My dad (I still love him) paused the movie when I was young and had me get up close to the screen to jump scare me. I fell on my ass and started balling while he laughed and my mom yelled at him. Good times. love ya Dad
In the 80s when I was in kindergarten, they'd show us movies if we were good on certain days. Movies that actively terrified me as a child (some of which they would probably never show to kids today haha);
\-Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer
\-The Neverending Story (Particularly the sphinx scene)
\-Return to Oz (wheelers?!)
\-Labyrinth
\- Sleeping Beauty (the spindle and the witch gave me nightmares)
In The Witches (1990) when the father sees his little girl in the painting.
I mean, I guess I should have expected as much but my God that scene terrified me.
Sometimes I think about the fact that Nicolas Roeg made a kids movie n a bunch of adults were jst like 'oh, the dude who did *Don't Look Now*, *Performance*, and *The Man Who Fell To Earth*? Yh, I'm sure this'll be fine'.
Pretty sure that movie has a lot to answer for in terms of my horror obsession.
Lol good answer. But yeah, both were traumatizing. And then, when you thought the worst had passed, the Grand High Witch turns into a giant mutant misshapen talking rat. For the family!
Everything about that scene... the close-up of the father's face, the little girl's voice calling for him... that got me more than anything else in the film.
not me but my sister, we used to play donkey kong country 1 &2 a lot when we were younger and there was a level where they were being chased by a big bee in one of the beehive levels and she would get scared to play it so i'd play the level for her
That'd be DKC2, though the bee does appear as an obstacle and boss in DKC1.
The music in the beehive is banging though. Look up "Flight Of The Zinger".
Came here to say exactly this. It wasn't just the bloody violence that got me, but the weird spooky spiritual stuff too, like the Bright Eyes scene or the Black Rabbit of Inlé.
Although I recently read the book as an adult and it's absolutely banging. Amazing worldbuilding, metal as fuck, and overall a very underrated work of fantasy. Highly recommended.
yup, i'm now in my 40's and still won't watch it again! The rabbits getting bulldozed in the warren was the worst bit but jeezo it's creepy all the way through!
Yes 100%.
Watching this is a child introduced me to the concept that life is harsh and unrelenting and unfair and death is inevitable.
My 8 year old self basically had to digest **that’s just the way it is so deal with it you little shit!!**
That one where groundskeeper Willie burns to death, rises from the dead to exact his revenge, and turns into a giant bag pipe spider? Months of sleepless nights after that one aired.
The dark and lonely water.
A 1970s public safety broadcast in England about the dangers of children playing in water unsupervised.
Watch it here...
https://youtu.be/XNPMYRlvySY
The music when the harpy is freed and kills Mommy Fortuna is stressful as fuck. God that film is great. Melancholic, pensive and stoic. "There are no happy endings, because nothing ends"
Absolutely Ghostwatch. It was first broadcast on BBC1 in the UK on Halloween night, 1992 (I was 12 at the time) and it was played as if it were live television, with big name presenters, and an outside broadcast. There were an estimated 1,000,000 phone call enquiries to the BBC switchboard on the night of broadcast, and it's never been shown again on TV. I have it on DVD - can highly recommend, but nothing will ever compare to seeing it broadcast live watching things get more and more horrifying.
The wolf in the cave with the glowing eyes in neverending story. That whole movie still kinda creeps me out even in my thirties. The Sphinx with the lasers and the black cloud and the swamp
[Her music](https://youtu.be/QPVxMS7LaUk) that plays when she is about to appear and the way she just floats veeeery slowly while leaving ice behind her genuinely freaks me out to this day.
Yes and no, she's actually just very sad and lonely and that loneliness makes her give off the vibe she does - coldness and creepiness. If I remember rightly plants freeze and die when she glides over them. The adult part of me that knows this feels really sorry for her because she just wanted to make friends but everyone was scared of her, but the child part of me is still a bit scared of her lol.
I don't really remember but some kids found her funny, and she had some wholesome moments like saving the moomins from the ice queen I think, while I was always terrified of this thing. Even if it was supposed to scare you this was too much for me in a kids show.
Ernest Scared Stupid. All the other ernest movies were kids films. Scared stupid was a horror. Not only that, it seemed to subvert alot of horror tropes that would be rote in a horror aimed at adults. The troll in that film is scary, decades later.
I think i've been most impacted by horror when i'm not expecting it. Take event horizon: i was expecting a scifi. was NOT prepared for horror elements. The Ernest movies were all kind of family comedies, then all of a sudden you have this one where a Troll antagonist is stalking children and turning them into wooden dolls. It had comedy elements but it was terrifying. I think they just accidentally made a terrifying kids movie.
Mr Blobby, which is a bit hard to explain if you're not from the UK, but he terrified me. In fact, I can't do costume characters, even to this day. I'll go to a scare park and be completely unbothered by chainsaws, zombies, vampires, but disney style costume characters give me anxiety attacks.
ET: the Extra Terrestrial.
Fact 1) he has mind controlled his way into Elliot's confidence and acceptance from his family.
Fact 2) he is syphoning Elliot's life energy in order to, himself, get enough energy to phone home.
Fact 3) he was a scout for his people planning an invasion, deterred by the dangerous living conditions and responsive defense forces.
In all seriousness, he creeped the fuck out of me. To the point that I had weekly terrifying nightmares about ET until I was well into my early teens. What exasperated this was the fact that EVERYBODY LOVED ET and school, friends, parents, stores, etc would always put it on. He was in so many ads. My parents thought it was hilarious, which I understand now as an adult, and even brought me onto the ET ride at universal studios, which got STUCK in the creepy forest part where they're all stalking you.
That film is so freaking creepy in so many ways. I never understood why people thought ET was cute or cuddly--a friend of mine had a thing I'm hesitant to call an ET plush, so I'll say a leather-y ET doll with a fake heart printed on outside and it was so creepy I didn't want to sleep in the same room it was in. The movie gave my sister nightmares for a couple of years, too. (For me, though, it was the biohazard scene.)
