Which films did you see at too young an age?

MakeEmLaugh

What are some films – or scenes from films – which you saw at too young an age, and which frightened or disturbed you? For me, there are lots, but two off the top of my head...

Murphy's dead – Robocop

The scene in which Murphy (Peter Weller) is shot to death in Robocop disturbed the hell out of me. When Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith – Red from That '70s Show) blows Murphy's hand off with a shotgun, and his goons burst into laughter... man did that freak me out when I was about 9 or 10.

The scene was later extended in the 'Director's Cut' which included more bullet wounds, etc, but the hand literally disintegration with the blast was by far the most extreme moment.

The Silence of the Lambs - Buffalo Bill's dance

Also, the scene in The Silence of the Lambs when transvestite (or possibly transgender) serial killer Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine) dances in front of the mirror to 'Goodbye Horses' by Q Lazzarus, tucking his genitals between his legs... I definitely should not have seen that when I was 7 or 8, or however old I was.

P_Cash

Phantom of the opera

Dubl07

Bambi. I howled so loudly and for so long after his mother died that I had to be removed from the cinema.

P_Cash

Dubl07 wrote: »

Bambi. I howled so loudly and for so long after his mother died that I had to be removed from the cinema.

Ur mid 30s to? Lol. That was my first cinema movie

seankb

Nightmare on elm street not a good idea didn't sleep for a while after that.

Right Turn Clyde

My father was terribly irresponsible when I was a kid. The only 70s/80s horror film that I didn't see by the time I was 10 was The Exorcist, and that's only because it wasn't available at the time. To that you can add all of the usual Hollywood thrillers and violent action films.

Then there's Clint Eastwood. My dad would wake me up at 1am because one of the Dirty Harry films was starting. He'd start frying sausages and we'd just sit there stuffing our faces watching Harry Callahan dishing out his right-wing justice to sex-pests. I couldn't have been more than 8 at the time.

Honestly, I think it was the making of me. When I was a teenager and all of my mates were trying to sneak into American Pie, I was at home watching 70-year old gangster flicks and spaghetti westerns. I'm still a huge film fan today and I owe it all to my dad and his idiosyncratic 'parenting'.

MakeEmLaugh

P_Cash wrote: »

Phantom of the opera

Which version?

phobia2011

Animal Farm!!!!

Dirty Dingus McGee

First film I ever saw in the cinema was Ace Ventura Pet Detective.

I was 7 or 8 and I didn't really understand that one of the characters was a man dressed as a woman (at least I think that's what it was I haven't seen the film since then

ahnowbrowncow

Right Turn Clyde wrote: »

My father was terribly irresponsible when I was a kid. The only 70s/80s horror film that I didn't see by the time I was 10 was The Exorcist, and that's only because it wasn't available at the time. To that you can add all of the usual Hollywood thrillers and violent action films.

Then there's Clint Eastwood. My dad would wake me up at 1am because one of the Dirty Harry films was starting. He'd start frying sausages and we'd just sit there stuffing our faces watching Harry Callahan dishing out his right-wing justice to sex-pests. I couldn't have been more than 8 at the time.

Honestly, I think it was the making of me. When I was a teenager and all of my mates were trying to sneak into American Pie, I was at home watching 70-year old gangster flicks and spaghetti westerns. I'm still a huge film fan today and I owe it all to my dad and his idiosyncratic 'parenting'.

Least you didn't turn out to be a serial killer..... right?

ButtersSuki

Right Turn Clyde wrote: »

My father was terribly irresponsible when I was a kid. The only 70s/80s horror film that I didn't see by the time I was 10 was The Exorcist, and that's only because it wasn't available at the time. To that you can add all of the usual Hollywood thrillers and violent action films.

Then there's Clint Eastwood. My dad would wake me up at 1am because one of the Dirty Harry films was starting. He'd start frying sausages and we'd just sit there stuffing our faces watching Harry Callahan dishing out his right-wing justice to sex-pests. I couldn't have been more than 8 at the time.

Honestly, I think it was the making of me. When I was a teenager and all of my mates were trying to sneak into American Pie, I was at home watching 70-year old gangster flicks and spaghetti westerns. I'm still a huge film fan today and I owe it all to my dad and his idiosyncratic 'parenting'.

