old movies that scared you

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, Torper said:

"The Haunting", 1963, with Claire Bloom.  Saw it at The Regal, Forfar. Genuinely very scary (well I thought it was anyway).

 

DT

 

I remember seeing "The Innocents" (1961) one day during school holidays - the scene with the woman in the lake really freaked me out!

[Barry Ten]

Saw this at my nanna's in the early 70s, found it very frightening! 

 

Like a scarier, darker version of the Goodies episode where they get chased by diggers!

 

 

[Bill]

Well what did it was the H.G. Wells classic  'The Time Machine' - the 1960 version with Rod Taylor.

It was X rated and somehow I got in to see it at the local Playhouse

In one scene the machine turns up in London  when a Nuclear blast is about to Happen..

With the Cold war and all - that scene got to me and opened me up to the rest  and it all went downhill from there..

A kind of existential horror that became locked into the over impressionable subconscious mind of a 14 year old.

It kept playing itself out in my head and emotions for years.

Shudders he does..

[Barry Ten]

4 hours ago, Bill said:

Well what did it was the H.G. Wells classic  'The Time Machine' - the 1960 version with Rod Taylor.

It was X rated and somehow I got in to see it at the local Playhouse

In one scene the machine turns up in London  when a Nuclear blast is about to Happen..

With the Cold war and all - that scene got to me and opened me up to the rest  and it all went downhill from there..

A kind of existential horror that became locked into the over impressionable subconscious mind of a 14 year old.

It kept playing itself out in my head and emotions for years.

Shudders he does..

 

That one had a profound effect on me as well - not so much in being terrified by it, but in being disturbed/haunted by the

images for years to come. I saw it at a very early age, but on TV - probably around 1970 or so. The scene you mention

with the nuclear war was part of it, but also the Eloi being led into the Sphinx thing ...  and the Morlocks - the idea

of these things living underground, but preying on the Eloi...

 

 

[HonestTom]

The scariest film I ever saw was Threads. It's still horrifying even today. It was basically an anti-nuclear war docudrama set in Sheffield in the run-up to and aftermath of a nuclear attack. It's very graphic and based on the cutting edge science of the time, but what makes it most horrifying for me is how utterly relentless it is. Awful things just keep happening to the characters, and there's no hope or consolation in it.

 

Along similar lines are the earlier The War Game and the American The Day After, neither of which are quite as horrific, but still pretty scary. The Day After was so effective that Ronald Reagan cited it as turning him against the concept of nuclear war.

[John M Upton]

When it comes to nuclear war movies, the seemingly long forgotten By Dawn's Early Light gave me a few shivers as a youngster.

Edited June 16, 2020 by John M Upton

[Rugd1022]

Compared to most of the films being discussed, there is one which springs to mind that was made as recently as 1979, it isn't a 'scary' film as such, but one scene in particular was very shocking at the time  - I'm talking about the scene in 'The Long Good Friday' where Bob Hoskins slits Derek Thompson's throat with a broken whisky bottle, I remember it really startled me, my dad and my uncle as we watched it in the Odeon in Leicester Square in April 1981, just a few days after it was first put on release. One of the reasons for its delayed release was the violence being portrayed, it was close to being shelved until George Harrison's Handmade Films company stepped in.

 

Watching it now, the film feels slightly dated but in a nice way, the late '70s look of London (the old docklands and Hoskins' new riverside apartment are very different) is interesting to look back on.

Edited June 16, 2020 by Rugd1022

[Metr0Land]

2 hours ago, John M Upton said:

When it comes to nuclear war movies, the seemingly long forgotten By Dawn's Early Light gave me a few shivers as a youngster.

 

I was an adult by the time this came out, but felt the way the plot developed was worryingly possible.

[Allegheny1600]

2 hours ago, John M Upton said:

When it comes to nuclear war movies, the seemingly long forgotten By Dawn's Early Light gave me a few shivers as a youngster.

Sounds very similar to "Fail Safe" in plot and everything, which I quite like so I'll try and get hold of it, thanks.

 

Another film that I saw once on TV and never again and I forget the title was one where terrorists plant a nuclear bomb in a smallish boat and threaten a city, possibly San Francisco.

Eventually the terrorists are overpowered and NEST swarm onto the boat to try and disarm the bomb but it's too late and from the other side of the harbour, we see the effects.

I found that very scary at the time, anyone recognise such a plot, please?

[Barry Ten]

17 minutes ago, Allegheny1600 said:

Sounds very similar to "Fail Safe" in plot and everything, which I quite like so I'll try and get hold of it, thanks.

 

Another film that I saw once on TV and never again and I forget the title was one where terrorists plant a nuclear bomb in a smallish boat and threaten a city, possibly San Francisco.

Eventually the terrorists are overpowered and NEST swarm onto the boat to try and disarm the bomb but it's too late and from the other side of the harbour, we see the effects.

I found that very scary at the time, anyone recognise such a plot, please?

 

Could be:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Bulletin#:~:text=Special Bulletin is a 1983 American made-for-television film.

 

[Barry Ten]

 

[Allegheny1600]

35 minutes ago, Barry Ten said:

 

Could be:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Bulletin#:~:text=Special Bulletin is a 1983 American made-for-television film.

 

Thanks mate!

That's it. I just read the summary and watched the end, I still find it horrifying.

[owentherail]

Steven kings 'Salem's lot' when I was 12,  about a week after my dad had died ...... my mum and I couldn't sleep that night. Almost shat myself