Frightening Aspects of Being Young

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imp

Senior Member
As a kid, around 7-12 years, let's say, the movie-makers were cranking out "Sci-Fi" thrillers which did more than thrill me. "The Day the Earth Stood Still", 1951, I was 9, had mildly frightening effect. "Invaders From Mars", date unknown, frightened the wits out of me. I awoke middle of the night, scrambling to my folks' bedroom, quite a few times. Often, they just allowed me to crawl in, and go back to sleep. My imagination was blamed as too vivid.

In a few years, though, that process seemed to mend itself, after which I CRAVED the scary movies thing, and just loved it.

Any similarity to your own growing-up experiences? imp
 

My fears at night were real. Not sure if they were monsters or aliens from a UFO, ghosts or what. It was pretty bad though. I know it sounded like someone was dragging chains through the house but I was the only one who could hear them,
 
Never had that effect from movies, but being an avid TV fan I was often scared by such shows as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Thriller, Outer Limits, Twilight Zone and the like.

Loved it.

Also a few Bugs Bunny cartoons, especially when he would dress in women's clothing.
 

I could not afford to be scared of the dark. We had an outside, unsewered dunny away from the house down a brick path. It had no electricity, so no light.
Once I was too old to use a chamber pot at night, I had to brave the dark if I wanted to pee during the night.:eek1:

I used various mental strategies to overcome fear but had never heard of whistling a happy tune. Besides I never could whistle to save my life.
 
Against my mother's wishes, my father took me to see a really bad sci-fi movie called "The Day the World Ended". It wasn't even all that graphic, but for some reason it scared the bejeezits out of me. I had to sleep with the bedroom light on for three months. He didn't live that down for a while.

The only other one that really made an impression on me was a cheesy Vincent Price movie called "House on Haunted Hill". There was one scene where there was a hanged body outside a woman's window and the rope snaked in through the window and wrapped around her ankles. For some reason, that scene absolutely did me in. I had nightmares about that for years.......I still shiver when I envision it.

We loved to stay up on Friday nights and watch Selwin the Ghoul, who had a show playing the old monster movies and Grade B sci-fi classics. We'd make my poor grandmother stay up and watch them with us. Poor woman wasn't allowed to stretch out on the couch and doze......NOOOOOOOO!! she had to sit up on the couch with her eyes open and her arms around as many children as possible. Did I mention that my grandmother was a good sport?
 
Starting at a very young age I think I was five, the first of many horror movies that would set me off on a life time of nightmares was house on the haunted hill. That movie still creeps me out. So began my love hate relationship with the genre. I believe I saw most of the above mentioned movies I also watched twilight zone and similar other show. One of my favorites scary and sad from when I was a little girl was .revenge of the fifty foot woman. :D I detested the blob movies
 
I was more into Frankenstein, werewolf, mummy movies.... Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney... Stayed up late every Friday night after everyone else went to bed to watch them.
No lingering effects then, or now, as far as I know. But ya never know for sure...:eewwk:
 
You know what I could never figure out about those old Mummy movies? Here's the mummy....he's a couple of thousand years old, he has one arm wrapped tight to his body, he can only walk dragging one leg behind him and he STILL could chase able-bodied men down and strangle them. Jeez, I would think anyone with two legs could out-run him.

Another imponderable: they hear a noise in the basement, the attic or the back yard. Instead of staying put and calling the police or someone they GO INTO THE BASEMENT, THE ATTIC OR THE BACK YARD. And something always get them? Don't you think they'd learn?

Also: why did the old lady in the monster movies always run around screeching with her apron thrown over her face when she was scared? I'd think that would be a bad idea.

I had the great privilege of watching an Indian horror movie once. As you can imagine, it had at least TWO big dance scenes. Only in Bollywood do you have to have dance scenes in a horror movie. Well, except in the case of a Michael Jackson one, of course.

I am thoroughly enjoying the full month of horror movies that are showing on cable......bring 'em on - the cheesier the better. I am a connoisseur of bad, really bad, horror and sci-fi movies.
 
I can only watch horror scary movies during the daytime, at least when home alone. Two goodies from modern time Jeepers Creepers and Paranormal Activity on and Candy man. There are others. Jeepers I have to keep the lights on.
 
As an adult the scariest movie I think I've seen (since I don't go in for Saw-type movies) was Silence of the Lambs.

