It’s October and Halloween is just around the corner so that made me think about the first film that ever scared me. In fact, the memory was so vivid that I wondered what other people might recall about the movies that scared them.
Here is a preview of the Cinema Junkie podcast that's all about the first films to scare us. The podcast will be available on October 30 and available on iTunes.
Fear is a primal human emotion and experiencing fear is something we all tend to remember vividly. My parents took me to some inappropriate films when I was young, but I have to thank them for that because it probably laid the foundation for my love of horror. I saw things that terrified me and kept me awake at night and when I did fall asleep the images invaded my dreams. The first film that I remember being scared by is "A Boy Ten Feet Tall." I must have seen "A Boy Ten Feet Tall" when I was only about 4 years old and I have never seen it since, but it dealt with a young white boy whose parents are killed in Africa and it starred Edward G. Robinson as what the film called "The White Hunter."
At one point the boy gets handcuffed to a dead man and that's what I remember being most terrified by. I don’t know what actually was in the film (although I should go see it again just to find out what is really in the film) but I had nightmares about being in a dark jungle and not being able to see and dragging a dead body behind me. The film was billed as an adventure for kids but it’s the first memory I have of being scared.
It’s not always a horror film that provides scares as writer and filmmaker Clive Barker revealed in my earlier Cinema Junkie podcast. He cited Walt Disney's "Sleeping Beauty" as the first film to scare him. Disney is responsible for the nightmares of many children.
The thing about fear is it also produces adrenaline and the rush from that is kind of exhilarating. That may be why many people can immediately recall the first film to scare them. The answer is often dependent on the age of the person, so one generation may cite the evil monkeys in "Wizard of Oz" while another might refer to "Halloween" or "The Exorcist."
If you remember the first film to scare you, feel free to tell me about it in the comments below. And here's a roundup of responses on Twitter:
