Wow! How very fun...a thread dedicated to my youngest years. Well, well, I'll have to do some thinking and see what I can remember. That part of my memory hasn't been jogged in a very long time, so it will be interesting to see what falls out...

mm

Lysander, The Innocents looks very interesting but how can you say it's one of the scariest ghost movies ever? You're not exactly a horror fanatic. Just curious.

I don't really have anything to add that hasn't been said already. I love The Prisoner and The Twilight Zone and Hitchcock's movies, along with some of the 60's music and fashion. It really was a revolutionary era, in more ways than one - some for better, some for worse.

I guess you're right.

Regardless, the last 10 minutes or so make for about one of the scariest movie sequences I've ever seen. Until then, the movie is more "haunting" than "scary." But the ending - yeah!

Sorry mate, I wasn't trying to be a pain.

Fantastic! I found the movie at my local library. Unfortunately, for the time being, I can't reserve any more items. Oh, the perils of being a book and movie addict.

Actually, surprisingly enough, I've seen The Innocents and I can vouch for it. It really is scary. I'm not a horror buff by any means (In fact, I pretty much hate it), but we watched it in a high school English class (I assume we were supposed to learn something about Henry James from it) and I was terrified by it. My teacher also gave it the title of "one of the most terrifying movies ever," so at least Lys isn't alone. I remember distinctly one sequence where the governess walks around the house looking for something and the tension just builds and builds and it's almost unbearable.

Yes, but calling it one of the scariest movies ever, when you haven't seen many horror movies to begin with, is a bit strange. But I guess I'm just arguing semantics. It's just that I've been disappointed before (or was it relieved?) when people have claimed something was such and such and it wasn't. Gah. Don't mind me, I'm just making a mountain out of a molehill.

How about spinning off a bit? Same subject, different perspective...

If you were a Protestant Christian in the 60's, what was it like?

I was very young, but I remember:

1) Vacation Bible School was still two weeks long, every day for several hours. The art projects were designed to take you two weeks to complete! Many parents had beautiful if somewhat clumsily constructed art projects hanging in their living rooms.

2) Bible Drills!

3) Two week "revival" meetings. Every night for two weeks you could go (and we did, every night...my daddy was a deacon) and get hung over hell like weenie.

4) Men still wore suits and ties to church, and ladies always wore dresses, and sometimes hats. I loved Easter...I knew I would get a new Sunday dress, complete with white gloves, white shoes and a tiny white purse.

I'll see if I can think of some more.

mm

What does 'get hung over hell like weenie' mean? I'm picturing people nursing their hangovers while listening to fire and brimstone sermons, but that can't be right.

What does 'get hung over hell like weenie' mean? I'm picturing people nursing their hangovers while listening to fire and brimstone sermons, but that can't be right.

I'll try and explain a bit . Revivals are something of an American institution, usually involving guest pastors who sort of put the fear of God into the congregation over the course of a week or two. The subject matter is usually pretty intense and there's lots of talk about going to the bad place, etc. The sermons are oftentimes laced with holy wrath and are intended to get the congregation fired up and back on the "right path". At least that was what it was like at the churches I went to growing up. I never cared for it so I avoid them like the plague because if your church needs any kind of Revival service it's not doing its job the other 50 weeks of the year.

VBS, though, I remember quite fondly. I agree with MM, there would oftentimes be a large scale "project" that would require the whole week to complete and we'd do different parts of it each night. I miss VBS...do they have that for adults?

And once again I'll have to agree with W4J on the "scariest movie ever!!!" thing. I've seen stuff that raised the hackles on the back of my neck, and yet something my wife finds terrifying barely gets a reaction out of me. I'm not a horror junkie or anything but I do enjoy the genre a great deal, provided it's not standard slasher fare (which is all too often quite mindless and gory for the sake of being gory) and much prefer something that's menacing without being too overt about it. Was The Omen made in the 60's? That was a rather unsettling film...

Others to check out (if you want to expand a bit on the genre) include:

-Day of the Triffids - Sci-Fi/horror, although the effects are bad now
-Village of the Darned (last word purposely changed) - I maintain that CNN commentator Anderson Cooper is actually one of these kids all grown up.
-Night of the Living Dead
-Rosemary's Baby (not for the feint of heart)

I was going to suggest Horror Express too, but turns out that's a 1970's production. I remember it scaring me out of my wits when I first watched it as a kid.

Thanks for the explanation mate!

I'm more a psychological horror fan. Yes, Rosemary's Baby is super creepy (and from the 60's, so we're remaining on topic). I think Omen was made in the late 60's, I'm not sure though. Splatter horror just seems desperate or at times even pathetic. That and I'm a bit of a pansy when it comes to extreme gore.
I can just image Village of the Darned. That would be hilarious. The creepy kids would be all decked out in totally-not-scary woollen cardigans and try to terrify the neighbours but wouldn't succeed because they would look so ridiculous.

W4J wrote:What does 'get hung over hell like weenie' mean? I'm picturing people nursing their hangovers while listening to fire and brimstone sermons, but that can't be right.

I'll try and explain a bit . Revivals are something of an American institution, usually involving guest pastors who sort of put the fear of God into the congregation over the course of a week or two. The subject matter is usually pretty intense and there's lots of talk about going to the bad place, etc. The sermons are oftentimes laced with holy wrath and are intended to get the congregation fired up and back on the "right path". At least that was what it was like at the churches I went to growing up. I never cared for it so I avoid them like the plague because if your church needs any kind of Revival service it's not doing its job the other 50 weeks of the year.

Exactly. I have to confess that the phrase "hung over hell like a weenie" is not original with me. It's from a Christian comedian who we used to listen to a lot before he was killed in an airplane crash.

Have you ever roasted a weenie over a campfire, W4J? Well, in this scenario, the congregation is the weenie, hell is the "campfire", and the preacher is the guy holding the stick...

The goal was to make an emotional appeal and scare people into the Kingdom. Not a method I endorse or recommend. I'm of the above stated persuasion: if you have to have a revival meeting, your church isn't doing it's job.

And now...back to your regularly scheduled thread.

In the sixties, in elementary school, we used BIG THICK pencils. I loved them. Do they still use those in school?

mm

*quickly drops by*

To Warrior and Shadow: The Omen was late to mid 70's, 1976 to be exact.

*departs*

Mother Music, I confess being an Australian, I've only heard of 'weenies' on the Internet. Are they like sausages or frankfurts (small sausages)? Thanks.
I remember using big, thick pencils in primary/elementary school but I haven't seen children use them in schools these days.

PrinceCor, thanks for helping us out.

A "weenie" is essentially a hot dog. There's some sort of technical classification on what makes a hot dog a frankfurter (I think it has to do with the pork content or something), although over here we pretty much just refer to anything in the category as a hot dog. One of my favorite foods of all time, especially with chili, cheese, onions, and mustard.

Back on track here, I hate that The Omen was 70's...it's when the genre really started to get good. The number of horror movies I've seen from the 60's in very sparse, but there were still plenty of great flicks from the era to see. Of course Hollywood was in something of a funky state at the time so it's rather pick and choose for me.