Horror movies that most traumatized us as children

Many people can remember being permanently scarred by scary movies as children, but for us in the horror community, they’re fond memories.

The human brain is a very complicated thing. Imagery that a child’s brain absorbs can be very twisted if they haven’t been exposed to such horrific things, resulting in very scary memories that could possibly affect you well into your adulthood. I think we’ve all been there, we’ve all watched a scary movie as a child and have been scarred for life to the point that we do NOT want to watch the movie again.

For most, like my mother, it was The Exorcist. To this day she refuses to watch the movie by herself. I’ve had friends that claim the television movie of Stephen King’s It was the most traumatizing for them that made them hate clowns.

It was different for me, as I was never traumatized by The Exorcist or It. In fact, I loved horror films as a kid and found them fascinating, mostly the make-up work and how a group of people can come together to make such a thing come to life.

Don’t get me wrong, I still got scared watching them, but nothing really traumatized me. That is, until I reflected on an image that stuck in my head that scared the living hell out of me as a child to the point to where I stopped watching the movie.

It was the image of a demonic pizza; the pizza had eyes and a mouth, and tried attacking a woman in a kitchen. She stabbed the pizza repeatedly and that was enough for me. The way I remembered it, it was so scary that I could swear that demonic pizza was a real thing.

I did a lot of research and couldn’t figure out where the scene came from. I wanted to confront my fears and find this evil piece of cinema that traumatized my poor memory bank. Then finally, with the help of a message forum, I found it. Prepare yourselves for the most ridiculous scene in all of movie history, from House IV.

Nightmare fuel.

Yes, that little three minute scene scarred me right through my adult life. It’s literally just some guy’s face in a pizza; he was most likely under the table. It’s very silly, humorous and ridiculous. But, the way my child brain remembered it, it was way more intense and frightening. The human psyche can play tricks on you, and this is a prime example.

I remember an episode of Nickelodeon’s Doug where Doug watched a horror movie, and was so scared he couldn’t finish because he was too scared by the picture. He had reoccurring nightmares until he finally faced his fears and went back to the cinema to watch it again. The second time around, he noticed how silly the monster looked and could even see the zipper in back of the monster suit. That episode has never been more true than it is to this experience.

Credit: Nickelodeon

Who else knows this feeling?

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If you have any stories about what horror movies traumatized you as a child, sound off below!