2006-01-08

Top Five Traumatizing Celluloid Moments

1. Ghostbusters (Ivan Reitman, 1984)
When Rick Moranis is being mauled by a hell hound outside a posh restaurant and the rich diners ignore his screams for help because they take him for a drunk or a tramp. Aged 10, I was saddened and disgusted that no-one would help him.
2. Damien: Omen II (Don Taylor, 1978)
The scene where Damien makes the ice crack under the skating children, and one goes under. Through the frozen surface of the water we see him carried away by the lake's undercurrents and there's nothing anyone can do to save him. It goes on forever and it's completely harrowing!



3. Damien: Omen II (Don Taylor, 1978)
The usual falling elevator scenario except this time a section of weighted steel rope cuts through the compartment and chops a guy in two, right across the belly. I don't like elevators!
4. Company Of Wolves (Neil Jordan, 1985)
I don't like fierce dogs and I don't like thinking about old people having sex so when the old Marquess exposes her wrinkly, floppy breast at the dinner table and it grows grey hair, I have to leave the room.
5. An American Werewolf In London (John Landis, 1981)
I saw a clip aged 7 and made a mental note to never see more.

From this we can deduce that I don't watch many horror films. I always avoid old ones with crappy production values because the cheapness adds a layer of grossness that the director probably never intended and it makes me want to retch all the more. Give me terror and suspense over gallons of claret any day.

posted by thisismarcus @ 16:36 

16 Comments:

Blogger C said...

I don't like horror films, so the only one I've seen on that list is Ghostbusters. However, I have 2 horrifying celluloid moments of my own to share.

1)I've blocked the title from my mind for #1. Abyss? Sphere? I think it was one of those one-word-title underwater films. Anyway, there's only enough air for 1 character to make it, so the girl drowns herself in the frigid water so the guy (stronger) can use the air tank and tow her to where he'll try to rescusitate her. Accckkk! I HATE drowning scenes! (that kid under the ice would definitely freak me out)

2) Dead Calm where the baby gets launched through the windscreen. That one really haunted me for a long time, and it was before I ever had kids! I think it was the first time I had seen such an innocent killed off so brutally.

03:10  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ha! Hope I've helped you overcome the trauma of No. 1!

12:33  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's so touching that the scene from Ghostbusters traumatized you so much.

For me, the part on the Exorcist where Linda Blair is being thrown violently up and down on the bed has always freaked me out. That's before she's all the way possessed and it's so grotesque.

Speaking of grotesque, the comment you made about older films being worse is some ways is something we talked about in my Grotesque in Literature course--sort of. We talked about how black and white film/photography is often more grotesque. I think that's interesting.

15:06  
Blogger thisismarcus said...

Kat: I said something interesting? Good for me!

I agree with you about black and white: colour looks like real life but B&W is much more evocative, whatever the mood. I mean that in Nosferatu, the stark contrast is scary; in Manhattan, New York looks more beautiful than real life; and in Sin City, I'm so busy getting off on the visuals that the barbaric violence onscreen hardly registers, except maybe as ballet. In colour it would just have been gross.

Shig: Yes. I can talk about it now. Thank you for the aversion therapy :).

16:28  
Blogger thisismarcus said...

Candace: You're thinking of the wet t-shirt scene in The Abyss. Definitely. :)

16:30  
Blogger DrHeimlich said...

My childhood movie trauma was when I caught a bit of some horror movie on TV somewhere when I was about 8. I went for many years believing it to have been The Amityville Horror, but I subsequently saw that movie as an adult and found out that wasn't it. To this day, I have no idea what movie it was.

I just remember this scene of a woman smoking in a parked car. She drops her cigarette and it lands in the passenger seat on top of her purse, which, for what I assume to be spooky-supernatural reasons, instantly catches fire. She grabs the purse by the strap and starts pounding it on the seat to put the fire out, but it manages only to catch the seat instead. Soon, her whole car is ablaze, and she's trying to undo her seat belt to escape, but she can't. She screams and burns to a crisp.

