Inappropriate movies you watched as a child

[MozzchopsThirty]

Following on from another thread, my parents literally let me watch anything!
Yes the 80s were different times, and I don't think any of it did me any harm but not sure I'd be letting my dcs watch any of these under the age of 12
(Some of them I was under 10 as my parents were still together)

Little Darlings ( I loved this film)
Grease
Nightmare on elm street
Poltergeist
Over the edge

What films were you watching as a child which would horrify people today

@MozzchopsThirty I used to go round my friends house and her parents were much less strict than mine with regards to what she watched. I remember her putting all the Freddy Kruger films on and The Exorcist etc. My parents hit the roof when they found out. I was about 10 at the time!
There used to be a local video man who used to drive round in his van full of videos and we used to go and choose what we wanted and he wasn't bothered what age classification the videos were!!!

The Candyman.

Pretty Woman - I thought the condoms were lolly pops when she has all those coloured ones 🙈

I remember sone weird arse film no idea how old I was or when it came out. All I remember was a weird looking guy with a big head who either had sex with his mother or killed his mother thatbwas different to that other film with the cats where the guy has sex with his mother.

Nightmare on Elm Street
Friday the Thirteenth
Carrie

My parents had no restrictions on film or literature, they wanted me to experience culture as I came to it (similarly lax attitude to drinking too). I had a bookcase full of my parents books in my bedroom at my nans house, including Blue Lagoon, The Pearl, Leslie Thomas books.

I was babysitting my younger sister when watching a horror film (i was about 13 and she was 3, my parents had gone out for the night) and she came down for a drink of water just as the character was peeling his skin off. It scarred her for life, she still mentions it now 30 years later!

Candy man. Terrified me as a child. Hated mirrors in case he popped up behind me. Worried saying “candy man” might be accumulated over time till I reached 3 and I’d accidentally Summon him. Rewatched it recently and it’s still scary. I think they’re remaking it 😧

Midnight Express 😬 (age 9/10)

Basically I would wake up on a Sat/Sun and press play on the video, whatever my mum/dad had been watching the night before would play. They weren't fussed and never tried to stop me.

Do still love that film though and have never been tempted to smuggle drugs into Turkey 😂

Scream and many other horrors that my nan was a fan of. I must've only been about 8-9 and she loved to shout boo or something during a tense moment to really put the shits up me. Put me off horrors for life tbh and I'm now to most jumpy person I know which I attribute to that

I was allowed to watch the best little whorehouse in Texas. I loved Dolly Parton and I don't really remember understanding what was going on. It was only a few years ago watching the film as an adult that I realised how it is definitely not appropriate for children!

Yes the local video shop would just hire out anything

I also remember watching those confession films, like confessions of a window cleaner, soft porn / carry on style films

Wtaf were they thinking????

@Janaih

Oh can I just say though... Watership Down!

@Janaih oh me too still freaks me out!

@Tigresswoods

All the Carry On movies. I genuinely think they gave me very warped view of how women are viewed by men.

I watched all these too - I had thought the same but with hindsight I actually think they were pretty accurate representations of how many British men view women, particularly at the time. Loved them though, especially Carry On Screaming

My dad put on the omen for us to watch at my 7th birthday party , needless to say those kids didn't come round again!

The first film I ever remember watching was gremlins and I was watching it in a house I moved out of when I was 5!! I remember being absolutely terrified! But yes the 80's were a very different time I don't think my parents ever looked at the age ratings on films as most of the films we watched were vhs copies 😂

My grandad was massively into his horror movies and had shelf full which I always enjoyed looking at. For some reason from the age of about 6 I was allowed to watch Cujo by Stephen King every time we visited. Apparently it was ok because it wasn’t that scary and it had a dog in it. I was absolutely fine with it and asked to watch it until I got to about 8 and was sat in my mums car on one occasion while she popped into a house and I became terrified Cujo might get me! What followed was years of nightmares and terrified thoughts about that bloody dog! I wouldn’t watch it again now if someone paid me it affected me that badly.

