Films That Scared The Hell Out Of You As A Kid (Non Horror).

[Starbird]

I know I had a few.

- Robocop 2. I watched this *really* young and was not prepared for certain stuff. A scene with a brain and eyeballs in a tank freaked me out so badly.

- Batman Returns. Ditto being too young for it. Lots of creepy stuff.

- The Last Crusade. Holy crap the bad guy's death at the end was something else entirely as a kid. I burst into tears and was a nervous wreck that night.

- Ghostbusters. Way too many jumpscares.

- Poltergeist. Okay...kind of horror, but this movie seemed designed to prey on my personal fears. Things moving in my room, trees during a storm...brrr.

- Neverending Story. That freaking wolf thing...

But the one that scared me most wasn't even a movie. It was an episode of the Outer Limits where some weird bogeyman thing was under a kid's bed. He looked under and there was a teddy bear with glowing red eyes and then this arm came out and pulled him under...it got even creepier later and I ended the evening hiding under a duvet on the couch.

 

[Euryalus]

I've always loved creepy stuff, so I don't have too many but I do remember watching a basketball movie when I was little that scared me.

Why? Because I thought for whatever reason that the camp the kid went to for the summer was somewhere he had to stay forever and never see his family again. Forwhatever reason imagining myself in that scenario as a 5 year old was very unsettling.

 

[SonOfAnarchy91]

Spoiler

Its been a long time since I watched it but I remember being scared by it lol.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

Neverending Story. That freaking wolf thing...

Holy christ... this had me every time! I couldn't watch! This was the extreme upper limit of thrilley/suspense that should ever be allowed in a PG!

As well as that Jumanji and Jurrassic Park were pretty horrifying as a kid!

 

[Twintix]

While I never saw the movie, the trailer for Flubber gave me nightmares when I was really small.

Looking back, that was a really stupid thing to be terrified of. I'm sure it's a funny movie.

 

[carnex]

When I was a kid, like 5 or 6 years old I watched Chaplin's Gold Rush. That scene with the house on the edge made me run out of the room and peek from behind the door

 

[Starbird]

Spoiler

Its been a long time since I watched it but I remember being scared by it lol.

Roald Dahl man. Reading his books as an adult is actually really creepy. Actually amazingly dark on a lot of levels, with insane levels of child abuse, violence and more. Reading 'Boy' and his other autobiography you really understand why. The guy had one hell of a life.

 

[M0rp43vs]

- Robocop 2. I watched this *really* young and was not prepared for certain stuff. A scene with a brain and eyeballs in a tank freaked me out so badly.

I have a funny story about that movie.

My family was out at a local restaurant, one which had big screen tvs tuned to the movie channel so you could watch while you dine. The place was packed with other families so we sat right in front of one. What should be playing but this movie, loudly too to be heard over the din.

My lil brother and sister were (and still are) a pair of squeamish pansies (to be fair, so am I). Up comes a scene where this guy is strapped to an operating table and they start getting nervous. I, thinking this was just any other blockbuster action movie, say it'll cut to something far away and at worst, it'll be censored.

It doesn't and it wasn't.

As the guy starts screaming bloody murder, one of the waiters had the presence of mind to fumble the remote and change it to something only slightly less disturbing, a Jonas Brother music video.

But the damage was done. All the kids were too shocked to cry and most of the adults looked like they were put off their appetite.

Still finished our meal though. I mean, hell we paid for it.

I should probably try watching that movie now. I mean, the trauma is long past. Sadly, doesn't seem to be playing on the movie channels much nowadays.

 

[leberkaese]

The Truman Show - I was scared to death for being in a show like that. Everyone around me is just an actor and people watch every step I do on TV?!

All Dogs Go to Heaven - it's about a dog dying and going into heaven. But he doesn't want to accept that and goes back to earth, under the premise: if he dies the next time, he won't go to heaven, he'll go to hell. That movie made me scared of coming to hell one day.

Watership Down - made for being a kid's nightmare fuel.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Neverending Story. That freaking wolf thing...

Holy christ... this had me every time! I couldn't watch! This was the extreme upper limit of thrilley/suspense that should ever be allowed in a PG!

Huh, really?

I mean, yeah, the wolf was on the scary side, but I thought there was a lot worse in other scenes in that film.

