Random weird 70s/80s made for TV movies that stuck with you
Posted by cosec00@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 54 comments
Does anyone remember the movie of the week? One of those movies stuck with me was released in the 70s and featured Lucie Arnaz. It was about a serial killer who stalked women. I googled it and found out it was called Streetkill or Death Scream. That film scared me to death back them.
Another one I remember that scared the heck out of me was Race with the Devil. Me and my sister were home alone when that aired. I remember my sister hiding behind the lazyboy at one point.
The last one that stuck with me as a kid was Frankenstein The True Story. This version the frankenstein looks like a normal person and is actually good looking, then he starts to slowly rot away and in the end is abandoned. I remember being so sad at the end of that movie.
JohnnyTezca@reddit
Butterfly_Cat777@reddit
Ugh yes that THING. The woman at the end was even worse. šØ
rrrrrrez@reddit
lol. My mom would always tell me how scared she was of that thing when we walked past Trilogy of Terror in the video store. She was no horror lightweight either; sheās the one who showed me American Werewolf in London, Poltergeist, and The Thing when I was like 5 or 6.
She said, āyou sure? Itās really scaryā.
Even at that age, I just remember thinking how silly it looked stabbing and gnashing its teeth.
tanhauser_gates_@reddit
The Burning Bed
Retracnic@reddit
The Day After. Aired on ABC in 1983. It was about the events leading up to, and after, a full-scale nuclear war.
reepobob@reddit
I scrolled WAY too far down for this one.
Tim-no@reddit
Threads was scarier.
radioactivecat@reddit
This. The school district sent notes telling parents not to let their kids watch it but mine missed the memo. In retrospect maybe more kids should have watched it, especially the ones who grew up to be congress critters.
BMisterGenX@reddit
I've always remembered Dark Night of the Scarecrow made for TV movie.
Also there as the made for TV movie in 1979 Once Upon A Midnight Scary that had three different segments. One was The House with the Clock in its Walls and one was The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
UFO-Band-Fanatic@reddit
The TV adaptation of Stephen Kingās Salemās Lot. Thereās a Reddit sub dedicated to this movie.
alleghenysinger@reddit
I had so many nightmares after seeing that.
elphaba00@reddit
V on NBC. The miniseries kicked off the TV show. I just remember the aliens peeling off their human faces to show their real reptile faces.
akajudge@reddit
Joys! (1976)
This movie TERRIFIED me when I was 5. TERRIFIED me. I found it on youtube as an adult and it's actually a Bob Hope comedy. A really, really, bad one. š
TheEasterBundy@reddit
Bad Ronald (1974)
coolmommytm@reddit
My mom liked the true crime movies, so I have very clear memories of watching Fatal Vision and The Burning Bed (Farrah Fawcett!).
JimmyJohn_5150@reddit
Burning Bed, I remember that. When I was a senior in HS they made us watch it as an example of what not to do to your wife. This was an all boys Catholic HS in the late 1980s.
LordChauncyDeschamps@reddit
Not made for TV but the first Troll thing scared the shit of me as a child. The whole transforming into a giant cucumber after the troll stabbed you with the needle ring is what really did it.
Watching it as an adult it is a very silly movie.
LordChauncyDeschamps@reddit
AggravatingBobcat574@reddit
The one that stuck with me is Trilogy of Terror.
AggravatingBobcat574@reddit
Oh, and Colossus: The Forbin Project
TheLastSciFiFan@reddit
It wasn't a made-for-tv movie, but Colossus is a good scifi horror. It got regular play on late night horror shows in the mid-to-late 70s and 80s. It seems more and more prescient as the years roll by.
AggravatingBobcat574@reddit
I only saw it the once. But Iāve never forgotten it.
Pristine_Software_55@reddit
There was a late-night one thatās haunted me through life, that Iād love to find.
I think it was broadly an anti-war movie but my dim recollection of most of it is that it follows kids at a school, one who popularly has a small family of rabbits.
Itās the closing scene thatās stuck with me. There must have been an attack or something and itās the kids, dead and scattered across the courtyard, the only life a handful of these rabbits hopping amidst them
radioactivecat@reddit
I need to see this just based on the grim ending.
Pristine_Software_55@reddit
It was unbelievably bleak and I was 7 or whatever as the show ended in silence and the credits began to roll over their bodies. Iām just so curious and really need to see it to put it to rest
radioactivecat@reddit
Was it British or American? I know BBC had a lot of super bleak tv for kids during the 70s and 80s
.
Chibi-Skyler@reddit
Don't Go to Sleep.
