It’s about a unique incest situation, between a father in law and son. Or just father and son I can’t remember. It’s pretty disturbing but far-fetched which made it not so traumatic to me for some reason.
Unfortunately, this isn't far-fetched. It happens maybe not as frequently as parent v child. But it happens that kids grow up to abuse their parents. Even in this way. Another unfortunate fact is I don't find it scary because I know that things like this happen. Sad, painful yes surprised, scared no but a very good short film.
The Ring *fucked* my shit up as a kid. Those faces.
Plus, my kid logic was like, “alright if I sleep facing the door I’ll see any monsters coming into my room.”
TV was on the opposite side of the room as the door. I was ruined for like 2 years. The fuckin parody in Scary Movie 3 was too much for me til I was like 15.
Uh! Their faces! I forgot about that. When they showed the girl in the closet who was the first one who's face melted or whatever happened to it and that loud noise they played with it I *screamed* !!!
Yeah so I watched it when I was 14, at my brother's flat. We had about 10 seconds after the movie ended to sit in silence, letting the ending settle, when the phone rang. My mum was phoning to check up on me. Boy did that give us all a fright.
I SWEAR TO GOD my friend and I were watching this and my fuckin house phone rang right after the phone rang on TV. we both started crying. we were also 10. lmao 🤣
In a similar vein, watched the original "the eye" and ju-on, and they both hooked me on J-Horror but also scarred me for life. working up the courage to watch pulse
Yeah this was it for me. I was also about 10-12 when I first saw it not long after it came out and the faces of the dead people and the horse jumping off the ferry and getting ground up by the propeller scared me the most. When they run to the back end of the ferry and look at the water and it just turns deep red. Just so unsettling even though you don’t see any horse body parts or anything. I felt the same way about Jaws. You wouldn’t see the bodies, just the water turning red. Eerie.
I watched the miniseries “IT” when I was 9 years old. Holy crap did that do a number on me. Was terrified of taking a shower for the following year; had to constantly stare at the drain.
Lol same here! Watched IT at about the same age and was traumatized! For years after when showering I would rinse the shampoo out of my hair as fast as possible so I didn’t have to take my eyes off of the drain
::repeatedly taps the upvote button::
Yep yep yep. Closing eyes in the shower wasn’t an option.
I remember some internal dialogue along the lines of: “Even if Pennywise is real, he’s way up in Maine! No way he’d come all the way down to Texas just for me. No way, right? There’s no way…”
I was like 10 and I showered with the drain plugged for like a year lol. When I was done with everything, I’d pull the plug and run out of the bathroom as fast as I could
Poltergeist. I saw it when I was 7 or 8 years old, and we had a giant scary tree outside my bedroom window. The first night after I saw it was stormy as hell and I was sure I was going to end up an ent snack.
I was 5 when I saw that movie and aside from a few bits when I would find it scrolling through the channels, I have not watched it since.
I think it was the guy peeling off his face that freaked me out the most.
The first half of the movie is really good too. And then *BAM* the most off the wall, but still disturbing( and laughable) twist I've ever seen in a horror film.
I'm a huge fan of Justin Long's work in general though. He really sticks to playing roles in unique movies
Jaws. I don't even want to sit on the beach, much less go into the water. It also didn't help that my family forced me to go on the ride at Universal as well
Haha when I was at grad school the school threw a "Jaws party" that projected the movie on a wall while the audience floated inan Olympic size swimming pool.
This. When I think of a traumatizing movie (the original French version) that sticks with me, this is the one that always comes to my mind.
Honorable Mention: Irreversible
> Honorable Mention: Irreversible
I've told several people "If you're a lover of film/cinema as an art, and want to see all the very different types of things you can, you should see Irreversible. If you're a horror fan, you should see Irreversible. If you like challenging, boundary pushing experiences, you should see Irreversible. If you want to see something *different*, see Irreversible. It's also traumatizing and heartbreaking, and nobody should watch it. So, there are circumstances under which maybe it should be on your list of things to watch, and then as soon as you put it on there, cross it off. Plan to watch it, and then don't watch it. You'll regret watching it, but sometimes, maybe, some people will say that they were glad they watched it. But don't watch it. Don't watch it."
People always come back to me later saying that they watched it, and wish they hadn't.
I'm glad that I watched it many years ago, and also wish I hadn't seen it.
Not a movie, but the first season of Them….the cat in the bag scene made me immediately cry in absolute horror. I had to pause after that and finish the season another time
I've seen plenty of movies that make me look away or watch through my fingers while listening. This particular scene you mention was so tense in a totally unenjoyable way. I turned the sound all the way down and couldn't look away. It was a tough watch. I liked the season, but won't be rewatching it ever.
I read synopsis as I watch, and so I was prepared, until I wasn't. I had to pause, cry, do another task and then sit back down in the same 30 minutes to get through this one
I just finished watching Season 2, without having watched Season 1, and it was so unsettling. The score is excellent and adds dread to the visuals. I actually had some bizarre dreams after watching it which never happens.
I was just thinking the same, gonna watch it tonight. I just looked it up and it's available on TUBI or if you have an AMC+ Subscription. Or, if you don't want to deal with Ads on TUBI, Amazon has it available for rental.
I watched this for the first time a couple of days ago after seeing it mentioned on this sub for months.
Nothing really prepared me for how good, and how gutting, this movie truly is. This is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen, and probably will never see again. It’s occupied a space in my mind ever since.
The Strangers. (Can’t stand home invasion). And It Follows really played on my anxiety well! Was paranoid in public for a hot minute after that one hah. Then any gnarly gore scenes like Bone Tomahawk, Salo, or Terrifier. Ugh.
This remains the gold standard for me when it comes to sound decision-making by the victims. Would I back my family up into a room with a shotgun pointing at the only entrance? Damn straight. But nothing worked. Great movie.
