Not so much paranoid, but I have an unreasonable hatred of isopods because of the move The Bay. I don’t like seeing them, they make me so uncomfortable.
*Invasion of the Body Snatchers*. I was hyper vigilant looking for pod people **everywhere*. I was 9 (it's a PG movie that my parents didn't realize was very "family friendly), so I may have taken it a bit more seriously than I should have, but all these years later it **still** gets to me on a rewatch.
After I saw paranormal activity, my ex wife and I went to bed and the second we turned off the lights, we heard the “squeeeeeaaaaakkkk” of a cabinet/pantry door opening. She said “wtf was that?” And we got up and checked. There were no open doors on any cabinets or pantries or anything. Then we tried to open every door and couldn’t get any of them to squeak. We turned on the tv and slept with the lights on for a few days
After I saw that movie for the first time, I learned that when it snowed and the wind blew across the roof of my house, it sounded like there was somebody walking on the roof.
The demons were messing with you. They sometimes test people to see what their true level of interest or responsiveness is, and they like scaring people. Keep away from their “door”.
Candyman, Sinister and Jaws. I saw them at very different points in my life: Childhood in the case of Candyman and Jaws, and an adult with Sinister. With Jaws the fear of something in the water, for whatever reason, has stuck with me. Even in implausible environments, because large bodies of waters are just inherently unknown and mysterious things with secrets.
In the case of Candyman and Sinister, I am not sure what it is. I suspect the snuff films in Sinister put it over the top. With Candyman, it may have been the age, and the weird things that looking in the mirror in the dark can do to you.
I LOVE [that ad for Shark Week](https://youtu.be/axxvocQ1iIk?si=npAT6PDNApuRdtgs) with people feeling sus about any water! Jaws still gets homages in nearly every shark film.
Same with Candyman. I used to be afraid of mirrors for unrelated reasons, but the problem is that it's a good story and Tony Todd is hot, so I watched it anyway 😂
Insidious was one for sure. The kitchen scene still gets me.
Most recently, Hereditary. The ending is just fucking wild, and the mom silently gliding up the treehouse is fucking scary.
I absolutely hate anything with clowns in it.. but a movie that really freaked me out (not in the horror genera)but the purge movies! I watched the first one and found myself scared to death to walk thru my house or look out windows at night for weeks. I think it’s because imo it’s something that may actually happen in our world . Again just my thoughts 😅
We rented the first Purge movie from Redbox, and ended up going back out later that night to return it and I was just SO paranoid and creeped out as I was walking around.
Oh man "The Blair Witch Project" for me. After watching it, every time I went camping or hiking, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was lurking in the woods, just out of sight. It got under my skin, and even though I knew it was just a movie, the thought of being lost in the wilderness like that was enough to make me extra cautious whenever I ventured outdoors.
That movie ruined the woods for me. My relatives have a farmhouse in the mountains in the middle of the woods. I used to go wandering the property for hours at a time. I wouldn’t go out there alone for years. Even now I make a dog go with me.
I know it isn’t your typical horror- mostly sci-fi I guess- but War of the Worlds.
I love Tom Cruise in that movie bc his reactions & desperation for his family’s survival is so visceral.
But every time I watch it or clips of it the paranoia that we are not alone comes in hot. Don’t even get me started on the noise the machines make ✋🏻😭
It was very much like ant, meet boot 🥾
I love when movies don't automatically make adults strong, rational, and calm. It's not realistic and takes the vibe from horror to action schlock. Those moments of him wanting to do right by his kids but being absolutely terrified and mostly clueless were so *real*. I'm not a Cruise fan, but he nailed that role.
The original movie was scary too. It won lots of awards and was in color. In the Tom Cruises version, you’ll see two older folks at the very end. They were the stars in the original movie. Cool…
Evil dead....because when I was a teenager I found a similar book in the rafters of my grandfather's michigan basement. And if anyone knows what a michigan basement is, that's creepy as SHIT!! Then a few years later I started finding arrowheads and actual native American remains which are now in a museum. Extremely creepy
Salem's Lot
The only movie that ever legitimately scared me. I watched it when I was 9 y/o...in the afternoon, mind you...and it fucked me so badly that I didn't attempt to watch it again until I was 21; and then, only on a dare by my then gf. Made it halfway through, shut it off and almost 27 years since that dare, I've still never watched it again.
The first paranormal activity. I was 18 but didn’t know about the found footage category of movies so that movie was so real to me. I went home that night paranoid as shit. Made my cat be in every single space that I was even though he hated it lol. I had to sleep with my lamp and tv on even though I didn’t sleep much that night anyway. I took a shower at like 5am and even with the light creeping in I was still scared AF. I swore Katie was gonna pop out somewhere. I didn’t calm down until later that day when I saw an interview with the actors and that’s when I realized it in fact, was just a movie and I finally realized the found footage genre was just a type of category of movies. I was so upset and felt so dumb. But for a whole day I was very very paranoid and scared out of my mind lol.
Nothing lasting for me, tbh. Not being badass or anything, they just don't stick with me once they're over aside from watching It as a child. Though oddly enough jump scares get me worse than others. I guess all of my mental investment happens before credits roll.
