I have also seen way to many scary movies as a kid and young adult that I just don't really scare anymore! I can tell you I am afraid to watch Jesus Camp! That's the stuff that scares the hell out of me now as an adult! When I was young, The Exorcist really did scare me and scar me for life. I have since watched it many times but it still gives me that paranoid feeling when I do! Part of it is the voice of Mercedes McCambridge! That voice just makes me lose my mind!!! I also had an awful The Evil Dead experience when it first was released on vhs, I had just moved into a new apartment like another viewer said and that night I plugged in The Evil Dead alone in this new place and I was okay for a little while, right up until the card esp reading scene, when the girl starts reading the cards fast and then suddenly turns into a deadite and yells "jack of hearts", I promptly got up and turned it off, turned on the lights and ran back to my couch and stayed on the couch under a blanket the rest of the night feeling extremely scared and paranoid!!! I then finished it the next day in the light and I was fine. That is the first and only movie that ever scared me into actually turning it off and finishing it in the day!
I actually just wrote a review for this one on the Netflix site: A Nightmare on Elm Street. I was twelve, and it freaked me out. How about getting killed in the place you feel most comfortable? You don't run to your bed because you'll fall asleep -- I forced myself to stay awake for hours after watching this one. And this still happens to be one of the horror movies I like to watch to this day. Seems to stand the test of time.
I can say without (too much) shame that the only time I've ever walked out of a movie in the theatre was during the director's cut re-release of The Exorcist. I didn't even get to the "good stuff" (ie, horrible spider-walk sequence, spinning head, pea soup, et. al.); but the freaky music, the weird 'subliminal' overlays, and most of all, Linda Blair's performance, all unsettled me to the point where I had to leave.
It was obviously a very well-made movie, and I'd love to finish it sometime ... in a brightly lit room, full of friends, I think.
I am sure that anybody who was raised Catholic, like I was, can tell you the sheer terror that ensues as a direct result of watching this movie. I went into a haunted house when I was 18 and I made it through Freddy Krueger chasing me just fine. As soon as I walked into the room where they were recreating the scene where the demon is being exorcised, I split for the nearest exit. The gentleman who was playing the priest had to break character to chase me because the exit led to a bad alley, in a bad section of town. The sad part is that I refused to believe that he was actually trying to help me and he had to tackle me and carry me over his shoulder and out of the employee exit. Needless to say, I made some people in my group very angry because I ruined their fun and I always ask if there is any reference to this movie before I will enter ANY haunted house.
Shaya: fear-flight response is what you went through. I went to a haunted house (1980?) with my 12 year old daughter and when the guy with the chainsaw entered the room (my mind registered Chainsaw Massacre the original version), I pushed my daughter out of the way and ran for only my life. To this day my daughter kids me that I would let her die to save my life. Fear - flight she may be right.
Yes, fear-flight sounds exactly right. That is a great story. I laughed hysterically but mainly because I can relate to it so well. The sad part it that people who work at haunted houses look for the people who are the most scared to mess with. I am glad they took it easy on me after I ran through the alley ;)
I think it was the 1963 version. I was about 6 or 7 and our neighbor took a bunch of the kids out to the movies. It was supposed to be fun. It scared me so bad that I couldn't go to sleep without my mom in the room for weeks. I can still remember the crow flying in the window and the eyeballs and the laboratory that they used. Very scary to a 7 year old!!! Even though I'm MUCH older now, I still haven't ever got up the nerve to watch it again. If I could even find it--don't think Netflix even carries that version. No matter how scared I get now, I don't think anything could hold a candle to that terror!
I'd have to say White Chicks, with the Wayan brothers...
No, seriously I very rarely watch horror flicks, I have way to vivid an imagination, when I saw the 6th sense I couldn't get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night for weeks! I kept thinking I'd go back to bed and there'd be some kid throwing up under a blanket!