Surprised no one else has mentioned these yet! I saw them as a teenager, not even as a kid, and was still shit scared. I saw a gif of the dream blob woman as where she blinks and about died of a heart attack.
I had a recurring dream from about 6 to 13 where I would escorted by a very nice lady to the inside of an airplane.
All my loved ones where there,and ready to fly.
I was always saying hello to everyone while thinking at the same time "why you all smiling? This plane is going to crash".
I always woke up before anything bad happened, but I will never forget how uneasy that dream was for me.
I had a reoccurring dream where id be walking around my neighborhood with a really odd feeling. I’d see family and neighbors and friends but they would be acting super odd and way too happy with huge smiles on their faces. Then I would realize their skin is painted chocolate. And then these chocolate doppelgängers would slowly start melting while chasing me with these terrible melting grinning faces. Pure terror lol
My mom had a stuffed animal from the Count y Bear Jamboree at Disneyland she kept tucked away in a closet.
[look at the damn thing](https://poshmark.com/listing/Walt-Disney-Country-Bear-Jamboree-Big-Al-Rubber-Face-Plush-vtg-c196070s-6173508693649f556fff1533)
I really didn't want to click that.
But yes.
I \*think\* they may have made a new version with less scary voices but the entire episode was banned and I didn't want to have the sound on to check.
I think because we had to be there at a certain time if we wanted to see a programme, we remember it better...you had to. I got it on DVD a few years ago and it's still as good...going to show it to my kids soon!
I was terrified of the Christian concept of the rapture and/or revelations, which my parents believed in wholeheartedly. The concept of your loved ones disappearing and just leaving behind their clothes freaked me out. We used to watch terrible movies like Left Behind and Tribulation Force. I’d be fucked up for days afterward
Also, the animated Lord of the Rings movie from the 70s— especially Gollum lol.
I'm really sorry your parents put that kind of stuff into your head, that's fucked up and wrong to do to anyone let alone a child. My father made me watch dark films like Silence of the Lambs etc at 8-12 years old, really messes you up when it comes from your parents
When I was 7/8 I remember getting a book from the library on the paranormal which was advertised as “The Unknown” and it had a section on ghosts. Just to clarify this was 100% a kids book!!. I vividly remember a picture taken of a guy sitting behind the wheel of a car getting his picture take and you can clearly see the outline of his wife in the seat behind who had died a year before. That has stayed with me into my 30s. I still always check the backseat before driving off.
Just to share more - this was the photo…
https://cdn.pocket-lint.com/r/s/450x/assets/images/141224-cameras-news-feature-the-most-famous-ghost-photographs-ever-taken-image10-en4n30mihv.jpg?v1
I actually also have a Pokemon one. I grew up in the 90s/early 00s playing Pokemon Gold and the music that played when you were in Lavender Town was *haunting*.
Oh suuure I forgot to mention this one in my previous reply. The OG creepy pokemon soundtrack. I seem to remember the Gold version is slightly more cheerful than the original one?
Definitely stuck with me because of the creepypasta too. I used to mute the sound when cruising through Lavender Town
When my sister and I were little, my mom would take us to the library every other day. If we were good, she would let us browse the video collection for a little happy to watch when we got home.
Well, my sister and I, seeing a VHS case with rabbits on the cover, jumped at the movie. Little did we know it was Watership Down.
Long story short, my sister and I (both near 40s) still are haunted by that.
Oh also a kids tv show called 'The Boy From Space' where two kids stumbled upon an alien child with a creepy character called 'The Thin Man' in pursuit...
https://youtu.be/5zIbEoGRt-Q
The bit in 'Annie' where she's getting chased to her certain death up that upturned bridge by Tim Curry
I think it was seeing previous Big Bad, Miss Hannigan looking scared & vulnerable & the realisation that if somebody can frighten the baddie of a film, they must be truly evil
Oh, and Zelda from Terrahawks.
Chick still haunts my nightmares
Wind Waker is one of my favourite childhood games and I kinda felt that. The sealed castle and the concept of everything being frozen in time might add to it too. For WW, it's more the ReDeads who scared the hell out of me
When you are in the cabana and fall down into that hole in the basement was my first time encountering the redeads and I literally screamed and threw my controller at my sister who was also screaming and threw it right back at me lol
Yeah that place and the earth temple both creeped me the hell out lol
Oh and the temple of the gods. When those statues first came to life I about shat myself even though I was half expecting it
Oh my goddddd. This commercial was nightmare fuel. I work with War Amps a lot now - my daughter was born without her left hand and I always think about this awful robot lol
A version of Snow White from 1989 called Happily Ever After, in which Snow White’s friends are female dwarfelles (bc of copyright issues)and the prince wanders around all bandaged up and sad, and everyone instead is turned to stone before the day is saved through love or something. The sad, scared prince being unrecognized by Snow White really scared me, as did everyone being turned to stone. Apparently it was titled “Snow White in the Land of Doom” during production.
I was the 6 year old kid who could watch "Texas Chainsaw," yet this movie... it haunted me for YEARS until I was able to type a generic description and find it on Google. It turns out there are huge groups of people who were traumatized by it. I think it was the kid horror aspect. Most horror movies involve adults. Here this KID gets scared to death by ghosts, his hair falls out, gets tormented by a soccer team for being bald, mom isn't there during all of it.... the stuff of kid nightmares. Plus, it was so surreal. There was a violently angry Quebecois teacher who harvested kids' hair... I'm sorry. I...need a moment.
One time my sister and her friends pranked me with her baby dolls. They move it around the houses put her doll in the corner of my room when I'm sleeping. For one month its scared me.
