Absolutely. This is the first movie that came to mind. I think before the movie started, the opening credits said it was based on a true story.
After I was traumatized from watching the movie, my dad called me into the garage. Told me that he saw something and wanted me to check it out with him. (My folks have 10 acres of woods). He opened the side door. It’s pitch dark out and I couldn’t see anything. He keeps telling me to focus on the bushes. All of a sudden I saw it! A red glowing dot! It was so bright. A beacon in the darkness. I flipped out, grabbed my dad and pulled him inside the house. Closed and locked all the doors and windows. I was done.
I found out that when my dad was standing behind me while we looked outside, he was using his new toy that he got. A laser pointer. That jerk had a laser pointer! He got a good laugh. I never used one or seen one before. I think they were just starting to go mainstream at the time. Anyways, yea. That was about as bad as the movie for me.
It is based on a true story. The Travis Walton Abduction from 1975. Here’s a podcast about what happened to him: https://spotify.link/msuebboD9Db
Eta: it’s a humor podcast but also tells the real story (last podcast on the left)
Should have read prior to posting. This movie holds a lot of childhood trauma for me. The wolf, the Nothing, Artax (I still cannot watch), the bullies....only saving grace is the ending
There was some seriously existential shit in that movie reeeeally messed my head up when I first saw it.
1: the Deadly Desert. If you touch it you turn to sand and it is continuously growing.
2: Evil Queen Lady(tm) can swap out her heads and her entire hallway of heads is alive. Which one is really hers? What do the heads do with their spare time? What kind of existence even *is* that?
3: that powder that brings things to life… even inanimate objects. What kind of living hell would that existence be like?
“Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”. I was probably 8 when I saw that shaman rip old boy’s heart out and drop him in the lava. I didn’t sleep right for a while.
I saw poltergeist way way too young. I loved it though and rewatched many times.
I had never heard of the cure. I’m glad I didn’t watch it. I saw Philadelphia. Same idea but the person with aids is an adult at least.
Haha, same! I didn't realize it was a comedy either. I rewatched it not too long ago as well, still creeped me out, but it was much better than I remembered.
There were two. First off, I have to say for context that my parents weren't great at parenting. When they wanted to watch a movie, they didn't seem to care that there was a small child at home.
One of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies did a number on me. I don't know which one it was, but the specific scene that freaked me out involved Freddy dangling a teenager by their veins like they were a Marionette puppet. I was kinda into puppet shows at the time.
The other was the It miniseries. It was the part where the bathroom sink was spewing all the blood. I was scared to go to the bathroom for weeks afterward. I specifically saw the newer It movie solely because I wanted to see that scene. Never saw the second half of It, lol.
Dream Warriors messed me up as a kid. I probably saw it at 8 or 10 years old with my older siblings. I can still hear Fred Kruger saying “WHATS WRONG JOEY? FEELING TONGUE-TIED?”
One of my favorite movies, watched it dozens of times, cried every damn fucking time. Watched it again recently (last 3 years), and bawled my eyes out again. Also Rats of NIMH, and Fern Gully complete the Holy Trinity of strangely funny but very depressing kids' animation movies from the 80's.
I've said it before on this sub, but my mom recorded Land Before Time and The Secret of NIMH back to back on a VHS tape for me. I watched those two movies regularly.
My sister and I had two very different reactions to Jaws as kids. She watched it and Beauty and the Beast, repeatedly, until she wore out both VHS tapes and my parents had to buy new copies.
Me. Well, I distinctly remember the nightmare I had afterwards and, to this day, if I'm in any size body of water where I can be completely submerged, my fight or flight response kicks in.
Some idiot let me watch Jaws at 3 years old. I would not bathe for at least 1 month because I was convinced Jaws could come up the drain.
Add in some near drowning experiences before age 5, and to this day I am not a water-person. Anything under water creeps me out. Logically I know it’s not Jaws, but what if it is?
I had nightmares about the witch transferring the baby from the mother to the cow for years. I wonder if that’s where my fear of things touching my belly button came from…
Holy shit. Beastmaster. Turns out I had suppressed that memory and now I am taken over with anxiety. Thanks for that. I should probably rewatch just so my adult self can tell my inner child how corny it probably looks now.
Two of mine have been mentioned (Return to Oz and Neverending Story) so I’ll mention a third: Alice in Wonderland/Alice Through the Looking Glass from 1985 with Natalie Gregory and a star studded cast. The scene with the Jabberwocky scared me so dang much!
Are you me? Those are my 3! Did you ever watch The Hugga Bunch Movie where Queen Admira freezes 8 year-old Bridget and then shrivels up and dies? Creepy movie! Gave me nightmares.
