UKC

As a general rule i'm not into scary movies as well if i want to scare myself I'll just try leading something to hard for me or any one of a bunch of other things to do it. But the tonights crap movie thread got me thinking. What films scarred the crap out of you that weren't necessarily horror films or gore fests?

I have a resounding memory of watching the original HG Wells version of War of the Worlds aged about 6 (i'd guess) scarred me silly. I reckon i probably had nightmares for months afterwards. I found the newer one pretty scary as well, though i imagine there's trace remanents (sp?) of my childhood scare coming through there.

In reply to Frank4short: Are you being clever or do you mean "scared"?

In reply to Frank4short: When War of the Worlds was originally broadcast on the radio in America, it created a minor national emergency. The format was a series of radio news reports. People thought that it was for real, and some fled their homes.

In reply to Frank4short:

Pah! Nicking my bloody idea!



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiend_Without_a_Face

In reply to John2: Yeah i knew that. Well that is to say i know that now as an adult as opposed to when a kid.

In reply to aln: No i've just got bad spelling though it does sort of work as well in an ironic way.

In reply to Frank4short:

The Hills have Eyes.

In reply to Frank4short:
Watership Down. Most traumatising film ever made.

In reply to Frank4short:

Oh no!..wait a minute. What was the one with Ray Millan (sp), where he had no eyes? Really old film, wayy before Hills have Eyes but really scary when i was a wee girl.

I remember getting scared at Day of Triffids (after Swallows and Amazons on Sundays), Tripods and Tales of the unexpected.

Also, the first episode of Manimal scared me when he turned into a shark.

Can you guess my age?

In reply to John2:

Yes but it had been billed in the radio listings as a dramatic adaptation, and was announced as such when it came on. Unfortunately not everyone reads the listings or catches the beginning of a programme....so that


"People thought that it was for real, and some fled their homes." and at least one man died, getting up on his roof with a shotgun to shoot down aliens and falling off (according to the inlay of a free cassette version I got of this broadcast on a magazine once)

See also BBC1's "Ghostw*tch" - same set-up, and one suicide.

In reply to Frank4short:

I saw a little bit of Threads when I was a bit too young for it. It was somewhat scary.

In reply to Blue Straggler: i have the original broardcast on CD, brill to freak people out with! put it the cd player on long car journeys and subtly change to cd when chatting away, watching people jump about it is hilarious!

Jess.x

In reply to Frank4short:

The original "Wizzard of Oz" staring Judy Garland.

I was absolutely terrified of the witch, and for weeks afterwards had to sleep with my bedroom door open and the landing light on in case she was hiding somewhere in my bedroom.

In reply to Frank4short:

Still have War of the Worlds on cassette tape here and listened to it not that long ago actually. Richard Burton was spot on as the narrator

In reply to Frank4short:

Ripping Yarns, The Curse of the Claw. A short story/ comedy, but in '76 this traumatised me good and proper.

