My babysitter showed me Critters (in secret) when I was 5. Rather than be scarred, she turned me into a avid horror fan. I saw all the 80’s classics when I was way too young for them thanks to HBO and Cinemax.
None phased me.
Laughably, what finally got me was so mild. In Poltergeist 2 or 3, there’s a scene where the kid’s reflection no longer mimics his own movements. It’s not even the scare, but rather the set-up.
I started staring at mirrors when I was alone, just waiting for my reflection to break into a sinister smile. My fear was, when it did, what would I do? No adult would believe me. Mirrors are unavoidable. Something supernatural would be after me. I knew I wouldn’t be able to pull off some “final girl” shit IRL.
Not scared shitless, but a mix of being scared and disgusted, maybe even slightly traumatized? :D I stumbled into an adult watching this, and had a look at it when I was honestly too young for this shit. www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjZ7Cb5WDLM
I don’t recall the name of it, it was not a big Hollywood movie or anything, and it was super low budget.
But it was some old Christian movie about what will happen to you if you don’t get “saved” before the Rapture happens. I remember a song called “I wish we’d all been ready” playing. Not sure if that’s the name of the song, not even positive it was actually in the movie at all, or if it was just something I heard around the same time and the memory is getting blurred.
From what I recall, it looked like it was made in the 70s.
I wish I remembered more about it. It was intended to scare the shit out of you to believe in religion. Worked on me at the time, I remember praying like a million times to make sure I did it right the night I watched it, and randomly at times for years as I remembered the scared-shitless feeling.
I just rewatched gremlins, and beside some jumpscares it’s pretty camp and tame.
But then the scene comes where the Santa Claus gets stuck in the chimney, discovered due to the smell. This is not shown, just a story that gets told pretty off handed.
I realized that that was the part that made the movie scary to me when younger. And it colored the rest of the movie darker, too.
Aliens. Me and my brother sneakily was watching it when our parents were gone, and when that chest-burster came out of that woman, I was out of there like a bat out of hell. Never told my parents, of course - had to protect our VHS privileges and all that… It’s still one of my favorite movies - the original cinematic cut, not the overly long director’s cut (which seems to be the only one you can find these days.]
Add comment