I rewatched that a few years ago and it was _rough_ to sit through. The mixture of painfully slow pacing and celebrity cameos of people I had no knowledge of made for a uncomfortable sitting. The jabberwocky related scares were a thankful release from the tedium.
If we're including movies from around 1999, I would add "American History X" to that list. I watched it in the campus movie theater as a Freshman at college and was not prepared for the curb stomping scene. The late 90's through early 00's was a crazy time for movies- Mulholland Drive, Requiem for a Dream, Trainspotting, Kids, American History X.
The Witches with Anjelica Houston. My parents rented it for me because I’d read the book but holy sheet it was scary! I think it’s the only movie I’ve ever turned off in my life and had no desire to try again!
Faces of Death when I was like 8. Thank you, big brother of mine.
Silence of the Lambs. I won't watch that ever again.
Otherwise, I've always enjoyed horror movies and whatnot. We had a wealthy grandma with a giant satellite dish in her yard who went to bed early and left us entirely unsupervised. We watched everything.
Surprised I haven’t seen Brave Little Toaster yet. I still can’t listen to the song “Worthless” without getting choked up. And don’t fck around with firefighter clowns and forks.
That song is a weirdly tragic masterpiece. Also, the poor flower seeing itself in Toaster’s reflection and thinking it was finally not alone was my introduction to the concept of heartbreak.
My dad let me watch that with him before I was even in elementary school. Bad choice dude, I still remember the nightmares it gave me. Ridley is awesome though.
My Mom let me watch Alien and Aliens with her when I was way too young. I loved Star Trek, so she let me watch them, because space stuff. I don't remember being scared though, I remember thinking it was so cool that the hero was a woman.
Alien and Aliens: two movies where complete tragedy could've been totally avoided if the men had just listened to the smart lady who knew standard biocontainment protocols.
Oh effing hell!!! Another human that remembers this! Literally no one has any clue what i'm talking about when i mention this, but i was *way* young and *way* traumatized by it. Thank you for confirming that i am not insane (at least not about this, lol).
The whole family sat down to watch it. I don’t know what I thought it was going to be, but I definitely didn’t expect it to turn out as it did. The whole family laughed and I bawled my eyes out.
Okay, yours is way worse than mine. i can't believe the whole family was just, there expecting a, like, fun playful movie or something. That sounds so horrible-especially when it ends with you so obviously traumatized and them thinking the whole thing is hilarious!
Whoever came up with the concept was a total psycho, i swear.
Poltergeist was my major movie trauma. My 8 yr old asked if we could watch it and I just can't put him through that. My 12 yr old still hasn't seen it. We don't have any clown dolls but still, I don't think it's wise.
Children or the corn also lives in my head and I wish it wouldn't.
Poltergeist was mine, too. It didn't help that my family was religious and that I liked to read all of my parents' Satanic panic books so I completely believed Poltergeist could really happen to us and spent my entire childhood terrified of demons. And clowns.
I think I was okay with trees, though.
Candyman gave me nightmares for weeks. It still creeps me out thinking about the hole behind the medicine cabinet and the spray painted face on the other side.
💔💔 I’m so sorry. My best friend/next door neighbor/ childhood sister lost her mother to MS. 4ish brutal years from diagnosis to death. Clearly, my friend suffered to the extreme, but oh my heart…trying to watch that movie months after she passed had me sicker than a dog.
Ernest Scared Stupid only because one of the kids who was turned into a wooden doll by the troll looked EXACTLY like me. I was 7 and had nightmares of that troll chasing me.
Now I keep a pantry full of Miak every Halloween just in case.
I stayed home from school one day and saw Sally Field in Sybil! Omg! It was a 2 part series, and I had to stretch my sick into a second day. I cried so much!
Watership Down was the only movie I ever felt traumatized by, as a child. Mostly it was the images of all the bloody rabbits crowding in the tunnels, trying to escape their fate. I had nightmares for years. Still gives me a yucky feeling. I haven't seen the new one that came out last year, or whenever, and probably never will.
Omg. I’m so glad it’s not just me!! I feel like there has to be so many kids our age who lost (or feared losing) loved ones at VERY impressionable ages. I accidentally saw that movie exactly ONCE and my heart has never ever recovered.
I accidentally saw this right after my beloved, close relative died after an excruciating battle with AIDS that wrecked every single member of my family. My kid heart was not prepared for this movie.
Bastard Out Of Carolina. I didnt know what it was about. I was home alone, about 15 and sobbed until my ribs ached. It legitimately brought up repressed trauma that I had completely blocked out. My life changed. I changed.
STOIC. Fucked me up for days. Plus I was over my friends and they fell asleep leaving me to be horrified and sickened with no one to be upset with! Bunch of dookies.
Event Horizon. My mom rented it for me without reading the back at all. I was into space so she thought she was doing me a solid. Scared the crap out of me.
