Scary Movies my Parents Shouldn’t Have Let Me Watch (but Secretly I’m Glad they Did)

As Halloween creeps ever closer, I’m reminded of the movies I saw as a kid that seared their terror upon my happy, naïve, trusting little brain. Some gave me nightmares; some leaped to mind, unbidden, when the lights were turned off. They are the best that 70s/early 80s TV could provide (early 70s—broadcast only; late 70s, cable TV).

Listed in no particular order (although perhaps the ones that scarred me most crowd to the front):

The Exorcist

This movie gave me many, many sleepless nights. It was a staple of early-to-mid-70s TV movie nights (CBS, as I recall). My parents probably didn’t knowingly let me watch this, but I remember watching it at my parents’ friends’ house, while they were playing cards. Even cut for TV, it makes children crap their pants.

Carrie

My parents did let me watch this one—oh, how foolish! The end scene where Amy Irving’s character delivers flowers to the burned-to-coals vacant lot where Carrie’s house once stood, and she leans over the “For Sale” sign (shaped like a cross--which someone defaced with “Carrie White burns in Hell!”), and…

Gah! Well done, Mr. De Palma!

Hey, William Katt was in that! I didn’t remember that. I did remember John Travolta, though, the cad.

Let’s Scare Jessica to Death

I’m going to be straight with you—I don’t remember much about this one. There were some scenes on a lake—there may or may not have been a rowboat involved—that seemed pretty scary at the time.

My best guess is that this was shown on Denver’s channel 2 (an independent station) sometime in the early 70s, and I was happily channel-surfing one fine Saturday or Sunday, and I stumbled upon it. And then I was scarred for life. Thanks for being around to watch over me, Mom and Dad!

Arnold

I fully admit that I’ve never seen this movie—but I did see the trailer on TV, and it made a deep, lasting impression. The trailer link above is not the trailer I saw—the one I remember was played straight, and had a scene of a man, fully-clothed, in a shower (as I recall) as snakes poured out of the shower head and he writhed in agony.

At least, that’s what I remember.

In fact, I remembered that scene all the way into adulthood, when finally some incredibly cool dude invented the Internet Movie Database, and I could finally find out more about this (obviously) low-budget movie.

Arnold came out in ’73. Do I actually remember a trailer I saw when I was four years old? Perhaps a few years later?

It had Roddy McDowall AND Jamie Farr in it. That’s kind of wacky.

Dracula Has Risen from the Grave

Okay, this movie didn’t really scare me. It was the early 80s, and puberty was just around the corner. I saw this movie on (Superstation!) WTBS in the early 80s, when they would show horror and sci-fi movies all night Friday and Saturday nights. This was the kind of thing you’d see if you’d stay up until 4am.

And if you were of a certain age and gender, you’d be rewarded! Very, very pretty women. Giving their all to Dracula. The cleavage factor was high.

Willard

I’m sure I saw this movie several times in the early-/mid-70s on Denver’s channel 7 (independent/quasi-CBS). It was just the kind of low-budget, obscure fare independent channel 7 would show. If you’re not part of a network, you’ve got to scrape up something to show. And it would often be something like this.

And I’m thankful for these independent stations. Without them, I’d have missed out on these overlooked gems. (As well as great series like The Prisoner, Space: 1999, The Wild Wild West, and The Avengers.)

Though I’ve not seen it in decades, I believe Willard would be creepy even today. With Sondra Locke and Ernest Borgnine, how could it not be?

Five Million Years to Earth (AKA Quatermass and the Pit)

This is not horror—it’s sci-fi. And again I admit, it did not scare me. But! There is one very creepy scene that left its greasy, indelible thumbprint on my memory:

Apparently, some humans were abducted millions of years ago by Martians and given mental abilities such as telepathy and telekinesis. Then the Martians took these genetically-altered humans back to earth, whose ancestors still retain the memories of what their ancestors saw. One of these memories (captured by a scientist’s “optic-encephalogram” device) shows the insectoid Martians purging their hive of unwanted mutants.

This is another Superstation WTBS wonder from the early 80s. I seem to recall watching the sun come up when this movie ended.

Ah, the horrible, frightening, yet oddly comforting memories! What movies made you keep the light on when you were a kid?