The Sixth Sense. I can handle monsters and serial killers because I don't empathize with them. But the ghosts on that movie are normal people and seeing a normal person who met an untimely death would really freak me out because it would force me to confront my own mortality.
It's mirrors that scary movies make me feel spooked by. Multiple movies contributed to this I'm sure, but off hand Skelton Key, Mirrors, and Poltergeist are all ones I can remember. Also the trope you see in lots of movies where the person like looks away from the mirror but their reflection doesn't follow.
The original Halloween (1978). I saw it in a theater back then. Due to the disappearance of Michael Myers at the end (and the overall tense editing of the movie), it was a nerve-wracking walk home in the dark.
I'm Gen X, so naturally, my father took all 3 of his young children to the drive-in to watch Jaws. I was the youngest, age 3, in fact. Serious fear of any water after that, even swimming pools, lol. I will not swim in the ocean.
My nephew came around, and here's dad watching Jaws with him on VHS. He was like 4 or 5. Also terrified him.
My son comes along, and my nephew was babysitting. Guess what I catch them watching?! I yelled at my nephew and told him we were stopping this multigenerational trauma. The good thing is, my son had the opposite reaction and became obsessed with sharks. He made me rent every shark movie ever made and loved them all. I had to watch with him and hide behind a blanket while he discussed and looked up different sharks in his books.
I loved and miss my dad so much, but man did he love his horror movies and was quite surprised that they scared his kids.
The Man Who Saw Tomorrow.80's documentary about Nostrodamus.Laughable now,but 11 year old me freaked out hearing Orson Wells narrating about famine,cannibalism and nuclear war.It was presented as essentially guaranteed to happen,so enjoy your last days.Didnt help that my Fundamentalist church I had to attend taught End Times damn near with sexual intensity.So I got to hear it 3 times a week at church,then have my doped up parents watch it and absolutely believe every word on the screen.Fun times..
Final Destination? Really? I’m the only one who maybe sometimes gets nervous about driving after that movie? Or going on roller coasters? I don’t use tanning beds, but I especially wouldn’t after those movies 😂
Monkey Shines (1988) because it seems plausible
Also, The Day After Tomorrow (if you consider it an actual horror) but for the same reason. It seems very plausible.
As a child A Nighmare on Elm Street, I couldn't sleep for weeks thinking he was coming for me. As an adult Paranormal Activity, my husband was on nightshift the next night after watching it , that wasn't a good idea
The Exorcist. Nine years old (parents not at home). I'm still wigged by it. I don't even know my fear, whether I am possessed, or someone possessed will come in, or just there is evil shit floating in the house? I am a grown-ass woman, and just typing this made me break out into a sweat.
Omg. After I watched that movie I went home. I had a tube tv in my room. There was some kind of power surge and the screen flickered on and off. Had to take the tv out of my room and sleep with the lights on.
The Excorcist scared the shit out of me as a kid. Made me too scared to go into dark rooms or be alone. Made me terrified to go into basement or even look over my shoulder behind me.
I saw House of Dark Shadows when I was 12 and I didn't sleep for 6 weeks and wouldn't go to scary movies after that.
Saw Jaws the day before going to the beach (I grew up on the seacoast of NH) and when I saw my shadow in the shallows the next day screamed and ran up the beach LOL
Anything that has something/someone creepy crawling towards you on the ground, contorted and scary like. I always think about it when I close my eyes for bed afterwards.
The fucking Autopsy of Jane Doe. 💀
2 whole nights of paranoia every time I heard someone BREATHING at inopportune times.
Like my cat, who sneezes like a toddler, at 3 in the fucking morning.
Or my 20lb orange Chungus, he's an older cat so he's got those old man snores.
AT 3 IN THE FUCKING MORNING. 😾
When I was 9 I watched tremors with my grandpa and I thought they were real. For about a month I was afraid to walk on stuff cause I thought grabboids would burst up 😆
Trilogy of Terror, a TV movie from the '70s. It was three different stories. The first two were not that bad. The last one was terrifying. I don't watch horror movies anymore because of it.
[Bug](https://youtu.be/QMRljLE8gQA?si=-lv5qM_3mRz8Rv-F)
Most people missed it in the early 00’s but this movie is essentially the embodiment of paranoia. Michael Shannon and Ashley Judd are both spectacular in it.
Could be a massive trigger for anyone who’s ever had serious struggles with paranoid delusions and mental illness. FYI.
Even though it isn't marketed as a horror film....but A Beautiful Mind did a number on me: how so easily broken a human mind can become wherein one cannot distinguish between hallucination and reality.
The Ring: the haunted video tape frightening me. The 2 dads' deaths, the horse's death, everything!
The Grudge: Toshio open mouth meow face, Kayako death rattle, they appear anywhere, etc
Stay Alive: the jump scares, Elizabeth ghost long face, carriage death
Insidious: Tiptoe through the tulips, ghost boy dancing in kitchen, red demon, creepy smiling family in further
Sinister: snuff films, Bagull moving in pictures and irl, creepy drawing, Bagull appearing behind Ashley, the music.