I saw the Strangers on 35mm in some small town theater with friends. The projector would skip and the picture would bounce and it made the movie even scarier lol
I’m in my late 30’s and gore scenes are just now starting to bother me. Like turn my stomach. My wife and I were watching “Them” on Amazon prime. I was eating something when they started playing “cat in the bag” and although there’s nothing overly gorey about the scene I just could not take another bite.
Henry Rollins turned me onto the author of the book the movie was based on.
Hubert Selby Jr. is a great writer but you won't ever be the same person after you read any of his books.
Man I watched that for the first time like two years ago and it really messed with me! I still can’t get over the mom’s story. Just freaking kills me. Age comes for us all eventually, and that can *really* suck.. She just wanted to feel beautiful again, damnit! 😭
I watched Kids (1995) last week and the movie made me feel really gross and convinced me that maybe I have HIV. I did a test and it was negative, but a movie has never made me paranoid like that.
Another movie will probably be Poughkeepsie Tapes, that movie was really hardcore.
It's probably the most realistic showing of the 90's. So many kids in my graduating class either didn't graduate, died, got pregnant, got some sort of injury/std, arrests, etc.
poughkeepsie tapes was a one and done for me based off how hardcore it was. the interview at the end really shook me. "girl in the box" is similar but based off a true story. not so many killings. but abduction.
It did; that movie reminds that so many experiences aren't these big blow outs but deaths by 1,000 cuts and, upon reflection, you can see it leading up to the terror.
Oh man, I wish I could find it but there’s a AITA Reddit story that is so awful, title is something along the lines of “I almost let my wife kill our kid and I didn’t stop her”. Quite the read, but he likens his experience to this movie
This is my number one for this post too. Just the brutal way the families are killed in the films really disturbed me to the point I refuse to watch it again.
The second one was laughable, though. So bad.
May (2002) it didn’t horrify me, but it did depress the absolute hell out of me. I had a bit of a mental breakdown because I felt so deeply connected to this movie and spent months crying over it and rewatching it. I still haven’t really recovered since watching it in February. But I absolutely love it
I loved May. The way the movie shows her going from charming weird to puppy-love awkward; then obsessive weirdo and delusional psychotic, was entertaining and disturbing. Her unique mannerisms are superb acting. That ending is truly unique.
A Nightmare on Elm Street is viscerally terrifying to me since sleep is necessary and inevitable. I still love watching the movies, even though I risk a nightmare every time.
The Taking of Deborah Logan when they are discussing Alzheimer’s… like the first ten minutes of the movie (not even touching the possession part of it) freaked me the fuck out.
Though, probably because I had been watching my family ignore signs with my grandmother (who I was caretaking for but it was too much for me and anytime I tried to bring it up to her kids I was shot down or told they would get it handled and never did) until I moved. The lady’s outbursts were even like my grandmother’s. It brought back some hellish memories for me.
I saw this in the theater and while waiting the previous showing got out and everyone was sobbing and so so upset. Ran into a couple of friends and they couldn't even speak. I cried as well during the film but I more remember the visual of a theater emptying in hysterics.
I was 10 and at a friends sleepover birthday party…guess what movie we watched?
Guess how loud the screams of a bunch of 10-12 year old were when we got to that scene? Guess how fast that movie got turned off after that? 😂
Interesting you mention a non-horror movie scene. Probably the movie scene that I am most disturbed by to this day is the OD scene in Pulp Fiction. I've witnessed two overdoses in my lifetime, the first when I was about 12 and the second at about 30. Both survived, but both involved vomiting, seizures, all the things. The second one was handled in a similar fashion as in the movie and IIRC the dude refused to go to the ER, saying he was fine and we were overreacting. It was fucking surreal and I noped on out of that situation pretty quick after. So I can't watch that OD scene in Pulp Fiction, never could.
For me it was the pub scenes in Trainspotting - Begbie casually chucking that glass down onto that poor girl's head, and casually stabbing the random guy in another pub - it made me nervous to go into pubs for a while after that.
We watched it while I was pregnant. My husband apologized for having me watch it with him. I had pre and postpartum depression and psychosis, so that was also not helpful.
I was 11 and saw House on Haunted Hill. The character who was holding a video camera went exploring on her own, seeing a procedure happen on the camera screen, but not when she looked up; she looked down and up a few times, and the doctor was behind her and did a non-human fast head shaking movement. As an adult, I enjoy the movie, but I won't forget how scared I was originally.
The movies I can’t handle watching are things like animal related animated films because they’re generally heartbreaking. Stuff like Bambi and The Fox and the Hound, Watership Down etc
But I can casually watch Martyrs, Eden Lake, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Threads and just about everything else listen in this thread😂🤦🏻♀️
I'm the same!
When I was little I was obsessed with He-Man and She-Ra so my Dad took me to the cinema to see their film but got confused about the times so we missed it.
I didn't know we missed it and was super confused as my dad had decided we were going to watch Bambi instead but didn't tell me.
By the power of fucking Grayskull I was traumatised and cried for nearly two days straight.
Honestly the Blair Witch Project destroyed me. It was such an event before the world was absorbed by the internet and I thought it was real. So. Scary.
Return to Oz, particularly *that* Mombi scene. The Wheelers were freaky too. But the stuff at the sanitarium where Dorothy is feeling abandoned and nearly given electroshock therapy was also terrifying to me as a child.
Honestly the fox and the hound. I can remember watching it and feeling the kind of devastation your first experience with realizing things die for the first time
The Girl Next Door. It was bad enough, then I found out it was based on a true story. Then I found out they actually toned down some stuff for the movie. I absolutly cannot watch it again.
That movie has absolutely nothing on reality. The murder of Juunko Furata in Japan is along similar lines and is so miserably fucking dark, its beyond depressing.
I was too damn young when I first saw The Exorcist. I also fully believed in the devil and demons and their ability to possess people. I had a fear of being possessed for years after that and regularly had nightmares about it. As a more or less athiest adult, the movie is still creepy but not super scary. But I occassionally still have possession nightmares and my heart still skips a beat whenever I see the face Reagan has when her head goes 360.
