In the late 60’s-early 70’s Kenner sponsored a series of TV specials that were all based on “Classic” literature. These were fairly pedestrian for the most part. The one that did me in was their adaptation of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. The way they did Marley’s ghost was truly horrific, at least to my 5-year-old brain. He had a slightly elongated white skull, what may have been bandages but appeared to be white flames extending from his head, and a long white robe;make the whole thing translucent, float him about a foot off the ground and give him the CREEPIEST moaning ghost voice and that’s what he pretty much looked like. It freaked me out when I watched it the first time, and that night i dreamt said ghost was floating in the exact center of my room.
I was so convinced my room was haunted I refused to sleep there ever again. My parents switched my room with our extra room(we had only moved in the house about 5 months prior) and I slept with the lights in my room on for about 8 years after.
Chris W
PS I caught it in a rerun about 10 years ago and altho it is still kinda creepy looking, I was surprised how little effect it had on me.
When I was growing up, the mother of one of my bestest buddy pretty much let us watch whatever the hell we wanted. One night when we were both 10, I was sleeping over at her house, we decided to scare the living crap out of ourselves. So we watched The Shining followed by Poltergeist.
And proceeded to not sleep well for the next six months. I was 17 before I finally watched another horror movie.
Pretty much anything involving the Penguin in Batman Returns. The scene at the very beginning of the movie and the one where he bites that guy’s nose especially. Couldn’t sleep for a week after I saw that one.
I have to echo what other posters have already mentioned. My one weakness is Zombies. Yes, Zombies, with a capital “Zom”.
I remember one time when my wife was out of town. I happened to be into playing used Playstation games at the time. My latest purchase was “Resident Evil”. For anyone who is, in the least, suseptible to Zombies (with a capital “Zom”), I do not recommend this game. Even to this day, I have not finished it. My wife called me at a reasonable hour of the day:
Wife: “Hey, what’s up?”
Me: “N-n-nothing…”
Wife: “What are you doing?”
Me: “N-n-nothing…”
Wife: “You’re playing ‘Resident Evil’, aren’t you?”
Me: “No. Well, yes, actually.”
Keep in mind that it was still daylight, but I was alone, and sober.
“Aliens” had an effect on me, but the ruthlessness of the Space Marines in that movie overpowered my fear.
I have to say that “Jaws” had the biggest impact on me. I remember a family vacation, more than a year after I saw it, that I was scared to got into a swimming pool because of that movie!
Any scene with the Oompa Loompas in it from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Actually, I found this movie deeply disturbing for any number of reasons. Like when Violet chewed the gum and turned into a giant blueberry. Or when Veruca went screaming down the death chute for being a “bad egg”. But the Oompa Loompas…Freaked. Me. Out. I don’t know why. Just the thought of those sanctimonious little malchromatic freaks gave me nightmares for a week after seeing that goddamn movie. If I ever have kids, I swear they will not see Willy Wonka until they are at least 18.
I still like that movie, though. I’m weird that way.
That, or that animated easter special that the “Paas” company made, years ago. Especially the villain—an evil farmer-landlord who had himself made into a robot. That really freaked me out.
Wow. I was just at the MOVIE SCENES THAT HAVE FREAKED YOU OUT thread and thought about posting. But then though, no, if I was a kid at the time it probably doesn’t count.
Then 4.5 seconds later I see this thread. Goodness, the SDMB is a full service board isn’t it ?
Anyway, one word:
Tommy
:eek:
Why my parents thought this was a good thing to take a 7 year old to I do not know.
Frankly the whole thing was disturbing. Baked beans!!! Ahhhhh!!! But mostly it was Tina Turner. Quivering. And in the same scene, the “Iron Madian” thing with the needles…and when he came out as a skeleton with snakes running through him…that and the quivering.
That and Cousin Kevin. Holding him under water and ironing him and he couldn’t do anything about it because he was helpless…kind of like a 7 year old child…
Yeah great idea , mom :rolleyes:
I was seriously freaked out by this to the point that when I was 14 or so and was invited to see it I almost couldn’t. I dreaded it. But I went and conquered my fear and realized…it’s just a really bad movie .
I saw Invasion of the Saucer Men at the babysitter’s house when I was in second grade. The only movie to ever really give me the willies for any length of time. I was freaked out for months from that one. The hand creeping over the back of the seat was bad but the worst scene…on the farm with the bull repeatedly stabbing a Sauce Man in the eye. ugh.
I don’t remember being fearfully traumatized by any movie as a child, but I was damn unhappy when Bambi’s mom got killed. Ol’ Yeller, too! I still can’t believe they’d put these kinds of things in movies made for children. Yeah, I know, it’s part of life…but kids can learn these lessons without the pleasure of having become emotionally involved with the animals first, and secondly, kids didn’t go to those movies to learn life’s rough lessons; they went for some fucking entertainment! Ahem…and to see some cute animals.
Mine’s not from a movie, and I was more of a teenager than a kid. A few years ago (I would have been around 15 years old, so maybe 2000?) TLC aired a miniseries documentary on the human face with John Cleese and Elizabeth Hurley. I taped the entire miniseries onto a videocassette because I wouldn’t be able to watch it as it aired for some reason. I finally dug up the cassette a few weeks later and sat down. I didn’t make it through the first episode. There was a segment that showed the faces of people who had disorders that caused their faces to be malfigured. I watched the segment in the morning or early afternoon, but I couldn’t fall asleep for hours that night because those faces were burned into my mind. It was much more horrifying than anything in a horror movie because I kept thinking about how difficult life must be for them. When I moved into my dorm last year, I took all my videocassettes with me and rediscovered the miniseries. I decided to try to rewatch it. The whole time it was running before that segment I had a sick feeling in my stomach. My reaction to it wasn’t as harsh this time, but it was still upsetting.
Oh yes, The Phantom of the Opera, 1962 version with Herbert Lom. I was ten at the time; we saw it at the movie theater. Every time that the Phantom was lurking and peeping through the peephole, with that one eye visible through his mask … OMG, it scared the be-jeezus out of me! I honestly had nightmares for months after tha, and it was years before I could ever watch the movie again. When I did see it, however, I could laugh and wonder how it had scared me so much. But it was traumatizing at the time.
I was also traumatized by Miss Gulch/The Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. Until I was 10 or so, every year when it was shown on tv I would hide behind the sofa when the witch was on-screen.
Another vote for those horrible horrible FLYING MONKEYS!!! Gah!
Also, pretty much all of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, mostly because I didn’t understand anything of what was going on. I was about six or seven, I think. The flodfather took me to the theater with him because he thought I’d like it. I had nightmares for a week. Poor repentant flodfather!
My dad took me and my brother to see Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte when I was 8 years old. The scene where the head bounces down the stairwell scared the crap out of me, I went and waited in the lobby till the movie was over. And I haven’t seen any kind of horror movie since.
The finale of Babes In Toyland with the bogey men and the marching toy soldiers. I was watching it on TV secretly in the dark. I would have been 5 or so I guess and it terrified me.
Yep - especially the giant blueberry scene, but it was more that freaky singing they did. I used to have nightmares about Oompa Loompas - and my mother didn’t know until I mentioned it a few years ago.
My family thinks it’s funny. I still think it’s a creepy movie.
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