Top 13 Black and White Scary Movies That Have Traumatized Boomers Since Childhood

Let's start with one of the frightening films on the list. George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" revolutionized the zombie as a monster, making it one of the more graphic and violent films of its time. "Night" was a sensation, and with its hopeless ending and destruction of the trust we had in the government and the family unit, it made many people scared of going to graveyards and going out after dark for a long time.

John Frankenheimer's "Seconds" probably terrified people in 1966, and it still scares people in 2023. This is a film that I did not watch until 2020, and I sincerely wish I had seen it earlier. Director Brandon Cronenberg programmed a double feature of his film "Possessor" with "Seconds" precisely because it was one of his favorite films and because it influenced "Possessor." It is the kind of film where scenes full of people having fun are drenched in doom and dread. Rock Hudson's brilliant performance is bursting with tension; the fear he exudes amps up every frame.

Mario Bava's beautifully shot tale of an evil witch returning from the grave after being executed never fails to chill. It stars the gorgeous Barbara Steele, who is equally good at playing each of the dual roles in the film. It's got such a creepy and entrancing atmosphere, and the scene with the mask being hammered into Asa the Witch's face seems like it would play well in today's films. This movie made Boomers fall in love with Barbara Steele while still being scared of her too.

Herk Harvey's masterpiece "Carnival of Souls" is a bit of a stealth horse in this race. It is a film with a mysterious power that grows as you watch it and continues to work on your mind after you leave the theater. Candace Hilligoss is haunting as the young woman who survived after her car went into a river, and her life starts to come apart. It's lesser known that some but still distressed a lot of Boomers.

People may say that horror comedies aren't scary, but I would gently remind them that what is creepy is subjective and films like "Evil Dead 2" and "Braindead" do exist. "The Little Shop of Horrors," directed by Roger Corman, tells the story of a young man, Seymour, who has to kill people to feed a carnivorous plant that only seems to get larger and larger. I can see this one causing trauma to people, especially in the younger set.

Robert Wise's film "The Haunting" is based on Shirley Jackson's classic tale of the macabre, and Jackson co-wrote the script. "The Haunting of Hill House" scared tons of people in book form, and the film has a terrifying use of sound design to unnerve everyone. There's no overt gore or violence; the horror is all in the mind, which, quite frankly, is one of the best places for it to be. Claire Bloom and Julie Harris do great work, which connects you to the fear they feel in the house. It's a film that left its mark on many.

"Onibaba" is considered a period film, but it fits the requirements of a horror film. A demon mask that you can't take off your face? Check. Killers who murder the unwary on the side of the road? Check. Japanese director Kaneto Shindo laid on atmosphere and paranoia liberally and succeeded in creeping the audience out. Not everything in horror has to be violent or gory to traumatize you.

"Repulsion" is one film that you won't forget. It is the story of a beautiful woman having a mental breakdown and hallucinating many strange and frightful images. Those hallucinations lead her to do some pretty terrible things. The fact that Catherine Deneuve was such a perfectly put-together and desirable woman makes what happens in the movie even more disturbing.

Alfred Hitchcock's shocker, "Psycho," technically considered a thriller, is so horrifying that it left its mark on my Dad, who was pretty hard to shock. The film is famous for killing off what you think is the main character, the infamous shower scene, and the reveal of the murderer, but the thing that distressed my father the most was an offhand remark. "...who's that woman buried out in Greenlawn Cemetery?" "Psycho" is known as one of the scariest films ever made, but its true effect on people is somewhat underrated.

"Eyes Without a Face" is a French film directed by Georges Franju. One of France's first modern horror films, it was made under a climate of censorship. Even though the film doesn't contain overt violence, blood, or gore, people still fainted from fright while watching the movie in theaters. While you might not consider it the equal of some of our hyper-violent films today, if it could make people faint, it wrecked some of the people who watched it.

"Spider Baby or the Maddest Story Ever Told" is a real humdinger. I was a little frightened of the film before I watched it because of its reputation among hardcore cinema fans. Director Jack Hill crafted a tale where you see children who are doomed to lose their minds act and behave gently until they explode into genuinely unsettling insanity. The sympathetic performances of Jill Banner and Lon Chaney Jr. and the odd black comedy make this film so appallingly compelling.

"The Innocents" is a psychological horror film that is filled with claustrophobia and fear that the home that you live in isn't safe. Deborah Kerr stars as a governess of two children whose uncle doesn't care about them. She begins to believe that the former governess and another employee who both died still haunt the estate and possess the children. Based on Henry James' "Turn of the Screw," it has everything it needs to disturb everyone who ever watched it.

"What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" is one of the worst cases of sibling rivalry ever. It is also about the horror of living with someone who has lost their mind, but you must depend on them. It stars Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, who were known for their real-life feud in Hollywood, which stoked the fire within the film. It was so effective that both actresses had a career resurgence after the film was released. The movie has no demons, ghosts, or other supernatural monsters, but it is most sinister because you believe it could happen.