People Are Sharing The Movies That Traumatized Them When They Were Younger, And Oh My God, Yes

Do you remember being a kid and watching a movie that totally freaked you out? It's almost like a core childhood experience.

I personally was a total scaredy cat, and I still remember watching The Sixth Sense at a friend's house with a knitted hat pulled down over my eyes for the entire movie. 

My friend kept being like, "You're not watching!" and I kept insisting, "I can see everything!" (That was a lie, obviously).

We all have those movies that haunted us for years, including films that weren't even supposed to be scary.

Which is why when Reddit user u/Halloween-365 posted "What movie traumatized you when you were a child?" on the r/AskRedditr subreddit, it's not surprising that they received over 6,000 responses. 

So below are 27 movies that gave anxiety sweats to an entire generation.

1. "Jurassic Park. I couldn’t make it past the opening scene. It’s funny because, as an adult, it’s since become one of my favorite movies."

3. "Jaws still impacts my life."

4. "Not a movie…but the Thriller music video scared the sh*t out of me."

5. "Indiana Jones. Sure, the bad guys can die, but damn, did their faces really need to melt?"

7. "Mine was Aliens. My parents told me to go to bed because they were going to watch a scary movie. I said I wanted to stay up with them. They said, 'OK, but you have to stay for the whole thing.' Newt looked exactly like a girl in my kindergarten class, which DID NOT HELP me believe it was 'just a movie.' I always went to bed when they told me to after that. 😂"

8. "Mufasa dying in The Lion King."

9. "The Wizard of Oz. That scene with the crystal ball, Auntie Em, and The Wicked Witch. That movie sent me running behind the couch."

10. And in a similar vein, "Return To Oz. The Wheelers killed me."

11. "Signs. The video camera footage of the alien quickly walking past still haunts me."

12. "Snow White. What the hell were they thinking with the forest scene with the animal eyes in the trees?"

13. "Scream. My parents were watching it on TV and said to me, 'Don't look.' I was 6, so of course I looked. This was right at the moment when the girl trips and then gets stabbed to death. This memory became a core trauma for me."

14. "Poltergeist. That f*cking clown under the bed! 🤡🫣"

15. "Carrie, both the scene after she comes home from the prom and the end when her hand comes out of the grave."

16. "The Neverending Story. That f*cking creepy wolf!"

17. "My Girl. What the F*CK was with that movie? 'Oh hey you know that kid you liked in Home Alone? What if we make him die from bees?'"

18. "Pet Sematary. The guy with the brain was very upsetting for me. Weirdly, I didn't have a problem with most of the rest of it."

19. "Arachnophobia f*cked me up with spiders for a bit"

20. "Bambi's mom had me bawling. Same with Dumbo's mom. I really can't handle any animal being abused."

21. "The Exorcist. I saw it in fourth grade. A few years later, I fell asleep watching the History Channel; at about 2 a.m., a documentary on the filming of The Exorcist came on. I had a dream about the movie because of it, and in the dream, I was in the room with her strapped to the bed. When I woke up, I looked at the TV and saw her face, and it scared the absolute sh*t out of me."

22. "Watership Down. The fighting rabbits, the burrow being destroyed. I haven't seen it in over 40 years, and I'm still traumatized."

23. "Candyman. A neighborhood kid I grew up with went to therapy for years because of that movie."

24. "All Dogs Go To Heaven. That sh*t is still terrifying."

25. "It. The shower scene made me not want to shower for weeks..."

26. "That scene in James And The Giant Peach with the sky rhino. Scared the hell outta me!"

27. And finally, "The Day After Tomorrow. It f*cked me up so bad, and I didn't want to explain why, so I recently pretended to re-watch it on family movie night. It traumatized me as a kid because it made me think about what I would have to do as an adult when I'm in a life-threatening situation if my loved ones were trapped in a different area. It f*cked me up. I never want to talk about it, see it, or think about it again."

So, what do you think? Did any of these movies freak you out as a child? Are there any other movies that scared the bejeezus out of you?

Let us know in the comments!

Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.