I was 15 when Jaws came out. It messed me up a little, but what really messed me up was my little brother becoming obsessed with sharks and shark attacks and sharing every gory detail he learned about them, whether I wanted him to or not. Also Exorcist and 'Salem's Lot.
Great list! I think what makes The Exorcist's use of profanity and insults so scary and wrenching is because they're genuinely gutting to Karras - who you've spent most of the film coming to like and sympathize with. They're not just obscene for the sake of obscenity, but cruelly bringing up his insecurities, guilt, and secret fears in the most verbally eviscerating and foul manner possible.
I had such a loving and fun mother. She was a woman of tremendous faith, who happened to love Halloween and horror. Other moms frowned, but she didn’t let it dissuade her in the slightest. Yes, I’m sure I was too young when I saw The Exorcist, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, It’s Alive, and so many more. But we enjoyed the hell out of all of them.
Definitely agree on alien and jaws. I was too old to appreciate the exorcist when I finally saw the whole thing. I watched the movie thinking "this is about puberty, right?"
For me the two movies that messed me up were its alive and the brood. I was Definitely young enough to freak out over the killer baby movie.
With the brood, those little shit goblins kill the kindergarten teacher. The one person with the power to make my grade school bullies stop their shit. I would later see it and spot all the female rage text (not even subtext) I had missed when I was 7.
Great list. I went to a sleepover at 8 years old and my friend's parents took us to see The Serpent and the Rainbow (no idea what they were thinking). I ended up calling my mom to come pick me up at 3 AM and my mom said I had to wait until morning. LOL Scarred for life.
Yep, yep and yep. (And THANKS for mentioning Serpent and the Rainbow.) I was a grown ass woman when I saw that and it still creeped me the fuck out.
I saw the Exorcist, like you, wayyy too early (at 11!) at a drive-in theatre; double feature with the Legend of Boggy Creek. Young, irresponsible parents, what can I say? They loaded us up in the family truckster w/a brown bag of homemade popcorn, all wearing our jammies. (Sis was 8, bro was 6, they don't remember) Love you, keep doing your thing.
One of my local TV stations (pre cable) had a Saturday afternoon "Creature Feature" and I saw a lot of Hammer flicks. But the one that haunted me for the longest time was a non-Hammer one called "The House that Screamed." It took place at a school for wayward girls and involved things that went WAY over my head at the time. Plus some real Norman Bates stuff that stuck in my head. I never saw it on TV again/it wasn't at my local video store, so I had to wait until I found the movie on YouTube a few years back to see it again.
Oh, and also "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" because of that dog/banjo man combo. Biggest jump scare of my life.
Not a movie, but very influential (to me) was the Scooby Doo series. I very much wanted to be a meddling kid because of it.
Hi Gabino I understand your love for those movies. That's me too! I figured out that I got to watch movies alone, especially horror movies because the rest of my family had no interest in them. Shame on them! Horror is the very best genre! Poltergeist, The Shining, Alien, The Serpent and the Rainbow, The Witch, The Blair Witch project, Hereditary, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Hellraiser, and IT were the movies that MESSED.ME.UP. Thanks for sharing this
Have you read We Eat Our Own by Kea Wilson? It's a must read for any Cannibal Holocaust fan. Serpent and the Rainbow is one of Craven's best!
The Fog is huge for me. I was watching that movie on repeat and I just started understanding why, to me, it was so effective. It was the first time I really started considering the anatomy of a horror story. My brother and I consumed videostore horror sections like locusts when I was a kid. Some of the ones that really scared little me? The Fog, Fire in the Sky, The Birds, Salem's Lot, Candyman, Jacob's Ladder, The Blair Witch Project, The Changeling(1980), Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead. My dad wouldn't let us watch Dawn of the Dead so when we were like 11 or 12, we crashed at my uncle’s and found the VHS, and when they pull that biker apart with all his intestines falling out? My brother actually puked. Now we could probably watch it while eating dinner.
Hitchcock was my entry point into horror. My mother loved his movies, and she let me watch Psycho and The Birds waaay too early. I made my brother stand outside the bathroom while I took a shower to make sure nobody walked into to try and stab me. But after that it was on to The Thing, TCM, and Freddy. The other two that truly re-wired my brain were Henry: Portrait of Serial Killer and Deliverance.
I was 15 when Jaws came out. It messed me up a little, but what really messed me up was my little brother becoming obsessed with sharks and shark attacks and sharing every gory detail he learned about them, whether I wanted him to or not. Also Exorcist and 'Salem's Lot.
Great list! I think what makes The Exorcist's use of profanity and insults so scary and wrenching is because they're genuinely gutting to Karras - who you've spent most of the film coming to like and sympathize with. They're not just obscene for the sake of obscenity, but cruelly bringing up his insecurities, guilt, and secret fears in the most verbally eviscerating and foul manner possible.