I think your dad is my dad...

enda1

IT

I saw this at far too young and impressionable an age. The only recurrent nightmares I've ever had were because of this. Truly terrifying for a young me. I'm 30 now and many of my friends went through the same 'right of passage'.

eet fuk

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

First film I ever saw in the cinema was Ace Ventura Pet Detective.

I was 7 or 8 and I didn't really understand that one of the characters was a man dressed as a woman (at least I think that's what it was I haven't seen the film since then

I actually only watched that again a few nights ago as I was feeling nostalgic!

There is so much in it that went straight over my head as a kid. As an adult though - it really is a phenomenal flick! You should re-watch it now that you've lost your innocence!!!

quarryman

Watership Down.

Sheeeeit

The Exorcist when I was around 10, had nightmares for months.

Sam Kade

Not a film, wanderly wagon that fox was a scary b@stard when you're 5 or 6

antodeco

IT definitely!

Also can add The exorcist, Poltergeist, Gremlins!

316

50 shades of grey, its full of riding.

Cianmcliam

The original 1980 version of 'The Fog'. Saw it when I was around 8 or 9 and after the scene where the demonic dead people are cutting through a locked bedroom door to try and kill the little boy and the terrified old babysitter woman I couldn't sleep in a room with a locked door for years! I would rather they waltzed right in and got me in my sleep than go through that.

xavier8228

Saw aliens when I was 12 and it scared the crap out of me. Straight after it was over I had to wash the dishes in front of a window at night. It was really dark and I was terrified an alien would jump up and attack me!

Simi

The Assassin is the one that sticks out in my mind. It was supposed to be Fireman Sam! Video shop mixed up the tapes. Made it as far the lethal injection scene before I turned it off shivering. Put me off the death penalty for life. I would have been 5 or 6 maybe.

Senna

Children of the Corn when I was 6, not because of the gore but it was just unsettling and eerie, can't even remember anything about it, but I think there was always something evil following the kids but you never seen it, the kids just talked to it.
Must watch it again

Sam Kade

Senna wrote: »

Children of the Corn when I was 6, not because of the gore but it was just unsettling and eerie, can't even remember anything about it, but I think there was always something evil following the kids but you never seen it, the kids just talked to it.
Must watch it again

Children of the stones was some eerie sh1t also.

Right Turn Clyde

Senna wrote: »

Children of the Corn when I was 6, not because of the gore but it was just unsettling and eerie, can't even remember anything about it, but I think there was always something evil following the kids but you never seen it, the kids just talked to it.
Must watch it again

"He wants you too Malachi."

Love that film.

unjedilike

Reservoir Dogs. Hated it until I watched it again 20 years later.

North of 32

The Evil Dead when I was around 9/10. Good film I thought.

Gore and violence didn't faze me, but I definitely saw too much and struggled with some scenes of a sexual nature.

Although I wish I had never seen this. At any age: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZEy3jl1G5U

samsid

didn't anyone see the Bruce Lee or other 'Kung Fu' movies from the 70's? Charles Bronson movies, 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Death Race
2000, the one with Stallone & David Carradine, 'Confessions movies, Dirty Harry movies, all before the age of 15, many more, but the memory is dimming, cinemas were very complacent back then.....

saralou2011

Childs play. Think i was around 7 when i saw it scared the sh1te out of me. I was scared of my own toys for ages. Even now ventriloquist dolls freak me out

NachoBusiness

When I was eleven ('83) we got our first VCR.

Must have watched Porkys a millon times. Well, certain scenes.

Buttros

Poltergeist when I was prob 8 or 9. Had to be walked across the road home afterwards as I was terrified.

Also remember candyman frightening the bejesus outta me

MattB11

Sleepy flipin Hollow, convinced myself every night for a month after that the horseman was gonna come out of the woods next to my house to get me.

Arghus

I talked in the "most chilling death" thread, at length, about the effect watching T2 had on mini-me when I saw it first. Some of it good; other parts not so much, so I won't rehash that all here now again, just to say on the whole - yeah probably too young.