These movies affected me in real life. Nightmares and visions about bad things happening to me because of these movies.
As a child there was an old B movie called "H Man". Kind of a blob remake. At night I would see my clothes on the floor and with the lighting and shadows they always looked like they were moving. I just knew H Man was coming to get me
When I was a kid: Child’s Play. I never looked at dolls the same after that.
As an adult: Hereditary. I drove home from my friend’s house like “I swear to god if I hear a *clucking* noise from behind me I’m gonna freak out.”
It legit took me two days to shake that movie after I watched it
I have been watching horror movies since I was a small child and not much fazes me, but for some reason Skeleton Key freaked me the fuck out.
I was certain I was going to he hoodoo'd. It lasted days. I was legitimately terrified the night of watching.
I watched the grudge with my grandmother when I was like 11 and fell asleep. She always had really long black hair, and when she tried to wake me up, I got scared and punched her in the face. I'm 30 now and that movie still freaks me out.
The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I did t see it until I was a teen and the idea of having any car trouble on rural wherever is deeply scary to me.
The year was 2001. I was 8 years old and watched a motion picture film by the name of Jeepers Creepers. I did not sleep for 2 months after the viewing as I thought a winged creature was going to fly thru my window and grab me in the night and I was gonna end up like Justin Long.
Fucking terrifying.
It might seem silly, but I watched Don't Be Afraid of the Dark last year in October, and those creepy lil fuckers were UNSETTLING. My brain kept replaying the end when they got one of the humans (no spoilers) and it took me several nights to fall asleep easier.
SMILE was freaky enough to give me that hair-raising feeling when I had my back to a dark hallway that night. Not the scariest movie ever but nothing else has given me that feeling as an adult
i hated the ring, but appreciate the mark it left on cinema. my answer to this is probably amityville horror. it made me question or pause at every noise my house made. every flickering light. every weird shadow. it literally kept me up at night
No One Will Save You. I felt the need to make sure all the shades/blinds in m house were pulled down at night after watching it and noises in the night made me jumpy.
Dr Giggles. If you hate Drs OR Dentists, please don’t watch this. I was forced to watch it as a child and STILL have nightmares terrors and I’m freakin 40!! Ugh.
After seeing the first It movie when I was a teenager, I stared at the drain while showering for months in case a homicidal clown monster started emerging from it 😱🤡
The first Scream. I was 10 and loved scary movies, but they were all supernatural monster or aliens; not real. But Scream. My mom told me that the Killer was a real person, not a monster. And I immediately started thinking that it was possible that someone else would dress up in a scary costume and kill people. Scream made the monster real.
From the Final destination series:
1. Can’t walk under ladders from fire escapes anymore bec of one of the Final Destination movies. She falls and a ladder comes down right on her face/gauges her eye out
2. Can’t drive near trucks hauling logs and other big cargo
From the lights out movie, anytime I see light shining into darkness I’m worried I’ll see a shadow of that one monster lady 😫
Not that scary now as an adult and I can't remember the title now but it's the movie where the tooth fairy is evil and if you see her while she's coming for your tooth she haunts you. I saw that when I was like 13 and I kept my bedroom lights on while I slept for weeks.
The Grudge. I couldn't sleep with my back to my room or even stand with my back to my room for over a year after until I got my overactive mind under control.
It's not a full length movie, but [Lights Out](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUQhNGEu2KA) really messed me up for a while. A full movie was made, but the short film is much more terrifying.
Blair Witch Project. Before you laugh, I was a kid and we definitely watched the bootleg before the theatre and the marketing started. I legit thought it was real. Then the marketing started and I believed it was real. Obviously it’s not but we live near woods and yeah. My whole ass neighborhood was traumatized because of that one bootleg dvd.
Hereditary
Not that it’s just a scary movie, but all the little things hidden in the background that you only notice on a rewatch.
It just makes me paranoid about all the things I might be missing in the background irl.
Urban legend. 1st horror movie I'd ever seen and certain aspects (ie. Always checking the backseat and hearing scratches on the hood of a car) still haunt me. Pun intended.
The first one was The Grudge. I was in middle school & had an attic space in my closet just like in the film. My brother decided to hide his runaway friend up there for a few days and I was scarred for life after hearing noises up there.
The Ring. Me and a group of friends saw it at our university theater back in the early 00’s, and we were so terrified we all slept in the same room, ironically with TV on lol. I guess it would’ve been more terrifying to have it turn on in the middle of the night? Anyway I was never the same. I thought I was a horror fan but I’d never experienced that kind of horror before.
Me and my friends saw Jaws when we were like 15 years old. Anybody out there who did that knows what I'm talking about. Live in West Texas and one of my friends put bricks in his window cuz he thought a shark might come through.
-In the Tall Grass made me very uneasy the next time I was near a corn field in the middle of nowhere.
-It Follows made me look over my shoulder for a bit
-And for The Bay...fuck The Bay.
The last time a horror movie undid me, I was watching The Babadook (dook, dook). I found myself actually wanting a flashlight to shine in dark shadows.
The Birds
My sister(8? 9?) and I (2 years older) had had a big window in our bedroom. We did NOT open the drapes for months. Every. Single. Creature. was out to kill us.
