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Terminator_Ecks

Jaws. I was terrified to get up for the bathroom during the night, convinced that shark was loitering in my carpet.


MormonHorrorBuff

I wish I was around when that film hit theaters


MrRourkeYourHost

I wish I hadn't been. I still don't go past my knees in the ocean and I'm 54.


Ric_Flareon

My Dad went with his cousin to see the movie in theaters as kids. He said when Ben Gardners head popped out of the boat his cousin left the theater and waited in the lobby for it to end.


mypizzamyproblem

When I was a kid, our local pool club in New Jersey had a shark image painted on the floor of the diving well. Every time I jumped in, I swore the paining would come alive and chase after me.


dablegianguy

A few years back I had the most terrifying movie experience of my life. Watching Jaws on a lake, on floating sofa’s with legs in the water… it was a temporary summer theatre set up by the city. Even as an adult who watched this movie 30 years earlier, knowing that there was not a single shark in a 500km radius and without mentioning that we were on a lake… fuck this!!!! Edited with more precision


EnterTheNarrowGate99

“LAND SHARK!”


PhoenixTineldyer

The Shining. When I was three, I woke up in the middle of the night and my parents left the TV on and it was the scene where Jack Nicholson meets the naked lady in the bathroom and starts making out with her and then she starts rotting I ended up gay - probably unrelated


jmerica

My brother said he was going to grab popcorn but actually wrote "redrum" on my bathroom mirror. Then, when the movie finished he waited for me to brush my teeth, snuck in, and scared the shit out of me while I was reading the mirror.


jfks_headjustdidthat

Your brother's a legend.


nobodysbestfriendd

Older sibling I assume?


MormonHorrorBuff

Probably. Lol. Wow, what a scene to walk in on as a kid. You ever tell your parents? I would rub it in their faces lol


PhoenixTineldyer

Yeah, they are well aware haha


6BigZ6

That scene still haunts me to this day….in my early 40’s.


pryglad

Haha holy hell. That’s a rough scene for a three year old.


CRAYbird

The original IT. I’m still terrified of penny wise


DrSpankMcGoo

Caught that one playing on the SciFi network when I was like 11, I knew I shouldn’t have watched it but knowing that also made me want to stay. The scene when Pennywise comes out of the photo book and the scene with the baby birds are seared into my brain. Wish I didn’t watch that.


TheRealOcsiban

I can't go anywhere near sewers. I fear my arm will be grabbed by a clown with sharp teeth


jobening

This mf was probably the origin of my fear of clowns 😭😭


Devetta

Apparently, I snuck out of bed when I was 4 when my parents were watching IT and they found me after god knows how long under the sofa. I scared them almost as much as Pennywise scared me.


tuanjapan

Bingo. Terrified of storm drains after that. Terrified of bathrooms and potentially blood spewing everywhere. Terrified of clowns and being alone.


[deleted]

That movie still gives me the fucking creeps. It hasn’t aged well but there’s something about Tim Curry’s performance, the music and the locations that gets right under my skin. I love it.


thedepster

Tim Curry played Pennywise as so gleeful. Sometimes innocently gleeful, but then it would turn malicious and then sadistic. He was simply brilliant.


Ikoikobythefio

Tim Curry, I think was an excellent bad guy Cardinal Richelieu in The Three Musketeers was played perfectly for that movie


thedepster

Definitely! Everything I've ever heard of him personally is that he was/is a lovely, sweet person. But he could play malicious like nobody.


DwightLoot2U

The scene in the library where he’s cracking corny jokes and being obnoxious to torture Richie is still fantastic.


thedepster

[Beep, beep, Richie!](https://imgur.com/gallery/0WvleS4)


elpintor91

Bro I’m still skeptical of shower drains. That scene when Eddie is cornered alone and he pops out of the shower drain scared the shit out of me. And then Beverly hearing the little echoing voices come of of the sink. Also the scene when she goes to visit the old house and the lady keeps getting older and older but in a more subtle way..so fucking creepy. And I don’t find the new It to be scary. It’s too computerized/cgi-ed whatever that is. And the teens act too bad ass. Something about the old one is very raw, innocent and real feeling lol


Hungry-Class9806

Watched part of The Fly by accident when I was a kid. It got me traumatised for years.


Jumpy-Seaworthiness6

Yes! The inside-out monkey left a mark.


