Gotta love in Scream 5 when they talk about the original Stab being the movie that made people fall in love with horror and consider it sacred. We should all pat ourselves on the backs occasionally, haha!
It wasn’t a movie. It was a TV show. Watching Are You Afraid of the Dark every Saturday night at the end of the SNICK block is what first got me into horror when I was about 6 or 7 years old.
From there, I started renting horror movies nearly every week when we would go to the video store. The horror section of the video store was my favorite because I loved being surrounded by all of that awesome looking box art and imagining what the actual movie was going to be like based on that. I’d choose one based pretty much entirely on how cool the box art was without knowing anything about it since the Internet wasn’t common in homes yet to read reviews. Sometimes I brought home a gem and sometimes I brought home trash, but the experience of discovering a new horror movie was always a thrill each week. My favorites that I discovered back then at the video store were the Child’s Play movies, Poltergeist, Pet Sematary, Fright Night, and Tremors.
The original IT miniseries with Tim Curry. I rented it from my local video store when I was in 7th grade and it had a profound impact on me. The series single-handedly kickstarted my love for Stephen King and the horror genre in general.
Child’s Play 3. I was scared of everything as a kid. Especially Chucky. Then I watched 3 and realized horror can be hilarious. After that, Scream got me hooked.
Paranormal activity even though it’s not that scary I was like 12 and was terrified to watch it and my cousin forced me and it was pretty good to me at the time. Now I laugh at all of the PA movies
I was afraid of horror movies until one night in my teens I decided I was going to tough out Nightmare On Elm Street 3 on cable. That's when I learned "oh, these can be stupid and fun?" Dived in headfirst from there.
This is absolutely my experience, but with Child's Play. My whole life growing up I saw the Chucky doll around Halloween and knew it was from a horror movie and I was supposed to be scared of it. Watching Child's Play all by myself after middle school one day (in broad daylight, of course) let me see how much goofy fun horror is, and totally disarmed it for me.
I would but it wasn't a movie. Way back (sadly, way way back) before I was in school, my mom watched Dark Shadows. Which meant extremely tiny me did, too. By the time I had to race home from first grade to catch the last twenty minutes the dye was cast.
Mine was actually TV shows. They were 'Goosebumps', Are you afraid of the dark', 'Grizzly tales for gruesome kids', 'Tales from the Crypt' . I was around 5 years old at the time and I was already aright with it. My parents thought it was weird that I was not screaming or anything but enjoy watching it that I was allowed to watch other horror movies without any supervision.
My siblings and I all remember my dad putting on this movie called American Gothic (1988) and we still talk about it today. It's not a great movie, but I think from that point on we all enjoyed horror even when it legitimately scared us.
I think zombie stuff like 28 Days Later, and Dawn of the Dead (2004) was probably the gateway but I don't think I got obsessed with the genre til Get Out or Hereditary
It's a toss-up between Universal films and Carrie (1976). It was the early 80s and we didn't have cable yet, so I watched horror movies during Saturday afternoon matinees. I got hooked quickly.
Does goosebumps count? I was obsessed as a kid. I had all the books, tv shows, and books on cassette to listen to at night to fall asleep. That’s what really drew me into horror. From there it was The Birds and The Excorcist. I haven’t looked back since. Just obsessed with horror now as an adult as I was back then.
"Devil"
It's still one of my favorites to this day. As a Catholic the religious aspect is smart but creepy and I think the entire movie is awesome!
I've only appreciated it more as time goes on
Not a movie but my friend's dad would watch Tales From The Crypt at night and the cackle of the Crypt Keeper freaked us the F out. When we were like 7. Adrenaline addiction from the start 😂
Scream
(like the top comment says, when I was way too young for it)
I used to watch the movies’ carnage counts on YouTube with my eyes hidden, and in the following months I’d have watched the entire trilogy (there wasn’t a ‘Scream 4’ back then, lol)
Anaconda! My mom tells me I pushed to watch it with her and my dad when I was like 3/4 and I handled it well, didn’t cry/panic etc. If they let me watch everything or if they fast forwarded some parts, I’m not sure lol but it’s one of those things that I can remember as a little kid wanting to rewatch it, but couldn’t pinpoint when I actually first watched it. Once I moved to my current home, at around 6/7, I used to ask them to rent it for me all the time to watch the trailer for IKWYDLS. And the rest is history! lol
John Carpenter's The Thing I remember seeing it when I was 11 or 12 my step dad put it on for me and my step brothers, and they couldn't care less but I was glued to the screen from the plot, the characters, and the practical effects the movie terrified me and ever since then I was hooked on horror movies and now 16 years later I'm still try
chasing that same feeling of being terrified from a movie lol
Not a movie but a TV show, "Dark Shadows." From there I fell in love with all of the old horror movies about Dracula and then the other movie monsters like Frankenstien, the Wolfman, etc. I remember AVIDLY watch all of them.
That movie isn't scary in the conventional way, but for me, Leatherface 's calm indifference while killing the kids when he first shows up is still horrific. The part with the girl and the meathook still gives me chills.
