Poltergeist messed me up for real! I was way too young, thought it’d be just some ghostly fun— but nah,. That clown scene alone had me checking under my bed for years, and don’t even get me started on that creepy TV static. I legit couldn’t sleep right for days. That movie had me regretting every second, but I couldn’t look away!
Ugh! I saw it the night it came out. Also believed it was real found footage, as the ads sold it that way. Spent the last thirty minutes scream-crying into my girlfriend. Stumbled out of the theater by the fire exit afterwards… Into to the fucking forest behind the place! Definitely ranks up towards the top of the most insane fear experiences for me.
Other people who saw it that first night found little stick dolls on their windshields that really freaked them out.