Hey! The movie that scared me the most as a child was The Wizard Of Oz. I seems incredible now. It's my favorite movie! But I had nightmares of being scooped up by those winged monkeys when I was four!

when i was 14 years old, i saw 'Exorcist unintentionally (a very long story) and i couldn't get to sleep or go upstairs on my own to go to sleep for weeks. i have managed to conquer my fear of horror movies with the exception of this film - it still scares the bejesus out of me (no offence intended) today

Don't laugh! Gremlins! I saw it when I was 5 or 6 years old and was forced to sit through most of it with my evil babysitter until my cousin Jeff came to the rescue and took me, my little brother (who was also scared) and his sister (a little older than me, also scared) to the corner store for candy. The babysitter didn't even notice we'd left, because all her friends were there and they were enjoying the movie.

That movie gave me nightmares for several years. And even then I didn't totally get over my fear of the dark until I was about 11 or 12. To this day, I can't watch Gremlins without freaking out. Some friends tried to get me to watch it about a week ago (the only other time I've seen it) and even then I had to leave partway through (I think it was about the same part, actually) because I just couldn't stand it anymore.

I hate that babysitter.

Unquestionably, The Haunting with Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Russ Tamblyn, et. al. I saw it on tv with my brother when my parents were out one evening and we had to sit on that couch until they got back because even going to the bathroom was just too scary. It's still scary - Rosalie Crutchley doing the great housekeeper (in the dark, in the night, no one can hear you when you scream). The remake was just nothing. fuj.

It's a tie between the wicked witch in Snow White, and the convict in Great Expectations.....

There were a few for me. It had me scared of clowns for years. Return to Oz was really scary, especially since I was expecting something more like Wizard of Oz. Then there was some movie about a giant squid, I think it was The Beast (probably a tv movie) that had me afraid of water for years.

The movie that scared me most as a kid was Drby O'Gill And The Little People. It was that Death Coach that came for Darby. It was awfully graphic to a little kid. Now, though, it's one of my top five movies. It's the only movie that Ever bothered me as a kid.

The Dolls....not a good movie to see when on caffeine...scared me half to death...couldn't walk past a doll for about a year...i saw it again when i was older, and wondered what i was afraid of....

then there's The Changeling...scared me so bad it's now my favourite movie...

The movie that scared me most as a child was Beauty and the Beast. The Beast was very loud!

You're right, Charlie, I'd forgotten about Darby O'Gill and the Little People. That was terrifying. oooo

I've always been frightened of clowns and dolls! In fact, as a child I never had a doll and never purchased one for my daughter.(Thank goodness she never noticed!) Psycho has always been my scariest movie. Since I was unable to see it in the movie theatre(due to my age), I had to wait for it to be shown on TV. When it came on, my brother and I watched it alone in our large house. And at the very end when Norman puts on his mother's clothes, my brother put on my mother's frock and snuck in at the same exact time and scared the living daylights out of me. I can still see that image, when I watch reruns. I think back and it was a perfectly scary move, and kind of humorous in it's own sick way, but it really was great! I was about 8 then! And I still love scary movies! bird

I've always loved horror-movies (still do), but when I was a child my mother never let me watch the scariest ones. She was afraid that they would give me nightmares. As soon as she noticed that a movie was scaring me, she turned it off. I soon learned not to show to her how scared I really was (otherwise she would let me watch the ending). With most movies I succeded to hide my fear, but there was one movie (I think the title was Black Christmas)that frightened me so much that I fell off the couch. Of course I didn't get to see the ending, so if anyone has seen it please let me know how it ends.

"Silent Night, Deadly Night" gave me the creeps. I'm not sure why, I didn't believe in Santa and all the nuns I knew were nice, but I couldn't sleep after watching it.

i don't remember how old I was, but I remember watching Rosemary's Baby when I was little. I think our babysitter was watching it. It was pretty scary. There was a movie I saw part of at my Aunt's house. A woman was buried alive. That scared the poop out of me for along time. I was always afraid it would happen to me.

Does anyone remember.........?

