Banshee scene scared me sh**less!!


My God, I was scared to death that I had nightmares. TWO, in fact, that I clearly remember.

1) I scream hysterically insane whenever I heard her wailing right OUTSIDE my bedroom window every single night. Doctors and my mother would restrain me while I scream horrifically "MAKE IT STOP!!!!" Geeeezus, it almost felt like The Exorcist or something.

2) Imagine you're in a fairly big house, it's dark and stormy outside, and you keep hearing this unusual sound coming from downstairs, all the way down to the basement. That's what happened in this dream. I get up from bed, creep down the stairs, following the sound. I walk to the door leading to the basement and descend down the stairs. The place is dark (of course) with vague dim lights, the floor is covered with gray or green mist and there across from me is the banshee herself. She even spoke to me, more like hissing, "What are you doing here?! Get out!" I didn't move of course, you can guess why. So she makes a loud scream-like wail from the movie. And that's all I can remember.

I never wanted to see that movie again, particularly the banshee scenes. I became afraid of walking out of my room at night when the living room is completely dark. Remember when Darby's daughter was lying in bed unconcious and he heard the banshee's wailing outside the house and he leaves the room, opens the front door and there, floating up to him is the banshee's scary-beyond-all-reason face?

I sound like a mental wreck, don't I?

reply

Nah. She is Terrifing! i'm glad I have never had those nightmares! But perhaps you need to reflect on other things less gruesome than ghosts. Think on all that is good and pure and you will be fine.

I mainly like the Irish feeling in this one since I can relate to that.

And Darby and the King are so great.








Ah the lucky Lepercauns!

reply

Same here! This was my favorite movie when I was little but I was terrified of the banshee. Since it kept me awake, I had to try a different tactic. I pretended she was real and that she was actually really nice and just misunderstood (hey I was only five and I had a very active imagination). Yes, therefore, the banshee became my invisible friend. She protected me from the other monsters and ghosts (such as the headless horseman of Sleepy Hollow. I hated him). But secretly I was still afraid of her.

reply

Just think. This was achieved without computers.

reply

[deleted]

as a little kid the banshee scared me EVERY time i saw it

reply

Oh yes, I was 7 when I saw it in the theatre and the banshee sent me over the edge with cold fear for years afterwards.

reply

I was also seven years old in summer of 1959, and the banshee was, to my mind, the scariest thing I'd ever seen. I did that classic thing that little kids do of covering my eyes with my hand, but then spreading the fingers apart so I could see the banshee anyway.

Didn't give me nightmares, and if anything, I'd have to say the "death coach" was just as disturbing as the banshee or maybe even more. I think maybe the banshee scares little boys a wee bit less than she does little girls, 'cause she's a "girl" too.

"I don't deduce, I observe."

reply

Yes! I was watching the movie alone in my parents' bedroom on the "Wonderful World of Disney," while my brother and sister watched downstairs in the TV room. I went shrieking down the stairs - much to my older siblings' amusement. I never faced the apparition again (expect in my vivid memory) until the movie made another run during my senior year in high school. Even then (and probably now), the image was incredibly and believably spooky.

reply

Yep, frightened the fook outta me too alright...

Marge: This is terrible! How will the kids get home?
Homer: I dunno. Internet?

reply

[deleted]

Can someone give me a link with the pic of the banshee? Thanks.

reply

Can someone give me a link with the pic of the banshee? Thanks.

Here you go, three years and three months later. Happy St. Patrick's Day!


http://bp1.blogger.com/_MyrnRTwTUFk/R93oM5xzlII/AAAAAAAAG-k/PDMLTK1jj-Q/s1600-h/BaNSHEE.jpg

cinefreak

reply

Funny how that link to the Banshee picture has "AAAAAAAAG" in it.

While it didn't scare me as a kid, the Banshee became my favorite monster, beating out dinosaurs and Universal monsters. I drew endless pictures of her in art class at school -- to the point that the teacher thought there was something "wrong" with me.

She was right!

reply

Funny how that link to the Banshee picture has "AAAAAAAAG" in it.

While it didn't scare me as a kid, the Banshee became my favorite monster, beating out dinosaurs and Universal monsters. I drew endless pictures of her in art class at school -- to the point that the teacher thought there was something "wrong" with me.

She was right!


Naah! Nothing was wrong with you! Kids get obsessions!
My mother wouldn't let me watch the Universal monster crowd when I was a kid. Many years later I asked her why and she told me that as an eight year old girl they had scared her. All I could think of, although I didn't say it, was 'of all the stupid reasons, Ma!'
It wasn't the banshee that scared me, though. It was the death coach. (I forget what they called it in Gaelic).

reply

I was well beyond the age of being scared when I saw this, but I did consider the death coach scene more chilling than the banshee.

Life, every now and then, behaves as though it had seen too many bad movies

reply

Actually, banshees don't scare me. I've known too many of them.

cinefreak

reply

Aw, you don't sound mental! the banshee IS wicked scary. And you know what is really funny? It's a DISNEY movie from the 1950's!! and I am an adult, and I still won't watch the banshee scenes if I am alone. *pat pat*

reply

Are you kidding me!??!?! I'm over 30 and just reading this posting makes my skin crawl. God, I haven't seen the end of that movie in over 20 years, and I can already hear her wails and screams. I had nightmares for months about her being right outside the door ready to pounce.