I had such a loving and fun mother. She was a woman of tremendous faith, who happened to love Halloween and horror. Other moms frowned, but she didn’t let it dissuade her in the slightest. Yes, I’m sure I was too young when I saw The Exorcist, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, It’s Alive, and so many more. But we enjoyed the hell out of all of them.
I don’t think they messed me up too much. Lol
Definitely agree on alien and jaws. I was too old to appreciate the exorcist when I finally saw the whole thing. I watched the movie thinking "this is about puberty, right?"
For me the two movies that messed me up were its alive and the brood. I was Definitely young enough to freak out over the killer baby movie.
With the brood, those little shit goblins kill the kindergarten teacher. The one person with the power to make my grade school bullies stop their shit. I would later see it and spot all the female rage text (not even subtext) I had missed when I was 7.
https://marlowe1.substack.com/p/job-chapter-21
Great list. I went to a sleepover at 8 years old and my friend's parents took us to see The Serpent and the Rainbow (no idea what they were thinking). I ended up calling my mom to come pick me up at 3 AM and my mom said I had to wait until morning. LOL Scarred for life.
Kid Me lived in a parallel universe with Kid You. What a list! 🖤
Yep, yep and yep. (And THANKS for mentioning Serpent and the Rainbow.) I was a grown ass woman when I saw that and it still creeped me the fuck out.
I saw the Exorcist, like you, wayyy too early (at 11!) at a drive-in theatre; double feature with the Legend of Boggy Creek. Young, irresponsible parents, what can I say? They loaded us up in the family truckster w/a brown bag of homemade popcorn, all wearing our jammies. (Sis was 8, bro was 6, they don't remember) Love you, keep doing your thing.
As a grown man there's one scene from the serpent and the rainbow which will stay with me forever.
God I love these lists. A fantastic selection.
One of my local TV stations (pre cable) had a Saturday afternoon "Creature Feature" and I saw a lot of Hammer flicks. But the one that haunted me for the longest time was a non-Hammer one called "The House that Screamed." It took place at a school for wayward girls and involved things that went WAY over my head at the time. Plus some real Norman Bates stuff that stuck in my head. I never saw it on TV again/it wasn't at my local video store, so I had to wait until I found the movie on YouTube a few years back to see it again.
Oh, and also "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" because of that dog/banjo man combo. Biggest jump scare of my life.
Not a movie, but very influential (to me) was the Scooby Doo series. I very much wanted to be a meddling kid because of it.
Your parents were remiss. They didn't introduce you to any Dario Argento films??
Hi Gabino I understand your love for those movies. That's me too! I figured out that I got to watch movies alone, especially horror movies because the rest of my family had no interest in them. Shame on them! Horror is the very best genre! Poltergeist, The Shining, Alien, The Serpent and the Rainbow, The Witch, The Blair Witch project, Hereditary, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Hellraiser, and IT were the movies that MESSED.ME.UP. Thanks for sharing this
The Thing, American Werewolf, Predator and Aliens were all my early teenage years
The Exorcist for sure and Hell Raiser, but the one that fucked me up was The Evil Dead. Totally!
Have you read We Eat Our Own by Kea Wilson? It's a must read for any Cannibal Holocaust fan. Serpent and the Rainbow is one of Craven's best!
The Fog is huge for me. I was watching that movie on repeat and I just started understanding why, to me, it was so effective. It was the first time I really started considering the anatomy of a horror story. My brother and I consumed videostore horror sections like locusts when I was a kid. Some of the ones that really scared little me? The Fog, Fire in the Sky, The Birds, Salem's Lot, Candyman, Jacob's Ladder, The Blair Witch Project, The Changeling(1980), Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead. My dad wouldn't let us watch Dawn of the Dead so when we were like 11 or 12, we crashed at my uncle’s and found the VHS, and when they pull that biker apart with all his intestines falling out? My brother actually puked. Now we could probably watch it while eating dinner.
How about RoboCop 2? I think it's one of those rare sequels that beats the original. The robots committing suicide? Tell me that didn't creep you out.
Solid list. The Serpent and the Rainbow was so damn good. That scene with Guage you mentioned has always stuck with me.
Hitchcock was my entry point into horror. My mother loved his movies, and she let me watch Psycho and The Birds waaay too early. I made my brother stand outside the bathroom while I took a shower to make sure nobody walked into to try and stab me. But after that it was on to The Thing, TCM, and Freddy. The other two that truly re-wired my brain were Henry: Portrait of Serial Killer and Deliverance.
Torn Curtain had the most horrible murder I've ever seen.
The lesson from that scene is that it's bloody hard to kill somebody. God it just drags on, if I remember. :)
Yes it goes on so long there's enough time for the victim to ridicule his amateurish murderers