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      Studios Said to See Progress in Talks With Striking Actors

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      The entertainment companies are growing optimistic that the work stoppage may end soon, though some issues remain unresolved, people briefed on the matter said.Following several productive days at the negotiating table, Hollywood studios are growing optimistic that they are getting closer to a deal to end the 108-day actors’ strike, according to three people briefed on the matter.These people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the labor situation, cautioned on Sunday that some issues remain unresolved with the actors, including protections around the use of artificial intelligence technology to create digital replicas of their likenesses without payment or approval. But other knots had started to become untangled, the people said.SAG-AFTRA, as the actors’ union is known, had been asking for an 11 percent raise for minimum pay in the first year of a contract, for instance. Studios had insisted that they could offer no more than 5 percent, the same as had recently been given (and agreed to) by unions for writers and directors. Early last week, however, studios lifted their offer to 7 percent. By Friday, SAG-AFTRA had eased its demand to 9 percent.SAG-AFTRA did not respond to requests for comment. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which negotiates on behalf of the major entertainment companies, declined to comment.In an email to SAG-AFTRA members on Friday night, the union’s negotiating committee said, “We completed a full and productive day.” On Saturday, the union sent a routine reminder about pickets planned the coming week, including one scheduled for Wednesday at Walt Disney Studios. The sides continued to negotiate on Sunday.Last week, studio executives made it known — in conversations with filmmakers, agents, reporters and actors themselves — that a deal must be done (or nearly so) by the end of this week, or else sets were likely to remain dark for another two months.Put another way, unless talks speed up, January could be the soonest that casts (and crews) see paychecks.Brinkmanship? Of course. It’s a standard part of any strike. The companies, however, said they were simply pointing to the calendar. It will take time to reassemble creative teams, a process complicated by the coming holidays. Preproduction (before anyone gathers on a set) for new shows can take up to 12 weeks, with movies taking roughly 16 weeks. Bake in the time for contract ratification by the SAG-AFTRA members.More than 4,000 mostly workaday actors responded on Thursday with an open letter to their union, saying, “We have not come all this way to cave now.” They added, “We cannot and will not accept a contract that fails to address the vital and existential problems that we all need fixed.”At the same time, some stars have pressured union leaders to approach negotiations with greater urgency. Out-of-work crew members have also grown increasingly frustrated with the Hollywood shutdown. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, which represents 170,000 crew members in North America, has estimated that its West Coast members alone have lost more than $1.4 billion in wages.For their part, companies are under pressure to salvage their spring television schedules and movie lineups. On Friday, Disney delayed a live-action version of “Snow White,” which had been scheduled for March 26, because it would be impossible to finish in time. Earlier in the week, Paramount pushed back Tom Cruise’s next “Mission: Impossible” movie, along with “A Quiet Place: Day One,” starring Lupita Nyong’o.The entertainment business has been at a standstill for months because of strikes by writers, who walked out in May, and actors, who joined them in July. The writers’ strike was resolved last month, prompting hopes of a speedy resolution between studios and the actors’ union. Instead, the process has been slow.Talks between the sides restarted on Tuesday after breaking down earlier in the month over a union proposal for a per-subscriber fee from streaming services, which Netflix’s co-chief executive Ted Sarandos publicly dismissed as a “levy” and “a bridge too far.” SAG-AFTRA accused studio executives of “bully tactics.”It is unclear how the streaming issue might be resolved. But there is real hope in Hollywood that people may soon be back to work.“At this time, we have no concrete information from any studio,” Michael Akins, an International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees official in Georgia, wrote to members on Friday. “But the writing is clearly on the wall that the industry shutdown is in its final days.”John Koblin More

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      A Critic With Monsters on His Mind