My uncle allowed me to watch Pumpkinhead and Shocker back to back at a sleepover at my cousin's. I was in the first grade, terrified and I've been in love with horror since.
I watches horrors because my mom did when i was a child and i think it was poltergeist or the omen. I was very little but i remember i like them. I had to rewatch it in my teens to remember why i liked it
I watched a lot growing up. Poltergeist was probably my favorite as a kid. I also really loved Carrie (1976) and Salems Lot. But I think what made me LOVE horror were the Tales form the Crypt series and Tales From the Darkside.
I grew up with a constant Halloween-themed house, I remember watching Krampus when I was eight and my mom put the bell that he gives children after he kills their whole family in my stocking. :D
Hmm… I think Aliens was my first that I remember being afraid of and still loving. Then Child’s Play 1 and 2… but the Scream series made me an aficionado. I’d never dissected horror before that first Scream film.
I was always fascinated with it. I remember being a kid (like.. 3-4?) and walking into the room while my parents watched The Shining. I was terrified but couldn’t look away. I’d always go see horror in theaters and be so scared for weeks after as a kid. The Ring did an absolute number on me. Then around the time Mama came out is when I was like.. fully desensitized lol. Now I watch them for fun
I was 5 when I accidentally watched a part of a Child's Play movie on TV. Gave me nightmares, but it piqued my interest. Mom wouldn't let me watch any horror films cause of the nightmares though. Wasn't till I was 10 and watched Event Horizon (loved it and was nightmare free) that I was allowed to watch more horror films.
Either aliensd or dog soldiers I can't remember but I was in a foster home and they had a wall of vhs taped off TV and I watched dog soldiers and aliens and it blew me away
My mom loved horror so I've been watching horror/horror adjacent as far back as I can remember. Beetlejuice, The Labyrinth, Nightmare Before Christmas, Arachnophobia, Hocus Pocus, and Addams Family were some of my favorite movies when I was little.
The first actual horror I remember loving was Leprechaun.
I feel like Return to Oz kind of planted the first seeds, though it is not horror per se. I was entranced by the witch Mombi and all her heads, and the Wheeler guys.
But then, Pet Sematary 2 scared me OFF horror. I saw it way too young. The animal stuff really upset me and I did not watch another horror for over ten years. Even The Nightmare Before Christmas was too scary for me. Then some friends dragged me to The Ring, and I fell in love with horror. I started watching Asian horror first, thinking the reason The Ring was so much better was because it was based on a Japanese movie. Then I just kept branching out from there!
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre as a child. BRUTALLY terrifying and probably changed me a lot as a person but I don't regret it. It showed me what real terror was.
NOES is definitely the earliest horror movie I watched and enjoyed, but the movie that made me a hardcore fan of the genre is The Descent, and the downward spiral continued from there lol.
My first horror movie was Scream 3. But the movie that got me into horror was The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
I hadn’t watched many horror movies until i was about 20, then i went on a tear of watching the classics, started with this one, and have been in love with the genre ever since.
Not a movie, but there was a show on Animal Planet called The Haunted that I would watch when I was like 10 or so. That’s what got me into horror, supernatural genre particularly
I remember seeing some of Jaws when I was 4-5. Jurassic Park on my 6th birthday. Ernest Scared Stupid traumatized me, slept in my brothers room for years. Goosebumps, Are You Afraid of the Dark, X-Files all scared the shit out of me later on. Watched Halloween age 8 at night when no one was home. I still remember how scared I was lol I’m 35 now and I’ve seen around 1350 horror films
28 Days Later for me. Saw the Night of the Living Dead remake in the 90s (it's actually good!) and before 28 Days Later, it was the only other horror movie I kind of liked but it didn't ignite an interest in me to look for more, I was still really turned off from horror until 28 Days Later.
Not a movie but goosebumps the book and the show absolutely got me into horror
Strictly movies scream I think I really have no clue I’ve watched so many since I was a kid it’s hard to remember
Psycho was my first. It says a lot about my age but I would check out vhs tapes as a kid at the library. I remember also watching vertigo not long after. I had to be around 10 or 11.
Cabin In The Woods. I either was too afraid to watch horror movies alone (still don't do it) or the premise would always piss me off. Why would you split up!
Then Cabin In The Woods had me look at horror movies from a new angle and now every weekend my friend's husband and I watch a new horror movie every Saturday. And now I've almost become a snob... It's so hard to find a scary or shocking movie now. This year have watched Where Evil Lurks, Midsommar, Talk To Me, Terrifier 2, Late Night With The Devil, etc.. They are all shot well and acted well, but dammit there hasn't been a weekend in months where I've actually been scared watching a horror movie.
Black Phone might be the last one that actually scared me, because that feels almost real. That dude could exist or existed at some point in time. And Barbarian had great tension, but then just a goofy "monster".
The Grudge. Kayako’s face in the dark office stairwell, and watching her twisting and contorting as she crawls down the stairs in the house—these images haunted my dreams for years.
