5 Horror Movies I Should Never Have Watched

5 Horror Movies I Should Never Have Watched

Last night I had a nightmare about the Stephen King “It” movie that is coming out soon. I haven’t even seen the original movie, but all the advertising and hype around this movie has given me the creeps. Yep, I’m so soft and easily frightened that I can get nightmares from movies I haven’t even watched and that I know very little about. So could you imagine how I cope when I actually watch horror movies?!?!

It’s pretty unpredictable which movies will deeply disturb me and which ones will be totally okay. Like I fell asleep watching The Blair Witch Project, and 28 Weeks later, but there was something so deeply unsettling about The Mothman Prophecies that after watching it as a teenager I had to sleep in my mother’s bed that night. There are just some movies just get me in a way that haunts me for years. And so here are some movies that I really should never have ever watched (that probably weren’t actually THAT scary.)

I Am Legend

I rationally understand that I Am Legend is just not that scary. It’s really not that bad. But when I watched it in the cinema I ended up plugging my fingers as deeply into my ears as possible and curled over with my head on my knees. You know. Because just closing my eyes wasn’t enough, I needed to actually hide.

I don’t know what exactly it was about that movie, but it tapped into some kind of primal level of fear. I actually re-watched it when it was out on DVD – remote control in hand to fast forward through the scary bits – but it still just got to me. I think because he was alone, and there was a beautiful dog… I habitually closed all the windows and blinds well before sunset for months after watching it.

Cabin Fever

Now I don’t know if cabin fever isn’t REALLY a “horror” movie, because there’s no monster or anything like that – the monster is a flesh eating virus. But I am a bit of a germaphobe… or a lot of a germaphobe… so it really was my worst nightmare. But there’s one particular scene where a woman is in the shower, and then she starts shaving her legs. Shaving her legs when there’s a flesh eating virus going around making people’s skin melt off…. I was watching it with my brother on the couch and I pulled the blanket up over my head because I KNEW what was coming next… but when my brother flinched next to me I screamed. Like, properly screamed. I DIDN’T EVEN SEE WHAT HAPPENED.

But nope. Not okay.

The Ring

I’m pretty sure that The Ring is a legitimately scary movie. So I really had no business watching it in my late teens. But I’d watched it with my mum and maybe a week later I had a vivid nightmare where the girl from The Ring was crawling up my bed. I woke with a gasp and after a few minutes lying in bed unable to calm down I tip toed to my mum’s bed to sleep with her.

AND SHE WASN’T THERE. I WAS HOME ALONE!

This was before everyone had mobile phones on them 24/7 so I also had no way of contacting her. It was like waking up from a nightmare into a nightmare, except I was very much awake. I eventually fell asleep and in the morning she was home and explained she’d popped out to visit her boyfriend who lived across the road. Which was fine. I was well and truly old enough to be left home alone while I was sleeping. How was she to know I’d wake up from a nightmare while she was out.

Darkness Falls

Firstly it is actually a pretty awful movie and it’s really not worth watching anyway. But the idea that the evil “tooth fairy” can only get you if you’re in the dark I guess was especially upsetting for me because I am a little bit afraid of “the dark”. Not like, anything specific about the dark, just cannot be alone in a dark room. Ever. If I go to bed before my partner I need to sleep with the light on. So the idea of there being a light sensitive evil ghost and then the power goes out in the town… so creepy.

Paranormal Activity 2

I haven’t actually ever seen any of the Paranormal Activity movie. My brother just told me about the first movie and the idea of a demon that’s strength intensifies the more afraid of it you are… well…. I’d be dead. So dead. Then I saw the trailer for Paranormal Activity while I was babysitting and I’d just put the baby in the cot for the night. Have you seen the trailer for Paranormal Activity 2? It shows security footage of something coming into the house, up the stairs, into the child’s room and appears next to the baby’s cot…. 

And there I was, alone, in a strange place… with a baby I’d just put in their cot. Part of me felt like I should go check on the baby… but the other part of me decided it was safer to just stay out of their room.

Okay, so, now I’m mildly creeped out just from writing this. Are you frightened easily, or are you currently laughing at how sensitive I am?

 

Rachel Stewart

Rachel is the founder of Parenting Central. She is raising two children, boy and girl, with her partner. Rachel is obsessed prams, car seats, carriers and all things baby. She has worked in the baby industry for several years, for both suppliers and also in a retail setting and has developed a passion for connecting parents with the right products to make their lives easier. When Rachel isn't playing with prams she's enjoys crocheting, drinking coffee (sometimes wine) and spending a little too much time on Facebook.

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