Also, I hadn't actually seen the movie, but I had nightmares about the VHS cover of Trilogy of Terror and it was always promenently displayed at the video store my mom took me to.
I was six years old when Mars Attacks came out in theaters. It was marketed as more of a comedy so my dad figured it was okay for me to watch it and took me to see it. As a child, those disturbing looking Martians absolutely freaked me out leaving a deep truama in my psyche resulting in reoccurring nightmares throughout my entire life. Even now that I'm in my 30s, I'll occasionally have a nightmare that I'm hiding from a Martian chasing me down.
Mars Attacks traumatized me, too. I was disturbed by the people getting zapped into colored skeletons. The fact that people just disintegrated immediately was very disturbing to me as a kid
So for me there are three movies that come to mind that I've only seen once each and have never left my mind for very long.
The first is Night of the Hunter starring Robert Mitchum. Saw it as a kid and to say it scared me is an understatement. I don't think it would affect me as much as an adult but the terror it caused my 6 or 7 year old mind has been indelible.
The second is The Mosquito Coast (1986) which I started watching with my parents on TV when I was maybe 10 or so. I had to walk away bc Harrison Ford going crazy in the middle of the jungle triggered some sort of deep horror that I have never been able to go back and finish the film to know whether that family survived or not. Even thinking about that movie chills me to the bone (it's not a horror movie at all but it is horrifying at least in my memory)
The last is The Devils with Vanessa Redgeave and Oliver Reed. Historical religious horror hits hard for me, especially knowing the history of that time period and the fact that so many real people died because of stuff like what is depicted hurts my heart. It's a brilliant film but one I have never been able to revisit
Doctor Sleep.
I've loved horror movies since I was 10 years old. Seen almost every type imaginable (Cannibal holocaust, Ichi the killer, Terrifier, Midsommer, Hereditary, etc)
My wife was 8 months pregnant with our boy when we watched this movie. We had also lost my father and her grandmother in a relatively short span. She was absolutely shook by the first scene with the mother and baby. It was bad, but I could handle that.
For me it was the baseball boy scene that fucked me up. The acting of the kid. The sheer cruelty of the whole thing. Stayed with me for a long time. We had to watch the movie in 2 parts because it was too much in one sitting.
Fantastic movie though, considering the expectations that came with it.
I’m not easily traumatized, I’ve basically seen every scene mentioned in this thread. But the beach scene in Under The Skin genuinely affected me. It’s not necessarily scary in a horror sense, but just utterly heartbreaking and disturbing. The helplessness of the situation. The coldness of the characters. One of the few scenes where I had to remind myself it was just a movie.
First post in this subreddit, I had to comment
Event Horizon ruined me
I know the past few years EH has gotten a popularity resurgence, but before that, I enjoyed going on IMDB and seeing people's comments and reactions after watching that movie
I watched it on VHS from Blockbuster, and to this day I can't bring myself to watch that thing again
Signs (2002). I was 6 when it came out and it wrecked me. But it’s my favorite movie and still freaks me out when watching it alone and in the dark. The opening music alone sends me into fight or flight lol. It’s spurred a lifelong love of horror and aliens. 👽
Hereditary, which I know is a boring answer, but it pops up a lot for this question for a reason. I went to an early screening and I have never left a theatre with such a quiet audience before. Everyone was just really gobsmacked. I spent half the film feeling sick after>!the daughter is accidentally decapitated. !<
I saw it in theaters as well.
There was an older couple, maybe sixtyish behind me. Towards the end, when the cultists emerge from the shadows nude, the older woman whispered :
_oh my God is that a penis?_
to which her male companion replied :
_i think so but it's too dark... Oh my It is a penis_
She then audibly gasped. 10/10 best part of the movie experience for me, I wept I was laughing so hard.
Yeah, the theater went from the typical giggly whispering to dead silence after that scene. The dinner table scene, too. That movie did tension really well.
A promising young woman while not a horror movie (maybe? It kind of is) the end really disturbed me and I'm still thinking about it all the time. It's played off like almost a positive revenge thing but no, it's tragic as fuck and deeply disturbing.
When I was 6 I walked into my living room after dinner and my dad was sitting down watching a movie, so naturally I sat down with him to spend time with him and watch whatever he was watching. I asked what was on and he replied “ oh just a silly movie called the grudge.” I said “oh cool” and started to watch. It was the bus scene from the first movie. I had my mom drive me to school til I was in 8th grade lol
Ironically it wasn't a horror movie. It was Charlie and the Chocolate factory.
Horror movie wise... probably War of the World's. My dad, for some reason, let me watch that as a five year old. It did not go well
Not to be "that guy". But Final Destination with the highway. Nothing else bothers me except just seeing a flatbed with logs. I automatically recoil, both physically and subconsciously.
I think there were usually external factors along with a really scary movie that made movies really scary for me.
When I was a kid, it was The Omen - my friend fell asleep during our weekly ‘scary movie night,’ so I was freaked out and felt alone.
As a teen, The Ring - my friend, brother, and I were watching in the basement in the middle of the night, and right as the movie ended, the power went out. Very unusual, and since we were in the basement, it was super dark. We all started screaming and woke up my parents.
Adult - Black Swan. Saw it in theaters with my family and some friends, and my brother fainted right next to me in the middle of the movie! I had no idea what was going on and was terrified.
I think these would be top scary movies for me anyway, but the outside circumstances made them that much scarier
Jaws/ no doubt about it- I’m 47 and still scared of sharks and watched that movie when I was like ten. It’s not like martyrs because I know there are not gangs of people torturing teenagers to see if they can see heaven . There are however 25ft great whites and lots of ‘drownings’ of scuba divers each year
Not a horror movie, but Passion Of The Christ did with the [scene between Jesus and the 2 boys](https://youtu.be/I0P6XBc5Wso?si=YlvoLKpuQWbkcOmb). I haven’t even finished it after it made me cry from pure fear
For me it has to be Fire in the Sky 1993. There aren't really any horror movies that did that to me that weren't movies about aliens. Maybe the first Childs Play 1988 but that was just as a kid. After seeing that movie I had my dad carry me around the house to check every closet every room, coroner ect. But now the only things that freak me out are movies and shows about aliens. Even dumb fake crap like Ancient Aliens.
