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What Horror Movie Still Affects You As An Adult?

What horror movie did you see as a kid still affect you, in the sense that it scares the living crap out of you, even as an adult? Something that's pretty much burned into your brain.

For me it's the original Poltergeist. That movie still scares the crap out of me today. Even the ghost walking down the stairs scres the living shit out of me. And I won't even go into the things that come out of that portal when they're trying to rescue Carol Anne.

Of course one part that really screwed me up as a kid is one you can probably guess and that would be the guy tearing his face off. What makes that worse is the uncanny valley of the mannequin they use for that face as Steven Spielberg's hands (yes, that was Spielberg's hands) start pulling it off over the sink, blood and flesh and all.

To this day I still cannot watch that movie during the night time. It's affected me that much even as a grown up.
 
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I like poltergeist it's a classic and at the time it scared me but not nowadays. Exorcist still has me not wanting to be in the house alone.
Oh I also wanted to mention that I have that Skinwalkers at the Pentagon book.

I had to put that down months ago because it was scaring the living crap out of me.

I think that's the first time I ever had to put down a book because it was getting too intense.
 
I would actually consider that the second scariest movie. I still found Poltergeist to be more frightening but Exorcist was definitely a terrifying movie.
To this day I've NEVER watched Poltergeist. Not because I'm scared. I just never got around to it lol

Exorcist is the only one all the others ones I watched as a kid were cheesy 80's trash
Recently I had my partner watch The Exorcist after I told her it was a really scary movie i watched as a kid and probably one of, if not the scariest movie I've ever watched.

15 mins in she started giggling and laughing at everything. Looked at me like I was crazy, like 'How can you find THIS scary?' ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Put me off from watching the movie again because its true. The special effects and all that just doesn't hit as hard as it did back in the day. Still a good movie though.
 
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nkarafo

Member
I have found that for something to be scary, you need to be in the right mood.

I'm pretty desensitized to horror movies but i still find some of the J-horror stuff hard to watch, if i'm alone at night and try to get myself in the mood.
 
To this day I've NEVER watched Poltergeist. Not because I'm scared. I just never got around to it lol
I found it terrifying as a kid but maybe as an adult you won't see it as such. In fact it may make you giggle.

I saw an Event Horizon as an adult and it did not scare me as much as other people. But perhaps if I were younger, then movie would have left an impression on me.
 
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22:22:22

NO PAIN TRANCE CONTINUE
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ssringo

Member
The Ring/Ringu but probably not in the way TC was thinking.

I was fortunate enough to see The Ring in theaters with zero knowledge of the movie so everything was 100% a surprise. I loved it and wound up getting the original movie as well as the books as time went on. I also frequently rewatched the movies because, they're awesome. So one night I fell asleep watching Ringu and on this particular night I experienced one of my first bouts of sleep paralysis. As I was laying on my side facing the television. When that scene at the end of the movie happens where Sadako comes out of the television and boy did it look real. Scariest shit I've ever experienced. I had fairly frequent bouts of sleep paralysis until my early 30s and each time my mind would go back to that experience and feeling. Thankfully I seem to have stopped experiencing it at this point. Do not recommend.

 

Saiyu

Junior Member
The Ring/Ringu but probably not in the way TC was thinking.

I was fortunate enough to see The Ring in theaters with zero knowledge of the movie so everything was 100% a surprise. I loved it and wound up getting the original movie as well as the books as time went on. I also frequently rewatched the movies because, they're awesome. So one night I fell asleep watching Ringu and on this particular night I experienced one of my first bouts of sleep paralysis. As I was laying on my side facing the television. When that scene at the end of the movie happens where Sadako comes out of the television and boy did it look real. Scariest shit I've ever experienced. I had fairly frequent bouts of sleep paralysis until my early 30s and each time my mind would go back to that experience and feeling. Thankfully I seem to have stopped experiencing it at this point. Do not recommend.

I hate sleep paralysis.

Have you ever had a "good" or benign experience with it?
 

22:22:22

NO PAIN TRANCE CONTINUE
I hate sleep paralysis.

Have you ever had a "good" or benign experience with it?

Firstly, nope. Only not being able to move my body.

Secondly, for those that DO have visual, auditory and physical contact/experiences;

My sincere sympathies.

Fake edit: I did had my right hand grabbed once, can't remember if it was during an episode though.
 
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CGNoire

Member
None anymore sadly :(

Even know I never believed and always leaned atheist I was raised by Catholic parents so for me the last holdouts where films involving religious cults or themes like Lost Souls, Fraility, Silent Hill, In the Mouth of Madness etc...

