Childhood traumas: the movie edition

The Red Ranger will be 6 years old in a month.  I can't believe it.  It's amazing to me that he's almost 6.  As he gets older, and has more play dates and outings with friends I'm starting to think about how to deal with the increasing non-family influences.  A lot influence comes from TV, movie, and video games.  With that in mind, I started reflecting on the movie experiences that traumatized me when I was a child.  I thought I'd share them with you set up in handy Top 5 form.

Top 5 disturbing film scenes when I was a child:

1)  The Black Hole (1979):  My parents took me to see this in the theater.  I was 5.  This was right about the time that Disney started putting out more mature films than the animated movies or movies like Freaky Friday and the Herbie movies.  My parents were as shocked as I when a robot kills a main character with a rotating blade hand.  I freaked out, and was quickly ushered out of the theater.

2)  Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981):  I think you all know the scene that freaked me out.  Here's a hint, a ceremony, an opened ark of the covenant, and Indy and Marion tied up. 

3)  Poltergeist (1982):  The whole darn movie scared me, and still scares me.  I have a serious fear of clown dolls still.  I'm not even kidding.

4)  Michael Jackson's Thriller video (1983):  I saw this for the first time at a friend's house at her birthday party.  Yeah, very scary for my 9 year old self.  Now, I love this video and the choreography.  At 9, a scary faced Michael Jackson was terrifying.

5)  Watcher in the Woods (1980):  For some reason the ghostly little girl with the bandage around her eyes freaked me out.  Bette Davis is scary!  We used to watch this at sleepovers.  Very good sleepover scary movie.

So now I'm curious, what movie and TV scenes have traumatized you?

Comments

[stephanie]

Oh man what a topic. I could go on and on about this. I was clearly not supervised very closely when I was a kid because I used to watch Creature Feature on tv. There was a whole bunch of freaky movies starring Shelly Winters - Who Slew Auntie Roo? etc. Totally low budget but really scary. Add Vincent Price and Bette Davis movies to the mix & now you know why I need therapy! ;)

[moiraeknittoo]

You know, I still shudder every time I think of "The Day After" and "The Burning Bed". Oh, and that movie I have deliberately forgotten the name of, that's about domestic violence and he finds her and nearly beats her to death in the street while all kinds of people just watch it happen. ::shudders::

Good heavens I'm going to have to dig out a night light tonight!

[sprite]

I think Michael Jackson's face is a lot more scary now. ;)

Because my mother doesn't like scary movies, I don't remember being traumatized in that way. Instead characters dying usually did it (and still do). I remember still sobbing after we got home from seeing Amy (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082017/) when I was seven or so. I kept asking my father why the characters had to die.

[Elysbeth]

Ugh! Rosemary's baby.

[Charity]

Oh, there was this scene in the Twilight Zone when I was about 8... I was told to cover my eyes, and I peeked! Gave me nightmares for years. :0)

[Birdsong]

I am much older than you, so it has to be The Wizard of Oz; it used to play on TV every year in the spring and my mother loved Judy Garland and had to watch it. I would hide behind the couch during certain scenes... then there was Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds... I still absolutely avoid scary movies. Your explanation about Poltergeist might be the root of the fear several younger adults have told me they have of clowns in general.

[Jennifer]

Dang - I feel so old! Let's see - Psycho, Halloween (the original), and anything by Stephen King

[thursday]

I remember seeing parts of Poltergeist that completely freaked me out - never watched the whole thing, though. I hate scary movies. I watched Pulse (1988) on TV - but I must've been 12 or 13 then. I can't even look at those black and white cat clocks with the tail that moves! And Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom - the scene where the guy tries to rip Indy's heart out. EWWWWWW. And Dark Crystal. I didn't like those icky spider things.

[Amy]

It's funny, I was just discussing with my girls about the ark scene.

I totally agree with Poltergeist. Super scary. I was also scared of Grimlins.

Amy

[Disentangled]

Ha! This is an easy one for me - I am still traumatized ;-) - Dragonslayer. I couldn't tell you anything about the beginning of this movie, but man, the scene that got me screaming is still imprinted!

Btw - my brother was totally scared to watch Freaky Friday. My mom and I kept trying to tell him it wasn't 'scary' but he wasn't buying it!

[melanie]

Great subject!
(I loved and continue to love "Rosemary's Baby"...)

I loved Twilight Zone when I was very young, and still do - but the scene in "Little Girl Lost" where she goes through the wall in her bedroom into another dimension frightened me so much that I was afraid to let my hand dangle out of my bed at night!

The other really scary thing: the "Rites of Spring" / dinosaur section of the film "Fantasia." For years afterward, when I'd hear that music, I'd get a migraine. Later, as an adult, I saw "Fantasia" again, and realized that I'd joined the music with the violence in that section of the film. Until that moment, I hadn't even remembered that sequence in the movie!

[trek]

I love The Matrix but I still haven't watched the scene with the bug.

[Karen]

I have to put in a second vote for Wizard of Oz. The wicked witch was fine, the flying monkeys were kind of scary, but what really got me? The witches guards and their chanting. "O-Ee-Yah! Eoh-Ah!." So scary!!!

Storm troopers freak me out too. I guess it's something about an army of look-alike evil do-ers.

[Kim]

Trauma? That you were only NINE when "Thriller" came out. . .

OY. I'm old.

[deb]

Alfred Hitchcock's "The Bird's" and "Psycho", Stephen King's "The Shining".

[Rachel]

Three movies stick in my head. 'The Day After' completely traumatized me and I remember my parents having to sit and talk with me before bed for weeks after that. I snuck in and watched parts of 'The Shining' when I wasn't supposed to...coming in when Jack says 'I'm not going to hurt you, I'm just going to beat your brains in'. Yeah...that wasn't good. And the last one I remember distinctly scaring me was 'The Towering Inferno'. I had nightmares for months. Interesting question!

[Chris]

Hmm, I'm not coming up with anything that really freaked me out as a kid. As an adult, both Event Horizon and the Blair Witch Project left me completely sick to my stomach and unable to go out for dinner after the movie.

[rhelynn]

Oh I LOVE the Indiana Jones movies - but still have trouble watching that scene as well! The third one (threequel) where the guy turns into a skeleton and then dust freaks me out to, same types of effect.

[Chris]

OMG! Poltergeist - saw that when I was dating my husband - used to have dreams that an evil clown doll in my room dragged me under my bed (way before the movie was even an idea!) Imagine his surprise when we are watching the movie, I see the doll and start going "oh no, it's gonna drag him under the bed!"

[Amanda]

Wow, I didn't know anyone else remembered Watcher In The Woods! Definitely freaked me out. I also watched some Nightmare on Elm Street at a sleepover and was terrified. And I remember watching that Twilight Zone episode Melanie mentioned--yikes!

*You & I are obviously the same age!

[mrspao]

Even the thought of those movies fills me with dread!

[olga]

When I was little the scene in War of the Worlds where the machines rise out of the pits and that crazy sound they made use to freak me out as a kid, I remember crying and hiding.

[Felicia]

Yes! That Watcher in the Woods scared the bejeebers out of me when I was a kid.

Another movie from my youth that scared me senseless was a made for TV film called Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark. Huh, yeah, I sure was afraid of the dark after seeing that horror. Check out IMDB for a synopsis. Chances are if you're a child of the seventies you'll recall being terrified of this movie too and will only just realize that you were suppressing it! :)

[JessaLu]

#2 still freaks me out - I can't watch it.

[Nicole]

Um, Michael Jackson is scary for me, too, and I'm much older than 9.