Which films did you see at too young an age?

seamus

Yeah, saw a lot of movies I shouldn't have at very young ages. Like Aliens or Robocop or whatever. I remember being in a hotel room with my brothers on a family holiday at ten years old watching Predator 2. Having seen Predator already a couple of years before. The second one was weird, I didn't have a clue what was going on.

Funnily enough I don't remember the hand scene in Robocop being very scary, it was the scene at the end where the guy gets melted by the toxic waste and explodes across the windshield that scared the crap out of me.

I do also remember IT being scary, but not really in the nightmare way.

The only thing I can remember being properly scary was Superman 3. But I think I was about 4 years old when I saw it, and there's some part where someone turns into a robot or something made me go and hide behind the couch, shaking with fear. Haven't actually seen that movie since, only because it's never on telly. IMDB tells me it's sh1t.

Lone Shark

quarryman wrote: »

Watership Down.

This all the way. I was in floods of tears when it looked as if Hazel had died and Fiver was looking for him.


Further on, I remember watching In the Name of the Rose one night when I was round 12 or 13. That freaked the bejeesus out of me.

zzfh

Robocop and i seen American history x when i was 12.

Drumpot

Poltergeist . . .

Still freaks me out today . .

I found the Robocop scene where murphy is executed quite horrifying as a child.

I loved Aliens and didn't find it scary at all. I remember spending hours using two video players to make my own trailer for the movie! I think it was because its less "real" and Robocop and poltergeist are things that seem more real/likely when you are young . .

8mv

My uncle was manager of a cinema when I was young. I used to make my way down every so often. Once when I was 10 or 11 I looked in the local paper to see what was playing and decided to go to the cinema to see "Herbie Rides Again". I got to the cinema, waved to the guy in the box office and went in to sit down. Maybe I'd checked an out-of-date paper because I got to see "Papillon" which was grand until the scene where the guy is running through the forest and trips the man-trap with the wooden stakes.

MarkY91

The exorcist.

My god, I had terrifying nightie ordeals due to that movie. Nowadays it's so old and not scary that it's comical to me

Drumpot

seamus wrote: »

Yeah, saw a lot of movies I shouldn't have at very young ages. Like Aliens or Robocop or whatever. I remember being in a hotel room with my brothers on a family holiday at ten years old watching Predator 2. Having seen Predator already a couple of years before. The second one was weird, I didn't have a clue what was going on.

Funnily enough I don't remember the hand scene in Robocop being very scary, it was the scene at the end where the guy gets melted by the toxic waste and explodes across the windshield that scared the crap out of me.

I do also remember IT being scary, but not really in the nightmare way.

The only thing I can remember being properly scary was Superman 3. But I think I was about 4 years old when I saw it, and there's some part where someone turns into a robot or something made me go and hide behind the couch, shaking with fear. Haven't actually seen that movie since, only because it's never on telly. IMDB tells me it's sh1t.

Im with you on superman 3. I found it distressing watching one of the villians get turned into a psychotic robot. And then the machine trys to robo up superman! How horrifying!

I watched all the original supermen no blu ray recently. You can get them for €30 or so and its worth it for a trip down memory lane and two versions of superman 2!

Really enjoyed them. If you thought 3 was bad, just watch superman 4. Watched it all the way through and couldn't believe Gene Hackman allowed himself to be in such a turd of a movie. I also cannot believe that no matter how restrictive a budget you have, that anybody couldn't make a better movie!

Pinch Flat

The Omen. I was in the scouts in the early 80s so perhaps 11 or 12. We were staying in mount mellary, a monastery in the comeragh mountains, around Halloween which on any day is creepy enough.

Nothing ever really scared me or upset me as a child but I did watch Event Horizion after it aired on BBC, can still remember cycling to a a friend of my Dad's to collect the VHS before hurrying home with it. Ended up watching it late at night on my own while everyone else was asleep in bed and at one point had to get up and turn on a light. There was just such a sense of unease throughout it that was genuinely creepy and I've always wanted to see the longer uncut version which is supposed to be even creepier.

dazberry

My father had a tendency to fall asleep in front of the TV, and while it wasn't often, one evening my mother was out so I got to watch the late night film. I was about 8 or 9 and the film was called The Day of the Locust.

