Has there ever been a movie that has scarred you for life?
Perhaps I watched too many horror movies as a kid, but whenever I was at my grandparents house I was always afraid to go in the basement. In horror movies, nothing good ever happens in the basement, but for some reason everyone seems to go there. Throw in a boiler room and you have yourself a recipe for death. My grandparents had a storage room in their basement that had a faded purple curtain separating it from the rest of the space. Every time I went down the steps into the already creepy underworld, I was afraid something was going to come out of that room and kill me.
Of course nothing ever did, but to this day the thought of going down in my grandparents basement still gives me the chills. I blame horror movies.
Which makes us wonder, what are the movies that scared the crap out of you as kids?
Angel Samuel Agramonte: Child’s Play! Saw it when I was 6 and my brother kept talking like Chucky and sneaking out of his bed and grabbing my feet!
Scotty Santo: The Exorcist. I was in elementary school, we were visiting family and their high school age son was watching the movie with some friends. I saw a few minutes, and it scared the hell out of me, and I’ve still never seen it to this day.
Erin B. Dougherty: Nightmare on Elm Street. Hated the name Tina for a very long time and was terrified by the bloody sheet scene where she is rolling in it over the ceiling… CHUD–I don’t remember anything else than the hand coming out of the basement door (I was 5ish), but it has been a lasting image. And because I was a small child the idea of marshmallow fluff eating YOU disturbed me after seeing “Stuff.” Also, “It,” “Poltergeist,” and “The Gate” (esp. the scene where the kid stabs the eyeball that has suddenly appeared in his palm with a shard of glass). I saw a lot of movies at younger age maybe I shouldn’t have…
Marissa McFarland: Candy man. Couldn’t look in the mirror for a long time. Afraid a hook would come thru. My husband sometimes messes with me and comes up behind me if I’m at a mirror and says candyman three times.
Lupine Mendez: Darkness Falls. I remember after we had finished watching it, I had to go outside to the backyard to feed our dogs. It was night time already and I was out there alone. Out of no where my sister ran out of the house and yelled “the tooth fairy!” I ran back inside the house crying.
Jennifer Ann Kathleen: Halloween…Ugh then I married my husband..who is obsessed with it….I finally have gotten to the point I can watch it, see Michael Myers, or hear the theme music and not freak out. Because of the scene when Jamie Lee Curtis was in the closet with the vented closet doors that he was shoving his knife through….Yeah well bc of that scene I did not have closet doors in my room….ever.
James Ford: Alien. Left such a terrifying impression on me, what a masterpiece of build up and tension. That you hardly see the monster at all just makes it more terrifying and suspenseful. To this day it is still the film that scared me the most.
Charles French: The two scariest for me was The Shining, i saw it with my two older brothers in our room that was pitch black with a creepy back yard with the window open! The second was the original Nightmare On Elm Street, we came home from Dallas on a Saturday and my older brother had rented it so we started watching it and just the music was to much for me so i left, here’s the kicker it was 3pm! It took me me about 3 trys before I saw the entire movie, I’ve never been a scary movie guy give me a comedy or kids movie any day.
Karla Gregory Nantz: Pet Sematary! Laying on the living room floor at grandma’s beach house when I was about 11. Too scared, got up and left the room. About 15 minutes later, the ceiling fan fell exactly where I had been laying! No, thank you! Never again!
And here are two you might not expect… for different reasons.
Brian Melcherts: The Wiz! (What?!) I saw it (or part of it) at a very young age and was so scared… I actually just discovered that a few years ago. I knew I had seen people being torn apart and crushed in some kind of weird machines and it was terrifying. So just a couple of years ago I was watching the Wiz and it turned out the be the scene where the wicked witch tries to destroy the tin man and the scarecrow (poor Michael Jackson!). So that was kind of therapeutic to give that nightmare a place…
Vincent Lardier: Grease. My older sister watched it over and over a thousand time. When she wasn’t watching it she was singing the songs. I still get shivers when I see it, and I also punch my sister every time I’m reminded of those dark years.