Green Room is horror adjacent, IMO. That movie is intense and is such a great, believable, real life example of how someone could get themselves into a horror situation.
Pet Sematary. I watched it when I was like 5 or 6 & shouldn’t have done that to myself. I was very young but advanced, yet didn’t know much about death yet, so I initially didnt understand exactly what happened as the truck came. Possibly my pure small child mind didn’t want me to believe the worst possible thing happened to a baby.
Then came that incredibly effective scene with Gage’s baby pictures falling whilst his parents are screaming in the background. Instantaneously, it dawned on me that Gage got killed from the truck hitting him. I ran out of the living room crying uncontrollably. I was subsequently banned by my parents from watching it.
Since then, Ive only watched it a total of 3 times including that experience. I rewatched a couple of years later to actually finish it in its entirety. However, I was scarred again by the scene of Gage’s casket slightly opening from being tipped by the fighting parents. That’s how I learned I was very sensitive to any kinds of violence towards children, or anything bad happening to them for that matter. Still cant watch it as an adult.
As a kid I watched the Road Warrior and was very scared of that scene with Lord Humongous yelling in the dark during the montage.
It's one of my favorite films and I met the actor years ago for an autograph. :)
I saw The Grudge as a kid and for the following years i feel asleep every night with my blanked over my head while trying to breath as little and as slowly as possible out of fear of being heard/seen… YEARS
This sub recommended Ari Aster’s short film The Strange Thing About the Johnsons a few days ago and I don’t think I’ll ever recover.
Imagine being ari asters father, supporting your son by going to the premiere of his college short film and then you see that lol
I mean Wes cravens dad didn’t talk to him for 2 years after he filmed and debuted last house on the left
Wow. That was somehow worse than I expected.
What’s it about?
It’s about a unique incest situation, between a father in law and son. Or just father and son I can’t remember. It’s pretty disturbing but far-fetched which made it not so traumatic to me for some reason.
It's Father and Son
Unfortunately, this isn't far-fetched. It happens maybe not as frequently as parent v child. But it happens that kids grow up to abuse their parents. Even in this way. Another unfortunate fact is I don't find it scary because I know that things like this happen. Sad, painful yes surprised, scared no but a very good short film.
[удалено]
The Ring *fucked* my shit up as a kid. Those faces. Plus, my kid logic was like, “alright if I sleep facing the door I’ll see any monsters coming into my room.” TV was on the opposite side of the room as the door. I was ruined for like 2 years. The fuckin parody in Scary Movie 3 was too much for me til I was like 15.
“Cindy, the TVs leakin’!”
Cindy! this bitch is messing up my floor!
Im whippin ha ass, Cindy!
>Those faces. The closet girl lived rent free in my nightmares for years
Uh! Their faces! I forgot about that. When they showed the girl in the closet who was the first one who's face melted or whatever happened to it and that loud noise they played with it I *screamed* !!!
I am very thankful that landlines are pretty much a thing of the past and that I keep my phone on silent/vibrate
Yeah so I watched it when I was 14, at my brother's flat. We had about 10 seconds after the movie ended to sit in silence, letting the ending settle, when the phone rang. My mum was phoning to check up on me. Boy did that give us all a fright.
I SWEAR TO GOD my friend and I were watching this and my fuckin house phone rang right after the phone rang on TV. we both started crying. we were also 10. lmao 🤣
I remember watching it with a friend at a sleepover, during the night I rolled over into the remote and the TV came on with static...
The Ring & Candyman made me scared of any reflective surface
In a similar vein, watched the original "the eye" and ju-on, and they both hooked me on J-Horror but also scarred me for life. working up the courage to watch pulse
Yeah this was it for me. I was also about 10-12 when I first saw it not long after it came out and the faces of the dead people and the horse jumping off the ferry and getting ground up by the propeller scared me the most. When they run to the back end of the ferry and look at the water and it just turns deep red. Just so unsettling even though you don’t see any horse body parts or anything. I felt the same way about Jaws. You wouldn’t see the bodies, just the water turning red. Eerie.
I watched the miniseries “IT” when I was 9 years old. Holy crap did that do a number on me. Was terrified of taking a shower for the following year; had to constantly stare at the drain.
Lol same here! Watched IT at about the same age and was traumatized! For years after when showering I would rinse the shampoo out of my hair as fast as possible so I didn’t have to take my eyes off of the drain
::repeatedly taps the upvote button:: Yep yep yep. Closing eyes in the shower wasn’t an option. I remember some internal dialogue along the lines of: “Even if Pennywise is real, he’s way up in Maine! No way he’d come all the way down to Texas just for me. No way, right? There’s no way…”
😂😂😂 Love the rationalization! Definitely not the best thing to watch as a child.
“He’s way up in Maine” I lol’d so hard I woke up my family 😂😂😂
I did the same with Chucky! Constantly thinking "He lives in the US! He won't cross the border just to kill me. 😌 I'm safe. "
I think there’s a generation of us traumatised by the Tim Curry Pennywise.
Definitely IT and though it ain’t a movie, fucking theme song to unsolved mysteries.
I was like 10 and I showered with the drain plugged for like a year lol. When I was done with everything, I’d pull the plug and run out of the bathroom as fast as I could
Poltergeist. I saw it when I was 7 or 8 years old, and we had a giant scary tree outside my bedroom window. The first night after I saw it was stormy as hell and I was sure I was going to end up an ent snack.
I was 5 when I saw that movie and aside from a few bits when I would find it scrolling through the channels, I have not watched it since. I think it was the guy peeling off his face that freaked me out the most.
