[miketardis]

As Halloween is my favorite day of the year, I usually celebrate October by watching as many horror films as I can. A recent TV showing of a horror film I saw years ago as a kid prompted me to write this thread about horror movies that scared you when you were younger and your reactions to them now.
The film I saw recently was the Canadian horror film THE GATE (1987) which I first caught on video as a kid. I remember finding this one totally scary (especially the part with the hands reaching out from under the bed to grab the kids along with the zombies of the dead workman falling out of the wall.
Seeing it now, its a pleasant and entertaining film but not remotely scary. Its creepier before all hell breaks loose with creepy shots of the smoke-belching pit but Randall William Cook's stop-motion creatures are quaint (though they do move more smoothly than David Allen's stuff) but they're more cute than horrific (even the big one). The zombie workman is well designed but not well-employed beyond his first shock appearance. The visual effects are good but the rendition of hell on earth doesn't really raise any shivers. The hidden messages played backwards on heavy metal records was old stuff even back them. The super-saturated blue lighting is more MTV than atmospheric and Michael Hoenig and J. Peter Robinson's score is not as effective as some of their individual works.
Still, the three leads (including a young Stephen Dorff) are engaging and the supporting teenagers less annoying than usual.
LionsGate apparently owns the rights to this one now (judging by the closed captioning info before the end credits) but I think the only R1 DVD of this is one of those budget discs in an oversized clear jewel case with artwork that once cluttered the racks of mall video and record stores.
Horror films that I still find scary from my childhood, on the other hand, are HALLOWEEN, THE FOG (that closing shot...), THE HOWLING (whispers in the foggy night and that happy face sticker), THE CHANGELING (love that shot of the wheelchair at the top of the stairs that jolts Trish Van Devere)... "The Drop of Water" from BLACK SABBATH, and one I've seen more recently: GHOSTWATCH.
One I've been wanting to revisit that I remember being really scared by was the TV movie DON'T GO TO SLEEP.
What's yours?

[dymx86]

The only movie that ever scared me was "halloween" when I was twelve. I sawhaloloween 2-6 before I saw the first halloween. So obviously it was scarier than all the others. I saw it late at night and couldn't sleep at all. I had to sleep with the lights on for about a week.

[chaotic646]

Agree with the original poster, The Gate scared the hell out of me when I was a kid but I would watch it anyway every time it was on...which seemed like every other day in the '80s. When I was like 4 or 5 the Michael Jackson "Thriller" video scared me too. Also the very first Nightmare on Elm Street...when the kid gets sucked into the bed (I think it was Johnny Depp's first movie appearance) and a fountain of blood shoots up to the ceiling...scared the hell out of me.

[dtssyst]

Salem's Lot was so scarry to me as a kid that I had to have the curtain closed and the covers over my neck.
Why the curtain... The part where the kid knocks on the window and says let me in.
The cover over the neck... vampire movie=blood sucker=neck bite=not going to happen with cover over neck.

[Elisha]

I remember as I Kid (~12 years) I watched Stephen King's Pet Sematary with my parents ( I don't know exactly, but I think it was Part 2). But I was not allowed to watch the scene where the small kid (which came back from the deads) killed the people. So over the years this movie was my no 1 Horror movies (even had nightmares of the kid )

3 or 4 Years later, when the movie was aired again and I was old enough to watch the scene, I was kinda disappointed, as the scene was not that horror at all and suddenly all the "mystery" about the movie was gone, for me.

@chaotic646
Yeah that part when Michael transforms in a werewolf scared me too.

[squire23]

Gremlins. Gremlins absolutely, without any doubt scared the shit out of me when I was a kid. For about a year after I use to literally check under my bed & in my wardrobe everynight before I went to sleep. That film seriously fucked me up....

[shaunofthedead9]

The Exorcist was the one that would freak me the hell out as a kid. I later went and saw it when they re-released it a few years ago.

[RichV]

Originally Posted by shaunofthedead9

The Exorcist was the one that would freak me the hell out as a kid. I later went and saw it when they re-released it a few years ago.

I'm with you on this one. Terrified me. Not so bad now but it still creeps me out.

[gbk33]

American Werewolf in London.....I lost weeks of sleep because of that damn movie.

[Darth Slater]

a movie cvalled vault of horror (a segment in it stil haunts me)

i just bought the dvd and i'm going to watch it, to see if it is still scay to me...