Horror movies that traumatize children

[TopBilled]

I have to admit...when I was a kid CUJO (1984) scared the living daylights out of me. As a result I developed an irrational fear about certain types of dogs. And it took me years to get over it.

What about you? What movies really scared you as a child..?

[Sukhov]

Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Any movies with aliens really (can't remember all the ones I watched). I was terrified of alien abductions as a kid. 

[jaragon]

The horror movie that traumatized me as child was Disney's "Pinocchio"

[TopBilled]

10 minutes ago, jaragon said:

The horror movie that traumatized me as child was Disney's "Pinocchio"

What frightened you about it?

[jaragon]

The scene in which Lampwick turns into a donkey is terrifying I never forget the image of his hands turning into hoofs!  Later the other film that scared the crap out of me was "I was a Teenage Werewolf" which I saw on TV and actually had to leave the room when ever Michael Landon turned into a beast. One of my cousins was really into chemistry set and I thought he was going to do that to me !

[TopBilled]

8 minutes ago, jaragon said:

The scene in which Lampwick turns into a donkey is terrifying I never forget the image of his hands turning into hoofs!  Later the other film that scared the crap out of me was "I was a Teenage Werewolf" which I saw on TV and actually had to leave the room when ever Michael Landon turned into a beast. One of my cousins was really into chemistry set and I thought he was going to do that to me !

Yes, the things we never forget from childhood. 

[jaragon]

1 hour ago, TopBilled said:

Yes, the things we never forget from childhood. 

That scene still scares me!

[TopBilled]

7 minutes ago, jaragon said:

That scene still scares me!

After I saw CUJO, I had nightmares for weeks. And I could never go around large dogs like that. It was horrible. I'd panic if I was walking through a park and some big dog got off its leash. It was a fear that stayed with me for a long time.

[jaragon]

9 minutes ago, TopBilled said:

After I saw CUJO, I had nightmares for weeks. And I could never go around large dogs like that. It was horrible. I'd panic if I was walking through a park and some big dog got off its leash. It was a fear that stayed with me for a long time.

You have a better chance of running into a big dog than zombie. 

[Sgt_Markoff]

'Burnt Offerings'

from '74 or '73'? I dunno, saw it on TV

[TopBilled]

1 hour ago, Sgt_Markoff said:

'Burnt Offerings'

from '74 or '73'? I dunno, saw it on TV

See now, that's something I saw years later as an adult (on TCM). But I bet if I'd seen it as a child, it would have been traumatic. 

[Sgt_Markoff]

Yeah. There's nothing I've ever seen as scary as that crazy, grinning, suited chauffeur. And I'm not the only horror-buff I've heard that from.

[TopBilled]

If I remember correctly, the final sequence in BURNT OFFERINGS was quite horrifying. Everything we might expect from a Dan Curtis production.

[harleydude666]

When I was five years old at the drive-inn with my parents The Legend of Boggy Creek

a few other notables...The Sentinel, Beyong the Door, The Omen

God, I hated my parents back then

[TopBilled]

On 12/30/2018 at 9:33 AM, harleydude666 said:

When I was five years old at the drive-inn with my parents The Legend of Boggy Creek

I've never seen this film. In fact, I've never seen a horror movie at a drive-in. 

[harleydude666]

You have no idea what you have missed.

[LawrenceA]

On 1/10/2019 at 6:46 AM, TopBilled said:

I've never seen this film. In fact, I've never seen a horror movie at a drive-in. 

I saw many a horror film at our local drive-in. It stayed in operation until about 1982 or so. I saw most of them in the 70's. In fact, the first movie question that I ever asked on the internet was trying to recall the title of a movie that I barely remembered seeing: it was a werewolf movie, with the ending taking place in a snowy environment, and it had something to do with flower petals in the werewolf's mouth being a way to stop them. No one could answer my question then, but I've since learned the title and procured a copy, but have not yet re-watched it. Can anyone figure out the movie without me telling?

[TopBilled]

3 minutes ago, LawrenceA said:

I saw many a horror film at our local drive-in. It stayed in operation until about 1982 or so. I saw most of them in the 70's. In fact, the first movie question that I ever asked on the internet was trying to recall the title of a movie that I barely remembered seeing: it was a werewolf movie, with the ending taking place in a snowy environment, and it had something to do with flower petals in the werewolf's mouth being a way to stop them. No one could answer my question then, but I've since learned the title and procured a copy, but have not yet re-watched it. Can anyone figure out the movie without me telling?

Interesting. Not sure which film you're referring to...the only one I can think of is AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON from 1981. But I don't think that's it.

[LawrenceA]

4 minutes ago, TopBilled said:

Interesting. Not sure which film you're referring to...the only one I can think of is AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON from 1981. But I don't think that's it.

No, I know that one backwards and forwards. The one I was lost on is an older movie by a few years. It's much more obscure. My original query was on the IMDb boards, but no one knew the answer!

[TopBilled]

1 hour ago, LawrenceA said:

No, I know that one backwards and forwards. The one I was lost on is an older movie by a few years. It's much more obscure. My original query was on the IMDb boards, but no one knew the answer!

So how did you figure it out? Did you just happen to randomly come across it again?

[LawrenceA]

28 minutes ago, TopBilled said:

So how did you figure it out? Did you just happen to randomly come across it again?

I kept searching. I think I may have finally found it via Wikipedia and their year-by-year lists of genre film releases. One thing that made my search more difficult was that the film in question had been released under several titles: one for the European market, one for the U.S. theatrical, yet another one for home video, etc.

These are the titles:

• La Maldicion de la Bestia
• The Curse of the Beast
• The Werewolf and the Yeti
• Hall of the Mountain King
• Night of the Howling Beast

It was under that last title that I saw it sometime in the late 70's.

[TopBilled]

At least you were able to see it again, Larry.

People who use the Information Please sub-form on TCM's message boards have it a bit easier!

[Swithin]

When I was very young, I went with a friend to a matinee of a movie called Terror Is a Man (1959). The gimmick for that film was that something terrible was going to happen, but a bell would ring first, so that you could avert your gaze. My friend was terrified. I tried to get him to look, when the bell rang, but he wouldn't.  

 

 

 

 

[LawrenceA]

4 minutes ago, Swithin said:

When I was very young, I went with a friend to a matinee of a movie called Terror Is a Man (1959). The gimmick for that film was that something terrible was going to happen, but a bell would ring first, so that you could avert your gaze. My friend was terrified. I tried to get him to look, when the bell rang, but he wouldn't. 

Terror Is a Man was the start of the Filipino horror boom that lasted through the early 70's. I haven't seen any of the other Blood Island movies, but I have seen Terror Is a Man, under the title Blood Creature. I thought it was entertaining. I also liked Beast of the Yellow Night (1971), despite, or perhaps because of, its many limitations.

  

[MaryGH]

"Jaws" did but maybe because my parents dragged me to Florida every summer for one week before school started for the semester.