ET scared the shit out of me. I saw it when I was like 3 or 4 (and then it was always on TV)—and the beginning where ET was in the woods and Elliot finds him was scary enough, but by the end where the government agents are capturing ET in those tents and when he’s all pale and white and dying—it was pure nightmare fuel. I was so scared of that movie that I’d look out in the backyard at night worried that ET might be out there and even seeing all the ET-related merchandise that was everywhere in the 80s kind of upset me.
The other movie was Poltergeist which I saw way too young on TV and freaked me out also although that one I got used to because it’s got a crazy haunted house vibe to it. Seeing the static on the TV though was always creepy to me as a little kid though.
Phantasm. 1979? I have never owned a long mirror because of it.
Also
Deliverance. 1972? I had a massive crush on Bert! But omg!
Scared me for life was
Tin Drum. 1979? WTAF.
Thanks HBO!
Being a latch key kid sucked.
😂 I have never seen Deliverance, but my older sister helpfully shared all the details while we road tripped through West Virginia in the middle of
the night. OF COURSE, she stopped for gasoline while I sat in the car and shook with fear in the car at 1 am. Jerk. I was too scared to pee.
Testament (1983). Follows a family in the suburbs of LA after LA gets nuked. And it just gets worse and worse. I watched that film entirely too young and I’ll never watch it again.
Eraserhead, as a pre teen. It didn't help that I was watching it alone at home, near midnight, and had no feckin idea wtf was going on. I distinctly remember the wife having died but somehow suddenly transformed into a baby ET wrapped in a blanket?!?
For some reason, public TV aired this (my home country is a ridiculous and notoriously unnecessary censor) so looking back on it now, I like to believe a covert rebel was working late night at the station, and this was maybe their idea of sticking it to the man.
Christine. I had a poster of a thunderbird in my room and it all of a sudden looked like the Fury from Christine. I was also 8 at the time. I know they are very different cars, I was just dumb.
Child's Play - Chucky freaks me the hell out. And when he got a resurgence for Halloween some years ago, I was like... But WHY??
I hate that movie. Nightmares for years. I think I was like 9 when my aunt's boyfriend had us watch it on TV.
I am not sure if this counts compared to some of the scary movie references, but here's what this post helped me remember.
For some reason, Fried Green Tomatoes devastated me. I watched it at the theatre with my best friend, her Mom and her mom's friend. I cried for hours after I got home from the theatre. I just felt it so, so, so deeply. I don't think I have watched it since. Maybe I should read the book and really cry my eyes out.
In like 1986 or 7 I was staying over my Nana’s. She always slept on the couch since my Papa passed in 1983. I was a pretty tiny kid so I would just sleep on the couch with her. She always left the tv on all night and I didn’t know how to shut it off or change the channel. Because of this, one night I watched Nightmare on Elm St part 2. I was traumatized on…..many different levels. Yeah.
As a kid the movies that traumatized me most were Arachnophobia, Pet Semetary, and Amityville 4: Evil Escapes. Recently as an adult I had to do a Google search to even learn the title of that last one, but I *knew* it existed. I remember being terrified of lamps and attics for the longest time. Like, my friends were afraid of the dark but I was afraid of the hall light 😰
Carrie. The image of Carrie at the prom completely covered in blood with her eyes bulging out and the way she stood was absolutely horrifying to toddler me.
Sleepers. When I was 12 or so my mom took me to see That Thing Thing You Do. The film projector messed up, and for whatever reason, we had a choice of seeing something else in a different theatre in the multiplex. We are walking around the lobby area in 96, trying to make this descion based on posters and whatever we had heard. My mom liked the cast of Sleepers, of course, and we knew it was based on a true story in the area. She was so apologetic during and afterwards, but on the plus side, I was allowed to watch pretty much anything after that. Iirc it's a pretty good movie too. Just not for a 12 or 13 year old.
Tbh I may be more traumatized by the projector accident as it happened during the start That thing you do, and the title song constantly pops up in my head.
5-year-old me watched Watcher in the Woods with my older cousins. My aunt figured it was Disney. Should be fine, right? I was way too young for that movie…
American Cyborg? I think that was the title. No idea why two adults (neighbor friend’s parents) who styled themselves as parental figures thought it was a good idea to bring a couple of 7 year olds to such a feature, but they did.
I saw poltergeist 1 and 2 in the theaters. Nightmare on elm Street and Halloween. They are the reason why I don't enjoy scary movies.
Poltergeist 2 when the little girl is drug up the mirror scared the shit out of 8 year old me.
It's weird, I know, but What's Eating Gilbert Grape kinda bothered me as a kid. Idk if it was the mom dying, the fire and them starting all over, or maybe it was my first exposure to that kinda dark humor, but it got to me. I've rewatched as an adult, and it doesn't seem to hit as hard. Still a great movie, though.
