"2001: A Space Odyssey". Don't know why but my Dad took me (age 8) and my brother (age 15) to see it when it came out. (Maybe at my brother's behest?) Anyway, other than the cool space scenes it flew over my head. Also my godfather took us (Family )to a drive-in to see "No Way to Treat a Lady" (in the same year as 2001 I think). Too rough for an elementary school kid. I can't imagine my mother enjoyed it either.
I watched Deliverance young too but was not allowed to watch the Pig scene. I didn't know for a long time why the trip all the sudden went sideways. Ha.
2001 was my first really bewildering film, having seen it around age 12, after some time of awaiting a local theater who couldn't get a copy because the Cinerama in Indianapolis had exclusive exhibition rights for some time. I was probably not really ready for Thunderball, either. Or even 1962's The Wonderful World of The Brothers Grimm. I had no context for it at that time.
We got a VCR in late 77/early 78 and a few years later, when I was in jr. high, I found my dad's secret stash of videos including Flesh Gordon.
Probably The Exorcist. All sorts of wild scenes to 6 or 7 year old. The sounds even freaked out my German Shepherd Mix It was the only time I ever saw cower.
Funny that. There’s a scene in Bram Stokers Dracula that mixes the sounds of bees into the audio that scared my dog so much she ran out of the room.
I saw A Nightmare on Elm Street at a sleep over (the original one) when I was 9, or so. I thought Freddie was in my closet every night for a week after that.
The Exorcist is the first movie to come to mind that I probably watched at too young of an age. I think I was 11 (my brother 13) and it was on network TV one night for the Saturday Night weekly movie. Mom and Dad were out on a "date" with friends. Even though it was edited for TV and all the gruesome parts taken out, it was still scary as hell for an 11-year-old, especially since we were watching it on the living room TV with all the lights out. I saw The Deep, I think, when I was only 10 at the theatre with family. So, that wasn't nearly as scary as seeing The Exorcist alone with my brother. I think Jaws was another movie I probably saw at too young of an age, but I think I was a year older at the time than I was when I saw The Exorcist. Edit: I am not counting those old Saturday/Sunday Afternoon weekly horror movies that some TV stations showed such as the Frankenstein movies, the Dracula movies, Vincent Price movies (House of Wax, in particular.) I was probably in elementary school when I first saw those movies. Dad used to love watching those old Horror movies.
Yes, I can’t remember anything very specific about those Saturday afternoon horrors except it was usually dracula and the blood was really really red, but it gives me a queasy feeling to think about watching them to this day.
The Exorcist was the one that I saw when I was really young and it did my head in, hearing that music to this day still gives me the creeps. My Dad used to rent a VCR to take to our cottage and he let us watch Cheech and Chong, The Thing, Jaws and a whole bunch of stuff that probably wasn’t appropriate for kids, it was all fun and games until Regan’s head does a 360.
When I was 11 my parents took me and my little brother, who is three years younger, to see Aliens. I also saw Robocop a year later. I turned out OK.
Rocky - I watched it on TV when I was 8 or 9 but everything other than the boxing scenes meant nothing to me. It wasn't until I rewatched it on VHS after seeing Rocky IV in the theater that I could understand all of the other things about it that made it a good movie (a few years at that age can make a big difference as far as what you can understand). Same thing with Close Encounters. I watched it the year after it came out, because I had seen Star Wars - the defining film of my childhood! - but really didn't appreciate much of anything about it. (There weren't any aliens until the end! And they didn't fight anybody!).
I also say The Exorcist. At least the first half. Then I was sent upstairs for bed. I sat at the top stair listening in fear till it was over and others were coming up. I had to ask a friend what laid meant after the end of Caddyshack.
Room At The Top- Laurence Harvey was playing a Stendhalian- type character & I wouldn't discover Stendhal until I was 20.
Several movies that the family went to see at the Drive In gave me nightmares for years afterwards. Moby Dick (Peck strapped to the whale), Oklahoma (the dream sequence), pretty much all of Fear Strikes Out. No issues with Some Like It Hot. We went to a theater to see Vertigo, kind of heavy for a 7 year old, but I remember Kim Novak’s Judy character reminded me of my 2nd Grade teacher. I guess she wore a lot of makeup.
TCM had The Beford Incident as part of the 24 hours of Sidney Poitier. Entering high school when the film came out it 1965,my expectations of seeing a war movie after The Longest Day and The Great Escape were diminished. Slow going-now I can appreciate the tension of the Cold War and who really is a good guy/bad guy even when they are on "our" side. It would have benefited by seeing the Caine Mutiny or understanding Moby Dick. Early high school required reading of Nevil Shute and James Joyce,I was in over my head after reading Man From U.N.C.L E. novels aimed at folks younger than me and Von Ryan's Express. Next year,1966,The Sand Pebbles with Steve McQueen. Three hours of sitting and squirming. It is still too long but my age and attention span a bit better these days help to wait for the payoff.