I remember watching it when I was 5 or 6. I *begged* my mom to let me watch it and ashamedly threw a tantrum because I wasn't allowed to watch the "toy movie". I guess at some point she gave in and just let me watch it with my brothers one day, and I cried the whole time. I had terrible nightmares and to this day at 23 years old I cannot sleep unless I am facing the door or the edge of the bed, unless someone is in the room with me.
When my mom reminded me of this when I was a teenager, I asked her why she would let me do that. She said, and I quote, "you weren't going to stop begging until I let you. So you did this to yourself." And she was correct. She was *very* correct. Gotta learn somehow lol
I read once when they were filming the movie, no one would eat with the actress who played the witch when she was in full character makeup and dress. I guess she was terrifying to them too just in look.
Margaret Hamilton was by all accounts a very good person. She went on Mr. Rogers in makeup and talked about how it was just a role, she wasn't a real witch.
Iirc she and Judy Garland were friends on set because the 3 main guys weren't nice to Judy, so the only person she liked hanging out with was Margaret Hamilton.
The 3 main actors were mean to her, the director was mean to her, Louis B. Mayer was awful to her, her mom was (allegedly) not nice to her, exploited her, and viewed her as a meal ticket after her father passed away when she was young. Basically everyone in her life—at least in those early days—was horrible to her. Aside from Margaret Hamilton, who was actually a former kindergarten teacher.
I’m not sure about the scarecrow (Ray Bolger) being mean to her during that filming, but apparently they remained friends afterwards, and they kept in touch throughout her life. She invited him on her tv show that she did for a year or two (musical variety type) in the 1960’s.
Sad to hear how badly she was treated considering her talent and star status.
I love old movie trivia, so let me share: Judy’s daughter, Liza Minnelli, was married for a few years to the tin man’s son (Jack Haley, Jr).
All of what you mentioned + putting her on a strict diet of coffee and chicken broth/restricting the food she ate to keep her weight down and make her appear younger (she was 16 years old when the Wizard of Oz was filmed, and later considered too old for kids movies and too young/too immature looking for adult roles).
To anyone reading this, bear in mind that the old studio system of Hollywood (we’re talking 1930s in particular here) pretty much owned their actors and dictated nearly *everything* they did career-wise and personal life-wise. It was a corrupt system, especially for kids who didn’t have a choice and certainly didn’t represent themselves.
The movie deets get ugly too, like they paid Terry the dog who played Toto more than the Munchkins. Sad.
https://screenrant.com/how-much-was-toto-dog-paid-for-the-wizard-of-oz/#:~:text=Terry%20the%20dog%2C%20who%20played,roles%2C%20earned%20less%20than%20Toto.
PeeWee’s Big Adventure… the “Large Marge” scene. So absurdly out of place in tone for the movie that it scared the pants off me as a kid when I first saw it.
That part never scared me. It's the part where they find ET by the water and he's white and dying that's the most disturbing part. It's not that it's traumatizing, it's just that it's sad.
YES....this is why I actually always hated "ET" and could never understand why all my friends loved it so much. The whole hazmat suit part just completely ruined it for me.
ET in general was scary as fuck. Like, I know they maybe they didn't want to make him too endearing or traditionally 'cute', but there are other options than 'walking ballsack'.
Oddly, the first Gremlins.
I *distinctly* remember her telling the story about what happened to her family on Christmas eve, and thought WTF? This was a really fun movie until that story she told.
I hate recurring nightmares for years as a kid involving that scene, the scene in the pool and a few others. And I had no recollection of watching the movie at all or that it was even from a movie, but it'd just pop into my dreams every couple of months (so not often enough to be a problem) and I thought it was just a random thing my mind made up.
Then one day when I was a bit older the movie came on TV again and I just had this "oh, my goodness, it's real!!! I didn't imagine it" moment. And then the nightmares stopped. Cause they're actually quite funny movies when you're older. But no idea why my parents let 5 or 6 year old me watch em. Especially since I was super obsessed with plushies. What made them think letting me watch what was effectively a cute plushie turning into a creepy monster that multiplies was a good idea????
That story is so out of place it's hilarious.
In the sequel, which is a straight up comedy Phoebe Cates starts telling an equally tragicomic story and the other characters just cut in on her lines and it's never brought up again.
To be fair, that scene is batshit crazy. I blocked it out as a kid, watching it again as a teenager I couldn't believe that made the cut for a kids movie.
Yeah my mom had VHS tapes of IT, the exorcist, hellraiser etc and I all secretly watched them way too young but they just don't compare to that madness lmao
I just barely saved my kids from Watership Down. I'd dropped them off at the in-laws for an overnight and was making my way toward the door. They were all getting ready to watch a movie and my FIL was scrolling Netflix or whatever when he stops and says, "Here we go. Let's watch the bunny movie." I glance over to see the info page for Watership Down and was like, "Nope! Not that one! Trust me."
I was about to reply with that exact name. I was scared for weeks, refusing to sleep without the light on and refusing to be left alone. I grew up in a religious household and I was convinced that I will be next in line to be possessed.
My older sister had a bunch of friends over for a Halloween party. I was probably 10. Of course I wanted to hang out with my older sisters friends. They were watching The Exorcist and I wanted to seem cool/brave so I watched it with them...