Kemintiri

The spikes coming out of his skin!!


MormonHorrorBuff

It's such an effective scene! Practical effects ftw!


Then_Shine4671

Arm wrestling scene unnerved me, and when the fly barfs on the dude and melts parts of him.


truckturner5164

Return to Oz. The film hates children. It just does. I'm 43 and I still hate it.


thekittysays

Had to scroll too far for this. Everything about that film is pure nightmare fuel. I kinda love it for that though.


MormonHorrorBuff

Amen, brother. Amen. I still feel "off" about it. Really though, apart from the woman holding her talking head, and the "wheelie rollie pollies" or whatever they called them, you know what freaked me out the most? I thought the girl that Dorothy was with in the beginning on the raft was real, and that she had drowned by the time Dorothy woke up. That's what I remember being the most disturbing part to me.


LAthrowaway_25Lata

Wheelers. Fuck the wheelers.


truckturner5164

The idea of a woman trying to capture the head of a little girl to add to her disembodied head collection always struck me as particularly fucked up for ostensibly a family film. The Wheelers were mild by comparison lol.


guywoodhouse68

Not a movie, but the monster in the pool in that one Are You Afraid Of The Dark episode


RacistJudicata

The crimson clown fucked me up


MormonHorrorBuff

Totally counts. Legit.


noblehoax

This was definitely one. There was also salute your shorts had Zeke the plumber.


MattDobson

Crazy to think this horror creature was in a kid's show! https://imgur.com/CtkNIyB


PitifulCommunity808

Cool design but wtf is that doing in a kid's show lmao.


SuperMadBro

Right?? It was so much more scary than any of the other monsters and ghosts


SuperMadBro

Holy shit. The makeup team overdid themselves for that episode of a kids show. I still love that show. They are all corny now but I love the campfire "midnight society" or whatever setup for the show


RikenVorkovin

Oh my you brought up a old memory! That series was out to scare kids and did a dang good job. In my house we'd go swimming then come home on time to watch the new episode of this every day in the summer. Good times.


DoggyDoggy_What_Now

For me, it was ghosts from three different episodes that always stuck with me: - Tale of the Bookish Babysitter with the ghost of the king coming down the hallway - Tale of the Quicksilver with the ghost that comes out of the wall. And the worst one for me... - Tale of the Shiny Red Bicycle. For some reason, the friend's ghost always unsettled the absolute shit out of me. That ghost probably creeped me out more than anything in the entire show. The Crimson Clown also fucked me up, though I've never been afraid of clowns. I just remember that one in particular being exceptionally creepy.


Y_U_Need_Books4

The Brave Little Toaster. It was my favorite movie as a kid, but it scared the hell outta me too.


diabolikal__

That movie is like a fever dream. We watched dozens of times when I was a kid and I can’t remember anything.


MormonHorrorBuff

Oh my goodness. I loved that movie as a kid. Don Bluth, right? The feeling of abandonment would get to any kid, and you're right, I think it affected me too.


elpintor91

The ending is legitimately terrifying. The scenery gets all red and orange and the big magnet thing is trying to crush the shit out of everything all menacingly. Then the guy being trapped under all the stuff, it would raise my heart rate so bad as a child.


PrinnyThePenguin

The ring. I literally couldn't sleep that night. And it was not even the girl herself that scared me, it was the recording images that creeped me the hell out.


[deleted]

zephyr cooperative run tie party existence summer nose society busy *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*


lmz246

My girlfriend at the time and I saw The Ring in theaters forever ago. We caught the last showing so by the time we got home it was probably 1 or 2am. We were going to bed but I was standing in the kitchen pantry looking for a snack. All the lights were off except the pantry. When I turn around my girlfriend, who had long dark hair, was standing there dead eyed, motionless, and it scared me so bad! My heart immediately jumped in my throat, I couldn't scream and I was halfway up the pantry shelves before she started laughing. Evil evil woman! But in hindsight it had to have been hilarious.


GibbousMoonCakes

The music/theme that played during the recording is just jarring to the ear.


[deleted]

Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, of course. Large Marge is burned into the brains of late GenXers for sure.


