I loved scary movies when I was a kid. It was my thrill ride, like riding a rollercoaster. I feel the same way about suspense/thriller novels today. They don’t make many decent suspense movies anymore, but there are still authors who write great suspense. Too bad screenwriters can’t seem to generate it to the screen. Lacking suspense, they go for longevity instead. Have you noticed how many movies are nearing three hours these days? Usually about an hour longer than necessary to tell the story. Hitchcock once said, “The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.” I agree with that, but also add that three dream levels is more than sufficient to bore me to death. Any more levels and I become totally comatose.
Leave a comment and share the scariest movie you watched as a kid (or as an adult if your mommy wouldn’t let you watch one:)
Psycho-analysis
I was talking to a friend this week and I brought up classic movies by Alfred Hitchcock. She admitted that she’d never seen any of them and I nearly fell off my chair. How could someone live their entire life in such a state of deprivation? Watching Rear Window, Vertigo, The Birds, North by Northwest, and Psycho were some of my most memorable childhood moments. These great movies used strange camera angles, suspense and tension to scare me silly–rather than blood, guts, and gore.
With Halloween coming up, we’ll be seeing lots of movies advertised on cable channels that some clueless TV executive considers “scary.” Or maybe they’re just really cheap to play over and over. I don’t know. Most of them aren’t so much scary as violently gory. Sequel follows sequel until no one really knows how the bad guy started axing people in the first place–or why. And where did he get the hockey mask? Last I remember he was a young boy who drowned in a lake at camp—wearing a bathing suit, not a hockey uniform. And his grief-stricken mother was the murderer. But it’s apparently all about body count—not story. Or maybe I’m confusing Halloween XV with Friday the 13th VI.
Hitchcock movies involve dialogue rather than violent scenes, although Psycho did have the famous shower scene. Even filmed in black and white, it is still frightening enough to make me think twice before taking a shower in an empty house. Hitchcock knew how to build up slowly, playing off of common fears. Who isn’t afraid of birds pecking their eyes out?
I grew up on movies like this. Well, I didn’t exactly watch them with parental approval. For some reason my mother thought they were too scary for children. People used to put their kids to bed early and watch TV alone. Weird, huh? But I managed to see most of them one way or another.
When I was about seven, The Birds came on TV one night at my grandma’s house. My brother and I were sent to bed. Luckily, my grandmother’s bedrooms faced the living room and had doors with slats at the bottom. As quiet as a mouse, I sat behind that door and peeked through the slats for two hours, watching birds attack people while my brother snored softly behind me.
When I was nine, we were at my cousin’s house and Whatever happened to Baby Jane? came on. (Not a Hitchcock movie, but still creepy) My mom would never let me watch that movie but since she was busy talking in the other room, my cousin and I watched as Betty Davis put a dead rat on her invalid sister’s plate and served it to her for dinner. The resultant scream sent a shiver up my spine and sent my cousin outside to play cause she was too scared to keep watching it with me.
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I still remember a few scary movies I had watched as a child. “Silent Scream” was the worst. I wouldn’t stop under any vent in the house. Oh, and if i washed my hair in the laundry room sink, I had to keep an eye on the drain so as not to be grabbed by the “Blob”. “Jaws” anyone? Don’t get me started with that one and living 10 minutes from the ocean.
Ann
I don’t remember sneaking around just to watch scary movies. I thought just listening to the xfiles theme song was scary enough, but you encouraged me to watch the birds and psycho at a young age. I liked them but i was scared of being in the shower without locking the door. Although, the Ring is probably my all time scariest movie. I don’t like dead girls taking over my tv. It’s my tv! I still think the xfiles theme song is scarier than any scary movie…
The Psycho bathroom scene was scary – I haven’t showered since 1960.
That’s a long time not to shower, Nick:) Hope you get over your phobia soon.
I appreciate movies where the suspense is more subtle, more suggested than an in-your-face type of plot. Hitchcock was certainly the master of suspense.
“Watching Rear Window, Vertigo, The Birds, North by Northwest, and Psycho were some of my most memorable childhood moments.”
This quote from your post explains a lot, Barbara.
My scariest movie as a child was Wizard of Oz. That middle section with the witches, bats & dwindling-sand hourglass was terrifying!