First and last horror film that made an impact on you.

[sergiodeblanc]

October is scary movie month for Americans. I don’t know about you, but I love a horror movie, good, bad, scary, or downright laughable... I really enjoy them.

However, I took a big break from them from my late teens until my thirties when I thought of myself as too intelligent (Ha!) and too mature (double Ha!) for them. It wasn’t until I started having terrible nightmares and exhausted all the documentaries and romantic comedies at video stores and on cable that I came back around to them.

Some of my interest is based in nostalgia (recalling middle school makeout parties and camp... which was really just another makeout party but uncomfortable and with insects) and then there’s the feeling of facing a real fear, but from a safe distance, that I find cathartic about them. Like, I find it to be a great feeling when I’m no longer scared about something, or when I figure out my fear was really ridiculous, and horror movies are kind of a cheap, safe, and easy way to get that feeling.

So anyway, the change in weather and the onslaught of Halloween got me to thinking about sh!t that really scared me as a kid versus the sh!t that really scares me as an adult (okay, maybe not adult, but middle aged dude).


Now this will date me, as I’m sure all our replies will but... I remember being terrified by that monster on the wing of the plane in The Twilight Zone (not the William Shatner original tv version, but the John Lithgow movie version, because while I’m old, I’m not ancient, yet). I used to run up the steps from the basement when the lights turned off afraid of that thing! Man, the terror that you have when you’re young!

Nowadays, it’s sh!t like A Handsmaid Tale, or I Shouldn’t Be Alive, or.... the f@cking news that scares the sh!t outta me, like real life-could-possibly-happen stuff. Demonic possession and monsters seem kinda quaint now.

So I thought it might be fun to name your first and last horror movie that you’ve seen that left an impression on you. It’ll be fun, and the odds of a complete thread derail at set at 100%, and it might lead to someone suggesting a movie you haven’t seen yet.


Who wants to go first?

 

[ScottR]

I'm all up in this man! I love Halloween and horror movies!

This is a tough one though..I have so many that scared the f#@k outta me. But It was always a tie between The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th. But hands down... The one that freaked me out and forced me to lose all the cooI that I (that I thought) possessed was Nightmare on Elm Street...Yup, the first nightmare sequence with her friend in a bloody bodybag made my "pseudo cool" get up and run straight out of the theatre arms a flailing...I sat there paralyzed with fear just wanting it to be over.

When it finally was over my date...wanted to go "parking" in a new subdivision,?77 not far from her parents house. I remember thinkin...Nope, uh-uh, aint happenin...f@$k all of that! You want me to park in a culdisac next to some woods, without street lights and with nobody within screaming distance awwww hell naaaww...boobs or no boobs..."parking" was all the way outta the the question.

Being of the parachute pants, muscle shirt with the Japanese flag on it, mullett wearing, dangly cross earring kickin, pseudo tough guy persuasion, it was the scariest and most humbling date ever...and I slept with the lights on for about a month.

I watched N.E.S. last year and I remember thinking...man, this is most ridiculous movie I've ever seen...how did this scare me to the point of blowing off an almost 100% chance of at least getting to 2nd base... yeah, NES did that...


So it goes like this....

First~Texas Chainsaw Massacre....

Last~Nightmare on Elm Street...

*

 

[11top]

1st (tie): House on Haunted Hill and Invaders from Mars

From HHH, I still “see” the scene where the body floats outside the bedroom window and also the ghost holding the terrified woman’s hand. And due to Invaders, I was afraid to walk in sand for fear my body would get sucked into it.

Last (and lasting- I still refuse to watch it again): The Shining.

Due to this film, I still am cautious opening the hallway closet hamper door, and I get chills in long hotel hallways. Don’t even think about offering me red rum!

 

[toothace]

For the first I'd have to say "Jaws". I know, technically not a horror movie, but I remember jumping out of my skin when the head floated by the hole in the boat while they were scuba diving...

The last one to have an impact would probably be "Nightmare on Elm Street". See Scott's description, minus the chance to go parking afterwards. It's been such a long time since I've even wanted to see a horror movie, I couldn't tell you the last one I actually watched.

