What movies freaked you out as a child?

Mostly 50s sci-fi. Watching these on TV as a kid in the 60s made me sleep with the light on:

The Blob
Invaders From Mars
Night of the Living Dead
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers
Attack of the Crab Monsters

Crab Monsters may be a low-budget Roger Corman affair, but the idea that giant crabs could eat your brain and then use your own voice to communicate with other humans is still profoundly disturbing to me.

 

Funhouse freaked me out too! When that girl is stuck in the air duct and her dad is right outside but he cant hear her calling over the fan!

 

Oh and I think it was a Twilight Zone movie or something....where these kids are trapped on a dock in the middle of a lake and theres this strange oozy thing in the water. Couldnt sleep for weeks after that one!

 

Plus, how about some of those early-70s made-for-tv movies that aired when I was still an impressionable young teen:

Trilogy of Terror
Don't Be Afraid of the Dark
Crowhaven Farm
Gargoyles

 

Night of the Living Dead. Very claustrophobic movie.

And such a tragic ending.

 

Absolutely!

That one got under my skin so much, part 3 would probably still freak me out.

 

Yes, Invaders From Mars....
And ...ON THE BEACH..the original, I think '57.
Left me cold....

 

and, of couse, the Day the Earth Stood Still....

 

The Excorcist, where she spins her head. I still can't watch it.

 

I remember being freaked out as a kid by the transformation scene in "The Nutty Professor"!

 

One night while watching a weekly "scare 'em silly" type show on Canadian TV, a freakish little movie called "Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things" came on...try as I might, I've never forgotten it!

 

Raiders of the Lost Ark - I remember hiding my eyes in the theatre and peeking through my fingers.

 

I was a kid during Freddie Crougar movies ... and the Jason movies etc, so I was no stranger to horror flicks

that being said, the ONLY film i have EVER lost sleep over was

The Changeling - actually filmed in my home town but WAY before my time

 

Also Race with the Devil from the same year. I was 10 when I saw both of them, and they definitely freaked me out.

There was also some weird 'mysterious happenings' type movie that I remember seeing at the theatre. I remember some scene with these rocks rolling across a valley. Paranormal type stuff that can get you when you're young and gullible. While I would laugh at it today, it did get to me as a kid. The other 2 I mentioned are still good scary movies.

 

Check out the DVD for the scene where she spider-walks down the stairs!

 

That's the part I found the creepiest in the Excorcist. What was different about the scene on DVD?

 

I can't remember much of anything about "Invaders From Mars", but wonder if you're thinking of "I Married A Monster From Outer Space" -- Alien masquerading as human is killed, slumps over a desk, his sleeved hand disappears, and applesauce pours out of the empty sleeve.

Creeped and grossed little me big time, although the older kids laughed at it.

 

As a child, definitely The Birds. I guess I must have been 3 or 4 when I saw it. When, at the end of the movie, the radio newsman says something about bird sightings in the "vicinity of Santa Rosa" (which I knew wasn't that far from us) I freaked. I demanded that my parents close the flue on the fireplace and check all the windows.

Dale

 

Burnt Offerings totally freaked me out as a kid...that part where the undertaker comes into the house...ESHHHH!

 

Humanoids From the Deep (1980)
I've never seen it again, but its a Roger Corman film. I actually think its a comedy.

 

That was actually Creepshow 2.

The intro to the TZ movie is another one that's pretty scary for kids.

 

It wasn't in the original release of the movie, I didn't see that scene until a couple of years ago when I bought the DVD for the expanded version.

Still, most of the scary stuff even in the Exorcist is the anticipation and the unknown, the slow build-up to the gruesome climax. A true horror movie.

 

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You're right Skip,
It was that one, I must have had a senior moment...lol
That movie did creep me out. My wife loves all those old 50's horror/sci-fi movies.
I should have asked her first. Those were the days.

 

Well, Jaws did that's for sure. I was 5 or 6 when my parents took me and I could barely use the toilet or take a bath after that, much less hop in the swimming pool at night! They were so strict about what we watched when I was a kid, so I can't think of why on earth they'd take us to Jaws.

And also, I'll confess, the disaster schlock classic Airport '77 freaked my young brain out. I couldn't sleep for nights, had falling nightmares from then on.

And now at age 36 I'm suffer crippling fear of heights. But I can take baths and swim, thankfully.

dan c