When Alien first came out my mother and I saw it in the theater together. After it was over, for a while, every time I went to sit down, I was always afraid that there was an alien underneath the chair (any chair that I was going to sit on) and as soon as I sat down, some tentacles would come out and strap me down to the chair. And then, I don’t remember exactly, but I think that I feared that once strapped down, an Alien could then put one of it’s babies in me.
And why was I so irrational? Well, Alien came out in 1979. I was born in 1973. I was only 6 when I saw it.
Oddly enough I can think of 3 films that actually had me pretty creeped out (both back when I was a young-un).
First off, I have distinct memories of the 1979 Frank Langella Dracula which really got to me because of the Bug eating loon in the asylum. Of course it helped that I was watching it alone in my room where (for some reason I cannot remember) the television was temporarily being stored. A lesson kids…having a TV in your own room isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
The 2nd film freakage is a dim memory from my past. A cheesy Britsh Sci-Fi film (or at least it seems to me that it was). Featuring (I think) an alien ship somewhere in a city. The few memories I have of it seem to indicate that the people (I recall military types) are trying to get into the ship (I can’t remember if they were trying to cut it open or something) and that people were getting these weird visions of these creepy little Grasshopper/Cootie critters (yah that’s right…the plastic ‘cooties’ from the game seem related). Anyhow does this ring a bell with folks? I suspect I could go back and watch it laughing the whole way now…but back in my dim past I remember being freakatuded in a big way.
Finally There are elements of Prince of Darkness by Mr. Carpenter that have always worked for me. Both the tub of swirling green goo and the recurring dream sequence/transmission from the future are creepily effective. The first time I watched it I recall having just a twinge or two before going to bed that night (half anticipating that freaky dream).
Some mid-70’s movie set in a high school where a nerdy kid started killing everyone. It featured a janitor getting killed and then stuffed in a 50 gallon drum of acid. But what really got me was the teacher who cut up the kid’s assignment using a paper cutter (the kind that sits on a table).
He later kills her, using the paper cutter. I can’t walk by one today without thinking of that movie.
If you’ve been raised a devout Cathoic, then The Exorcist will scare the ever-loving sh*t out of you.
Session 9. Rosemary’s Baby. The Haunting. Those three have always scared me, and still do.
The Shining and The Entity scared me when I first saw them, but I was pretty young then. They don’t scare me much anymore, though I still think The Shining (Kubrick’s version) is a good movie.
Yes, I was a fairly twisted kid.
I watched all the Christopher Lee Dracula movies when I was a kid… probably younger than I should have been watching them. They scared the bejesus out of me. I spent many a terrified night, quite certain that Christopher Lee was sneaking around the outside of my house, looking for a way in…
Weirdly enough “Beware! The Blob!” also gave me a bad time… despite the fact that it was supposed to be a comedy. I was all of nine, and didn’t realize that. Terrified me…
all of them
seriously.I hate scary movies and won’t see any anymore.
I’ve only seen them on tv, though.
The Eyes of Laura Mars creeped me out when I saw it when first released. unfortunately, I’ve watched it since then and it’s not as good or as suspenseful as I remembered it.
The Ring was a little hokey, but I have to admit that the killer video within the film was…unsettling.
I can’t sit through Jaws, I have to get up and pace.
The Shining, Blair Witch Project, Night of the Living Dead, Night of the Hunter, I all find scary, but enhjoyably so.
Heya TPWombat:
Would you believe that about 5 minutes before I checked back here I did a google search on ‘British Alien Ship Locusts’ and Lo and behold ‘Quatermass and the Pit’. Did you google it or was this a known entity. Apparently tis not nearly so cheesy as I like to think. Pretty well praised across the board. My Partner also informs me that the film gets significant praise in the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (which she is currently reading…yes reading…don’t ask). Now it seems to me that I will definitely have to look into viewing it as an adult.
Cheers!
Dawn of the Dead.
…and not just because it’s a grossout. (I know people who laughed at the gross scenes. Brrrr.) And I don’t know why, either. It somehow just got to me. I went with some friends who didn’t tell me what we were going to see, and I’d seen the first one, but many years before and didn’t recall it well.
I think it was that feeling of helplessness, where everywhere someone turned there were those filthy, decayed mouths trying to take a piece out of them. No matter what kind of barracade was put up, their sheer numbers overwhelmed it, and they just pulled you apart like a roasted chicken. Eh.
We saw it at 10pm, then went to Denny’s (the only thing to do in my hometown then, except cruise up and down the main drag) but I couldn’t eat a thing, because my stomach was in knots. I got pretty grossed out and weirded out by it, which disturbed my more macho pals. They tried to tease me out of it, but I didn’t react well, so then we all went home. Then, later than night I kept waking up thrashing my arms around like Tippi Hedren in the birds after she got attacked. Took me a while to get over it.
Alien did,
also a few of the “Tales of the Unexpected” UK TV series stories did (though I was pre-teen then so that may not really count).
Well discounting the ones that scared me when I was younger but not anymore (Shining, Texas Chainsaw M, Phantasm) The ones that still scare me are.
Shadow Of the Vampire. More disturbing then scary but I give it high marks b/c I can’t remember the last time a horror movie went for atmosphere instead of blood and gore.
Exorcist soooo slow and boring to start out but in the end the scenes are incredibly intense.
Evil Dead. Ok if you watch this in the morning with a bunch of friends you’ll laugh your ass off. But when I watch it alone in the middle of the night it always creeps me out. I esp like how the demons rarely fight to win instead they always try to inflict the most pain.
“Salem’s Lot”[by Stephen King] A made for TV movie. Several memorable scenes really raised my hackles. James Mason was at his creepy, malevolent best. The uncut, 4 hour version is the only one worth watching, they hacked the shorter one into practical nonsensibility.
Tobe Hooper’s Lifeforce worried me; seeing London descend into bloody chaos.
The Exorcist scared seven kinds of shit out of me, but I was fifteen and watching it with one other person at a midnight showing.
The final minutes of Carrie…
Ringu… (the Japanese version)
Night of the Hunter creeped me out when I was a kid. For years, I got an uneasy feeling whenever I heard “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms”.
My wife is creeped-out to this day about “The Birds”. As she explained, almost nobody comes up against a Godzilla or a big ape or a killer shark, but birds are all around us.
Known entity. I remember particularly the scene where they plug the dead-alien-memory-showing machine into the dead alien and the scenes of the sinister grasshopper aliens zipping around the screen.
I am annoyed that you found it with such a simple google and are not therefore in awe of my mighty science-fiction film-identifying skills.
Event Horizon. The scene that got me was the clawing of the eyeballs. Defintely very disturbing.
The Ring…still creeps me out royally.