To this very day, I can deal with all kinds of horror films, gross-out blood scenes, the quick hand on the shoulder scream, or even foreshadowing something awful to about to happen moments. No problem, BRING IT ON!

The moment you have some sort of supernatural creature rush towards the camera wailing and screaming, I'm back to being a scared little boy inthe corner screaming TURN IT OFF!! TURN IT OFF!!!

Clive Barker, Wes Craven... Do you have any idea (and I guess you do) how embarrasing it is to admit that the scariest movie you've ever seen is a Disney film?

reply

[deleted]

omg! i've found my people! everyone makes fun of me...

i saw this at school in 5th grade (13 years ago) and i've never watched it since. I wont watch it only cause of that *bleeping* banshee.

x(

~ Oh, I forgot to tell you... I'm AWESOME! ~

reply

I truly feel like I started support group. XD At least here, no one will make fun of you. That banshee gave me quite a train wreck. So terrifying, yet it's hard to look away. D:

reply

[deleted]

I saw this movie in the cinema when I was 8 or 9. Not just the banshee, but the headless coachman as well.

Disney had a talent for scaring the living daylights out of small kids. The headless horseman in the legend of Sleepy Hollow, and the dragon in Sleeping Beauty terrified me as well.


Love is never having to say you're sober.

reply

Yep--me too. My ancestry may be more Scottish than Irish, but I still get scared by both the Banshee and the Death Coach, even though I've seen this wonderful film probably at least a dozen times, starting with its original theatrical release.

Kindly ol' Unca Walt has probably been responsible for more nightmares and long-lasting trauma than any dedicated horror film producer...perhaps because if a movie is called something like "Frankenstein Strangles the Wolfman", you know up-front it's intended to scare the pants off you. But if it has a friendly, folksy title like Darby O'Gill and the Little People, then--unless you've been warned by, say, your fellow posters at IMDb--you're not going to know what you're getting into UNTIL IT'S TOO LATE AND YOU'VE BEEN DRIVEN UTTERLY MAD WITH TERROR BWAHAHAHAHAAAAH

(Sorry about that last part--I've been reading too many old Dave Barry columns lately. )

Seriously though, I'm a big fan of Disney movies, and I especially love the scary parts--maybe in part because I know everything will turn out all right in the end.

Other favorite scares include: Snow White's terrified escape through the forest; the Wicked Queen's transformation into the Hag (both from, duh, Snow White); the Coachman assuring Honest John and Gideon that there's no worry about Pinocchio returning from Pleasure Island, since "Once they're there, they never come back...AS BOYS!"; Lampwick's transformation into a donkey (both from Pinocchio); the attack of the Tyrannosaurus rex in The Rite of Spring; Chernabog smiling in sheer evil enjoyment of his "party" in Night on Bald Mountain (both from Fantasia).

There are plenty more, but I think "Favorite Disney Scares" actually deserves a topic of its own.


I wish my life was a non-stop Hollywood movie show.—R. D. Davies


reply

i watch this movie for the first time when i was about 5 years old, to this day, im 31 now, i havnt watch this movie since because of her. i wont let my kids watch it ether, i thought i was crazy because you can turn off the movie and i could still hear her screams! no movie has scared me like this and i dont think any movie will, my friends thought i was insane untill i told them to go watch it and they agreed it is the scariest part of any movie made. dose anybody know who did the voice for her?

reply

[deleted]

This has always been one of my favorite movies, but when I was little and knew the banshee was coming i would leave the room, but then i was too scared to be in the other room by myself, because I had already subjected to her. To this day, i can sit through realistic computer generated scariness, but that banshee still freaks the bejeezzes out of me. And talk about unreasonable, I can't stand to have the the curtains drawn at night with the all that blackness behind the glass because of that darn banshee. It's funny how a cute little Disney movie with singing a "sigh" Sean Connery, can affect people like this.

reply

You'll never know how happy this thread makes me.

I was about 6 when I saw this movie, and a couple of years later my parents took me to Ireland on holiday. Needless to say I wet the bed in my hotel room every night... convinced I could hear the banshee.

Earlier this year, now in my early 50s, I returned to Ireland, to the same town I'd stayed in as a child. The hotel has closed down, but I told a few people about my 'mishap' and what caused it.

I haven't seen the film for a few years, but since I'm visiting Ireland again later this month, it might be best to avoid it for now.

It's good to know that I'm not the only one that remembers, and fears, the banshee.

reply

im glad as well that im not the only one!
i saw it when i was about 6 or 7, watching it alone and at night.. when the banshee part came on, i ended up hiding behind a chair until i could gather my courage enough to run upstairs to where my mom was lol

i havent seen the movie since =\, now at age 24 i want to go see it again lol

reply

ITs the crys thats the worst thing about it, its the way a ghost should look

reply

The Banshee scared me half to death! I would have to leave the room whenever she appeared. The strange thing is, I was fascinated by it at the same time, and I couldn't stop watching it. My parents were sick and tired of me complaining about the Banshee Shadow, and then asking if I could watch it again the very next day!

What, somebody blows their nose and you want to keep it? -Ghostbusters

reply