What's a movie you saw as a child that traumatized you?

[True Dough]

I stayed up late one night without my parents knowing and turned on Death Ship. Nightmares ensued, and not just for one night!

[elleng]

1. Not a 'child,' but Psycho.

Never again!!!

[True Dough]

2. Little did you know

that you'd have to live through a presidential term that would be just as bad, or worse!

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. Night of the living dead. I was 18.

[debm55]

43. I was a zombie in it. It was filmed in the Pittsburgh area.

[The_Casual_Observer]

48. So you owe me!!!

[happybird]

88. My parents grew up near Pittsburgh, close to Johnstown

I’ve heard the story many times of my teenaged Mom and Aunt going to the drive-in, in my Dad’s convertible, to see this movie. They were totally freaked out because the “news alerts” in the movie were naming small towns all around them. After the movie, they couldn’t figure out how to get the roof back on the car and drove the whole 45 minutes home literally screaming and at what I heard was a very high rate of speed.

[debm55]

89. Everyone says it's scary But I was just an zombie. John Carpenter filmed them around Pittsburgh area Including at the ,

Monroeville Mall.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Dementia 13

1:13:25

I thought it was a real person, not a wax replica.

BTW I was five years old, alone in the theater. Freaked out.

[Ocelot II]

5. I can't say I was truly traumatized, but these movies scared the bejeebers out of me:

"The Night of the Hunter" and "The Innocents." As a grownup I was seriously creeped out by "Prince of Darkness."

[mopinko]

6. snow white.

my sister took me and my little sister to see it, and the witch scared me so bad we had to leave.

[Mad_Dem_X]

62. Yes, when she turns into the witch! Very scary!

[mopinko]

67. i dont rly remember. she told me about it later.

i felt bad, cuz it was sorta a big deal for ‘the big girls’ to do something nice for ‘the little girls’.

[wnylib]

78. I reacted that way to Alice in Wonderland when

my mother took me to see it. I was just 5 years old. I was enjoying the movie until the scene where the queen started yelling "Off with her head!" The voice boomed throughout the theater as if she was right there. I started screaming and crying. My mother had to take me out of the theater because I was disrupting everyone else. Other kids started screaming, too.

[mzmolly]

7. Black Sabbath

https://www.tcm.com/video/1214949/black-sabbath-1964-us-trailer

I saw it on television in black and white on a Sunday afternoon. I was home alone.

[Omnipresent]

8. 'Invasion of the body snatchers'

Was the scariest for me…

[mucifer]

9. Willie Wonka and the chocolate factory

I was 6 yo.

My mom wrote a nasty letter to Roger Ebert 🤣
Between Violent blowing up and August Gloop being sucked up by the chocolate river my mom had to take me out of the theater.

Many nights of bad dreams after that.

[msongs]

10. old yeller nt

[True Dough]

12. Out behind the barn!

[yellowdogintexas]

57. yep the first thing that popped into my mind. nt

[Bird Lady]

95. I still cry over this one.nt

[livetohike]

11. Village of the Damned 1960. I was 8 years old.

[True Dough]

13. Decades afterward,

Florida and Texas are fighting for "State of the Damned"!!!

[kimbutgar]

15. Yep that movie also scared the crap out of me !

[BOSSHOG]

21. Yes Indeed

Cute lil kids.

[ZZenith]

41. George Sanders!

aka the voice of Shere Khan in Disney’s Jungle Book among many other great roles.

Excellent actor!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

81. It's showing up on the Movies! channel on Saturday afternoon, October 14, 2023.

https://www.tvtv.us/dc/washington/20500/luUSA-OTA20500/show/MV000003390000/1/18/8

[GreenWave]

107. This is the one with fog right?

We used to be afraid of the fog.

[Murphyb849]

14. The Birds 😳

[True Dough]

16. That's the

word!

[texasfiddler]

18. Salem's Lot

[Laffy Kat]

36. Oh, that part where that dead vampire kid was float outside his friend's bedroom window!!

Yikes!

[BOSSHOG]

19. The original Friday the 13th

Just past being a kid, but that was scary

[hauckeye]

20. Two on a Guillotine

I couldn’t sleep at all that night and was scared to open my closet. I was in 5th grade I think.

[MOMFUDSKI]

22. Psycho.

Hitchcock was a genius.

[Tiny Tabby]

24. Wizard of Oz

I was about 5 - the green face speaking scared me and had to leave the theater

[debm55]

45. agree-- it was the flying monkeys.

