Do you like scary movies? What was the first thing that really scared you?

Whether you’re a horror lover or a die-hard Halloween fan, one thing is probably true: as a child, you saw a movie that scared the living hell out of you and instilled the kind of total fear that only a child can feel. To celebrate the spooky season, we asked VFThe staff digs deep into their memories to reveal the very first movie that scared the crap out of each of them. Our list is filled with demons, zombies, vampires, flying monkeys and a surprising amount more Kristy Swanson Projects. Readers, beware: you will be afraid.

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

As a child I had a very complicated relationship with The Wizard of Oz. On the one hand, it was one of my favorite films: I was completely obsessed with Dorothy. I wore my hair in braids and insisted on rattling my own ruby ​​slippers wherever I went. On the other hand, I had to make sure I felt brave enough every time I sat down to watch it. I often reached for the VHS on the shelf, but the vision of the Wicked Witch of the West summoning her army of flying monkeys haunted me – and honestly still does. I can still hear sweet Toto’s barking and Dorothy’s screams as the terrible, blue, human-sized mutant herd drags them into the abyss. Talk about evil! —Daniela Tijerina

The shining one (1980)

I’m a scaredy cat, I learned that the hard way when I lived with an aunt and uncle as a child. While they were watching, I happened to walk into the TV room The shining one (on RCA video disc, for those who remember), and it was at the exact moment when Jack NicholsonThe possessed caretaker buries a hatchet in Hallorann (Scatman Crothers). Finally I read the book where Hallorann actually survives! But I was already haunted by that scene and the twins’ eerie refrain: “Come play with us, Danny.” I watched, too poltergeist As a child, like all sensible people, I can no longer tolerate clown dolls or static on televisions. —Radhika Jones

I am a legend (2007)

I had cool (and Perhaps irresponsible) parents who let me watch R-rated movies way too young (see: The shining one at the age of seven) and built up my tolerance. It wasn’t until middle school that I discovered my first sleep-all-night movie, which came in the form of an… action movie? It’s hard to say exactly what genre it is I am a legend fits underneath. The film is set in a post-apocalyptic Manhattan under siege by plague victims who have become monsters and have immunity Will Smith try to create a cure. The clatter of vampire-like monsters running through Washington Square Park still haunts me, as does the scene of city officials blowing up bridges and tunnels. Too real then, too real now after COVID. —Jaime Archer

It (1990)

As a child, the two-VHS set was the one It The miniseries occupied a prominent place in my uncle’s wooden entertainment system, and in my earliest memories it was a totemic object. I wanted It, whatever It Was. When I was about five years old, my older cousins ​​were babysitting once and decided to put it on. The other small children fled the room after a few minutes, but I sat motionless, staring at the television, not saying anything for hours, leaving everyone with the impression that I was simply not afraid. It’s weeks of night terrors and a constant discomfort when dealing with clowns of all kinds. My mother was angry. This story has taken on apocryphal meaning in my family—its veracity was a topic of discussion at both my 30th birthday party and my recent wedding—but I know it’s true for one reason: I love horror films of all kinds, and I’m rare honestly scared, but the year 1990 It still really gets on my nerves. —Erin Vanderhoof

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)

When I went to my very first group sleepover, someone picked out the VHS of Buffy the Vampire Slayer as our entertainment for the evening. As an adult, I was informed that this movie (in which Kristy Swanson plays a cheerleader who finds out she’s a vampire slayer) is a comedy, and looking at the trailer now, I think it is. But back when I was maybe nine years old, this movie scared me and I would wake up at night for weeks afraid that vampires would find their way into my house. I was determined to learn how to use a wooden stake just in case. I’ve never seen the film (or the TV show that spawned it) again and honestly doubt that will change any time soon. —Rebecca Ford

Night of the Living Dead (1990)

My mother told me this when she took me to visit The black cauldron, I was so scared that I hid the entire film under the theater seat – but that memory is lost in the haze of youth. I remember being scared The guardian in the forest And The changeling, Only that was the dizzying, fun kind of fear. No, the movie that really gave me a terrible scare and that I still remember well was the 1990 remake Night of the Living Dead, a dark, dirty and unrelenting descent into hell the likes of which I had never seen before. At about 9 or 10 years old, I was completely too young to see the film, but my sister (who was also too young to see it) insisted that we watch the film. And so we did, me shrinking more and more into the couch while poor Barbara Todd (Patricia Tallman) sought a poor refuge from a horde of zombies in an old farmhouse.