I remember watching that and thinking how messed up the whole story was, yet I couldn't not see it through to the end.
Needless to say, the stuffed animals were hugged extra-hard that night!š³
crewsctrl@reddit
The Lonliest Runner (1976). Semi-autobigraphical story produced and directed by Michael Landon, starring Lance Kerwin, Brian Keith, and Melissa Sue Anderson.
airckarc@reddit
This stuck with me for sure. I have just a single memory of this show, I think. The mom hanging out a pee covered sheet so the kid became super fast running to beat the bus homeā is this the one?
crewsctrl@reddit
That's the one.
FBS351@reddit
Wasn't that the Michael Landon story? Lance Kerwin played the kid
Stroker-Strong420@reddit
C.H.U.D - Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers
It was a third rate movie, awful and inanely hilarious. It was supposed to be a horror film but was soooo bad.
radioactivecat@reddit
That was in theaters and just the cardboard stand up posters they had for it scared me as a kid.
theheadofkhartoum627@reddit
The Jericho Mile
obscurisms@reddit
The Peanut Butter Solution.
For years I thought it was a bad dream I'd had. An evil wizard making paintbrushes out of magic pubic hairā½ That's a nightmare, not a movie... right?
TheLastSciFiFan@reddit
Gargoyles (1972) It was a staple of weekend creature feature shows in the 70s and 80s.
The Horror at 37,000 Feet (1973) That frozen dog scared the hell out of me as a seven-year-old. I had nightmares for years!
FBS351@reddit
I couldn't even watch the commercials for either one. They were in heavy rotation on the Midnight Movie, after the news
TimelyExternal5769@reddit
Sssssss.
Seriously, that was the name of the movie. Research scientist was injecting serum into his assistants and turning them into snakes. Very creepy transformation scene, if you're a kid.
https://youtu.be/uOkQ_-XtwlA
CynfullyDelicious@reddit
Came here to mention this specific movie as it freaked me TF out as a 7 year old.
Starred Dirk Benedict (Starbucks in the OG Battlestar Galactica and later The A-Team).
SarahJaneB17@reddit
This one made a big impression on me. I've never been bothered by snakes and felt bad for the large one that was the pet. A python I think. It was sad and creepy. I watched it again a couple of years ago, and now I appreciate Strother Martin's over the top acting in this and other B movies and tv shows.
TheLastSciFiFan@reddit
Yep. It was creepy, weird, and very much a downbeat movie.
Alert-Yam-6610@reddit
Mazes and Monsters with Tom Hanks!
666ForMySorrow@reddit
And the My Bodyguard kid!
CynfullyDelicious@reddit
Christopher Makepeace
devilleader501@reddit
Hitcher starring Rutger Hauer. The ending was absolutely dark, and has stuck with me since I was a kid. Really good movie though.
Mockchoi1@reddit
I forgot about that Frankenstein movie; I remember being very affected by it too. Tom Baker from Doctor Who was in it.
SarahJaneB17@reddit
Frankenstein The True Story is a favorite of mine. It diverges from the novel in some parts, but in general is closer than most versions. The casting is good, and the sets and cinematography too.
There is a BBC made for TV version of Dracula that I really like too. Louis Jordan is Dracula and last time I checked it was on YouTube.
dirtjiggler@reddit
Poison Ivy with Michael J Fox.
Comedywriter1@reddit
Obviously there are established classics like Duel, Donāt Be Afraid of the Dark, Trilogy of Terror, Bad Ronald, The Night Stalker/Strangler, Dark Night of the Scarecrow, etc.
A couple gems Iāve rediscovered in recent years: A Cold Nightās Death (was a big influence on Carpenterās The Thing), and The Norliss Tapes.
Cobra-Lalalalalalala@reddit
Escape from Sobibor
Top_Resolve_107@reddit
I always use to like watching the V movies. After that I would think about how many people are really lizards people in disguise. LOL I still think that today.
sziklai-pair@reddit
I Saw What You Did. Horror/thriller, starred Shawnee Smith. Wasn't until years later when I randomly caught an episode of Becker and recognized Smith that I was able to track down the title.
Deadly Intentions is the other one, must've seen that as a 10 year old. I remember it being much more intense than anything else on tv at that time. Pretty sure I watched it while visiting my grandparents. Parents wouldn't have let me watch it.
maxwellgrounds@reddit
Dark Night of the Scarecrow gave me nightmares as a kid. Iāll always remember that one.
noseleaptilbklyn@reddit
Omg yes!!!!!!!!