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      The scariest part of Erik Piepenburg’s job as a reporter who covers horror movies? Films that fail to frighten him.Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.Some 10-year-olds might shield their eyes while watching a horror movie. But at that age, Erik Piepenburg was glued to the screen.Growing up in Cleveland, Mr. Piepenburg developed a love of all things horror. Every Friday night at around 11:30, he and his grandmother would turn on the television, flip to channel 43 and hope to find one of their favorite black-and-white films playing — horror classics like “Dracula,” “The Wolf Man” or “Frankenstein.”A former Theater editor for The New York Times, Mr. Piepenburg now uses his monstrous knowledge of the horror genre to write about it in a column for the Movies section. Every week, he recommends five recent horror movies — of the supernatural, psychological or otherwise terrifying kind — that are worth streaming.He’s not partial to any one subgenre, but he does have one hang-up: “If I see one more movie about people going to a cabin in the woods or moving to a haunted house, I’m going to throw my hands up,” he said in a recent conversation.Here, Mr. Piepenburg shares his thoughts on some of the year’s greatest scares, the current golden age of horror and the unforeseen twists and turns of writing about monsters. This interview has been edited and condensed.Where did you get the idea for your column?My editor, Mekado Murphy, had wanted to start a horror column during the coronavirus pandemic, when so many people were forced to stay home and stream films. I offer readers films I think are worth watching in a sea of horror movies — some of which are awful and others that are terrific. I try to watch — or, at least, get through — two to five horror movies a week to make my deadline. I’m not complaining; I think it’s great that we are having this golden age of horror movies, but I would love for someone to tell me what comedy movies I should watch.What contributed to this golden age?There have been several golden ages of horror. There were the psychological thrillers and exploitation films of the ’60s and the slasher movies of the ’80s. I think what’s happening right now is that we are living in such uncertain times in terms of politics, environmental issues, civil rights issues. Anytime there’s global uncertainty, horror movies respond. They hold up a mirror to society and say, “Look at the monsters we’ve become.”So it should come as no surprise that at a time when the world seems topsy-turvy, horror filmmakers would decide the time is right for them to explore why.On the 50th anniversary of “The Exorcist,” you and other Times critics wrote essays that re-explored the film. What story did you want to tell?Mekado told me that he wanted to do this interactive package for the movie. We had a conversation about ways to cover the film and I jokingly said that I always saw “The Exorcist” as a queer movie, and it stuck. I was glad to have the chance to explore the possession in the film through a queer lens. It’s fun to think about the ways in which “The Exorcist” — and most horror movies — aren’t just about the monsters, but the people who create them and what the monsters represent.In an article from this year, you also described “M3gan” as a gay movie. Do you think gay audiences have a special affinity for horror?Well, I think all horror movies are about one of two things: trauma or gayness. That’s just my queer-theory lens that people can accept or reject. But in horror movies, there’s often this notion of otherness — of the monster existing outside of societal norms. I think queer audiences can align themselves with villains who feel like outsiders, like no one understands their feelings.I also think queer audiences appreciate the outrageous, camp quality of horror. “M3gan” is a perfect example. The villain is a demon that you kind of want to be friends with. I know people in my life who can be monsters, but I love them anyway.What trends are you seeing in the horror genre right now?There’s certainly a lot of Covid-inspired films — movies about being locked up inside and fears about contagions. I would say another trend is the slow-burn horror movie, one that takes time to unfold instead of hitting you over the head with monsters, explosions, ghosts and conventional horror scares. The slow burn delivers tiny moments of unease so that by the film’s end, your entire body has become so tense that it’s hard to shake. Those are some of my favorites.What’s a recent horror movie you wish everyone would watch?There’s a film called “The Hole in the Fence,” which I wrote about in my column. It’s about a group of young boys at a religious camp who undergo a sort of “Lord of the Flies” experience. It’s terrifying and has almost no gore, but it really got under my skin. There was another movie that I saw in January called “LandLocked.” Again, there’s no gore. There’s no monsters. But it is a quietly effective horror film. It made me cry. It’s a treat when I can watch a horror movie that moves me so much that even as my heart is racing, I tear up.Is there a horror-related topic you want to explore next in an article?There have been a couple of experimental horror films that toy with form, structure, sound and visuals, like “The Outwaters” and “Skinamarink.” Sometimes the screen will go black or the audio will be distorted. Experimental horror challenges viewers not only to understand horror through monsters, but through the physical experience of watching the film. I think we’re going to start seeing more of those in the future. More

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      Meg Ryan on Her New Rom-Com, ‘What Happens Later’

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      Meg Ryan was hurting.Not metaphorically. The actress and one-time rom-com queen was actively sore, having spent the morning, one of many, unpacking and moving herself into a home she’d long been renovating in Montecito, Calif. Persevering through the painful twinge, making order out of the past — really, finding comfort in the present — are the sneaky subcurrents of Ryan’s new movie, “What Happens Later,” a wily rom-com that she co-wrote, stars in and directed. A two-hander opposite David Duchovny, it distills moviedom conventions and plays with a different emotional palette; Ryan grappling with her own cinematic brand. It is only her second foray behind the camera and the first time she has appeared onscreen in seven years.She hasn’t missed the spotlight. “I feel like I had the ride, the Hollywood ride,” she said over a restorative soup lunch on a foggy day. “I kind of went to the moon already. So I don’t have giant ambitions to be back in that.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.We are confirming your access to this article, this will take just a moment. However, if you are using Reader mode please log in, subscribe, or exit Reader mode since we are unable to verify access in that state.Confirming article access.If you are a subscriber, please More

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      Vincent Asaro, Mobster Acquitted in Lufthansa Heist, Dies at 86

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      In a stunning verdict, he was found not guilty of participating in the storied 1978 theft, retold in the film “Goodfellas.” Then he went to prison over a road rage incident.Vincent Asaro, a career mobster who was found not guilty of murder and of helping to organize the staggering $6 million Lufthansa heist at John F. Kennedy Airport — one of the biggest cash heists in American history — only to be sentenced to prison when he was 82 over road-rage revenge, died on Sunday in Queens. He was 86.His death was confirmed by Gerald McMahon, a lawyer who successfully represented him in the Lufthansa case. No cause was given.The brazen theft in 1978 of $5 million in cash and $1 million in jewels from a vault at a Lufthansa hangar at Kennedy Airport figured prominently in the book “Wiseguy” (1985) by Nicholas Pileggi and the Martin Scorsese film “Goodfellas” (1990).The authorities had suspected the Mafia’s involvement, but the case remained unsolved and the investigation closed until Mr. Asaro was arrested in 2014, linking him and the Bonanno crime family to the robbery.He was also accused of using a dog chain in 1969 to strangle Paul Katz, the owner of a warehouse where Mr. Asaro and James (Jimmy the Gent) Burke, who was suspected of masterminding the Lufthansa theft (and who was portrayed by Robert DeNiro in “Goodfellas”), stored their stolen loot. Mr. Asaro and Mr. Burke had believed that Mr. Katz was an informer after the warehouse was raided by the police.The stolen van that authorities believed was used in the Lufthansa robbery at John F. Kennedy Airport in December 1978.Ken Murray/Associated PressThe indictment implicated Mr. Asaro in a sweeping conspiracy in which he was also accused of robbing FedEx (then Federal Express) of $1.25 million of gold salts, which can be used in medicinal treatments; bullying his way into the pornography business; and seeking, unsuccessfully, to bump off a cousin who had testified about an insurance scam.Mr. Asaro’s 2015 trial was a sensation.Though the robbery had taken place more than three decades earlier, it had been immortalized in the book and film, and even for younger New Yorkers it felt like a coda to the “Godfather” era.Moreover, the key witness against Mr. Asaro was another cousin, Gaspare Valenti, who had been a government informant since 2008 and had secretly recorded Mr. Asaro from 2010 to 2013.Mr. Valenti’s testimony on the stand was a jaw-dropping breach of the Mafia’s code of silence.It also revealed the devolution of a ruthless mobster who in his day job could suggest to customers which fences to buy from his store in Ozone Park, Queens, while in his other life he could impatiently advise a younger mob associate who had asked him how best to collect a debt: “Stab him today.”Mr. Asaro’s acquittal in 2015 was so stunning — not only to the prosecution, but to Mr. Asaro himself — that as he left the courthouse and got into a car, he giddily joked, “Don’t let them see the body in the trunk.”A jubilant Mr. Asaro leaving court in Brooklyn in 2015 after he was