[vanlassie]

58. Yes. The monkeys. OMG.

[GreenWave]

110. Were those monkeys singing Oreos, Oreos?

[jrandom421]

25. The Longest Day

I saw it when I was 9. I had nightmares for weeks, knowing it was real, and that my dad and 2 uncles wouldn't talk about living through it.Led me to obsessivly study everything I could get my hands about D-day for four years.

[Freethinker65]

26. Robocop

And I was a young adult.

[dickthegrouch]

105. I hated the gratuitous violence in that

But it didn’t really scare me.

[bucolic_frolic]

27. Sound of Music

No one would ever explain anything to me. I didn't understand who the Nazi's were. Emotions garnered from films remain too real to me.

[soldierant]

87. Yes. Without knowledge, there is nothing to stop fear from taking over.

Which is a pretty darned good argument for NOT banning books.

[rsdsharp]

28. The Tingler. Saw it on TV.

&pp=ygULdGhlIHRpbmdsZXI%3D

[Laffy Kat]

35. I remember it well.

Isn't that the flick where they place vibrating devices under some of the theater seats to scare the audience? That could just be an urban legend.

[rsdsharp]

38. You got it right. We didn't have "The Percepto" at my house when I saw it,

but it still scared the hell out of me.

[JoseBalow]

99. Airing today and on Tuesday on MOVIES Network

IF YOU DARE!

[ms liberty]

29. Scream and Scream Again, with Vincent Price. Saw it as a child in the theater

After that, it would have to be Nurse Sheila, which I saw as a teenager.

[Big Blue Marble]

30. The Yearling N/T

[TlalocW]

31. Cipher in the Snow

A Mormon movie that was apparently played in a lot in schools - I saw it in Sunday School. An unpopular kid on the way to school asks the bus driver to be let out; he walks a few feet out onto the snow side of the road and just dies - complete face plant. The rest of the movie is looking at why and how he went from being an okay student to not - through his classmates making fun of him; his parents not giving him any love, and teachers being indifferent. Didn't help that the kid looked like someone in my class.

[Laffy Kat]

32. When I was about five, The Screaming Skull.

Since then, I've watched it again and it is so lame and cheesy. As a young adult, "Phantasm". I've always slept with a TV on because I'm afraid of the dark. One night, alone in my apartment, I woke up to "Phantasm" and I was literally paralyzed with fear. All I could do was close my eyes.

[Disaffected]

33. Invaders From Mars

Mother gave father sh*t for taking us (had nightmares for long afterwards).

[debm55]

47. always looked to the thing on the back of the neck after seeing it.

[Disaffected]

54. Now that sorta rings a bell (it's been too long - over 70 years)

Was it an implant or something? About all I can remember is the lightning in the night sky horizon and the sand opening up.

And, hiding beside my seat on the theater floor with my father saying "Oh, it's just a movie".

[NNadir]

113. That one got me as well. I had nightmares for months. n/t.

[Lochloosa]

34. She. No other women held a candle to Ursula Andress for a long time.

I was 8.

[KarenS]

37. all 3 of my scariest movies have been named,,,,

The Tingler
Psycho
The Birds

Then later when I was 23/24 The Exorcist really got to me.

[rsdsharp]

40. I didn't mind The Exorcist movie so much, but the book terrified me.

That’s what I get for finishing it at 2AM.

[KarenS]

46. oh yes, I understand,,,,

with the written word your brain fills in the scariness for you while in a movie you're watching someone else's idea of scary,,,,

just yikes I've given up scary in my old age,,,, sheesh,,, I've even given up the news because of stress,,,,

[ZZenith]

39. The Shuttered Room

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shuttered_Room

I can still feel the terror this movie instilled in my young little brain.

[Pas-de-Calais]

42. The Vulture

6th grade

Watching it now
Looks cheesy

Back then
Nightmares

[unc70]

44. On the Beach

[Glorfindel]

49. "The Beast of Hollow Mountain"

A t-rex escapes from encapsulation inside a mountain in Mexico and devours cattle and children. i was 10 years old. It bothered me for a long time.

[3catwoman3]

50. The House of Wax.

[Elessar Zappa]

51. Child's Play!

I was eight at the time and was in the hospital for a long stay (cystic fibrosis) when a nurse let me pick out a movie to watch. I chose Child’s Play and he said ok but don’t tell your mother I’m letting you watch that! I watched it and couldn’t sleep well for several nights. I got over it though.

[First Speaker]

52. Rosemary's Baby

[HoosierDebbie]

53. A Man called Horse and Battle of the Bulge

- I never really watched scary movies, so the movies I saw that scared me were about real events, at least I think they represented real events.