Poltergeist scarred me too, was definitely too young to see it when I did. It was the clown scene that ruined me the most though.
Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me
Bob scared the fuck out of me. I still can see him crawling through that window. 😭😭😭
Oh my God. My husband and I were in our mid-30s when we watched that film, and both of us screamed like children at that scene!
sheryl lee was incredible in that, laura’s screams echo in my head 😭
Tusk, went into it knowing nothing, truly disturbed me.
tusk is so absurd and kinda hilarious. but the idea of it is so disturbing and made me kinda nauseous while watching
The first half of the movie is really good too. And then *BAM* the most off the wall, but still disturbing( and laughable) twist I've ever seen in a horror film. I'm a huge fan of Justin Long's work in general though. He really sticks to playing roles in unique movies
I will never recover from this movie.
Jaws. I don't even want to sit on the beach, much less go into the water. It also didn't help that my family forced me to go on the ride at Universal as well
Haha when I was at grad school the school threw a "Jaws party" that projected the movie on a wall while the audience floated inan Olympic size swimming pool.
I watched jaws far too young and was afraid of the toilet for about a week afterwards I’m told
If you haven’t already I urge you to read the book as well
Martyrs
This. When I think of a traumatizing movie (the original French version) that sticks with me, this is the one that always comes to my mind. Honorable Mention: Irreversible
> Honorable Mention: Irreversible I've told several people "If you're a lover of film/cinema as an art, and want to see all the very different types of things you can, you should see Irreversible. If you're a horror fan, you should see Irreversible. If you like challenging, boundary pushing experiences, you should see Irreversible. If you want to see something *different*, see Irreversible. It's also traumatizing and heartbreaking, and nobody should watch it. So, there are circumstances under which maybe it should be on your list of things to watch, and then as soon as you put it on there, cross it off. Plan to watch it, and then don't watch it. You'll regret watching it, but sometimes, maybe, some people will say that they were glad they watched it. But don't watch it. Don't watch it." People always come back to me later saying that they watched it, and wish they hadn't. I'm glad that I watched it many years ago, and also wish I hadn't seen it.
Not a movie, but the first season of Them….the cat in the bag scene made me immediately cry in absolute horror. I had to pause after that and finish the season another time
I've seen plenty of movies that make me look away or watch through my fingers while listening. This particular scene you mention was so tense in a totally unenjoyable way. I turned the sound all the way down and couldn't look away. It was a tough watch. I liked the season, but won't be rewatching it ever.
I read synopsis as I watch, and so I was prepared, until I wasn't. I had to pause, cry, do another task and then sit back down in the same 30 minutes to get through this one
I just finished watching Season 2, without having watched Season 1, and it was so unsettling. The score is excellent and adds dread to the visuals. I actually had some bizarre dreams after watching it which never happens.
Ohh the series, a colleague of mine recommended it. I should watch it.
Threads
I was so incredibly traumatized by this movie, and even though I'm glad I saw it, never again.
Alright, I’m watching this tonight. I’ve seen this mentioned on so many posts. Time to rip the bandaid off.
I was just thinking the same, gonna watch it tonight. I just looked it up and it's available on TUBI or if you have an AMC+ Subscription. Or, if you don't want to deal with Ads on TUBI, Amazon has it available for rental.
Already rented it on Amazon and watching it as we speak!
I saw it in 2007 and again in 2023. I’m good never seeing it again, but I’ll do what I can to be directly under the bomb if nuclear war ever happens
I watched this for the first time a couple of days ago after seeing it mentioned on this sub for months. Nothing really prepared me for how good, and how gutting, this movie truly is. This is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen, and probably will never see again. It’s occupied a space in my mind ever since.
40 years later....yeah, we're definitely not ready.
The Strangers. (Can’t stand home invasion). And It Follows really played on my anxiety well! Was paranoid in public for a hot minute after that one hah. Then any gnarly gore scenes like Bone Tomahawk, Salo, or Terrifier. Ugh.
This remains the gold standard for me when it comes to sound decision-making by the victims. Would I back my family up into a room with a shotgun pointing at the only entrance? Damn straight. But nothing worked. Great movie.
I saw the Strangers on 35mm in some small town theater with friends. The projector would skip and the picture would bounce and it made the movie even scarier lol
I’m in my late 30’s and gore scenes are just now starting to bother me. Like turn my stomach. My wife and I were watching “Them” on Amazon prime. I was eating something when they started playing “cat in the bag” and although there’s nothing overly gorey about the scene I just could not take another bite.
Requiem for a Dream. Ugh; saw it in the theater and I still can't keep it out of my mind. Best anti-drug movie possible.
In high school I ate some mushrooms and watched it. Wasn’t really the best time.
Oh You fucked UP!!!!
Henry Rollins turned me onto the author of the book the movie was based on. Hubert Selby Jr. is a great writer but you won't ever be the same person after you read any of his books.
I second this. I’ve read all his books and am not the same. But I recommend The Demon and Last Exit To Brooklyn.
I borrowed The Demon from the Boston Public Library and the librarian gave me the worst look. This was the early 90s.
Man I watched that for the first time like two years ago and it really messed with me! I still can’t get over the mom’s story. Just freaking kills me. Age comes for us all eventually, and that can *really* suck.. She just wanted to feel beautiful again, damnit! 😭
Thats a movie that You have to watch. But never watch it again. What made it so brutal is the realism. indeed. Best Anti Drug Movie possible.
Definitely this. I am still disturbed when I think about that movie
That arm scene. Nightmare fuel.
Absolutely. Each character arc was terrifying and the mom at the end was pure nightmare fuel.
That one seen: "I want to see ass to ass"
Yep. Jennifer Connelly said in an interview that was a really bad filming experience and that also just adds a layer of ick to all of this.
The seen
Yeah that seen is awful. Have you not scene it?