The commentary on the soundtrack said 'for people of a nervous disposition, look away now'. Or words to that effect?

There then proceeded to be, a graphic of a 'clock' on screen, counting down, about 15 seconds, to the 'grisly' moment!

Am I imagining this, or did it have a profound effect on my childhood (and consequently my adulthood)?

wez

The Wizard of Oz did it for me too, those damned winged monkeys tearing away at the characters....
Or when she's looking at Auntie Em in the hourglass and then it's really the witch!
I once went out with a boy because he admitted that the Wizard of Oz made him cry. Face it, for a sixteen year old guy, that's tantamount to admitting you're a sensitive soul!

I saw Psycho too. I was about 9 years old.
My friend's brothers popped out during the shower scene and scared us girls...that was over thirty years ago and I can hear the scream!

Anyone remember that Night Gallery thing with the doll sent from India that was alive? Sheesh! I've still got those eyes burning in my memory.

Most of the movies I saw as a kid were the edited for Television type. My folks were pretty good at guessing which ones were “too rough” for the little ones to see at the theater.

However when I was about 9-10 years old I spent the night with an Aunt who let me sleep in the living room. Naturally I stayed up all night watching TV, at about 2:00 AM a local independent station ran a show I had never seen or heard of before. The Twilight Zone.

The episode where one astronaut is in the hospital with an injured leg.
And is visited by another astronaut who flew the mission with him. The 2nd astronaut keeps insisting that there was a 3rd man on the mission and he has disappeared.

The second man keeps insisting that they “Saw too much when they were up there!!” The man in the hospital keeps trying to calm his friend down. The second man grows hysterical and runs away, The man in the hospital bed then looks at his newspaper and the headline reads “Lone Astronaut returns to Earth”

No cheesy makeup, No fake monsters, just the imagination of a young boy in a strange house and the monologue of Rod Serling kept me clutching my Louisville Slugger till the sun came up.

I loved "The Twilight Zone," the older the episode the better it was usually. They were more scary than programs with monsters and ghouls because they played with your mind. I wasn't scared of the shows, but when I was younger I was always left wondering "could that really happen?"
The only thing on TV that scared the daylights out of me were those commercials with the talking toliet (it may had been a "2000 Flushes" commercial). A woman would clean the toliet with the wrong product and the toliet would get made and chase her around the house. That scared me more than any movie ever did! It looked so real, and to make it worse, my brother said that the toliet used in the commercial was ours. I didn't walk into our bathroom alone for months.
Anyone remember those?

This might seem weird but it was a comedy that really scared me when I was small it was "A Stitch in Time" starring Norman Wisdom and the part that scared me was when he was all dressed up in bandages like a mummy.(bet no one remembers that film).

Gosh, I got to thinking about Darby O'Gill. When that Banshee is standing there when Darby opened the door freaked me out before the death coach ever got there.

My first thought on reading the question was 'Bambi'. Without a doubt, the forest fire scene made the greatest impression of all on me when I was very small. I loved the rest of the film, but hid my head at that scene.
I remember seeing Darby O'Gill when I was perhaps 7 or 8, but recall very little of the story. This says to me that it could not have scared me very much, otherwise it would have stuck in my memory.

Darby O Gill wasn't the Gnomemobile was it?
I think I see what you mean.
Bambi was what my mother said scared her to death. Whereas my kids watched it quite a bit. My daughter's first divorce explanation was "you see his papa and his mama don't live together, but they still love him!"
ANyone think of a Disney films where at least one parent doesn't bite the dust? We had a list of about five characters once...tops.

Rosemary's Baby. It's still a great film but it scared the pants off me when I was little. That and Eraserhead when in my early teens.

I remember a babysitter forcing me to watch poltergeist when I was like 5. To this day I cant watch that movie without freaking out.

For me, it was "The Fly" (1958) When Patricia Owens pulls the bag off of Al "David" Hedison's head to reveal the fly's head, it was down behind the theater seats. Down upon the floor. Down among the spilled jujubes. I can laugh about it now, but then . . . Enjoy!