What changed my life was coming across the Classics Illustrated comic of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" in a doctor's office at the tender and impressionable age of 6 or 7. I was so terrified by the slavering fury of the illustrated hound that it messed up my life for years and years afterward, made me afraid of the dark, caused nightmares, and gave me a phobia that was never really cured till I reached my later teen years. It helped defuse the whole thing to read the actual story by Conan Doyle. I read all the Sherlock Holmes stories when I hit about age 16, and I loved them.

Another thing that changed my life for a short time was the shock of seeing "The Exorcist" on the very first day it opened in Toronto, not having had the slightest idea of what the movie was even about! I just walked in with 3 friends. We picked the movie at random. Boy did that film ever scare me. Holy crap! It sort of bothered me for months afterward, and I was really quite angry at the people who had made the film for putting those fears in my head. If I'd had some forewarning of what to expect, it wouldn't have had anything like that degree of impact. I have since learned to at least find out what a movie is about before I buy the ticket.

Viewings of the same film now don't bother me much, although I'd still say it's a tremendously effective horror film, practically without peer.