Movies or TV shows never scared me.
My Dad for most of his younger life worked 2 jobs. One day he did not stack wood on the back porch before he went to work. I was about 5. Before bedtime Mom told me to go outside in the dark and get wood for the night fire. We lived on a small farm, you could hear coyotes yippin and yappin as dark rolled in.
Then my uncles were always talking about catamounts and panthers.
One uncle had a wood nail barrel, maybe 18 inches tall and 12" across. He stretched a wet goat skin and nailed it down. Sort of looked like a hillbilly drum except he drilled a small hole in the center. He cut a bunch of horse tail hair off and put them thru the hole. He rosined the tail hair. When he pulled it in short strokes it sounded like a lion. It would make your hair stand on end. He would tell the stories about wolves and bears and panthers to us little kids.
Makes your little brain imagine all kinds of deadly deaths.
I think mom was trying to toughen me up, she said get the wood, I said no, I was standing next to the open door, she gave me a push and shut the door.
We did not have a light in the back yard nor on the porch.
I 1st saw their eyes, bright red, many eyes. Wolves, panthers and perhaps even the boogie man.
I went ballistic on the back door, kicking and screaming. Mom let me in and went out to get some wood.
Maybe it was that event but movies never scared me. I did not like being a wussy baby. I started going out on the porch at night. I got over it. I do not mind the dark at all now.
It happened when I was 5, 63 years ago, I still remember the red eyes I thought I saw. One needs to be careful of how you toughen up little kids.
When I was 13-14 I was squirrel hunting several farms over as it got dark one spring. There was enough moonlight to allow me to see OK. I was walking along the bluffs quietly. A bobcat in lust was probably 20 yards from me when it let out the blood curdling mating call. It sounds like a woman being pulled apart and is screaming loudly. I jumped part way out of my skin. I knew what it was but had never been that close before. Each time it squealed my hair would stand on end. I walked much faster and got home quickly.
I guess we'll never get to see The Outlaw Josey Wales 
