Summer is the prime season for movie goers and on average, Americans spend more than $450 dollars per year watching movies in the theatre or in Drive-In Theatres where there are still 338 left in America.
Whether you are an avid “I have to go to the movies every weekend”, or are like me , heading to the theatre only once or twice per year there is always one or two movies that you will always remember.
There are one or two movies that provoke strong emotions whether it was Fear or Tears or side-splitting hilarity. So today’s Wayback Wednesday question is, what was the movie that caused you fear and what movie caused you tears?
For me, The Exorcist was the FEAR and Imitation of Life was the TEARS. I wasn’t old enough to see The Exorcist but my older cousin snuck me into the theatre and when I got home, I threw the book into the incinerator, jumped into bed with my grandmother and covered my head for the entire night.
I have never seen a horror movie since then that had caused me that much fear.
The worse part of the movie for me was watching her head spin and her spewing green goo. However, by today’s standards that might not seem spooky but to a 12 year old in 1973, watching a teenage girl possessed by a demon and two priests unable to save her was scary!
On the other end of the spectrum was Imitation of Life. A movie to this day makes me cry especially when Mahalia Jackson starts singing at the funeral – tears flow just thinking about it.
This movie was released in 1959, and my grandmother had us watch it every time it came on, this classic movie is about a struggling widow and her daughter who take in a black housekeeper and her light-skinned daughter who wants to pass for being white.
Not that I ever could pass for or even wanted to be white, I understood the struggle my grandmother must have faced because she was a dark-skinned women raising two light-skinned granddaughters.
Pinky is also another movie based upon the same premise that cause the tears to flow.
Let’s Chat: Which movies caused you fear and which movies made you cry and why?
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16 thoughts on “Movies That Caused You Fear or Tears”
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Don’t forget Freddy Krueger. I used to watch him as a kid growing up in Brooklyn when he came out in the mid 1980’s. On late nights on WWOR-TC Channel 9 broadcasting from Secaucus, NJ, they would air around 11:30 or midnight “Freddy’s nightmares.” These were the days WHT cable channel 60 & 67-68 broadcasting out of Smithtown, New York was also in it’s prime before WHT succumbed to HBO cable. I would stay up late night just to watch Freddy and his twisted way of thinking. My guess is they finally gave up on the sequels of Freddy and finally retired his character.
oh, I had forgotten about that series. Yes, Freddy scared me more than Jason and Michael Meyers together! I started with Creature Double Feature in the 60s and the Outer Limits was spooky back then!?
True that. And don’t forget the days when you sat in the movies and in front of the TV watching WPIX channel 11 sometimes late night with your 3-d glasses on watching scary movies. lol
I only watched “Friday the 13th in 3D” with glasses, and it was in the theater, however, I loved all episodes of Friday the 13th.
Typo on the TC. I meant WWOR-TV. lol 😛
Seventh Voyage of Sinbad haunted me for years as a child. But, oddly enough, the movie that invoked the most tears was the end scene in 50 First Dates! I still cry, thinking about the work that man puts into that relationship. “Come and meet your daughter” still brings tears to my eyes.
Wow, now you got me on these as I hadn’t seen either one of them. I will now have to check them out. Thanks for the recommendations.
The Exorcist didn’t bother me but Aliens…the very first one…messed me up! LOL! The mister owns the WHOLE Aliens-series and even today, when he and the boys put one on…I’m gone! LOL!
Imitation of Life is a good one, but it’s Brian’s Song with Billy Dee Williams and James Caan which STILL gets me bawling! LOL! Just thinking about it makes me teary. 😀
Oh yes, especially when the alien busted through that guys chest – CLASSIC! I guess your men know how to get you out of a room!
Brian’s Song, yes…tearing up now, also a classic tear jerker.
What a fun post! I agree The Exorcist is horrifying!! I think the scariest movie for me is still the original Amityville Horror, if you can overlook the goofy giant pig in the attic window towards the end… even as an adult, watching as James Brolin slowly deteriorates and the entity gets stronger….eeck!
I don’t watch many tear inducing movies, but if I need a really good sob I love Truly Madly Deeply. It’s the story of a dead musician trying to get his grieving wife to move on with her life. Alan Rickman is crazy sexy and Juliet Stevenson is so relatable. Now I need to watch it. Again.
Oh Laura, The Amityville Horror is a classic and I was a bit upset that they made different versions because the original was the best. Those flies always spooked me!
Oh, gosh. I went over to my best friend Noel’s place for a sleepover one night. We must have been around 10, late 70’s. Noel’s folks were some of the first in the neighborhood to get cable and HBO was part of the basic package, and that’s how Noel and I ended up watching Jaws, unsupervised, in their rec room in the basement (and I think we turned the lights out).
Scared me half to death!
Watched it again with TQ a couple of years ago and I was amazed at how much fun I had watching it as a grown-up when it had done such a number on me as a kid!
Bonnie, I too first watched Jaws in the rec room in the basement of my best friend’s house and we screamed like the fish was in the room! Now, not so much!
https://youtu.be/_HtnGe74y1k
The original Sparkle’s finale
Goosebumps EVERY TIME I watch it
#irenecara
Yes, the original Sparkle is a classic!