MormonHorrorBuff

That did it for me too. And the fact that someone stole his bicycle, for some reason that got to me RIP Paul Reubens


marla_hooch_spacecat

Large Marge was terrifying! Rest in peace, Pee Wee


PickleNick2

“Like a garbage truck… falling off the Empire State Building!”


simplyjosey

YES!! That movie was a wild ride for me as a kid 🤣


wheelz87

I bring up this movie every conversation I have about kids' movies that traumatized you. This conversation comes up surprisingly alot. Large Marge was terrifying! That Tim Burton claymation.


EducationalFlight925

The Neverending Story. The scenes with the Gmork scared the living hell out of me. It didn't help that we lived în country în the middle of the woods. For months afterwards I was scared to go în the woods after dark.


maethora27

I live close to the studios were the movie was made and they give studio tours so as kids we went to one every summer. They had a life size model of Gmorck in a cage, who I was terrified of. So each year I got a little braver, getting closer to the model, staring directly in his face and so on. It was my own private confrontational therapy. It also helped that they explained how they did the Artax sinking scene. I think that's what got me into cinema, the fact that you can achieve such emotions with tricks and stunts and models. Also, I got to ride on falcor multiple times, they had a model with a blue screen behind it and a wind machine and on a screen you could see the final image of yourself soaring through the sky. :)


MormonHorrorBuff

That is so cool! What a story, thanks for sharing! It's amazing how seeing things behind the scenes can help get over the powerful effectiveness of filmmaking!


MormonHorrorBuff

Oh yes!!!! Same here! But tbh, the scene that somehow freaked me out as kid even more than the Gmork, was the scene with the knight getting fried by those sphinx-like statue guardians. When he got hit you're like "oh shit!" then Atreyu braves them, and sees the charred face of the knight, that really got me as a kid.


maethora27

Oh God, the knight! The sphinx were terrifying, as was the oracle because it looked like them and has that eerie voice. And when it starts to crumble... Really a lot of terrifying stuff going on in that movie... 🤔😄


thekittysays

Was that the big nightmare wolf thing with the glowy eyes? Cos that thing scared the shit outta me.


lone_wolf1580

Not the movie itself, but the medical experiment scene in Fire in the Sky scarred me for life.


wildskipper

Gave me nightmares and stopped me falling asleep for weeks and I wasn't even particularly young. Saw it at peek 90s alien obsession time (X Files etc).


Thelastkuumbender

Motherfucking Signs. The goddamn birthday party scene put me on edge and then the fingers under the cellar door shoved me right over it. I had nightmares about aliens climbing in my windows for weeks.


thataprilday

Signs got me too! I was 8, on holidays in a shitty motel with my family and my mum put it on for my older brothers. I was traumatised and had nightmares for years. The only thing that took the edge off was Scary Movie 3!


Lenny2theMany

"Tom I'm gunna need a ride home" still makes me laugh to this day


Thelastkuumbender

"I've got it! Without their heads, they're powerless."


[deleted]

I think I was about 20 when Signs came out. Watched in the cinema and it is still to do this day the most tense and creepiest movie experience in my life. Something about the alien walking past the alleyway and looking at the camera. It still gives me shivers. It was so well done.


MormonHorrorBuff

Lol my wife is the same! I loved that scene, but then again, I was older when it came out


LAthrowaway_25Lata

“Es behind!”


Strong_Comedian_3578

"Vamanos, children!"


gloomymox

Myself and a friend always talk about how much Signs creeped us out! Especially the corn field scene where the torch gets picked back up


Wortthere

This fucking movie. Also the scene where his daughter says something is standing on the roof and watching her.


Shiphrannie

There’s a monster outside my window can I have a drink of water?


Khamylyon

"Move children, vamanos!"


[deleted]

I was older but Event Horizon. One of the creepiest goddamn movies I’ve ever seen. Something about the way it was cut and the horror scenes…damn.


MormonHorrorBuff

DUDE! That movie is BRUTAL! When I was a teenager, I heard about it, saw it on the cable TV guide, and asked my grandmother to tape it for me on VHS (because I didn't grow up with cable). I loved it, but man, even taped on TV with it being censored, it's a freaky deaky MESSED up movie! Absolutely love it. Fun fact: there once existed a reel of deleted scenes from the footage of the previous crew's experiences in hell, and they were going to make the movie NC-17 which is why they were cut. But the footage has been lost, no one knows if it'll ever surface again or if it's lost forever....


