MovieChat Forums > Gargoyles (1972) Discussion > When I was 5

When I was 5

posted 18 years ago by Borderviper-2
14 replies | jump to latest

When I was 5 years old me and my 2 sisters saw this movie when it originally aired. We lived in a trailer house on the edge of an airfield in the middle of the south texas brush country. At night we were rushed to bed with threats of the "gargoyles" will get get you if you don't be quiet. Now the brush country around the trailer looked like the terrain in the movie plus you could hear the coyotes yelping at night. I used to think I could hear the gargoyles running down the runway toward the trailer at night when everyone was asleep and of course in the back was the flapping wings of the lead gargoyle. As time passed this went away plus we moved into town.

[–] septicsludge 18 years ago

LOL, the imagination when your little is really amazing. I wish I could still be able to vision things like these once again.

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] piratecat-2 18 years ago

Yeh I remember seeing this movie on tv when I was 7 maybe 8 it creeped me out. I read your thread I said to myself yep going to bed after this movie I want the door open and the hallway light on. I have never seen it since I would love to watch it again.

[–] tasevskil 18 years ago

I love reading this thread. My mother's family lives on the Navajo reservation at the time electricity was only in a few areas ( this was in the seventies--a few years have passed LOL!). When I visited I was nervous about the rocky hills behind my grandparents hogan. I would imagine the Gargoyles with their egg nursery about to hatch and get me! Great caverns for the Gargoyles to live and hide in. I did not even go to the caves during the day. LOL!

[–] Borderviper-2 18 years ago

My family and I went to New Mexico in '78 to the Caverns where it was filmed and I didn't even know it. Six years had passed and I hadn't seen the movie again (it would be another 9). Thanks to Mr. Turner in the summer of '87 I
saw it and actually captured it on vhs! The only disappointment was I didn't get the very beginning of the prologue on the origin of the Gargoyles. 8 years later I got the whole thing on tape as soon as the screen went black I pushed record (I thought I missed it again) but when I rewinded it the movie began with
"The Devil was once one of the Lord's most favorite creations......"

[–] kimbershugr 18 years ago

I, too recalled this movie from when I was 5 & living in S. TX! I never knew the title until a short 5 minutes ago. Nice to stumble on your post & discover shared experience with such a close neighbor! Shug R.

[–] Survive1999 17 years ago

we got caught after dark in a canyon in Utah, due to a conflict with my ego and common sense. About 1/2 way out we heard noises coming from the top of the canyon that seemed to follow us.

In my heart of hearts I knew it was one of two things, either a mountain lion or a gargoyle.

Now how is it that a 1970's horror movie monster is as scarry in real life as a hungry mountain lion? Those costumes were so well put together that they burned themselves into my little 5 year old memory.

One of the 70's best monster flicks.

[–] DarkPhoenixxxxx 17 years ago

When I watched this movie when I was little it scared the feces out of me!

<<(When there is no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the Earth.)>>

[–] Htos_Drol 14 years ago

I saw this movie on TV when I was about 5 and like a lot of you, it scared the hell out of me. I even went as far as lying on the floor of the backseat in the car when we went places at night for fear that the gargoyle would latch itself onto the roof of the car!!!

Of course, the real damage was done when my parents would yell at me to grow up and stop being afraid. It took some real therapy to overcome that!!!

[–] professorfate1965 14 years ago

I saw this film (well, actually the first twenty minutes before I had the hell scared out of me) when it first aired in November 1972. It would be another 7 years before I got the nerve to watch the whole thing through. Just the mention of the word "gargoyle" was enough to start my imagination running wild and send me into a panic. I did outgrow my fear of gargoyles and now have a couple in my house and at least two copies of the movie. I love this film. Yes, it looks cheap in places but still for a made for TV film in the early 70s the first half holds up very well even today.

They're us. We're them and they're us.
Barabra-NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1990)

[–] Htos_Drol 14 years ago

It may look cheap in places, but they did get a lot of bang for their buck. I love it when the cheap points of certain films actually add some charm to them.

[–] dirkzorn 12 years ago

At the risk of sounding redundant, this film also scared the daylights out of me when I first saw it on TV in '72 (at age 8). That scene of the Gargoyle creeping up over the foot of the bed is seared in my memory. After my initial viewing, I quickly adopted sleeping positions that did not leave my feet "vulnerable" at the foot of the bed, and, after decades of nightly use, these are still my favored sleping positions.

[–] earthman34 12 years ago

Heh Heh, I felt the same way, I saw the film when I was about 10 or 11, and could not sleep that night. I kept looking at the end of the bed and scaring myself...

[–] SleuthoundSeburo 11 years ago

When this movie first aired on tv I didn't watch it.
Why?
The commercials scared the crap out of me.
The scene where you see the gargoyle clawing opening a door really scared m.
I was too scare to sleep or go outside at night.
I grew up watching horror movies but I was too scared to watch this..lol

What kind of beast couldn't get along with a precious little girl like this?