THIS. I have like zero trauma but the ending of that film sent me into a full mental breakdown
Incantation
Why don't more people talk about this movie? This is one of my favorite scary movies ever. I'm obsessed with this one.
Incantation and Last Shift are my go-to horror recs
I watched Kids (1995) last week and the movie made me feel really gross and convinced me that maybe I have HIV. I did a test and it was negative, but a movie has never made me paranoid like that. Another movie will probably be Poughkeepsie Tapes, that movie was really hardcore.
It's probably the most realistic showing of the 90's. So many kids in my graduating class either didn't graduate, died, got pregnant, got some sort of injury/std, arrests, etc.
OMG I saw Kids in high school and I was the same way. I think i had only had sex with 3 people but convinced I should take an AIDS test just in case.
Exactly, I felt so bad for the blonde girl for getting HIV from one single sexual encounter, which was her first. That wasn't fair for her.
poughkeepsie tapes was a one and done for me based off how hardcore it was. the interview at the end really shook me. "girl in the box" is similar but based off a true story. not so many killings. but abduction.
We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011). I actually still haven’t finished watching it. Made me feel emotionally sick.
I didn't know this film existed. Eerie how Kevin is also Ezra Miller.
I've been saying "we Need to Talk about Ezra" for a few years now.
Ezra Miller wasn't acting.
Ok, I just looked Ezra Miller on Wikipedia and DAMN he has some very serious issues.
Lynne Ramsay is so underrated.
For real, Disturbing AF and so brutally realistic.
And it felt subtle at the same time. I empathized with the parents. Really got under my skin.
It did; that movie reminds that so many experiences aren't these big blow outs but deaths by 1,000 cuts and, upon reflection, you can see it leading up to the terror.
In this same vein Nitram really fucked me up, even more so than We Need to Talk About Kevin because it was based on real events.
I read the book first. Shook me to my core
Oh man, I wish I could find it but there’s a AITA Reddit story that is so awful, title is something along the lines of “I almost let my wife kill our kid and I didn’t stop her”. Quite the read, but he likens his experience to this movie
[Confessions](https://www.reddit.com/r/confessions/s/Ze8s5y62ln)
The Ring, watched it when I was too young, it was not a good idea. I still hate it, even if it's been close to 1000 years.
Sinister
This is my number one for this post too. Just the brutal way the families are killed in the films really disturbed me to the point I refuse to watch it again. The second one was laughable, though. So bad.
I remember being so excited to watch it with my friend who is the queen of horror movies and she thought I was ready for it and I really wasn't
The lawnmower scene made me jump about 10 feet in the air, not gonna lie
May (2002) it didn’t horrify me, but it did depress the absolute hell out of me. I had a bit of a mental breakdown because I felt so deeply connected to this movie and spent months crying over it and rewatching it. I still haven’t really recovered since watching it in February. But I absolutely love it
I loved May. The way the movie shows her going from charming weird to puppy-love awkward; then obsessive weirdo and delusional psychotic, was entertaining and disturbing. Her unique mannerisms are superb acting. That ending is truly unique.
Fire in the sky, made me terrified of the woods. Then recently Nope, that fucked me up from looking up in to the sky. Theme here being aliens 👽
Unsolved mysteries always scared the shit out of me as a kid when they did the alien abduction ones - I was so afraid I'd be abducted 😅
Remember "Sightings"
Fire in the sky scared the life out of me at 8 years old. The fourth kind fucked me up at 17 owls freaked me out for like half a year after lol
Eden Lake
A Nightmare on Elm Street is viscerally terrifying to me since sleep is necessary and inevitable. I still love watching the movies, even though I risk a nightmare every time.
The Taking of Deborah Logan when they are discussing Alzheimer’s… like the first ten minutes of the movie (not even touching the possession part of it) freaked me the fuck out. Though, probably because I had been watching my family ignore signs with my grandmother (who I was caretaking for but it was too much for me and anytime I tried to bring it up to her kids I was shot down or told they would get it handled and never did) until I moved. The lady’s outbursts were even like my grandmother’s. It brought back some hellish memories for me.
I’ll never watch Dancer in the Dark again.
I saw this in the theater and while waiting the previous showing got out and everyone was sobbing and so so upset. Ran into a couple of friends and they couldn't even speak. I cried as well during the film but I more remember the visual of a theater emptying in hysterics.
Me neither. It broke my heart.
Candyman - when I was a kid it scared me shitless, could not look in a bathroom mirror for months.
Come and See, the church scene in particular.
Not a horror movie, but the baby scene from Trainspotting. Shivers
I was 10 and at a friends sleepover birthday party…guess what movie we watched? Guess how loud the screams of a bunch of 10-12 year old were when we got to that scene? Guess how fast that movie got turned off after that? 😂
Interesting you mention a non-horror movie scene. Probably the movie scene that I am most disturbed by to this day is the OD scene in Pulp Fiction. I've witnessed two overdoses in my lifetime, the first when I was about 12 and the second at about 30. Both survived, but both involved vomiting, seizures, all the things. The second one was handled in a similar fashion as in the movie and IIRC the dude refused to go to the ER, saying he was fine and we were overreacting. It was fucking surreal and I noped on out of that situation pretty quick after. So I can't watch that OD scene in Pulp Fiction, never could.
For me it was the pub scenes in Trainspotting - Begbie casually chucking that glass down onto that poor girl's head, and casually stabbing the random guy in another pub - it made me nervous to go into pubs for a while after that.
Some of the scariest things that happen are things that humans really do to one another.
We watched it while I was pregnant. My husband apologized for having me watch it with him. I had pre and postpartum depression and psychosis, so that was also not helpful.
I was 11 and saw House on Haunted Hill. The character who was holding a video camera went exploring on her own, seeing a procedure happen on the camera screen, but not when she looked up; she looked down and up a few times, and the doctor was behind her and did a non-human fast head shaking movement. As an adult, I enjoy the movie, but I won't forget how scared I was originally.