Sir Anthony Hopkins was just sooooo evil, and all he had to do was to look into the camera.

Now he's one of my role models. :smug1:
 
SifuPhil said:
As an adult the scariest movie I think I've seen (since I don't go in for Saw-type movies) was Silence of the Lambs.

Sir Anthony Hopkins was just sooooo evil, and all he had to do was to look into the camera.

Now he's one of my role models. :smug1:
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That movie gave a full couple of years of nightmares, Hopkins performance.cativatinly bonehiling. Funny though. The first Jurassic park gave me nightmares to sometime as well. Good thing these movies no longer have that type of affect on me, but, I still prefer viewing most of them in the daytime.
 
Nothing scared me more than ..of all things... a scene in a Disney movie for Pete's sake! It was some horrific creature called a Banshee. It shrieked and howled and scared the daylights out of me for far too many years than I care to admit. I think I'm still scared of it!
 
SifuPhil said:
As an adult the scariest movie I think I've seen (since I don't go in for Saw-type movies) was Silence of the Lambs.

Sir Anthony Hopkins was just sooooo evil, and all he had to do was to look into the camera.

Now he's one of my role models. :smug1:
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That was a really scary movie! As far as all the other scary movies, I never watch them. Mummys and monsters bore me and those with crazy humans after people, stories that COULD be true, I don't want to watch!
 
I had two that did a job on me as a kid. One was an Abbott and Costello movie, believe it or not. They had two scenes. One was a swiveling book case leading to a secret passage. The other was a panel in the wall over the head of a bed, where it opened and a hand came out. We lived in an apartment at the time, but I did a lot of wall checking and had a hard time going to bed for a while.
The second one was the original "King Kong". We lived on the fourth floor of a walk up with open windows on every landing of the staircase. I kept picturing Kong's hand coming in every one. Needless to say, I negotiated those stairs at record speed for a while.
 
So, people, you're telling me, mostly, that my nightmares as a kid were not all that unusual? My bedroom had a closet, the door visible from the bed, and if that door were closed when I went to bed, I dreamed of something creeping out from behind it!

Sometimes, knowing the door was open didn't even help. And, this went on for several years, the night fears, I mean. Surprisingly, seemed to coincide with the onset of pre-puberty, I guess, the fears became laughable, I then loved the scary movies!

Glad to hear I was not alone in this growing-up experience! imp
 
There were two movies that really did a job on me as an adult. One was "The Boogens" about a house built on top of an old mine in Colorado that had baaaad things in it. As a child, I was scared of the heat grates set in the floor; I was sure that if I looked down into them, someone or thing would be looking up at me. In "The Boogens" there was a scene where some sort of tentacles came out of a floor grate, grabbed a guy and "strained" him back through the grate. Okaaay, now I'm still scared of floor grates to this day.

The other one was the 1973 "Don't be Afraid of the Dark" with Kim Darby about a woman who inherits her uncle's house. There are scary little critters (you actually never see them, but you definitely hear them who come out of an iron door that's set in the bottom of the chimney in the basement (that you clean ashes out of periodically). Eventually, they get her, drag her down to the basement and into that door where she lives with them forever. Now, we had the identical door set into the chimney in our basement. Need I say more? I was in my 20's and still didn't like to go down in the basement by myself. And if I had to, I sure as heck didn't look at that door.

Oh, and the night we came home from seeing "The Exorcist", there were noises coming from our attic. I was ready to move out.
 
ok i shouldn't be reading this threa in a dark room. i was wiggling my toes nervousness, Jube and her mentioning something about a scene where something reaeched up through a grate and at that moment i happenen to look up and got a fright from the sight of the movement of my toes. That's just sad' i need a babysitter' :D
 
I'll never forget a film I was shown in kindergarten called "The Arson Man." It was a cartoon about a man who slips into your house through a window and sets fire to your house.

It was supposed to be all about fire safety but that was lost on me. Holy cow, I had nightmares for a week!!
 
AprilT said:
ok i shouldn't be reading this threa in a dark room. i was wiggling my toes nervousness, Jube and her mentioning something about a scene where something reaeched up through a grate and at that moment i happenen to look up and got a fright from the sight of the movement of my toes. That's just sad' i need a babysitter' :D
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The Toes That Ate Florida!

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