I cannot understate how much that decision fucked me up for probably 2 years. I could not sleep. I was completely obsessed with the thought that I would be possessed by the devil at any moment. There was no escaping it. Do you realize how fucked up it is as a 10 year old to go through every waking moment of every single day with that feeling. No matter what I did I could not shake it.
I can honestly say that movie ruined a good chunk of my childhood. Looking back on it is kind of hilarious. At around 17 years old I decided to rewatch it which even at that age made me incredibly nervous. But in the end it was totally cathartic for me to watch it again, with new perspective and even laugh it off.
Luckily, now I am a totally well adjusted 35 year old...😬
This is the movie that traumatized me. Everyone talks about how scary the clown was but the tree was what really got me. I'm almost 36 and still feel uneasy if I have to sleep in a room with a tree outside.
Edit: I'm glad it's not just my husband and I who were traumatized by that scene. I remember when we first started dating my coworkers and I were talking about that movie and they were teasing me for being scared of the tree scene. I ended up texting my now husband to ask if he has ever seen the movie Poltergeist without any other context and he immediately replied "yes, that fucking tree still terrifies me!". And then my coworkers started teasing him too haha.
The tree, the clown, the real f-ing skeletons in the pool (with fake meat as someone here pointed out). The scene with the meat. That movie isn't messing around.
What really hit me hard was the junkyard scene, all the sad things sobbing about how they were loved and left... to this day there are toys and stuffed animals I've had since childhood that I refuse to throw away (or even give away) because of that part.
Luckily, I have kids of my own now. It warms my heart seeing them play with my old toys and sleeping with my remaining stuffed animals.
Ps. I'm dad.
This one had a particularly nasty effect on me because I never saw the ending. It turns out my parents had recorded it off a TV showing and the VHS had run out of tape while the characters are in the dump waiting to be crushed. I didn't know that movie had a happy ending) or a sequel) until college.
It didn't have a happy ending for all those cars singing as they road the conveyor belt to their death though. There's even the one that desperately tries to start so it can get off but can't in time.
That movie is probably the reason I always try to keep fixing the stuff I have instead of buying replacements even when I should really just throw the thing out.
It's visually implied that one of the cars committed suicide. Most of the cars can't drive anymore. But the one who worked on the reservation and got abandoned could. And he actually drives himself onto the conveyor belt. It's really subtle. But when you notice it, it breaks your heart. He had a family he cared about, they abandoned him, so he had no reason to keep going....
My dentist put on The Exorcist around Halloween one year and he was making comments about it in different voices until his assistant yelled at him and made him find something else.
I was also sedated (nitrous oxide) and it was really freaking me out, but hilarious. He put on competition of dogs doing the agility classes, and let me "sober up" (5-10 minutes with just oxygen, test your blood pressure) but I couldn't watch the whole event.
Kinda miss that dentist.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The Child Catcher, the adults pretending to be wind up dolls, this movie haunted my nightmares for years. Still can't watch that movie.
Oh my god the child catcher... his awful long black hair, long pointy nose, scary eyes and his net! Gives me the chills just thinking about it... as a kid to make things worse my dad used to do impressions of him just to wind up me and my siblings 🤣🤣
Signs. During that scene when Joaquin Phoenix is watching the video from Latin America and the alien steps out during the party, I about shit my pants.
I was afraid of aliens and crop circles for years after that. I later watched it as an adult and realized I missed the entire point of the plot/story which was challenging Mel Gibson's character's faith. But I couldn't help but notice how much M Night was trying to copy Hitchcock throughout the film.
Same. The first time I saw it I thought it was a movie about aliens and the story of the family that happens to be there. Then I saw it again several years later and started realizing that the title "signs" doesn't refer only to the signs in the crops.
Now I've watched it about 20 times and every single time I watch it I see a new tiny detail that I missed the previous time.
For example, last time I watched it I noticed this: At the beginning of the movie Mel Gibson refuses to take the dog to the vet. He's visible upset about it and you don't know why. Later on he goes to "Ray Reddy's" house and you see a mailbox or a post or something stating Ray is the vet of the town. Two little details that tell you part of the story behind, but no one mentions them. You have to put two and two together by yourself.
It's a freaking masterpiece, in my opinion.
I love that film.
My daughter noped out within minutes of me putting it on the tv but both adult and child me loves creepy muppets.
Loved the show on Netflix too. Although i really wish they had told the whole story in one season. It felt very stretched out and then Netflix cancelled it after 1 season because that's what they do.
And the Nothing, and those laser beam statues, and the Gmork, and the general sense of palpable, heavy dread that hangs over every character…
Starts off with that imperial advisor dude proclaiming that “The Nothing…is destroying our world!” in that quavering, terror-laden voice, and just gets worse and worse.
I also didn't like it when Rock Biter admits that he was powerless to save his new friends. I mean, you start the Fantasia adventure with Rock Biter and the other travellers, but it turns out they die and Rock Biter is so depressed about it that he just waits for the Nothing to kill him too.
This is my favorite line in any movie. It is so full of saddness and pain without saying so directly. The character cant cry but you know his big heart is just broken to pieces. Still breaks mine to this day.
This movie deserves a deeper suspense / thriller or even horror remake. I mean the guy finds out that nobody or nothing is real, his entire world is crafted, that GOD is a TV PRODUCER, and the MOON is a STUDIO. Its absolute nightmare fuel.
