10 Horrifying Halloween Movies Pregnant Women Should Never Watch

I love horror movies so much, but whenever I was knocked up or had an infant in my house I couldn’t tolerate them. All I wanted to do was sit around and watch Baby Boom or Sense And Sensibility over and over again. I needed everything all sweet and warm and cozy and happy. For some reason I just couldn’t handle them, but as soon as my kids were a bit older I went right back to watching them. Here are my picks for what really freaked me out when I had babies, or was getting ready to birth a baby. All of these are an excellent argument for birth control. Warning: I know some of you who are pregnant may be upset by some of these descriptions and yeah, it’s all creepy and awful and depressing, so be careful reading. For the rest of you, some of these images are bloody and/or gross, so don’t yell at me.

The Exorcist 1973

 HA! I’ll just be waiting over here for all you angry readers getting really pissed that I included this crabwalk GIF, which is a scene I still CANNOT watch in the movie. Nope. Noooooope. Do not want. I still have issues with The Exorcist, and it’s still a movie I can’t even watch THE COMMERCIALS of. I should really try and watch it again, now that I’m older. I just know that it reminds me of my childhood, it scares me to death, it has a single mother with a daughter who turns into a demon child and it is so not something a woman who is expecting  a baby needs to be watching. Noooooope. Nope. Nope.

It’s Alive 1974

I’m sure if I watched It’s Alive again, instead of back when I was seven, I wouldn’t be nearly as freaked out by it as I was as a kid. It tells the story of a couple who have a mutant baby after the mom takes prescription drugs during her pregnancy, and the baby is all deformed and fast and chomping on people.

Rosemary’s Baby 1968 

Even though I despise Polanski, Rosemary’s Baby is such a fantastic movie. It’s just one I think would freak any pregnant woman out.

 The Omen 1976

Here’s another fun-filled story with a kid gone horribly, horribly wrong, and the scene in this gif with Damien‘s nanny still freaks me out.

 Village Of The Damned 1960 

Yet another story about pregnancies gone horribly wrong, but this doesn’t just affect one mom, it affects an entire village and any woman or girl of childbearing age. They all give birth (on the same day!) to blond-haired mutant eyed evil kids who makes the townspeople do horrible things, with their minds!

Pet Sematary 1989 

I saw Pet Sematary in theaters when it came out and I still think it’s scary, even though it gets pretty bad reviews by critics. It’s such a sad movie in so many ways, and the scene when Gage Creed gets hit by the truck is so awful and it really struck a chord with me. He is so cute and he turns so evil just from being buried in the Pet Sematray! Plus, I love all the scenes with Fred Gwynne, as Jud Crandall who tells Louis to leave well enough alone and that sometimes dead is better. It is better! The ground is sour! Argh! Plus, the scene with Rachel‘s sister in the bed, do not want do not want do not want.

 Grace 2009 

(Image:IMDB)

If you haven’t seen Grace yet I highly recommend it, as long as you aren’t breastfeeding. It tells the story of a mom who after a terrible car accident loses her baby, but she carries it to term anyway, and for some reason her daughter is born alive. Kinda. And it is very hungry. And there is some awesome sancti-mother-in-law shaming in the beginning.

 Children Of The Corn 1984

It’s another movie with not just one evil kid, but a whole town of them. I should re-watch this one again, because it has been many years since I have seen the original, but I can still remember being totally spooked by Malachi and his creepy pagan “He who walks behind the rows” crew.

 Inside 2007

(Image: IMDB)

À l’interieur is a French movie that tells the story of a pregnant woman who gets her home invaded by Beatrie Dalle, who poses as a nurse in a hospital on Christmas Eve. It’s all nonstop violence and gore and there are tons of murders and a C-section performed with a pair of scissors and it’s all incredibly awful. But it’s also an amazingly great movie, just one you don’t wanna see when pregnant.

Martyrs 2008

(Image:IMDB)

Actually, Martys isn’t safe for anyone to watch, and it has caused more people to become furious with me for recommending it more than any other movie I have ever recommended. It’s the only horror movie I have ever cried through while watching. It’s also the only horror movie I still find myself thinking about after seeing it, even though it has been a few years. It’s also the only movie I will never, ever watch again, even though the producers behind Twilight have planned an American remake of the movie, and I have NO idea why. And it’s the only movie that when I do suggest it to people, I tell them not to watch it. I’m still not sure why it bothered me as profoundly as it did. It’s about child abuse, which is awful to begin with, but it’s not just an exploitive gore film, it has all these elements about loss and the afterlife and ugh, it upsets me even to talk about it! The big problem is it’s a really GOOD movie, in the sense that it’s incredibly well-acted and it goes well beyond the genre of horror, but it’s very upsetting. I don’t get all pearl-clutchy about a lot of things, but this movie is one of them. Even now I still like to read movie message boards where it is discussed try and figure out why it affected me how it did, and to get all rage-y at teenagers who comment that it isn’t “that scary.” It’s so scary, and sad, and moving, and ugh.

(Image:Bluray.com)