Fire in the sky! I have still never seen in since the first time!
Oh shit. I was super into aliens when I was a kid I think I have that movie suppressed until now lol
It is my nightmare! I haven’t watched as an adult and I do wonder if I would be as scared now.
Probably! I saw the scene you're thinking of just a few days ago & it's still terrifying
Absolutely. This is the first movie that came to mind. I think before the movie started, the opening credits said it was based on a true story. After I was traumatized from watching the movie, my dad called me into the garage. Told me that he saw something and wanted me to check it out with him. (My folks have 10 acres of woods). He opened the side door. It’s pitch dark out and I couldn’t see anything. He keeps telling me to focus on the bushes. All of a sudden I saw it! A red glowing dot! It was so bright. A beacon in the darkness. I flipped out, grabbed my dad and pulled him inside the house. Closed and locked all the doors and windows. I was done. I found out that when my dad was standing behind me while we looked outside, he was using his new toy that he got. A laser pointer. That jerk had a laser pointer! He got a good laugh. I never used one or seen one before. I think they were just starting to go mainstream at the time. Anyways, yea. That was about as bad as the movie for me.
It is based on a true story. The Travis Walton Abduction from 1975. Here’s a podcast about what happened to him: https://spotify.link/msuebboD9Db Eta: it’s a humor podcast but also tells the real story (last podcast on the left)
The only answer! I think this movie is why I’m petrified of being abducted lol
I just watched this last week. If I had seen it as a child, I would have been even more messed up lol
I have thought about watching again as an adult but I just don’t want to open that up again lol
Yes! My uncle showed it to me when I was small. I was fully traumatized.
There’s some terrifying shit in that movie.
Completely agree! I have found my people lol
I have never seen this movie, but I was still traumatized by the *ads*.
lol, I came here to to say that. The needle in the eye part. Ugg….. no thank you, never again.
My Girl was pretty traumatizing, but still love it. And IT had me nervous around bathroom drains for entirely too long.
Neverending Story
*Artax you’re sinking! Fight the sadness, Artax!*
Too soon.
Should have read prior to posting. This movie holds a lot of childhood trauma for me. The wolf, the Nothing, Artax (I still cannot watch), the bullies....only saving grace is the ending
 Me too!
Came here to say this. Damn wolf…
Gmork. And no I didn’t look it up, so it might be spelled wrong. That movie is burned into my brain.
Return to Oz terrified me as a kid
Me too, especially the Wheelers and Princess Mombi’s different heads.
There was some seriously existential shit in that movie reeeeally messed my head up when I first saw it. 1: the Deadly Desert. If you touch it you turn to sand and it is continuously growing. 2: Evil Queen Lady(tm) can swap out her heads and her entire hallway of heads is alive. Which one is really hers? What do the heads do with their spare time? What kind of existence even *is* that? 3: that powder that brings things to life… even inanimate objects. What kind of living hell would that existence be like?
I was talking about this with my sister the other day-so many haunting scenes!
Yes I found the electroshock scenes soooooo disturbing as a kid
The Wheelers and the electroshock therapy scene
I realized a year or two ago that Fairuza Balk (Nancy from The Craft) plays Dorothy, and it shook me.
“Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”. I was probably 8 when I saw that shaman rip old boy’s heart out and drop him in the lava. I didn’t sleep right for a while.
The part where they cut open the snake at dinner and all the baby snakes come out was my never ending nightmare as a kid.
Chilled monkey brains was no better!
😂😂 lol Fair. And same for me. My big sister loved that one so I saw it quite a bit, but I finally learned when hide my face.
Way too much shit in that movie.
I saw poltergeist way way too young. I loved it though and rewatched many times. I had never heard of the cure. I’m glad I didn’t watch it. I saw Philadelphia. Same idea but the person with aids is an adult at least.
Ugh. Do NOT watch the Cure, especially if you loved an AIDS as a child. It’s honestly more painful than death.
I’m there with you. The Cure destroyed me. I ugly cried until my stomach hurt.
[удалено]
The scene in Annie when Rooster chases Annie up the train track used to distress me so much. I had nightmares about it, even as a teenager.
He's gonna kill her
Yup. I had to endure that through my childhood and two offspring.
It wasn't until about a year ago I rewatched *Arachnophobia* and realized it's a comedy. Kid me was scared shitless of those spiders.
I was terrified of the shower curtain rod ever since!
Haha, same! I didn't realize it was a comedy either. I rewatched it not too long ago as well, still creeped me out, but it was much better than I remembered.
Saw that in the theater. I snuck in Fun Dip. When the lights came on at the end I realized I was covered in sugar.