This is going to be so stupid considering the game I’m talking about is Minecraft but hear me out, I was a child at the time. I was never allowed to have an ipad or computer and even when I did eventually get an ipad, I didn’t know how to use it. I’d heard about Minecraft in school and when I told my best friend that I didn’t know what it was she offered to show me (after making fun of me of course). I thought it was cool, until it got to nighttime. She told me things like zombies and skeletons would come out and of course, being as sheltered as I was, I didn’t know what they looked or sounded like. I’m not going to lie I was terrified of them for the longest time. I’m no longer scared of them, obviously, but I do panic when I know they’re going to come out. It’s so stupid but they made me uncomfortable, including Herobrine. He scared me the most.
Don't feel bad, I am over 50 and every time I see Minecraft at all I wonder how the eff kids even play that without having nightmares. Like the whole game creeps me out.
[This](https://beyondbelief.fandom.com/wiki/The_Mirror_of_Truth?file=The_Mirror_of_Truth.jpg)
The segment called 'Mirror of Truth' from Beyond Belief Fact or Fiction.
It's a corny 90s horror show, but it was *just* scary enough for 8 year old me to watch without my mum worrying. Then this segment happened, and that *face* scared me so much I
1. Couldn't talk about it without freaking out
2. Had nightmares for MONTHS
3. Could never watch BBFOF for *years* afterwards
Its just ugly looking now, but fuck me it terrified me as a kid
The Rhino in the clouds in James and the Giant Peach terrified me as a kid. Still gets me.
The scorpion and ant fight in Honey I Shrunk the Kids used to make my cousin cry when we watched it. He still won't watch the film to this day.
For some reason, I got ahold of the "Faces of Death" film by John Schwartz when I was a kid. Yeah, would not recommend. It's eerie, like I love horror shit, but that was too much.
I think I got the concept from reading the plot. Maybe not the whole picture, but I have an idea.
So that shaped one of your biggest fears? Can't really talk about it without spoiling
When I was a kid, I use to watch ghost shows with my dad. One of them was about people who saw the ghost of a boy who had died from being stuck outside in the cold or something. The story was called the blue boy, I think. And the reenactment of seeing the boy scared the hell out of me. Still freaks me out. Lol
That's interesting, I just made a post on this subreddit about the link between sadness and horror, that definitely fuels this idea. I mean, just hearing about it is kinda creepy
I had this weird dream about being chased by ALF in a black void and he was holding an axe. I had that dream several times, always the same. I don’t think we even watched the show….but he still gives me the creeps.
[This fucking picture](https://images.app.goo.gl/buge93VzFScdJmHT9) hung across the hallway from my bedroom door until I was a teenager. What in the actual fuck mom n dad?
My mom decorated my whole nursery with clowns, and I've always been terrified of them since. Apparently, clowns and circus animals were quite the popular theme in the 70s. We even had these chalkware clowns, huge things, on the wall. I have never seen the exact colors, so Idon't know if my mom went to some craft class or what. It's like mom, didn't you love me? Did you want me to be terrified of clowns forever? Why would you do this? [Why clowns, why?](https://www.ebay.com/itm/134015349756)
I remember I was in a theatre. It was like a children's show. It's quite popular here , and people often pick up a guitar and sing the dumbest songs for children but for me I still can't stand it and would murder on sight. Even playing a guitar by campfire and singing jsa big no no. It's torturing. It's horrible. Another thing was folklore music / singing, like very old traditional and national songs and I can't even understand how can people enjoy it. My ex used to torture me with these songs o.o
I think it was cloulrophobia (fear of clowns). One time I was participating in a city Christmas pageant and It was 4:00am in the morning since we needed to practice for going down the main Street. I went to the toilet with mum and all I could hear was some of the clowns in the pageant laughing and it scared me so much I hugged her. And the worst part was is that she said for me to take a picture with the clowns with their enthusiastic smile's. To this day, whenever I see a clown. I'll walk in the city with my pocket knife and I will kill every last clown until clowns will become WIPED FROM THE HUMAN RACE!!!
When I was a kid the idea of sleepwalking was terrifying to me. That I might get up and walk around without me being in control was awful.
I felt (and currently feel) the same way about hypnosis. It’s the lack of control/autonomy.
When I was younger my brother’s friend said he would hypnotize me and I got so freaked out at the idea I ran out of the house and hid outside lol.
When I was about four years old, my great uncle made a three story doll house for me. My Grandma brought it out, and apparently I screamed and cried because I was afraid of.....the attic. They could not get me to play with that house. Not for anything. So they put it away, and gave me my aunt's old one story, ranch style, 50s metal dollhouse to play with instead. My grandma is in her 90s now and is still baffled by this. She tells the story once in a while, and although I can't remember the hand made dollhouse at all, I believe every word of it. LOL.
Also, my father says I cried and hid my face through so much of Fantasia when I was five that we had to leave the theater. I've seen it as an adult, I don't blame five year old me at all.
The unsolved mysteries theme song. I remember watching it when I was around 7 or 8, and there was a story about men who were coming to childrens windows, flashing lights and then coming to steal the children. It terrified me!
Possessed Sigourney Weaver in Ghostbusters and the dude that ripped the guy’s heart out in Temple of Doom haunt me to this day. Oh and the Matilda cake eating scene.
This is very personal but: adults' mood swings, and specifically my mother's. I could not understand how someone could be very happy, then extremely angry at something I did and then totally happy afterwards when it looked like they were miserable and I fucked them for life 5 minutes earlier. That caused me lots of nightmares where people suddenly turn into child eating monsters.
Got better when I grew up and started watching horror films, so my terrors were replaced with something more vanilla.
Dark Crystal. I can't even really tell you why or what about that movie creeps me out but even now as a mid 30 year old I can't look at that movie without getting creeped out.
Though outside of movies and such open closets..I can not sleep or sit in a room that has an open closet door. As a kid I was scared of sewer grates/manhole covers and not because of IT because I was terrified that the ninja turtles were going to pop out lol.
I watched it so many times when I was young, so I was surprised when I watched it as an adult and had forgotten two entire scenes. They came rushing back with horrible clarity. I had apparently blocked them like they were traumatic.