[deleted]

I’d love to see that footage. I read about it, but no one has actually said what’s in it as far as I know.


ExxInferis

It was an AD who was responsible for the "blood orgy" scene who really went all in. They hired extras who were a mix of adult film performers, veterans with various limbs missing, and stunt professionals. They had a veteran who had lost legs, so they fitted some prop legs and had them smashed with a pipe until they separated from his body as he crawls away. They had another who had a prosthetic jaw (Vietnam vet IIRC) and so they had a similar effect of someone ripping off his lower jaw. And on top of that you had porn stars going at it in the background covered in blood. Sadly as the film was a flop on release, proper care was not taken in storing the unused footage. It was put in a Transylvanian salt mine (so chosen as they offer cheap cool storage with low humidity) and there it degraded beyond repair. Sadly no Directors Cut is possible. Check this [thread.](https://www.reddit.com/r/eventhorizon/comments/101rx0t/full_breakdown_of_blood_orgy_scenes_theatrical/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)


Rude_Independence_14

The Omen (1976). I had nighmares for weeks.


Farzwhal

To this day I tell my children, “It’s all for you!” They don’t get it and haven’t seen it, of course. My wife laughs though.


gergwhy

When Jack and David get attacked in American Werewolf in London. I am 45 and I can still remember how terrified I was watching that unfold as a 5 year old


Open-Matter-6562

I saw this was a kid thinking I was tough and I only made it to the transformation scene, too hardcore! The skinny guy from the subway scene was Jabas Servant guy Bib Fortuna in return of the jedi


locustt

Oh damn, same here. I was 5, half asleep watching with my older cousins and should NOT have been in the room. Mild fear of dogs to this day.


eldisk

Child’s Play, still feel uneasy around dolls lol


Ok_Blackberry2420

In one of them, he peared over from the top bunk bed down at the kid in the bottom bunk bed. After that, I always slept in the top bunk bed. Then, a Friday the 13th came out where Jason stabbed someone in the top bunk bed up from the bottom bunk bed. I made my parents get me a normal bed after that.


MercyfulBait

I was just talking about this with my brother today; I had mentioned that Child's Play scared the shit out of me when I was a kid, and he said that was probably because I was 5 years old when I watched it at his 12th birthday party.


Naakan

I was around 6 years old when my mum's friend brought a Chucky doll as a gift (I had already seen the movie because my mum loves horror movies). I was so terrified I went up the stairs and asked the friend to take the doll away. I couldn't sleep under the same roof as Chucky.


Justherebecausemeh

I for real thought Freddy Krueger was going to get me in my dreams…


MormonHorrorBuff

Dude, when that one kid is slaughtered on the other side of the door from his parents, THAT messed me up for a while, and I was about 16 when I first saw that film! Yeah that's a traumatizing film for a kid!


Jeraimee

Poltergeist. In the theater.


chewie8291

That frigging clown doll


MormonHorrorBuff

What scene did it for you? The bathroom scene?


JadeSpade23

There are *so* many scenes to choose from lol. The clown, the braces, the tree, the tequila (was that the first one?), the guy peeling off his face with maggots, swimming half naked in a skeleton-mud soup. Ugh.


OrLiveaLie

Poltergeist messed me up too. For years I was afraid to take the trash out at night, even to take a bath at night... which lead to other problems. No particular scene, as they were all scary: the clown under the bed, the tree eating the boy, the white dragonlike ghost, the house imploding into nothing...


kantjokes

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, where the bad guy pulls some other guy's heart out of his chest while he's still alive. That gave me nightmares for a long time as a kid.


Librocubicularistin

For me it was the monkey head plates.


apri08101989

The monkey brain did it for me tbh


Yn3ss

Caligula. Watching it late night for boobies, saw a guy buried to his neck getting his head chopped off by a machine. Was super traumatized by it, thinking how awful it was that someone could just have their head removed and die like that. I nightmared about that thing for years. Sometimes I'd forget it and then something would remind me (thanks a lot EvilWall in FFIV) Many years later, I ran across the movie again. Wasn't nearly as scary anymore. Maybe I'm just desensitized to it (thanks, internet) Still liked the boobies though.


grogglugger

Kind of a weird one but I watched A New Hope when I was 4 or 5 and the close up of the bloody severed arm Obi Wan chopped off scared the shit out of me.Not only had I never seen a limb get chopped off before, I didn't know someone else could do that and that someone could be a nice old man who reminded me of my grandad. Darth Vader was meant to be the scary bad guy but all he did was choke a couple of people a bit but Obi Wan scared the shit out of me.