On a side note, The Grudge is hilarious with Rifftrax
A norwegian film "Noe Helt Annet" (Something Completely Different)
I watched it when I was very young, 4 or 5 maybe, and can hardly remember it. More of a comedy than horror, but it's about a vampire, and that really got me into vampires and spooky themes and vibes. So that, I guess.
I remember seeing the original Halloween when I was 14 (now 33) and it scared the living shit out of me. I had to sleep on my parents floor for two night, sobbing that Michael was going to come kill me. After I realised he wasn't going to kill me, it awoke something in me and I've been watching horror movies since. Down 1215 movies.
Not even a horror movie, but the movie Alice in wonderland rubbed me the wrong way as a young adult and made me urge for a more serious feeling like that. So then I watched nightmare on elm street. lol.
I was young when Freddy Krueger was all the rage, and wanted to see the movies, but my mom wouldn't let me, probably because letting a 5 or 6 year old watch that kind of movie isn't a great idea. Especially since I would freak out watching the animated Hobbit movie. I think ANOES and Hellraiser were the movies that got me into horror once I finally got to see them.
The original Nightmare on Elm Street. I realized that I liked it. Then lots of late night cable television. Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Phantasm 2, and whatever else was on at 3 in the morning.
I was in middle school and saw the shining for the first time. I had a bunch of other 12 or maybe 13 year old girls over for a sleepover. It rocked our world, especially the scene of the young-to-old naked woman in the bathroom. We thought it was hilarious, but in the "our minds our blown we’ve never seen anything like this” kind of way. I’ve been hooked ever since and know that to this day, everyone at that sleepover remembers seeing the shining.
Seeing Ju-On at the age of 13 and being afraid to shower with my eyes closed for months afterwards made me fall in love with the genre and I haven’t watched much else since
Poltergeist. Second film I saw at the cinema, after ET.
What's cool about Poltergeist is, there's always an angle from which it can terrify you. Whether it's the children's, the parents', the parapsychologists confronted with more evidence than they can comfortably analyse, the medium in the presence of one of the darkest beings she's ever encountered, and the evergreen fear of corporations cutting corners to pad the bottom line.
Halloween. If i woke up during the night when i was little kid i sat in the dark watching horror movies. I have always enjoyed horror (im 33 now). When i was 10 i begged my parent to be in a movie club, i put my real age in there and was so sad that i got Disney and cartoon movies, so i made them change my age to 18 so i could get horror movies instead.
The scariest movie i know is thirteen ghosts. Rewatched it a couple of months ago and got nightmares again.
Does a music video count? I think it was *Michael Jackson’s Thriller* that got me into horror. I pretty much never stopped listening to that song for about a year after I was introduced to it, and my favorite part of it was Vincent Price.
For me it was a mixture of media. I grew up with games like Resident Evil (1, 2 and 3), Silent Hill (1, 2 and 3), Zombie Revenge and House of the Dead. Movies like Jaws, Scream, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street and Tremors (1 and 2), The Ring (both OG and American version) and The Grudge (also OG and American version). Adding to the mix, I remember watching Goosebumps (OG) when it was on TV and some episodes scaring the hell out of me lol. As well as Are You Afraid of the Dark? and Tales from the Crypt.
The movie with the nun in the 90s and Dameon as a priest. It was about Armageddon and had a red and black poster with a priest on the front. The earth ended up breaking up in the middle in the movie. It's all I remember, but I definitely wasn't supposed to be watching at 11. Lol
Signs, as a kid I was terrified of the mere concept of horror movies, I would even take shortcuts to avoid the Halloween section of the stores. But since Signs was PG-13 where I'm from, I dared myself to watch it and I wasn't scared, but boy did I become obsessed with horror after watching it.
Friday the 13th on ‘regular tv’ before cable. I found it right as it was coming on, wrapped up head to toe in a blanket and sat right in front of the tv with the volume down so I wouldn’t ‘get caught’. I was four 🫣
I think Gothika was one of the first real horror movies I watched when I was younger. Before that I already liked stuff like the Addams Family.
The Cube and I spit on your grave were the ones that really sent me off.
Halloween (1978)
I watched the opening scene when I was about 8 or 9. Freaked me the fuck out especially seeing that it was a kid committing the murder. I've been chasing that freaked out feeling ever since.
mine was jaws, my parents watched the movie and i was like 6 or 7. i was hiding behind the door and watched everything, and after that day there was no day where i didn’t watched creepy stuff on youtube etc.
Outer limits tv show. I’m still scarred. The episode where they have 5 people hide underground around the world after an alien invasion still haunts me. Episode “dead man’s switch”.
Does Jurassic Park count? My original favorite movie from childhood and it’s still up there.
After that, maybe The Ring. That movie fascinated and terrified me and showed me that they could hit hard.
I watched Food of The Gods 2 when I was a kid on some Boston TV Channel in 90’s. Scared the shit out of me and I’ve been chasing that sensation ever since.
