ET. I’d have nightmares so bad that my dad had to sleep in my room because I was so terrified of him (I’d dream he was walking on my bed). He still freaks me out!

The Evil Queen disguised as an old lady in Snow White

At the height of the cold war, 87 or 88 iirc, a movie came on HBO called Dreamscape. It's WW3 imagery really blew my mind, I recall having dreams about it for ages. I'd turned it on because a few weeks before I'd really enjoyed Innerspace with the same lead actor, but this was a bit different lol

Return to Oz

Childhood trauma all over the place...

Fire in the Sky. Hoo boy I still get the willies decades later.

It wasn’t a movie per se. I thought it was when I was a kid, though. It’s an episode of “Friday the 13th: The Series” called “The Executioner”.

I was like maybe 6 or 7 at the time.

It starts with this guy in prison you see them take him to the electric chair and attempt to execute him. They botch it and the warden or whoever pretty much goes “oops, well by law we did technically carry out your sentence so you’re a free man now”

He then goes on to become a dentist and uses a “cursed electric chair” as his dentist chair to take revenge on the world.

This gave me a real fear of going to the dentist on top of just being a kid and being scared to go. Still hate going to the dentist (who doesn’t I guess)

I used to play Myst at the time and that even made me feel uncomfortable in the Time Machine room with the dentist chair at the first island.

edit: I watched it again as an adult and it was corny as hell

To be clear, it still terrifies me.

I enjoy the rest of the movie but this is one of the greatest horror sequences ever. A remake that truly surpasses the original.

EDIT: I have to give a shoutout to the movie that had the most real world effect on me. That would be Arachnophobia. I couldn't function normally for months. Sitting on the toilet. Putting my shoes on. Sticking my hand in a bag of chips. I was a wreck.

Volcano (1997) terrified young me. How could anyone sleep peacefully when lava could just appear out of nowhere?

Needless to say I never lived even remotely close to any kind of geologically active area, let alone a volcano.

Darkness falls.

It's a movie about the tooth fairy but the tooth fairy is actually an old woman who used to collect the teeth of the children in her village until the townspeople burnt her alive and then she became a spirit who was essentially the tooth fairy but if you ever saw her she'd kill you.

It's cheesy as hell but it was terrifying when I was younger

I don't remember my age, but Spirited Away absolutely fucked me up for a little while. I felt like I was in that world and was terrified of No-Face eating me up. Legitimately had nightmares... It doesn't seem that bad rewatching it but it was not good for my younger mind.

Can't remember what name of this movie, but it had in the end a train flying over a destroyed bridge and into a river at the bottom of a ravine. That and corpses and debris floating left it seared in my head for a couple years.

edit: might be this. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074292/

It's a tie between the wicked witch and her monkeys in the Wizzard of Oz and the child catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Terminator 1

Listen, and understand! That Terminator is out there! It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop... ever, until you are dead!

This fucked me up more than any monsters... This thing just has one mission and it's relentless

Still scary!

I think it was from one of the Creep Show movies, Tales from the Crypt, or a similar collection, but a short about teens on a raft on a lake being picked off by some kind of black slime/algae thing. Never been comfortable swimming in lakes since

Oddly enough, I had nightmares about turning into a dog and not being able to get back to normal after watching Shaggy D.A. Also remember my dad, brother and I watching a rented Betamax copy of American Werewolf in London in our little unfinished basement TV area and being very spooked about being alone in the dark that night. Those subway access tunnels!

Yes, the danger must be growing For the rowers keep on rowing And they're certainly not showing Any signs that they are slowing

TELL THEM LARGE MARGE SENT YA!

Who framed Roger rabbit, the scene with the judge guy putting a shoe cartoon into the acid barrel.

In hindsight, it was irresponsible to watch Robocop as a 10-year-old.

1. Signs - the aliens terrified me and I was scared walking to school for a long time
2. The scarabs from The Mummy - I thought they would come out from under the sink and the closets to eat me alive

Gremlins, when they transformed

Kinda late but Neverending Story.

Those laser beam statues scares me. Also when the giant turtle emerges and you get that shot of it la head slowly approaching the camera. Somehow that was super distressing to me.

Sybil 1976 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075296/ The Entity 1982 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082334

Both supposedly based on true stories. I was watching them around 5 years old. After The Entity I started at the ceiling all night and at times could have sworn I saw electricity arcing. I was dumbfounded by Sybil and how someone could do that to their child had some weird nightmares from that for sure.

for some reason, i was terrified by the 1989 batman vhs sleeve as a kid. not the movie itself, just the sleeve the tape was in. i don't think i'd even seen the movie at that point. looking at it now, i cannot figure out what i found so scary about it.

When I killed your brother, I talked...JUST. LIKE. THIIIIIISSSSS!