There's only one other clear example of a film that I wasn't equipped to deal with at the time that I saw it - Jurassic Park. I was six when it came out, and, boy oh boy, was I excited. Those who would have been the same age at the time will, I'm sure, recall the all encompassing mania that existed for Dinosaurs, back then around in late 92/early 93. And I was dinosaur fan number one - I collected the magazine, I built the glow in the dark skeleton, wanted to be a paleontologist when I grew up; the whole shebang. And I knew, for a fact, that my life would not be complete until I'd seen Jurassic Park; it couldn't be anything less than the greatest movie of all time.

Of course, being six and being only used to a cinema diet of cartoons didn't really prepare me well for the sensory onslaught of huge loud dinosaurs. My enthusiasm for all things terrible lizard was no match for raw terror. The opening scene - with the hidden raptor lashing out and attacking a random park employee - had me prepped for a wild ride, filled with my fear glands working overtime, pumping me full of whatever it is that reduces people to the state of a babbling inchoate mess. Too much noise, too much death, too big a screen - Too much, too soon.

Having said that I'm sort of glad that I saw it at that age. It wouldn't have made such an impression on me if I had been a few years older. I would have been filled with cynical disdain and probably would have convinced myself that it was crap. At least I was still wet enough behind the ears to be genuinely blown away by it, like a young kid was supposed to be. Who cares if I nearly soiled my jocks in the process? The memories remain and sure, back then, I wouldn't have been doing my own washing anyhow.

Aside from that, there wasn't much from childhood that I couldn't handle. From seven or eight onwards I'd been sharply desensitized. I do remember watching Die Hard quite young and thinking it was class. It was a cultural fact of primary school life that there was a sub-section of kids who had seemingly seen everything and would talk endlessly about it. Those were the years before girls entered our thinking, so when we'd tire of playing football or talking about football, some boys would talk endlessly about Robocop or Aliens. Aliens was particularly big round my schoolyard. I felt like I'd seen it a million times before I actually laid eyes on it. By then, tales of facehuggers and flamethrowers were like the playground equivalent of old Norse myths: extant since the dawn of time. Whether these tiny kids had actually seen these films, or were just parroting what they'd heard elsewhere, was hard to ascertain, but you were a cool dude if you'd supposedly seen Demolition Man, no mistake. Details of movies were usually drip-fed out to the uninitiated, prefaced by the phrase - "There's this bit in it..." .

I remember one day in school the guy sitting beside me couldn't stop talking about Total Recall, it had been on TV the night before. He'd defintely seen it because one element of the whole thing in particular had left him extremely enthusiastic - "There's this bit in it - a woman... with three boobs!".

Janey Mac, I thought, if I ever see that - then I'll know that I'll have made it.

DyldeBrill

Watched the directors cut of the Exorcist with my nana when I was 8 years old. My god I couldn't sleep properly for a good 2 weeks afterwards without thinking of that demonic face haha. It wouldn't bother me at all now but no way was it for an 8 year olds viewing....dunno what my nana was thinking ha

promises

The Labyrinth, to this day I have not seen it since. It's probably not scary at all but seen it when I was about 5/6 and had nightmares for ages. I'm still to scared to watch it.

Billy86

My next door neighbour growing up was only a few months the younger than me so we became friends. His brother was about 5 or 6 years older, and if my parents were heading out for the night they would let him babysit me and my two sisters, throw him some money, and give him free reign of the fridge and TV.

They is where I, as a 4 or 5 year old first saw The Invitation and It. The two of them haunted me for years until seeing them in the last few months, and howling with laughter at how awful they were (It especially). Still have to get through some Nightmare on Elm streets, Friday the 13ths and of course, the Tommy Knockers, to shake the rest of my remaining trauma, mind.

SpaceTime

Terminator

NachoBusiness

SpaceTime wrote: »

Terminator

Same here actually. Was 13 and watched it a crappy TV and we struggled with the tracking for ages. Remember being so excited to see it. Got it off this guy who used to have a video shop in the back of his van and every week we would get 10 films for £10. After we saw it we were in awe. Great times.

SpaceTime

NachoBusiness wrote: »

Same here actually. Was 13 and watched it a crappy TV and we struggled with the tracking for ages. Remember being so excited to see it. Got it off this guy who used to have a video shop in the back of his van and every week we would get 10 films for £10. After we saw it we were in awe. Great times.