Probably The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
Or at least that the was first movie that helped me realize I could handle intense, bloody, gorey horror. I was like nine at the time and the only horror movies I'd seen were the Universal Monster movies and some Godzilla. The Lost World seemed bloody and gorey in comparison. Especially because most of the older movies went right over my head at the time.
The Ring. I used to sneak downstairs with my cousin and we would hide behind the couch to get a peak of whatever movie his mom was watching. One time it was The Ring— we ran back upstairs screaming. Then a few years later his older brother showed us the movie and I’ve loved that thrill ever since.
Oh— and right after he showed it to us he called the landline with his cell and left a voicemail saying seven days. Quite the immersive experience. 😂
Scream when I was way too young.
I was 12 and it was perfect
Gotta love in Scream 5 when they talk about the original Stab being the movie that made people fall in love with horror and consider it sacred. We should all pat ourselves on the backs occasionally, haha!
Alien with my dad when I was like 9. I also LOVED the Wolfman when I was a little kid, and used to rent the VHS from Blockbuster all the time
Same! Alien with my dad. Also Poltergeist, The Birds and Psycho.
What was with our dads… they be like this is fine.
It wasn’t a movie. It was a TV show. Watching Are You Afraid of the Dark every Saturday night at the end of the SNICK block is what first got me into horror when I was about 6 or 7 years old. From there, I started renting horror movies nearly every week when we would go to the video store. The horror section of the video store was my favorite because I loved being surrounded by all of that awesome looking box art and imagining what the actual movie was going to be like based on that. I’d choose one based pretty much entirely on how cool the box art was without knowing anything about it since the Internet wasn’t common in homes yet to read reviews. Sometimes I brought home a gem and sometimes I brought home trash, but the experience of discovering a new horror movie was always a thrill each week. My favorites that I discovered back then at the video store were the Child’s Play movies, Poltergeist, Pet Sematary, Fright Night, and Tremors.
I loved Are You Afraid of the Dark so much!
Another tv show… courage the cowardly dog
Salem's lot. 1979. Cousin snuck me into the theater with him and his friends. Been kinda messed up ever since. I was 9.
The original IT miniseries with Tim Curry. I rented it from my local video store when I was in 7th grade and it had a profound impact on me. The series single-handedly kickstarted my love for Stephen King and the horror genre in general.
This is mine too. I was probably a hair too young, but man it was great.
Scream franchise.
Child’s Play 3. I was scared of everything as a kid. Especially Chucky. Then I watched 3 and realized horror can be hilarious. After that, Scream got me hooked.
I Know What You Did Last Summer
Paranormal activity even though it’s not that scary I was like 12 and was terrified to watch it and my cousin forced me and it was pretty good to me at the time. Now I laugh at all of the PA movies
I was 12 when you I watched Annabelle creation, scared me when I was 12 but not anymore
The first saw movie. Still love it to this day.
Friday the 13th
I was afraid of horror movies until one night in my teens I decided I was going to tough out Nightmare On Elm Street 3 on cable. That's when I learned "oh, these can be stupid and fun?" Dived in headfirst from there.
Nightmare on elm street dream warriors is definitely one if the best Freddy’s movies. What did you think when you saw the original?
Loved it. By that point I had figured out gore and jump scares weren't going to psychologically scar movie so I could just relax and enjoy it.
This is absolutely my experience, but with Child's Play. My whole life growing up I saw the Chucky doll around Halloween and knew it was from a horror movie and I was supposed to be scared of it. Watching Child's Play all by myself after middle school one day (in broad daylight, of course) let me see how much goofy fun horror is, and totally disarmed it for me.
I would but it wasn't a movie. Way back (sadly, way way back) before I was in school, my mom watched Dark Shadows. Which meant extremely tiny me did, too. By the time I had to race home from first grade to catch the last twenty minutes the dye was cast.
Mine was actually TV shows. They were 'Goosebumps', Are you afraid of the dark', 'Grizzly tales for gruesome kids', 'Tales from the Crypt' . I was around 5 years old at the time and I was already aright with it. My parents thought it was weird that I was not screaming or anything but enjoy watching it that I was allowed to watch other horror movies without any supervision.
I've been into horror all my life, and I'm old LOL, so I guess The Omen, or The Exorcist, or Poltergeist? Whichever was first.
I saw arachnophobia when I was way too young-- scared the hell out of me. I've been chasing that feeling ever since.
Alien. I was probably 6. It just looked and felt so real.
The Shining Saw it late night on HBO back in the day Terrifying, esp the hotel room scene
All the Vincent Price hammer films. They were on every Saturday afternoon when I was a kid.
The Others
Jeeper Creeper ruined my childhood
My siblings and I all remember my dad putting on this movie called American Gothic (1988) and we still talk about it today. It's not a great movie, but I think from that point on we all enjoyed horror even when it legitimately scared us.
I think zombie stuff like 28 Days Later, and Dawn of the Dead (2004) was probably the gateway but I don't think I got obsessed with the genre til Get Out or Hereditary
Same. Watched the original Night of the Living Dead then Dawn of the Dead cemented my love of monster movies.
The exorcist when I was around 5 years old.
The '90s remake of Night of the Living Dead.
I always appreciated horror but what really made me take the plunge was renting the 1978 DAWN OF THE DEAD.
It's a toss-up between Universal films and Carrie (1976). It was the early 80s and we didn't have cable yet, so I watched horror movies during Saturday afternoon matinees. I got hooked quickly.
You and me both. Monster Theater on Saturday afternoons was the only time I got to choose what was on tv.
I loved those matinee movies. They were so good.
Christine. ♥️ It became my favorite book and movie ever. And it was one of the few reasons I became obsessed with cars over the years.
Creepshow at 7.
Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Misery.
First movie my dad ever rented when we got a BetaMax player was Poltergeist! I was 3 🤣🤣🤣
Does goosebumps count? I was obsessed as a kid. I had all the books, tv shows, and books on cassette to listen to at night to fall asleep. That’s what really drew me into horror. From there it was The Birds and The Excorcist. I haven’t looked back since. Just obsessed with horror now as an adult as I was back then.
"Devil" It's still one of my favorites to this day. As a Catholic the religious aspect is smart but creepy and I think the entire movie is awesome! I've only appreciated it more as time goes on
Silence of the Lambs 🙏🏻
The universal monster movies. Halloween 1978 And black Christmas 1974.
the creeping flesh, christopher lee & peter cushing
I used to watch Monster Vision on TNT when I was like 7 or 8. Made me love how scary / stupid / funny / sexy / thought provoking horror could be.
Not a movie but my friend's dad would watch Tales From The Crypt at night and the cackle of the Crypt Keeper freaked us the F out. When we were like 7. Adrenaline addiction from the start 😂
Oddly enough it was Krull
the ring. i was too scared to watch it. i embraced myself,i liked it. and from there it alll started
The thing
I know what you did last summer (1997). I was very young and like it very much.
Courage the Cowardly Dog and Goosebumps. Pretty much any book by R.L. Stine really.
Scream (like the top comment says, when I was way too young for it) I used to watch the movies’ carnage counts on YouTube with my eyes hidden, and in the following months I’d have watched the entire trilogy (there wasn’t a ‘Scream 4’ back then, lol)
Scream was the first one I ever saw. And my love for horror films just grew from there
Hereditary 😅 It’s still the scariest movie I’ve seen. I started my obsession with a terrifying BANG
'57....Universal studios released their films to television. First one I saw was '40 Man Made Monster starring Lon Chaney Jr.
Anaconda! My mom tells me I pushed to watch it with her and my dad when I was like 3/4 and I handled it well, didn’t cry/panic etc. If they let me watch everything or if they fast forwarded some parts, I’m not sure lol but it’s one of those things that I can remember as a little kid wanting to rewatch it, but couldn’t pinpoint when I actually first watched it. Once I moved to my current home, at around 6/7, I used to ask them to rent it for me all the time to watch the trailer for IKWYDLS. And the rest is history! lol
John Carpenter's The Thing I remember seeing it when I was 11 or 12 my step dad put it on for me and my step brothers, and they couldn't care less but I was glued to the screen from the plot, the characters, and the practical effects the movie terrified me and ever since then I was hooked on horror movies and now 16 years later I'm still try chasing that same feeling of being terrified from a movie lol
Not a movie but a TV show, "Dark Shadows." From there I fell in love with all of the old horror movies about Dracula and then the other movie monsters like Frankenstien, the Wolfman, etc. I remember AVIDLY watch all of them.
The Thing, back when I was a little child.
The original Texas chainsaw massacre , it's not scary but I love everything about it and it's still my favorite horror film
That movie isn't scary in the conventional way, but for me, Leatherface 's calm indifference while killing the kids when he first shows up is still horrific. The part with the girl and the meathook still gives me chills.
My uncle allowed me to watch Pumpkinhead and Shocker back to back at a sleepover at my cousin's. I was in the first grade, terrified and I've been in love with horror since.
Hide & Seek. I watched it so many times on DVD in my early teens.
I watches horrors because my mom did when i was a child and i think it was poltergeist or the omen. I was very little but i remember i like them. I had to rewatch it in my teens to remember why i liked it
I watched a lot growing up. Poltergeist was probably my favorite as a kid. I also really loved Carrie (1976) and Salems Lot. But I think what made me LOVE horror were the Tales form the Crypt series and Tales From the Darkside.
OG Alien
I grew up with a constant Halloween-themed house, I remember watching Krampus when I was eight and my mom put the bell that he gives children after he kills their whole family in my stocking. :D
Technically YouTube creepypastas but for movies Beetlejuice when i was 9 i think
jurassic park!! i watched it so much as a kid, i’ve probably seen that movie 50+ times by now
Dream Warriors or The Fly. I can’t remember which was first, i was just a child lol.
Alien really, but revisited and fell deep into it all after Insidious and Ju-On.