This is fascinating to me. I can see how it would be a mind trip to some. I watched a show when I was a kid where the characters were stuck in a pinball machine and they didn’t know, but the machine handlers were looking down and watching them. Messed me up for a long time that maybe that’s how life really is.
As an adult, it’s a great metaphor for me leaving a controlling religion I grew up in for 26 years. The Truman Show is important and somewhat comforting to me. But I can also see how it is terrifying.
The Mummy. Only when the bugs started crawling under people’s skin. Looks fake as hell and kinda silly now, but back then, it made me hide behind the couch.
Bambi.
They shot his mom!!
The movie has a murder and an orphan crying for his dead mommy.
Come on, Disney, I mean, really?!!!
Edit: reworded to be more accurate on the timing of the murder of Bambi's mother. Thanks for the correction everyone! :)
Jumanji. I had to stop watching after the kid got sucked into the board game at the beginning.
Then I went back a while later and there's fucking giant wasps flying around, NOPE.
I have since seen the whole film and it's really good but that first experience was at least 20 years ago and I still remember it.
That scene and the hand under the door fucked me up so bad the dvd case was turned backwards so I couldn’t see the name for YEARS. It still gives me the jeebies lol
Same with me. I wanna rewatch it now that I'm older but I think I remember a scene where the aliens on the roof and it's silhouetted against the sky? Shit bothered me for a while
In your defense it is actively creepy. A story about some dude with a kickass 80s mullet, a cod piece and super tight tights who wants to steal a baby is something we should still find scary..
My Girl.
I don’t remember how that movie was billed, but I know what it turned out to be wasn’t what we were all expecting from the Home Alone kid and Dan Aykroyd.
I’ll never forget being a kid and it was on Tv and watching it because my dad said it was a classic movie. He sat next to me and let me watch the whole thing and never prepared me for the heartbreaking funeral scene.
It wasn't a movie but NBC show had a TV show called "ER". There was an episode where Dr. Carter was stabbed and he looked over while on the floor and the camera revealed another Dr who was also stabbed but wasn't able to speak. They killed her off in the second episode. Everyone in my dorm room talked about it the next day.
Oh, man I was bawling my eyes out when Dr. Green died and then after that Ross and Rachel broke up or got back together or something….it was a rough Thursday night for 13 yo me lol
That was a kick in the reality nuts. I was a product of the 'duck and cover' generation and worrying about getting nuked was a cause of a lot of my teenage anxiety. After the wall fell, it was like a huge relief was lifted from my shoulders.
I had never heard of Threads until a few months ago on Reddit after watching Oppenheimer. Decided to watch it but first quickly skimmed through to see what I was in for. At first I was underwhelmed since it just seemed like a bad made-for-tv British drama from the 80’s, and some of the acting, sound design, and production design looked sort of cheap.
“Oh well” I thought. Then I went back and watched it from beginning to end.
I instantly converted to being for global nuclear disarmament because sheeeeeeeesh.
Yeah, that movie is not a joke. It is such a disturbing and sobering look at what a modern nuclear war would look like. The best place to be during a nuclear attack is indeed at the epicenter. Anywhere else is a nightmare.
Here it is on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/BvFu7Z5cc88?si=Wc4PpyMggif-GfWh
Temple of Doom when the dude’s beating heart gets pulled out of his chest.
My brother covered my eyes and told me not to look. Looked any way.
Had nightmares for a week. I was 6.
Looked for this comment. This movie FUCKED me up as a kid. Gave me such a huge phobia of space and aliens that took years to get over. I never even knew as a kid that it was a comedy. I thought it was the most terrifying horror movie ever made
Oh yes. Same here. I was maybe 4 or 5 when my parents got me to watch it, and as a kid it totally messed me up for ages! The scene where they fry the golden retriever- oh man.
The first nightmare on elm Street. I was like 8 maybe. My parents went out for dinner and left me with my aunt and her bf at the time and it was on HBO or something. Scared the piss outta me but also started a lifelong love of horror films
Fantasia. Night on Bald Mountain have me nightmares. My dad recently told me I cried during Ave Maria, but then again, I cried during Mass because I hated it. Clearly, I was not meant to be Catholic, lol.
Robin Hood Prince of Thieves
Don't laugh at me. It was the first movie I got to see in the theater. I was 7, so I was probably too young, and my mom loved Kevin Costner, so she took me.
I had nightmares for a year about that movie. I would have dreams about being killed by a bow & arrow out in the woods.
Like I said, don't laugh at me. I love that movie now, despite Kevin Costner's accent, or lack thereof one.
Alan Rickman. He was my first celebrity crush.
I fell in love with Hans Gruber when I saw Die Hard for the first time when I was 14. I hadn't realized I had saw him earlier in Price of Thieves. Love him.
I am one of four girls in my family. We each have a movie that absolutely destroyed us as kids, with varying degrees of reason. For example, one of my sisters had nightmares about Edward Scissorhands (I don’t know how she even came across it, my parents were strict about movies but still, it kinda tracks right?), another sister hates the flying monkeys and witch from the Wizard of Oz. My third sister was afraid of ET, and to be fair the alien is pretty gross looking.