A guy (Homer Simpson - I kid you not) who wasn't the full shilling is provoked by a young girl:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1lZ479wSyQ

and in a rage her kills her and is ripped apart by an angry mob [NSFW]:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFSWmfqMp7o

About this point I was so disturbed by the whole thing - I started crying. My father woke up and told me to be quiet or I was going to bed, and promptly fell back asleep. So I sat there quietly sniffling while the crowd tore Homer apart and proceeded to riot.

D.

seamus

dazberry wrote: »

A guy (Homer Simpson - I kid you not) who wasn't the full shilling is provoked by a young girl:

That's Donald Sutherland

Edit: D'oh, looked on IMDB, I see what you mean

TouchingVirus

My older cousin used to look after me the odd time when I was young (6-8 years of age). We watched T2: Judgement Day and the T1000 scared the shíte out of me - he couldn't be shot dead, could run as fast as a car and could spike you in your eyeball with his finger. No wonder it scared me. Event Horizon freaked me out when I was 11 - lights on with the cushion nearby to hide sort of stuff. Same for Aliens and The Omen - I've never gone back to them

There were many other films I watched that didn't scare me but I didn't "get" because I was too young - Full Metal Jacket & Platoon when i was 10, American History X when I was 13, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest / Goodfellas when I was 11 or 12. I don't count anything I've seen when I was younger as irresponsible parenting and I think these early experiences shaped my film watching habits - both the fact that I love movies and the genres I choose to watch.

chanelfreak

Deleted User wrote: »

Nothing ever really scared me or upset me as a child but I did watch Event Horizion after it aired on BBC, can still remember cycling to a a friend of my Dad's to collect the VHS before hurrying home with it. Ended up watching it late at night on my own while everyone else was asleep in bed and at one point had to get up and turn on a light. There was just such a sense of unease throughout it that was genuinely creepy and I've always wanted to see the longer uncut version which is supposed to be even creepier.

I went to see Event Horizon in the cinema with my dad, I was 14 and thought I was as cool as. Well muthera god, it frightened the absolute LIFE out of me! Genuinely had to sleep in my mam and dad's best for a week afterwards (I'd say my poor dad got some grief for that ) I'd LOVE to see the extended version, so if you ever come across it will you let me know where you got it? Ta

I'll never forget seeing Watership Down and that p0xy song Bright Eyes still reduces me to a snotty mess if it catches me unawares on the radio or something. I was in Senior Infants at the time and our airhead of a teacher put it on for us as a last day of school treat - no word of a lie, she scarred 12 or so kids for life

Another poster mentioned Children of the Corn - the first ever scary film I watched was Children of the Corn 2 or 3, I cant remember which one now to be honest. My weird older cousin decided to let me watch it with her when she was babysitting and to this day, I havent been able to watch any of them. They probably are in no way scary to an adult, but still!

I never saw, nor ever want to see, IT. Even now, at the ripe old age of 32, I have to cross the road if I see anyone dressed up as a clown. SHUDDER. I cant imagine what seeing that as a nipper would have done to me!

jamesieliz

one i remember was Salem's Lot on RTE back in the early 80s - i literally did not sleep at all the night after i watched it , i was like a zombie in school the next day and for many days after it , due to sleep deprivation ...the bit where the vampire kid is outside the window trying to get the other kid to let him in still scares me to this day.

Hamadeusentman

The Fly. Couldn't sleep for three months after.

check_six

I've always loved horror movies so I'd watch anything that was on from a young age. The one scene that really got to me was the bit in Salem's Lot where a young boy who has been turned into a vampire is floating in the air and scratching on a window asking his friend to let him in. I think the film was split into two parts and I don't think I've seen the second part since. My bed was right beside a gap in the curtains and I always worried about catching a glimpse of *something* floating out there.

