• PugJesus@kbin.social
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    9 months ago

    My mother used to make me watch scary movies with her to toughen me up.

    Gave me nightmares for years.

    • jopepa@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      PugMary sounds like a difficult woman to grow up with, sorry you had to go through that.

      • PugJesus@kbin.social
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        9 months ago

        She was a single mother with somewhat archaic ideas of what a boy should learn from his father, and as I had no father in the picture, she took the task upon herself.

        It was a mixed bag. But she was sincerely trying her best out of parental love, and I didn’t turn out too fucked up, so mostly I look back on it with amusement.

  • BougieBirdie@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    9 months ago

    My first “too scary” movie was the 1999 cinematic masterpiece The Mummy starring Brendan Fraser. For those unfamiliar: not very scary at all, but I was probably eight when I saw it.

    My siblings and I would fight over who got to sleep with the cat - in the movie the mummy is scared away by cats. Anybody who owns a cat knows this is a pointless argument, and the cat sleeps with who it wants.

    • dustyData@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Spielberg used a lot of horror coded cinematography on E.T. During the film it flip flops a little between horror and family joyful. So much that in theory it shouldn’t work. But when you are dealing with an extraterrestrial being or being manhandled by government scientists and military it is hard not to feel scared, and he conveyed that by showing that for a small child it would be absolutely terrifying. The 80s has a lot of films like this, where marketing and production were confused about whether they wanted these movies to be aimed at children or not. This gave us Gremlins, Terminator, Robocop and others that combined adult jokes, extreme gore and violence, cynic satire, but also toys tie ins, family fun sanitized trailers and marketing, and toy selling TV cartoons. If anything, E.T. is the tamest of the lot and is definitely, decidedly aimed at family audiences. I blame cocaine.

      ADD: Just remembered all the sex innuendos and mortgage jokes in Ghostbusters.

    • LwL@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I also found it very scary as a kid, though I haven’t rewatched it later to know if it still feels like a horror film.

    • GiveOver@feddit.uk
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      9 months ago

      You found one! I also had to be carried out of the queue for the ET ride at Universal Studios because I was too frightened

    • duckCityComplex@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Recently watched this with my kids after not seeing it since being a kid myself. My pet theory is that it’s about coping with the death of a grandparent. When the scientists take E.T. away and hook him up to all the machines, it’s like the experience of seeing grandma or grandpa in intensive care with tubes, ventilators, etc. We see things through the kid’s eyes and there is a vague sense that the scientists are supposed to be trying to keep E.T. alive, but it looks like they are killing him.

      In the end, the beloved companion E.T. goes up into the sky but says he will always be with Elliot in a sense (my memories of this part are pretty vague, but I think there was some message along these lines). Maybe this is just my personal experience, but it really brought back memories of going to see my grandparents in hospitals that were kind of threatening to me as a kid, and the idea that your relative is up in heaven now.

  • YaksDC@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    I begged to see Poltergeist when it came out in 1982, I was 11. One of my main arguments was that it was only rated PG, ET came out the same year and it was rated PG; the PG-13 rating didn’t exist yet.

    I did not sleep in my room for 3 months after that and when I finally was able to go back all my stuffed animals had to be out of the room.

    I have never found another movie again that scared me so much and I have seen more horror movies than I could count.

  • TheHarpyEagle@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Close Encounters of the Third Kind terrified me as a kid. Not because of the alien shit, but because the thought of a vacuum turning on and running by itself was just the most horrific thing I could imagine.

  • blazeknave@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    There were two that really left me scarred in retrospect.

    There was this weird 70s or early 80s movie and this scene with these doll things coming to life in this small quarters… like a genie bottle or some alien ship… I think there was like satin and shit… and the doll things had these sharp teeth and started biting this woman trapped in there… and they all swarm her and overcome her… 35 yrs later… if anyone knows the name… Please help?

    The Accused… saw that way too early.

    Oh, and the song Hungry Eyes…

  • Ainiriand@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    My first terror movie was The Shining when I was 5-7 and after that nothing was too scary to be honest. I remember my mum telling me that there was a whole bunch of people working behind what we see and that made it easier. I am still a fan of horror movies and I enjoy a good scare!

    • olutukko@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I saw the shining at around that age too and I didn’t find it scary at all. Then I saw the ring and it was scary. I was always afraid that the woman is coming from somewhere until I got annoyed of being scared and started pointing middlefinger to anywhere I thought she would appear from and I was no longer afraid. Later when my little brother was having recurring nightmares I told him the power of middlefinger and next time he had it instead of running away from the boogieman he showed middlefinger to it and he no longer got those nightmares.

      That was the best big brother moment I ever had :D

    • blazeknave@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Had to stay with Aunt and uncle on weekends for a long time when I was about 7 or so. I was the oldest cousin on that whole side of the family, so I guess they overestimated me? I had nightmares all night after Predator 2. Could do scary after that.