acquitted. As he got into a car, he giddily joked: “Don’t let them see the body in the trunk.”Robert Stolarik for The New York TimesIronically, the automobile reference returned to haunt him two years later. He was accused of recruiting a mob associate, who in turn recruited John J. Gotti, the grandson of the former Gambino family boss, to torch the car of a motorist who had cut off Mr. Asaro at a traffic light.The driver was pursued at high speed by Mr. Asaro to no avail. The associate used law enforcement sources to track the license plate, after which Mr. Gotti and two other men located the car in Broad Channel, Queens, doused it with gasoline and set it ablaze. An off-duty police officer parked nearby witnessed the auto-da-fe and pursued the arsonists, but they sped away in a Jaguar.Surprisingly, after a lifetime of denying culpability in crime, Mr. Asaro not only pleaded guilty but also apologized for what he acknowledged was “a stupid thing I did.”He could have been sentenced to 20 years in prison. The prosecution asked for 15, pointing out that although he had “participated in racketeering, murder, robbery, extortion, loan-sharking, gambling and other illegal conduct, he has served less than eight years in jail.”In December 2017, U.S. District Judge Allyne Ross ordered him to serve eight years — which, at 80, Mr. Asaro described as “a death sentence” — and to pay $21,276 in restitution to the owner of the car.“If he had not aged out of a life of crime at the age of 77,” Judge Ross said, referring to his age during the opening phases of the Lufthansa trial, over which she presided, “I have little hope that he will do so.”Two years after the Lufthansa trial, Mr. Asaro was sentenced to eight years in prison over a road rage incident, in which he ordered an associate to torch the car of a motorist who had cut him off at a traffic light.Justin Lane/European Pressphoto AgencyVincent A. Asaro was born on July 10, 1937, in Queens to Joseph and Victoria Asaro, who separated when he was a teenager. His uncle, Michael Zaffarano, owned buildings housing adult theaters, distributed pornography and worked as a bodyguard for Joseph Bonanno, who ran his eponymous crime family for nearly four decades.In 1957, Mr. Asaro married Theresa Myler; they divorced in 2005.Mr. Asaro’s survivors include his son, Jerome. He was arrested with his father in 2014, pleaded guilty to racketeering and was sentenced to seven and a half years’ imprisonment.Mr. Asaro racked up numerous charges and convictions over the course of his life. Among them, he was convicted in federal court in 1970 and 1972 for the theft of an interstate shipment and burglary of a post office. In 1998, he was sentenced in state court in New York to four to 12 years in prison for enterprise corruption and criminal possession of stolen property.Three decades after the notorious Lufthansa heist, the beggarly but still choleric gangster had, according to prosecutors, squandered his $500,000 share of the loot on gambling and depleted whatever he had collected from his unforgiving manner of pursuing delinquent borrowers. He had hocked his jewelry and was seen shopping at a Waldbaum’s supermarket for orzo and lentils.According to a conversation recorded by Mr. Valenti that was played in court in 2015, he was even unwelcome at the local social club where he had celebrated the heist. “People hate me in there,” Mr. Asaro said. “I don’t pay my dues.”Even his estranged son, whom he had initiated into the Mafia and had by then outranked him, rebuffed him when he desperately sought to borrow money, according to another recording.Mr. Asaro had a stroke during his imprisonment for ordering the arson, which left him partly paralyzed. In 2020, he was granted a compassionate release from the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Mo., because of his age and vulnerability to Covid-19.“He obviously had nine lives,” Mr. McMahon said after Mr. Asaro’s death. “But this must have been the tenth.”Joseph Goldstein More

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      How Truths Are Told at a Liquor Store in ‘The Holdovers’

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      The director Alexander Payne narrates a sequence from his film, featuring Paul Giamatti and Dominic Sessa.Alexander Payne narrates a sequence from his film featuring Paul Giamatti and Dominic Sessa.Seacia Pavao/Focus FeaturesIn “Anatomy of a Scene,” we ask directors to reveal the secrets that go into making key scenes in their movies. See new episodes in the series on Fridays. You can also watch our collection of more than 150 videos on YouTube and subscribe to our YouTube channel.It’s time to come clean in this sequence from “The Holdovers,” a comedy set in 1970 during the holiday break at an all-boys boarding school. One student, Angus Tully (played by the newcomer Dominic Sessa) must stay on campus during the break, and a teacher, Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) is tasked with watching him during this time.At one point, the two leave campus for a trip to Boston where Paul runs into, and lies to, an old college acquaintance. Angus confronts his teacher about the lie in this scene in a liquor store that plays out primarily in one take.