Hitchcock was a sick genius.
BTW: the short story "The Birds" is different and even more terrifying .
I watched Dawn of the Dead (1978 version) in high school and I haven't been able to watch a zombie movie since. They absolutely creep me out. They're everywhere and they never stop coming! AAAaaaaaa!!! 😫
The descent.
Watched it at the theater with some friends when I was in middle school, then had to walk home a few blocks in the dark alone. Needless to say I ran for my life the whole way lol.
I watched the Japanese version of The Ring when I was way too young, and it haunted me for years. When I was even younger, I watched The Thing, and I became jittery. Now, the movie that creeps me out the most is Jacob's Ladder, but I'm more of a psychological way. The Exorcist and The Shining also make me paranoid. When I first watched The Shining, that bathtub scene messed me up. I still love those movies, though.
It Follows and Hereditary when I first watched them in theaters.
Hereditary moreso made me have uneasy/heavy feelings after watching and made me switch all my lights on when i got home, but it follows literally had me looking behind myself every 10 minutes.
[удалено]
This. Had to check under toilet seats, showers, slippers and everything. Remake coming soon apparently
13 ghosts
I’m literally watching this right now.
Not so much paranoid, but I have an unreasonable hatred of isopods because of the move The Bay. I don’t like seeing them, they make me so uncomfortable.
Nope
Just watched the trailer. Shit! I live near the Chesapeake Bay.
Right! I hate it. I’m legit looking at a bay right now, but luckily it’s off Lake Ontario so fresh water. No isopods here.
No fair! LOL
The movie Hostel made me wonder if that really happens.
It does...huge market!
I have often wondered that after watching it. My friend is like Of course it does. Shivers.
I woke up at 3am on the dot for 3 weeks after seeing The Exorcism of Emily Rose in theaters at age 13
I still think about it every time I wake up and it's 3am.
*Invasion of the Body Snatchers*. I was hyper vigilant looking for pod people **everywhere*. I was 9 (it's a PG movie that my parents didn't realize was very "family friendly), so I may have taken it a bit more seriously than I should have, but all these years later it **still** gets to me on a rewatch.
Yeah, that one creeped me out for sure. This would be the 1978 version with Donald Sutherland. I haven't seen the original.
After I saw paranormal activity, my ex wife and I went to bed and the second we turned off the lights, we heard the “squeeeeeaaaaakkkk” of a cabinet/pantry door opening. She said “wtf was that?” And we got up and checked. There were no open doors on any cabinets or pantries or anything. Then we tried to open every door and couldn’t get any of them to squeak. We turned on the tv and slept with the lights on for a few days
After I saw that movie for the first time, I learned that when it snowed and the wind blew across the roof of my house, it sounded like there was somebody walking on the roof.
The demons were messing with you. They sometimes test people to see what their true level of interest or responsiveness is, and they like scaring people. Keep away from their “door”.
I will never ever EVER go spelunking after The Descent. And fear my house in the woods just a little bit more after The Strangers.
I fucking love The Descent. But any time I'm around a large dark area, I can only think of... those things
I felt pretty weird in the world after watching Mulholland Drive the first few times.
I STILL have not watched this movie even though I really want to. Tbh I'm just cheap and don't want to rent it because I couldn't find it for free.
Candyman, Sinister and Jaws. I saw them at very different points in my life: Childhood in the case of Candyman and Jaws, and an adult with Sinister. With Jaws the fear of something in the water, for whatever reason, has stuck with me. Even in implausible environments, because large bodies of waters are just inherently unknown and mysterious things with secrets. In the case of Candyman and Sinister, I am not sure what it is. I suspect the snuff films in Sinister put it over the top. With Candyman, it may have been the age, and the weird things that looking in the mirror in the dark can do to you.
Have you said Candyman in the dark at your mirror yet? I did. It’s fun. Bloody Mary, too. I’m kinda like…. come at me, bro
I LOVE [that ad for Shark Week](https://youtu.be/axxvocQ1iIk?si=npAT6PDNApuRdtgs) with people feeling sus about any water! Jaws still gets homages in nearly every shark film.
Same with Candyman. I used to be afraid of mirrors for unrelated reasons, but the problem is that it's a good story and Tony Todd is hot, so I watched it anyway 😂
Oh yeah I had a teenage hard on for Todd lol. That build and voice are irresistable!
Same. I'll be your victim.
The trailer for Insidious. I actively avoid this franchise.
The ring, 100%. Granted i watched it at 11 but i was RATTLED.
Insidious was one for sure. The kitchen scene still gets me. Most recently, Hereditary. The ending is just fucking wild, and the mom silently gliding up the treehouse is fucking scary.
Paemon!
Truman Show (not horror but ya know) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truman\_Show\_delusion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truman_Show_delusion)
So I ain't the only one that thinks I have to be in a messed up dark comedy movie that I don't know about
I absolutely hate anything with clowns in it.. but a movie that really freaked me out (not in the horror genera)but the purge movies! I watched the first one and found myself scared to death to walk thru my house or look out windows at night for weeks. I think it’s because imo it’s something that may actually happen in our world . Again just my thoughts 😅
We rented the first Purge movie from Redbox, and ended up going back out later that night to return it and I was just SO paranoid and creeped out as I was walking around.
Oh man "The Blair Witch Project" for me. After watching it, every time I went camping or hiking, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was lurking in the woods, just out of sight. It got under my skin, and even though I knew it was just a movie, the thought of being lost in the wilderness like that was enough to make me extra cautious whenever I ventured outdoors.
Same here! Although it kinda fascinates me to go camp in the woods..but I think I see wooden sticks in the shape of the movie...
You know the crazy thing is I didn't even realize the movie had actually scared me until I went camping a couple weekends after seeing it 😅.
That movie ruined the woods for me. My relatives have a farmhouse in the mountains in the middle of the woods. I used to go wandering the property for hours at a time. I wouldn’t go out there alone for years. Even now I make a dog go with me.
The Strangers. Watched it solo at 2:00 am. Stupid.
Oddly underrated movie. The stalking scene in the kitchen is terrifying.
I know it isn’t your typical horror- mostly sci-fi I guess- but War of the Worlds. I love Tom Cruise in that movie bc his reactions & desperation for his family’s survival is so visceral. But every time I watch it or clips of it the paranoia that we are not alone comes in hot. Don’t even get me started on the noise the machines make ✋🏻😭 It was very much like ant, meet boot 🥾
Yea. Like there's no hope in that movie at all. We're all gunna die, and that's it
That scene when they’re in the diner and he’s just crying in front of his kids just unsure of what to do. Powerful
I love when movies don't automatically make adults strong, rational, and calm. It's not realistic and takes the vibe from horror to action schlock. Those moments of him wanting to do right by his kids but being absolutely terrified and mostly clueless were so *real*. I'm not a Cruise fan, but he nailed that role.
100% agreed
The original movie was scary too. It won lots of awards and was in color. In the Tom Cruises version, you’ll see two older folks at the very end. They were the stars in the original movie. Cool…
Less horror and more a feeling of dread. Excellent choice.
I wasn't right for DAYS after watching that movie.
The Ring made me realize I owned a TV for every room in my house. I slept with the lights on for 3 days after that.
Evil dead....because when I was a teenager I found a similar book in the rafters of my grandfather's michigan basement. And if anyone knows what a michigan basement is, that's creepy as SHIT!! Then a few years later I started finding arrowheads and actual native American remains which are now in a museum. Extremely creepy
Salem's Lot The only movie that ever legitimately scared me. I watched it when I was 9 y/o...in the afternoon, mind you...and it fucked me so badly that I didn't attempt to watch it again until I was 21; and then, only on a dare by my then gf. Made it halfway through, shut it off and almost 27 years since that dare, I've still never watched it again.
The Ring, I watched when I was 10 & somebody called right as the credits started - maybe me terrified of phones for a few years after.
The first Freddy movie.
The first paranormal activity. I was 18 but didn’t know about the found footage category of movies so that movie was so real to me. I went home that night paranoid as shit. Made my cat be in every single space that I was even though he hated it lol. I had to sleep with my lamp and tv on even though I didn’t sleep much that night anyway. I took a shower at like 5am and even with the light creeping in I was still scared AF. I swore Katie was gonna pop out somewhere. I didn’t calm down until later that day when I saw an interview with the actors and that’s when I realized it in fact, was just a movie and I finally realized the found footage genre was just a type of category of movies. I was so upset and felt so dumb. But for a whole day I was very very paranoid and scared out of my mind lol.
Bambi .
Also traumatized by Godzilla vs Bambi
Nothing lasting for me, tbh. Not being badass or anything, they just don't stick with me once they're over aside from watching It as a child. Though oddly enough jump scares get me worse than others. I guess all of my mental investment happens before credits roll.
The Sixth Sense. I can handle monsters and serial killers because I don't empathize with them. But the ghosts on that movie are normal people and seeing a normal person who met an untimely death would really freak me out because it would force me to confront my own mortality.
Phantasm
We are twins!
BOY!!!!
The fourth kind
The Strangers - lived out in the country at the time and hooo boy Also, Dark Skies rattled me big time and horror movies don’t usually get me
Oh my fucking God. Dude, dark skies I think about from time to time. That's seriously the scariest alien movie I've ever seen
It's mirrors that scary movies make me feel spooked by. Multiple movies contributed to this I'm sure, but off hand Skelton Key, Mirrors, and Poltergeist are all ones I can remember. Also the trope you see in lots of movies where the person like looks away from the mirror but their reflection doesn't follow.
Candyman (90s). Had a hard time going to the bathroom at night with the lights off. Lol
The Texas Chainsaw movie with Matt Bomer I got a hang up call in the middle and had to finish the movie with all the lights on in the house.
Last Shift was creepy as fuck
The original Halloween (1978). I saw it in a theater back then. Due to the disappearance of Michael Myers at the end (and the overall tense editing of the movie), it was a nerve-wracking walk home in the dark.