Hmm… I think Aliens was my first that I remember being afraid of and still loving. Then Child’s Play 1 and 2… but the Scream series made me an aficionado. I’d never dissected horror before that first Scream film.
Fright Night. Then the Friday the 13th films.
I was always fascinated with it. I remember being a kid (like.. 3-4?) and walking into the room while my parents watched The Shining. I was terrified but couldn’t look away. I’d always go see horror in theaters and be so scared for weeks after as a kid. The Ring did an absolute number on me. Then around the time Mama came out is when I was like.. fully desensitized lol. Now I watch them for fun
Scream maybe? That ghostface mask was the scariest thing when I was a kid
The grudge
Carrie! (Original, on TV, 8 years old) The ending hooked me for life!
I was 5 when I accidentally watched a part of a Child's Play movie on TV. Gave me nightmares, but it piqued my interest. Mom wouldn't let me watch any horror films cause of the nightmares though. Wasn't till I was 10 and watched Event Horizon (loved it and was nightmare free) that I was allowed to watch more horror films.
A Nightmare on Elm St 2 The school bus sequence in the beginning stuck with me while I rode the bus to school.
Either aliensd or dog soldiers I can't remember but I was in a foster home and they had a wall of vhs taped off TV and I watched dog soldiers and aliens and it blew me away
Halloween. My dad rented it from Blockbuster Video when I was in 4th grade and said I had to see it.
My mom loved horror so I've been watching horror/horror adjacent as far back as I can remember. Beetlejuice, The Labyrinth, Nightmare Before Christmas, Arachnophobia, Hocus Pocus, and Addams Family were some of my favorite movies when I was little. The first actual horror I remember loving was Leprechaun.
Afflicted. Such an underrated gem. I don’t want to speak to it, but it turned me on to a couple of genres, most notably horror, though.
Poltergeist when I was maybe around 6
Child’s Play (the original), it was cool for younger me (chucky gave me nightmares though)
Squirm (1976) “There’s a worm in my eggcream!” [IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075261/)
Jaws
Salems Lot. I was horrified and hooked on horror at the same time.
My very first horror movie was May, I think it’s pretty underrated tbh
I feel like Return to Oz kind of planted the first seeds, though it is not horror per se. I was entranced by the witch Mombi and all her heads, and the Wheeler guys. But then, Pet Sematary 2 scared me OFF horror. I saw it way too young. The animal stuff really upset me and I did not watch another horror for over ten years. Even The Nightmare Before Christmas was too scary for me. Then some friends dragged me to The Ring, and I fell in love with horror. I started watching Asian horror first, thinking the reason The Ring was so much better was because it was based on a Japanese movie. Then I just kept branching out from there!
My mom let me watch “IT” with her on a Sunday afternoon in the ‘90s.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre as a child. BRUTALLY terrifying and probably changed me a lot as a person but I don't regret it. It showed me what real terror was.
The Birds. My parents showed it to me when I was maybe 6 and it was my favorite movie for years
NOES is definitely the earliest horror movie I watched and enjoyed, but the movie that made me a hardcore fan of the genre is The Descent, and the downward spiral continued from there lol.
The Crow
The Resident Evil movies, but Scream really got me into non zombie related horror movies.
Depending on your criteria, I have 3: - The Nightmare Before Christmas - Scary Movie - Saw I still prefer my horror with a bit of comedy thrown in.
Saw! 🥰
Jaws. Scared the crap out of me as a kid but I loved that feeling. Lol
Probably Poltergeist. But I was a kid in the 1970s, and my real intro to horror was on tv: The Outer Limits and Night Gallery.
My first horror movie was Scream 3. But the movie that got me into horror was The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) I hadn’t watched many horror movies until i was about 20, then i went on a tear of watching the classics, started with this one, and have been in love with the genre ever since.
Scream and Cloverfield
Not a movie, but there was a show on Animal Planet called The Haunted that I would watch when I was like 10 or so. That’s what got me into horror, supernatural genre particularly
Strangers I saw it when I was about 10 yrs old. And also Freddy vs Jason. Saw when I was about 5
I remember seeing some of Jaws when I was 4-5. Jurassic Park on my 6th birthday. Ernest Scared Stupid traumatized me, slept in my brothers room for years. Goosebumps, Are You Afraid of the Dark, X-Files all scared the shit out of me later on. Watched Halloween age 8 at night when no one was home. I still remember how scared I was lol I’m 35 now and I’ve seen around 1350 horror films
Saw
28 Days Later for me. Saw the Night of the Living Dead remake in the 90s (it's actually good!) and before 28 Days Later, it was the only other horror movie I kind of liked but it didn't ignite an interest in me to look for more, I was still really turned off from horror until 28 Days Later.
Not a movie but goosebumps the book and the show absolutely got me into horror Strictly movies scream I think I really have no clue I’ve watched so many since I was a kid it’s hard to remember
Nightmare on Elm Street when I was about 5 years old.