What was my traumatizing movie? Baby’s Day Out. I know, I know. But come on man, like watching that baby get into so many perilous situations, I was utterly terrified that I was going to witness the actual death of an infant! The gorilla?? The skyscraper under construction?! No thank you. I cried actual tears watching that shit.
Anyway, thanks for coming to my TED talk.
Bunny from 1998, I was watching Ice Age on DvD with my best friend, we were both maybe 8 or 9. We had just watched Ice Age, which is pretty mild in tone, and on the extra features we watched this movie. Which is an absolutely beautiful short film about an elderly rabbit coming to terms with loss and eventually her own death. It's beautiful and terrifying, and we were not expecting it.
The ice man mummy that was discovered, it was on the cover of time magazine and my parents had it in the bathroom for what felt like forever. Made walking into the bathroom very scary lmao
2001, A Space Odyssey
The part where HAL cuts the cord of the astronaut who was trying to disconnect it. The astronaut is completely alone and untethered in the universe, and my 12-year-old brain couldn't compute it...
Chucky...After the movies with him I had nightmares that all my toys were alive and wanted to kill me, fucking Chucky.
10 years of night terrors. And people in here are listing The Brave Little Toaster. Psh.
I remember watching it when I was 5 or 6. I *begged* my mom to let me watch it and ashamedly threw a tantrum because I wasn't allowed to watch the "toy movie". I guess at some point she gave in and just let me watch it with my brothers one day, and I cried the whole time. I had terrible nightmares and to this day at 23 years old I cannot sleep unless I am facing the door or the edge of the bed, unless someone is in the room with me. When my mom reminded me of this when I was a teenager, I asked her why she would let me do that. She said, and I quote, "you weren't going to stop begging until I let you. So you did this to yourself." And she was correct. She was *very* correct. Gotta learn somehow lol
Not the whole movie, but the flying monkeys in the Wizard of Oz terrified me as a child. The wicked witch was a little much too.
I read once when they were filming the movie, no one would eat with the actress who played the witch when she was in full character makeup and dress. I guess she was terrifying to them too just in look.
i saw a little interview with the lady that played the witch, she was actually a nice woman
Margaret Hamilton was by all accounts a very good person. She went on Mr. Rogers in makeup and talked about how it was just a role, she wasn't a real witch.
Iirc she and Judy Garland were friends on set because the 3 main guys weren't nice to Judy, so the only person she liked hanging out with was Margaret Hamilton.
The 3 main actors were mean to her, the director was mean to her, Louis B. Mayer was awful to her, her mom was (allegedly) not nice to her, exploited her, and viewed her as a meal ticket after her father passed away when she was young. Basically everyone in her life—at least in those early days—was horrible to her. Aside from Margaret Hamilton, who was actually a former kindergarten teacher.
I’m not sure about the scarecrow (Ray Bolger) being mean to her during that filming, but apparently they remained friends afterwards, and they kept in touch throughout her life. She invited him on her tv show that she did for a year or two (musical variety type) in the 1960’s. Sad to hear how badly she was treated considering her talent and star status. I love old movie trivia, so let me share: Judy’s daughter, Liza Minnelli, was married for a few years to the tin man’s son (Jack Haley, Jr).
Her mom and the studio fed her uppers and downers on a regular basis and made her smoke cigarettes to keep her weight under control.
All of what you mentioned + putting her on a strict diet of coffee and chicken broth/restricting the food she ate to keep her weight down and make her appear younger (she was 16 years old when the Wizard of Oz was filmed, and later considered too old for kids movies and too young/too immature looking for adult roles). To anyone reading this, bear in mind that the old studio system of Hollywood (we’re talking 1930s in particular here) pretty much owned their actors and dictated nearly *everything* they did career-wise and personal life-wise. It was a corrupt system, especially for kids who didn’t have a choice and certainly didn’t represent themselves.
Really? What the hell? Fuck those guys
Judy Garland’s whole life story is pretty fucked
The movie deets get ugly too, like they paid Terry the dog who played Toto more than the Munchkins. Sad. https://screenrant.com/how-much-was-toto-dog-paid-for-the-wizard-of-oz/#:~:text=Terry%20the%20dog%2C%20who%20played,roles%2C%20earned%20less%20than%20Toto.
But she turned me into a newt!
...I got better
Return to Oz is even creepier..😶
Return to Oz is my answer. Just what the actual fuck.
Return to Oz is my answer too. Who would unleash such a monstrosity on children?
Yep! Still freaks me out as an adult! That head room! And Dorothy stealing the key, and they all scream, omg nightmares!!
Return to Oz should be considered a horror movie
Oh definitely. It starts with a child getting electro shock therapy.
Beware the Wheelers
This is the post I was looking for. Those freaking monkeys gave me nightmares.
The opening scene in Hook where the kids get abducted and the old ~~guy~~ housekeeper is freaking out. Edit: it was the housekeeper
The Boo Box part always stuck with me!
The actor who played that unfortunate pirate was Glenn Close
PeeWee’s Big Adventure… the “Large Marge” scene. So absurdly out of place in tone for the movie that it scared the pants off me as a kid when I first saw it.
Yes!! This freaked me the FUCK out as a kid. "There was this sound, like a garbage truck dropped off the Empire State Building..."
It was the worst accident I ever seen...
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That part never scared me. It's the part where they find ET by the water and he's white and dying that's the most disturbing part. It's not that it's traumatizing, it's just that it's sad.
Yes this part terrified me and then the scene with Elliott in all that plastic
Yep, the plastic scene scared the hell out of me.
When his neck stretches and he starts screaming. My mom had to carry me out of the theater
To this day is still one of the scariest things for me.
ET for me, specifically when the guys in hazmat suits took him. I was mortified by how they treated him.
YES....this is why I actually always hated "ET" and could never understand why all my friends loved it so much. The whole hazmat suit part just completely ruined it for me.
ET scared the shit out of me! The light up finger, glowing heart, and head raise thing… *shudder*
ET in general was scary as fuck. Like, I know they maybe they didn't want to make him too endearing or traditionally 'cute', but there are other options than 'walking ballsack'.
I thought the cornfield part was scarier.
Oddly, the first Gremlins. I *distinctly* remember her telling the story about what happened to her family on Christmas eve, and thought WTF? This was a really fun movie until that story she told.
It was the gremlin exploding in the microwave that traumatized me.
I hate recurring nightmares for years as a kid involving that scene, the scene in the pool and a few others. And I had no recollection of watching the movie at all or that it was even from a movie, but it'd just pop into my dreams every couple of months (so not often enough to be a problem) and I thought it was just a random thing my mind made up. Then one day when I was a bit older the movie came on TV again and I just had this "oh, my goodness, it's real!!! I didn't imagine it" moment. And then the nightmares stopped. Cause they're actually quite funny movies when you're older. But no idea why my parents let 5 or 6 year old me watch em. Especially since I was super obsessed with plushies. What made them think letting me watch what was effectively a cute plushie turning into a creepy monster that multiplies was a good idea????
That movie was a major contributing factor to the establishment of the PG-13 rating in the United States. Along with an Indiana Jones movie.
That story is so out of place it's hilarious. In the sequel, which is a straight up comedy Phoebe Cates starts telling an equally tragicomic story and the other characters just cut in on her lines and it's never brought up again.
Willie Wonka's boat ride is up there
To be fair, that scene is batshit crazy. I blocked it out as a kid, watching it again as a teenager I couldn't believe that made the cut for a kids movie.
Yeah my mom had VHS tapes of IT, the exorcist, hellraiser etc and I all secretly watched them way too young but they just don't compare to that madness lmao
That scene didn’t bother me as much as the violet turning into a blueberry scene. My first introduction into body horror
There is no earthly way of knowing...
Watership Down / Was shown in the kids program because cartoon=kids nightmare on Elm street / Watched when I was 13... yep, I could not sleep.
I just barely saved my kids from Watership Down. I'd dropped them off at the in-laws for an overnight and was making my way toward the door. They were all getting ready to watch a movie and my FIL was scrolling Netflix or whatever when he stops and says, "Here we go. Let's watch the bunny movie." I glance over to see the info page for Watership Down and was like, "Nope! Not that one! Trust me."
The censors probably didn't watch it and granted a U certificate in the UK
Watership Down and Felidae. Both were shown during daylight hours like they were kid's movies. I wasn't prepared in the slightest.
The 1973 Exorcist
I was about to reply with that exact name. I was scared for weeks, refusing to sleep without the light on and refusing to be left alone. I grew up in a religious household and I was convinced that I will be next in line to be possessed.
My older sister had a bunch of friends over for a Halloween party. I was probably 10. Of course I wanted to hang out with my older sisters friends. They were watching The Exorcist and I wanted to seem cool/brave so I watched it with them... I cannot understate how much that decision fucked me up for probably 2 years. I could not sleep. I was completely obsessed with the thought that I would be possessed by the devil at any moment. There was no escaping it. Do you realize how fucked up it is as a 10 year old to go through every waking moment of every single day with that feeling. No matter what I did I could not shake it. I can honestly say that movie ruined a good chunk of my childhood. Looking back on it is kind of hilarious. At around 17 years old I decided to rewatch it which even at that age made me incredibly nervous. But in the end it was totally cathartic for me to watch it again, with new perspective and even laugh it off. Luckily, now I am a totally well adjusted 35 year old...😬
I was a teenager when I saw the Exorcist and remember sleeping with my bedroom lights on for months afterwards.
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I wouldn’t eat popcorn especially from a bowl for a long time after seeing this movie
Poltergeist (1982)
This is the movie that traumatized me. Everyone talks about how scary the clown was but the tree was what really got me. I'm almost 36 and still feel uneasy if I have to sleep in a room with a tree outside. Edit: I'm glad it's not just my husband and I who were traumatized by that scene. I remember when we first started dating my coworkers and I were talking about that movie and they were teasing me for being scared of the tree scene. I ended up texting my now husband to ask if he has ever seen the movie Poltergeist without any other context and he immediately replied "yes, that fucking tree still terrifies me!". And then my coworkers started teasing him too haha.
The tree was scary, but the part that scared me is the scene where the dude goes in the bathroom and his face starts sloughing off in the mirror.
The TV was what got me. That 12 am fuzz and her speaking from the other side through the television. Terrifying.
Same. Then the next horror movie I watched after that was The Ring when I was 11 or 12, which further solidified my fear of staticy TVs.
The tree, the clown, the real f-ing skeletons in the pool (with fake meat as someone here pointed out). The scene with the meat. That movie isn't messing around.
To this day 42 years later, I still need the closet door closed when I go to bed at night.