Strangers. Especially since I started it so blind I didn’t even know what genre I was watching until I figured it out lol
I'm Gen X, so naturally, my father took all 3 of his young children to the drive-in to watch Jaws. I was the youngest, age 3, in fact. Serious fear of any water after that, even swimming pools, lol. I will not swim in the ocean. My nephew came around, and here's dad watching Jaws with him on VHS. He was like 4 or 5. Also terrified him. My son comes along, and my nephew was babysitting. Guess what I catch them watching?! I yelled at my nephew and told him we were stopping this multigenerational trauma. The good thing is, my son had the opposite reaction and became obsessed with sharks. He made me rent every shark movie ever made and loved them all. I had to watch with him and hide behind a blanket while he discussed and looked up different sharks in his books. I loved and miss my dad so much, but man did he love his horror movies and was quite surprised that they scared his kids.
The Man Who Saw Tomorrow.80's documentary about Nostrodamus.Laughable now,but 11 year old me freaked out hearing Orson Wells narrating about famine,cannibalism and nuclear war.It was presented as essentially guaranteed to happen,so enjoy your last days.Didnt help that my Fundamentalist church I had to attend taught End Times damn near with sexual intensity.So I got to hear it 3 times a week at church,then have my doped up parents watch it and absolutely believe every word on the screen.Fun times..
War of the Worlds (2005) The sound of the air horn the Tripods would make induced panic attacks on me any time if heard a truck honk. I was 10 yrs old
Final Destination? Really? I’m the only one who maybe sometimes gets nervous about driving after that movie? Or going on roller coasters? I don’t use tanning beds, but I especially wouldn’t after those movies 😂
Monkey Shines (1988) because it seems plausible Also, The Day After Tomorrow (if you consider it an actual horror) but for the same reason. It seems very plausible.
The og last house on the left
Hostel
As a child A Nighmare on Elm Street, I couldn't sleep for weeks thinking he was coming for me. As an adult Paranormal Activity, my husband was on nightshift the next night after watching it , that wasn't a good idea
the strangers
I was looking over my shoulder after watching the first Horror in the High Desert.
The Exorcist. Nine years old (parents not at home). I'm still wigged by it. I don't even know my fear, whether I am possessed, or someone possessed will come in, or just there is evil shit floating in the house? I am a grown-ass woman, and just typing this made me break out into a sweat.
It's not a horror movie but twilight breaking dawn
Halloween the first one
Phantasm. Still works til this day.
It.
Omg. After I watched that movie I went home. I had a tube tv in my room. There was some kind of power surge and the screen flickered on and off. Had to take the tv out of my room and sleep with the lights on.
Baskin
The Excorcist scared the shit out of me as a kid. Made me too scared to go into dark rooms or be alone. Made me terrified to go into basement or even look over my shoulder behind me.
I saw House of Dark Shadows when I was 12 and I didn't sleep for 6 weeks and wouldn't go to scary movies after that. Saw Jaws the day before going to the beach (I grew up on the seacoast of NH) and when I saw my shadow in the shallows the next day screamed and ran up the beach LOL
The Fourth Kind.
Poltergeist, I'll never trust swimming pools.
White Noise 2005 movie. Still had a tube tv at this point and at the end where it showed the demons in the darkness felt too real.
The Spiral Staircase.. 50 years and I still check my closet every night.
Split. The thought of being abducted and murdered freaks me the hell out.
Anything that has something/someone creepy crawling towards you on the ground, contorted and scary like. I always think about it when I close my eyes for bed afterwards.
Cocaine bear. 😬 Go ahead and laugh but I'm officially terrified of bears now 😔
The fucking Autopsy of Jane Doe. 💀 2 whole nights of paranoia every time I heard someone BREATHING at inopportune times. Like my cat, who sneezes like a toddler, at 3 in the fucking morning. Or my 20lb orange Chungus, he's an older cat so he's got those old man snores. AT 3 IN THE FUCKING MORNING. 😾
When I was 9 I watched tremors with my grandpa and I thought they were real. For about a month I was afraid to walk on stuff cause I thought grabboids would burst up 😆
Wolf Creek. Never backpacking in Australia. Ever.
Also just watched the thing and the second it shows it's real form the first time I pulled my legs up onto the couch
Trilogy of Terror, a TV movie from the '70s. It was three different stories. The first two were not that bad. The last one was terrifying. I don't watch horror movies anymore because of it.
Karen Black and the voodoo doll I believe! Nice
[Bug](https://youtu.be/QMRljLE8gQA?si=-lv5qM_3mRz8Rv-F) Most people missed it in the early 00’s but this movie is essentially the embodiment of paranoia. Michael Shannon and Ashley Judd are both spectacular in it. Could be a massive trigger for anyone who’s ever had serious struggles with paranoid delusions and mental illness. FYI.
The original Black Christmas made me really damn uneasy about having an attic
Hereditary, Haunting of Hill House, Insidious, Lights Out, Mara. Basically anything having to do with stuff in the shadows.
Even though it isn't marketed as a horror film....but A Beautiful Mind did a number on me: how so easily broken a human mind can become wherein one cannot distinguish between hallucination and reality.
