The first horror movie you remember seeing as a kid?

[John Corn]

I'm pretty sure it was "THE WOLFMAN" with Lon Chaney Jr.

BTW, that was on T.V., "not" at the movies! Not quite "that" old. ;)

[Steve Mehs]

Child's Play back in 1990, I was all of 5 years old :)

[sampatterson]

Dr. Phibes at an airforce movie theatre on Wake Island when I was 5 or 6. (My dad worked at the airport on Wake)

[Karl Foster]

Mine was Jaws at a drive in theater with my family. Scared the crap out of me.

[gcutler]

My baby sitter (the teenage son of a neighbor) made me and my older brother watch "Psycho" when it was on TV (early 70s). I was soooo freaked out, only saving grace was I probably didn't understand alot of it, freaked out my brother also as he probably understood more of the movie.

[RichW]

In the 50's Chicago TV station (now WLS-TV) ran a series of horror movies every late Saturday Night. It was called "Shock Theatre" and they showed all the "classic horror films" like Frankenstein, Dracula, Wolfman, Dracula meets Wolfman, Wolfman meets Frankenstein, Three Monsters at Starbucks (just kidding), etc.

These were scary pix of their time, but were watchable by young kids. The intermissions were fun. They were run by a live host who had severall funny, scary skits.

After that, the most scary and depressing movie I saw was "The Incredible Shrinking Man" at the drive-in. It was depressing, as well as scary, because it did not have a "happy ending".

[Steve Mehs]

What's a really good horror movie? I mean one that will scare almost anyone. I want to see a horror movie that will scare me to death. Everything I've seen doesn't scare me and most of them are lame. I WANT to feel like whatever is going on in the movie could happen to me as soon as I turn the TV off and go to bed. The original Halloween was good, Scream was a joke, Child's Play was alight, but nothing to brag about. Stephen King movies are really good but they have to do with more of the paranormal horror then horror horror. Any suggestions?

[toomuchtv]

My first was "Masque of the Red Death" w/ Vincent Price. I was very young but still remember the experience vividly. Not very many new "scary" movies actually are these days. We've seen it all by now. They tend to substitute gore & violence for suspense & drama. "The Others" is the best one I've seen in a long time.

[Frapp]

The "Wolfman" with Lon Chaney, Jr may also be the first for me, as well as a few of the old famous Transylvania vampire movies that use to be on every weekend.

I must admit though, when I first read this thread, the main one that popped up in my head was the all time great: "Night Of The Living Dead" , in 1968, which possibly is ( in it`s own simplistic way ) the best horror movie of it`s time :shrug:

Here is a picture for reference:
http://images.auctionworks.com/fullView.asp?img=http://images.auctionworks.com/hi/43/43370/night_of_the_living_dead_bps.jpg

[TNGTony]

The first movie that gave me nightmares was "Andromeda Strain" in 1971. (I was 10). This is the first "grown-up" movie I remember going to with my brothers and sister. I loved the movie but I dremt of that cut wrist bleeding granularized blood for years! The interesting thing was that this part was cut out of the TV showings most of the time. After a while I thought the dream was just a manifestation and never in the flick. But when I bought the movie on laser disc years ago, I finally got to the the movie uncut and in its original aspect ratio for the first time in 25 years. And there it was...it was in a dream sequence when one of the doctors dozed off in level three.

The monster movies never did anything for me. Even as a kid, I was uninterested in such things.

See ya
Tony

[waydwolf]

    Hmmm... "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory". The combination of Jack Albertson and Gene Wilder in one place scarred me horribly and filled my nights with nightmares for a long time. True horror.

    On the other hand, years later, I nearly laughed myself into pulmonary arrest watching "Wise Blood".

    Okay, so I'm not your average movie viewer.

 

 

[Crazy 1]

My all time favorite that scared me as a child was The Excorcist ( the original version) made back in the late 70's. That gave me nightmares for a long time.

[TNGTony]

The original Exorcist was released in 1973. GREAT scary movie. But I didn't get to see it until about 1981 or so.

See ya
Tony

[Crazy 1]

Sorry, I got the release year wrong :o I suffer from c.r.s. most of the time :) . I love horror movies and the supernatural ect.

[marko]

Xtro, or something like that. Saw that when I was about 10. That movie scared the crap out of me, till this day. Dad messed up getting that one.

[BobMurdoch]

The Omen. It was on HBO and my babysitter let me watch it wih her. Big mistake. Nightmares for a week.

I used to bug the S. out of her to let me watch films on HBO (this is the mid seventies) and I think she did it to get me to quit bugging her. I'm not sure of how old I was but it would have been when the Omen hit HBO 12 months after its' theatrical release and I'm guessing I was around 10 years old as I was born in 1966.

[RichW]

Well, if we have moved on to the scariest movie ever, for me it had to be Alien, which I watched at a movie house on the big screen. There was something about the pacing of that movie that had me jumping out of my seat.

[Lyle_JP]

The NBC broadcast of John Carpenter's Halloween. I was in 2nd grade, and was hooked on horror films ever since. I still have a warm spot in my heart for the late 70s and 80s slasher flicks. Heck, who else would spend $40 for the Prom Night laserdisc on its release day? :)

[gcutler]

Originally posted by BobMurdoch
The Omen. It was on HBO and my babysitter let me watch it wih her. Big mistake. Nightmares for a week.

I used to bug the S. out of her to let me watch films on HBO (this is the mid seventies) and I think she did it to get me to quit bugging her. I'm not sure of how old I was but it would have been when the Omen hit HBO 12 months after its' theatrical release and I'm guessing I was around 10 years old as I was born in 1966.

