JFF - For Halloween - What Movies Scared the Bleep Out of You as a Kid?

I went to the first showing of the Exorcist when I was 17..I was snuck in because you had to be 18. We had eaten at Jack in the Box right before we went. It was the most shocking and scarey movie I have ever seen. Honestly I almost lost my dinner. People were screaming, someone fainted....people were leaving and not watching the entire movie...and when it was over as everyone was leaving...it was so strange...everyone was real quiet and you could see fear in their eyes. You might not understand...because this was the first of it's kind to really keep you from sleeping alone and in the dark...just total fright...that's all I can say.

Another one here for Stephen King's IT. In fact, I just talked to my hubby and he said he's never seen it so maybe we'll rent it tonight for after the kids go to bed.

JAWS!! I swear I couldn't sit on the toilet or take a bath without being terrified, for months. Any amount of water was scary for me.

This wasn't a movie (at the time), but I read "In Cold Blood" (true story, happened in Kansas) when I was in Junior High, and that had me so freaked out for a LONG time.... I never told my parents about it, but would stay awake reading LONG after I should have turned out my light, on the thought that if someone was watching our house, waiting to break in, they would see lights still on and not come in......

I grew up in Kansas, so that was just a little too close for comfort.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Cold_Blood

Im almost in tears reading these. I had no idea I wasnt the only one who was so scared of the monkeys in Wizard of Oz! I have lived all these years thinking I was alone on this and my kids tease me all the time about it. They even start to hum the music from that scene to freek me out. I hated the shriveling legs of the witch, I hated how she threatened Toto. Hated how she turned into a witch as she rode her bike past the window. I hated that movie and they think its so great for kids at Easter? EVERY YEAR?? But going back to when I was about 9, my parents went out for the evening and I was home with my older brother and sister, and 1 younger brother when they decided to watch "Attack of the Killer Ants".. I was afraid. My sister was slightly afraid and she asked me to go down the hall and get her favorite stuffed animal to hold. I went and got her stuffed chimpanzee. (yes how ironic that its a monkey?) He had plastic face, hands, and shoes. I came out right as a scarey part was on and hid behind the couch to avoid seeing it. By the time I was able to come out, I had bitten the thumbs off that monkeys hands. My sister was furious and has never really gotton over it. She is 60 now, still has that monkey and he still doesnt have thumbs! That was a long time ago. I still wont watch scarey movies and hate the music and screaming.

The Wizard of Oz - the flying monkey scene - that one scared the living bejesus out of me!!!

The ones that got me later?
Halloween with Jaime Lee Curtis..the first one..the ones after were a farce...

This one wasn't Halloween, but it came out on HBO around Halloween - Alien - my girlfriend, Marianne and I? HOLY SMOKES batman!! We slept with the lights on...

I have loved sooo many scary movies...Nightmare on Elm Street...Poltergeist, the Changling, the Thing....hhhmmmm gonna have to go check out some movies and make some popcorn!!

Wow, I guess I am not the only one who got scared by The Wizard of Oz! The witch and the flying monkeys did not bother me, but what freaked me out were the scenes with the tornado, the witch's legs shriveling up and going under the house, and the hourglass as it kept emptying - I think it was the music! LOL!

Gremlins...creepers under the bed.

I really don't like scary movies. I'm a vivid dreamer so the images during the day are often used in my dreams.

you must me younger than me!, those movies date you, :)

For me it was chucky and IT.........oooh and pet cemetary, Nothing scared me more than that evil doll, that rotten tooth clown or that beautiful little boy and russian blue cat who died then turned evil!

Psycho was so scary. I was afraid to take a shower alone in the house for years after that. The Birds was another one that I watched at a young age that sort of freaked me out for a while... made me scared of seagulls at the beach.
I was watching Halloween, not sure which version it was but it had a scene in a hospital, I was in the hospital at the time with toxic shock, omg, that scared me too and I was 25 at the time.

Actually not a scary movie, but the Wicked Witch in "The Wizard of Oz" scared me to death! I always had nightmares after seeing it, and finally stopped watching it when I realized I could at around 12.