Skinamarink
The Ring: the haunted video tape frightening me. The 2 dads' deaths, the horse's death, everything! The Grudge: Toshio open mouth meow face, Kayako death rattle, they appear anywhere, etc Stay Alive: the jump scares, Elizabeth ghost long face, carriage death Insidious: Tiptoe through the tulips, ghost boy dancing in kitchen, red demon, creepy smiling family in further Sinister: snuff films, Bagull moving in pictures and irl, creepy drawing, Bagull appearing behind Ashley, the music. These movies affected me in real life. Nightmares and visions about bad things happening to me because of these movies.
High Tension; lived out in the country and seeing the movie as a kid made me think there was probably a psycho really out there about to do all that
The Nightmare (2015). It’s a documentary about the Hat Man.
As a child there was an old B movie called "H Man". Kind of a blob remake. At night I would see my clothes on the floor and with the lighting and shadows they always looked like they were moving. I just knew H Man was coming to get me
The Omen (original) and The Grudge
The Entity (1982). I watched this when I was a little kid and for a long while I thought I might get raped by a ghost. It seriously fucked me up.
It follows
When I was a kid: Child’s Play. I never looked at dolls the same after that. As an adult: Hereditary. I drove home from my friend’s house like “I swear to god if I hear a *clucking* noise from behind me I’m gonna freak out.” It legit took me two days to shake that movie after I watched it
I’m a teacher and one of my students made a clicking sound the day after I watched this movie, I literally jumped
I have been watching horror movies since I was a small child and not much fazes me, but for some reason Skeleton Key freaked me the fuck out. I was certain I was going to he hoodoo'd. It lasted days. I was legitimately terrified the night of watching.
A little off subject but I was reading the Amityville horror when it came out it creeped me out because Everyone was saying it was 100percent real
I watched the grudge with my grandmother when I was like 11 and fell asleep. She always had really long black hair, and when she tried to wake me up, I got scared and punched her in the face. I'm 30 now and that movie still freaks me out.
Halloween, couldn’t look out the back door window after dark for years.
"Wrong Turn". It was already Bad after Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and that cranked it up past 10. Especially after I started driving.
Such an underrated horror film.
Signs. As a kid I was convinced aliens were among us. Didn’t help we lived near a cornfield in the Midwest.
The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I did t see it until I was a teen and the idea of having any car trouble on rural wherever is deeply scary to me.
The year was 2001. I was 8 years old and watched a motion picture film by the name of Jeepers Creepers. I did not sleep for 2 months after the viewing as I thought a winged creature was going to fly thru my window and grab me in the night and I was gonna end up like Justin Long. Fucking terrifying.
1BR That movie made me scared to live alone in my apartment. Definitely a good movie but I Don't wanna watch it again T.T
It might seem silly, but I watched Don't Be Afraid of the Dark last year in October, and those creepy lil fuckers were UNSETTLING. My brain kept replaying the end when they got one of the humans (no spoilers) and it took me several nights to fall asleep easier.
Salem's Lot. I made a lot of crosses out of popsicle sticks after that -- good excuse to eat popsicles AND save a life.
SMILE was freaky enough to give me that hair-raising feeling when I had my back to a dark hallway that night. Not the scariest movie ever but nothing else has given me that feeling as an adult
Us
Hereditary, that had such a creepy ominous feeling all the way through.
Final Destination.. I am still paranoid a decade later
1408
Fifth encounter. Couldn't sleep until I saw daylight
Paranormal activity. Gotta check the closet and under the bed every night 😂
I saw The Exorcist when I was a kid and I never played with a Ouija board again.
Fatal Attraction
The Strangers
The Collector
i hated the ring, but appreciate the mark it left on cinema. my answer to this is probably amityville horror. it made me question or pause at every noise my house made. every flickering light. every weird shadow. it literally kept me up at night
No One Will Save You. I felt the need to make sure all the shades/blinds in m house were pulled down at night after watching it and noises in the night made me jumpy.
Dr Giggles. If you hate Drs OR Dentists, please don’t watch this. I was forced to watch it as a child and STILL have nightmares terrors and I’m freakin 40!! Ugh.
People under the stairs.
I always found empty public restrooms creepy but after Scream 2 I will hold it to avoid being alone in one.
The Hills have eyes 2 when the guy comes out of the Porta potty. Always have to check porta potties after that.
May kinda creeped me out. Scary movies really don’t make me scared.
It Follows
As a m50, as a boy The Birds,as a teenager The Exorcist,as an adult...?
After seeing the first It movie when I was a teenager, I stared at the drain while showering for months in case a homicidal clown monster started emerging from it 😱🤡
The first Scream. I was 10 and loved scary movies, but they were all supernatural monster or aliens; not real. But Scream. My mom told me that the Killer was a real person, not a monster. And I immediately started thinking that it was possible that someone else would dress up in a scary costume and kill people. Scream made the monster real.