  • Zeon@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Me and my friends watched The Human Centepiede, when we we’re 12 years old. God, sometimes I wish I could just go back in time.

  • nifty@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Descent and its sequel (though cursed by virtue of being a sequel) were great. In general, women-led horror movies are awesome when done right, like having women in characters who self actualize instead being used as a filler or sideshow.

    Some others include Ginger Snaps (and its second movie), Alien (don’t like the sequels), Scream, and Piggy (2022). Evil Dead as a franchise does not have a female lead (I am not that familiar with this franchise), but Evil Dead Rise was executed really well, and worked on many levels.

    • Ann Archy@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Yeah what I want out of a good entertaining Friday night film is shallow in your face Hollywood pandering on female empowerment and gender equality. It just makes for such a good cinematic experience.

  • Blaubarschmann@feddit.de
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    9 months ago

    The Descent scared the sh*t out of me. That one jumpscare was so unexpected and so intense that my body couldn’t even react to it, I just got massive chills all the way through without moving. It was surreal. Letting your kid watch this is just insane

    • kamenLady.@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I had the same experience when i watched it. The uncanny feeling lingered for a few days.

      But, idk … For me, it was a mistake to watch it again. Knowing what to expect, i paid more attention to everything else and i didn’t like it, i don’t remember why exactly.

      • Donjuanme@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        There being 2 endings didn’t help my mind when I watched it a second time and had a completely different experience… I was like, wtf, I know this is the same movie, but why do I feel so very different.

        Ugh fuck just about everything about this movie. It was a masterpiece.

        Let’s put extremely normal and relatable people into a pretty normal situation with pretty good intentions, then let’s have them do a somewhat risky hobby in a somewhat stressful environment, then let’s have normal reactions to some pretty fucked up, high stress situations, then let’s fucking have some pretty fucked up relationship stuff come out and some pretty understandable reactions to it, then let’s add some fucking fucked up fucking fuck fucks who may or may not be human and may or may not be looking to eat or just getting off on fucking people up. And then let’s have just the tiniest but it reminder of normalcy fuck up everything that wasn’t fucked before. And then you don’t know which ending you’re getting, and you don’t know which one is technically better for the characters.

        • kamenLady.@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          I didn’t know about the 2 versions. Hmm, gonna see if i find the other version, you’ve got me hooked up. Both times i saw the same version, but i guess there is no “happy” ending. It can’t, really.

          sigh, my claustrophobia already makes me gasp for air when i watch documentaries with people in tight caves. Here we go again.

        • Apathy Tree@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          9 months ago

          Well now I kinda wanna watch it, even tho I’m not really into horror… that many uses of the word fuck in one paragraph -has- to mean something 😜

          It’s already on my Plex so I guess now’s a good time!

          • Alteon@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Out of all the horror movies Ive ever watched, its my absolute favorite. It’s truly one of the best “horror” movies you will ever watch. The dread is so well done. The jump scares are well paced and actually add to the story. It’s fantastic and lingers with you for awhile.

            My other favorites of all time, is the first tape from V/H/S, the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Nope, The Poltergeist, The Ring, Juon (White Ghost, Specifically).

            • Apathy Tree@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              9 months ago

              It was really hard to watch through the land shift scene. I’m super claustrophobic. Reading wiki articles about spelunkers getting stuck is enough for panic attacks. I stopped right before the shift (fortune), and right after to recover. After that I did fine with it. It was very well done.

              I didn’t find the jump scares to be very impactful, but maybe it’s because I was anticipating those and was more interested in the rest of it? Or the panic burned out my jump scare receptor lol

  • XTornado@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    That reminds me that my most terrifying movie scene as a kid wasn’t actually an scary movie.

    It was a movie with a scene were the toilet talks or acts as he is going to eat the kid, can’t quite remember the details. The trauma was serious I couldn’t go to the bathroom to take a shit without feeling weird, terrified that it would bite my ass and all that, I tried to avoid going as long as possible…

    I can’t seem to find the movie or the scene, all I see is a scene from Look Who Is Talking but that’s not it. I did see it like later on life and I think it was like in a public bathroom and maybe the kid kind of had a daydream… But honestly no clue, I couldn’t find it.

  • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    My genius parents took my brother and I to see SCANNERS in the theater.

    Watched the whole fucking thing.

    But that was back when your parents could beat you for waking them up at night with nightmares so I don’t think it ruined their night.

    • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Dude, The Dark Crystal was unnerving when I first saw it almost 20 years old in the late 90s. I don’t think you were wrong there.

      The Dark Cauldron was the first movie I walked out of when I was 5, followed the next year with Return To OZ

      • blazeknave@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Unnerving! What a great word for it.

        Feel like it applies to a lot of kid scary actually… like Goosebumps or the carnival scene in Big… just like lingering uneasiness