 

[veinbuster]

Most of the horror shows I watched when I was young were just funny with cheesy Frankenstein or Dracula type characters. The first one that got me emotionally involved was probably The Birds (Hitchcock).

At some point horror went from trying to be scary to being a gore fest, and I kind of stopped watching. These days politics scare me more than anything else.

 

[markd21]

Hmmmmmm, the first that kind of terrorized....well, it was actually two (three). "Rosemary's Baby" and the original "Wicker Man". The idea of the birth of the Anti-Christ and the concept of Pagan Rituals in rural communities (also see "Children of the Corn" - that's another one that scared me, more because I imagined how cool it would be to hunt parents, lol) really brought home the point there are people that will do diabolical things in the name of "religion". Odd, because I was basically raised without religion - the 10 Commandments/Golden Rule were the measurement of "good" in my household growing up.

The last horror movie to freak me out was 'the Unholy" with Ben Cross. It's a bit cheesy, but that Satan/Demon Temptation thing was what unsettled me. ​

The concept of Satan and demonology has always freaked me out because of some weird experiences as a teen that messed around with Satanism, blood, rituals, and the early Tampa Death/Black metal scene. My friends and I (in High School) were the "metal outcasts" and we always pushed the boundaries on the weekends. Sometimes we'd meet up with "witches" (HOT chubby girls dressed like the Cure) and do spells/rituals. Most were stupid and pointless, but there was one that always took it too far and there'd be something that would happen. We'd drink blood (well, sip it) and partake in mind expanding chemicals. We'd cut ourselves....it was jacked up. Psychologically we'd experience some WEIRD stuff.....

Those devil movies didn't help, lol.

These days I just don't watch "horror" movies. I don't want to see gore. Seen enough of it. If I want to be "scared" give Ol' Nick every time.....

 

[Dirty_Boogie]

The original Venom movie from 1981 with Klaus Kinski. I think I was 13 when I saw it. While classified as a horror film, I remember it being more of a suspense thriller that scared the carp out of me! I still get flashbacks to the scene of the black mamba sliding up the bad dude's pants leg and whacking him in the nuts. Gotta find that movie and see if I'm any braver watching it 30+ years later.

Looking back on the funny side, it was one of my first movie "dates" (being the smooth 13 year old that I was), and I think I was hiding under the seat while my date enjoyed the movie.

 

[Steve's addiction]

Being old school, The Tingler with Vincent Price & Black Christmas with Oliva Hussey

 

[bodia]

This one is easy. Don't even have to think about it.

First: The original Friday the 13th. It wasn't the entire movie, but the ending. Seeing Jason's mom slashing and hacking wasn't all that bad, but when Jason came out of the lake and grabbed the girl in the canoe....no way...freaked my sh!t out, big time. I was at a buddy's house watching it. When it was over I had to call my dad to turn on the front porch light, and open the front door. I've never run faster than I did that night in 1981.

Last: Blair Witch Project. The whole "home movie" type thing, and the concept, really put a scare into the wife and I. Especially when going to her family's cabin after having seen that movie. The cabin is on a small lake in northern Wisconsin, surrounded by woods, out in the middle of nowhere. The scary part is waking up at 2:00 in the morning needing to hit the john. The issue, no running water at the cabin, which means a trip to the outhouse. No way! I find it hilarious because when my wife was in her late teens and 20s she would go to the cabin alone and read scary books. Not any more!

The one that did not have any effect: The Exorcist. The Mrs saw it when it first was out, and it scared her. I had never seen it. Sometime around 2000 we watched it, and she commented that she couldn't believe that movie freaked her out. We both thought it was lame. She would have seen it as a teen. I'm sure that it was to her like Friday the 13th was to me. That time of your life.

I used to watch a lot of those movies in the 70s/80s, but not so much these days.

 

[InTooDeep]

First - Ghost Busters 2. I was about 3 or 4 years old and I never really paid attention to TV, but I just happened to stop and look when the baby almost got eaten in the bathtub. That sent me on a no bath policy for a few months.
I rarely watch horror/suspense movies. Probably because of that experience!
Last - Event Horizon. Creepy

 

[sergiodeblanc]

I'm all up in this man! I love Halloween and horror movies!