The Omen - still look at photos to see if they have the line on them!!

We used to watch all the “House” films when we were kids. They were 18 rated but parents would happily rent them for a 13th birthday party.

I was allowed to watch almost anything I wanted to. Rocky Horror Picture Show was my favourite as a kid. I knew all the songs and dances. Most of the themes went straight over my head, thankfully. I still love it now. But I won't be showing it to DCs just yet.

I remember watching The Birds with my Dad when I was about 10 and it really freaked me out!

Wow Salem's Lot for me too - it's getting a lot of votes! Especially when the dead brother is tapping in the window. Watched it again recently and it looks really unrealistic - my kids would laugh if they watched it but it scared me badly. Also Amitiville still don't like possession films

@AndNoneForGretchenWieners

Nightmare on Elm Street Friday the Thirteenth Carrie

My parents had no restrictions on film or literature, they wanted me to experience culture as I came to it (similarly lax attitude to drinking too). I had a bookcase full of my parents books in my bedroom at my nans house, including Blue Lagoon, The Pearl, Leslie Thomas books.

I was babysitting my younger sister when watching a horror film (i was about 13 and she was 3, my parents had gone out for the night) and she came down for a drink of water just as the character was peeling his skin off. It scarred her for life, she still mentions it now 30 years later!

Same here. Never had any restrictions on anything I read or watched. Did no harm to me. Never had nightmares, still love horrors, and still love to read

Jaws! I still have a fascination with sharks.

And my brother watched Critters. For a while after he refused to sit on the toilet 🤦‍♀️

I saw Watership Down at the cinema when I was 4. I didn't make it to the end.

By age 7 I had watched alien, jaws, the thing and some film where a woman gives birth to a fully grown man.

My parents worked shifts for the NHS and my Mum couldn’t sleep on her nights off so she’d keep me up when I was a toddler and I’d doze on the couch while she watched films. Before starting school I’d seen films like Carrie, The Wicker Man, Children of the Corn, Flowers in The Attic, Silence of the Lambs, Werewolf etc and Dirty Dancing. I’d frequently wake up at terrifying parts of horror films. I think she thought I wouldn’t remember. One of my earliest memories is when I was preverbal, in nappies still and I was hallucinating that there was a vampire in the room so I obviously had seen something with vampires in but I remember not being able to talk and say or name “vampire” I was just screaming while my parents were trying to console me but obviously had no idea why I was so upset. I was a very nervous child, always assuming the worst.

A teacher in reception noticed I was very subdued one day and had dark rings under my eyes and I told her I was scared of the monsters and described a film I’d seen the night before which she quickly realised was not for children. I told her about other films I’d seen “I REALLY didn’t like Children of the Corn they murderererd their mummy and daddy” and my parents were brought in for a meeting and the late night horror feats stopped. That being said, I still saw quite a lot of inappropriate stuff from being about 8 (films with sex scenes etc) which was ironic given that I was forbidden from watching Grange Hill! And I was snuck into slasher movies or movies with violence at the cinema from around 12 (films like Scream which were 18s).

Oddly, I was regularly left overnight alone in a big old house from my mid teens while my parents both did night shifts and I used to “soothe” myself by watching horror movies until after midnight... replicating early childhood maybe?

Grease was my favourite film from being about 5! All the sex bits went over my head. Like Penny’s abortion in Dirty Dancing.

I remember watching Carry on Screaming and being terrified and the ear bug scene in Star Trek 2 still makes me feel ill to think about.
And like some other posters - The Candyman when I was 12. That film still scares me.
I also have to overcome my fears when swimming in the sea despite knowing that Jaws was ridiculous

The thing is that it’s all subjective. To another child, they may not been inappropriate at all (apart from Candyman!), but they were for me at the age I was.

I’ve just realised that I’m really still quite into the gothic/creepy aesthetic...love ghost rides, quite enjoy scary movies and series like “the haunting of” series, AHS, Hammer etc I guess now I know where it comes from. I genuinely find it oddly comforting .