“In general, if I have the right actors, I like the idea of doing pages of dialogue in single takes,” the film’s director, Alexander Payne, said in an interview. “I think it’s elegant. It’s a lovely way to work. And even going back to film school, I had a Polish directing teacher who was always trying to instill in us the beauty of the of the fluid master, the long take in which you choreograph your actors to the camera.”Rows of liquor bottles separate the characters during one exchange, helping to punctuate the narrative as Paul confesses an incident with his roommate at Harvard that led to dire consequences.For the scene, which was shot at a liquor store in Cambridge, Mass., Payne did a bit of hyperlocal casting. One comic line is delivered by a cashier played by Joe Howell, who actually worked at the store.Read the “Holdovers” review.Sign up for the Movies Update newsletter and get a roundup of reviews, news, Critics’ Picks and more. More

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      Martin and Francesca Scorsese, TikTok’s Dynamic Duo

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      The acclaimed director’s daughter, a filmmaker herself, has been peppering her feed with videos of her father, showing a rarely seen side of him.Step aside, Leonardo DiCaprio. Martin Scorsese seems to have found a new muse: Oscar, his daughter Francesca Scorsese’s aptly named miniature schnauzer.In a playful video posted to her TikTok last week, the director — just days before the release of his latest epic, “Killers of the Flower Moon” — conducted a very important, very serious audition with Oscar.After mentioning that he had been making films for nearly 50 years with brilliant actors — including with DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Ellen Burstyn, Michelle Pfeiffer, Margot Robbie — he said he was ready for a change.“I need to find something that I could take further and to another level,” he tells the pup who is sitting motionless across from him on a tufted ottoman. “What that is I’m not quite sure, but I’ve heard some extraordinary things about you.”“Oscar, show me fear,” he says. “Oscar, show me sadness, love, show me love, show me transcendence.” When the pup goes from sitting to lying, Scorsese yells out, “Brilliant! You’ve got the role.”Martin Scorsese with his latest film subject — Oscar, the miniature schnauzer.Francesca ScorseseThe tightly composed scene — which toggles between Scorsese and Oscar in a dimly lit study and tells the story from Oscar’s point of view — was imagined and directed by Francesca, an actress and filmmaker whose short dramatic film “Fish Out of Water” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May, was shown at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival and will screen at New York Film Week, which began Wednesday.The camerawork on the TikTok post was done from a low angle, “because Oscar’s kind of small, we thought it was so funny,” Francesca, 23, who is a graduate of New York University Tisch School of the Arts (which her father also attended), told The New York Times on Thursday. “Then when the reveal happens, it makes it a little bit more successful because we were actually experiencing it from Oscar’s position.” (She convinced him to lie down at the end with a piece of chicken, his favorite.)It’s a heartwarming insight into perhaps the most famous living director when he is not behind the camera. (Martin Scorsese was amazed, she said, at the speed in which the scene was edited and available to watch.) It also might introduce Scorsese, 80, to a younger generation who may not technically be old enough to watch his most famous works like “Taxi Driver” (1976), “Cape Fear” (1991) or “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013).It wasn’t his first appearance on Francesca’s TikTok. Amid posts that would be at home on any 23-year-old’s page — a cute video of her scrunching her nose to “You Wish” by Flyana Boss; another of her and a friend getting small tattoos and ear piercings — are several cameos of the elder Scorsese.A few weeks ago, in a post that has been viewed more than two million times, she tested his knowledge of slang terms. He was pretty spot on explaining the meaning of “tea” (“tell all you know”) and “ick” (“thoroughly repulsed”), but thought a “sneaky link” was a “personal peccadillo.” She corrected him: “It’s like a booty call.”They have worked together before, including on a Bleu de Chanel commercial this year with Timothée Chalamet. And Francesca says her father is eager to participate in these social media projects with her and sees value in the medium. “The people that he surrounds himself with keep him pretty young,” she said. “DiCaprio texts him and calls him the GOAT, calls him bro, you know they’re buddies.”When she originally explained the concept for the slang video to him, she used the expression GOAT as an example. “People keep saying that to me. People keep calling me the GOAT, but I don’t know what that means,” she recalled him telling her. It stands for “greatest of all time,” she replied, to which he said, “No way! I had no idea.”The TikTok video of Martin Scorsese guessing slang has been viewed over two million times.Francesca ScorseseIn July, she posted a compilation in appreciation of her father with the caption “He’s a certified silly goose.” The 22-second video, which has been viewed more than two million times, includes snippets of the director snuggling a tiny puppy and laughing hysterically in a tuxedo alongside De Niro and Harvey Keitel.