They did a pastiche of the scene in The Simpsons in one Halloween episode I think.

check_six

jamesieliz wrote: »

one i remember was Salem's Lot on RTE back in the early 80s - i literally did not sleep at all the night after i watched it , i was like a zombie in school the next day and for many days after it , due to sleep deprivation ...the bit where the vampire kid is outside the window trying to get the other kid to let him in still scares me to this day.

Woah, that's creepily coincidental. *peeks out window*

Salem's Lot - Tapping at the window ahhhhh,I was having nightmares for years.

Greenmachine

My dad was awful irresponsible. Would drag me out of bed, if my mom was gone out for the night, as I was liable to get out of bed at night, as young as 6 or 7, I guess I would have been watching, inappropriately violent movies. Would have seen load I was not supposed to. think most of the movies, I would have seen would have been on the television could be wrong on that. The poltergeist movies, terminators, predator movies, children of the corn, alien(s). I think "the poltergeist" was the one that stuck with me the most. At one point I used to go to the house of two brother on my road, and watch, zombie movies with them and their folks. That ended pretty abruptly when my mom found out. Found the zombie movies cheesy even at that age.

Stealthfins

Jaws,The Omen all 3 actually,Angel Heart,Salems lot

I suppose Dallas and North and South were the naughty one's lol

Hamadeusentman

check_six wrote: »

I've always loved horror movies so I'd watch anything that was on from a young age. The one scene that really got to me was the bit in Salem's Lot where a young boy who has been turned into a vampire is floating in the air and scratching on a window asking his friend to let him in. I think the film was split into two parts and I don't think I've seen the second part since. My bed was right beside a gap in the curtains and I always worried about catching a glimpse of *something* floating out there.

They did a pastiche of the scene in The Simpsons in one Halloween episode I think.

What a scene. Couldn't sleep for months after! I was about 9. They filmed that scene backwards to give it a more creepy feel.

kingtiger

Jasus I saw everything as a young lad (around 9 when we got our first VHS player)

used to rent pirate videos off two lads in a van every Friday night in the 80ies

Parents were on shift work so myself and my brother saw everything we shouldnt of been watching, the one that sticks out the most was "the Exorcist" when I went to bed after watching it I thought it was vibrating

I still don't see anything wrong with this as it gave me a great appreciation of movies

check_six

Hamadeusentman wrote: »

What a scene. Couldn't sleep for months after! I was about 9. They filmed that scene backwards to give it a more creepy feel.

Backwards filming? Interesting. It is *very* unsettling for something so simple conceptually.

I don't remember Salem's Lot being on the telly that often. Did we all get traumatised by the same showing on RTE back in the day?

briany

Yeah, I'd come from the "da didn't give a f***" camp as well (there are many of us) when it came to age appropriate film viewing, coming from the days when you'd rent videos and that was pretty much the evening's entertainment. God knows there was nothing on the box with our crappy might-pick-up-BBC-depending-on-weather aerial.

Seen everything including Hellraiser, Man Bites Dog, Natural Born Criminals, Evil Dead Series. I'd say the one that traumatised me the most was Galaxy of Terror, but for entirely the wrong reasons.

Keyzer

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'.

Sounds like the coolest dad of all time...

livinsane

I saw Basic Instinct when I was 7 or 8. I lived with grandmother for a while (she was in obviously in bed when this was going on) and my 9 aunts and uncles in their teens and early twenties so saw a lot of movies that I maybe shouldn't have!

My auntie took me to see Fargo in the cinema. I was eleven and my sister was nine. I loved it though and it's still one of my favourite films.

Agent Coulson

Deleted User wrote: »

Salem's Lot - Tapping at the window ahhhhh,I was having nightmares for years.

Just coming in to say the same I was 8/9 when I saw it and it scared the sh1t out of me for years after.

Ruu

Mentioned by seamus above, the eyes!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuSsSwg9MXs

Everlong1

Peter O'Toole was in a film called Rogue Male donkey's years ago which I saw on RTE at a very young age. O'Toole plays a would be assassin who tries to kill Hitler. He's captured and tortured by the Nazis, but survives and escapes and is then hunted by Nazi agents in England.