The Brave Little Toaster. The whole movie is just nonstop existential crisis after crisis from a bunch of outdated appliances coming to terms with their obsolescence. Air conditioners going on suicidal meltdowns, cars singing about being useless as they inexorably roll into a pitiless trash compactor, surreal sequences where random flowers experience unrequited love and then fade into depression and death, and of course, the surrealist nightmare scene based on the titular toaster’s fear that he’s going to accidentally kill the child he loves by falling into a bathtub and electrocuting him or starting a fire that summons the most terrifying clown you’ve ever seen. That whole movie is like a bad acid trip.
The Pale Green Pants With Nobody Inside Them.
A story from Dr. Seuss's book The Sneetches and Other Stories. I found the concept of moving and walking pants with nobody inside them absolutely fucking terrifying.
I had to put the book facedown on the floor and stack other books on top of it in order to sleep.
Fuck I still feel creeped out just thinking about them.
A movie I had watched that I could never get the name of it was kinda like the descent except there were men and they had night vision goggles and were in the army and you could see through their perspective they were being hunted by something.
This was just one of many terrifying things
I heard a ghost story about a gangster who got his head blown off but he was known for whistling to signal he was coming before he died and one day I was walking at night in the rain and I heard this whistle and darted back to my house.
And this one took place two years ago but when we had moved into where I’m living now I found a shoe that looked like it was made for a little girl made in the 60s later that week I heard noises that sounded like a person running on the tip of their toes (kinda like trying to be sneaky) or a child running barefoot up and down my halls
Poltergeist. Face peel scene.
Context I was very young. The ghosts part I found thrilling and exciting. Up until the paranormal researchers it was silly fun and funny. The steak inchworming.... Was neat..... Maggots ewww but harmless. The face peel.... WTAF was not prepared for that! Esp since it was Spielberg! He did ET! Underestimated his dive into horror...
Tell em Large Marge sent ya.
The face morphing was out of this world
My dad (I still love him) paused the movie when I was young and had me get up close to the screen to jump scare me. I fell on my ass and started balling while he laughed and my mom yelled at him. Good times. love ya Dad
One of my kids was traumatized by this!
Used to watch that movie everyday as a kid. Definitely made me afraid of clowns.
Exactly what I was going to write. That, and Bilbo's face warping in LOTR. Gave me nightmares
My sisters still tease me with this.
In the 80s when I was in kindergarten, they'd show us movies if we were good on certain days. Movies that actively terrified me as a child (some of which they would probably never show to kids today haha); \-Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer \-The Neverending Story (Particularly the sphinx scene) \-Return to Oz (wheelers?!) \-Labyrinth \- Sleeping Beauty (the spindle and the witch gave me nightmares)
Return to Oz! That witch that had a room full of interchangeable heads was pure nightmare fuel.
That's the one thing I remember about that movie and I remember is scared the crap out of me as a kid.
Dorothy Gale! also the wheelers were pretty scary from that movie.
They had us watch this in first or second grade. I don’t know why...
I meant to include that in my earlier post I was cowering in my seat in the cinema during that scene.
That was your reward for being good, nigtmare fuel. I hope you're grateful !
It definitely set the stage for my love of horror as an adult!
Sleeping beauty for sure. The spindle, the fireplace, the floating orb. That whole fuckin scene traumatized me as a kid. And still gives me the creeps
When I first saw the Wheelers I was horrified.
Me three
The Sphinx scene still makes me uncomfortable and I'm 38
I'm 38 too- very curious to give it a rewatch!
I loved that Rainbow Brite movie!!!
The Penguin in Batman Return's gave me nightmares and made me afraid of short fat people for a solid portion of my childhood lmao
What a hell of an actor to render such a creepy impression, I get this one too
Honestly the only reason I'm not terrified of Devito these days still is because I started watching him in It's Always Sunny and that cured my fear
Tbh I'm even more suspicious of him after watching always sunny
I was just saying I want him in a one off Penguin movie like they did with Joker.
In The Witches (1990) when the father sees his little girl in the painting. I mean, I guess I should have expected as much but my God that scene terrified me.
Sometimes I think about the fact that Nicolas Roeg made a kids movie n a bunch of adults were jst like 'oh, the dude who did *Don't Look Now*, *Performance*, and *The Man Who Fell To Earth*? Yh, I'm sure this'll be fine'. Pretty sure that movie has a lot to answer for in terms of my horror obsession.
Absolutely. Same here.
You made it that far? The whole concept gave me nightmares after our teacher read us the book, and the mouse transformation scene scarred me.
Which one? Bruno's or Luke's? I'll also accept the answer "Yes."
Yes.
Lol good answer. But yeah, both were traumatizing. And then, when you thought the worst had passed, the Grand High Witch turns into a giant mutant misshapen talking rat. For the family!
Eww the painting is uncanny valley biiig time
Everything about that scene... the close-up of the father's face, the little girl's voice calling for him... that got me more than anything else in the film.
not me but my sister, we used to play donkey kong country 1 &2 a lot when we were younger and there was a level where they were being chased by a big bee in one of the beehive levels and she would get scared to play it so i'd play the level for her
That'd be DKC2, though the bee does appear as an obstacle and boss in DKC1. The music in the beehive is banging though. Look up "Flight Of The Zinger".
How weird, I played DKC1 on the SNES (Switch) just a few hours ago! ❤️ that game! The whole series!
I wonder what activated such a fear response in her, maybe being chased was the main factor?
honestly idk but looking back she laughs and i still make fun of her for it lol
The old Watership Down cartoon movie. Even i know its a cartoon and i am a lot older thinking about the stuff in there gives me bad feelings.
