Has a movie ever traumatized you?

When I was about 5, I saw the old, 1930's King Kong movie on TV. That big ape scared the crap out of me. I spent a couple months thinking that, if I did not carefully close the curtains in my bedroom, I'd wake up in the night seeing that big face looking in the window and be grabbed by that big hand, meeting the same fate as some of those villagers on Kong Island. At least, being male, I did not have to worry about being tied to a stake as the female sacrifice.

"I keep watching extremely graphic stuff but, ironically, it’s the Dante’s Peak scene that I still find unsettling now, "

I'd count that one as a good fear. Tectonic events are so, so beyond human influence. Having your legs melt off in an acidic puddle, trying to run from a pyroclastic cloud that's approaching at 200 mph, that's 3000 degrees, defines mortal hopelessness. All those ancient ruins and cooked corpses in Pompeii help to reinforce the fear.

Thank you for understanding. I occasionally think it’s rather weird of me. But now that you’ve put it like that, yeah, it’s awful.

Funny you mentioned the Entity - this is the story of someone else being traumatized - I was watching it at someone else's house - there were 5 of us (3 guys & 2 girls). I'd say we were all young adults at the time ranging from late teens to early 20's. The house belonged to a brother & sister in the group.

During the movie a picture of a relative just fell off the wall for no apparent reason. (I don't remember if the person in the photo was alive or dead at the time). Anyway, the girl who lived there absolutely freaked out! We were all startled by it, especially as it occurred right when freaky stuff was happening in the movie.

The girl became hysterical. After she calmed down a bit an argument ensued between the brother & sister who lived there as to if we should continue watching the movie or not.

We did watch the rest of it, but the girls went to another room to freak out some more!

True. Open Water was one of the most anxiety-inducing movies I've ever seen.

While it's sequel (where a group gets trapped in the water next to their boat) was frustration-inducing. The reactions and behaviors of the characters was just ridiculous, from the guy throwing his cell phone away simply because he got cut off (instead of maybe trying it again or utilizing it as a tool), to the guy refusing to let anyone try to open the ladder door for fear of damaging the boat because it wasn't his, to their failure to utilize the knife (before they lost it), etc.

The Entity was definitely an upsetting movie.


To this day I won't even mention the movie I found most traumatizing.
That is how creeped out I was and still am.

As a diplomat, my father used to be stationed in India. He was there for over 20 years, including the time of the revolution that saw Indira Gandhi killed. One of my half-brothers grew up there and it was pretty dangerous. My father’s colleague got attacked by a rabid monkey during a Delhi National Park safari ride (it jumped in through the open window of the car, because the kids had bananas on their lap, and scratched the man’s wife, who then died from the infection). Because of all this, my father has his quirks. He washes fruit in alcohol and he is distrustful of ‘public services’ in non-western countries. You get the picture.

He actually made me watch Open Water when we were travelling to Marocco. The Talk treatment kind of stuff. Sits me down, puts the film on, and says, dead-serious, ‘This, my dear, is what happens when you place your trust in the wrong people’. He goes on to point out everything the characters do wrong, kind of as you do, not in the usual stupid horror way, but with perfect verisimilitude. Not only , but it also portrays perfectly just how suicidal people get on a holiday.

I was reading an article a few months back about how tourists run people over in seaside towns due to reckless driving, and a local woman was quoted as saying, “Of course they do, they’re on holiday! Their brains shut down.” That’s the worst part of Open Water: their reactions really were ridiculous IRL.

I thought the first movie was pretty realistic and I'd heard of the real stories it was based on. The couple didn't have any good options left to them.

The sequel, however...



The sequel was just kind of anger-inducing.

I see what you mean! That is pretty sad

Funny you mention this, there's a similar (well, kinda) scene in Volcano that I had a similar reaction to. I wouldn't call that traumatizing, but generally I have bad reactions to films that sort of wallow in suffering or, to resort to a cliché, rub your face in it for awhile. It always feels cheap.

Man Bites Dog (1992) really disturbed me for a week or two after watching it for the first time: every time I went out for a walk, I found myself looking over my shoulder!
It just seemed so real.
Despite this, I have watched it many times since, and now consider it one of my favourites.

You're not safe anywhere.

A couple people have mentioned King Kong - well, in the 1976 version there's a scene where Kong steps on a bunch of people and when his foot comes away you just see the bodies smooshed into the dirt with their legs still wriggling.

That scene, when I was only about 10 or 11 stuck with me after leaving the theater. When you look at it now (or even freeze fame or slo-mo it) it looks pretty silly, but when I first saw it, it was one of those split second things that filled me with horror & disgust, and the image (especially the bodies still wriggling!) stayed with me years afterward.

Warning: Some swears

I'd have to say no, a movie never has traumatized me in the true sense of the word. Creep me out some? Sure.

I concur. I would have to clarify that I was only temporarily traumatized... and mostly as a child.
Although the fact that I still vividly remember what temporarily traumatized me might classify as a form of trauma.

OK, since no one's been flat out making fun of each other, I'll talk about it. The thing that gave me freaky dreams as a kid and still makes me uncomfortable now... The worded webs. Charlotte. I'm fine with regular webs on the real world, I just can't look at those specific webs without getting really twitchy...


Anybody posts that ****ing web here I'll put them in a hospital for three months.

The ending of 'Hereditary' haunted me for days.

My mother was going through a psychosis at the time I saw that. No way I'm ever watching that movie again.

Yep. That's the scene that did me in my childhood. I've only just started to not turn my head away when that head is about to bob up. A small victory! Also the blackboard screeching Quint does still messes me up a bit.

An American Werewolf in London - Saw this at the cinema with my parents and my older brother. I was only 7-years old. All of the nightmare sequences pretty much traumatized me. Those, and Jack's corpse showing up all the time. I don't think I've ever sat and watched those nightmare sequences since though...

Antichrist - A Lars von Trier film! Great! Except for the fact there's genital mutilation and injuries. I can't unsee those scenes - but I really wish I could.

The Shining - My parents took me to the drive-in - by the time Danny starts yelling "Redrum!! Redrum!!" I was already under the seat in fear. Just hearing that... "Redrum...redrum...redrum!!!" scared me more because my imagination was running wild.