The torture scenes and pretty much the whole film left me disturbed for years.

ButtersSuki

I'm 42 now......I know, difficult to believe with my devilishly handsome good looks and youthful appearance*. Anyway, long long ago before t'internet RTE2 used to show a horror movie every Saturday night after Match of the Day and not only was I allowed stay up for both I was actively encouraged to do so. So by the age of say 10 I'd seen at least 100 horrors movies, if not an awful lot more considering we were mad into the auld technology and had the first video player on our street. The ones that scared me the most (and I still remember vividly to this day) were The Fog, Village of the Damned, Children of the Damned, The Exorcist, The Omen and one I think I'm the only person ever to see (lol!) Something Evil. Whilst I still love the genre I haven't been properly scared since I was a teenager, which I blame my dad wholly for.

Other movies I've seen way too early were Scum (both versions), Death Wish, Death Race 2000 (original version and the first film I saw that had an X Rating), Straw Dogs and Salo. There's probably loads more I'll remember later but that's it for now.

*with thanks to the painting of one D. Gray in my attic.

shazzerman

Something Evil, if it the one I'm thinking of, was directed by Steven Spielberg. I may have seen it at exactly the same time you saw it, back when RTE2 showed horror films regularly. I caught up with it again during the year on the Horror Channel: the talent was clearly there, even back before Spielberg made his first feature: some very nice compositions and unusual angles throughout.

Tomagotchye

I remember one day my dad came home with a video of Titanic. We were all impressed because he's not really interested in films. We watched it and though I was the appropriate age it haunted me, seeing those people drowning. It was awful. I honestly started to pray to god, that he spare everyone I knew from a fate like that. I've had not prayed before, nor since that time so that goes to show you how upset I was.

Equally, I saw the Dawn of the Dead remake and got so freaked out that I had a panic attack one day when I was left alone. Not sure if that was youth (I wasn't that young) or some weird sleep deprivation hallucination but I was full on sure it would happen for real after I'd seen it.

I actually thought this tread was going to be something like what did you see that you were too young to appreciate, as in maybe you didn't get it or maybe you weren't mature enough to communicate with a character. I think that's the case I had with Jaws, watched it when I was young and it was a movie about a shark but when you watch it as an older fellow it's soooo much more.

run_Forrest_run

too many for my liking...including:

Full Metal Jacket (poor old Private Pyle in the bathroom)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hkNuykz2RE

Another totally twisted movie called Society from 1989...I really shouldn't have been watching that at the time. The 'butt cheeks' scene is just all wrong.

And a totally different one, The Champ - even as a kid I was balling...I wouldn't be able to watch it now at all, now that I have kids of my own..god no.

bnt

King Frat. Good thing I didn't understand half of it. :eek:

ButtersSuki

shazzerman wrote: »

Something Evil, if it the one I'm thinking of, was directed by Steven Spielberg. I may have seen it at exactly the same time you saw it, back when RTE2 showed horror films regularly. I caught up with it again during the year on the Horror Channel: the talent was clearly there, even back before Spielberg made his first feature: some very nice compositions and unusual angles throughout.

Yup, that's it.....an early Spielberg effort; I've recorded it from The Horror Channel for a rewatch one of these days....if I'm not too afraid (lol).

darkdubh

I remember when I was about twelve they showed this film on RTE 1 called The Light At The End Of The World.It had some pretty violent scenes in it including the lead up to a gang rape,though the scene ends before its shown and some torture killings.It was shown on a Saturday evening and it being shown at that time garnered some outraged letters to Arthur Murphys Mailbag.

Calibos

Alien when I was 6 in 1980. Noped out at the chestburster scene.

Watched all the classic 18 cert films in the 80's long before I turned 18. None affected me in the slightest except for The Thing. Always had a feeling of dread watching that no matter how many times I saw it. Funny thing was that even the mediocore CGI up the Wazzu prequel in 2011 with me in my late 30's brought back that same feeling of dread from the original Thing back in the 80's as a kid. I had to turn the light in the room back on to continue watching it

Then again, I was always much more likely to Nope out of a Sad movie than a gorey horror one. EG. I refuse to watch Marley and Me Have never seen it...will never see it. In other words, watching 'Video Nasties' as a kid did not turn me into an emotionless unempathic Psychopath. Even as a young kid I new the difference betwen fiction and reality.

