Hi! I'm Richard, 42, GSOH and...hold on...wrong forum!
Like some other posters, TV shows had content that scared me most as a child. Anyone remember The Omega Factor, with Louise Jameson (Leela in Doctor Who)? It was cheap as chips but very well done; more a series of plays the budget was so low, but it creeped me out. Doctor Who did on occasion, too.
Then came VHS and rentals. At age 13/14 I scared the living crap out of myself watching The Exorcist. Perhaps it was because I was brought up a Catholic (now lapsed - surprise!). i might have been because my parish priest wouldn't confirm or deny that exorcisms were real that somehow validated the movie. Strangely, The Evil Dead scared me at the time
I put it down to the white eye contacts and the grungy make-up; far better than the
rubbery fakery of ED2.
As I've gotten older, I still find the movie unnerving if I watch it on my own but otherwise, I've exorcised that fear
first time I saw Blair Witch I was with a a group of people that wanted to see it (as in not the great unwashed that just wanted to check it out cos an ad told them to). I thought it was 90 minutes of a girl whinging. But the punchline ending was a good one.
Now, sadly, I just get the occasional goosebumps in movies and have become largely immune to jump/crash scares. You know, the ones sign posted by an orchestra. REC genuinely made me jump; the scene where the fireman falls. That
wasn't signposted.