I think Willard was released in 1971. I turned 7 in 1971. For some reason, the movie didn’t really scare me that much. In fact, the next day after seeing the movie, I had my parents take me to a pet store cuz I wanted a rat! I didn’t want him to kill anybody though. I was pretty well adjusted. My parents were good to me. He was a pretty cool rat!
I first watched The Birds when it had its broadcast premiere on NBC Saturday Night At The Movies back around 1968-69ish. To an 8-year-old, it made for unforgettably disturbing viewing, even more so on a black-and-white TV. Later, around the time my mother died of suicide in 1970, my too-cheap-for-a-babysitter father dragged me, along with my sister, age 6 and brother, age 11, to screenings of Planet of The Apes and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Even though I was too young to process a lot of what I was watching onscreen, experiencing both the "shock" final scene reveal of Apes and the positively mind-blowing ending of 2001 in a short span of time affected me greatly during a difficult time in my young life.
The Window, 1949, with Bobby Driscoll, Arthur Kennedy, Barbara Hale, Paul Stewart and Ruth Roman. About a kid who gets in trouble for telling tall tales, then witnesses an actual murder. No one believes him, then the killers come after him. Still pretty edgy, noirish, but definitely not for kids under about 10.
Without a doubt Stranger in the House, as it was known in the 70s when broadcast on HBO. It is also known as Black Christmas. This is a true classic horror movie but it really scared me insanely, didn't help that I had an attic door in my room. Exorcist is right up there too.
“2001”, first run in 1968. Only four, the quiet nature of the film put me to sleep. Such was my “Discovery”. “The Way We Were”, first run in 1973. A borefest.
I thought The Exorcist was silly at age 10. I laughed at Jaws at age 12. At age 13, The Omen put the fear of Satan in me.
Which I find interesting because I think "Omen" is the most laughable/campy of that bunch. "Exorcist" is disturbing. "Jaws" is a tense thriller. "Omen" is goofy and silly.
Alongside The Brood, which scared the crap out of me when I was a kid there was a Dutch movie by Paul Verhoeven called The Fourth Man which equally scared the crap out of me. It’s more thriller than horror, but I was way, way too young for this excellent film
IDK about "too young", but there are a few classics that remain beloved to me because of their enduring sense of mystery, which is probably as much about the horrible editing for TV broadcast as much as my lack of adult knowledge at the time. Badlands and Picnic at Hanging Rock—I'm thinking of you two.
Death Race 2000 at about the age of 8 maybe, on a VHS copy my dad had. The whole premise was freaky. Also Poltergeist. Freaked me out!
A ton of horror movies in the early 60s that fueled my nightmares for years to come. My parents both worked so it was a free-for-all with afternoon monster movie themed shows. They even let my older brothers take me to things like Horror Of Dracula that scarred my psyche well into my 20s. I can only imagine what kids in succeeding decades experienced with the increased gore and graphic themes filmmakers brought to the screen.
There was some war movie that had a few stories about the women dying (childbirth, etc), maybe an anthology, that I saw on Tv when young, late 1960s probably, that I have never figured out what it was, possibly an overdubbed foreign film
The Old Dark House (1932) - I first saw this as a kid and was expecting a Universal monster/Boris Karloff movie. Viewing it as an adult I could fully appreciate its dark, wry humor and performances.
I remember watching Peter Jackson's Bad Taste when I was 11 or 12...oh wait, that's the right age to see that movie.