I LOVE the movie, mind you, but that green skin and wicked laugh still creeps me out...{shuddering}...

Mine were totally the Nightmare on Elmstreet movies...and Friday the 13th too. We used to watch those when I was in elementary/junior high and I was always so scared!!! In college it was totally Scream...freaky for sure and then the Twin Peaks movie gave me serious nightmares, which I know is kinda weird, but true! I also watched The Omen for the first time in college b/c the guy, Damien, that the movie is loosely based on was buried in the cemetery in the same town where my college was...those freaked me out too! Now I can't watch any scary movies any more b/c I'm too sensitive!! I'm a major wuss now and my husband is bummed out but no way, no how! ;)

Sometimes it is the moment we are watching the movie that makes it scary.

Once I was babysitting when I was 14 years old (right next door to my own house) and for some reason I thought watching "Night of the Living Dead" would be a good choice. I had already seen it numerous times, but this particular time I was the oldest person in the house, the kids were in bed asleep, and it was the midnight movie. (The parents went midnight bowling every week.) And the owners had no shades on their front windows. I still get the creeps about the movie after that experience.

The Exorcist
The Birds
When a Stranger Calls (the original)
Watcher in the Woods

And 1 movie from my adulthood-I am Legend--those zombies still creep me out just thiking about them!

My stepsisters and I once watched that really old black and white movie The Children of The Corn on a Sunday afternoon and it really scared me! Then when I was in middle school I remember The Shining and The Exorcist really scared the heck outta me! The Clockwork Orange was another movie I watched maybe around age 15 that really creeped me out...yet was fascinating. All the Friday the 13th movies that were popular in the 80s just made me laugh bc they were so dumb. I hate hate hate scary movies now. I can't watch them and do not enjoy them.

Stephen Kings 'IT'.... I was FOUR. And 'Arachnaphobia' was pretty scary, I was very young... Now, LOVE LOVE LOVE being terrified :) Scary is my favorite!!

It took me YEARS to watch 'Edward Scissorhands' all the way through because it scared the bejeezus out of my little brother... I still tease him for that!! ;)

Now, my favorite scary movie: House of 1,000 corpses. I love you, Rob Zombie!!!

My original scary movie...The Dark Crystal. Scared me to death as a small child.
Well, actually my parents tell me they had to take me out of E.T. at the movie theater I was so scared. Lol.
The Never Ending Story.
Watcher in the Woods.
Something Wicked This Way Comes.
All those are good fun now.
Cat's Eye (a Stephen King movie) still creeps me out as an adult.
Wizard of Oz is one of my all time favorite movies.
Dawn-I have been wanting to watch House of Wax again for ages! Couldn't think of the name of it! Thanks!
Love Vincent Price.
Most of those others mentioned are way too scary for me. Lol.
Curiosity gets the best of me so I've seen parts of several of them...but I am just not that brave. ;)

I'm with Bug on this one....JAWS!!! I was about 9 years old when that came out and my dad took me to see it. It was all I could do to jump across the pool to the other side (scared the entire time)....forget swimming in the ocean that summer!! No way, no how!!!

Texas Chainsaw Masicre.......and yes, I lived in Texas as a child so it was extra scary!!!!

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As a child I remember watching Poltergeist with my older siblings and had nightmares for years!!! I saw it again a couple years back and it's still a creepy movie only because now all the actors but "Coach" (what's his real name?) have died!

The other movie I saw as a kid was Gremlins. That movie was bizarre scary to me as a kid. But I know if I saw it today, the graphics would have me laughing not screaming.

Poltergueist
The Shining
Both watched at a young age and when my Mother went out for a while and left my Father to his own devices! I think he is STILL in trouble for that. Also I think he showed us Jaws right before we moved to Hawaii as children. Thanks Dad.