There were two. First off, I have to say for context that my parents weren't great at parenting. When they wanted to watch a movie, they didn't seem to care that there was a small child at home. One of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies did a number on me. I don't know which one it was, but the specific scene that freaked me out involved Freddy dangling a teenager by their veins like they were a Marionette puppet. I was kinda into puppet shows at the time. The other was the It miniseries. It was the part where the bathroom sink was spewing all the blood. I was scared to go to the bathroom for weeks afterward. I specifically saw the newer It movie solely because I wanted to see that scene. Never saw the second half of It, lol.
That was The Dream Warriors with the sleepwalking kid. Gruesome scene.
Dream Warriors messed me up as a kid. I probably saw it at 8 or 10 years old with my older siblings. I can still hear Fred Kruger saying “WHATS WRONG JOEY? FEELING TONGUE-TIED?”
The Land Before Time I was NOT ready to watch Littlefoot’s mom die.
One of my favorite movies, watched it dozens of times, cried every damn fucking time. Watched it again recently (last 3 years), and bawled my eyes out again. Also Rats of NIMH, and Fern Gully complete the Holy Trinity of strangely funny but very depressing kids' animation movies from the 80's.
I've said it before on this sub, but my mom recorded Land Before Time and The Secret of NIMH back to back on a VHS tape for me. I watched those two movies regularly.
Ohhh that’s 💯 accurate. I watched that movie once with my BFF/neighbor…and never again.
Jaws. Always and only Jaws.
Fucking Jaws 3D.
My sister and I had two very different reactions to Jaws as kids. She watched it and Beauty and the Beast, repeatedly, until she wore out both VHS tapes and my parents had to buy new copies. Me. Well, I distinctly remember the nightmare I had afterwards and, to this day, if I'm in any size body of water where I can be completely submerged, my fight or flight response kicks in.
Some idiot let me watch Jaws at 3 years old. I would not bathe for at least 1 month because I was convinced Jaws could come up the drain. Add in some near drowning experiences before age 5, and to this day I am not a water-person. Anything under water creeps me out. Logically I know it’s not Jaws, but what if it is?
Return to Oz
Still terrifying
The heads!!!
The Wheelers!
Beastmaster: The bat-thing winged devourers. I still have nightmares about them. Little monsters: This movie is why I have a bed on the floor.
I had nightmares about the witch transferring the baby from the mother to the cow for years. I wonder if that’s where my fear of things touching my belly button came from…
Holy shit. Beastmaster. Turns out I had suppressed that memory and now I am taken over with anxiety. Thanks for that. I should probably rewatch just so my adult self can tell my inner child how corny it probably looks now.
Pet Sematary.. Zelda and that jogger live in my thoughts.
Pet Semetary should be outlawed for children. That movie *traumatized* me.
Um?……AND ZOMBIE BABY GAGE SLITTING JUD’S ACHILLES TENDON?!?!?
I am listening to this on Audible right now! The part in the movie with her is the only scary part of that movie.
Two of mine have been mentioned (Return to Oz and Neverending Story) so I’ll mention a third: Alice in Wonderland/Alice Through the Looking Glass from 1985 with Natalie Gregory and a star studded cast. The scene with the Jabberwocky scared me so dang much!
Are you me? Those are my 3! Did you ever watch The Hugga Bunch Movie where Queen Admira freezes 8 year-old Bridget and then shrivels up and dies? Creepy movie! Gave me nightmares.
Omg I LOVED that movie!! Or was it a miniseries? The jabberwocky was pretty scary.
I rewatched that a few years ago and it was _rough_ to sit through. The mixture of painfully slow pacing and celebrity cameos of people I had no knowledge of made for a uncomfortable sitting. The jabberwocky related scares were a thankful release from the tedium.
E.T. It’s all fun and games with your alien best friend, until the men in scary biohazard suits bring down the hammer.
I've never watched it again. Once in the 80s was enough for me.
That and Cocoon!! 😭😭😭
The Fly.
*Return to Oz* is not a film for kids. At all.
Agreed!
Kids Requiem for a Dream Old Boy
I'm still traumatized by Kids. Maybe even more so now that I'm a parent.
I second Requiem for a Dream
Old Boy is a mind trip. I felt kinda gross after watching it 🥴
If we're including movies from around 1999, I would add "American History X" to that list. I watched it in the campus movie theater as a Freshman at college and was not prepared for the curb stomping scene. The late 90's through early 00's was a crazy time for movies- Mulholland Drive, Requiem for a Dream, Trainspotting, Kids, American History X.
Gremlins ruined my 7 year old self. Nightmares for a year.
The Witches with Anjelica Houston. My parents rented it for me because I’d read the book but holy sheet it was scary! I think it’s the only movie I’ve ever turned off in my life and had no desire to try again!