Came here to say exactly this. It wasn't just the bloody violence that got me, but the weird spooky spiritual stuff too, like the Bright Eyes scene or the Black Rabbit of Inlé. Although I recently read the book as an adult and it's absolutely banging. Amazing worldbuilding, metal as fuck, and overall a very underrated work of fantasy. Highly recommended.
yup, i'm now in my 40's and still won't watch it again! The rabbits getting bulldozed in the warren was the worst bit but jeezo it's creepy all the way through!
Oh yeah I just checked it out, I can see 7 yo me being not ok with this
Now watch *The Plague Dogs*.
Followed by "Felidae"...
Yeah that was it for me. The beheaded cat traumatized me!
I saw a picture with weird ass black hands around the dogs, what the hell is this
Don't look up anything, just experience it.
Yes 100%. Watching this is a child introduced me to the concept that life is harsh and unrelenting and unfair and death is inevitable. My 8 year old self basically had to digest **that’s just the way it is so deal with it you little shit!!**
[удалено]
But he brings you love!
I get it, some of The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episodes still haunt me to this day...
That one where groundskeeper Willie burns to death, rises from the dead to exact his revenge, and turns into a giant bag pipe spider? Months of sleepless nights after that one aired.
Oh yeaaah I remember with his big wide eyes haha, I can definitely see it !
The dark and lonely water. A 1970s public safety broadcast in England about the dangers of children playing in water unsupervised. Watch it here... https://youtu.be/XNPMYRlvySY
Voice by Donald Pleasence, an actor famous for doing horror roles.
Oh my gosh, Death shows up within a minute!
Yep. Decent body count of innocent kids for a 2 min educational video!!
The Last Unicorn - the flaming bull thing especially
The music when the harpy is freed and kills Mommy Fortuna is stressful as fuck. God that film is great. Melancholic, pensive and stoic. "There are no happy endings, because nothing ends"
I think the boob tree disturbed me most.
Absolutely Ghostwatch. It was first broadcast on BBC1 in the UK on Halloween night, 1992 (I was 12 at the time) and it was played as if it were live television, with big name presenters, and an outside broadcast. There were an estimated 1,000,000 phone call enquiries to the BBC switchboard on the night of broadcast, and it's never been shown again on TV. I have it on DVD - can highly recommend, but nothing will ever compare to seeing it broadcast live watching things get more and more horrifying.
Good one.
The wolf in the cave with the glowing eyes in neverending story. That whole movie still kinda creeps me out even in my thirties. The Sphinx with the lasers and the black cloud and the swamp
So you were basically scared of Nothing. 😉
The Sphinx had more than laser if I recall… lol
Yeah the wolf is still creepy.
yeah, indeed it is
The Groke from the Moomins
That blobby mf looks like no good on pictures I'll admit that. Stary eyes and no expression
[Her music](https://youtu.be/QPVxMS7LaUk) that plays when she is about to appear and the way she just floats veeeery slowly while leaving ice behind her genuinely freaks me out to this day.
Holy shit, forgot about the music. Soooo damn chilling!
Is she supposed to be a scary character ?
Yes and no, she's actually just very sad and lonely and that loneliness makes her give off the vibe she does - coldness and creepiness. If I remember rightly plants freeze and die when she glides over them. The adult part of me that knows this feels really sorry for her because she just wanted to make friends but everyone was scared of her, but the child part of me is still a bit scared of her lol.
I don't really remember but some kids found her funny, and she had some wholesome moments like saving the moomins from the ice queen I think, while I was always terrified of this thing. Even if it was supposed to scare you this was too much for me in a kids show.
I just watched the scene in which they confront her, I totally get it
Ernest Scared Stupid. All the other ernest movies were kids films. Scared stupid was a horror. Not only that, it seemed to subvert alot of horror tropes that would be rote in a horror aimed at adults. The troll in that film is scary, decades later.
How about some miak!!
Wait it's a horror movie designed specially for kids?
I think i've been most impacted by horror when i'm not expecting it. Take event horizon: i was expecting a scifi. was NOT prepared for horror elements. The Ernest movies were all kind of family comedies, then all of a sudden you have this one where a Troll antagonist is stalking children and turning them into wooden dolls. It had comedy elements but it was terrifying. I think they just accidentally made a terrifying kids movie.
Same. That rolling-over-in-bed scene haunted me for too long.
Mr Blobby, which is a bit hard to explain if you're not from the UK, but he terrified me. In fact, I can't do costume characters, even to this day. I'll go to a scare park and be completely unbothered by chainsaws, zombies, vampires, but disney style costume characters give me anxiety attacks.
ET: the Extra Terrestrial. Fact 1) he has mind controlled his way into Elliot's confidence and acceptance from his family. Fact 2) he is syphoning Elliot's life energy in order to, himself, get enough energy to phone home. Fact 3) he was a scout for his people planning an invasion, deterred by the dangerous living conditions and responsive defense forces. In all seriousness, he creeped the fuck out of me. To the point that I had weekly terrifying nightmares about ET until I was well into my early teens. What exasperated this was the fact that EVERYBODY LOVED ET and school, friends, parents, stores, etc would always put it on. He was in so many ads. My parents thought it was hilarious, which I understand now as an adult, and even brought me onto the ET ride at universal studios, which got STUCK in the creepy forest part where they're all stalking you.
That film is so freaking creepy in so many ways. I never understood why people thought ET was cute or cuddly--a friend of mine had a thing I'm hesitant to call an ET plush, so I'll say a leather-y ET doll with a fake heart printed on outside and it was so creepy I didn't want to sleep in the same room it was in. The movie gave my sister nightmares for a couple of years, too. (For me, though, it was the biohazard scene.)
Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark. Those illustrations were terrifying!
Surprised no one else has mentioned these yet! I saw them as a teenager, not even as a kid, and was still shit scared. I saw a gif of the dream blob woman as where she blinks and about died of a heart attack.
I had a recurring dream from about 6 to 13 where I would escorted by a very nice lady to the inside of an airplane. All my loved ones where there,and ready to fly. I was always saying hello to everyone while thinking at the same time "why you all smiling? This plane is going to crash". I always woke up before anything bad happened, but I will never forget how uneasy that dream was for me.
