For me it was Event Horizon, that was scary as hell when I was a kid, I had nightmares for months.
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.
You are welcome, my good man
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…
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.
Just recently watched it with my kid, he was a little shocked also
Ack! Ack ack ack?
In its defence, many scared stoners were also casualties of that movie.
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.
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.
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.
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!
It seems you’re right.
Spielberg was apparently planning a horror film called Night Skies that didn’t get made but material was supposedly reused for ET.
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.
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.
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.
The first Resident Evil movie. Not because of the zombies, it was the laser scene that got to me. I was convinced that lasers would come out of any reflective surface to get me. I didn’t like how they seemed to react to the guy avoiding them, making it impossible for him to escape, like they were intelligent and trying to kill him.
That and some other horror movies i really liked, like ghost ship that had an into scene where a bunch of people got sliced up by a quick moving wire. Then there was what, cabin fever?
But yeah slice and dice was pretty gross.
I didn’t have nightmares, but as soon as you said it, that was the scene i thought of!
Yes! That scene is forever burned in my mind as well.
Whenever is see that guy in films, I see him as the one who got cut by lasers in Resident Evil.
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.
The original aliens movie, saw it when I was far too young and was already scared of aliens haha.
I have fond memories of seeing movies with my father in the theatre. I’m often left to think… hmmm… That was not so appropriate. Alien & Animal House rise to the top of the list.
two movies came to me pretty vividly,
Spirited Away (2001), no-face is pretty scary even now, but the scene that disturbs me is at the beginning when Chihiro came back and find her parents have turned into pigs…
MirrorMask (2005), fittingly I watched this when I was sick with high fever and for so long I thought this movie was a fever dream, it haunted me for days until my fever subsides. I don’t remember anything about the plot, just that the atmosphere and aesthetic are nauseating
The Wizard of Oz. Flying monkeys, evil witch, big green head.
Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. The whole movie is a trip, but specifically the Large Marge scene freaked me out for a long time growing up.
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That movie didn’t scare me so much as creep me the fuck out!
Absolutely!
Ernest scared stupid… Don’t ask me why, I just remember I couldn’t watch it entirely, and I would hide behind my older brothers. It just freaked me out!
The wolf from the neverending story freaked me right out when I was smol. Returned it to blockbuster and then rented Mr. Bean instead, so huge win
The part where the girl checked under her bed, then she looked back up and the monster was in the bed with her… That was the part that got me.
I’m pretty old, but it was both Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist.
Holy shit. We’d never seen anything like that before
Oh, man, Event Horizon was such a movie. “Where we’re going, we won’t need eyes” haunted me for a long time. And I had no idea it was gonna be a horror movie when I watched it.
Anyway, besides that one, the original Nightmare on Elm Street did me good. It was one of the first horror movies I ever watched, as my dad wanted to share it once he deemed me old enough. There’s something so terrifying about having to stay awake to not be murdered, but being powerless to do so. The most terrifying scene to me was the couple, where the woman got dragged across the ceiling and then the guy got arrested for her murder.
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.
