MOVIES THAT SCARED THE DAYLIGHTS OUT OF ME (and others)
Movies That Scared The Daylights Out Of Me (and others)
Stop watching those all night Infomercials and Shopping Channels… check out these beauties recommended for your Nighttime Viewing pleasure…
by Bill Knell
I've watched all kinds of movies in theaters, on TV, on video and online. I have always enjoyed “monster movies” (horror, sci-fi, creature features and so on). As a kid I watched CHLLER THEATER every Saturday night on WPIX in New York City. All the movies were scary, but some were “bed wetters”. When I knew one of those were going to be shown, I would invite one of my friends over for a sleepover. I watched CHILLER on a portable TV in my bedroom late at night.
My favorite boy movie buddy was Johnny. He was my age (9) and lived just two doors down. It was fun to watch him get really scared! He would start by pulling the covers up over his head. During the really scary scenes he grabbed my arm and started biting it to help calm himself down. When that didn't work, he got loud. Johnny would yell and that would cause my dad to get up, come into my room and say, “Shut the hell up or the TV goes off for the night!”
CHILLER tended to show the scariest films a few times a year. Most of them were less than ten years old at that time and many made Radiation the villian. One of my favs was The Hideous Sun Demon (1958). “When a scientist is accidentally exposed to radiation, he finds himself morphing into a deadly, lizard-like creature every time he is out in the sun.” - Google
I also liked GODZILLA (1954; American version with Raymond Burr) the big, bad dino creep and MOTHRA (1961).
A giant benevolent moth makes the bad guys pay for taking her two tiny priestesses (Japanese) girls away. They would sing M-O-T-H-R-A and she would come to their rescue. If those little hotties sang for me I would come too.
Zaza Gabor never looked better as THE QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE (1958 Color). Young male astronauts crash land on Venus only to find the planet, thought to be uninhabited, populated by beautiful females and their power crazed leader. I think Johnny had a crush on Zaza.
One film I'll never forget is CARNIVAL OF SOULS (1962). It was bizarre, scary and filled with dread. You never knew what would happen next as a young girl is haunted and followed by ghouls who seem to want her body and soul. My girlfriend Jayne and I were eleven and had a sleepover (not a naughty one except for making out). After just a few minutes Jayne and I stuck together like glue and stayed like that for most of the film.
THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN (1957). I really liked this movie. If was yet another film where a guy doesn't pay attention and ends up on the receiving end of an A bomb blast. He gets irradiated and grows really big.
ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN (1958) is equally cool. A woman gets zapped by a giant Alien, gets big and gets even with her philandering husband. The 1993 version with Darryl Hanna is even cooler.
When I was twelve I took my official, unofficial girlfriend Jayne to the movies on a date. Our folks thought we were just close friends. We saw THE PLANET OF THE APES (1968) starring Charlton Heston. Astronauts land on a planet inhabited by intelligent apes, only to later discover it's Earth. On that Earth humans run wild and can't talk. After they capture Heston and mistreat him, he yells “Get your hands off me you damn, dirty ape”. Rod Serling of TWILIGHT ZONE fame wrote the original screenplay and worked on the sequels. We really enjoyed the movie and didn't even make out (until it was over).
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