For me it was Event Horizon, that was scary as hell when I was a kid, I had nightmares for months.
Time Bandits. Because of that move my childhood was plagued with nightmares about little people from out of time invading my room in the middle of the night.
My babysitter showed me Critters (in secret) when I was 5. Rather than be scarred, she turned me into a avid horror fan. I saw all the 80’s classics when I was way too young for them thanks to HBO and Cinemax.
None phased me.
Laughably, what finally got me was so mild. In Poltergeist 2 or 3, there’s a scene where the kid’s reflection no longer mimics his own movements. It’s not even the scare, but rather the set-up.
I started staring at mirrors when I was alone, just waiting for my reflection to break into a sinister smile. My fear was, when it did, what would I do? No adult would believe me. Mirrors are unavoidable. Something supernatural would be after me. I knew I wouldn’t be able to pull off some “final girl” shit IRL.
I am legend
The post apocalyptic movie with Will Smith.
The eerie way the monsters looked, plus the way they stood in a circle in the dark building. It really scared the shit out of me as a kid.
Don’t play The Forest anytime soon then xD
It’s like I am Legend on steroids.
Pan’s Lanyrinth. The Pale Man haunted 12yo -me’s nightmares for a long time.
Nightmare on Elm Street… my sister was not a great babysitter.
The 1st one was so insanely well crafted. It’s the only horror movie that has ever genuinely scared me to the core. The body bag scene is so haunting. And the mom putting the bars on the windows is one of the most well crafted twist to increase the plot tension in all of horror.
Ernest scared stupid. That troll going around at night, sneaking into kids rooms and turning them into wooden figurines was terrifying to my kid brain.
Threads, Growing up near Sheffield and watched it when I was about 12…
Quick! Let’s name a social network after it!
Threads, A gritty dire warning to mankinds folly, Also a film from 1984…
Aliens. Me and my brother sneakily was watching it when our parents were gone, and when that chest-burster came out of that woman, I was out of there like a bat out of hell. Never told my parents, of course - had to protect our VHS privileges and all that… It’s still one of my favorite movies - the original cinematic cut, not the overly long director’s cut (which seems to be the only one you can find these days.]
When I was little, the Gremlins movies terrified me! Not sure why since they’re super campy, but 🤷♂️ kids are weird.
The first one is pretty scary. The second one is super campy
I just rewatched gremlins, and beside some jumpscares it’s pretty camp and tame.
But then the scene comes where the Santa Claus gets stuck in the chimney, discovered due to the smell. This is not shown, just a story that gets told pretty off handed.
I realized that that was the part that made the movie scary to me when younger. And it colored the rest of the movie darker, too.
The Blair Witch Project. My cousin told me it was actual found footage, which was a terrifying thought for 10 year old me.
That was the whole point. They even made the actors stay out of public view for a year, handing out flyers at Sundance that they were “missing, presumed dead”. There were fake police interviews on the film’s website and everything. This was the first time anything like this had been done so I can imagine people were really invested in this movie and thought it was real.
They also “leaked” copies of the film for months before it came out. I saw a leaked copy in the dorms in college. Never heard of it, my friends told me it was real footage that had been found in the woods from a group that had been lost. For the first… probably half of the movie, I was convinced it was real.
Very enjoyable experience. I feel bad for all the people who saw it after the hype and were too cool to let themselves be scared by it.
Whoa TIL! I thought my cousin was just messing with me, but the chance that all this time she may have also been sold on the idea makes me feel better.
This movie felt real. I’m still scared by it…
ET scared the crap out of me.
I couldn`t sleep for weeks after watching it as a kid. Many decades later I met my wife. It turns out she also had nightmares as a kid after watching E.T.
Thank you. I kept scrolling thinking I couldn’t be the only one.
Those long ass fingers creeped me the fuck out. Can’t believe that was supposed to be a kids movie lol.
Species from 1995. Parents and their friends were watching it and told us to not come in because it was too scary.
I thought they were bullshitting young me…I was wrong. Lol. Had wonderful nightmares for a while.
The Exorcist got me pretty good
Watched when I was 7 with my cousin. Got heavily traumatized mate, anything else is just a joke in comparison
The Mummy (1990s movie, not that Netflix series)
To be fair, Event Horizon scared me as an adult.
In the vein of “kids are stupid”, the Never-Ending Story scene with the sphinxes.