Has a movie ever uncovered a fear you didn't know you had?

[WonkyWarmaiden]

So awhile back I was watching this movie called The Bay, a movie about this small coastal town that has to deal with an outbreak of mutated parasites. It sounds cheesy and silly, right?

Yeah, that's what I thought when I decided to watch it at around three in the morning, by myself, in the dark. Unbeknownst to me I have a gigantic problem with body horror (if you watch the movie you'll see why that's an issue) and after watching the movie I had to wait for the sun to come up before I could even think about sleeping.

This is coming from someone that loves horror movies, zombies, aliens and various other monsters, but this one little movie scared the crap out of me more than almost any other horror movie ever has.

So, yeah. Has any movie, not just horror, ever pulled a fear out you never knew was there?

 

[bigfatcarp93]

Okay, not a movie, but since I started watching Doctor Who, I am now afraid of:

-Gas Masks (The Empty Child)

-Statues (Blink)

-Writing (The Impossible Planet)

-People (Midnight)

-Water (Waters of Mars)

Doctor Who will do that to a person.

 

[WonkyWarmaiden]

No, TV shows are good too. Midnight is actually my favorite episode of DW.

 

[FalloutJack]

A show on Discovery talking about the largest eyeball in the world (about the size of a beachball) properly infused me with the fear of giant squid.

 

[username sucks]

There was a cheesy low budget horror movie that I saw a few years back that keeps me up sometimes worrying that my ankles will be bitten off by small creatures. I'm pretty sure the movie was just called "Ankle Biters", and the logic was stupid. People were dying of blood loss because their ankles were chewed up.

Still, I guess I have a mental Achilles heel. In my heel. Never knew that. Now that I think back, my ankle was the only part of my body that I ever injured severely, so that might have something to do with it.

 

[MysticSlayer]

Another (horror anime) made me realize how terrifying umbrellas can be:

Spoiler: Early plot spoiler

The first death in the show has a girl trip down stairs only to be impaled on the pointy tip of her umbrella. Thankfully, I don't own any umbrellas like the one she was carrying, but I still squirm whenever I see someone with them. Oddly, none of the other deaths in the show were as horrifying, but, then again, all the deaths after that one were more expected and commonplace in media.

I also remember seeing something about dog attacks when I was younger and have been afraid of large dogs every since. Well, it has been getting better, and I'm fine with golden retrievers and german shepherds now, but I still tend to squirm whenever I see English mastiffs, rottweilers, and pit bulls. That largely has to do with my experiences since watching that special. Nearly being bitten by dogs can reinforce a fear of them.

 

[DementedSheep]

I am fine with most gore and body horror. Things in eyes makes me a little queasy but I think that applies to most people. However since watching district 9 I have discovered that I really can't handle fingernails falling off. Why that specific thing freaks me out when more extreme gore is fine I don't know.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

Alien made me realise that I was terrified of being face-raped by large arachnids.

 

[BoogieManFL]

Cloverfield made me imagine what it would be like to get eaten by a beast that big, so big that it's possible you wouldn't get chewed/bitten or otherwise die quickly. Getting scarfed whole and presumably surviving for awhile as you're dissolved away by acid would be just fucking terrible. Jurassic Park to some extent, but not as much. Even big carnivores like a T-Rex would have to bite you apart. While still a terrible way to go, at least it would be much quicker.

 

[Jamash]

I never realised I was afraid of being melted by toxic waste until I saw Robocop.

Even though I was a child when I saw it, them memory still remains with me and to this day, I take extra care when driving vans recklessly around disused chemical plants.

On a less silly note, I'm sure I speak for a lot of people when I say Jaws instilled a previously unrecognised fear of sharks (and other things that may or may not be lurking in the deep).

 

[Neverhoodian]

I'm not sure if it qualifies as a new fear, but I felt Gravity was a stark reminder of just how insignificant and fragile we are compared to the cold, infinite void of the cosmos. You don't have to populate the stars with slavering aliens or incomprehensible squid-faced elder gods to make space terrifying, it does that well enough on its own.