“Fine, I’ll watch one of his movies,” a commenter wrote. “Omg love seeing this side of him,” wrote another.His lighthearted tone in these videos stands in contrast not only to his films, known for their haunting and violent themes, but also to some reflections he has made in his recent interviews. When GQ asked him about his own mortality in September, Scorsese said that he thought about it all the time. “I was a great collector, a great obsessive glutton for cinema and books, and now they all have to go away,” he said. “Once you know that you got to let go and you’re going to die, everything changes.”Providing a full picture of Martin Scorsese to the public is a significant part of why his daughter incorporates him on social media and why, years ago, she encouraged him to start an Instagram account, so the public could not only see him at work but also glimpse family photos and see him with his dogs. There’s also a lesser-seen part of his life, which is his role in caring for his wife and Francesca’s mother, Helen Morris, who has Parkinson’s. “He’s a lot more private about that stuff,” Francesca said. “People would think it’s this luxurious, glitz and glamour lifestyle. But then on the other hand, he’s in and out of hospital visits with her.”Some of that life experience was channeled into “Fish Out of Water,” her thesis film at N.Y.U., which was about a young mother who has an opportunity to reconnect with her estranged family after she is approached by her father with news of her mother’s failing health.While Martin Scorsese first dipped a toe into social media on Instagram, it was the introduction of TikTok that has allowed Francesca to give the world another perspective on her father, she said.“It’s really awesome to see that one of the most incredible filmmakers, he’s not just this big star that people see — I mean, he is — but he’s also a totally normal person that walks around in his pajamas, plays with his dogs and just helps his daughter with her math homework if he can,” she said. “People love seeing that side of him.” More

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      From ‘The Exorcist’ to ‘Bambi,’ These Movies Messed Us Up as Kids

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      Our first horror movie is often a memory imprinted on our brain and, for some of us, our heart.How young is too young to watch a scary movie?With Halloween approaching, we asked you, the reader, to share your experiences of this rite of passage. Nearly 1,000 people responded with indelible memories; for some, watching a scary movie at a young age inspired a lifelong love of horror movies.Among those we heard from, the most common ages to be exposed to a hair-raising movie seemed to be from 7 to 10, peaking at age 8. But many were also freaked out as teenagers and even as adults.You watched them at the local movie theater; on a black-and-white television; at your neighbor’s house when your parents thought you were being closely supervised; with an older sibling who let you tag along; or with a grandparent who thought the PG-rated “Poltergeist” was a great choice for movie night.“The Exorcist,” William Friedkin’s horror masterpiece that turns 50 this year, was mentioned most frequently as your first scary movie, followed by “The Wizard of Oz,” “The Birds” and “Psycho.” But even Disney’s 1942 animated film “Bambi” traumatized many.You also had us looking up lesser-known, eerie cinematic moments: the “wheelers” in “Return to Oz” (1985); the creepy hearse driver’s smile in “Burnt Offerings” (1976); the haunted organ music in “The Ghost and Mr. Chicken” (1966); and Large Marge’s jolting transformation in “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” (1985). We also appreciated the crisp, black-and-white splendor of Gort the robot in “The Day The Earth Stood Still” (1951) and the unexpectedly heart-wrenching ending to the Japanese Kaiju movie “Rodan” (1956).Here are some of our favorite responses.‘The Exorcist’ Still Haunts You”The Exorcist” was mentioned most frequently as your first scary movie.Warner Bros.“My parents were watching it, and it was back when TV only had like five or six stations over the airwaves. This was in a cabin in rural Michigan on a B&W set. I remember my parents telling me it was better to watch it to the end and see the resolution. Later that night, my father got food poisoning and was throwing up a lot. After watching that movie, I thought he was possessed.”