Movies That Scared You Growing Up: And Still Do

This is about the movies that scared us. As a kid there were certain movies, certain scenes, that made a huge, scary impression, an impression that didn’t quite leave.  Take Jaws, for example:  How many people avoid swimming in any large body of water, even as adults, for fear that lurking beneath is something large, menacing, and very toothy.  And even if you do manage the swim, it’s in spite of the fear, not free from it.  It’s putting on a brave face.  You don’t dare open your eyes under water.  You don’t dare look down.

We were kids, and kids get scared easily, so how funny is it that, all these years later, those fears can stick with us?  You might be an adult now, with all the powers of reason and rational, but I’ll bet some part of that little kid still hesitates.  Here’s a few movies that got my generation:

• The Never Ending Story:  I would normally want to end any list with a punch, a big finish, but fear doesn’t work that way, does it?  The first and last scariest image I have ever seen is the wolf from this movie.  I was probably five or six when I first watched that movie and I’m not sure I uncovered my eyes during that scene for another ten years.  That’s right, fourteen years old, here comes the wolf scene, cue hand over eyes.  When I see wolves or big dogs now a days, I pitty them.  They’re big pussies compared to that dog.  Then I put the image out of my mind, as though conjuring it in my mind increases the chances it’s standing right behind me.
• Witness: Mom loved Harrison Ford, but was it really appropriate for her to put a movie on which, scene one, has a cute little boy witness a brutal, cut-the-guys-throat murder in a bus-station bathroom?  Bascially, I can’t walk into a public bathroom without first sussing out whether any of the guys peeing are actually set up to cut my, or somebody elses throat.  Oh, and if it’s just me and you in there, standing at the urinal, I’ve got my goddam eye on you!
• The Brave Little Toaster: This movie taught me that everything I own: shirt, lamp, vaccume, rug, boot, everything, has larger, googly eyes and an even bigger heart.  That heart breaks when you throw the things away because the item feels sad that it isn’t loved.  The movie also taught me that all of these poor items are eventually destitute, lonely, and doomed in the darkest parts of some evil junkyard.  This realization is a curse:  Even six months past the point when that little blue line indicates it’s time to stop brushing, I can’t throw away ol’ Toothy.  Don’t even get me started on blankets.
• It:  This movie taught me that clowns are evil and made of spiders.  Also, British accents occasionally mean you will be eaten.  Further, a single balloon cannot be trusted.  Not ever.  The rule is that bunches of balloons are okay but the moment one goes rogue or is discovered on its own it is best to stab first and giggle nervoussly later.
• The Shining: You know how good Christian kids were supposed to have been given the fear of god by a combination of anti-masturbation sermons on Sunday and subsequent punishment with Dad’s belt?  I didn’t get any of that.  I got the Shining, at four years old.  The brief story goes like this.  It’s my fourth birthday, and I’m staying with my aunt and uncle.  We’re at the video store and they say I can pick out whatever movie I want.  I’m four, so what do I know of movies?  Then I see this smiling face, and I recognize it.  It’s Jack Nicholson.  ”That one!  I want that one!  The Shining!”  My aunt doesn’t want to but I assure her I’ve seen it with my dad before and, shocking as it is to me now, we get it.  What amazes me is that I actually sit through the whole thing without turning away.  Of course, I ended up in my parents bedroom with night terrors for the next seven or so years, and it is a full eleven years before I actually submit to the movie again.  Meanwhile, I am since mistrustful of low-lit, long c0rridors, twins, hotels in general, ice, axes, little boys with little fingers, and people smiling through doorways.

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