A Nightmare on My Street
(20 Films That Gave Me Nightmares)

by Rish Outfield

Okay, so I used to wet the bed a lot. Big deal, I've got it taken care of. But I also used to have a lot of nightmares, especially after horror films. Sadly, that still happens to me from time to time. It's not as bad as it used to be, and I've almost reached the point where I shake my head and say, "Wow, that was a really good one!" or "What the heck was THAT dream about?" I've milked one or two for story ideas, laughed about it later, or creeped others out with the descriptions of my bad dreams, so they're not all bad, I suppose. I guess I've just got an overactive imagination and not much backbone, huh? Well, it's better than those creativity-free, emotionless, subhuman morons who tell me, "Oh, I never have any dreams."
I ought to write an essay here about nightmares, where they come from, and what purpose they serve, both in my life and in society as a whole, but I don't think I will. Instead, for no good reason I can think of, here are Twenty Films That Gave Me Nightmares . . .

1. The Shining (1980)--This remains the film that most disturbed me over the years, both asleep and awake. More than a few scenes in this one came back to haunt me when I saw this on television year after year, including the dead old woman in the bathtub, the little boy frothing at the mouth, and particularly the "Come and play with us" twins. Good work, Kubrick . . . you sick bastard.

2. Carrie (1976)--The very young Rish Cornelius Outfield was terrified of this film's ending, with that hand coming up out of the ground, as well as the sight of Carrie covered in blood and those huge eyes of hers. Come to think of it, that Jesus statue in the closet could STILL give me nightmares if I think about it too long.

3. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)–Damn, this flick scared me. I think this one and Carrie are the only films to ever give me nightmares for more than one consecutive night after a viewing. The ending of this one is what used to get me, but I think at least one bad dream was brought about by that man/dog creature.

4. Friday the 13th–I'm nostalgic about this one, because I watched it on Channel 20 with my dad. Against his better judgment, he let me watch it with him on the couch, edited for television as it was. Sure enough, seeing Jason rise out of the water at the end ensured I'd be rising from my own bed to sleep with my parents sometime that night. Ungrateful child.

5. The Legend of Hell House–I saw this one during the day, and I'm pretty sure it still gave me nightmares. When I saw it again last year, it didn't strike me as even slightly scary. Maybe I HAVE grown up. A little

6. Poltergeist–I wanted to see this one really bad, both because of the subject matter and because Steven Spielberg had directed my two all-time favourite movies at the time, E.T. and Raiders (I don't think I had seen Jaws yet). My parents wouldn't take me to it, but when it hit video, they rented it for me. Unfortunately, they watched it first and deemed it too scary for me. Somehow, I had nightmares from them watching it in the other room.

7. Exorcist 2: The Heretic–Due to my just-mentioned overprotective parents, I didn't see the original until 1999 or so. But as a kid, I did catch a couple minutes of this flipping through the channels one night. That's all it took.

8. Signs–Yes, a movie released in 2002 gave me nightmares. And it was pretty bad too. I'm lucky I didn't go back to wetting the bed on this one.

9. John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness–I was a little older when I saw this one, again, playing edited on television, maybe fourteen or so. I was afraid after this. And for a while I had a real problem with vagrants, homeless vagabonds, and Satanists. I know I'm weird.

10. Friday the 13th Part 2–This is kind of cute: after the nightmares the first one gave me, my old man still let me watch the sequel with him the next year. And sure enough, I had nightmares then too! I'm lucky I wasn't beaten more often as a child.

11. An American Werewolf in London--We were in Las Vegas, visiting one of my uncles, who had HBO. No matter how much I begged, my Mom wouldn't let me join those who were watching it. So I didn't even see this one, I only heard my folks watching it in the next room . . . and yes, I still had nightmares.

12. Christine--I was probably fifteen or sixteen when this one came on TV, very late at night. I fell asleep on the couch after just a couple of minutes, but just the opening, where the car closed on the workman's arm, woke me up gasping a couple of hours later. Boy, what is wrong with me?

13. What Lies Beneath– Here's another very recent flick. You know, I'm not exactly sure that this actually did give me nightmares. But it freaked me out so much I was afraid to go to sleep. Freaked me out so much, in fact, that I've freaked people out telling them about how much it freaked me out.

14. The Sixth Sense--Same with this one; I not only had to watch it with the lights on, but sleep with them on as well. As this was after seeing it on video.

15. Alligator (1980)–The scene where the kid "walks the plank" not only kept me awake nights, but gave me a phobia of swimming at night that hasn't entirely went away.

16. The Boogens–This is my most embarrassing one. I didn't even see this movie, just the TV commercial. And I still had nightmares.
Note: if you'd like to mock Rish for this, please send him an email at RishOut@aol.com. Thank you.

17. Okay, there was a movie (made for TV?) in the 70's where a guy goes to a carnival and sees a half-man, half-lizard. If I'm not mistaken, he becomes one in the end. Or maybe that was my dream. If anyone can identify this movie for me, perhaps I'll send you something.

18. Jaws–While swimming in the ocean as a honest-to-goodness grownup, I still had to turn around and swim back. "Damn you, Steven Spielberg!" I shouted to the heavens. I'll bet he gets that a lot.

19. Twilight Zone episode "Perchance To Dream"–I know this isn't a movie, but my memory's running short right now. This show freaked me out a time or two, but never gave me nightmares until I saw the woman's evil cat eyes looking at him in the rear-view mirror. That still sort of scares me today.

20. Pet Sematary–I not only had nightmares the night my uncle took me to see this, but I was afraid to look out the car window as we were driving home. I was pretty sure I'd see Zelda, Rachel Creed's misshapen sister, staring back at me.