"The Curse of the Claw"
Maidenhead, 1926. In a dark and stormy night, Sir Kevin Orr (Palin) is visited by a bunch of strange men: Captain Merson (Keith Smith) leading an expedition to the Naga Hills of Burma with a few natives in tow. On this name, Sir Kevin gets excited and tells Merson a long hidden secret: he grew up in a very strict house; his parents (Tenniel Evans and Hilary Mason) had his sister imprisoned for putting too much butter on her scone and his brother killed for walking on the flower beds. Young Kevin (Nigel Rhodes) had a secret sweetheart, Agatha -- so secret that she herself didn’t know. The only excitement in his life was visiting his Uncle Jack (Palin), who loved dirt and filth and had about every disease known to man. On his sixtieth birthday, he tells his now grown nephew a secret: he had taken a sacred claw from the Naga hills in Burma, but had discovered there was a curse on it. The owner had to return it before his sixtieth birthday to the tribesmen or die. Kevin promises to do his best and on no account touch the claw. He tries to persuade his parents to let him go, but of course they refuse. His father touches the claw in spite of Kevin’s warnings and breaks two legs just as a thunderstorm tears the house apart. Kevin runs away with the Claw. He becomes Captain of the “Greasy Bastard”, a small ship carrying rubber goods between England and Burma. But the curse starts to operate on him, and he finds himself attracted to the Chief Petty Officer Russell (Judy Loe). After some agonising, he discovers that the officer is a woman and that in fact nearly all members of the crew are. The voyage becomes a paradise and they don’t want it to end when they reach Burma. Kevin tries to explain the situation to his crew, but Russell throws the claw into the sea. The ship explodes and Kevin is the only survivor. He returns to his Uncle, who tells him that the Claw will find a way to return to him and that he shall live in this house until it does. Then he dies. Kevin, after his parents’ death, marries Agatha (Bridget Armstrong) and lives happily in his Uncle’s house until the morning of his sixtieth birthday, when he finds his wife dead and the Claw lying next to her. He hands it back to the Naga tribesmen. But it has one final trick to play on him: His Uncle and wife are returning from the dead, Kevin and Agatha become kids again and suddenly his father is standing in front of the door to fetch him.

In reply to Frank4short:

Damien Omen 2 - any time I saw a crow after watching that, I was convinced it was going to pluck out my eyes to the sound of scary monastic chanting...

In reply to Frank4short:

chitty chitty bang bang

still hate that bloody film

In reply to Frank4short:


Watched Stephen kings 'It' when i was about 12. Was a big mistake.


I still wet the bed thinking about that one.

)C:


Mat

In reply to matnoo:

Eraserhead. I was way to young to watch that movie the first time I saw it.

I still get the fear whenever I watch it and hear the woman behind the radiator telling me "in heaven, everything is fine.."

In reply to Frank4short: There was a tv adaptation of A woman in black probably late 80's which was pretty traumetising. Also a disney film where a old woman tries to drown some kid in a forest pond with a stick.

In reply to GreyPilgrim:

i watched that on acid once

that was interesting to say the least

In reply to Frank4short:
original version of the Blob. I wouldnt walk on dark patches on the carpet for years.

Until i was 27

In reply to Frank4short:

One of the Dr Phibes films scared the bejasus out of me, it was the one where a bloke gets stung to death by scorpions and another one has a big vice put on his bed and is compacted to death (no squishiness though). I was about eight at the time and I still have a phobia of scorpions.

In reply to mikeski:

In heaven, everything is fine
In heaven, everything is fine
In heaven, everything is fine
You got your good thing,
And I got mine....

(*gets the fear again and goes to find a warm, safe place)

In reply to Clarence:

That was actually a film phobia memory I had managed to repress. Thanks a bunch for resurrecting it.

In reply to Frank4short: dr giggles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Giggles

I must have been 12/13 as bro rented it (5 yrs older) and i managed to craftily watch it upstairs... bad move on my part.

In reply to gingerdave13:

The Marathon Man

In reply to Alex Roddie:

Hahaha! Oh my God but that is so true. Oh the nightmares, who knew rabbits could be so scary?

I think my brother getting me to watch Alien when I was 9 probably explains much of how my life has gone on since then. Dark sense of humour and a love of horror movies that no one in my family can match

In reply to Frank4short:

salems lot

In reply to GreyPilgrim:

I didn't think anyone else had seen that movie... that baby!? That was traumatic to say the least.

In reply to JimMcQ:


I know what you mean, I still can't watch it to this day!!!!

In reply to Frank4short: Dressed to Kill was the first film I remember getting really scared in.

Vaguely remember a film where they found some bodies who's blood had turned to powder - is it the Andromeda Strain?

In reply to GreyPilgrim:



I still have to hold old-fashioned telephone receivers so that any needle-like projectiles will miss my head. Fortunately I have only had to use two candlestick telephones in the last thirty years...