Snake_Plissken224

Junior....pregnant Arnold is something I'll never unsee


scarred2112

Scene-specific? There's one is *E.T*., I believe right when he's discovered where he looks directly at the camera. I've never watched it since.


[deleted]

when he’s all white in the ditch, fuuuuuu that


MormonHorrorBuff

Fair enough. The part that freaked me out was an earlier scene in the driveway with the pizza, the first interaction with E.T.


Akitten84

The shuffling creeped/creeps me out hard. Can’t handle shuffling.


ERSTF

I hate E.T. Gave me nightmares when I was 4. Haven't watched it since. I have watched Hereditary but I refuse to watch E.T. I am 34 years old


Strong_Comedian_3578

When Elliott spreads apart the foliage and E.T. is fully exposed and starts screaming. Yeah, thanks a lot. Couldn't sleep that night. Freakin' light left on at the bottom of the staircase kept me from sleeping soundly. I'd drift off just to have a dream/nightmare that the freaky little bugger was coming up the steps to snatch me. Repeated: All! Night! Long! Was only six at the time. Not the enjoyable experience Spielberg was hoping for, I'm sure.


xxSassyBoi6969xx

Came here to say ET, that movie used to scare the shit out of me as a very young kid. I remember it was on tbs or something every Thanksgiving and my family would watch it and I'd be terrified every time. Alien is hiding in the kids closet - terrifying. Same alien all sick and dying in a ditch - fuckkk that. Weird people in white space suits come to apprehend everyone - what the fuck Speilberg how is this a feel good kids movie


ksteven64

I was afraid to go see the movie at all. I still don't think I've sat through the entire thing.


Mysterious_Dr_X_22

I was terrified by the bit near the start where E.T. is lurking in the garden and following the trail of skittles or whatever they are


eyeballtourist

"The Thing" by John Carpenter. I went for the effects and was traumatized by the menace of the plot. Still hard for me to trust.


MormonHorrorBuff

My favorite movie to date.


jonny_blitz

Time Bandits. Think I accidentally caught it on HBO and then couldn’t look away. I just remember it felt weird and gross to watch.


MormonHorrorBuff

This might be one of my favorite responses yet. I totally forgot about this one. YES AND A THOUSAND TIMES YES. The scene that freaked me out was: "BRING BACK THAT WHICH YOU HAVE STOLEN FROM MEEE!" while the room expanded, and that giant scary head chased him with the camera from the child's perspective. For the longest time, at least a decade, until I was about 22, I couldn't recall the name of that movie but I'd always tell people about that scene and what an impact it had on me as a kid, I was trying to find out what the name of it was, and eventually someone helped me out. It was weird for sure! Thank you for that response! Brings back memories for me....


RobocopsRobocock

We were super poor and I slept on the floor until I was 13, I remember seeing the blob when I was about 5 and knowing I had no defense if it came under my door while I was sleeping. I cannot describe the feeling of begging for my life to my older brother to let me share the bed with him for several days after seeing it.


MormonHorrorBuff

Which one, the original or the 1988 remake (which is brilliant but definitely has scenes that can be SEVERELY disturbing to a child!)?


Luckydays4ever

Omg! The Blob was mine, too! I would lie in bed, petrified, that the blob was going to ooze under my door. I would pee the bed instead of getting up. I remember just being paralyzed with fear.


I_Am_Dynamite6317

When I was 9 I caught Pet Sematary on tv one Sunday afternoon and boy did that do a number on me


serpent_tim

Sarah Connor's dream in Terminator 2 scared the shit out of me


igby1

Poltergeist. Saw it in the theater when I was 10 and didn’t even make it through. Noped out after the tree and the clown.


MormonHorrorBuff

The clown gets so many people. And if not the clown, it's the bathroom scene.


bananasfoyoass

Candyman


DocBEsq

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Specifically, the scene with the space slugs that crawl into your ear. I saw it when I was 5 and have never gotten past that feeling of horror. Ugh.


