When was the last time you watched something so scary, cringe-worthy, or unbelievably tacky — in a movie, on TV, or in real life — you had to cover your eyes?
When I was a kid, my mother would take me, my brother (my older brother was smart enough to be ‘busy’ doing other things) and all my cousins to the movies – horror movies to be exact. Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Amityville Horror, Halloween, Prom Night, Carrie, Poltergeist, Dead & Buried, The Changeling – just to name a few.
All of us were scared half to death from what we saw onscreen and since we were all under 12 years old then, we had nightmares because of it. Still, we went because none of us wanted to be called a scaredy-cat, or in the dialect, talawán.
By the time I turned 16, I’d had it. The last horror movie I saw with my mother left me with nightmares of someone hammering a large nail into my forehead, a scene from the movie that has never left me to this day. Recently when I asked my mother if horror was indeed her genre, she said it actually wasn’t. She just got a kick out of scaring the crap out of the kids.
I do still watch a few scary movies though – like Pan’s Labyrinth, La Orfanata, The Others and one of my favorite zombie movies, 27 Days Later. But I’m definitely more picky. No Rob Zombie movies for me, or gore-fests like Saw.
The last time I covered my eyes (though I left a slit between my fingers to still see) was during a scene in Hannnibal, the TV series starring Mads Mikkelsen, Hugh Dancy, Lawrence Fishburne and Caroline Dhavernas. It’s one of my favorite, if not my favorite, show on TV.
It was the episode (Takiawase) which guest starred Amanda Plummer as an acupuncturist I would not go to for pain relief at all – not even if you paid me.
“Takiawase” also features a guest appearance by Amanda Plummer Pulp Fiction‘s Honey Bunny, as the honey-obsessed/acupuncturist killer-of-the-week who lobotomizes her clients. Hannibal wouldn’t be the same without some truly horrifying images on display, and “Takiawase” offers the first scene in which this critic just had to look away.
Hmm…I’m glad I wasn’t alone in looking away – although I also see a similarity with that nightmare I mentioned above.
What about you? When was the last time you covered your eyes?
Morrighan's Muse 
Wow so far everyone’s posts I’ve read all have poltergeist, I remember the way hair stood up on the back of my neck still, yipes!
My older sibs scared me habitually at night. I am now almost 60 and still have NOT seen The Exorcist with Linda Blair. I don’t do horror. I have enough trouble sleeping without help.
I don’t know what movie it was where the person had a nail hammered into their heads but I know something whose relative was murdered by a real life serial killer who I think did just that.
I don’t like horror as a genre and haven’t for a very long time. Maybe this is the reason.
It’s not my genre either. Ghost stories, whodunnits with some gore in it are fine with me, but not outright horror or the gore-fests that we get today.
I re-watched Star Trek 5 The Final Frontier recently and covered my eyes because it’s so appallingly bad 🙂
I find the Nightmare on Elmstreet films quite scary simply because he comes after you when you sleep. Yeeks!
I do that with bad movies, too, but then I rid myself of the suffering and don’t continue the movie.
Oh yes, Freddie visiting you when you’re sleeping! I remember Johnny Depp being eaten by his bed in the first movie!