There's a lot of horror here, so... I thought I'd mention a movie I saw when I was about 10, that, while some might view as inappropriate, I thought was quite funny!
When we were 11, my friend bought his older brother a birthday card that alluded to being horny. Neither of us had the slightest idea what "horny" meant - he just liked the card!
In 1973 at age 10 I saw a double feature of Deliverance and Clockwork Orange, and I saw it ALONE! I recall my father asking a man to take me in so the ticket take would think I had the adult supervision required by both films R ratings. Why my dad didn't just take me I don't know, perhaps he had already seen the films. 1973 was a great year for movies and he took me to a lot of them that year. Needless to say I should not have seen those films at that tender age, but the good news was that the violence repelled me and in no way caused any bad influence. It's always a bit of fun to tell this story and watch people's jaws drop. I've read that Tim Burton saw the same double feature that year, hmmm...
My older (teenage at the time) cousin took me and my older brother to see Midnight Express when it was in the theaters in 1978, I was 8 years old. As eff'ed up as that movie is, it wasn't until Billy's girlfriend lifted her top that she thought it was too "mature" for an 8 year old to be watching, and she dragged us out of the theatre.
When I was in High School we were taken on a field trip to see Fellini's Satyricon!! Scarred me for life!
Psycho Alone in the house after school. I was roughly 11. The old Phila CBS (now NBC) ran movies in the afternoon slot, cuz in those days there was only news at 6.
In college, there was a huge classroom building. Maybe 10 large rooms on each floor. One must have had an upright piano in it. While waiting for the prof to arive (door open), someone in a nearby room sat down and played Tubular Bells flawlessly on a piano. Almost immediately around 10 people (mostly girls) in the room became very agitated.
Poltergeist On HBO constantly after release in the early years... and it was way too close to home. On the other side of the street from our neighborhood on Long Island, they were excavating (removing unwanted material from underground...) to create new homes. I saw the trucks, and my father showed me what they were doing, as he also taught me to ride my bike in that area since it used to be vacant. Our neighborhood was a former estate and we knew where the mini graves were, and we left them alone. People, dogs, horses per the stones. But across the street on Woodbury Road..?? You can imagine my horror of Poltergeist and living right where this idea was born.. and it being in progress! And I couldn't get the image of the guy at tearing at his face at the sink out of my mind.
I was 7 or 8 (1964) and my babysitter allowed me to stay up and watch Psycho on TV. That was the last time she babysat for us. When I was 5 there was a showing of "Nosferatu" on. That scared me pretty bad for a while. It was so different than anything I had seen up to that point.
I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey when I was about 5 or 6. I remember finding the first section tedious (and still do) but I didn't really understand much else going on. I really enjoyed it though, particularly the psychedelic section, which the rest of the audience seemed to like too, particularly the ones on the ground at the front. I must have been 11 when I saw Jaws and absolutely loved it! A film I watched really young - 4 maybe? - must have been (I think?) The Beast With The Five Fingers". Gave me the willies something rotten.
I was 11 and I wanted to see Caveman which starred Ringo. I was a huge fan of The Beatles so I had to see it. No problem so far. I had a great time. The second feature was The Wall. It messed me up big time!
I was mightily bored as a young teen when watching "Last Year at Marienbad" on TV. I was probably 15, and the film stuck in my mind as the once and future gold standard of tedium... I had no clue as to what Resnais was trying to do. I finally saw it again about 6 months ago, revisiting it across 47 years, and now I could at least appreciate its dark elegance. It won't ever be a big "favorite", but it sits in a more realistic place in my 'cinema mind' now. C.
As a kid I don't think I should have seen "The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane" on television. That's the one in which young Jodi Foster kills a woman (well, let's her die after an accident actually) and Martin Sheen plays a pedophile who wants to rape her. Yikes.
"The Other" (1972) was scary not only for some of the violent scenes but it also had a disturbing psychological aspect to it. I saw "The Andromeda Strain" and distinctly remember when they cut open the wrist of one of the dead townspeople and the blood poured out like sand. When I was 9 I had my dad take me to the original "Solaris" - I don't think either one of us had any idea what it was about (either before or after we watched it!) but I still remember a woman drinking liquid oxygen.
There are plenty. But two I really remember. Couldn't sleep well for weeks. The Thing (this one gave me nightmares and 'daymares'!!!). I think I was 10 or 11 years old The Exorcist (around the same time) I remember 'Dressed to kill' also. Not because it scared but because I watched it in secret when I was 13 or so: my mom and dad had a huge argument before. My mother said I was too young to see it, my father said 'maybe'. I wasn't really interested to watch it when I asked, but the argument triggered me to do so. 'must be really something!'. If forbidden, the appeal gets bigger . Was a bit of a let down though. Even more so when I watched 'Psycho', years later.