My parents took us to the drive-in movies to see "Battle of the Bulge", made in 1965. I don't understand why they chose that movie. The oldest of the 4 of us was probably 12 or so. I felt traumatized by a scene that I remember as a soldier who was on fire. It may not be an accurate memory of that movie, but that is my memory of it.

The other movie, "A Man Called Horse", with Richard Harris was made in 1970. I saw it at a school event when I was probably as old as 15 or 16. It had a scene where Harris was being skinned alive. Horrible! I don't think the adults who chose it knew how brutal parts of that movie were.

[happybird]

55. Watcher in the Woods

WTF, Disney.
I still have issues with mirrors.

The third part of the Trilogy of Terror, the story with the little doll.
I still have issues sticking my hand up into a lampshade.

[UTUSN]

56. "Them" - the giant, radiated ants

We put chairs abutting my parents' bed for me to sleep in that night. In the theater in 1954, so I was 7 or 8. The screeching sound of the ants is now iconic, akin to the stab sound in Psycho and the shark music in Jaws. And the pincers!

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0047573/mediaviewer/rm672559872/?ref_=tt_ov_i

[mainer]

83. That was my comfort film!

It was played again and again on TV, and I loved it as a kid.

[UTUSN]

84. The "fun" for me now is from who some of the cast were:

James ARNESS, Fess PARKER, Richard DEACON

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047573/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm

[Polly Hennessey]

106. Them was one of my favorites also.

I have it DVR’ed.

[Emile]

59. House on Haunted Hill and The Blob

[betsuni]

60. "The Abominable Snowman" when I was six or seven.

[True Dough]

61. It left you feeling

chilled to the bone!

[betsuni]

77. Hiking up mountains has always seemed ridiculous to me.

Guess because of that movie.

[Mad_Dem_X]

63. Can't remember the name of the movie...

but I saw it on TV, when my grandmother was babysitting me. I just recall a man came walking up from the basement, and he had no head. Scared me half to death.

[SKKY]

64. "Sleepaway Camp". No doubt about it.

Me - "Man, Angela is really cute. She could be my girlfriend."
Also me - "Wait! What! Huh?"

[True Dough]

65. Sleep Nazi says:

"No sleep for you!"

[mahatmakanejeeves]

66. Rodan. NT

[Chainfire]

68. As a child, The Wizard of Oz. As an adult Marathon Man. ;)

Those witches freaked me out as a small child. Every time I sit down in a dental chair, Marathon Man comes to mind.

[Mr.Bill]

73. Wizard of Oz for me, too.

The flying monkeys scared the shit out of me. Especially when they were ripping the Scarecrow to pieces. I used to have nightmares about them.

[Niagara]

69. Self admitted oddball here.

I was certainly young when the movie the Poltergeist came out. We had the Showtime package and I would watch that movie every time it played on T.V. I had absolutely no fear of this movie.



However, around the same time, I watched Looking for Mr. Goodbar and that movie scared the holy tree leaves out of me. I understood what happened to the teacher at the end and I still can't view that movie to this day.

[milestogo]

70. The Sand Pebbles with Steve McQueen

Its a really good movie but I was way too young for it. I learned about hookers, though.

[Paladin]

71. "Night On Bald Mountain" segment of Disney's "Fantasia."

Saw it on TV at my grandparent's place, all by myself, when I was very young. Scared the bejesus out of me.

[Doc_Technical]

72. Darby O'Gill and the Little People

I was 7 years old and saw it at a movie theater.
The Banshee terrified me

[miyazaki]

75. The Naked Prey

What a classic.

[Harker]

76. "Jason and the Argonauts."

The sword wielding "bonesy men" risen from the teeth of the Hydra gave me nightmares.

Ah, the genius of Ray Harryhausen.

[wnylib]

79. Space invader movies of the 1950s.

On Sunday afternoons, I used to go to the matinee at a neighborhood theater with my brother. I only remember the name of one of them, Beast with a Thousand Eyes. I'd scream and cover my face while asking my brother, "What's happening now?" I was 8 years old. I had nightmares from those movies so my mother said I couldn't go any more, but each week I'd beg to go again

At 16 I watched War of the Worlds on TV. It's the story that had everyone believing it was real when it aired on the radio in the 1930s. I was babysitting and the kids were asleep. I got so frightened that I called my best friend and discovered that she was watching it, too. I could see the TV from the phone and stayed on the phone with her throughout the rest of the movie.

