Badmovies.org Forum

I'm wondering what were some seminal movies in your youth, and how they effected you and maybe that period's movie culture in general.
One for me was BONNIE & CLYDE. I saw it when I was about 12 yrs old (too young to get in, but the girl at the ticket window could have cared less) and the violence stunned the hell out of me. Obviously I wasn't the only one and that movie ended up changing the industry. We're all mostly of different age and sensibilities so I'm curious what affected you and your peers the most.

For me it was FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN (1943)
The first horror film I ever seen on in 1967.
I was 5 years old.
Im 53 years young now. :smile:

I would also say PSYCHO (1950).
I was a kid in the 70s-Loved monster movies-I heard of PSYCHO-but never seen it!
I bought Richard Anobiles book-the frame by frame thing-i also had his FRANKENSTEIN and DR JEKYLL and MR HYDE books too-anyone recall these books?
Before vhs tapes-this was the closest to having the movie.
Ten I seen it-I loved it.

Another one for me was LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. I saw it when I was a teenager and the two females stars had my hormones in a twist. Then they're kidnapped, raped and murdered. I left the theater again reeling and stunned. I think I've only watched it a couple of times since then, and not enjoying reliving that first experience.

I was 9 years old when STAR WARS came out - the perfect age. I thought every movie should be like that. Of course I worked my way out of the blockbuster mentality.

The first horror movies I saw were THE SHINING and THE HOWLING in the local theater at 12-13. My mom made me cover my eyes for the nude scenes but I was allowed to watch the gory/scary parts. I always associated horror with forbidden sex thereafter.

I remember reading about PLAN 9 and tuning in to a viewing on PBS. I didn't pay enough attention that first time (it was on during a party) so I didn't see what the big deal was. The next year they showed GLEN OR GLENDA?, though, and I tuned in just before the dream sequence. My mind was blown and I started to track down classic bad movies after that. Saw PLAN 9 again and loved it; it gets "better" with every viewing!

I think I was a sci-fi nerd from birth, I was always building plastic models of spaceships or those Estes model rockets that you'd shoot up and they'd come down way back in the woods someplace where you could never find them.  Then when I was 13 Star Wars came out, and a couple of years later Alien and The Black Hole.  Yup, sci-fi / horror nerd for life.

The first low budget "bad" movies I really got into were Slave Girls From Beyond Infinity and Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama.  And I'm proud to say my tastes have not matured one tiny bit since then  :teddyr:

For me, the main movies that first really sparked my imagination for science fiction was the Disney films Tron and The Black Hole - I also owned the Disney record/book releases of those as well and played them endlessly. I also had a love for The Jungle Book story which sparked my interest in adventure...later I'd also come to love the 1942 Sabu film. Also when I was a kid in the 70s, the Superman movies were hugely popular and I watched those at a young age along with the Batman TV series. I also would never miss reruns of The Munsters. Also saw Bruce Lee films in my childhood years via film projector...the combination of all this stuff and seeing so many films via youth clubs and after school film projector showings sparked my imagination. I first saw all the following via film projector: all the 70s Bruce Lee films, Superman 1-3, Supergirl, When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, Delta Force, Firewalker, the Lost World (1960)...all that influenced me along with comic books such as The Legion of Super-Heroes, Justice League of America, The Mighty Thor, Spider-Man among many others. Plus cartoons such as Transformers, G.I. Joe, Super Friends, Scooby Doo, He-Man, M.A.S.K., the Jetsons, The Flintstones, Jonny Quest, etc.

But Tron and The Black Hole were the two stories that really first ignited my great interest in Sci-Fi which has endured ever since. I think the Christopher Reeves Superman films and the Bruce Lee films were hugely influential on my other interests as well.

The first sci-fi/scary/bad(?) movie I can remember watching is THEM.  I was under 10 years old.  Probably closer to 5.  After that my introduction to this sort of thing was mainly by way of reading books, but I did watch Lugosi in Dracula and Karloff in Frankenstein and Chaney in The Wolfman and Karloff again in The Mummy with my Dad (after having read the books at 10).  Also caught every Vincent Price movie appearing on TV. And we watched The Outer Limits and Twilight Zone and Night Gallery almost religiously.  My Dad was deeply 'into' such movies.  The Blob!  Forbidden Planet!   I read SF by the greats of the pulp era and loved every minute of it.  I came home from my first year at uni raving about the ads I had seen for a little flick called Star Wars so Dad got enthused and immediately packed up the entire family and off we went to see it. (Mom has never forgiven me for that: she could never inspire him to go see anything.   :lookingup:  It was the movie, not me!)

Blazing Saddles (1974) was a major revelation for me when a friend and I went to see it in the theatre.  I had not been aware that movies (or people) could be so zany and rude and lively.  I had a sheltered life (aside from the whole SF/Horror movie thing) as a teen.