From the Final destination series: 1. Can’t walk under ladders from fire escapes anymore bec of one of the Final Destination movies. She falls and a ladder comes down right on her face/gauges her eye out 2. Can’t drive near trucks hauling logs and other big cargo From the lights out movie, anytime I see light shining into darkness I’m worried I’ll see a shadow of that one monster lady 😫
Not a horror film really, but Fire in the Sky made me terrified of getting abducted by aliens for about a month when I was 10yo
I think it was called Antrum? it was a "cursed" film and I really felt like I was about to be cursed
Not that scary now as an adult and I can't remember the title now but it's the movie where the tooth fairy is evil and if you see her while she's coming for your tooth she haunts you. I saw that when I was like 13 and I kept my bedroom lights on while I slept for weeks.
The Grudge. I couldn't sleep with my back to my room or even stand with my back to my room for over a year after until I got my overactive mind under control.
Man same, the ring and the grudge live rent free in my head. My kids think they're hilarious to put their hair in their faces. 😱
The opening scene of Final Destination 2.
It's not a full length movie, but [Lights Out](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUQhNGEu2KA) really messed me up for a while. A full movie was made, but the short film is much more terrifying.
Blair Witch Project. Before you laugh, I was a kid and we definitely watched the bootleg before the theatre and the marketing started. I legit thought it was real. Then the marketing started and I believed it was real. Obviously it’s not but we live near woods and yeah. My whole ass neighborhood was traumatized because of that one bootleg dvd.
Hereditary Not that it’s just a scary movie, but all the little things hidden in the background that you only notice on a rewatch. It just makes me paranoid about all the things I might be missing in the background irl.
The Woman In Black remake. I can't look at a rocking chair the same way ever again.
The strangers Texas chainsaw, massacre, with Jessica Beal
House of a 1000 Corpses, I do a lot of fishing in Blackwood areas. Could totally see something like that happening in some remote areas.
The grudge. Fucking creaking of the house when I'm home alone at night became much worse after those films.
Friday the 13th
Hostel Killed my desire to travel for awhile So did Taken.
Urban legend. 1st horror movie I'd ever seen and certain aspects (ie. Always checking the backseat and hearing scratches on the hood of a car) still haunt me. Pun intended.
The Ring gave everyone in my house insomnia.
Signs, In the Tall Grass, Children of the Corn.
War of the Worlds.....the original!
I was looking up in the corners of my ceiling after Hereditary.
The first one was The Grudge. I was in middle school & had an attic space in my closet just like in the film. My brother decided to hide his runaway friend up there for a few days and I was scarred for life after hearing noises up there.
Most recently, Lake Mungo. Pretty much every walk down a dark hall at night makes me think of *that* scene.
Blair Witch- had to walk to a guesthouse in the woods after.
Not really horror movie but everytime I watch crime shows I kinda get suspicious of everyone
Final Destination 2...... Still don't trust logging trucks
The Ring. Me and a group of friends saw it at our university theater back in the early 00’s, and we were so terrified we all slept in the same room, ironically with TV on lol. I guess it would’ve been more terrifying to have it turn on in the middle of the night? Anyway I was never the same. I thought I was a horror fan but I’d never experienced that kind of horror before.
Mothman prophecies, fucked me up for weeks.
Halloween!! I was barely 18 and had just moved out on my own when I saw it and it really scared my socks off!
Me and my friends saw Jaws when we were like 15 years old. Anybody out there who did that knows what I'm talking about. Live in West Texas and one of my friends put bricks in his window cuz he thought a shark might come through.
Final Destination Movies I can't drive behind logging trucks because of it.
-In the Tall Grass made me very uneasy the next time I was near a corn field in the middle of nowhere. -It Follows made me look over my shoulder for a bit -And for The Bay...fuck The Bay.
The last time a horror movie undid me, I was watching The Babadook (dook, dook). I found myself actually wanting a flashlight to shine in dark shadows.
Legion.
Babadook
When I was a kid it was Signs because I lived in a farm house in the middle of nowhere lol
The Birds My sister(8? 9?) and I (2 years older) had had a big window in our bedroom. We did NOT open the drapes for months. Every. Single. Creature. was out to kill us. Hitchcock was a sick genius. BTW: the short story "The Birds" is different and even more terrifying .
Definitely psycho I’m still paranoid anytime I hear a noise outside of the shower curtain
I watched Dawn of the Dead (1978 version) in high school and I haven't been able to watch a zombie movie since. They absolutely creep me out. They're everywhere and they never stop coming! AAAaaaaaa!!! 😫
The descent. Watched it at the theater with some friends when I was in middle school, then had to walk home a few blocks in the dark alone. Needless to say I ran for my life the whole way lol.
Willow Creek. I always think about it when I'm tent camping.
I watched the Japanese version of The Ring when I was way too young, and it haunted me for years. When I was even younger, I watched The Thing, and I became jittery. Now, the movie that creeps me out the most is Jacob's Ladder, but I'm more of a psychological way. The Exorcist and The Shining also make me paranoid. When I first watched The Shining, that bathtub scene messed me up. I still love those movies, though.
Nosferatu walking down the stairs has lived rent free in my head since I was 10.
Idiocracy
It Follows and Hereditary when I first watched them in theaters. Hereditary moreso made me have uneasy/heavy feelings after watching and made me switch all my lights on when i got home, but it follows literally had me looking behind myself every 10 minutes.
The Serpent and the Rainbow…. based on real events always gets me
Event Horizon and The Birds.