Reilly Was ’scared Witless’ By Halloween Movie

Actor JOHN C. REILLY was scarred for life as a child when his mother took him to see gruesome slasher movie HALLOWEEN on the scariest night of the year (31Oct).

The Boogie Nights actor recalls how he and his younger brother were taken to see the 1978 horror film, about a masked murderer, before they were even teenagers - and were left “scared witless” by the John Carpenter movie.

And Reilly blames the terrifying experience for “damaging” his fragile mind.

He says, “I was 12 years old and my mum decided, on Halloween, to take me to see Halloween, one of the most horrific stabbing movies of our time. My mum had no idea, so she took me and my nine-year-old brother to see the movie and we had never seen anything like it.

“We were literally scared witless. That bad kind of scary like you feel, like you’re being damaged. I asked my mum, ‘What were you thinking when the guy in the white mask was stabbing people? Did you ever think maybe we should just leave?’ She was like, ‘That didn’t happen, that wasn’t so bad.’ She probably thought he’d take off the mask and make friends with them or something.

“We were walking out of that movie theatre and I’ll never forget we were so sensitised to everything. We were walking and heard a twig snap and we (jumped), thinking a man in a white mask would jump out.”