I was completely unsettled. And then, to make matters worse, my parents came home from work and drove us to the old farmhouse where we spent part of every summer – and where I spent many nights looking out the window of my small bedroom to stare, convinced that I was going to see one or more ghouls stagger out of the forest. It was the start of an embarrassing years-long fear of zombies that lasted into my twenties and was reinforced by the 2004 remake Dawn of the Dead. There I was – a college student who should have cared more about boys and parties and, er, studying – and was absolutely convinced that every rattle and creak in my off-campus apartment was a zombie finally killing me wanted to get it, about 12 years later Night of the Living Dead At first it lodged in the fear receptors in my brain. I eventually got over it and even survived a few seasons The walking dead. But I will never watch Tom SaviniIt’s never a movie of mine again, lest I find myself in my bedroom in my forties, listening to the shuffle of rotting feet. —Richard Lawson

The Goonies (1985) and The Lost Boys (1987)

In my mind, even though these films came out two years apart, I was scared of both at the same time. I wasn’t really watching The Goonies all the way up to that decade of my life, which says something about how scared I was of it, even though my friends thought it was ridiculous. Why? The undergroundness; the Fratellis. And The Lost Boys? vampires; Divorce. I’m slightly scared, I guess. I’ve never seen it before Child’s play or It because just looking at the VHS boxes at Take Two Video scared me so much. The 80s were a very scary time. —Claire Howorth

Don’t look under the bed (1999)

Before Disney Channel perfected the art of scary, seasonal television Halloweentown And twitch, The channel made one of the scariest children’s films of all time. I can’t remember if I actually finished the entire movie about a Black man living under a girl’s bed – but I do remember periodically checking under my own bed to make sure there was a middle ground no creature crept into my room at night. My elementary school-age self was not alone. “There were a number of meetings where we talked about tone and other things [Disney] “I wanted it to be scary, but not too scary,” the director said Kenneth Johnson told Weekly entertainment in 2017. “This is the bar we’ve always been looking for. Everyone thought we had made it until they started receiving derogatory mail after it aired.” —Savannah Walsh

101 Dalmatians (1996)

There are few villains in film history as iconic or as frightening as Cruella de Ville – a chic and evil cross between Miranda Priestly and the Child Catcher. There’s a reason their theme song goes, “If she don’t scare you, no evil thing will scare you” – and as a kid, I really took those lyrics to heart. But I wasn’t afraid of Cruella from the 1961 cartoon One hundred and one Dalmatians. I was very afraid of it Glenn Closeis the interpretation of Cruella de Vil in the 1996 live-action film. Close’s powdered face, her black-and-white aesthetic with red spots (like blood!) and, most of all, her ungodly giggle triggered a certain fear in me that I had never felt before had. In retrospect, I can see it for what it was – an indelible performance from one of our finest screen actors – but at the time, Close really scared the crap out of me.

One of my earliest and most profound childhood memories is the nightmare that Cruella wanted to have Me and woke my father up in the middle of the night. Then I had him find our VHS copy 101 Dalmatians, Throw it in the trash, take the trash bag and put it in the trash in front of our house. I couldn’t sleep any longer because I knew Closes Cruella was lurking somewhere in our house. Even today, the sight of them still gives you goosebumps. —Chris Murphy

poltergeist (1982) and Deadly friend (1986)

Never underestimate the terrible power of the child whisper network. The two movies that scared me the most in elementary school were the suburban haunted house blockbuster Poltergeist, which is still a classic today, and the psycho killer girl robot movie Deadly friend, what preceded M3GAN by a generation. Both terrified me long before I saw them, thanks to the intense descriptions I heard (and sometimes misunderstood) from my classmates.