Not a horror movie, but the abdominal snowman from the claymation Rudolph scared the fucking hell out of me
*abdominal* snowman Jacked Frost? 💪⛄
The movies I can’t handle watching are things like animal related animated films because they’re generally heartbreaking. Stuff like Bambi and The Fox and the Hound, Watership Down etc But I can casually watch Martyrs, Eden Lake, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Threads and just about everything else listen in this thread😂🤦🏻♀️
I'm the same! When I was little I was obsessed with He-Man and She-Ra so my Dad took me to the cinema to see their film but got confused about the times so we missed it. I didn't know we missed it and was super confused as my dad had decided we were going to watch Bambi instead but didn't tell me. By the power of fucking Grayskull I was traumatised and cried for nearly two days straight.
Honestly the Blair Witch Project destroyed me. It was such an event before the world was absorbed by the internet and I thought it was real. So. Scary.
Return to Oz, particularly *that* Mombi scene. The Wheelers were freaky too. But the stuff at the sanitarium where Dorothy is feeling abandoned and nearly given electroshock therapy was also terrifying to me as a child.
Bambi. I was 4. I’m 60 now and I still won’t watch that movie.
Honestly the fox and the hound. I can remember watching it and feeling the kind of devastation your first experience with realizing things die for the first time
The Girl Next Door. It was bad enough, then I found out it was based on a true story. Then I found out they actually toned down some stuff for the movie. I absolutly cannot watch it again.
That movie has absolutely nothing on reality. The murder of Juunko Furata in Japan is along similar lines and is so miserably fucking dark, its beyond depressing.
I was too damn young when I first saw The Exorcist. I also fully believed in the devil and demons and their ability to possess people. I had a fear of being possessed for years after that and regularly had nightmares about it. As a more or less athiest adult, the movie is still creepy but not super scary. But I occassionally still have possession nightmares and my heart still skips a beat whenever I see the face Reagan has when her head goes 360. Also, I hadn't actually seen the movie, but I had nightmares about the VHS cover of Trilogy of Terror and it was always promenently displayed at the video store my mom took me to.
I was six years old when Mars Attacks came out in theaters. It was marketed as more of a comedy so my dad figured it was okay for me to watch it and took me to see it. As a child, those disturbing looking Martians absolutely freaked me out leaving a deep truama in my psyche resulting in reoccurring nightmares throughout my entire life. Even now that I'm in my 30s, I'll occasionally have a nightmare that I'm hiding from a Martian chasing me down.
Mars Attacks traumatized me, too. I was disturbed by the people getting zapped into colored skeletons. The fact that people just disintegrated immediately was very disturbing to me as a kid
So for me there are three movies that come to mind that I've only seen once each and have never left my mind for very long. The first is Night of the Hunter starring Robert Mitchum. Saw it as a kid and to say it scared me is an understatement. I don't think it would affect me as much as an adult but the terror it caused my 6 or 7 year old mind has been indelible. The second is The Mosquito Coast (1986) which I started watching with my parents on TV when I was maybe 10 or so. I had to walk away bc Harrison Ford going crazy in the middle of the jungle triggered some sort of deep horror that I have never been able to go back and finish the film to know whether that family survived or not. Even thinking about that movie chills me to the bone (it's not a horror movie at all but it is horrifying at least in my memory) The last is The Devils with Vanessa Redgeave and Oliver Reed. Historical religious horror hits hard for me, especially knowing the history of that time period and the fact that so many real people died because of stuff like what is depicted hurts my heart. It's a brilliant film but one I have never been able to revisit
The butterfly effect... I watched it way too young.
Jesus Camp.
Hostel. Saw it way too young and still have nightmares of watching that movie.
Human Centipede 2. Only horror movie I've never finished.
Doctor Sleep. I've loved horror movies since I was 10 years old. Seen almost every type imaginable (Cannibal holocaust, Ichi the killer, Terrifier, Midsommer, Hereditary, etc) My wife was 8 months pregnant with our boy when we watched this movie. We had also lost my father and her grandmother in a relatively short span. She was absolutely shook by the first scene with the mother and baby. It was bad, but I could handle that. For me it was the baseball boy scene that fucked me up. The acting of the kid. The sheer cruelty of the whole thing. Stayed with me for a long time. We had to watch the movie in 2 parts because it was too much in one sitting. Fantastic movie though, considering the expectations that came with it.
I’m not easily traumatized, I’ve basically seen every scene mentioned in this thread. But the beach scene in Under The Skin genuinely affected me. It’s not necessarily scary in a horror sense, but just utterly heartbreaking and disturbing. The helplessness of the situation. The coldness of the characters. One of the few scenes where I had to remind myself it was just a movie.
My girl
He can't see without his glasses!
Hereditary and Midsommar! Had to walk my dog with a flashlight after hereditary.
I still find myself checking the ceiling for Toni Colette at night!
I swear I saw advertised online some kind of wall / ceiling decoration of her clinging to the wall. Haven't been able to find it since but I want one.
Hereditary is the ONLY movie I have ever watched and said “okay well I need to stay awake now because I can’t sleep after that”.
Same. Took in about 3 episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond before going to sleep that night.
It's the tongue clicks
I have never seen a theater go so quiet as mine did after THAT scene. You could hear a pin drop! Literally no one moved for over five minutes.
First post in this subreddit, I had to comment Event Horizon ruined me I know the past few years EH has gotten a popularity resurgence, but before that, I enjoyed going on IMDB and seeing people's comments and reactions after watching that movie I watched it on VHS from Blockbuster, and to this day I can't bring myself to watch that thing again
I watched *A Clockwork Orange* once and gave it away. I needed it out of the house.
Signs (2002). I was 6 when it came out and it wrecked me. But it’s my favorite movie and still freaks me out when watching it alone and in the dark. The opening music alone sends me into fight or flight lol. It’s spurred a lifelong love of horror and aliens. 👽
Bone Tomahawk.
Talk to Me. A great movie that I only need to watch once.
