Our favorite scary movies from childhood

 

What spooky movies did you enjoy as a child?  These are some of my earliest memories of the truly terrifying. I remember pouring over the TV guide for something scary to watch on old black and white tvs.  What's funny is that reading the Wikipedia summaries, I realize I did not follow the plots in many of these movies - I just remember the scary bits which stayed with me all these years. Some  parts of the plot were completely fabricated by our childhood minds but that's what made them scary.

1. Night of the Living Dead

Such a classic - my father took us to see this at the drive in.  Six kids 10 and under.  We remember the scene where the truck explodes and the ghouls eat the young folks inside.  My father said "hmmm bar b que" which became a standard family quote. I also vividly remembered the scene where the ghoul girl stabs her mother with a hand trowel.  I think I was an adult before I could watch this film all the way through.  It just terrorized me as a 4 year old.

He's coming to get you Barbara

2. The Crawling Eye

 Another family legend from when I was very small.  Upon reading the plot summary on Wikipedia I realize I only really remember the beginning with the decapitated climber hanging upside down still suspended by his rope. My sisters use to tell me there was a scene where the crawling eye comes out of the toilet and gets some guy.  I could not find that in Wikipedia's plot summary.  I think they were just pulling my leg .

 

3. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane

Betty Davis was sooo creepy in this film as a washed up child star who is the sole caretaker for her paralyzed sister.  Baby Jane tortures her invalid sister in various ways including cooking her pet bird.
It has a great plot twist at the end.

Look at her maniacal smile

4. Carnival of Souls

A super creepy movie about a woman who is supposed to die, but continues to live and is hounded by the undead which only she can see. This movie gave me the heebie jeebies. The souls are really creepy.

5. The Day of the Triffids

 The noise those things made still haunts me to this day.  Kind of like a wet, smacking sound.  I was glad when they got it in the end.






6. Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte

Another Betty Davis classic.   Betty plays a woman whose lover gets murdered.  His head and hand get cut off.  That fascinated me  - creepy. We always thought Betty kept her lovers hand in a cigar box  but I cannot find this in any of the film descriptions.  I also thought it had a happy ending but alas Wikipedia says Charlotte gets taken to the insane asylum. So much for the accuracy of my childhood memories