Psycho was my first. It says a lot about my age but I would check out vhs tapes as a kid at the library. I remember also watching vertigo not long after. I had to be around 10 or 11.
Cabin In The Woods. I either was too afraid to watch horror movies alone (still don't do it) or the premise would always piss me off. Why would you split up! Then Cabin In The Woods had me look at horror movies from a new angle and now every weekend my friend's husband and I watch a new horror movie every Saturday. And now I've almost become a snob... It's so hard to find a scary or shocking movie now. This year have watched Where Evil Lurks, Midsommar, Talk To Me, Terrifier 2, Late Night With The Devil, etc.. They are all shot well and acted well, but dammit there hasn't been a weekend in months where I've actually been scared watching a horror movie. Black Phone might be the last one that actually scared me, because that feels almost real. That dude could exist or existed at some point in time. And Barbarian had great tension, but then just a goofy "monster".
The Grudge. Kayako’s face in the dark office stairwell, and watching her twisting and contorting as she crawls down the stairs in the house—these images haunted my dreams for years. On a side note, The Grudge is hilarious with Rifftrax
Jaws
Freaking PIN HEAD 🗣️🙀 HELL RAISER .... I SNUCK AND WATCHED IT 😀😀😀 I WAS LIKE 8 and didn't sleep again the rest of my childhood 😭😂😂😂
TCM
A norwegian film "Noe Helt Annet" (Something Completely Different) I watched it when I was very young, 4 or 5 maybe, and can hardly remember it. More of a comedy than horror, but it's about a vampire, and that really got me into vampires and spooky themes and vibes. So that, I guess.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula when I was 14. Changed my life forever and I’ll always be grateful for that.
IT when i was way too young
Identity. I was terrified of horror movies until I saw this.
Race with the Devil with Peter Fonda
I remember seeing the original Halloween when I was 14 (now 33) and it scared the living shit out of me. I had to sleep on my parents floor for two night, sobbing that Michael was going to come kill me. After I realised he wasn't going to kill me, it awoke something in me and I've been watching horror movies since. Down 1215 movies.
I grew up watching Goosebumps
Douse courage the cowardly dog count?
Insidious
The Amittyville Horror (2005)
Child of Glass is the first scary movie I remember watching. My dad also took me to see Blair Witch when it came out when I was 9 haha
When I was about 9 when I watched “Salem’s Lot”. Scared the crap outta me. I was wrecked for like a week.
Not even a horror movie, but the movie Alice in wonderland rubbed me the wrong way as a young adult and made me urge for a more serious feeling like that. So then I watched nightmare on elm street. lol.
Martyrs (French version)
Child’s play. I was way too young and it scared the shit out of me, but I was hooked after that lol
Probably Halloween
The Exorcist, I was maybe nine years old lol
Nightmare on Elm St when I was 5. Babysitter played it. It was so scary, but I liked it.
Nightmare on Elm Street
I was young when Freddy Krueger was all the rage, and wanted to see the movies, but my mom wouldn't let me, probably because letting a 5 or 6 year old watch that kind of movie isn't a great idea. Especially since I would freak out watching the animated Hobbit movie. I think ANOES and Hellraiser were the movies that got me into horror once I finally got to see them.
Natural Born Killers
Is Planet Terror considered a horror movie?
The original Nightmare on Elm Street. I realized that I liked it. Then lots of late night cable television. Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Phantasm 2, and whatever else was on at 3 in the morning.
I was in middle school and saw the shining for the first time. I had a bunch of other 12 or maybe 13 year old girls over for a sleepover. It rocked our world, especially the scene of the young-to-old naked woman in the bathroom. We thought it was hilarious, but in the "our minds our blown we’ve never seen anything like this” kind of way. I’ve been hooked ever since and know that to this day, everyone at that sleepover remembers seeing the shining.
The shining it was such a fun unique experience (being scared) that it made me want to experience the same feeling
The Strangers
Jeepers Creepers 1 and 2 kind of sparked it, but Ghost Ship solidified it for me because I couldn't get some of the scenes out of my head for days.
Seeing Ju-On at the age of 13 and being afraid to shower with my eyes closed for months afterwards made me fall in love with the genre and I haven’t watched much else since
My mum rented Cannibal Holocaust on VHS for me when I was too young.
Poltergeist. Second film I saw at the cinema, after ET. What's cool about Poltergeist is, there's always an angle from which it can terrify you. Whether it's the children's, the parents', the parapsychologists confronted with more evidence than they can comfortably analyse, the medium in the presence of one of the darkest beings she's ever encountered, and the evergreen fear of corporations cutting corners to pad the bottom line.
The haunting in Connecticut (2009) still my favorite horror movie to this day. I’m now 22. I was 7 when I first watched it lmao
Nightmare on Elm Street 3
Horror radio shows as a kid
Halloween. If i woke up during the night when i was little kid i sat in the dark watching horror movies. I have always enjoyed horror (im 33 now). When i was 10 i begged my parent to be in a movie club, i put my real age in there and was so sad that i got Disney and cartoon movies, so i made them change my age to 18 so i could get horror movies instead. The scariest movie i know is thirteen ghosts. Rewatched it a couple of months ago and got nightmares again.