[Rhiannon12866]

80. It's not one I ever saw, but one I saw ads for on the TV when I was really little:

Village of the Damned:

[Mad_Dem_X]

85. I remember seeing an ad for The Shining when I was young

I was in a movie theater. Scared the crap out of me!

[nuxvomica]

91. Those ads gave me nightmares

Yet I desperately wanted to see the movie but was too young. Kids are crazy that way.

[mainer]

82. On the Beach

after a nuclear war, the last survivors on earth must face their inevitable deaths. With Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner.
I was just a kid, and in the movie, everyone was doomed to die of radiation poisoning. I actually thought that would be the fate of the world, because at the time the US was doing nuclear testing in the southwest.

The theme music was "Waltzing Matilda" (because the last outpost of living humans is in Australia) and that song still makes me depressed.

[mainer]

86. Does anyone remember "Robinson Crusoe on Mars"?

Seeing as we’re talking about childhood scary movies. I loved that film, and when the aliens came I was terrified.

[Hotler]

90. The Tingler with Vicent Price. That bothered me for awhile then it was

The Exorcist when it first came out. I watched the movie IT for the first time a year or so back and at my older age that made me squirm a bit.

[nuxvomica]

92. I was about to post "The Tingler" too

I saw it during a sleepover at my cousins' house and it scared the hell out of me. My mother had seen it in theatres and told me they had some device running under the seats to scare people and a nurse at the ready in the lobby. The idea of a microscopic parasite attached to the spine that grows with fear and is foiled by screaming was really ingenious in that it brought the danger closer to the audience.

[Bird Lady]

94. Not a child but a young person.

In Cold Blood
I, to this day, still never sleep with an unlocked bedroom door.

[lastlib]

96. THEM!

The giant mutated ants! OMG! That was one scary movie for an 8-year-old!

[Chautauquas]

97. Straw Dogs (Dustin Hoffman)

I was too young for that movie. I don't think my mom knew much about it when she ok'd me to go see it.

[JoseBalow]

98. Shock Waves

Nazi SS zombies... 'nuff said!

[1WorldHope]

100. Lassie

[NewHendoLib]

101. The Birds!

[AllaN01Bear]

102. doppleganger , battle on the far side of the sun as a younger adult . scared the hopping hoobies out of me . esp

the ending.

[GreenWave]

103. This terrifying one

That's right! A monster challenges the US Navy in the Salton Sea.

My Big Sister and I went home and grabbed mommy's hot food tongs and put them by our mouths.
Klinkergoo! klinkergoo! scaring each other for weeks on end pretending to be that monster.

[Siwsan]

104. 'Tarantula'

We were at a drive in. My brother and I were probably around 2 and 4 years old. The first feature was a Disney film. The 2nd was 'Tarantula' I think my parents figured we'd sleep through that. We didn't.

I still, to this day, remember both of us peeking up above the front seat headrest and seeing that MONSTER SPIDER that was BIGGER THAN A HOUSE devouring something - man, beast - I don't remember. I just know that both of us developed a fast case of Arachnophobia.

[Polly Hennessey]

108. Night of the Living Dead

I will never watch it again. It’s the hopelessness. The “no escape” terror.

[dickthegrouch]

109. Not a movie, but Dr Who

I saw the very first episode at about 7yo and wasn’t allowed to watch the second or subsequent episodes for several years. The Dalek death rays in the 60s were terrifying.
I had nightmares for a week. In fact 60 years later such nightmares as I still experience usually consist of some form of death ray.

[Lovie777]

111. Jaws............................

At the beach, I rarely wade in the water.

[Oppaloopa]

112. Days of Wine and Roses

[ificandream]

114. Disney's Sleeping Beauty was the first.

Maleficent scared the daylights out of me back then. But Invaders From Mars also.

[consider_this]

115. A Night Gallery episode...

A Feast of Blood -
I remember this brooch (that was a gift) of a mouse/rat that sticks on a woman's coat comes to life, grows ginormous, and horror ensues.
I had to look up 'Night Gallery brooch' to track down the episode title - it was terrifying!

Following is a link with a synopsis. Now I want to watch as an adult and in the age of realistic special effects to see if is just as frightening.

https://davidjuhl.wordpress.com/2014/03/03/night-gallery-story-a-feast-of-blood-reviewed-here/

[Scrivener7]

116. Something Evil. Dopey TV movie that scared the crap out of me.

I went back and found it years later and found it was directed by Steven Spielberg.

There was something about a jar of goo in a shed, and the kid from Family Affair.

I was pretty little.