 

[bigfatcarp93]

No, TV shows are good too. Midnight is actually my favorite episode of DW.

Midnight was EVERYONE's favorite episode.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

Redstate

Spoiler

at the end, this horn starts blaring, and for just a second you are convinced it's the horn of the angels. God is coming to the aid of the Westboro Baptist Church-like villians, and he's pissed.

Nothing is more scary to me then a ticked off Angel or God.

 

[FPLOON]

Another (horror anime) made me realize how terrifying umbrellas can be:

Spoiler: Early plot spoiler

The first death in the show has a girl trip down stairs only to be impaled on the pointy tip of her umbrella. Thankfully, I don't own any umbrellas like the one she was carrying, but I still squirm whenever I see someone with them. Oddly, none of the other deaths in the show were as horrifying, but, then again, all the deaths after that one were more expected and commonplace in media.

Yeah... That was the ONLY scene in the entire series where I literally started laughing uncontrollably for no adequate reason at the time... (Everything else, especially the ending, made me want to buy the series on DVD...)

OT: Torture... Despite owning an anime series where torture is presented in its first episode alone, I can't really watch any movie with torture in it unless I go in it, waiting for those moments to just laugh like "This can not be happening right now in this movie"... It's basically the only way I can watch those movies with a straight face... and not try to look away...

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

It wasn't a movie but an educational film. A film talking about AIDS in Middle School got to me in a bad way. Nervous sweat, feeling faint, the whole fear reaction.

The thing is the concept of AIDS, while horrible, isn't what made me feel that way. It was talking about DNA. Talking about DNA just seems to flip the irrational fear switch in my brain and I feel sick. It still bothers me to this day even though I have no real cause to fear the topic... It just turns my blood to ice for some reason.

 

[likalaruku]

Lord of the Rings: Fear of beard stubble. I kept yelling "Shave! Shave for gawds sake!"

 

[Casual Shinji]

Another (horror anime) made me realize how terrifying umbrellas can be:

Spoiler: Early plot spoiler

The first death in the show has a girl trip down stairs only to be impaled on the pointy tip of her umbrella. Thankfully, I don't own any umbrellas like the one she was carrying, but I still squirm whenever I see someone with them. Oddly, none of the other deaths in the show were as horrifying, but, then again, all the deaths after that one were more expected and commonplace in media.

Before reading that spoiler your first sentence gave an image of someone walking under an umbrella, with the umbrella suddenly closing and chomping down on them like a venus flytrap. XD

 

[putowtin]

Before reading that spoiler your first sentence gave an image of someone walking under an umbrella, with the umbrella suddenly closing and chomping down on them like a venus flytrap. XD

I'm pretty sure that would be the plot of a horror movie (not a good one, but a horror movie none the less)

Terminator confirmed my fear of enclosed spaces, then again I was only 9 the first time I watched it!

 

[default]

I'm not sure if it qualifies as a new fear, but I felt Gravity was a stark reminder of just how insignificant and fragile we are compared to the cold, infinite void of the cosmos. You don't have to populate the stars with slavering aliens or incomprehensible squid-faced elder gods to make space terrifying, it does that well enough on its own.

Thumbs up to this, no other movie I've watched on the subject drove home the utter helplessness and terror of being torn around by physics far beyond the power of your tiny mortal form quite like Gravity. Fantastic film. Space is truly terrifying but wonderful and beautiful at the same time.

Another (horror anime) made me realize how terrifying umbrellas can be:

Spoiler: Early plot spoiler

The first death in the show has a girl trip down stairs only to be impaled on the pointy tip of her umbrella. Thankfully, I don't own any umbrellas like the one she was carrying, but I still squirm whenever I see someone with them. Oddly, none of the other deaths in the show were as horrifying, but, then again, all the deaths after that one were more expected and commonplace in media.

Before reading that spoiler your first sentence gave an image of someone walking under an umbrella, with the umbrella suddenly closing and chomping down on them like a venus flytrap. XD

That was actually the topic of a creepypasta I once read. It was kinda gross...