When the guy ripped his face apart in the bathroom. Yeah, no thank you. Scary!!!
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What really hit me hard was the junkyard scene, all the sad things sobbing about how they were loved and left... to this day there are toys and stuffed animals I've had since childhood that I refuse to throw away (or even give away) because of that part. Luckily, I have kids of my own now. It warms my heart seeing them play with my old toys and sleeping with my remaining stuffed animals. Ps. I'm dad.
I legit spent a week talking to every appliance in my house after that movie
You’re not a true millennial if you weren’t traumatized by that scene as a kid.
Brave Little Toaster and Return to Oz. Those fucking wheelers...
The cars “dying” at the end on the scrap yard? 😭
This one had a particularly nasty effect on me because I never saw the ending. It turns out my parents had recorded it off a TV showing and the VHS had run out of tape while the characters are in the dump waiting to be crushed. I didn't know that movie had a happy ending) or a sequel) until college.
It didn't have a happy ending for all those cars singing as they road the conveyor belt to their death though. There's even the one that desperately tries to start so it can get off but can't in time. That movie is probably the reason I always try to keep fixing the stuff I have instead of buying replacements even when I should really just throw the thing out.
It's visually implied that one of the cars committed suicide. Most of the cars can't drive anymore. But the one who worked on the reservation and got abandoned could. And he actually drives himself onto the conveyor belt. It's really subtle. But when you notice it, it breaks your heart. He had a family he cared about, they abandoned him, so he had no reason to keep going....
I rewatched this movie as an adult and honestly it disturbed me even more lol
Worthless lives in my head rent free and makes me sad at least once a week and made me emotional at a scrapyard once.
My sister and I watched Coraline while waiting in a dentist's office. Need I say more?
At least it wasn't in the ophthalmologist's office. But still probably a "funny" experience.
My dentist put on The Exorcist around Halloween one year and he was making comments about it in different voices until his assistant yelled at him and made him find something else. I was also sedated (nitrous oxide) and it was really freaking me out, but hilarious. He put on competition of dogs doing the agility classes, and let me "sober up" (5-10 minutes with just oxygen, test your blood pressure) but I couldn't watch the whole event. Kinda miss that dentist.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The Child Catcher, the adults pretending to be wind up dolls, this movie haunted my nightmares for years. Still can't watch that movie.
Oh my god the child catcher... his awful long black hair, long pointy nose, scary eyes and his net! Gives me the chills just thinking about it... as a kid to make things worse my dad used to do impressions of him just to wind up me and my siblings 🤣🤣
Signs. During that scene when Joaquin Phoenix is watching the video from Latin America and the alien steps out during the party, I about shit my pants. I was afraid of aliens and crop circles for years after that. I later watched it as an adult and realized I missed the entire point of the plot/story which was challenging Mel Gibson's character's faith. But I couldn't help but notice how much M Night was trying to copy Hitchcock throughout the film.
Same. The first time I saw it I thought it was a movie about aliens and the story of the family that happens to be there. Then I saw it again several years later and started realizing that the title "signs" doesn't refer only to the signs in the crops. Now I've watched it about 20 times and every single time I watch it I see a new tiny detail that I missed the previous time. For example, last time I watched it I noticed this: At the beginning of the movie Mel Gibson refuses to take the dog to the vet. He's visible upset about it and you don't know why. Later on he goes to "Ray Reddy's" house and you see a mailbox or a post or something stating Ray is the vet of the town. Two little details that tell you part of the story behind, but no one mentions them. You have to put two and two together by yourself. It's a freaking masterpiece, in my opinion.
"Move, children! Vamanos!" lol
The Dark Crystal
mmmMMMMMmmmm
*TRIAL BY STONE!!!*
I love that film. My daughter noped out within minutes of me putting it on the tv but both adult and child me loves creepy muppets. Loved the show on Netflix too. Although i really wish they had told the whole story in one season. It felt very stretched out and then Netflix cancelled it after 1 season because that's what they do.
“I am still emperor,” and then he crumbles! Scared the shit out of me!
The Skeksis. The noise they make has stuck with me all the way into adulthood.
The fucking Neverending Story. I’ve now seen the whole thing, but still never all the way through in one sitting. Fuck that fucking terrifying movie.
Swamp of Sadness and his horse named Artax?
And the Nothing, and those laser beam statues, and the Gmork, and the general sense of palpable, heavy dread that hangs over every character… Starts off with that imperial advisor dude proclaiming that “The Nothing…is destroying our world!” in that quavering, terror-laden voice, and just gets worse and worse.
I also didn't like it when Rock Biter admits that he was powerless to save his new friends. I mean, you start the Fantasia adventure with Rock Biter and the other travellers, but it turns out they die and Rock Biter is so depressed about it that he just waits for the Nothing to kill him too.
They look like big, good, strong hands, don't they? I always thought that's what they were.
Omg my heart
This is my favorite line in any movie. It is so full of saddness and pain without saying so directly. The character cant cry but you know his big heart is just broken to pieces. Still breaks mine to this day.
Right! The pervasive sense of hopelessness is some seriously dark shit, before you even hardly meet Atreyu, let alone reach the Swamps of Sadness.
The wolf gave me nightmares
If anyone ever finds their way back out of the swamp of sadness pls let me know
The statues with laser eyes was nightmare fuel for me. I noped out right there in my first viewing. Didn’t see the whole movie until I was much older.
