# What Black and White movie scared you but good? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 1, 2005, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-black-and-white-movie-scared-you-but-good/301907 "2005-05-01T00:18:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2005, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-black-and-white-movie-scared-you-but-good/301907/1 "2005-05-01T00:18:20Z")
Let’s say… pre-1960. What B&W movie completely unnerved you? Nightmares, etc. For me, it was two flicks. 1. The Mummy. As a child, I was a mess over that film. 2. The Snake Pit. :eek: Ohhhhhhh man. Yours? Cartooniverse ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2005, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-black-and-white-movie-scared-you-but-good/301907/2 "2005-05-01T00:24:04Z")
Not pre-1960, but the original “The Haunting” from 1963 scared the piss out of me. ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2005, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-black-and-white-movie-scared-you-but-good/301907/3 "2005-05-01T00:29:30Z")
The 1945 British film [Dead of Night](http://imdb.com/title/tt0037635/) scared the bejabbers out of me when I was a little girl. I had nightmares for weeks. ---
**Author:** ![nivlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3bc359/32.png) [@nivlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nivlac)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2005, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-black-and-white-movie-scared-you-but-good/301907/4 "2005-05-01T00:38:47Z")
**Psycho** , no doubt about it. Spooked me away from showers for a while. ---
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2005, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-black-and-white-movie-scared-you-but-good/301907/5 "2005-05-01T00:49:22Z")
When I was 5 years old I had nightmares about the _Creature From the Black Lagoon_ coming out of the television like Samara in _The Ring_. ---
**Author:** ![Alias](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e4f/32.png) [@Alias](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alias)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2005, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-black-and-white-movie-scared-you-but-good/301907/6 "2005-05-01T01:01:19Z")
Rebecca is pretty creepy. It’s not horror, but something about the character of Mrs. Danvers is so evil and scary, that it sticks with me even now when I watch it. ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2005, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-black-and-white-movie-scared-you-but-good/301907/7 "2005-05-01T02:32:02Z")
> [@nivlac](#): > > **Psycho** , no doubt about it. Spooked me away from showers for a while. Ditto. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2005, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-black-and-white-movie-scared-you-but-good/301907/8 "2005-05-01T02:49:00Z")
I don’t remember the title. Atomic brains with horns that sucked victims brains out and made them one of their Evil Minions. Oh yeah, they were invisible for a while until somebody Did Something. Scared the snot out of me. I was just a pup. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Amp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Amp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amp)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2005, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-black-and-white-movie-scared-you-but-good/301907/9 "2005-05-01T02:57:52Z")
Not movies but a lot of the original Twilight Zones scared the crap out of me. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2005, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-black-and-white-movie-scared-you-but-good/301907/10 "2005-05-01T04:08:17Z")
> [@Cartooniverse](#): > > Let’s say… pre-1960. What B&W movie completely unnerved you? Nightmares, etc. > > For me, it was two flicks. > > 1. The Mummy. As a child, I was a mess over that film. > > 2. The Snake Pit. :eek: Ohhhhhhh man. > > Yours? > > Cartooniverse I used to have dreams of the Mummy grabbing me and tickling me to death!! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2005, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-black-and-white-movie-scared-you-but-good/301907/11 "2005-05-01T04:23:47Z")
Definitely _Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte_. I saw it when I was nine and saw heads rolling down stairs everywhere I looked. ---
**Author:** ![Sarah\_Woodruff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sarah\_Woodruff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarah_Woodruff)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2005, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-black-and-white-movie-scared-you-but-good/301907/12 "2005-05-01T07:08:30Z")
[Seance on a Wet Afternoon](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058557/), with Richard Attenborough and Kim Stanley - I found it to be really scary in a psychological, rather than a horror, kind of way. ---
**Author:** ![gum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bbe5ce/32.png) [@gum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gum)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2005, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-black-and-white-movie-scared-you-but-good/301907/13 "2005-05-01T08:45:11Z")
**Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens** I believe it was made in the twenties, but, màn! that vampire was creepy. **M** Also old and German. Peter Lorre with his lisping voice and strange eyes scared me so, I was afraid of my dolls. **What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?** with Bette Davis was sad, sometimes funny, but mainly creepy. Seconding **Revtim** ’s the original **The Haunting** :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2005, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-black-and-white-movie-scared-you-but-good/301907/14 "2005-05-01T14:21:45Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I don’t remember the title. > > Atomic brains with horns that sucked victims brains out and made them one of their Evil Minions. Oh yeah, they were invisible for a while until somebody Did Something. > > Scared the snot out of me. > I was just a pup. 🙂 This sounds like _Fiend Without a Face_–a movie I also remember from childhood. There are few things more alarming to an impressionable young mind than seeing a disembodied brain leaping around on its spinal column, brandishing a hammer. I’ll also second, or third, _The Haunting_ and some of the sequences in _Dead of Night_. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2005, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-black-and-white-movie-scared-you-but-good/301907/15 "2005-05-01T15:18:36Z")
When I was five, I watched William Castle’s _13 Ghosts_ on TV. That one scared the hell out of me! Mond you, I slept in a bunk bed. Remember the canopy bed? My sister had moved into her own room, so I was alone in the dark with a ‘canopy’ above me. Now, of course, it’s just a campy spook show. But when you’re five… I think I was also frightened as a child when _The Haunting_ came on TV. The bedroom scene with the hand held too tight, and the door that bowed in… ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2005, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-black-and-white-movie-scared-you-but-good/301907/16 "2005-05-01T16:24:54Z")
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), _the awakening scene_ Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922), _Satan’s first appearance_ Island of Lost Souls (1933), _overall creepiness of the manimals_ Cat People (1942), _the famous bus scene_ Isle of the Dead (1944), _in the tomb_ Eyes Without a Face (1959), _the whole concept_ Psycho (1960) The Innocents (1961), _any time the ghosts appeared, especially the scene at the French windows_ ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2005, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-black-and-white-movie-scared-you-but-good/301907/17 "2005-05-01T16:37:11Z")
. . . and numerous _Outer Limits_ episodes, including _The Galaxy Being_ where an alien is teleported through a radio transmitter. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2005, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-black-and-white-movie-scared-you-but-good/301907/18 "2005-05-01T17:38:47Z")
It misses the deadline by a year, and I’m pretty sure it was black and white, but Roger Corman’s _The Pit and the Pendulum_ freaked me right on out, especially the final scene. Huh. I only just now learned that it was a Roger Corman flick. Maybe that explains why it’s stuck with me all these years. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2005, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-black-and-white-movie-scared-you-but-good/301907/19 "2005-05-01T17:39:28Z")
The original “Cape Fear.” When Robert Mitchum makes it to the boat. I wanted to cry. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2005, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-black-and-white-movie-scared-you-but-good/301907/20 "2005-05-01T17:55:24Z")
_The Pit and the Pendulum_ was in garish Pathé Color. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-black-and-white-movie-scared-you-but-good/301907.md?page=2)