I didn't watch any 'Cert 18' films at the cinema until I was 17, but the first one (not a horror though), was 'Terminator'. Loved it!!!! Such a classic. Nowadays the old cert 18 films are pretty tame by comparison to recent stuff and the old ones probably on;y qualify for 'Cert 15' at the most.
Not the first X rated (I guess beyond that) but one of my mates got hold of the VHS version of Driller Killer when we were in 6th form (well that and a porno lol). We all piled around his house with alcohol to watch both. It seemed the ultimate at the time given it was on the video nasties banned list in the UK at the time.
I watched Fright Night in a cinema in Toulouse. We were 10 and it was nearly empty, it was terrifying . The other one that really got to me was Camdyman when I was about 18. Since then I avoid horror - if I’m watching a film I want to be entertained not traumatised
I was 17 when I saw The Exorcist at the cinema when it was first released.
There was a huge amount of hype around it, certian councils refused to let it be shown.
St John's Ambulance were on hand at the cinema in case of faintings, trauma etc.
The cinema was packed, there was a procession of blokes taking their crying girlfriends out of the cinema as the film went on.
It scared the crap out of me, I found it seriously disturbing for quite a few days.
I was going to watch The Omen and hated it, I realised that horror films and me really don't work.
I haven't watched another 'real' horror film since.
Had to think about this, the only thing approaching scary I saw at the cinema was The Silence of the Lambs.
Actually, also Sex and the City 2
Carrie, The Fly, Alien, quite a few of the ones already mentioned but the worst by miles was Watership Down. Utterly terrifying.
Not at the cinema, but alone at night as a kid I watched both The Exorcist and The Thing. Both gave me sleepless nights.
The first 18 I watched at the cinema was Blade. I would have been 16 then, and I remember it well because we had to try three times to get in as my best mates mum and sister both worked there, so we had to find a day neither were working. The first two visits we watch What Dreams May Come (Robin Williams) and Armageddon. My word, simple times...
The first one I saw that gave me sleepless nights was Jeepers Creepers - guessing I would have been 18 or 19 then, but the little dirt road the "creeper" lived on was identical to an old farm track I had to walk down to get home (no street lights, no traffic - creepy at the best of times!)
I remember watching Aliens on telly when I was about 11 or 12 though. Babysitter fell asleep and that armoured car the Colonial Marines had was just too cool to pass up.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre was another particularly gruesome horror largely because it was rumoured to be based on a true story. Didn’t see it at The Flicks though
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The Howling...I was 12 and it scared the **** out of me.
Showing my age but the first X rated film I saw at the cinema was The Evil Dead. Properly scary in the day but looks dated now.
Friday the 13th was my first at a cinema. My friends and I nearly died of fright at the very end: the sole survivor girl is in a row boat on a lake, its dawn, and the police car has just turned up. Expecting the credits and then the arm comes out of the water.
Two of us jerked so violently we smashed our knees against the wooden seats in front of us and were in some pain.
A couple of years later (aged about 16) on the first night ever sleeping home alone with my parents and brother away, it really was a stupid idea to watch A Nightmare On Elm Street. I think I stayed up until dawn not wanting to sleep
At the cinema The Exorcist scared me, I was a bit jumpy walking home. Before that and on TV it was The Uninvited (with Ray Milland).
My first X-rated film was back in the early 60's at the Stoll in Newcastle. My friend's grandad was the uniformed doorman and he used to let us in under age. Vincent Price in The Pit and the Pendulum. He seemed to dominate horror films around then.
Alien was the first X rated film I saw in the cinema (I think it was X rate anyway). Sixteen year old me thought it would be a good idea to take a girl to see it as a first date. I don't think she was too impressed...
Quatermas not on the Cinema but on TV in the early 50s, I remember hiding behind the settee when it was on :)