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Bud Brewster Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)
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Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 17166 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2022 5:41 pm Post subject: Share a few scary memories from your Monsterkid days! |
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Everybody has a list of science fiction movies which succeeded in scaring them when they were kids.
My list is surprising short, probably because I was never interested in watching horror movies, and I didn't even start going to movie theaters without my parents until I was about 12 years old, when I started riding the city buses to the nearby town of East Point, GA, so I could see movies at the theater shown below with my two friends, Jimmy and Chuck.
Unfortunately, this is the only picture I've ever found of that theater, which was taken long after it had closed down.
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However, I spent a several hours modifying the image to make the East Point Theater look like I remembered it from 1960 when I saw the movie listed on the marquee.
The tiny images of the posters on each side of the ticket booth where the display cases used to be are actually from that movie!
I can't help but envy All Sci-Fi member Rick, who has shared some wonderful stories with us from his boyhood days, when he frequently went to the LeRose Theater with his friends and enjoyed quite a few scary movies!
Rick has posted so many great stories about his MonsterKid experiences that I told him he should publish a book about them — and I even created the cover for it!
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Surprisingly, there are only two movies I remember being truly scared by, and I watched them both on a Friday night late show in Atlanta in the early 1960s. They were presented by WAGA TV, channel 5, on The Big Movie Shocker — with Horror Host Hall of Fame member Bestoink Dooley!
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I was an official member of his fan club — complete with the button to prove it!
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The Big Movie Shocker mostly aired the classic horror movies from the 30s and 40s, but even in the darkened den of my home, sitting on the linoleum floor in front of the 25" B&W television long after my family had gone to bed, none of those movies ever seemed very frightening.
However, there were two 1950s science fiction movies that always left me pretty shaky by the end of the night, and I remember feeling uneasy as I made my way down the dark hallway to my bedroom at 1:00 AM after seeing these two chilling tales about alien invasion.
Here's the trailers for the two movies which disturbed my sleep in the early 1960s.
__ Thing from another World - 1951 - Official Trailer
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_______ Invasion of the Body Snatchers - Trailer
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So, now it's your turn, guys. Please tell us about the scary movies you were frightened by when you were young and impressionable.
They don't have to all be strictly sci-fi, and they don't have to be from the 1950s. Just describe your earlier memories of cinematic terrors, either from TV Late Shows or during Saturday Matinees.
All we want is for you to share your youthful passion for strange ideas which kept you awake at night, the ones that troubled your dreams when you were growing up. _________________ ____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sun Feb 26, 2023 2:15 pm; edited 4 times in total |
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Pow Galactic Ambassador
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Joined: 27 Sep 2014 Posts: 3441 Location: New York
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Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2022 11:20 pm Post subject: |
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Two movies come to mind, Bud They are not SF, but you stated that they don't have to be.
House of Wax with Vincent Price. I was a 9 or 10 years old and it was on one weekend afternoon.
Holey smokes, seeing Price's horribly disfigured face for the first time was frightening for me. The particular scene that resonated with me is when he's all clad in black with a wide brimmed hat and standing on a roof in the dark of night. He throws a grapnel hook with a rope onto a roof across from him, opposite the heroines large bedroom window, and swings to it.
I was convinced he was going to do that to me when I went to bed that night.
The other movie that chilled my blood when I was the same age was called The Hypnotic Eye. The plot had an evil hypnotist mesmerizing women. They'd then go home to follow his orders and, through various means, disfigure themselves in some terrible manner.
Interesting that both movies focus upon humans that are disfigured in some way. Made me fanatical about maintaining my stunning good looks at all times. Consequently I never go to any wax museums or let anyone hypnotize me under any conditions.
And don't even talk to me about going to see a hypnotist at a wax museum....it'll send me over the edge forever!!! |
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Bud Brewster Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)
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Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 17166 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2022 3:52 pm Post subject: |
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Hey, thanks for reminding me that House of Wax was on The Big Movie Shocker as well.
I wished we'd had a color TV in those days. The movie might have scared me more than it did. _________________ ____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958) |
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Krel Guest
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Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2022 4:05 pm Post subject: |
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The only movie I can remember really scaring me, was "The Haunting". It had me scared of the dark for two years.
It didn't scare me, and I didn't even see the movie, but the poster for "X: The Man With X-Ray Eyes" haunted me for years. Depending on the time of year I saw it, I was either 5 or 6 years old. I don't remember what movie I was going to see, but I remember that poster on the wall in the "coming soon" frame in the movie theater.
I still find it fascinating. |
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Bud Brewster Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)
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Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 17166 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2022 6:19 pm Post subject: |
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Krel wrote: | The only movie I can remember really scaring me, was "The Haunting". It had me scared of the dark for two years |
Good Lord yes! The big wooden door that bent inward while the people inside the room coward in terror!
And when Julie Harris thought she was holding Claire Blooms hand in the dark while all those creepy noises were heard — and then she turns on the light and discovers that Claire was in the bed across the room!
Julie looks down and whispers, "God . . . whose hand was I holding?"
(Damn, I got chills all over again just describing that scene!)
______ Creepy scene from "The Haunting"(1963)
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___________Scene from THE HAUNTING (1963)
__________ ![](https://i3.ytimg.com/vi/bQxyaI74v7U/hqdefault.jpg) _________________ ____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958) |
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