IT and Killer Clowns from Outerspace...I have always hated clowns, but these just take the cake. Everyone likes to tease me about it too, but if they weren't so scary why are they always in horror flicks....the scene in Poltergeist freaked me out too. Still gives me the heebie-jeebies thinkin' about it.
As a kid I saw all horror movies from way before my time to the ones that were currently coming out (80's). My oldest brother is a horror movie freak and my parents never filtered what we watched. So I was exposed to all sorts of creepy things. My fav was People Under The Stairs. =)

The Birds, The Exorcist and The Creature from the Black Lagoon. I still cannot watch any of those.

I can't really think of any movies that had a lasting impact. The Contagion movie that just came out I wouldn't see but that one seems somewhat plausible (from the trailers) and not a typical horror movie. To me most horror movies are always trying to scare or startle you (you can always tell from the music) or gross you out with gore. It never seemed real to me. I was the kid who thought it would be cool to see a ghost when I was 5 and who told the scary ghost stories at summer camp. Also, I was fascinated by ghosts as a kid and researched what "real" ghosts could do (not a lot with no physical body) vs, was was horror movie hype it made the horror movies much less scary.

I don't seek out horror movies but I have seen many of the classics (Exorcist, The Shining, Poltergeist, Pet Cemetery, etc). Pet Cemetery I will admit was a poor choice to watch the same week a relative died. There is a scene where a supposedly dead cat jumped out that startled me the first time--but when you got a good look at it, it looked fake. The Ring had some scary/startling scenes and creepy images (scary the first few times much less scary by the end of the movie when you expect it). Sometimes the older movies that don't show you everything are scarier. But yeah, I still watch X-files reruns in the dark when everyone else is asleep.

A really funny low budget horror movie I always liked is Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.

Children of the Corn
The Exorcist (I was probably a young teen then)
Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte

Was "It" the creepy clown O.? Yeah--that O..

Wizard of Oz!! how are those monkeys appropriate for children!

I also saw a movie when i was a young teen, something about a man with MR who was acused of killing a young girl and he hid out in a cornfield as a scarecrow. the end scene had something to do with a saw mill or maybe a corn threser or something with blood. If anyone knows the name of that movie, i'd love to see it again now that i'm an adult and maybe woudln't be so scared.

The scaries book EVER was Geralds Game by Stephen King, I get panic attacks when i think about that one!

Trilogy of Terror, hands down. Hoding theblanket over my eyes. I still don't like that. I can stil picture that doll cutting through the suitcase.

*gasp* I CANNOT believe that when I clicked to add my answer to this post, the very last person, JenaLucky, has actually HEARD OF AND SEEN KILLER CLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE!!! LOL! That is so funny to me, and the reason why is because I saw it when I was teen, alone in my room one afternoon, and was so freaked out that 'til this day I still carry a fear of clowns. And, to make it worse, for many years I never knew anyone who had even heard of the movie...it was so weird to me that I never met even one person who has seen or even heard of the movie that after a point I started convincing myself that I never did see the movie at all, that it must have been some sort of really strange dream I had! I really did think this for the longest, that it was just a bad dream...until I saw the movie ad on netflix, like, literally about 4 months ago! And still, I have never met anyone who has heard of or even seen the movie. So this is so funny -- JennaLucky, girl, I know exactly how you feel. People tease me about my clown-phobia too, and then when I tell them about Killer Clowns, they just look at me like I'm crazy....whatever! Anyone who sees that movie would be scared of clowns too!

The other movie that did it for me was the Exorcist. Again, 'til this day, if there is anything about it on TV, I can't watch. Didn't they do some sort of redux a few years ago? I think they had it playing, I believe the original movie, in theatres again for a short while. The promotions were all over TV, and I basically didn't turn on the TV for about a month just to avoid seeing the commercial or anything else about the movie.

Pet cemetery. Hate that damn movie! Thanks now im thinking of it!!!

This is realy going to make me feel old!! The Amityville Horror. The movie was scary enough, but I also watched a documentary about it, and a lot of it was true!! They even interviewed the priest about the things that went on in that house, and now the hairs on my neck are standing up!! Children of the Corn is another one!!

Jaws, Children of the Corn, Chuckie, and The Gremlins.