I react strongly to movies and TV, like how things like cringe comedy can make me leave the room. Standard TV dramas like Kung Fu could make me cry or literally jump out of my seat as a kid, and still can, sometimes. So of course I became a horror fan. It helps that at least I don’t get nightmares.
I can remember being scared by random shows as a little kid, but the standout scare of my youth isn’t a particularly scary film. It was The Amityville Horror, the first horror movie I saw in a theater. If I hadn’t been sitting next to a pretty girl I might have screamed at the scene where the dad shows up with an ax.
As an older teen my buddy and I would rent a lot of low budget movies like The Wizard of Gore and Bloodsucking Freaks. About the only movie from that period that I remember being creeped out by was The Evil Dead, and really only because the reputation of the movie made me susceptible and I watched it alone.
Despite being a fan, I didn’t see a lot of horror classics like Halloween, Jaws, or Friday the 13th until long after I’d been spoiled by friends describing the best parts, so they lost a lot of punch. Also, I frequently saw them as edited for television. The Shining became more funny than anything, and when Shelley Duvall ran down the hallway (a scene a friend found frightening) it brought to mind a drunk overreacting to a carnival funhouse. On VHS and DVD, Jacob’s Ladder was much more sad than scary (I cried) and The Ring was merely creepy. I thought The Blair Witch Project was good mainly for the way the group fell apart, their increasing desperation, and the cleverness of the film.
Well, that’s all over now. I think it’s because I have kids, or I’m going in a lot less spoiled, or just because I don’t really watch many movies anymore, but I find myself susceptible again. I first noticed it when I rented the remake of The Hills Have Eyes and the opening credits made me want to turn the damn thing off and go do a crossword. Almost any scary movie can get to me now, especially if it plays the kid card like the Paranormal Activity series, and I’m not sure how I’d react if I saw something like that in a good theater. I still like zombie movies, though, but it seems like zombie movies really aren’t scary. Nobody’s mentioned one it this thread, have they?
TLDR-- The Amityville Horror, I guess.