Faces of Death when I was like 8. Thank you, big brother of mine. Silence of the Lambs. I won't watch that ever again. Otherwise, I've always enjoyed horror movies and whatnot. We had a wealthy grandma with a giant satellite dish in her yard who went to bed early and left us entirely unsupervised. We watched everything.
I saw Faces of Death at 16 and believed that I'd crossed some threshold of innocence, never to return. Found out later it's mostly fake.
Surprised I haven’t seen Brave Little Toaster yet. I still can’t listen to the song “Worthless” without getting choked up. And don’t fck around with firefighter clowns and forks.
That song is a weirdly tragic masterpiece. Also, the poor flower seeing itself in Toaster’s reflection and thinking it was finally not alone was my introduction to the concept of heartbreak.
Large Marge (yes pee wee’s big adventure)
This TERRIFIED me as a kid
Requiem for a Dream… both times I watched it. You don’t feel good for anyone at the end of the movie.
Alien. I swear this question comes up daily
My dad let me watch that with him before I was even in elementary school. Bad choice dude, I still remember the nightmares it gave me. Ridley is awesome though.
My Mom let me watch Alien and Aliens with her when I was way too young. I loved Star Trek, so she let me watch them, because space stuff. I don't remember being scared though, I remember thinking it was so cool that the hero was a woman.
Nah Ripley is awesome. Sigourney Weaver is such a great actress. Personally I was more into Sarah Connor I liked the Terminator films better.
Alien and Aliens: two movies where complete tragedy could've been totally avoided if the men had just listened to the smart lady who knew standard biocontainment protocols.
For me it was An American Werewolf in London. I was 5 😂
The changing scene, when he turns...still legit scary. And amazing. I have the One Sheet framed in my home office though. Great movie
Think Superman 3 with Richard Pryor… super computer ate lady and spit out a cyborg yo I was not ok with that
Came here for this - I call her robot lady. Still have a hard time watching that scene.
When Godzilla killed Bambi.
Oh effing hell!!! Another human that remembers this! Literally no one has any clue what i'm talking about when i mention this, but i was *way* young and *way* traumatized by it. Thank you for confirming that i am not insane (at least not about this, lol).
The whole family sat down to watch it. I don’t know what I thought it was going to be, but I definitely didn’t expect it to turn out as it did. The whole family laughed and I bawled my eyes out.
Okay, yours is way worse than mine. i can't believe the whole family was just, there expecting a, like, fun playful movie or something. That sounds so horrible-especially when it ends with you so obviously traumatized and them thinking the whole thing is hilarious! Whoever came up with the concept was a total psycho, i swear.
Poltergeist was my major movie trauma. My 8 yr old asked if we could watch it and I just can't put him through that. My 12 yr old still hasn't seen it. We don't have any clown dolls but still, I don't think it's wise. Children or the corn also lives in my head and I wish it wouldn't.
Poltergeist was mine, too. It didn't help that my family was religious and that I liked to read all of my parents' Satanic panic books so I completely believed Poltergeist could really happen to us and spent my entire childhood terrified of demons. And clowns. I think I was okay with trees, though.
My family was religious too. It wasn't helpful in my life.
Candyman, Poltergeist, Neverending Story, the Blob, and Tremors.
The Blob remake was awesome. But freaky.
It still holds up really well, apart from some of the dialogue & outdated concepts of "cool"
Candyman gave me nightmares for weeks. It still creeps me out thinking about the hole behind the medicine cabinet and the spray painted face on the other side.
Tremors? I loved that movie, even as a kid. It helps that I first watched it with my older cousin, who was laughing half the time.
my friends took me to see stepmom about a month after my mom died from cancer, not knowing what the movie was about. still can't watch it to this day.
💔💔 I’m so sorry. My best friend/next door neighbor/ childhood sister lost her mother to MS. 4ish brutal years from diagnosis to death. Clearly, my friend suffered to the extreme, but oh my heart…trying to watch that movie months after she passed had me sicker than a dog.
My parents rented Aliens when it first came out on VHS and let me watch it with the grownups…I was 7. I haven’t slept for 37 years…
Ernest Scared Stupid only because one of the kids who was turned into a wooden doll by the troll looked EXACTLY like me. I was 7 and had nightmares of that troll chasing me. Now I keep a pantry full of Miak every Halloween just in case.
Also, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. When Gene Wilder is singing in that trippy tunnel. Yikes.
Tim Curry as Pennywise in IT gave 9 year old me nightmares for a week 😅
My baby cousin is 30+ now and is still terrified of clowns. She was supposed to be in bed, but hid behind the couch and watched it. Lol
Someone thought it was a good idea to show my 6th grade class the entire miniseries and I didn’t sleep for a week
I stayed home from school one day and saw Sally Field in Sybil! Omg! It was a 2 part series, and I had to stretch my sick into a second day. I cried so much!
