AIBU?
Did people exaggerate about The Exorcist movie?
EbbyEbs · 09/09/2022 20:16
DH and I have just been talking about horror movies and we have both heard the same stories off our parents about how people were fainting in the cinema and how there were constant ambulances being called to the cinema etc
I saw someone saying this on a documentary about it too that there were “ambulances lined up outside the cinemas”
Surely not?
We’re not old enough to know for sure but these stories are exaggerated surely? It wasn’t even that scary! Most of the film is pretty boring if we’re being honest!
Am I being unreasonable?
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dropthevipers · 09/09/2022 23:27
MingeofDeath · 09/09/2022 21:14
The scariest thing I ever watched was the kids tv programme The Children of the Stones. Those of a certain age will remember that. Then again the 70s were like that. TV shows were made to scare the shit out of kids.
Spirit of Dark Water anyone?
Spirit of dark and lonely water? (with super creepy narration by Donald pleasance) freaky as fuck, but the gold standard for WTF? Seventies public information films has to "Apaches". Just batshit mental
BasiliskStare · 09/09/2022 23:32
My mother and I watched the original "The Haunting" - the black and white version from 1963 when I was about 15 - no gore , nothing but suspense and music but we were so scared we had to go together to lock the back door before we went to bed.
I watched Threads on my own in my 2nd year at University & was so disturbed I had to run down the road to a phone box & phone my mother ( who was probably locking the back door with a rolling pin in her hand because she was rewatching The Haunting 😊)
XenoBitch · 09/09/2022 23:34
dropthevipers · 09/09/2022 23:27
Spirit of dark and lonely water? (with super creepy narration by Donald pleasance) freaky as fuck, but the gold standard for WTF? Seventies public information films has to "Apaches". Just batshit mental
MingeofDeath · 09/09/2022 21:14
The scariest thing I ever watched was the kids tv programme The Children of the Stones. Those of a certain age will remember that. Then again the 70s were like that. TV shows were made to scare the shit out of kids.
Spirit of Dark Water anyone?
I love PSA/PIF.
Please, someone start a tread on them! I could go on for days about them!
Sometimeswinning · 09/09/2022 23:41
BasiliskStare · 09/09/2022 23:32
My mother and I watched the original "The Haunting" - the black and white version from 1963 when I was about 15 - no gore , nothing but suspense and music but we were so scared we had to go together to lock the back door before we went to bed.
I watched Threads on my own in my 2nd year at University & was so disturbed I had to run down the road to a phone box & phone my mother ( who was probably locking the back door with a rolling pin in her hand because she was rewatching The Haunting 😊)
My most favourite horror! It was my first thought when I saw this thread.
LadyVictoriaSponge · 09/09/2022 23:51
PuppyMonkey · 09/09/2022 21:57
One of the best horror films I’ve ever seen was actually a TV mini Series - Salam’s Lot from the early 1980s with David Soul and, slightly amazingly, James Mason. Bloody terrifying.
Yes! One of he best horror films ever, particularly the bit in the kitchen where the vampire rises and the dead brother tapping at the window!
ScrambledSmegs · 10/09/2022 00:15
Oh the Haunting is a great film - so atmospheric. It's quite faithful to the original novel by Shirley Jackson too which is hugely to its credit.
My personal favourite PIF is the Fatal Floor. It's unintentionally hilarious and the voiceover is just perfection.
SammyScrounge · 10/09/2022 00:15
EbbyEbs · 09/09/2022 20:16
DH and I have just been talking about horror movies and we have both heard the same stories off our parents about how people were fainting in the cinema and how there were constant ambulances being called to the cinema etc
I saw someone saying this on a documentary about it too that there were “ambulances lined up outside the cinemas”
Surely not?
We’re not old enough to know for sure but these stories are exaggerated surely? It wasn’t even that scary! Most of the film is pretty boring if we’re being honest!
My friend fainted within the first half hour of the film!
People didn't exaggerate. The film was terrifying. But years later i settled down with my daughter to watch it and she burst out laughing at the special effects. Time had moved on and special effects had become much more sophisticated.
The book remains very scary though. I dare you!
ScrambledSmegs · 10/09/2022 00:17
Somegirlsarebiggerthanother · 10/09/2022 00:14
Anyone remember a Halloween special on bb1 in the early 90s? I think sarah greener was on it. I was terrified and made my gran sleep in my room with me that night
Yes, Ghostwstch, mentioned upthread. It was ok, got a bit silly especially when Parky got possessed but up till then I quite enjoyed it.
ScrambledSmegs · 10/09/2022 00:25
I think the lax/innocent parenting that many kids in my generation experienced might have something to do with not finding the Exorcist scary. DB and I conned my poor DM into renting 18 films from the horror section in our local store a few times until she cottoned on.
This was the era of late night horror as well. And it wasn't that late either! I remember watching Children of the Corn more times than I can count. I became really blasé about it.
KimberWozRobbed · 10/09/2022 00:27
ScrambledSmegs · 10/09/2022 00:15
Oh the Haunting is a great film - so atmospheric. It's quite faithful to the original novel by Shirley Jackson too which is hugely to its credit.
My personal favourite PIF is the Fatal Floor. It's unintentionally hilarious and the voiceover is just perfection.
I LOVE Fatal Floor!
"She might as well have set a MAN TRAP!"
BasiliskStare · 10/09/2022 00:35
@Sometimeswinning and @ScrambledSmegs 😁That film is as scary as scary can be but completely without gore etc. Do I remember correctly the spiral staircase in the library creaking ? But the banging on the doors also As I recall the remake wasn't a patch on the original
Also @LadyVictoriaSponge - are those armchair thrillers what I used to call the round thrillers because the opening credits had a sort of round convex mirror thing . There was one called the White Rolls Royce & one where a woman was bricked up in a cellar and had to choose between the air and the candle. I may be thinking of something different. They can't have been all that bad as , as I recall they were on at 9pm so just after the watershed - but my granny when she was babysitting used to let me watch them , which I did from behind a cushion. I don't think I am thinking of tales of the unexpected because the opening credits of that were all a bit orange but I think it was of the same vintage
avamiah · 10/09/2022 00:38
I’m a huge Horror film fan and let me tell you the Exorcist ( 1973), is still one of the most frightening films you will ever watch.This film is terrifying and in my opinion very unsettling from start to finish.
Another scary horror film in my opinion is An American Werewolf in London ( 1981), yes it has some funny moments in but you watch it in the evening when it is dark and your at home alone and trust me it’s Frightening.
BasiliskStare · 10/09/2022 00:42
I rewatched Psycho the other evening & I thought - Ach - been there , seen it , done it , I'll be fine but when I was watching it on my own and the woman decides to go up to the house on her own - I was cuddling one of our dogs for comfort. I think her going round the house is scarier than the shower scene - but perhaps because blood and guts has become more the norm rather than just pure atmospheric tension.
Featuredcreature · 10/09/2022 01:32
I had a really bizarre memory as a kid of watching a neighbouring kid have a bath. I thought I had imagined it, talking to a sibling made it click. As a small child apparently I had seen a nightmare on elm Street and been so traumatised I wouldn't get in the bath. As a solution apparently they made me watch this kid in the bath 
this obviously traumatised me so much more. I don't recall the film at all. 80s parenting gotta love it.
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