Things that frightened you as a child

Noone1234 said:

When I was round about 9/10 years old a girl I knew had said a man in a white van had told her to get in, it was such a big deal at the time and it triggered the biggest fear of vans for me I used to take panic attacks if I was on my own and seen one approaching.
When I think about it now I’m absolutely certain she had made it up for attention but it took me years to get over it.

and also the theme tune to heartbeat on a Sunday night - that’s when you knew the weekend was well and truly over lol

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Yeah It caused so much anxiety hearing heart beat as it reinforced it was Monday the following day. I would try to stay away all night to savour the remainder of Sunday then pass out with exhaustion at school

Dancing Dave said:

Furbys - I had to watch my parents put it under the stairs at night eventually they just binned it. I was petrified.

Also, Maleficent...I still get a few shivers at my age

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On top of my wardrobe and would yawn in the middle of the night. Hated it.

I was scared of Brum the car

The bin men - white vans bcos early 90s all white vans were out for was kidnapping kids-? ,

aimzalicious said:

Jfc, I forgot how scary it was. To this day, I don't understand why The Witches was deemed a kids film

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it’s still on Netflix on the kids section! My kids shit themselves when it pops up on suggested they shout me with there eyes shut until I come get it of the screen ha ha

Noone1234 said:

When I was round about 9/10 years old a girl I knew had said a man in a white van had told her to get in, it was such a big deal at the time and it triggered the biggest fear of vans for me I used to take panic attacks if I was on my own and seen one approaching.
When I think about it now I’m absolutely certain she had made it up for attention but it took me years to get over it.

and also the theme tune to heartbeat on a Sunday night - that’s when you knew the weekend was well and truly over lol

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Definitely with you on the white van fear , I’m sure early 90’s every white van was just about to kidnap kids

DCICassieStuart said:

I went to a Catholic convent school. You're not too far wrong about nuns being scary.

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My nan did too, she always said nuns were evil.

The episode of 999 where the woman slips in the bathroom and is in a chokehold with the door and the frame. She's alone in the house and stuck like that for ages because she is wedged in a way, where if she moves the door will close in on her neck. That was the one that really scared the crap out of me.

I remember another, where a person ends up impaled on railings after they open a window and fall out.

Me and my sister would often scare ourselves shitless with our parents VHSs...
Creepshow. Looking back it seems to be a spoof. But Meteor shit never sit comfortably with me, nor did that chap who really wanted his cake.

Another one springs to mind. I used to scream at blown up gloves, I probably wouldn't have remembered but my parents kept mocking me for it growing up.

Petrified of clowns to point my mum had me see someone about it
My back garden at night I always thought someone would be in it for some reason even though never happened or given a reason to think it
The demon head master an goosebumps tv shows couldn't even read the books either

Round the twist - terrifying.

Crime watch- petrified me

Fear of someone chopping my hair off when on the bus and someone living in the attic - I blame my Nans take a break magazine for these as both true stories!

Also had a fear of quicksand - must have been warnings about it in school for us all to have this fear

The x files theme song that was used as an advertisement for their box set or whatever it was, used to literally make me cry

ChloChlo said:

I think I have said it already, but really old fashioned, in particular black and white cartoons. The ones that feature some anthropomorphic cat like character were especially freaky, we occasionally used to have to spend a very boring weekend at our grandparents as children and my nan would shove us, coats and all into the parlour room of their freezing, cold house to watch such creepy old cartoons on VHS to keep us quiet while my grandad watched the pools in the back room.

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Then you’ll hate Cuphead! My child has started playing this computer game and the animation is like 1940s style. It’s horrible! She couldn’t care less but I find it creepy

Being tickled

Crimewatch used to scare the shit out of me, especially when Nick Ross said at the end ‘dont have nightmares, do sleep well’

I was super sensitive as a child and could be freaked out very easily (still can, in a way). These are the main ones I can remember:

1. Lady getting turned into a robot in Superman - YES. Even though all that red stuff looks very plainly like ketchup, the way she got trapped in there was horrific. Even now I can't watch it.

2. Jaws from James Bond. The teeth, yes, but also just how LARGE he was and used to loom over everybody.

3. Daleks. My dad used to tell me it was safe to go to bed because a dalek can't get up the stairs because they had no legs Which helped until I saw an episode where they beam themselves from one place to another. For some reason I remember that in the show they left a shadowy mark on the ground when they did this and at school in the playground the following day there were damp patches drying from the rain and I cried. (See also the Doctor Who theme tune, which still gives me the heebie jeebies.)

4. Slugworth from Willy Wonka. To this day men who have what I call "liver lips" like he did freak me out and look untrustworthy.

5. The theme tune to the South Bank Show. Hear me out! I think it was on about 10pm on a Sunday night and if I hadn't gone to sleep yet I could hear my parents watching it. I still associate with a sick and horrible feeling of the final countdown to school on a Monday morning (I was an anxious child) so it just became this musical theme to my dread of school.

6. When I was older, white bed sheets hanging on a washing line. Thanks, original IT movie!

7. The butcher counter

8. The TV productions of Helen Cresswell's Moondial (which had ghosts and kids doing time travel in it) and also the Box of Delights, which I believe was something to do with wolves?

9. WATERSHIP DOWN. And therefore also the voices of Simon and Garfunkel.

10. Finding a chick when cracking open an egg. Not sure of the origin of this but must be something to do with an urban legend or some shitty story that appeared on the front of the Sun!

Salam's Lot, the kid at the window.

YorkshireFox said:

I was scared of Brum the car View attachment 231375

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Never go to the motor museum in Bourton on the Water then - he's in there!

I was terrified of Ronald McDonald, no other clowns just him. I used to have nightmares that he was driving through my bedroom window on a motorbike

also was scared of, and still am really, the evil queen in the cartoon Snow White film. Specifically when she looks really old and haggard and is at snow whites window with an apple. I feel nervous thinking about it now

I always remember being afraid of looking out of windows when it was dark still am tbh

TheDevil'Son said:

View attachment 247046

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Preston, that bastard. I'll never forgive what he did to Gromit! Him and Feathers McGraw!

Ginlover92 said:

I always remember being afraid of looking out of windows when it was dark still am tbh

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Me too!

Renegadedancer said:

Being tickled

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Ugh! My siblings and i used to dread going to see our 3 cousins as our uncle would tickle us! Looking back, I find it really odd. I guess times have changed, but I wouldnt even think to do that to my nieces and nephews. We were also pretty shy kids which made it more weird that he thought it was a good idea.