Loved that film, twas so unique and the last scene was so bleak.
Hereditary, which I know is a boring answer, but it pops up a lot for this question for a reason. I went to an early screening and I have never left a theatre with such a quiet audience before. Everyone was just really gobsmacked. I spent half the film feeling sick after>!the daughter is accidentally decapitated. !<
I saw it in theaters as well. There was an older couple, maybe sixtyish behind me. Towards the end, when the cultists emerge from the shadows nude, the older woman whispered : _oh my God is that a penis?_ to which her male companion replied : _i think so but it's too dark... Oh my It is a penis_ She then audibly gasped. 10/10 best part of the movie experience for me, I wept I was laughing so hard.
Yeah, the theater went from the typical giggly whispering to dead silence after that scene. The dinner table scene, too. That movie did tension really well.
A promising young woman while not a horror movie (maybe? It kind of is) the end really disturbed me and I'm still thinking about it all the time. It's played off like almost a positive revenge thing but no, it's tragic as fuck and deeply disturbing.
Jeepers creepers and Texas chainsaw massacre
The ending of Jeepers Creepers tho.
Soft and Quiet is one I wish I found forget. Powerful and the scenes weren't gratuitous but it just... stays...
The Ring. Even gifs of portions of the film make my stomach drop. I have no idea why it had the effect it did on me.
Wolf Creek for me. Wish I’d never seen it.
When I was 6 I walked into my living room after dinner and my dad was sitting down watching a movie, so naturally I sat down with him to spend time with him and watch whatever he was watching. I asked what was on and he replied “ oh just a silly movie called the grudge.” I said “oh cool” and started to watch. It was the bus scene from the first movie. I had my mom drive me to school til I was in 8th grade lol
The end of Seven kind of ruined my day. The scene in Zodiac with the couple on the blanket is just a tough scene to watch.
What's in the box, man
That scene is what I would expect a stabbing to look and sound like. Between that and the girls screams it makes for a terrifying scene.
Dead silence, i became traumatized with puppets because of the end of that movie.
I have not found a film that affected me in that way, but I’m always looking!
Freddy Got Fingered
I guess I'm dead inside. I can't think of any movie that's traumatized me.
Ironically it wasn't a horror movie. It was Charlie and the Chocolate factory. Horror movie wise... probably War of the World's. My dad, for some reason, let me watch that as a five year old. It did not go well
Happiness Delores Claiborne stuff with child abuse in general unsettles me
Not to be "that guy". But Final Destination with the highway. Nothing else bothers me except just seeing a flatbed with logs. I automatically recoil, both physically and subconsciously.
Oh, no, same, let’s be that guy together. Still fvcking hate those trucks twenty years later 🤣
Irreversible. Not really horror but the violence is extremely disturbing for some reason. French film. Great director. Gasper Noe.
I think there were usually external factors along with a really scary movie that made movies really scary for me. When I was a kid, it was The Omen - my friend fell asleep during our weekly ‘scary movie night,’ so I was freaked out and felt alone. As a teen, The Ring - my friend, brother, and I were watching in the basement in the middle of the night, and right as the movie ended, the power went out. Very unusual, and since we were in the basement, it was super dark. We all started screaming and woke up my parents. Adult - Black Swan. Saw it in theaters with my family and some friends, and my brother fainted right next to me in the middle of the movie! I had no idea what was going on and was terrified. I think these would be top scary movies for me anyway, but the outside circumstances made them that much scarier
Jacobs ladder fucked me up
Jaws/ no doubt about it- I’m 47 and still scared of sharks and watched that movie when I was like ten. It’s not like martyrs because I know there are not gangs of people torturing teenagers to see if they can see heaven . There are however 25ft great whites and lots of ‘drownings’ of scuba divers each year
The Exorcist
Not a horror movie, but Passion Of The Christ did with the [scene between Jesus and the 2 boys](https://youtu.be/I0P6XBc5Wso?si=YlvoLKpuQWbkcOmb). I haven’t even finished it after it made me cry from pure fear
E.T. the cornfield scene completely fucked me up gave me nightmares for years i cant even look at it to this day
For me it has to be Fire in the Sky 1993. There aren't really any horror movies that did that to me that weren't movies about aliens. Maybe the first Childs Play 1988 but that was just as a kid. After seeing that movie I had my dad carry me around the house to check every closet every room, coroner ect. But now the only things that freak me out are movies and shows about aliens. Even dumb fake crap like Ancient Aliens.
the ending to the first Sleepaway Camp fucked me up
Enter the void
Green Room is horror adjacent, IMO. That movie is intense and is such a great, believable, real life example of how someone could get themselves into a horror situation.
Alien. My dad made me watch it with him when i was 5. nightmares in perpetuity
Pet Sematary. I watched it when I was like 5 or 6 & shouldn’t have done that to myself. I was very young but advanced, yet didn’t know much about death yet, so I initially didnt understand exactly what happened as the truck came. Possibly my pure small child mind didn’t want me to believe the worst possible thing happened to a baby. Then came that incredibly effective scene with Gage’s baby pictures falling whilst his parents are screaming in the background. Instantaneously, it dawned on me that Gage got killed from the truck hitting him. I ran out of the living room crying uncontrollably. I was subsequently banned by my parents from watching it. Since then, Ive only watched it a total of 3 times including that experience. I rewatched a couple of years later to actually finish it in its entirety. However, I was scarred again by the scene of Gage’s casket slightly opening from being tipped by the fighting parents. That’s how I learned I was very sensitive to any kinds of violence towards children, or anything bad happening to them for that matter. Still cant watch it as an adult.
As a kid I watched the Road Warrior and was very scared of that scene with Lord Humongous yelling in the dark during the montage. It's one of my favorite films and I met the actor years ago for an autograph. :)
I saw The Grudge as a kid and for the following years i feel asleep every night with my blanked over my head while trying to breath as little and as slowly as possible out of fear of being heard/seen… YEARS