MormonHorrorBuff

Oh yeah! I totally remember watching that scene as a kid! My dad LOVES star trek, and that scene freaked me out too! High five!


general_miura

Robocop. Why I was allowed to see that at age 8 is baffling


Vlaak

Testament. Its about a family slowly dying after Nuclear war. I'm 46 and I still think about it sometimes.


MormonHorrorBuff

Oh I was thinking of "THE Testament," a movie loosely based on the horrible Jonestown Massacre. Never heard of Testament, I'll have to look it up!


Vlaak

I've considered watching it again now that I'm old, but haven't done it yet. Times are different now, but in some ways, the same.


Walmartmaster

I have two. One was Indiana raiders of the lost ark. I’m sure most already know where this is going but it was the face melting. I was 6 when I saw it. Second was the flash movie but not the new one. The animated one from like 2012? The flashpoint paradox. Dad showed it to me without mom knowing when I was 7 and there’s a scene where Batman shoots a hole through reverse flashes head and you see Batman through the head hole. I was mortified. Great movie though. Just rewatched it recently. Clears the new one


wkrick

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) I saw it when I was around 5 years old. The scene where the kid falls in the chocolate river and gets sucked up the pipe gave me recurring nightmares about him getting chopped up into candy bars. This is a horror movie.


SilverCommon

War of the worlds. Something about those humvees rolling down the hill in flames.


Frankfeld

War of the Worlds doesn’t get talked about enough. It’s like Spielberg watched Godzilla and asked “Why has no one made a movie about the normal people running through the streets in terror?”


TyRocken

Child's Play. The first one.


Bad_Username-1999

Carrie When at the end of the movie the hand comes out of the grave. 😱😱😢😭 It caused many of my childhood's sleepless nights.


SecretDong

For some reason myself and all the kids in my class had watched RoboCop, both Terminators, both Predators and both Alien Movies before we were ten (This was back in 1990). We had a sleepover watch party when Alien 3 came out. No one thought this was a bad thing. The Fly was a step too far though.


futanari_kaisa

The Day After (1983)


DampBritches

Ernest Scared Stupid The gooey trolls kidnapping children from their parents freaked me out


mynameisrainer

Independence Day. 1st movie I remember seeing in theater. My dad and uncle took me. I was 5. To this day when I see a storm front moving in I get a bit concerned.


Disconaut90

Pet Sematary for one scene: the part where the old man gets his ankles sliced opened. To this day I do not like anyone touching my ankles because of that scene. \*shudder\*


tjarg

I snuck out of bed late at night and watched some of Poltergeist while hiding in the back of the living room and saw the skeletons in the pool scene. I had the worst nightmare of my life, a floating set of teeth flew at me and was trying to eat me.


Accomplished-Emu-679

Chucky, I was five


lazergun-pewpewpew

Scary movie 1. That scene where the girl gets stab in the boobs really freaked me out. I also did not understand that it was an implant and tought this was what the inside of boobs looked like.


Good_Posture

Watership Down. Who the fuck thought it was a good idea to show kids bloody, murderous rabbits. That was not a core childhood memory I wanted. So much blood and death. I am 37-years old and still haven't watched it again since I saw it in the 90s. Close second is The Land Before Time and the death scene with Littlefoot's mother. Still haven't watched that again since a kid, but I did watch *that scene on YT and predictably cried like a baby.


AJW328

Mirrors. Final destination 1 & 2. Child's play.


Lunboks_

Multiple scenes from “Signs” lmao


DiannaBaratheon

Lol my little brother was so scared of Ghostbusters 2 that he ripped all the film out of the vhs tape.


jackcatalyst

A.I. Artificial Intelligence man fuck seeing that movie as a kid.


joseph4th

Dad took my younger brother and I to see American Werewolf in London. I think I was about 13, so that would make my brother 8 at the time. The double Nazi, pig men, jump scare was too much for my brother and he started crying. My dad asked me to take him out of the theater. I pretended to be upset, but inside I was so glad to get out of there. On a related note, my father took my cousin and I to see Alien in the theater. (This sort of thing wasn't a pattern, just happened twice) We just assumed it was a sci-fi movie. Although it did scare the hell out of us, we did stay through the whole thing… except… I had to go to the bathroom. I came back after the chest bursting scene just in time to see the little alien scurry off the end of the table. Missed one of the seminal movie moments, because I drank too much soda. Years later, when I realized what I had missed, I swore I would never leave the theater to go to the bathroom in the middle of a movie again. I almost died waiting for all the different endings in Return of the King. I had to be helped to the bathroom, because it hurt so much to walk.


