Films That Gave me Nightmares
These films had a lasting effect on me and really did give me nightmares. Thankfully I'm older and a bit tougher now!
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- DirectorLewis TeagueStarsRobert ForsterRobin RikerMichael V. GazzoA pet baby alligator is flushed down a toilet and survives in the city sewers. Twelve years later, it grows to an enormous size thanks to a diet of discarded laboratory dogs injected with growth hormones. Now, humans have entered the menu.This scared me more than Jaws, I think it's the fact that it came out of the water and could get you anywhere!
- StarsRichard ThomasTim ReidAnnette O'TooleIn 1960, seven pre-teen outcasts fight an evil demon who poses as a child-killing clown. Thirty years later, they reunite to stop the demon once and for all when it returns to their hometown.Utterly brilliant performance from Tim Currie as Pennywise the clown, he terrified me. (The ending, however, is very much an anti-climax).
- DirectorTobe HooperStarsJoBeth WilliamsHeather O'RourkeCraig T. NelsonA family's home is haunted by a host of demonic ghosts.The scene when the brothers braces take over his face and the whole room really got to me, and I didn't even have braces!
- DirectorBrian GibsonStarsJoBeth WilliamsCraig T. NelsonHeather O'RourkeThe Freeling family have a new house, but their troubles with supernatural forces don't seem to be over.Creepy, creepy old man.
- DirectorFrank MarshallStarsJeff DanielsJulian SandsJohn GoodmanA new species of South American killer spider hitches a lift to a small California town in a coffin and starts to breed, leaving a trail of deaths that puzzle and terrify the young doctor newly arrived in town with his family.I already had a fear of spiders when I watched this, as a child, not the best idea. I couldn't turn on a lamp and checked under the toilet seat for years!
- DirectorWes CravenStarsHeather LangenkampJohnny DeppRobert EnglundTeenager Nancy Thompson must uncover the dark truth concealed by her parents after she and her friends become targets of the spirit of a serial killer with a bladed glove in their dreams, in which if they die, it kills them in real life.That rhyme, 'One, two, Freddy's coming for you...', it gave me shivers for years.
- DirectorChuck RussellStarsHeather LangenkampRobert EnglundCraig WassonA psychiatrist familiar with knife-wielding dream demon Freddy Krueger helps teens at a mental hospital battle the killer who is invading their dreams.The kid who has is veins pulled out and used at puppet strings... still makes me shudder to think of it.
- DirectorRob ZombieStarsSid HaigKaren BlackBill MoseleyTwo young couples traveling across the backwoods of Texas searching for urban legends of murder end up as prisoners of a bizarre and sadistic backwater family of serial killers.Absolute gore fest, did not sleep at all the night I watched this.
- DirectorJames WanStarsCary ElwesLeigh WhannellDanny GloverTwo strangers awaken in a room with no recollection of how they got there, and soon discover they're pawns in a deadly game perpetrated by a notorious serial killer.Only the first time, I think it was the weird dummy. And the fat guy crawling through the barbed wire.
- DirectorSteve BeckStarsTony ShalhoubShannon ElizabethEmbeth DavidtzWhen Cyrus Kriticos, a very rich collector of unique things, dies, he leaves his house, fortune, and his prized collection of ghosts.Manic, insane ghosts, the worst kind surely?
- DirectorMary LambertStarsDale MidkiffDenise CrosbyFred GwynneAfter tragedy strikes, a grieving father discovers an ancient burial ground behind his home with the power to raise the dead.Creepy, creepy kid.
- DirectorHideo NakataStarsNanako MatsushimaMiki NakataniYûko TakeuchiA reporter and her ex-husband investigate a cursed video tape that is rumored to kill the viewer seven days after watching it.I have a half Japanese god daughter. She was a toddler when this film came out and I couldn't look at her the same for some time, especially when she had wet hair.
- DirectorJ.A. BayonaStarsBelén RuedaFernando CayoRoger PríncepA woman brings her family back to her childhood home, which used to be an orphanage for handicapped children. Before long, her son starts to communicate with an invisible new friend.Not nightmares as such but I felt unsettled for days. The little sack boy kept popping into my head.
- DirectorPeter CornwellStarsVirginia MadsenMartin DonovanElias KoteasAfter a family is forced to relocate for their son's health, they begin experiencing supernatural behavior in their new home, and uncover a sinister history.Not a particularly good film, I woke up terrified thinking about the tiny lift going down to the cremtion room... more than once. It scarred me.
- DirectorWes CravenStarsBrandon Quintin AdamsEverett McGillWendy RobieTwo adults and a juvenile break into a house occupied by a brother and sister and their stolen children. There, they must fight for their lives.I think I actually believed there COULD be people living in our house, it was very big and very old, I couldn't go down the cellar stairs for weeks.
- DirectorClive BarkerStarsAndrew RobinsonClare HigginsAshley LaurenceA woman discovers the newly resurrected, partially formed, body of her brother-in-law and lover. She starts killing for him to revitalize his body and escape the demonic beings that are pursuing him after he escaped their underworld.Not a big fan of anything that looks like a hook!
- DirectorMichael RitchieStarsEddie MurphyJ.L. ReateCharles DanceA private detective specializing in missing children is charged with the task of finding a special child whom dark forces want to eliminate.I know this one's silly but the whole thing with them putting blood in his porridge really upset me. As a child I briefly believed that drinking somebody elses blood would kill you.
- DirectorBarry LevinsonStarsNicholas RoweAlan CoxSophie WardWhen assorted people start having inexplicable delusions that lead to their deaths, a teenage Sherlock Holmes decides to investigate.Being mummified alive is frightening enough but when they started pouring the boiling oil/wax on them I really freaked out.