Then whoever it was she was waiting on comes out to the car to meet her and finds the smoldering ruins of the car. But as the person is trying to figure out what to do, the now-animated, charred corpse of the woman gets out of the car and starts chasing after.

Now, I absolutely guarantee you that this had to have been one of the more phenomally hokey things ever committed to film. I'm sure the production values were crap. But as an 8 year old, I was freaking traumatized for weeks.

Though why I sat there watching it for so long, I couldn't tell you... I think maybe because it wasn't really until the part where the charred zombie started chasing someone that I was actually scared.

Anyway... does anyone out there happen to know what piece of crap movie this was?

06:07  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

A few films have traumatised me... but I have to say I thought that bit in Ghostbusters was just funny. I mean they watch him being attacked through the window, but they're rich and safe so it doesn't bother them. Maybe I didn't make the "tramp" connection...

One of the things I remember most from being young was a Dr Who, probly a Tom Baker where a bloke got mega-aged in seconds, turned old and then to dust. Freaked me out slightly. I'm not one for horror films either, and thrillers make me jump a lot (everything makes me jump a lot...) but I still watch them anyway.

16:54  
Blogger thisismarcus said...

Logopolis? No, that guy was old already and got miniaturized. Shig!! And I think our Belgian friend is our best hope for Dr. Heimlich's horror film. Joeri!! I'm calling in the troops...

00:04  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Doesn't someone age to death in THE LEISURE HIVE? Or it could conceivably be poor old Marcus Scarman in PYRAMIDS OF MARS.

11:33  
Blogger thisismarcus said...

Ghostbusters, Tone: do you mean that you laugh at the rich people because they're snobs? Or at Rick Moranis because he can't get help? Or at them misunderstanding his screams for help for mad or drunk rantings -- the old "is he waving or drowning" gag? I might be on the verge of a breakthrough here.

Oh, Shig: It's got to be Kerensky in CITY OF DEATH, surely? We were just talking about it! I have it on DVD, Tone, if you wanna check!

23:54  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Eek, it's years since I've old-dr-who'd. It's not logopolis cos I have the book so I know that one well. No idea on the others. DVD lends always good, but let me know if you need it back quick cos I'm a slow watcher.

In Ghostbusters, I laughed at the response of the rich, I think. I felt sorry for rick, cos he's being eaten, but in the restaurant it's just a teeny hiccup in the night of eating and drinking. I guess the glass isolates them from real life, they probly have security on the door...

Tone

10:10  
Blogger C said...

OMG it is so good to be in the company of fellow Dr. Who geeks. **basks indulgently** Ahhhhhh!
I seriously don't think I know anyone who likes Dr. Who here.

Now on that note, I'm really afraid to ask, since it makes me a very bad geek and I should be keeping up on these things, but is there a current Dr. Who show running? I found a site that sure made it appear to be so. I heard there was a movie (released yet?) I guess I could Google it all,but I'd rather ask real people.

03:02  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I hadn't thought of Karensky, Marcus, but it seems likely. As for the new series, Candace, I suggest you get the Sci-Fi Channel if you don't have it at the moment - the fantastic first series of the new DOCTOR WHO is starting on it in the US in the spring, while the second will be airing over here.

12:14  
Blogger C said...

Bummer! I think we may have had the Sci-Fi channel when we had satellite, but I recently made the deal of the century with dh to get rid of sat, LOL! But that's another story lost somewhere in my blog. *grin*

Just the same, it's good to know there's a new series, cuz that means someday the DVDs will be available. Yay!!

16:32  
Blogger thisismarcus said...

They're listed on amazon.com already and all over the P2P file sharing networks. Enjoy!

17:49  
Blogger C said...

WaaHOOOOOOOO!! Thanks! :oD **does a stupid little happy dance**

00:24  

Post a Comment

<< Home