I've been wanting to write about this for a while. So, I shall.
I have had a lot of problems with nightmares and anxiety from seeing disturbing images in my life. I can't watch horror movies. At all. I even avoid a lot of suspense, just to make sure I don't see something I shouldn't. It's silly, but I don't think it's anything I'll ever get over.
Here's a list of things that have stuck with me in a not-good way:
1. Vampire movie from the 1980s. I don't know what this is called. (If anyone knows, please tell me! It included a scene of a boy in the hospital who heard a knock on the window. The scary vampire person motioned that he should open the window. In then next scene, a nurse walks in carrying a breakfast tray, screams, and drops it. The camera zooms to a dead person on the hospital bed. Later, there is a funeral (but maybe not for this boy). The cemetery worker guy was down in the hole with the casket, and got the strange desire to open it. When he did, the body inside sat up and bit him.) This movie was the start of my childhood nightmares. Every time I heard a tree branch tapping my window at night, I'd be terrified it was a vampire trying to get in.
2. Pet Cematary & The People Under the Stairs. I count these as one simply because I was at a slumber party at age 15 and these were the two movies we watched. Or, I should say, the other girls watched. I saw only a few certain scenes and spent the rest of the time with my head under my pillow, trying to drown out the sounds. (I couldn't go upstairs alone to escape it, you see. Because I knew someone would try to kill me. And eat me. But not necessarily in that order.)
3. The Sixth Sense & Disturbing Behavior. Again, these are together as one because I saw them within days of each other. I was 22 years old and thought I was old enough to be over the fear that had plagued me all my life. So, I watched these. And then spent over a year being afraid of the dark. I had to take a flashlight to go to the bathroom at night, otherwise I'd freak out and think there were dead people hanging by the neck in the hallway. I also was afraid of kids wearing letterman's jackets, particularly if they were in groups. If I was in my car and saw them on the street, I'd roll up the windows and lock the doors. (This is funny. It's okay to laugh at me. Really.)
4. Mysterious Skin. This movie Messed. Me. Up. I was 26 years old. No nightmares this time. But there are times (really inconvenient times) when certain images will come to my mind and make me queasy. There is a scene involving a shower and shampoo that makes me want to cry.
5. Requiem for a Dream. I read reviews. I knew not to watch this one. I knew it would Mess Me Up. But I was on a Jared Leto kick and I couldn't stop myself. I'm still regretting it. Oh, the unease it causes me! (It worked as a good cautionary tale, though. You will never see me getting addicted to heroin or speed. No way. Not after what happened to these characters!)
Bonus:
6. Barbed Hula. I'm not going to link to this. (And that will make you try to find it anyway, right? Don't!) This is a video I saw at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC earlier this year of a naked woman hula hooping with barbed wire. It's even more horrifying than it sounds.