Thursday, October 15, 2009

My First Scary Movie

I can still remember the first movie that SCARED the willies out of me! It was the movie, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, starring Don Knotts. I was 6 yrs old when I saw it and even though the movie itself is not a scary one, to my young mind all I could think about was the organ that played on its own.

In the film, Don Knotts plays a wannabe newspaper reporter who is assigned to spend the night in a mansion where a murder/suicide was committed 20 yrs earlier. Legend says that the ghost of Mr. Simmons, who murdered his wife, plays the organ at night. At midnight, Knotts sees the old organ begin to play by itself. Knott's newspaper article about his night's experiences results in a court case which then leads to the discovery of the real murderer.

Since seeing that movie (and getting over my fear of the dark), I have developed a love for good suspense filled movies. No blood, guts or gore for me!

What is the first scary movie you can remember seeing??


9 comments:

Hope said...

hhhhmmm....The first one i can remember had to be House on the Haunted Hill with Vincent Price. Scared the bejeebies out of me! also, Daddy took me to see House of Wax in 3-D. That one was pretty scary too. BUT, the REAL thing that scared me witless was Dracula! I used to be scared to take a bath as I was convinved that he was watching me thru the bathroom window!

Debra She Who Seeks said...

Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. I was about 6 too. Very frightening! I saw The Ghost and Mr. Chicken too but I was older so it didn't bother me.

Suzie said...

When I was in Jr. high, I went to see The Pit and the Pendulum with a girl friend. It wasn't over the top scary, but one of those too realistic movies.

But the absolute first time that I was scared at the movies was when I was 4 years old. My Dad was an artist, and for his own entertainment, did a lot of cartooning, so he was extremely interested in animated Disney movies. So that is how I found myself snugged into a seat next to my Dad, with a huge bag of popcorn on his lap, for us to share, and a huge Hershey bar in my hand, which he thought we were going to share! lol The movie? Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Now I'm dating myself here, but this was in the day when you could buy one ticket, and if you wanted to, you could stay in the theater and watch the movie again and again. I was enjoying myself until the scene came where the evil queen turned herself into the crone. That made SUCH an impact on me, that it took me a long while to get back into enjoying the story again. After it was over, my Dad asked me if I would like to stay and see it again. On one hand, I was delighted to be able to do that, but I didn't want to watch that scary scene again, so I told him, only until she drinks that drink. I don't think that he really believed me, so needless to say, he was shocked when that scene came on, and his little, shy, meek, rarely misbehaved little girl, jumped out of her seat and went running back up the aisle, to wait for her Daddy to emerge seconds later, in the brightly light lobby! lol

Gruvkitty said...

Jaws! I think I was about seven, and I've never recovered. I'm STILL terrified of swimming in the ocean and will only do it if I can see through the water to the bottom. Poltergeist scared me pretty badly later on, and the most recent scary movie was 28 Days Later. *shudder* I won't go to those kinds of horror movies anymore!

Rue said...

It was Poltergeist for me - that little girl and the tv screen scared the crap out of me. I still don't like 'dead air' - I flip past it really quick - LOL!

I miss Don Knotts - he was amazing!

Blue Moon said...

I LOVED This movie! In fact, I totally blame this movie for my liflong soft spot for the "underdog" type - :)

Bridgett said...

The first time I can remember actually being scared was after watching Nightmare on Elm Street. I couldn't sleep well for MONTHS after I watched this movie.

I can't say I've seen the Don Knotts movie though! LOL

)O(
boo

Zan Asha said...

Yes, I love good suspense and mystery and no gore, too. Maybe the exception was the birds--some blood, but no guts...I am definitely too scared to see the "Saw" movies and such...

Bloomin'Chick Jo said...

First scary movie I remember was some Dracula movie with Christopher Lee as Dracula. I was fairly young & didn't think a black and white movie could scare me! Wrong, wrong, WRONG! LOL! (Everything was black & white in those days because that's the kind of tv we had). I must have been around 6 or 7. Around 8 (?), my mom's (ex)fiance's kids watched Clash of the Titans followed by Friday the 13th Part 3 and that scared the ever living bleep out of me! That stupid "cha cha cha, kill kill kill" and Jason Voorhees Still give me nightmares to this very day!