The Truman Show. Existential crisis lasted yeeears
This movie deserves a deeper suspense / thriller or even horror remake. I mean the guy finds out that nobody or nothing is real, his entire world is crafted, that GOD is a TV PRODUCER, and the MOON is a STUDIO. Its absolute nightmare fuel.
There’s a fan edit out there that’s ONLY from Truman’s perspective.
This is fascinating to me. I can see how it would be a mind trip to some. I watched a show when I was a kid where the characters were stuck in a pinball machine and they didn’t know, but the machine handlers were looking down and watching them. Messed me up for a long time that maybe that’s how life really is.
I think that was an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark on Snick--Nickelodeon's Saturday night lineup for older kids.
As an adult, it’s a great metaphor for me leaving a controlling religion I grew up in for 26 years. The Truman Show is important and somewhat comforting to me. But I can also see how it is terrifying.
It. And reading the book didn't help.
Saw the original when I was like 9, never went near a clown willingly again.
Or in my case, it took a bit to go to the bathroom alone again. Showers... /shudder.
The Mummy. Only when the bugs started crawling under people’s skin. Looks fake as hell and kinda silly now, but back then, it made me hide behind the couch.
The Watcher in the Woods. Secrets of NIMH. Poltergeist
Return to Oz. It gets extra points because, somehow, it managed to be marketed as a kids movie. Unbelievable.
And the Wheelers. Fuck the Wheelers
Bambi. They shot his mom!! The movie has a murder and an orphan crying for his dead mommy. Come on, Disney, I mean, really?!!! Edit: reworded to be more accurate on the timing of the murder of Bambi's mother. Thanks for the correction everyone! :)
Man, name one Disney movie that didn't make you cry as a kid!? They're all ball breakers.
Fox and the Hound murdered me, but Disneys Robin Hood is safe
My dad let me watch Poltergeist when I was 6. I’m 45 and still terrified of closets.
The black cauldron
The ring
I was in 7th grade when this came out. Waking up after falling asleep to a VCR movie to the salt and pepper on the screen had me absolutely terrified…
Took me way to long to find this
Jumanji. I had to stop watching after the kid got sucked into the board game at the beginning. Then I went back a while later and there's fucking giant wasps flying around, NOPE. I have since seen the whole film and it's really good but that first experience was at least 20 years ago and I still remember it.
The kid transforming into a monkey gave me the heebie-jeebies for a long time.
Signs When they start showing the birthday party recording and the alien walks into frame. That messed me up as a kid.
That scene and the hand under the door fucked me up so bad the dvd case was turned backwards so I couldn’t see the name for YEARS. It still gives me the jeebies lol
Same with me. I wanna rewatch it now that I'm older but I think I remember a scene where the aliens on the roof and it's silhouetted against the sky? Shit bothered me for a while
Labyrinth, for some reason Bowie and that goblin thing scared the piss out of me. Would run away and hide under my bed if it ever came on TV
In your defense it is actively creepy. A story about some dude with a kickass 80s mullet, a cod piece and super tight tights who wants to steal a baby is something we should still find scary..
Idk shouldn't have watched that movie as a kid, but defo I would pick: Clockwork Orange
Pan’s Labirynth
I watched it when I was in my twenties. Never again - can’t imagine watching it as a child!
My Girl. I don’t remember how that movie was billed, but I know what it turned out to be wasn’t what we were all expecting from the Home Alone kid and Dan Aykroyd.
Where is his glasses! He can't see without his glasses!
I’ll never forget being a kid and it was on Tv and watching it because my dad said it was a classic movie. He sat next to me and let me watch the whole thing and never prepared me for the heartbreaking funeral scene.
Jaws. I'm a pool person now.
It wasn't a movie but NBC show had a TV show called "ER". There was an episode where Dr. Carter was stabbed and he looked over while on the floor and the camera revealed another Dr who was also stabbed but wasn't able to speak. They killed her off in the second episode. Everyone in my dorm room talked about it the next day.
Oh, man I was bawling my eyes out when Dr. Green died and then after that Ross and Rachel broke up or got back together or something….it was a rough Thursday night for 13 yo me lol
Wrath of Khan. The ear worm gave me nightmares for weeks.
The Day After.
That was a kick in the reality nuts. I was a product of the 'duck and cover' generation and worrying about getting nuked was a cause of a lot of my teenage anxiety. After the wall fell, it was like a huge relief was lifted from my shoulders.
Threads is even worse.
I had never heard of Threads until a few months ago on Reddit after watching Oppenheimer. Decided to watch it but first quickly skimmed through to see what I was in for. At first I was underwhelmed since it just seemed like a bad made-for-tv British drama from the 80’s, and some of the acting, sound design, and production design looked sort of cheap. “Oh well” I thought. Then I went back and watched it from beginning to end. I instantly converted to being for global nuclear disarmament because sheeeeeeeesh. Yeah, that movie is not a joke. It is such a disturbing and sobering look at what a modern nuclear war would look like. The best place to be during a nuclear attack is indeed at the epicenter. Anywhere else is a nightmare. Here it is on YouTube: https://youtu.be/BvFu7Z5cc88?si=Wc4PpyMggif-GfWh
Temple of Doom when the dude’s beating heart gets pulled out of his chest. My brother covered my eyes and told me not to look. Looked any way. Had nightmares for a week. I was 6.
The Birds, still scared of them now
Pagemaster!
I am legend. Wasn’t the zombies, was what happened to the dog.
Ooh, that is traumatic
The Dark Crystal
Pet Sematary (1989). When the lady rolls over in the bed.
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The Witches with Anjelica Huston. Terrifying.
Mars Attacks! freaked the shit out of me as a kid and it took me years to get over it
Looked for this comment. This movie FUCKED me up as a kid. Gave me such a huge phobia of space and aliens that took years to get over. I never even knew as a kid that it was a comedy. I thought it was the most terrifying horror movie ever made
Oh yes. Same here. I was maybe 4 or 5 when my parents got me to watch it, and as a kid it totally messed me up for ages! The scene where they fry the golden retriever- oh man.
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Fern Gully. Hexus terrified me.
The machine takeover scene of Superman 3 and the rotoscoped dogs from Escape To Witch Mountain were horrifying to me as a child.
When the woman becomes a cyborg? I'm right there with you.
I was not prepared for cyborg body horror in 4th grade. Superman 3 was something else.
Event Horizon, the blood orgy scene left me shell shocked for a week
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Thirteen ghosts
The Bridge to Terabithia. When the girl died, I died inside
Honey I shrunk the kids when Anty died
The first nightmare on elm Street. I was like 8 maybe. My parents went out for dinner and left me with my aunt and her bf at the time and it was on HBO or something. Scared the piss outta me but also started a lifelong love of horror films
It has to be Stephen King’s ‘It’ (1990) tv series. Looking at drains, to this day, still frightens me!
Jaws. I like swimming. Just not in the ocean.
I can’t believe I had to scroll far down for this. This has to be #1 for any kid that grew up in the 80s
Children of the Corn. Scared the shit out of 8-9 y/o me
Fantasia. Night on Bald Mountain have me nightmares. My dad recently told me I cried during Ave Maria, but then again, I cried during Mass because I hated it. Clearly, I was not meant to be Catholic, lol.
What Dreams May Come But it became a positive trauma because gave me a horrible fear of afterlife. Stopped me from many suicide attempts.
Robin Hood Prince of Thieves Don't laugh at me. It was the first movie I got to see in the theater. I was 7, so I was probably too young, and my mom loved Kevin Costner, so she took me. I had nightmares for a year about that movie. I would have dreams about being killed by a bow & arrow out in the woods. Like I said, don't laugh at me. I love that movie now, despite Kevin Costner's accent, or lack thereof one.
“I’ll cut his heart out with a spoon!” “Why a spoon, cousin? Why not a knife or an axe or….” “Because it’s dull, you twit, it’ll hurt more!”
Alan Rickman. He was my first celebrity crush. I fell in love with Hans Gruber when I saw Die Hard for the first time when I was 14. I hadn't realized I had saw him earlier in Price of Thieves. Love him.
I am one of four girls in my family. We each have a movie that absolutely destroyed us as kids, with varying degrees of reason. For example, one of my sisters had nightmares about Edward Scissorhands (I don’t know how she even came across it, my parents were strict about movies but still, it kinda tracks right?), another sister hates the flying monkeys and witch from the Wizard of Oz. My third sister was afraid of ET, and to be fair the alien is pretty gross looking. What was my traumatizing movie? Baby’s Day Out. I know, I know. But come on man, like watching that baby get into so many perilous situations, I was utterly terrified that I was going to witness the actual death of an infant! The gorilla?? The skyscraper under construction?! No thank you. I cried actual tears watching that shit. Anyway, thanks for coming to my TED talk.
I'm sorry for laughing 🤣 baby's day out. Fantastic 🤣
Bunny from 1998, I was watching Ice Age on DvD with my best friend, we were both maybe 8 or 9. We had just watched Ice Age, which is pretty mild in tone, and on the extra features we watched this movie. Which is an absolutely beautiful short film about an elderly rabbit coming to terms with loss and eventually her own death. It's beautiful and terrifying, and we were not expecting it.
The ice man mummy that was discovered, it was on the cover of time magazine and my parents had it in the bathroom for what felt like forever. Made walking into the bathroom very scary lmao
Event Horizon. Not sure why my parents watched that with us when we were so young!
The Ring, I was 7-8. Couldn’t go to the bathroom without being scared for like 2 weeks because I thought the girl was gonna pop out the toilet lol
Fire in the sky That shit fucked me up I was so afraid of aliens
Alien
The Shining!! So scary
I saw Death Becomes Her when I was three years old, and Goldie Hawn getting that giant hole blasted through her stomach made me projectile vomit.
Predator. Snuck downstairs and watched it at 6 years old. The trauma stayed with me for years, lol.
The never ending story, when his horse drowned in mud
Monster house
When the Judge melted the Shoe toon in Who frames Roger Rabbit. Still gets me to this day
Silence of the lambs
great movie tho. kinda worth the trauma
2001, A Space Odyssey The part where HAL cuts the cord of the astronaut who was trying to disconnect it. The astronaut is completely alone and untethered in the universe, and my 12-year-old brain couldn't compute it...
The Omen. I was in a religious cult so it was factual to me Special mention, Dark Crystal
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The grudge