Scary Movies That Traumatized Us as Kids

As adults, we see scary movies as a great form of entertainment. Nothing better to do on a weekend? You’ll start looking for a good horror movie to make you feel things. But treating horror as a thrilling pastime didn’t come easy. We had our fair share of scares and trauma as kids, no thanks to these movies that were ~~probably~~ quite certainly not age-appropriate content. Horror movies from recent years may be scary, but it’s the classics of the 70s, 80s, 90s, and early 2000s that had us traumatized for life. Jump into hair-raising memory lane and check out these flicks you might want to watch now as a full-fledged adult:

Shutter (2004)

American horror movies are scary but Asian horror flicks are on a different level. For some reason, the jumpscares and legends have the ability to crawl under your skin and wake you up at night even as an adult. Who can’t forget the sheer horror Shutter gave us? The story is about a photographer who is haunted by a spirit that only appears in photographs he develops. It’s the reason why whenever we complain that our shoulders hurt, we joke around that a ghost is actually sitting on it. It’s also the reason why we stopped taking photos for a while after that.

Final Destination 3 (2006)

Final Destination is an American horror franchise that has five installments, the latest one released in 2011. The films all had one thing in common: killing people in the most grotesque and absurd way possible. Special mention to Final Destination 3 where a group of friends die a gruesome death after the rollercoaster they’re on gets derailed. And then Death starts hunting the survivors until, one by one, they’re met with horrific deaths. Needless to say, we developed a fear of carnivals and rollercoasters after that.

Poltergeist (1982)

This American supernatural horror film rendered us sleepless for weeks. It’s full of creepy encounters, ghosts that commune with humans through television sets, and evil spirits that will hurt you. You don’t need me telling you that as a child, that’s just a bit too much. Did our parents really make us watch a movie on demonic possessions? After watching that, the mere sound of TV static gave us the creeps. But now that you’re an adult, maybe you can stomach rewatching this scary movie or the 2015 reboot.

The Exorcist (1973)

Horror movies are the same. Put a couple of violent ghosts in a house (that literally looks like it’s part of a theme park haunted house), add a family with kids in the mix plus some exorcists and you got yourself a movie. Of course, that’s just me downplaying the trauma The Exorcist caused when I was a kid. The thought of being possessed by a spirit had us not sleeping a wink for days. And then finding out that it was based on a true story? Horror upon horror!

The Ring (2002)

What is it with television and scary movies? The fear we developed from TVs courtesy of Poltergeist is nothing compared to the fear that The Ring gave. In the story, a journalist investigates a mysterious cursed videotape that kills viewers seven days after they’ve watched it. This one was a remake of the 1998 Japanese film Ring but it’s equally frightening. To this day, any image of Sadako (or Samara) is guaranteed to make our skin crawl.

The Shining (1980)

The Shining is another classic horror flick that had us frozen in our seats as kids. Even if your parents tell you that it’s just a movie and that they’re beside you to protect you, the premise of the film literally had a dad attempting to murder his family. After you survived until the credits (while side-eyeing your Dad) you were never the same. The scene where Jack Torrence attempted to ax his way through a door will forever be one of the scariest things we’ve ever watched.

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Yes, okay. The Blair Witch Project is fictional. We know that now but when we were kids, it looked like an actual documentary. The story follows three filmmakers who camped at Black Hills in Maryland to document a local legend known as the Blair Witch. And wouldn’t you know it they started hearing strange things and they go missing one by one. Just how traumatic was this movie? My cousin sat us down to watch it a day before we went on our first overnight hiking trip. You can imagine how I didn’t get a wink of sleep in the middle of the woods.

The Grudge (2004)

2004 The Grudge is a remake of the 2002 Japanese horror film Ju-on: The Grudge. Following the success of the American remake of The Ring, the producers thought it would be fun to release another horror movie out into the world. And that’s how we were forever scarred by the story of Kayako Saeki a.k.a. The Grudge and her signature croak. You survived her horror once, how about re-watching it as an adult?

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