<p>When DS was about 3-1/2 we saw a movie at home about a giant squid. It must not have occurred to DH and I that it would scare S, but he was quite frightened. We told him that the squid was actually a good guy who was hiding from the bad guys in a room in our basement. We decided that the squid would have more room at the apartment building around the corner, which obviously had a larger basement. We took (with DS) a suitcase to the basement and put it outside the squid’s room. </p>
<p>Later, the squid “moved” to the apartment building basement, and we all felt better for him. DS seemed to sympathize with the poor squid. Dodged a bullet with that one. Or maybe he needs psychotherapy for life :).</p>
<p>Wizard of Oz definitely – the monkeys and the hourglass. I couldn’t watch it alone.</p>
<p>And (for some unknown reason) the I Love Lucy show where she gets locked in the freezer and comes out with icicles on her eyebrows. I grew up in a snowy climate…maybe I had fear of being frozen…</p>
<p>Happened into watching “The Bad Seed” while babysitting. Employers came home right at the scariest moment. Gave me the creeps. Still does. I probably should try watching it again now that it is about 45 years later…</p>
<p>Psycho. The shower scene scared me out of my gourd. When the policeman walked up the stairs and was murdered, I tried to hide under the seat. I jumped a mile when the rocking chair flipped around and there was Mother. My step mom apologized for taking me afterward. I had to be the only kid in the theater.</p>
<p>When I was really little I saw “I Married a Monster from Outer Space” on television. The title is 50’s-silly, but it’s a similar story line to “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and the whole idea that people may not be what they seem still scares me!</p>
<p>After this, I was terrified by an advertisement for a movie that had a giant drill (with scientists inside) digging into the earth. This scared me worse than any t.v/movie before or since and it was just the ad! (I had always thought it was “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” but having seen that movie since, I’m pretty sure it was something else).</p>
<p>At age 12, the Salem’s Lot miniseries scared me pretty bad. There was a scene of a kid vampire scratching at the window so his friend will invite him in. There was a forsythia bush growing outside my bedroom window that would scratch against it when it was windy.</p>
<p>My kids seem to mostly be more hardy, but my current hs senior was totally creeped out by an episode of the original Twilight Zone called “The Hitch-Hiker” when she was about 8.</p>
<p>I wasn’t a young kid, but Carrie (Sissy Spacek) and The scene in The Godfather with the horse head in the bed… I still have nightmares if I think about that.</p>
<p>When I was about 4 I had to live with relatives for about 6 months. The girl cousins I was sharing a room with must have had a life size clown in their room (like the clown in Poltergeist), because I remember it always seemed to me like that damned clown was looking at me. Never liked anything with clowns since then…</p>
<p>^^ I had to remove DD from the movie theater when she was 5 because of “Pinocchio.” She started screaming as soon as Monstro appeared on the screen!</p>
<p>The movie is based on a true story about a young man who is traveling in Turkey, and is caught smuggling drugs and thrown in prison. It really brought home to me the importance of knowing the laws of the country you travel in. I still believe it should be required viewing for every High School student.
It also supported the value of our court system and prison system in the US.
The script/screenplay was written by Oliver Stone-so powerful imagery, to say the least!</p>
<p>All of the classic Disney animated features are designed to be disturbing and frightening to small children–but not so much because of ghosts and monsters, but themes. For example, think how many of them involve a parent who is imprisoned and threatened with death (Dumbo, Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, Lion King, Pinocchio), or the death of a parent (Bambi, Lion King), or evil parental figures (Cinderella, Snow White).</p>
<p>I was particularly traumatized by Bambi–especially the fire scene, with the animals fleeing in terror.</p>
<p>Why so many scared of The Wizard Of OZ? I absolutely LOVED that movie as a kid with all the adventures, and still watch it now as an adult. </p>
<p>What scared the hell out of me though were two scary old black-and-white movies: Ones was “Them” about giant ants that carried two kids off into the water tunnels under LA. The other was “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” the original one. I was afraid to go to sleep for weeks after siing that on TV. </p>
<p>And does anybody remenber the classic Twilight Zone with Telly Savalas as the evil dad, “Talking Tina?” Het tries to destroy his kid’s doll, which won’t go dead but ends up saying “I’m Talking Tina and I’m going to kill you!” That one still gives me the creeps.</p>
<p>Me too. For similar reasons, I was thoroughly traumatized at the age of 3 or 4 by the first Babar book – the hunter shooting Babar’s mother. God, did that upset me. (Sorry for the spoiler if any of you haven’t read it, but it happens early in the book if I remember correctly!)</p>
<p>Old Yeller didn’t scare me. It made me cry. Nothing like a boy and his dying dog to bring on the tears - except in the Disney movie Yeller only appeared to turn rabid and die (hence the tears) but then somehow miraculously recovered (Yay!). </p>
<p>In the book (that I read years later) the dog actually dies - or rather is shot and killed by the boy, because Yeller has been bitten by a rabid wolf (while courageously defending the boy of course) and will surely turn rabid himself. So Yeller is put down as a necessary precaution.</p>