Movies that scared the crap out of you?

[Donnager]

Very good. That's the one. I remembered the robots as being bigger and much more realistic but it was a long time ago. I love that they had to damage to cathode ray tube in the robot to kill it. I guess back in the day cathode ray tube sounded ominous. Maybe the author intended it as an inside joke?

Maybe it was metaphorical.

 

[loopy]

I'd suggest "Jacob's Ladder"

You'll wonder if it was all a figment of hopeful imagination when a soldier was near death, or if it was a government coverup.

I've always thought the former.

I've always leaned towards the former as well.

 

[DEmery]

I always thought it was like An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.

 

[xSwaggyMcjaggyx]

As a kid, Apollo 18 scared me quite a bit. When the alien spider crawled across the inside of his suit I freakin' lost it.

 

[Donnager]

I've always leaned towards the former as well.

One thing, it will make you stop eating your popcorn. It's not what I'd call an enjoyable flick. I'm usually one that doesn't like stressful stuff (gross things are OK), but this one left a pretty big impression on me.

Maybe "Platoon" and "Apocalypse Now" are similar in intensity.

The best (most severe) reaction I've seen at a theatre was at the premiere of "Silence of the Lambs". Nobody left that movie with a smile, but were affected.

As I said above, I showed it (Silence of the Lambs) to my adult kids 25 years later..... They were bothered, and could barely watch it. I don't think they've seen Jacob's Ladder or even know it exists. Probably not something I want to torture them with.

Going to look more into "In Cold Blood"... Read the book, but haven't seen the movie, yet.

 

[BABAR]

A movie that didn’t viscerally frighten me but scared me about what COULD possibly happen given given our convoluted legal system is “Pacific Heights.”

Without too much spoiler it is a movie about a totally amoral individual who rents properties and drives the owners financially and emotionally bankrupt, so he can then sue them and obtain the property for a song and huge profit. ALL within the letter of the law. Michael Keaton is outstandingly pure evil in this one. Again, doesn’t viscerally scare the crap out of you, but mentally seeing what someone who understands the ins and outs of the legal system can theoretically do is mentally terrorizing.

Another was Tom Selleck’s “An Innocent Man,” which ironically takes a milquetoast kind of guy thrown into prison unjustly and turns him into a murderer.

 

[Dave S.]

House on Haunted Hill w/ Vincent Price when I was about 8

 

[Donnager]

House on Haunted Hill w/ Vincent Price when I was about 8

Old one or the remake?

 

[Fishhead]

When I was 10ish years old we had a day off of school the following day, but Dad wouldn't let me stay up because he was planning on watching a TV movie. It was the pilot for Kolchak: The Night Stalker. There was nothing I hated more at that age than having to go to bed early, so I sneaked out into the living room and watched the movie from under/behind a chair. Wow, did I have some nightmares that night. Honorable Mention would be The Legend of Boggy Creek, which a group us saw at a local theater one summer night. It was funny/scary, not really anything terrifying, but that night when we got home we were out on the front porch telling my Mom all about it as it got dark. When the time came to be home, none of the kids we went with wanted to walk home by themselves, so Mom, my brother and I had to walk them all there.

 

[Greg Furtman]

The first Alien movie scared the crap out of me when the Chestburster popped out. I wasn't expecting that. I do own the whole series on BluRay and like them.

 

[bjphoenix]

The first Alien movie scared the crap out of me when the Chestburster popped out.

Some of the actors in the scene didn't know it was going to happen so they were genuinely surprised.

 

[Wally Ferrer]

The first Alien movie scared the crap out of me when the Chestburster popped out. I wasn't expecting that. I do own the whole series on BluRay and like them.

I worked on a construction job with Ridley Scott's cousin the year this came out but all he was told is "you're going to want see this, cousin". He was right.

 

[Dave S.]

Old one or the remake?

The old one. I didn’t think the remake had Price in it

13 Ghosts was also an old favorite about that same time. That one wasn’t that scary but again there was a remake that was just awful.

 

[teepot]

When I was 10ish years old we had a day off of school the following day, but Dad wouldn't let me stay up because he was planning on watching a TV movie. It was the pilot for Kolchak: The Night Stalker. There was nothing I hated more at that age than having to go to bed early, so I sneaked out into the living room and watched the movie from under/behind a chair. Wow, did I have some nightmares that night. Honorable Mention would be The Legend of Boggy Creek, which a group us saw at a local theater one summer night. It was funny/scary, not really anything terrifying, but that night when we got home we were out on the front porch telling my Mom all about it as it got dark. When the time came to be home, none of the kids we went with wanted to walk home by themselves, so Mom, my brother and I had to walk them all there.

I saw The Legend of Boggy Creek when I was in high school. I took a date and there was another couple with us. I lived in Michigan at the time. Nothing but forests and swamps in those parts. On the way home all four of us were in the front seat and I drove home going down the middle of the road. Hadn't thought about that for a very long time.

 

[Fishhead]

I saw The Legend of Boggy Creek when I was in high school. I took a date and there was another couple with us. I lived in Michigan at the time. Nothing but forests and swamps in those parts. On the way home all four of us were in the front seat and I drove home going down the middle of the road. Hadn't thought about that for a very long time.

When we saw it in the theater, I had to go to the restroom at one point. I came back during one of the tense scenes and instead of making my buddy move to let me to my seat, I duck-walked under his legs. (He was sitting with them up on the seats in front of us, watching the movie intently and fiddling with the strap of his sandal.) I took my baseball cap off and my hair brushed against his calf. He screamed, the rest of our row screamed, the whole theater screamed, then everyone laughed. Steve ripped the strap of his sandal off. At the end of the movie, the narrator said something like "I'd love to hear the creature roar again" and Steve turned to me and said "I wouldn't. I've only got one sandal left."