This is a tough one though..I have so many that scared the f#@k outta me. But It was always a tie between The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th. But hands down... The one that freaked me out and forced me to lose all the cooI that I (that I thought) possessed was Nightmare on Elm Street...Yup, the first nightmare sequence with her friend in a bloody bodybag made my "pseudo cool" get up and run straight out of the theatre arms a flailing...I sat there paralyzed with fear just wanting it to be over.

When it finally was over my date...wanted to go "parking" in a new subdivision,?77 not far from her parents house. I remember thinkin...Nope, uh-uh, aint happenin...f@$k all of that! You want me to park in a culdisac next to some woods, without street lights and with nobody within screaming distance awwww hell naaaww...boobs or no boobs..."parking" was all the way outta the the question.

Being of the parachute pants, muscle shirt with the Japanese flag on it, mullett wearing, dangly cross earring kickin, pseudo tough guy persuasion, it was the scariest and most humbling date ever...and I slept with the lights on for about a month.

I watched N.E.S. last year and I remember thinking...man, this is most ridiculous movie I've ever seen...how did this scare me to the point of blowing off an almost 100% chance of at least getting to 2nd base... yeah, NES did that...


So it goes like this....

First~Texas Chainsaw Massacre....

Last~Nightmare on Elm Street...

*

The bathtub scene in Nightmare has probably stuck with me longer than I care to admit. Any time I had to slip back and dunk my head to wash off the shampoo.... there was a little fear that I’d get pulled down.

Last (and lasting- I still refuse to watch it again): The Shining.

Due to this film, I still am cautious opening the hallway closet hamper door

I’m wary of twins because of that movie, I’m pretty sure that was the beginning of my (unwarranted) prejudice towards them.

 

[Dirty_Boogie]

Being old school, The Tingler with Vincent Price & Black Christmas with Oliva Hussey

I keep the "Tingler" in my bottom drawer with a bunch of other movies, but they're not horror movies.

Oh, never mind...

 

[sergiodeblanc]

For the first I'd have to say "Jaws". I know, technically not a horror movie, but I remember jumping out of my skin when the head floated by the hole in the boat while they were scuba diving...

I have no problem classifying Jaws as a horror movie. My god! Who hasn’t been permanently changed because of seeing that movie?

And how is music scary? The genius of John Williams, two notes have never been more powerful.

 

[dmatthews]

The first...

I was 8 or so... Lol!

 

[Huggy Love]

I'm not too much of a straight up horror fan, when it comes to far out movie ideas I go more sci fi but they can border on being horror flix.

1st - Godzilla with Raymond Burr, everybody loves a rubber suit monster.

(So many in between, like The Thing (80s version), Alien, Aliens, etc. but they're all sci fi)

Last (and only true horror movie on my list) The Evil Dead films, I need a good chuckle when looking at fake blood.

 

[dogrocketp]

My first was "Creature From The Black Lagoon" I was about 6, and my friend lied to his mother and my parents about what we were seeing. The last and most scary...............The Kavanaugh confirmation hearings. I live in Washington, DC. Enough about that.

 

[Alnus Rubra]

I keep the "Tingler" in my bottom drawer with a bunch of other movies, but they're not horror movies.

Oh, never mind...

I was wondering what differentiated you from “clean” Boogie! Now I know!


I think Aliens scared the bejesus out of me! Slasher horrors used to make me laugh.

A psychological thriller always had more effect.

The box scene from 7even, your mind playing tricks on you, making up what was in there!

The baseball scene in “Walking Dead”! It was the build up and not really the bloody bit.

 

[Tosca]

Nothing has ever terrified me like this...

 

[walrus]

First - Twilight Zone with William Shatner with the thing on the plane wing.

Second - the first "Halloween" movie.

There will be no more, I'm much too scared by this stuff.

 

[ScottR]

I’m wary of twins because of that movie, I’m pretty sure that was the beginning of my (unwarranted) prejudice towards them.

Pretty sure they were Gingers too...unwarranted? I think not...