— Bill Lester of Long Beach, Calif., on seeing the film at age 7.“My parents did not know and would not have approved. I am now 53 years old so we did not even own a VCR. A babysitter brought one over for the weekend, and we watched not only ‘The Exorcist’ but also ‘Deliverance’ (was our babysitter Hannibal Lecter?).”— Jeff Knops of Seattle, on seeing the film at age 9.“I was so frightened that I pulled the hood of my jacket over my head so that I didn’t have to watch it. It didn’t work. The sounds of the movie scared me just as much. I couldn’t sleep for months. Later I snuck into it a second time in order to overcome my fear. It was equally traumatic.”— Jay Frisch of New York, who sneaked into a theater to watch it at age 13.“My mother’s boyfriend would take me and my 5-year-old sister to horror movies. This was in the ’70s, when you could take kids to terrible movies at second-run theaters, apparently. He told us we were going to see “Benji,” the dog movie. This was not recognized as abuse back then. Many things were not. My sister still has nightmares about it — she’s 51 now.”— Jodi Peterson of Central Illinois, Ill., on seeing the film at age 8.Sketchy SupervisionDon’t let the Blob touch you!Paramount Pictures“One girl of 14 who had been tasked with watching me for the day suggested we all watch ‘The Ring.’ She called my mom to ask for permission, but my mom had misunderstood and thought I’d be watching ‘Lord of the Rings.’”— Holly of Arlington, Mass., on seeing “The Ring” at age 9.“My parents had absolutely forbidden me to watch this movie. Uncharacteristically, they forgot to tell the babysitter. In my memory, I barely slept a wink. I could not go to my parents for comfort, because they had forbidden me to watch the film. I could not go to my sister for comfort because she would certainly inform my parents. So there I lay, rigid, hypervigilant and terrified.”— Tess Tyson of Gig Harbor, Wash., on seeing “The Birds” at age 6.“My mother was out and my 10-year-old cousin was watching me. ‘The Blob’ was on the Friday Night Frights. He made the judgment call I could watch it with him, rather than risk missing any of it by putting me to bed.”— Eric Gansworth of Tuscarora Nation Indian Territory, Tuscarora, N.Y., on seeing “The Blob” at age 5.“I was spending the night with my friend Matt. His mom was at a party so it was just the two of us in the house. Matt’s house had HBO, which meant scary movies in all their R-rated glory. Ten-year-old machismo made us eager to watch. So we watched it. Jiffy Pop and Coke were consumed. Super fun! But THEN when it was time to go to bed, Matt said, “I’m going to sleep in my mom’s bed and wait for her to come home,” leaving me alone in his room in a sleeping bag. I was petrified. Absolutely petrified.”— Jason Heck of Belton, Mo., on seeing “Halloween II” at age 11.You Call These Children’s Movies?!The Wicked Witch of the West, played by Margaret Hamilton, fueled many of your nightmares.MGM“My earliest and most vivid encounter with sheer terror took place in a movie theater when I was 3 years old. It was at the Fresh Pond Cinema in Cambridge, Mass., not during a showing of ‘Cujo’ or ‘It,’ but another dog and clown horror classic (masquerading as a kids’ movie), ‘Air Bud.’ Still indelible in my memory is a particular scene in which the sottish, spiteful clown re-emerges intent on snatching Buddy, our endearing, basketball-dunking dog pal, away from his newfound, but kind, young companion. Even now, I’m not sure what was scarier: watching the clown reappear on the screen, or the deafening, collective cry of fear that erupted from me and the rest of the audience of toddlers.”— Clare Goslant of Cambridge, Mass., on seeing “Air Bud” at age 3.“The wicked witch was the most terrifying thing I had ever seen. I screamed and shut my eyes every time she appeared. That same year, after I had watched ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ I was cast as a wicked witch in my second-grade play. I cried and cried when I came home. I had wanted to play the fairy princess. My mother taught me how to cackle. And she said I’d be the star of the show. She was right.”— Cathy Arden of New York, on seeing “The Wizard of Oz” at age 7.“It was supposed to be a children’s movie, but the scene of Bambi’s mother dying in a forest was something I found terrifying!”— Carter Bancroft of Huntington, N.Y., on seeing “Bambi” at age 5.“My older sister and I were dropped off at the big movie theater for the Saturday matinee. She left me all by myself and went off with her girlfriends. This was before parental helicopter-ing. ‘The Wizard of Oz’ would later be broadcast annually on TV. Kids were able to cuddle with grown-ups in the safety of their own home, with the happy songs, cute little Munchkins and Dorothy’s funny friends. There’s no place like home. That’s a whole different process than I experienced, and it was a whole different picture for me. It was not so much my young age, but watching a family movie in that wild setting, having such a powerful effect on my senses, made it my first scary movie. I was scarred for life.”