Worst movie experiences as a kid

Gary Sax wrote: Seeing the shitty It miniseries definitely scared me for a while when I was a kid.

Yeah, that miniseries was so bad, it would terrify me to watch it still to this day. I loved It the book, so the miniseries was a huge disappointment.

Quozl, I don't remember that in Stand By Me (been a long time since I saw that one), but that is definitely in Goonies. It is my favorite scene, where Chunk confesses everything to the Fratelli Gang.

We didn't have ANY theaters in the town where I grew up. The nearest theater was a drive-i about 30 minutes away. If we saw a movie, it was in Lexington, which was about an hour away.

So most of the movies I saw were at a run-down 70's era drive-in. This meant that I saw a lot of horror movies and general trash.

The worst was at age...6 or so. A double feature of Flesh Gordon and The Groove Tube. The interesting thing is that the movies left very little obvious memories, except I totally adored the giant toilet deathtrap and the awesome Flesh Gordon cyclops monster. Somehow, I don't think the softcore porn elements really registered with me.

Dad was totally wigged out by something in the Groove Tube, left halfway through Groove Tube, and just wouldn't speak on the drive home. Something on the order of "I've screwed up my kid for life. What have I done?"

I can't remember the scene at all, just Dad being so freaked.

Dair wrote: Quozl, I don't remember that in Stand By Me (been a long time since I saw that one), but that is definitely in Goonies. It is my favorite scene, where Chunk confesses everything to the Fratelli Gang.

Yeah, in Stand By Me, it was the pie-eating contest scene. Funny and gross!

When I was six years old my parents took me to the drive-in to see LOVE STORY. Yes, the one about a young girl who dies of Cancer. Not for kids!

engineer Al wrote: When I was six years old my parents took me to the drive-in to see LOVE STORY. Yes, the one about a young girl who dies of Cancer. Not for kids!

Cmon dude, use spoiler tags. Now I'll never enjoy this one as I should have been able to.

My three older siblings are between 8-13 yrs. older than I am, so I would occasionally be exposed to some age-inappropriate movies. I remember being freaked out by the zombies in the Thriller video when it premiered, and I also got spooked by the WWII bomber vignette (the guy spilling his guts, in particular) in Heavy Metal.

The worst was this thriller where in the climax of the movie a woman (she may have been a model, I'm not sure) is being stalked by this psycho with a knife. All I remember is that he's looking for her in this dark art/photography studio, she's standing with her back to this canvas/fabric-covered frame, and he bursts through it and takes her to the floor. Then there's a closeup of him cutting her shirt up the middle from top to bottom...and that's where I lost my shit and hid upstairs where I could still hear her screaming shortly thereafter. I'd love to be able to watch that movie so I could see if it's as disturbing as I thought it was at the time, but I haven't been able to figure out what it is based on what meager details I can remember.

And then there was the time in college when my girlfriend and I were inebriated and we went to the local multiplex to see Rushmore. We go in the theater about 20 min. before the movie starts, but it doesn't begin for another 45 min. Me, being messed up, take it in stride. Then the film starts and some of the credits start popping up on the screen. I think, "That's an odd font choice based on what kind of movie Rushmore appears to be," and then the title of the film pops up: She's All That. I'm immediately furious (mostly at myself, but also at the universe), but I'm fucked. Rushmore's already well into its running time, and I can either leave and forfeit my ticket price, or stay and watch a douchey Freddie Prinze Jr. and get my "money's worth," as it were. My girlfriend (now wife) wanted to stay so now I've seen She's All That in the theater.

Dair wrote:

engineer Al wrote: When I was six years old my parents took me to the drive-in to see LOVE STORY. Yes, the one about a young girl who dies of Cancer. Not for kids!

Cmon dude, use spoiler tags. Now I'll never enjoy this one as I should have been able to.

Sorry, figured 42 years gave you enough time to see it.

JMcL63 wrote: Watching Psycho on TV alone at age 11. I was scared shitless. I came to appreciate the experience, but that terror haunted me for some time.

Same here. I think I was a few years younger. I jumped out of my skin in terror especially in the scene when Norman was caught. God damn that was scary.

Hatchling wrote:

JMcL63 wrote: Watching Psycho on TV alone at age 11. I was scared shitless. I came to appreciate the experience, but that terror haunted me for some time.

Same here. I think I was a few years younger. I jumped out of my skin in terror especially in the scene when Norman was caught. God damn that was scary.

Yes, I remember Norman jumping out in drag. Goddam, that was freaky! The reason I came to appreciate the experience was that I realised that, if I'd seen the film when I was older, it just wouldn't've scared me. So I got a taste of what the original audiences experienced.

My parents showed me Jaws and the first half of Nightmare on Elm Street as a kid. I still have strong memories of both.

My really bad movie experiences didn't happen until I went to university and started watching art house films and I discovered on at least 4 occasions that my syringe/blood phobia can cause me to have panic attacks and actually faint in the cinema.