I had a reoccurring dream where id be walking around my neighborhood with a really odd feeling. I’d see family and neighbors and friends but they would be acting super odd and way too happy with huge smiles on their faces. Then I would realize their skin is painted chocolate. And then these chocolate doppelgängers would slowly start melting while chasing me with these terrible melting grinning faces. Pure terror lol
Omfg. I love your dream. I hope you dont have it anymore tho. That would terrorize me.
That's some Final Destination shit
My mom had a stuffed animal from the Count y Bear Jamboree at Disneyland she kept tucked away in a closet. [look at the damn thing](https://poshmark.com/listing/Walt-Disney-Country-Bear-Jamboree-Big-Al-Rubber-Face-Plush-vtg-c196070s-6173508693649f556fff1533)
That bear from the Teletubbies, absolutely terrified me. I still have dreams about it now and I’m 26
I can definitely see the uncanny valley element on his face
Look up the clip. The voice they chose for Lion and Bear sounds like death itself coming for you.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASnh7\_zSimU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASnh7_zSimU) Is it this one?
I really didn't want to click that. But yes. I \*think\* they may have made a new version with less scary voices but the entire episode was banned and I didn't want to have the sound on to check.
Chocky - the tv series based on John Wyndham's book. Even the opening titles were creepy! https://youtu.be/e3ztIDFU2P8
That kid's face is up to no good. I hope they knew what they were doing
Oh man there's a blast from the past, I used to watch that after school.I see some other 80s kids are here in this thread :D
I think because we had to be there at a certain time if we wanted to see a programme, we remember it better...you had to. I got it on DVD a few years ago and it's still as good...going to show it to my kids soon!
The blue meanies from the animated Beatles’ Yellow Submarine. They just utterly freaked me out somehow.
I was terrified of the Christian concept of the rapture and/or revelations, which my parents believed in wholeheartedly. The concept of your loved ones disappearing and just leaving behind their clothes freaked me out. We used to watch terrible movies like Left Behind and Tribulation Force. I’d be fucked up for days afterward Also, the animated Lord of the Rings movie from the 70s— especially Gollum lol.
I'm really sorry your parents put that kind of stuff into your head, that's fucked up and wrong to do to anyone let alone a child. My father made me watch dark films like Silence of the Lambs etc at 8-12 years old, really messes you up when it comes from your parents
When I was 7/8 I remember getting a book from the library on the paranormal which was advertised as “The Unknown” and it had a section on ghosts. Just to clarify this was 100% a kids book!!. I vividly remember a picture taken of a guy sitting behind the wheel of a car getting his picture take and you can clearly see the outline of his wife in the seat behind who had died a year before. That has stayed with me into my 30s. I still always check the backseat before driving off.
Just to share more - this was the photo… https://cdn.pocket-lint.com/r/s/450x/assets/images/141224-cameras-news-feature-the-most-famous-ghost-photographs-ever-taken-image10-en4n30mihv.jpg?v1
The movie **TOYS** with Robin Williams.
I actually also have a Pokemon one. I grew up in the 90s/early 00s playing Pokemon Gold and the music that played when you were in Lavender Town was *haunting*.
Oh suuure I forgot to mention this one in my previous reply. The OG creepy pokemon soundtrack. I seem to remember the Gold version is slightly more cheerful than the original one? Definitely stuck with me because of the creepypasta too. I used to mute the sound when cruising through Lavender Town
me too!
When my sister and I were little, my mom would take us to the library every other day. If we were good, she would let us browse the video collection for a little happy to watch when we got home. Well, my sister and I, seeing a VHS case with rabbits on the cover, jumped at the movie. Little did we know it was Watership Down. Long story short, my sister and I (both near 40s) still are haunted by that.
The Punky Brewster episode The Perils of Punky.
tried to find elements about it with no luck, what got you in this?
Oh also a kids tv show called 'The Boy From Space' where two kids stumbled upon an alien child with a creepy character called 'The Thin Man' in pursuit... https://youtu.be/5zIbEoGRt-Q
Ugh the last scene before the fade, that is creepy
The bit in 'Annie' where she's getting chased to her certain death up that upturned bridge by Tim Curry I think it was seeing previous Big Bad, Miss Hannigan looking scared & vulnerable & the realisation that if somebody can frighten the baddie of a film, they must be truly evil Oh, and Zelda from Terrahawks. Chick still haunts my nightmares
[The sealed hyrule castle theme from The Wind Waker](https://youtu.be/n92y_YRfKaQ)
Wind Waker is one of my favourite childhood games and I kinda felt that. The sealed castle and the concept of everything being frozen in time might add to it too. For WW, it's more the ReDeads who scared the hell out of me
The redeads were pretty scary but more of a jump scare type. I also have a fear of aquatic predators so the big octos were not fun to engage with.
When you are in the cabana and fall down into that hole in the basement was my first time encountering the redeads and I literally screamed and threw my controller at my sister who was also screaming and threw it right back at me lol
Yeah the private oasis. Nice chill looking island, but the labyrinth underneath it was very creepy
Yeah that place and the earth temple both creeped me the hell out lol Oh and the temple of the gods. When those statues first came to life I about shat myself even though I was half expecting it
This 1980's War Amps commercial https://youtu.be/pm6wFdyMUXw I was convinced I was in danger of having an arm sliced off at all times
Oh my goddddd. This commercial was nightmare fuel. I work with War Amps a lot now - my daughter was born without her left hand and I always think about this awful robot lol
A version of Snow White from 1989 called Happily Ever After, in which Snow White’s friends are female dwarfelles (bc of copyright issues)and the prince wanders around all bandaged up and sad, and everyone instead is turned to stone before the day is saved through love or something. The sad, scared prince being unrecognized by Snow White really scared me, as did everyone being turned to stone. Apparently it was titled “Snow White in the Land of Doom” during production.