In reply to Frank4short: I can't remember the name of it but there was an animated film that I watched when I was maybe 10 years old. i can only remember two parts of it. The first bit the characters are looking on a lake filled with brightly coloured lilly pads. The flowers start to open to reveal faries (maybe?) the fairies start to fly off and everyone says aww but then you notice that if the fairies don't get out quick enough the flower closes and they freakin DIE!
The next bit the characters have been captured by some people (i think they;re on an alien planet?) and they're stood over this blinding white fire and being forced into it. One of them sacrifies himself and jumps in to be engulfed in flames and what looks like plant limbs attaching themselves to him, wrapping themselves around him and generally hurting him alot. You can tell that because of the blood curdling screams.

Anyone got any ideas what this might be, I need closure of this movie so have a need to find out what the hell what going on!

In reply to Zygoticgema:

As I say, I saw it way way way too young and it gave me the fear big style. It still kind of permeates a lot of nightmares I have.

In reply to Frank4short:
Transformers the movie-
must have watched it when I was a kid because I kept having these recurring dreams of a massive head with a smashed eye, and people running away from robotic sharks.
Had NO idea where these came from- and by the time I grew up they were just kind of shadows in my mind- yknow- how you get used to these things.

and then in uni a mate had the film on DVD- and when I saw it it was like opening up a door in my head- and going "So THATS where all those freaking images in my head came from... I always wondered!"

In reply to Frank4short:

Quatermas and the Pit. I can't remeber why though, just being scared and hiding behind the sofa at my grandparents' house.

In reply to Bruce Hooker:

An excellent film ... definitely chilling, and brilliant science fiction.

In reply to Alex Roddie:

I'll second that. I have nothing but bad memories this as a child!
Strange but true

In reply to Frank4short: that film with the clown... "It" I think it was called

In reply to BigMac: second "it" but also i was petrified of "the fog"

In reply to Bruce Hooker:

There were several Quatermas series on black and white TV years ago. We had no telly so I went next door to watch them. There was only poor gaslighting on the road outside our houses and I had to run down the garden path of next door's house and then up the garden path of ours past all the bushes. I was too intrigued to stop going but always terrified coming home!
Then there was 'This Island Earth' and 'Invaders from Mars'at the pictures. Both of these are very tame really but scared us to death when we were kids. They would be in the 1950s I think.

In reply to Frank4short:

Does anyone remember an old black and white film that had bugs that used to crawl into peoples ears and take over their brain? Think it was called THEM ? , but this certainly freaked me out as a little one as, i was supposed to be in bed but was hiding behind the sofa sneakily watching it :oP

In reply to Frank4short:

The Wizard of Oz film with the flying monkeys and the wheelie things on wheels.

<shudder>

In reply to Frank4short:
Poltergeist freaked me out I seem to remember...

In reply to jas wood: the fog was bad aswell.... I remember watching a film, which I expected to be scary but it was great.... Critters..

In reply to Bruce Hooker: Yes, me too. I think it was the dark claustrophobic atmosphere rather than anything actually shown..

In reply to Frank4short:

Eww...why did you have to bring that up? Childsplay! I was only ten, still a bit freaked about clowns!!!

In reply to Bambi:

PS What was that one where the family left their house because it was haunted and went camping and the thing followed them and it was a bright light sort of thing?

In reply to Frank4short: The old Frankenstein, Dracula and Werewolf movies from Hammer used to scare me (showing my age now). I was about 10 and sneaked down to watch one, late one night. Old 17th century farmhouse, thunder and lightning outside. My Dad had heard me sneak down and went to the electricity cupboard and switched the power off, I freaked! Crofty.

In reply to Frank4short:
'The Forbidden Planet' scared me as well. Absolutely brilliant film, though!

Actually when I think about it, the worst one was 'Event Horizon'. Probably wasn't old enough when i watched it and I couldn't sleep for about a week afterwards.

In reply to Alex Roddie: Oh yes, monsters from the id, total classic, but "Event Horizon", I am still not old enough for that, proper bad trip that stays with you a long time afterwards..

In reply to Knitting Norah: The Quatermass tv prog used to freak me out, but at last I now know it's not real.lol