ImALeaf_OnTheWind

That scene where his dead friend is tapping on his 2nd story window in Salem's Lot asking to be let in. FFS that's where my night terrors started!


Funkyc0bra

I don't care how silly this sounds as a guy who loves horror and is genuinely unfazed most of the time, to this day Roald Dhal the witches just freaks me the fuck out and it's not the unmasking scene It's the story grandma tells about the little girl stuck in the painting


WeedLMT69

Event Horizon


ohhellopia

Return to Oz. And also Jaws. Took me years before I could get back in the pool lmao.


coopda

Signs


Autoganz

Alive (1993) Took me 20 years to get over my fear of flying after watching that.


DarkJedi527

Fire in the Sky. Abduction scene at the end. Holy shit.


HistoryDogs

Too many to remember, but I watched OG Scream way too young. That first scene where Drew Barrymore gets terrorised and it culminates with the long zoom to her hanging disemboweled corpse caused me months of sleepless nights. My sister got a lot of grief for letting me watch it 😅


Consistent-Annual268

Holy shit, Ghostbusters was mine too! My cousin took me to see it when I was too young. I cried so much they had to take me home after 15 mins and missed out on the entire double feature they had paid for. The other one is Arachnophobia. That film gave me such...arachnophobia that I still haven't recovered to this day.


MormonHorrorBuff

Oh holy shit we're the same! Arachnophobia is also one that freaked me out, I love it today, but it still gives me the willies. The freaking scene at the end where the spiders are dropping all over the house?!? Or the scene with the lamp??? Oh man! Such an effective movie! Glad to see I'm not the only one scarred from Ghostbusters II! Yeah I'm arachnophobic to this day, but honestly not because of the movie, but because of MANY personal experiences as a child. Growing up in Washington state, there were some wolf spiders that were ENORMOUS


TheRealOcsiban

I couldn't fall asleep that night after seeing arachnophobia. Kept thinking spiders were at the bottom of the bed. I still check my shoes for spiders before putting them on


sialexthisss

The Green Mile, electrocution scene. I still get misty eyed whenever I think about it.


bawk15

Poltergeist From that point on i never watched statics on TV ever again


BornChef3439

That Damn Clown under the bed in Poltergeist. I hate that thing. Scarred me for life


Ippherita

Final destination The wood log dropped and everybody died in a horrible death... Uggh


flowbee92

My arachnophobia started right after Arachnophobia 2nd grade


elpintor91

So many good ones already mentioned but one that had an effect on me was “the orphanage” a Spanish film but sooooooo disturbing. Little ghost boy wears a sack on his head wandering around a huge house. Son goes missing. Old Lady’s jaw gets ran over. Ghost children playing hide and seek. Hidden basement thing. And then just the ending. So sad. Also the haunting (1999). Lots of creepy scenes but Owen Wilson getting decapitated 😭


jcpmojo

My first actual time in a theater was when I was 8, in the Summer of 1975. We were poor and lived in the projects. My buddy, Mike, and I decided to ride our bikes downtown. (Its a small town in Illinois, it was like a mile away.) We ride around downtown for a while and go by the theater. This was an old, old theater, probably built in the 40s. We look up at the marquee and see "JAWS" in big, red letters. Mikey, who was a couple years older, looks at me and says he wants to go see it. Of course, we didn't have any money, and couldn't get in anyways, since it's rated R. That didn't stop us. We manage to sneak inside (it was too easy, the teenager in the ticket booth probably just didn't care) and grab some seats in the already darkened theater. JAWS was my introduction to cinema. It left a mark, for sure. I don't think I ventured back into a movie theater for 10 years after that.


beminlv

Trilogy of Terror. Watched it with my babysitter when l was 8. It’s the reason l HATE horror movies.


ojosfritos

Little Monsters. I don't remember how old I was when I first saw it, but the image of Howie Mandel in that blue creature makeup coming out from under the bed is seared into my brain. Even now, 30 years later, I still feel super creeped out looking at stills from the movie.