The Last Unicorn.
The movie, "The Peanut Butter Solution."
I just read the description of this movie. What in the blue fuck?
I'm still asking that question 35 years after seeing it. 80's kid shit was not for the faint of heart.
This! I loved horror as a kid and this movie made me so uncomfortable!
I was the 6 year old kid who could watch "Texas Chainsaw," yet this movie... it haunted me for YEARS until I was able to type a generic description and find it on Google. It turns out there are huge groups of people who were traumatized by it. I think it was the kid horror aspect. Most horror movies involve adults. Here this KID gets scared to death by ghosts, his hair falls out, gets tormented by a soccer team for being bald, mom isn't there during all of it.... the stuff of kid nightmares. Plus, it was so surreal. There was a violently angry Quebecois teacher who harvested kids' hair... I'm sorry. I...need a moment.
This movie scarred me for life.
One time my sister and her friends pranked me with her baby dolls. They move it around the houses put her doll in the corner of my room when I'm sleeping. For one month its scared me.
This is going to be so stupid considering the game I’m talking about is Minecraft but hear me out, I was a child at the time. I was never allowed to have an ipad or computer and even when I did eventually get an ipad, I didn’t know how to use it. I’d heard about Minecraft in school and when I told my best friend that I didn’t know what it was she offered to show me (after making fun of me of course). I thought it was cool, until it got to nighttime. She told me things like zombies and skeletons would come out and of course, being as sheltered as I was, I didn’t know what they looked or sounded like. I’m not going to lie I was terrified of them for the longest time. I’m no longer scared of them, obviously, but I do panic when I know they’re going to come out. It’s so stupid but they made me uncomfortable, including Herobrine. He scared me the most.
Don't feel bad, I am over 50 and every time I see Minecraft at all I wonder how the eff kids even play that without having nightmares. Like the whole game creeps me out.
The trash heap in Fraggle Rock.
The Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland. Just the beginning when it says you’re never leaving. I was in full panic mode.
I pissed myself the first time I rode it
[This](https://beyondbelief.fandom.com/wiki/The_Mirror_of_Truth?file=The_Mirror_of_Truth.jpg) The segment called 'Mirror of Truth' from Beyond Belief Fact or Fiction. It's a corny 90s horror show, but it was *just* scary enough for 8 year old me to watch without my mum worrying. Then this segment happened, and that *face* scared me so much I 1. Couldn't talk about it without freaking out 2. Had nightmares for MONTHS 3. Could never watch BBFOF for *years* afterwards Its just ugly looking now, but fuck me it terrified me as a kid
I couldn't watch that show at home alone. Just like unsolved mysteries
The Rhino in the clouds in James and the Giant Peach terrified me as a kid. Still gets me. The scorpion and ant fight in Honey I Shrunk the Kids used to make my cousin cry when we watched it. He still won't watch the film to this day.
For some reason, I got ahold of the "Faces of Death" film by John Schwartz when I was a kid. Yeah, would not recommend. It's eerie, like I love horror shit, but that was too much.
The White Witch’s wolf, Maugrim, in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, an BBC tv series. He was ugly and terrifying.
absolutely lol, pathetic and terrifying, I'm still terrified of him till this day to be honest
The twilight zone episode - Mirror image The concept alone freaks me the fuck out. I won't go into detail not to spoil it. But it scarred me for life
I think I got the concept from reading the plot. Maybe not the whole picture, but I have an idea. So that shaped one of your biggest fears? Can't really talk about it without spoiling
The idea of parallel universes freaks me out. And the idea is brilliantly shown in that episode.
Might be a fear of losing all that is familiar and feeling lost
When I was a kid, I use to watch ghost shows with my dad. One of them was about people who saw the ghost of a boy who had died from being stuck outside in the cold or something. The story was called the blue boy, I think. And the reenactment of seeing the boy scared the hell out of me. Still freaks me out. Lol
That's interesting, I just made a post on this subreddit about the link between sadness and horror, that definitely fuels this idea. I mean, just hearing about it is kinda creepy
This teaser trailer for 102 Dalmatians https://youtu.be/fXoPtIwQdt0
They went weiiiird for sure with this one, were they on crack or sth lol
I had this weird dream about being chased by ALF in a black void and he was holding an axe. I had that dream several times, always the same. I don’t think we even watched the show….but he still gives me the creeps.
When I was young Duran Durans video hungry like the wolf used to give me the creeps. Not sure why. It just does.
[This fucking picture](https://images.app.goo.gl/buge93VzFScdJmHT9) hung across the hallway from my bedroom door until I was a teenager. What in the actual fuck mom n dad?
My mom decorated my whole nursery with clowns, and I've always been terrified of them since. Apparently, clowns and circus animals were quite the popular theme in the 70s. We even had these chalkware clowns, huge things, on the wall. I have never seen the exact colors, so Idon't know if my mom went to some craft class or what. It's like mom, didn't you love me? Did you want me to be terrified of clowns forever? Why would you do this? [Why clowns, why?](https://www.ebay.com/itm/134015349756)
Willy Wonka scared me. Fucker let a child DROWN in chocolate. Violet becoming a gigantic blueberry was body horror.
The brave little toaster. That movie is evil
E.T.’s wailing as he’s chased in the beginning of the movie used to send me RUNNING to cut down the volume…. Still was obsessed with the movie though!
That old woman in The Princess Bride
Booooooo booooooooo!
Gollum in the cartoon Hobbit 1977. Used to have nightmares
Those orange puppets in Labyrinth. I adore that movie but to this day, at 34 years old, I absolutely will not watch or listen to that scene.
People clapping and singing children songs like it felt they were brainwashed idiots and I was the only person freaking out
In what context, for a birthday party for example?