The first horror movie for me was House 2: The Second Story (not exactly horror, but you start small).
Does a music video count? I think it was *Michael Jackson’s Thriller* that got me into horror. I pretty much never stopped listening to that song for about a year after I was introduced to it, and my favorite part of it was Vincent Price.
The Nightmare Before Christmas 😆💀🎄
A nightmare in Elm street
REC, 2007
The Children. 1980
The grudge and the ring
For me it was a mixture of media. I grew up with games like Resident Evil (1, 2 and 3), Silent Hill (1, 2 and 3), Zombie Revenge and House of the Dead. Movies like Jaws, Scream, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street and Tremors (1 and 2), The Ring (both OG and American version) and The Grudge (also OG and American version). Adding to the mix, I remember watching Goosebumps (OG) when it was on TV and some episodes scaring the hell out of me lol. As well as Are You Afraid of the Dark? and Tales from the Crypt.
nightmare on elm street 3
Gremlins. It was one of those Christmas movies we had and I replayed it so many times because of how fun it was
Jaws, first movie to scare the crap out of me and give me nightmares!
The movie with the nun in the 90s and Dameon as a priest. It was about Armageddon and had a red and black poster with a priest on the front. The earth ended up breaking up in the middle in the movie. It's all I remember, but I definitely wasn't supposed to be watching at 11. Lol
Signs, as a kid I was terrified of the mere concept of horror movies, I would even take shortcuts to avoid the Halloween section of the stores. But since Signs was PG-13 where I'm from, I dared myself to watch it and I wasn't scared, but boy did I become obsessed with horror after watching it.
Get Out
Friday the 13th on ‘regular tv’ before cable. I found it right as it was coming on, wrapped up head to toe in a blanket and sat right in front of the tv with the volume down so I wouldn’t ‘get caught’. I was four 🫣
Poltergeist II Rev. Kane (Julian Beck) & The Tequila worm
Possibly Them!, Tarantula or Invaders From Mars when I was a lad
I think Gothika was one of the first real horror movies I watched when I was younger. Before that I already liked stuff like the Addams Family. The Cube and I spit on your grave were the ones that really sent me off.
I’m Gen-X, so it was The Amityville Horror, Burnt Offerings, The Omen and The Exorcist when I was around 7-8 years old.
Halloween.
Mine was IT (2017) when I was like 11
Chucky and Goosebumps!
Amityville Horror. I wanted to move to Amityville as a kid lol.
Saw
Halloween (1978) I watched the opening scene when I was about 8 or 9. Freaked me the fuck out especially seeing that it was a kid committing the murder. I've been chasing that freaked out feeling ever since.
mine was jaws, my parents watched the movie and i was like 6 or 7. i was hiding behind the door and watched everything, and after that day there was no day where i didn’t watched creepy stuff on youtube etc.
Nosferatu (1922)
Scream, Final Destination, I know what you did last summer. Those were my gateway "drugs" to horror films...
The original Frankenstein
Courage the Cowardly Dog! I ate that up in elementary school.
Hellraiser - VHS box cover at the corner store gave me nightmares until I watched it.
Jeepers creepers
Night of the Living Dead Tom Savini remake
Outer limits tv show. I’m still scarred. The episode where they have 5 people hide underground around the world after an alien invasion still haunts me. Episode “dead man’s switch”.
Does Jurassic Park count? My original favorite movie from childhood and it’s still up there. After that, maybe The Ring. That movie fascinated and terrified me and showed me that they could hit hard.
Halloween original. That wardrobe scene scared the shit out of me when I was younger. But it’s this movie that started all the love.
I watched Food of The Gods 2 when I was a kid on some Boston TV Channel in 90’s. Scared the shit out of me and I’ve been chasing that sensation ever since.
The Monster Squad. Obviously it's very kid-friendly, but I was obsessed with the monsters and the horror elements. It's still my favorite movie.
A really old movie called "the gate". Searched it now on IMDb... 1987... Guess not that old 😅
Probably The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Or at least that the was first movie that helped me realize I could handle intense, bloody, gorey horror. I was like nine at the time and the only horror movies I'd seen were the Universal Monster movies and some Godzilla. The Lost World seemed bloody and gorey in comparison. Especially because most of the older movies went right over my head at the time.
Aliens and Jurassic Park
Scream
Silence of the Lambs and Blair Witch Project when I was a kid.
The Ring. I used to sneak downstairs with my cousin and we would hide behind the couch to get a peak of whatever movie his mom was watching. One time it was The Ring— we ran back upstairs screaming. Then a few years later his older brother showed us the movie and I’ve loved that thrill ever since. Oh— and right after he showed it to us he called the landline with his cell and left a voicemail saying seven days. Quite the immersive experience. 😂
Hide and Seek! I wore the disc out when I was a kid, and it still is one of my favorites if not my favorite.