— Don Feiler of Mattituck, N.Y., on seeing “The Wizard of Oz” at age 5.‘Innocent’ FearJamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode in “Halloween II.”Universal Pictures“The menacing, manic Caligari with his long white hair and elongated hat terrified me as he danced around the tilted landscape and jagged windows. I could not wait for it to be over and for the threatening nonsense to stop. When it was, and my heart stopped racing, I realized I just had my first experience of art.”— Kathleen Brady of New York, on seeing “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” at age 14.“I’m sure I played it cool in front of my friends, but I laid in bed that night filled with dread, fear and regret. Michael Myers was coming for me. I finally went into my parent’s bedroom and woke up my mom and told her what was necessary at the moment — I wasn’t feeling well and needed her help. She took my temperature and tucked me back into bed and I think could tell I just really needed her right then. She sat on my bed and read me stories from a book she kept at her own bedside until the screams of Jamie Lee Curtis were replaced by the laughter of Erma Bombeck, and I was able to drift off to sleep. To this day I’ve never told my mom the truth of why I needed her that night. Maybe she knew all along. But I’m sure it was the last night of her soothing one of her babies to sleep.“My mother is now 90 years old and her senior living facility is showing Hitchcock’s ‘Rear Window’ this weekend. I’m planning to go watch it with her and perhaps afterward we will drink hot tea, finally tell this story, and read her Erma Bombeck book to distract us from any lingering fear. And isn’t that why we watch scary movies? They play out our fears and anxieties on the screen and remind us to find safety in those people and places who make us feel loved.”— Beth Martinez of Austin, Texas, on sneaking into a showing of “Halloween II” at age 14.“The sheer volume of spiders haunts me to this day. I am now a horror cinephile, but that movie wrecked me. The climax has spiders pouring out of the walls, the pipes, the television screen. And when it ended, I experienced this crazy sense of euphoria and pride at having survived something so terrifying. Unfortunately, it also instilled a lifelong fear of all things creepy and crawly — but honestly? I’ve been chasing the high of that first horror movie my whole life.”— Andrew Gombas of Queens, N.Y., on seeing “Arachnophobia” at age 8.“Being frightened by things that can’t really happen is both thrilling and teaches you perspective. Now that I’m grown up, I have a hard time watching scary movies because of all of the scary things that have happened to me in real life. I miss that ‘innocent’ fear.”— Erin Walla of Norway, Mich., on seeing “Horror of Dracula” at age 7.What Were My Parents Thinking?“Here’s Johnny!” is one of the classic phrases spoken by Jack Nicholson in “The Shining.”Warner Brothers“I actually watched this with my dad. Forty-three years later, I continue to jokingly ask, ‘Why did you think this was a good idea?’”— Derik Frederiksen of Seattle, on seeing “The Shining” at age 6.“The fact that no one in the room thought it was a bad idea for a child to be watching gave me true Gen X cred.”— Lynwood Lord, Media, Pa., on seeing “Alien” at age 9.“Why the title didn’t give them pause, I’ll never understand. I had my eyes covered through most of it, so I didn’t see much of the film; the soundtrack was scary enough. When the movie ended, the lights came up in the theater, and still, the stunned crowd sat silent, no one moving. I couldn’t understand why no one was running out of there, and in my little-kid, high-pitched voice, I yelled out, ‘Let’s get out before it starts again!’”— Joey Moskowitz of Paradise Valley, Ariz., on seeing “Psycho” at age 5.Skeptical, but Still ScaredSadako in “Ringu,” the Japanese original of “The Ring.”Basara Pictures“I remember being scared but also dubious of the entire premise of the movie. I just didn’t believe it was plausible for you to run for your life and the guy to catch up with its leisurely stroll.”— Eva Edith of Wasco, Calif., on seeing “Halloween IV” at age 8.“I remembered the scene of Sadako crawling out of the television set very vividly. The only scene that I covered my eyes was when they played the ‘cursed video’ that would give you a call after you’d seen it. Funnily enough, my mom also looked away from the screen. We were a superstitious Asian family, so we weren’t taking any chances.”— Ryan Oquiza, Ashburn, Va., on seeing “Ringu” at age 7.“I remember trying to act cool and not scared, surrounded by my newfound middle school peers. I still had to hide my eyes sometimes. The scene where the demon pops up behind the dad scarred me for life. I had to keep my bedroom door open with the TV on in the next room for the next six months. I swore my house was haunted after that movie.”— Sheridan Posschelle of Denver, on seeing “Insidious Part 1” at age 13. More