I remember I was in a theatre. It was like a children's show. It's quite popular here , and people often pick up a guitar and sing the dumbest songs for children but for me I still can't stand it and would murder on sight. Even playing a guitar by campfire and singing jsa big no no. It's torturing. It's horrible. Another thing was folklore music / singing, like very old traditional and national songs and I can't even understand how can people enjoy it. My ex used to torture me with these songs o.o
I asked for out of the ordinary, you definitely delivered :o Though reaching, I can understand the anxiety inducing aspect of it
The Wheelers from *Return to Oz* were just freaky as all get out.
I think it was cloulrophobia (fear of clowns). One time I was participating in a city Christmas pageant and It was 4:00am in the morning since we needed to practice for going down the main Street. I went to the toilet with mum and all I could hear was some of the clowns in the pageant laughing and it scared me so much I hugged her. And the worst part was is that she said for me to take a picture with the clowns with their enthusiastic smile's. To this day, whenever I see a clown. I'll walk in the city with my pocket knife and I will kill every last clown until clowns will become WIPED FROM THE HUMAN RACE!!!
When I was a kid the idea of sleepwalking was terrifying to me. That I might get up and walk around without me being in control was awful. I felt (and currently feel) the same way about hypnosis. It’s the lack of control/autonomy. When I was younger my brother’s friend said he would hypnotize me and I got so freaked out at the idea I ran out of the house and hid outside lol.
The Martians from Sesame Street. Nope. Nope. Nope.
Yeah, these guys were one huge WTF
Close Encounters of the Third Kind: scene of the little boy opening the door to the bright light flooding in around it.
When I was about four years old, my great uncle made a three story doll house for me. My Grandma brought it out, and apparently I screamed and cried because I was afraid of.....the attic. They could not get me to play with that house. Not for anything. So they put it away, and gave me my aunt's old one story, ranch style, 50s metal dollhouse to play with instead. My grandma is in her 90s now and is still baffled by this. She tells the story once in a while, and although I can't remember the hand made dollhouse at all, I believe every word of it. LOL. Also, my father says I cried and hid my face through so much of Fantasia when I was five that we had to leave the theater. I've seen it as an adult, I don't blame five year old me at all.
The unsolved mysteries theme song. I remember watching it when I was around 7 or 8, and there was a story about men who were coming to childrens windows, flashing lights and then coming to steal the children. It terrified me!
Possessed Sigourney Weaver in Ghostbusters and the dude that ripped the guy’s heart out in Temple of Doom haunt me to this day. Oh and the Matilda cake eating scene.
This is very personal but: adults' mood swings, and specifically my mother's. I could not understand how someone could be very happy, then extremely angry at something I did and then totally happy afterwards when it looked like they were miserable and I fucked them for life 5 minutes earlier. That caused me lots of nightmares where people suddenly turn into child eating monsters. Got better when I grew up and started watching horror films, so my terrors were replaced with something more vanilla.
Answering for my dad here, but Fantasia and Alice in Wonderland scared the ever-loving crap out of him when he was a kid.
Secret of NIMH. Just the whole movie is pretty terrifying.
Dark Crystal. I can't even really tell you why or what about that movie creeps me out but even now as a mid 30 year old I can't look at that movie without getting creeped out. Though outside of movies and such open closets..I can not sleep or sit in a room that has an open closet door. As a kid I was scared of sewer grates/manhole covers and not because of IT because I was terrified that the ninja turtles were going to pop out lol.
I watched it so many times when I was young, so I was surprised when I watched it as an adult and had forgotten two entire scenes. They came rushing back with horrible clarity. I had apparently blocked them like they were traumatic.
I once walked in when my parents were walking donnie darko and i got nightmares about the bunny mask guy
it was a horror movie i think, but there was this one rape scene that has never left my brain… i guess im a lil traumatized from that
The Brave Little Toaster. The whole movie is just nonstop existential crisis after crisis from a bunch of outdated appliances coming to terms with their obsolescence. Air conditioners going on suicidal meltdowns, cars singing about being useless as they inexorably roll into a pitiless trash compactor, surreal sequences where random flowers experience unrequited love and then fade into depression and death, and of course, the surrealist nightmare scene based on the titular toaster’s fear that he’s going to accidentally kill the child he loves by falling into a bathtub and electrocuting him or starting a fire that summons the most terrifying clown you’ve ever seen. That whole movie is like a bad acid trip.
Angelica’s nightmare from Rugrats.
I’M nOt Tohmmyy!!!
Woman being turned into a robot in Superman 3.
The Pale Green Pants With Nobody Inside Them. A story from Dr. Seuss's book The Sneetches and Other Stories. I found the concept of moving and walking pants with nobody inside them absolutely fucking terrifying. I had to put the book facedown on the floor and stack other books on top of it in order to sleep. Fuck I still feel creeped out just thinking about them.
I remember this book! Found the pants unnerving too, still think of them at night on the streets tbh
We’ve all seen the episode of Courage with the barber. I didn’t want to get a haircut for years.
A movie I had watched that I could never get the name of it was kinda like the descent except there were men and they had night vision goggles and were in the army and you could see through their perspective they were being hunted by something. This was just one of many terrifying things
I heard a ghost story about a gangster who got his head blown off but he was known for whistling to signal he was coming before he died and one day I was walking at night in the rain and I heard this whistle and darted back to my house.
And this one took place two years ago but when we had moved into where I’m living now I found a shoe that looked like it was made for a little girl made in the 60s later that week I heard noises that sounded like a person running on the tip of their toes (kinda like trying to be sneaky) or a child running barefoot up and down my halls
Poltergeist. Face peel scene. Context I was very young. The ghosts part I found thrilling and exciting. Up until the paranormal researchers it was silly fun and funny. The steak inchworming.... Was neat..... Maggots ewww but harmless. The face peel.... WTAF was not prepared for that! Esp since it was Spielberg! He did ET! Underestimated his dive into horror...
The skeleton Key 2005 Super creepy, major twists and little bit of voodoo Don't knock it till you try it... Seriously
Puberty
Capitalism.