Be honest: Raise your hand if you're switching lanes or taking the next exit if you get stuck behind a log truck. Whatever, don't bother... I already know your hand is up and, yep, mine is too. It doesn't matter that it's been two decades since Final Destination first hit theaters or that, rationally, we know the odds of a log-truck catastrophe are low. It doesn't matter one bit, because an entire generation can't shake the paranoia that one loose piece of lumber could, well, you know.
In our youth, we were handed VHS tapes and given access to basic cable at a deeply impressionable age. Then left there to our own devices. Some of what we watched fell under the horror movie umbrella. Some didn't. But it all left us with oddly specific fears, creating a collective flavor of millennial anxiety.
Maybe it's crossing the street to avoid storm drains. Or, naturally, switching lanes whenever we see a log truck. Either way, the following films rewired our nervous system.
Final Destination (2000)
Fear unlocked: Existing. Just existing.
I mean, come on… the entire franchise is basically one long list of irrational millennial fears. Sure, the log truck gets all the attention, but nothing was really safe: airplanes, tanning beds, roller coasters, escalators, even Chinese takeout. That Lasik surgery you wanted? Nope, you’ll take your chances with blurry vision. There’s a long list of activities you can’t do without briefly storyboarding your own demise due to these movies. Death has a design, Susan.
Jaws (1975)
Fear unlocked: Any body of water deeper than a bathtub.
Technically before our time, but it aired on TV roughly every other weekend, so here we are. Why yes, I am a functioning adult with a mortgage, and I still don’t love the deep end of the pool. And if I’m at the beach and something in the actual ocean touches my foot? Get ready for a miracle, because you’re going to see me walk on water.
Twister (1996)
Fear unlocked: Storms.
Every time the sky turned dark, we half-convinced ourselves a cow was about to fly past our window. Weather-anxious millennials have at least one weather-watching app downloaded on our phones at all times, and we obviously have already identified the safest interior room in our house and rehearsed our emergency plan. Also, we still have unresolved feelings about what poor Aunt Meg went through.
The Ring (2002)
Fear unlocked: Static on the TV.
You watched a cursed videotape and were then afraid of your own television for the better part of a decade. The grainy static. The immediate fear if the phone rings right after you turn on the TV. The possibility that a soaking-wet child with inexplicable upper-body strength might crawl out of the screen. An entire cohort of women won’t, to this day, let their wet hair hang down in front of their face in a dimly lit bathroom… just in case.
Arachnophobia (1990)
Fear unlocked: Putting on shoes without checking first.
You check your shoes. You check the toilet before you sit down. You inspect every banana like you work part-time for the TSA. You need to clear every damp, dark corner before you can get too comfortable. Did this movie invent the fear of spiders? No. Did it weaponize it and imprint it upon us for all eternity? You betcha.
Scream (1996)
Fear unlocked: Answering the phone.
Thank god for automatic screening these days, because there was a time when you would frankly rather perish than answer a call from an unknown number. Kids today will never understand the specific dread activated by a ringing landline — especially if you were home alone. Bonus points if you also started checking to make sure every door and window was locked before settling in for the night! We have a whole protocol, and we can blame it on Drew Barrymore.
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Fear unlocked: The woods.
The entire concept of spending time in the woods after dark was temporarily retired from your life in 1999. Hell, you may never have reinstated it. Also retired: any interest we may have had in standing in a corner facing the wall, which, up until this movie, had been a fairly neutral activity. And it goes without saying that any suspiciously arranged cluster of sticks is absolutely getting bombastic side-eye.
Titanic (1997)
Fear unlocked: Icebergs.
Look, most of us were never going to encounter an iceberg. We understood that. But that sure didn’t stop me from asking how many lifeboats were on the ship and memorizing the best potential emergency exits when I took a cruise to Alaska my senior year. Titanic taught us that disaster can strike at any moment, that you should never trust a man named Cal, and that there was definitely room on that f*cking door.
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Fear unlocked: Hallways at night.
“I see dead people.” We’ll be quoting that line until we take our dying breaths, and then our millennials' asses turn into the ones haunting people. After watching this movie, many of us developed a strategy for nighttime trips to the bathroom: move as quickly as you can, avoid eye contact with dark corners, and don’t look behind you. Oh, and for sure don’t look underneath the bed.
Candyman (1992)
Fear unlocked: Bathroom mirrors.
You knew the rule then, and you know the rule now: Nobody was saying his name five times. Nobody. Even those rare millennials who grew up to be skeptical adults and claim not to believe in urban legends somehow find themselves still unwilling to test the theory. To be fair, though, some things just aren’t worth tempting fate over.
It (1990)
Fear unlocked: Storm drains and red balloons.
Next to the log truck, there is arguably nothing that inspires a millennial to divert their path quite like a storm drain. We crossed streets to avoid them back in the day, and whether we admit it to ourselves or not, we continue to give them a wide berth. Although the new sequels certainly didn’t do anything to dispel this irrational fear, let us be clear: It’s Tim Curry’s face that occupies the obscure part of our brains reserved only for trauma and our childhood phone numbers.
Jurassic Park (1993)
Fear unlocked: Ripples in a water glass.
To this day, a low rumble that causes the surface of your water to ripple makes you scan your surroundings for something enormous and ill-tempered. You also know, in your very bones, that you could never outrun a velociraptor. As a matter of fact, if there’s a second coming of carnivorous dinosaurs, someone go ahead and put me out of my misery early.
The NeverEnding Story (1984)
Fear unlocked: Swamps.
This movie may not have been as traditionally "scary" as some others on the list, but, in some ways, it was worse. It was an emotional wrecking ball. A vulnerability annihilator. The tender moment we watched Artax sink into the Swamp of Sadness as a child, something inside all of us changed forever.
source https://www.scarymommy.com/entertainment/movies-that-made-millennials-afraid-of-everything
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