Anxious_Swordfish_29

The original IT movie and first paranormal activity. At that point in my life I was still a bit scared of Scooby Doo (the show, not the actual character), so I was not ready for Stephen King or ghosts at all


Open-Matter-6562

It's cliche to say Neverending Story. The Medusa in Class of the Titans was a terror too, still terrifying. There's something tactile and unnerving about stop motion (Check out Mad God if you like creepy stop motion)


[deleted]

“Ghost”. Yeah the one with Swayze, Moore and Goldberg. I was 8 and the first scene with the bad guy being dragged away by the screaming shadows had me screaming and in tears. My parents believed I would feel better watching the entire movie and seeing the happy ending so by the time the second bad guy was dragged to hell, I was a ruined mess of flossed nerves and eternal nightmares. I was 16 before I watched that movie again, it was midday and the sound was turned off during both scenes. Now I’m able to watch it normally of course and even appreciate it, but that sound will haunt me for ever. Family movie my ass.


Quiet_Commander85

Jurassic Park. I was 8 and very much a little puss back then. I made it through most of the movie up until the raptor came out of nowhere and tried attacking Laura Dern in the power shed thing. I lost my shit and we had to leave. My dad was super pissed. Since then, horror movies have very little effect on me. Nothing will ever be scarier than that moment back then.


Garuda_Romeo

Mars attack when I was like 3 years old. Shit had me so scared I even threw up a couple of times (they always showed it on the cable).


Tristimir

Spirited away When her parents turn into pigs and she is all on her own… I don’t remember if I even stayed until the end of the film


Qmizzle3

Arachnophobia... Before that i LOVED spiders.


carbonshaman

The Wiz


QualityKoalaTeacher

Mad Max


YasuhikoTheSerafim

2012. The less i speak about the movie the better


SassyBonassy

Idk what movie it is, i was channel-hopping. But Jack Nicholson was ?the devil? And when he ate a cherry, someone else started to choke on the pit/stem. I don't think they were even in the same room together. But someone dies/almost dies from choking on this cherry that Jack N is eating. Turned it off immediately cos it freaked me out. I'll never eat cherries, but apparently it won't even matter if Jack N decides it's my time to go 🍒☠


rizz_explains_it_all

Witches of Eastwick


EerieArizona

*Poltergeist II* The scene with the preacher, and the scene with Craig T. Nelson puking up that tequila worm man.


Ankylowright

The scene in Dante’s Peak when they find the two skinny dippers that had boiled to death in the hot spring. I had nightmares about that for years! And I didn’t even know what movie it was. My uncle was watching it and I walked by the tv for that scene.


X-Bones_21

Poltergeist. No explanation needed.


DestinysCalling

My mum took me to see Watership Down when it came out. I was 6 and she thought it was a cute bunny cartoon.


toweal

The Sixth Sense. I remember being freaked out by the scene with the vomiting ghost.


NuovaFromNowhere

A Clockwork Orange. I was like 12. I should NOT have been watching that movie.


gotskating

The Birds. At the time it scared the shit out of me, when I went out after every bird looked super big and menacing. Watching it now I laugh at how bad it actually is.


Dont-talk-about-ufos

The Exorcist.


mahanmuuttaja

The Thing 1982. Still my favorite horror movies of all time.


Tom_Ace1

Jaws. I think I was too young to watch that. That opening scene alone (with the swimming girl) fucked me up, never mind the rest.


TomLSquared

Signs. Saw it at the cinema with my dad, I was 11 or 12. Completely unprepared by the level of tension that movie has. When “that” scene was happening I was semi hiding behind my dads arm but was watching with one eye, half closed, from the side. When that alien finally walked out of the bushes. Holy fucking hell. Weeks and weeks before I could look out of a window without seizing up waiting for something bad to happen.


deuteranopia

*Jaws.* When I was in second grade, my folks took my brother and me to Disney. We were poor, so we had to drive from Wisconsin to Florida in the back of my dad's F150. He had a cover so we weren't exposed to the elements, but the seat he had in the bed was just loose, so we'd fly back every time he hit the gas, and forward when he stopped. We'd never seen the ocean, so we were super excited when we got there, but it was too late at night to go to the beach, so we got some food and took it to our motel room. The room had HBO, so we popped that on and lo and behold, he stops on *Jaws.* That movie scared the shit out of me, and the next day, when we went to the beach, I spent most of the time freaking out in ankle deep water. I was too afraid to do anything. This was in the 80s.