MovieChat Forums > E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) Discussion > This movie PERMANENTLY traumatized me

This movie PERMANENTLY traumatized me

posted 12 years ago by Ohyoubigsilly
77 replies | jump to latest

To this day, only one movie, out of the thousands of films I've seen over the years, ever truly traumatized me. That movie is E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial.

I was an 80s baby, and in the years after the movie's release, naturally my mom bought it on VHS thinking it would be a cute, uplifting film for a young kid to watch. What she didn't realize is that she had made a big, BIG mistake.

All it took was witnessing the cornfield scene for the very first time as an impressionable 5-year-old, and the die had been cast. This was a horror film as far as my childhood self was concerned.

So many scenes and details disturbed me overwhelmingly, in particular these:

• Music/sound effects at beginning (so eerie)
• FBI chase scene at beginning (the screeching figure running through the ferns)
• Cornfield scene
• E.T.'s hand coming out of the bushes to grab Reese's Pieces candies
• Back-and-forth exchange of the baseball from the tool shed
• Closet scene with E.T. among the dolls
• Gertie encountering E.T. for the first time
• Government listening in on the household from a van on the street
• E.T. bloated and face-down in the pond
• Elliott's mom encountering E.T. for the first time in the bathroom
• Scientists entering the house in astronaut suits

It's pretty much one scary/creepy/eerie scene after another.

When I was little, I was too afraid to even open my eyes lying in bed at night in fear that that sausage-skinned monster would be squatting there next to my bed, waiting to gnaw my face off with his jagged E.T. teeth. I was absolutely terrified. E.T. was (and still is) a recurring subject in my nightmares. I still can't sleep with my closet door open.

Whenever I'm surprised by an advertisement with E.T., a photo on a website, or even if anyone ever mentions the movie casually, a jolt shoots down my spine, and my heart rate instantly jumps. This is the effect he still has on me as a grown adult!

Despite the movie's impact on my life, I somehow still feel captivated by the story, and watch it again every few years because I get a thrill from it.

Has this movie affected/disturbed/traumatized anyone else as much as it did me?

[–] Blueghost 8 years ago

To paraphrase Bugs Bunny; "You have a weak constitution."

[–] TMC-4 (20126) 5 years ago

The scene in E.T. when the guys in the spacesuits infiltrate the home was one of the most disturbing things I watched as a child.

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/cqznle/the_scene_in_et_when_the_guys_in_the_spacesuits/

Everything about that scene was so disturbing to me. The first shot when the guy comes in the front door. And then when the family scrambles around the house, only to be met with more dudes in suits.

Even the choo choo train made me feel weird as a kid.

And then to top it off we get ET all nasty and pale and dying. Seriously freaked me out. It still makes me feel really uneasy today when I see it.

[–] Heisenberg (6730) 5 years ago

Totally had the same experience as you. I was 5 when this horrorfest came out, I saw it in theatres after my mom heard so many great things about it. I still blame her.

I had nightmares of this little monster coming out of the dark corners of the house with his wrinkly-like-a-dick slimy head and his dick shaped creepy fingers. His old man voice was also super creepy. And ET coming out from under my bed at night was also a recurring worry.

But I stopped worrying as I grew older.
Nowadays I think about this shitty horror when I have to remind myself that kids are impressionable: what we think is cute or silly or obviously fake, for them might become a traumatic monster haunting their imagination.

[–] ATG6 (3000) 4 years ago

This movie wasn't scary at all.

Movies that actually traumatized kids:

Planet of the Apes (Rated G! One of the scariest movies ever.)
Gargoyles (looks cheesy now, but wow it was scary as a kid)
Alien (still terrifying)
The Omega Man (original version of I Am Legend)

[–] wrlord (1141) 4 years ago

That's because your generation is a bunch of pussies.