartoon characters. The reveal for Judge Doom near the end was terrifying.
The voice really… fucking hell!
Pan’s Lanyrinth. The Pale Man haunted 12yo -me’s nightmares for a long time.
I am legend
The post apocalyptic movie with Will Smith.
The eerie way the monsters looked, plus the way they stood in a circle in the dark building. It really scared the shit out of me as a kid.
Don’t play The Forest anytime soon then xD
It’s like I am Legend on steroids.
Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. (Hear me out)
This was back in the 80s, when TV screens were glass and shooting a suction cup gun at it was the pinnacle of child entertainment. On one of my retrieval trips, when I was arms length from the screen, Large Marge made “the face.” I screamed and ran. I couldn’t watch the movie for years afterward. I still get minor anxiety to this day.
Honestly? ET scared little me more than it probably should have! That little bastard could pop up anywhere and looked even creepier when he was sick.
Hate that guy.
My brother! It didn’t help that a family member made a E.T. lamp with light up eyes, finger tip, and heart. It flickered. And my parents put it next to my bed. I remember hiding under the sheets from it.
Mom had the gall to gift it to me for a house warming present lol. Its in a box….somewhere.
100% agree, this was going to be my answer. I still occasionally have night terrors about him and I’m in my mid-30s.
You’re so right about how creepy he looked when he was sick - all pale and white like a 1980s dog poo.
Apparently it was originally supposed to be a horror movie but don’t quote me, haven’t checked
“Apparently it was originally supposed to be a horror movie but don’t quote me, haven’t checked” -Chadsalot@lemmy.world
You can’t control me!
I can’t believe I just scrolled through 77 responses and nobody said “Poltergeist” yet!
Creepy clown on the chair, monster unter the bed, tree tapping at the window, coffins in the pool, whispers in the dark (“Get… out…”), little girl staring at static on the TV, etc. So much of it has become tropes now, but that’s because they were so effective the first time!
That fucking tall gangly pale man with a wide smile that comes during the rainstorm.
Nightmare on Elm Street… my sister was not a great babysitter.
The 1st one was so insanely well crafted. It’s the only horror movie that has ever genuinely scared me to the core. The body bag scene is so haunting. And the mom putting the bars on the windows is one of the most well crafted twist to increase the plot tension in all of horror.
I apparently had recurring T-Rex-chasing-me nightmares after my grandparents let me watch Jurassic Park when I was like 5 or 6 (they thought it was just a dinosaur movie or something)
For me the “shoot her” scene at the start was the scariest. How quickly it flips from “hehe gotcha, you thought it was a dinosaur but it was just a crate” to utter human terror as they try to save someone from an unseen monster
Tbf, it… it is just a dinosaur movie.
To be fair, Event Horizon scared me as an adult.
In the vein of “kids are stupid”, the Never-Ending Story scene with the sphinxes.
Me watching Event Horizon… wow, a cool new sci-fi movie…. Then wtf?…… Great movie though.