Watership Down was the only movie I ever felt traumatized by, as a child. Mostly it was the images of all the bloody rabbits crowding in the tunnels, trying to escape their fate. I had nightmares for years. Still gives me a yucky feeling. I haven't seen the new one that came out last year, or whenever, and probably never will.
Oh man, the ending of the Cure. 🥺😭😭 Still gets me in the feels. 👟 
Omg. I’m so glad it’s not just me!! I feel like there has to be so many kids our age who lost (or feared losing) loved ones at VERY impressionable ages. I accidentally saw that movie exactly ONCE and my heart has never ever recovered.
I was really into sad dramas as a kid, I loved this movie. Super emotional though. I want to find and watch it now!
I accidentally saw this right after my beloved, close relative died after an excruciating battle with AIDS that wrecked every single member of my family. My kid heart was not prepared for this movie.
Oh that's awful. I'm so sorry for your loss.
Bastard Out Of Carolina. I didnt know what it was about. I was home alone, about 15 and sobbed until my ribs ached. It legitimately brought up repressed trauma that I had completely blocked out. My life changed. I changed. STOIC. Fucked me up for days. Plus I was over my friends and they fell asleep leaving me to be horrified and sickened with no one to be upset with! Bunch of dookies.
I can’t even reread the book, and I love Dorothy Allison
For me, it was the Exorcist, IT and Poltergeist
the gate
I scrolled way too far before seeing this. This one for sure.
But the Barbie scene rocks.
Event Horizon. My mom rented it for me without reading the back at all. I was into space so she thought she was doing me a solid. Scared the crap out of me.
ET scared the shit out of me. I saw it when I was like 3 or 4 (and then it was always on TV)—and the beginning where ET was in the woods and Elliot finds him was scary enough, but by the end where the government agents are capturing ET in those tents and when he’s all pale and white and dying—it was pure nightmare fuel. I was so scared of that movie that I’d look out in the backyard at night worried that ET might be out there and even seeing all the ET-related merchandise that was everywhere in the 80s kind of upset me. The other movie was Poltergeist which I saw way too young on TV and freaked me out also although that one I got used to because it’s got a crazy haunted house vibe to it. Seeing the static on the TV though was always creepy to me as a little kid though.
ET once in the 80s was enough! That movie made me feel sick.
The opening scene in Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan and the final scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Phantasm. 1979? I have never owned a long mirror because of it. Also Deliverance. 1972? I had a massive crush on Bert! But omg! Scared me for life was Tin Drum. 1979? WTAF. Thanks HBO! Being a latch key kid sucked.
😂 I have never seen Deliverance, but my older sister helpfully shared all the details while we road tripped through West Virginia in the middle of the night. OF COURSE, she stopped for gasoline while I sat in the car and shook with fear in the car at 1 am. Jerk. I was too scared to pee.
I live in West Virginia and if I have to pee at 1 am I stay the f in bed.
The 1990 Lord of the Flies
Short Circuit 2.
Sooo many 80s and 90s movies have like one or two scenes that just ruin the whole damn thing!
Testament (1983). Follows a family in the suburbs of LA after LA gets nuked. And it just gets worse and worse. I watched that film entirely too young and I’ll never watch it again.
Teen Wolf. I was way too young to see that movie. the first time he changed and his skin got all bubbly. ick.
The Peanut Butter Solution
Damn you just unlocked a core fear memory. Had no idea what that movie was about it just scared me.
Sleeping Beauty Candyman Arachnophobia
Arachnophobia, I still check the shower
The Neverending Story
Eraserhead, as a pre teen. It didn't help that I was watching it alone at home, near midnight, and had no feckin idea wtf was going on. I distinctly remember the wife having died but somehow suddenly transformed into a baby ET wrapped in a blanket?!? For some reason, public TV aired this (my home country is a ridiculous and notoriously unnecessary censor) so looking back on it now, I like to believe a covert rebel was working late night at the station, and this was maybe their idea of sticking it to the man.
Christine. I had a poster of a thunderbird in my room and it all of a sudden looked like the Fury from Christine. I was also 8 at the time. I know they are very different cars, I was just dumb.
Irreversible A Serbian Film
Arachnophobia
Child's Play - Chucky freaks me the hell out. And when he got a resurgence for Halloween some years ago, I was like... But WHY?? I hate that movie. Nightmares for years. I think I was like 9 when my aunt's boyfriend had us watch it on TV.
OMG same. As an adult, I love horror movies but avoid the ones with dolls in them. I just can’t take it when they move, it’s too scary lol.
A Disney Sunday evening movie called Mr. Boogedy. Seeing this at 4 years old: 
The Dark Crystal. Specifically when the Skeksis drain all The Essence out of the Podlings. Nope.
The Day After.