MillField

The Hammer House of Horrors. Those were terrifying.

jimmythedivil

Halloween, the original one. RTE used to show it every year and for some reason my mother thought it would be totally suitable for a ten year old!

Faith+1

SpaceTime wrote: »

Terminator

Wow great story there man!

agent graves

enda1 wrote:

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'.

I was exactly the same. I could only remember the clown though so I watched it last year and that film is fcuked up..

willmunny1990

Where do I start, I watched all the movies I shouldn't have, IT, Halloween, Nightmare on elm street, and all the violent action films
and plenty more.

I remember reading the old TV guide and id be delighted if I saw a film like the ones i mentioned above on it, id go straight to my father and we would stay up late probably eating a takeaway watching them, even a school night wouldn't stop us. Have to say I loved it, did me no harm as far as I can tell.

The only one I remember regretting was the uncut version of the exorcist, that demon face haunted me for a long time, jesus i couldn't of been much more than 9-10 watching it.

But even now If there is a horror on in the cinema me and the father go and see it, however nothing will beat watching those old school horrors and 80-90s action movies back then.

ArtyM

I remember seeing a movie when I was about 10 about cockroaches that could 'fart' fire due to some radiation mutation and it scared the Bejasus out of me. There was one scene where someone answered the phone and there was a bug on the receiver and it got into their ear.
I couldn't pick up a phone for Months without checking it.

The only other movie that really scared me was the Japanese Ring, it's not that I saw it too young as I was an adult at the time, but I genuinely was freaked out by it.

JoeA3

Like a few other posters here, I also had an irresponsible Dad! I have great memories of been allowed sneak back up to the living room to watch a film after my kid sisters had finally gone to sleep. I remember watching Die Hard when I was about 10-11! Loved it then and I have seen it dozens of times since of course. Ditto the Dirty Harry series... One memory I have is that I would have confused fiction and real life. I'm pretty sure I believed I was watching a real life reconstruction when John McClane was taking on those terrorists!

I have vivid memory too of going to see one of the Superman movies in the cinema. It must have been #3. I was in absolute awe when the curtains opened wider after all the trailers/ads

FloatingVoter

Nobody gave a monkeys about what I watched once the volume stayed down. Although the Hammer House of Horrors stuff was creepy. I remember some poeple thinking they were in the aftermath of a nuclear blast - turns out just living in a bricked up dolls house. Being 10 and observing someones bad trip is fun.
The only thing I used to beg to be allowed stay up late for was Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes (RTE2 about 10.50 PM early 1980s) - not child unfriendly...just weird for a kid that age.

darkdubh

Those movies that they used to show after the Late Late Show on RTE 1 Friday nights in the 80s were probably a bit risque for my early teens self but I watched them anyway.Women In Love,The Pawnbroker, where that very sexy black girl gets her boobs out to Rod Steiger.Private Benjamin with the women in the showers scene.

biketard

Holy crap. I'd forgotten about Salem's Lot. Frightened the sh1te out of me.

jeni

Labyrinth I still have nightmares

Nekarsulm

Another vote for Salems Lot. The vampire with the two long fangs instead of front teeth had me afraid to look out the window for a long time. Also saw some film which featured inbred children with only three fingers and a thumb on each hand. To this day, forty years later, I check people's number of fingers automatically. Or at least subconsciously, cause now and then catch a glimpse of someone who I momentarily think has three fingers..........

tunguska

Yep Salems lot for me too. Was there an entire generation of people traumatised by this movie? I remember they showed it in two parts and the next day everyone was talking about it. Its funny because it was made in 1979 and it was only years later that we on this side of the pond got to see it. Wouldnt happen now though, and everyone would see it at different times, not watch it en masse, which is a little bit sad.........but that part where the kid is knocking on the window for his bro to let him in........messed up. #scarredforlife