Once I discarded my residual catholic uncertainties and fears by fully embrassing atheism I unfortunatly stopped having such strong reactions to films of that nature. I miss that fear now :(

Although I should mention Mobs/Cults still freak me out. Seeing people act on intellectual autopilot while mindlessly justifying crimes there committing against others has to be the one thing in life that always has triggered my existensal dread like no other. Truly terrifying.
 
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Rockondevil

Member
I’m not one to watch scary horror movies (I like the classics like Jason, Freddie, etc.) and I wasn’t even a kid when I saw it but The Grudge fucked me up.
 
One of my favorite movies The Thing, near the beginning where all the dogs are getting externally digested is such a morbid scene, made even more gross by the fact that it’s all practical effects and someone had to physically model it all.
 

GutsOfThor

Member
To this day I've NEVER watched Poltergeist. Not because I'm scared. I just never got around to it lol


Recently I had my partner watch The Exorcist after I told her it was a really scary movie i watched as a kid and probably one of, if not the scariest movie I've ever watched.

15 mins in she started giggling and laughing at everything. Looked at me like I was crazy, like 'How can you find THIS scary?' ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Put me off from watching the movie again because its true. The special effects and all that just doesn't hit as hard as it did back in the day. Still a good movie though.

This is me. The Exorcist is a comedy to me. I remember seeing all the hype around it and then when I saw it, I was giggling the entire time.

"Let Jesus fuck you! Let him fuck you!"
🤣🤣🤣
 

Dr.Morris79

Gold Member
For me it's the original Poltergeist.
same here, that stuck with me for years! That whole face scene done me in, I swear the maggots made it ten times worse!

8mm is the scariest movie I have seen
"Machine! Kill him!"
Yeah that was one warped film. I might get the missus to watch that, I dont think shes seen it.

Jaws by a landslide, not a film horror but you still get the shits when you are in open sea because of that fucking movie.
This will stay with me for life. I hate being out at sea at the best of times, that film made it worse. I got stuck out about half a mile at sea when I was 11 (I'd fell asleep on a Lilo), I have never shit myself so much in my life. In shock i'd jumped off the Lilo and when my feet found no ground I almost shat myself

Longest, hardest paddle back to shore that was..

Blair Witch Project really fucked up nighttime camping, lol.
That done me in aswell. I'd practically lived in Epping forest growing up and we'd seen a lot of shit going on it those woods growing up. That film struck a few inner fears i'd never got rid of..

One of my favorite movies The Thing, near the beginning where all the dogs are getting externally digested is such a morbid scene, made even more gross by the fact that it’s all practical effects and someone had to physically model it all.
My favourite film of all time. I love/loved everything about it. The scene you're on about was truly grim but what always got to me the most was the sound Mac heard before he pulled the fire alarm.. If i'd heard that and knowing i'm in an outstation in Antarctica i'd be shitting serious bricks..

Childs wouldnt have had to ask for the Flame thrower, i'd already have it :messenger_tears_of_joy:

Fast forward to 2:53

 

OmegaSupreme

advanced basic bitch
Jaws and the poltergeist for me. I blame jaws for my thalassaphobia
Yep. I'm even scared of whales. The ocean has giant monsters in it. I will never swim in open water.

The clown in poltergeist still gets me. I won't watch the exorcist ever again. There's also this fucked up scene in the otherwise trashy movie Troll were Sonny bonos character gets turned into this weird plant thing. That still gets me.

Fuck this scene lol

 

DGrayson

Mod Team and Bat Team
Staff Member
Event Horizon

I went to the theater in high school. I remember I had seen a preview I thought it was a pure SciFi movie. I was not prepared for that for sure.



Also that scene in the Omen when the babysitter kills herself by jumping off that building. It wasnt graphic or anything but it was disturbing.
 
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jason10mm

Gold Member
One of my favorite movies The Thing, near the beginning where all the dogs are getting externally digested is such a morbid scene, made even more gross by the fact that it’s all practical effects and someone had to physically model it all.
Yeah, it's this one for me as well. Not only do I always forget who has been taken or not, but the effects are great and just the concept alone, of being isolated, unsure if you are slowly being taken over, is truly terrifying.
 
Not the whole movie, but when I was very young I snuck into the living room at night and watched Creep Show, and the short movie where the hated father dies and then comes back from the dead looking for his birthday cake, scared the hell out of me as a child, and having watched it recently its funny but still very eerie
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
Jeepers Kreepers where they’re driving down the country road and you can see the bad guy’s car off in the distance and you’re watching as he starts to get closer and closer. I live around a lot of farms and i drive a lot on very similar roads.
 

AJUMP23

Gold Member
I had nightmares after watching Ghostbusters as a kid.

Now I laugh at the movie, because I know it is a comedy.
 
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