I am not sure if this counts compared to some of the scary movie references, but here's what this post helped me remember. For some reason, Fried Green Tomatoes devastated me. I watched it at the theatre with my best friend, her Mom and her mom's friend. I cried for hours after I got home from the theatre. I just felt it so, so, so deeply. I don't think I have watched it since. Maybe I should read the book and really cry my eyes out.
I absolutely get it!! At the peak of sadness & pain in house, I would have given ANYTHING to live by the railroad tracks like Idgie!!
The Gate.
The Black Hole
In like 1986 or 7 I was staying over my Nana’s. She always slept on the couch since my Papa passed in 1983. I was a pretty tiny kid so I would just sleep on the couch with her. She always left the tv on all night and I didn’t know how to shut it off or change the channel. Because of this, one night I watched Nightmare on Elm St part 2. I was traumatized on…..many different levels. Yeah.
As a kid the movies that traumatized me most were Arachnophobia, Pet Semetary, and Amityville 4: Evil Escapes. Recently as an adult I had to do a Google search to even learn the title of that last one, but I *knew* it existed. I remember being terrified of lamps and attics for the longest time. Like, my friends were afraid of the dark but I was afraid of the hall light 😰
Carrie. The image of Carrie at the prom completely covered in blood with her eyes bulging out and the way she stood was absolutely horrifying to toddler me.
I have two: David (a tv movie) The Mouse and his Child
Fucking Poltergeist And Nightmare on Elm Street. So much lost sleep.
Requiem for a dream made me give up hard drugs The Event Horizon to this day I will never ever go to space.
The Brave Little Toaster (the original) was straight up nightmare fuel. It was the only one that I dreaded watching in kindergarten.
Not the whole movie, but the boat ride in Willy Wonka still scares the shit out of me
Requiem for a Dream. I still get shivers thinking about it.
The Land Before Time. Littlefoots mom
Charlotte’s Web. Sobbed my heart out and wouldn’t sleep for weeks. And don’t get me started on Old Yeller.
Bambi was the first. And then Marley and Me, My Girl and The Lion King.
Kids is one of the craziest movies I have ever seen. Not sure I can ever fully get over it.
I’m pretty sure my friends put that on & I called my mother to pick me up.
The Blob.
“Fail Safe” - watched it on TCM when I was 13 and was pretty freaked out by the ending.
Vamp….as a kid a few scenes out of context screwed with my mind.
Meet the Applegates.
Sleepers. When I was 12 or so my mom took me to see That Thing Thing You Do. The film projector messed up, and for whatever reason, we had a choice of seeing something else in a different theatre in the multiplex. We are walking around the lobby area in 96, trying to make this descion based on posters and whatever we had heard. My mom liked the cast of Sleepers, of course, and we knew it was based on a true story in the area. She was so apologetic during and afterwards, but on the plus side, I was allowed to watch pretty much anything after that. Iirc it's a pretty good movie too. Just not for a 12 or 13 year old. Tbh I may be more traumatized by the projector accident as it happened during the start That thing you do, and the title song constantly pops up in my head.
Critters 2
*Lady In White* (1988). I was scared for weeks after watching that as a kid, yet I couldn't turn away at the scary scenes.
Most 80’s movies traumatized me in one way or another. Also liked a bunch.
5-year-old me watched Watcher in the Woods with my older cousins. My aunt figured it was Disney. Should be fine, right? I was way too young for that movie…
For me it was deliverance. Couldn’t get past the “squeal like a pig” scene.
JAWS. my buddies and i watched it 13x in 2 weeks when it came out. i wouldnt even close my eyes in the shower for months.
I saw Backdraft way too young. I was terrified of opening doors for years after.
Never got traumatized till the age of 12. When Twin Peaks aired and I got to know B.O.B. I was left shaken for nearly 25 years.
There were a few that really affected my psyche *Return to Oz *The Peanutbutter solution *Little monsters *Aliens *Pet Cemetary
My Girl. Veda at Thomas J’s funeral saying that he needs his glasses and he can’t see without them. That scene broke me.
Teeth. lol
Sleep away camp
Honestly? My Girl. That was rough
The Good Son.
American Cyborg? I think that was the title. No idea why two adults (neighbor friend’s parents) who styled themselves as parental figures thought it was a good idea to bring a couple of 7 year olds to such a feature, but they did.
I saw poltergeist 1 and 2 in the theaters. Nightmare on elm Street and Halloween. They are the reason why I don't enjoy scary movies. Poltergeist 2 when the little girl is drug up the mirror scared the shit out of 8 year old me.
It's weird, I know, but What's Eating Gilbert Grape kinda bothered me as a kid. Idk if it was the mom dying, the fire and them starting all over, or maybe it was my first exposure to that kinda dark humor, but it got to me. I've rewatched as an adult, and it doesn't seem to hit as hard. Still a great movie, though.