Gee, Born in 66 and had HBO in 76, what a coincidence. Was that when HBO didn't come on till like 4-6pm? No cable back then in Brooklyn but they added a sat dish on top of building since 160 families lived in building.

I wonder if your Babysitter got in trouble as I'm sure you totally ratted her out to your parents when you started having nightmares (I did the same thing, at 10 you don't realize you are ratting someone out like that, when you're heavy with nightmares) :p

[Richard King]

Probably my first was Creature from the Black Lagoon in the theater back in the mid to late '50's. Others that haven't been mentioned: The Incredible Shrinking Man, The Thing (original with Matt Dillon (the sherriff, not the actor)) as the creature, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Godzilla (original, with Perry Mason).

[spanishannouncetable]

I vividly remember watching "The Night Stalker" starring Darren McGavin when it first aired back in 1972. I was 9, my brother Mark was 8 and my youngest brother Jason was 6.

We all had nightmares that night :D

[jrjcd]

the scariest movie i remember as a child was a jewel called "fiend without a face", about invisible brains of the dead coming back and killing the living after the feds fired up a newfangled teat model atomic reactor...at the end, they turned up the juice to make the brains visible, and the sight of those little brains with their spinal cords whipping about like tentacles kept me up for weeks- i STILL don't like films with whipping about tentacles to this day!!!!lol

[Augie #70]

When I was small (relatively) my family watched "The Birds" - very scary

[gcutler]

Not a horror movie but I remember watching some movie as a little kid (probably no older than 5) where there was a Football team pep "Bonfire" and they were throwing dummies dressed in opposition football uniforms into the bonfire. My brother told me they were real people being thrown into the fire. That totally freaked me out. For months I thought I was in danger of randomly being tossed into a bonfire. OLDER BROTHERS SUCK!!! :D

[apc1]

The first horror movie I remember seeing is the original Fri. the 13th. Great flick. Now for the TV fan, does anyone remember the "Creature Double Feature" that aired on Sundays in the late 70's - early 80's? They were classic.
But i'd say a genuine movie that scared the living s%$t out of me was "The Hitcher" or the "The Hitchhiker" (can't remember) with Rutger Hauer and C. Thomas Howell. Few can touch the level of suspense in that movie.

[BobMurdoch]

Originally posted by gcutler


Gee, Born in 66 and had HBO in 76, what a coincidence. Was that when HBO didn't come on till like 4-6pm? No cable back then in Brooklyn but they added a sat dish on top of building since 160 families lived in building.

I wonder if your Babysitter got in trouble as I'm sure you totally ratted her out to your parents when you started having nightmares (I did the same thing, at 10 you don't realize you are ratting someone out like that, when you're heavy with nightmares) :p

Yes, HBO didn't come on until 6pm at night. They had a vertical crawl listing the shows and a plot synopsis on that night (kind of like the endcredits from a movie). EXCEPT at around 2pm when they would run promos for the local cablecompany to lift for their use. It was cool because you could see the coming attractions for the next month before they put them in regular rotation.

No, I didn't rat her out as I was the one who talked her into it and figured that "I" would be the one to get into trouble for even asking.

[Unthinkable]

I have early memories of Jaws, Jaws 2, The Shining, The Exorcist, and a movie called Pieces.

[waydwolf]

Originally posted by spanishannouncetable
I vividly remember watching "The Night Stalker" starring Darren McGavin when it first aired back in 1972. I was 9, my brother Mark was 8 and my youngest brother Jason was 6.

We all had nightmares that night :D

    Was that due to Darren McGavin's acting or his suit? Both sort of hurt my eyes when Sci-Fi Channel played it.

 

[HTguy]

The 1st movies I can remember that really scared me were the Roger Corman adaptions of Edgar Allan Poe stories with Vincent Price like House of Usher andThe Pit and the Pendulum.

They don't seem so scary now but then I was only 10 or 11 and going to the movies with my friends for the 1st times (without parental supervision.)

We used to sit in the front row. During the "scary" parts I would hold my hands over my eyes & peek though my fingers! :eek2:

The only subsequent films I can think of that came close to giving me that gooseflesh & butterflies-in-the-tummy chill are Jaws and (the original) Alien.
:ewww:

[sorahl]

this easy :).

i was 10. my dad took me to see Alien in the theatre. i went to the bathroom like 25 times :)

[Martyva]

I was 9 years old, and had the mumps. "Mary Worth" on the radio was the first horror in my life, since then every movie has been a "Rocky Horror Picture Show"

[gcutler]

Originally posted by Martyva
I was 9 years old, and had the mumps. "Mary Worth" on the radio was the first horror in my life, since then every movie has been a "Rocky Horror Picture Show"

Does that mean you see Alien Transvestites everywhere??? :p

[STXJim]

This is such a great thread! :)
Since post one I have been thinking.......
And I don't know. There were so many I can't remember.
All I can tell you is that I was such Horror fan that I subscribed to "Famous Monsters of Filmland".
Anyone else remember that mag?

[HarryD]

I would have to say Dracula w/ Bela and Frankenstein with Boris.
Used to see these movies on WPIX channel 11 in NY.
Of course, now-a-days, these are mild.

[razorbackfan]

Forbidden Planet

[toomuchtv]

Many of us could add another one to the list if we thought about it..."The Wizard Of Oz". It may not be thought of as a scary movie, but be honest, it put a little shiver in your spine, didn't it?

[Kevin G]

The earliest movie that I remember scaring the crap out of me was watching 'Racing With The Devil' on TV. I was in 3rd grade and I got nightmares.

I'd say the freakiest movie I've seen recently would be The Ring. It actually was freaky in spots.