Those classic "oh my God" moments from movies and TV from back in the day. I have hundreds of them. Back in the 60's, 70's and 80's times were much better and different and there were actually "shocking" moments in movies and TV.
In 1966 I first saw "The Blob" starring Steve McQueen and the one scene that scared me most was the death of the local doctor that our hero sees thru a window. That gave me nightmares for weeks. Then a scant 2 years later it was "Night Of The Living Dead" and the fear and tension thru the entire movie was a lot for me, but when we see the ghouls eating human remains cemented itself into my mind.
The 1970's was my most "horrific" decade for movies and TV as I was glued to both for most of my younger years. TV movies were great back then and there was a lot of horror being made for the small screen. I can never forget the film "Trilogy Of Terror" and the Zuni Fetish doll which is still, in my opinion, the BEST 22 minutes ever filmed for TV. It scared the living hell out of me, and believe it or not it still sends shudders up my spine to this day.
There was also the shocking twist ending to the film "Satan's Triangle" with Kim Novak. That was the talk of the schoolyard the next morning at school. I also caught a lot of syndicated TV shows from the past in the 70's including "The Twilight Zone", "The Outer Limits" and "Thriller". The Boris Karloff hosted "Thriller" was by far the darkest and I remember being terrified by the episode entitled "Pigeons From Hell". I never imagined such a thing could ever appear on TV, but it again cause many sleepless nights for me. The scenes in the old haunted house still stay with me to this day. I won't give much away about some of these things, but I do recommend you look them up and watch them if you want.
Late night TV in the 70's was also a great thing and I will never forget the ending to the long lost, never to be seen again film called "Distant Early Warning" starring Michael Parks fighting aliens at a lonely radar station in Alaska. I thought about that ending all day the following Saturday. As the 70's wore on I thought that after seeing graphic footage from the Vietnam War and drivers education films had made me immune to horror along comes "Dawn Of The Dead" and "Zombie".
The opening 20 minutes of Dawn is the single greatest opening moments of ANY film made before or since. The scenes in the apartment building are some of the greatest ever committed to film. Lucio Fulcis' "Zombie" gave me nightmare with the incredible death scene of gorgeous Olga Karlatos getting a huge splinter in her eye. That scene remains a standout in horror for me and many others.
In the 1980's I was working for United Artists and Turner Pictures and didn't have a lot of time for movies, but I managed to catch more than my share. A lot of them standout like "Creepshow" but the ONE single film that made my jaw hit the floor was a small little slasher entitled "Sleepaway Camp". The final 5 minutes of the film was one of the most unexpected things I had EVER seen!! Telling co-workers about the movie always garnered my some very strange looks, but damn...it blew my mind. There has never been an ending to compare with it. It has been called one of the most shocking endings in American cinema history!!
There are probably some I should mention and others I have simply forgotten about while writing this, but if you have some of your own I invite you to share them with me. This has just been horror related, but rest assured there were many, many "oh My God" moments in a lot of film noir such as "The Killing" and "The Big Combo" among others
Other OMG moments that were much different that terror included seeing lovely Mamie Van Doren seducing Russ Tamblyn in "High School Confidential" while taking a sexy bite out of an apple, or seeing the gorgeous Judy Pace for the first time in "Cotton Comes To Harlem" or drooling over Vonetta McGee in "The Norliss Tapes". These, as I said, are far different OMG moments, but they will always stay with me.
I am so happy to have grown up during times when everything was fresh and new and there was a surprise around every corner. I still watch these movies today and while I have seen them hundreds of times, I still get a little tinge of OMG when I watch, because I have never let that part of me disappear, and never will.
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