Poltergeist messed me up for real! I was way too young, thought it’d be just some ghostly fun— but nah,. That clown scene alone had me checking under my bed for years, and don’t even get me started on that creepy TV static. I legit couldn’t sleep right for days. That movie had me regretting every second, but I couldn’t look away!
I saw IT when I was a little kid, and it messed me up because I misunderstood the plot. Because it shows the kids fighting an evil clown, then 30 years later, returning home to fight it again, I somehow got it into my head that IT was an immortal being that would always return every 30 years, no matter what.
The futility of fighting what is essentially an unkillable god really freaked me out. You can never defeat it, only push it back into hibernation for a little longer.
Somehow, though, it never made me scared of clowns, only of Pennywise. I actually love clowns, both regular circus clowns and horror clowns.