I think I was about 8!

biketard

The Dear Hunter. The Russian Roulette scene where Christopher Walken meets his end haunted me for many months, maybe even years.

Also, Creepshow. One of the stories has a scene where a couple comes back from the dead and go to their killer's house to get their revenge. I had to go to sleep with the light on for the rest of that summer.

Ageyev

I watched heaps of 18s films as a child but the scene in Hook where the baby is left alone in the street caused me more distress than anything in Die Hard, Rambo, Alien, Lethal Weapon etc

Simi

promises wrote: »

The Labyrinth, to this day I have not seen it since. It's probably not scary at all but seen it when I was about 5/6 and had nightmares for ages. I'm still to scared to watch it.

I dreamt about the junk lady scene for years after I saw it. Great film.

Bobby Baccala

My grandad made me watch IT at the age of 4! Absolutely terrified me

Saw Scarface when I was 8 or so as well, and the exorcist around the same time, the exorcist made me hide under my duvet balling my eyes out for about an hour

Gadgie

Terminator 2. The dream sequence of the nuke going off in LA, with Sarah Connor screaming while her flesh is being burned and blasted off. Terrifying.

Robocop. The Murphy death scene. Very disturbing.

I don't think my parents let me watch these films, but I used to sneak downstairs at night and hide behind the sofa or curtains to watch whatever they had on TV.

_Kaiser_

When I saw the thread title I immediately thought "RoboCop" as well! Not just the Murphy death, but earlier when poor Kenny gets blasted by ED-209 in the conference room.. ah squibs, terrifying for a young mind!

I'd also say the first Nightmare on Elm Street.. admittedly they later became almost comedic but it had such an effect on young impressionable me that to this day I don't generally watch horror films.

Zubeneschamali

The one I remember is being kept up late by my dad and older brothers to watch Quatermass and the Pit, aged maybe 8. Scared the crap out of me.

From wikipedia, I see that the censor Trevelyan replied that the film would require an 'X'-Certificate and raised concerns regarding the sound of the vibrations from the alien ship, the scenes of the Martian massacre, the scenes of destruction and panic as the Martian influence takes hold and the image of the Devil.

The Devil did not bother me, it was mainly that vibration that got me. Went to bed shaking.

Chip Whitley

I was 9 and saw a scene from Species where a guy gets torn in half while sitting in a cubicle. Freaked me out for ages. Watched it with a cousin who was allowed watch 18's films and it didnt faze him at all. He was all about Aliens, Predator Robocop and I was still in the Ghostbusters, Home Alone, Big, Back to the Future mould of films.

My parents were great with allowing us to watch movies we definitely wouldn't have otherwise. One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest when I was around 10. Didn't understand a bit of it. Silence of the Lambs. It's why when I've got kids i plan on traumatizing the absolute **** out of them.

darkdubh

When I was about three or four I saw the opening sequence to Roman Polanksis Macbeth on the telly which shows a wounded soldier being battered to death with a mace and chain,the next sequence after it is this with the witches,the bit with the severed arm freaked me out completey,I don't remember seeing any more of it after that.It was only when I saw it again years later as an adult that I knew what it was.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZcFnZ2ZMR0

D'Agger

Couldn't agree more with the Murphy scene from Robocop - absolutely terrified me

There's a movie called witches or The Witches I believe where there's a witch convention in a hotel, Rowan Atkinson is in it I believe, anyway they pin a child to a table for sneaking into the hall & make him swallow something that turns him into a mouse, scared the shíte out of a very young me at the time!

sKeith

D'Agger wrote: »

Couldn't agree more with the Murphy scene from Robocop - absolutely terrified me

There's a movie called witches or The Witches I believe where there's a witch convention in a hotel, Rowan Atkinson is in it I believe, anyway they pin a child to a table for sneaking into the hall & make him swallow something that turns him into a mouse, scared the shíte out of a very young me at the time!

An age appropriate scare. That a movie conversion of the Roald Dahls kids book.

biko

One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest at around seven.
Great film but I was too young for that stuff.