 

[Knight Captain Kerr]

Darby O'Gill and The Little People. The Banshee was the scariest part of any film I'd seen at the time. Not just the part when you see it, the build up to it as well. Made worse by the fact that I live in Ireland.

Not really scary now but at the time it was terrifying.

 

[Starbird]

The Truman Show - I was scared to death for being in a show like that. Everyone around me is just an actor and people watch every step I do on TV?!

All Dogs Go to Heaven - it's about a dog dying and going into heaven. But he doesn't want to accept that and goes back to earth, under the premise: if he dies the next time, he won't go to heaven, he'll go to hell. That movie made me scared of coming to hell one day.

Watership Down - made for being a kid's nightmare fuel.

Watership Down though ...I don't think that was ever really a kids film.

 

[Breakdown]

When I was a kid I was terrified by the scene in Troll where Sonny Bono turns into a giant cucumber thing.

 

[Slitzkin]

Not a horror film but coincidentally has the word horror in the title. A seven-year-old should not be subjected to the subject matter of the Rocky Horror picture show. So traumatizing, I had nightmares for months.

 

[DementedSheep]

Neverending Story. The horse dying in particular and for some reason I found the memory loss in the 2nd film really creepy. I think it was less what was happening with the horse and more that the actor managed to sound genuinely distressed.

Ghostbusters. That bath scene. I had a thing about bathrooms. Turing on the tap and having weird goo come out was nightmare fuel for me.

Who Framed Rodger Rabbit. Do I need to say which scene?

The Wheelers form Return to Oz. Yes the fucking wheelers. It's absurd to me now but back then it was the laughing and the squeaking wheels. Sound creeps me out a lot more than visuals.

Some of the scenes from Fantasia. The dinosaur fight and dancing demon scene I think it was.


I watched a lot of old video tapes my parents had for me as a little kid, not much of the stuff that was on tv at the time which is why all these were made before I was born.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

Neverending Story. That freaking wolf thing...

Holy christ... this had me every time! I couldn't watch! This was the extreme upper limit of thrilley/suspense that should ever be allowed in a PG!

Huh, really?

I mean, yeah, the wolf was on the scary side, but I thought there was a lot worse in other scenes in that film.

I've always found jump scares bad vs just distressing scenes. The hill being alive and Artax's death were just distressing, but not what I would call scary. The ending I didn't really understand as a kid (I mean, the whole fucking world blew up and everyone dies, but I didn't get that bit) and the giant statue scene was just tense, with a minor shock.

 

[DanteRL]

Mine was the first Robocop, with that effin' acid truck scene... I was little, and the guy's face was MELTING! I was freaked out for a couple of weeks...

And also Gremlins, which is not an horror movie is it? It's more of a comedy, and that was what my father was told. So he rented the movie. Thing is, I was 5, and as soon as the first green bastard poped in the screen I started crying out loud. The result? My mother got mad at him, he was felling pretty bad (all in all, in a funny, not sad situation), and I feel kind of guilty to this day, since I really like Gremlins now.

 

[MetalDooley]

Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Specifically the ending when they open the Ark.That bit where the angels face changes *shudders*.Jump to 3:00 for that scene

Darby O'Gill and The Little People. The Banshee was the scariest part of any film I'd seen at the time. Not just the part when you see it, the build up to it as well. Made worse by the fact that I live in Ireland.

Not really scary now but at the time it was terrifying.

God I remember being terrified by that as well

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

I don't know if Jaws counts as horror, but I would hear the music playing in my head as I walked down the dark hallway to go to bed at night. I was also pretty afraid of When Mars Attacks, even though the movie is supposed to be a parody. That movie scared me more than any serious alien invasion film.


All Dogs Go to Heaven, Watership Down and Felidae were pretty messed up.

 

[LaoJim]

The Wheelers form Return to Oz. Yes the fucking wheelers. It's absurd to me now but back then it was the laughing and the squeaking wheels. Sound creeps me out a lot more than visuals.

I went to see this in the cinema with my grandmother when I was about 5 years old. This is the point where we had to leave


I think I was unduly scarred by it, as I still find it incredibly uncomfortable to watch.

Neverending Story. The horse dying in particular and for some reason I found the memory loss in the 2nd film really creepy. I think it was less what was happening with the horse and more that the actor managed to sound genuinely distressed.

Between the horse dying and the Rockbiter being unable to save his friends, this is probably one of the darkest children's films ever.