Things that frightened you as a child

[SleepyCatLady]

I found this thread last night and had to stop reading it as it was making me anxious! Safe to say many of my fears have already been mentioned.

I was terrified of the game show ‘Bullseye’, if someone got a question wrong, a cartoon bull would appear on screen and moo. I’d be cowering behind the couch!

All the fire safety ads of the 80’s creeped me right out too (they still do!). For some reason, I found the animated ones much more chilling.

 

[Fancyfeathers]

Freddy Krueger in general still to this day he screams the life out of me the part in the film where he sucks the girl into the bed oh no that ruined me and i would never sleep in a bed for years after thay so made my mum get me a sofa bed I figured that was the safest but that's my worst

 

[Bae56]

I might be making this up or reliving a nightmare but I'm sure there was an advert warning women to be careful when ironing and at the end was a closeup of a 'dead' doll on the floor with a singed, bashed-in head


Was it 'stay' by Shakespears sister? It messed me up as a youngster not helped by mum who said 'that's what the devil looks like' wtf mum

be careful when ironing, you may unexpectedly start attacking dolls!
I thought initially you meant the doll was supposed to be the woman who turned on herself with the iron

That video creeps me out, one of my friends knows it & regularly sends me snapchats of it when I was little I used to think the man actually fancied the scary woman because she had long hair

 

[CrazyGiraffeLady]

The Blair witch was the first scary film I watched and now I’m terrified of trees at night. it sounds so stupid and ridiculous but seriously, I don’t mind them in daylight but once the sun goes down it’s a no from me.

 

[LadyStark]

1.That girl with the clown on BBC when the station closed down.
2. Clowns and all porcelain dolls
3. Terror hawks kids show (loved it though ha)
4. That weird show with thingy from Minder .He was married to a woman with a mole .She Devil I think it was called.
5. Old style Crimewatch show
6. Victorian photos

 

[choccydigestive]

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!

 

[Dexterina12]

Chucky when I was about 5 I had a dream he was chasing me down the stairs and when I woke up I was actually at the bottom of the stairs in the pitch dark!

 

[SpookyLumberjack]

When I was a kid I was fascinated by vampires and Halloween etc so nothing supernatural or spooky ever scared me, but Dr Zitbag's Transylvanian Pet Shop used to give me the creeps so much and I don't know why. I still hate it :

Taggart!

Charn from Through the Dragon's Eye:

 

[GlitteryKitten]

The 90s Crime Stoppers used to make me cry because I was scared of the music and I genuinely thought the woman talking on the phone was Daisy Dares You from Zzzap! (who I was also frightened of!)

The music still makes me anxious 20+ years later

 

[monga]

Salem's Lot ,the part where he's knocking on the window even now when the birds are pecking at the window i don't look out

 

[Tricham]

Did anyone play Titanic: Adventure Out of Time?
My siblings and I used to get really frustrated with it as we could never seem to progress.. turns out we only had the demo! We didn't realise for, what felt like years! Anyway I must have been about 6 when I first played the demo. The characters and sound effects used to freak us all out!

 

[Scotty1976]

Maggie Thatcher .I asked my dad is she the Queen ,he said she fucking well thinks she is ! She scared me so much with those sharp teeth and hooded wyes

Eyew

Maggie Thatcher .I asked my dad is she the Queen ,he said she fucking well thinks she is ! She scared me so much with those sharp teeth and hooded eyes

 

[totallytaz]

the BBC logo/music, it used to play before VHS/DVDs (I think I saw it on a teletubbies video and a Doctor Who dvd as a kid) it had a really low, ominous sounding sort of note, it was terrifying like it was out of a horror movie - it always made me squirm. Still does now!

Was it this? Yeah it’s a bit weird to have that dramatic music before the joyful Brum or Mr Blobby.

 

[grumpycat]

the goosebump books used to give me a fright, say cheese and die spooked me right out

the angel things from dr who

China dolls always! I had one in my room and I haaaaated it

 

[Lulu Goss]

The test card girl/clown used to scare the shit out of me when I was little. I remember getting up early and going downstairs to watch tv before anyone else was up, and switching it onto that and being so frightened by it.

Even now it creeps me out

 

[WhoTheHeck]

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

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

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

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

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

 

[Moodymargi]

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

 

[Hastaggifted]

Not as a child but .. I watched an episode of Crimewatch ... the reconstructions are too real... one episode there was a young girl walking and talking to her boyfriend on her mobile.... and she was pulled into an alley and raped and it was a terrifying recon of the event, I was terrified. Poor boyfriend on the other end of the phone trying to get to her. Same episode they did another reconstruction about an elderly lady burnt to death in her bed in a care home. Again.... fucking terrifying !! Haven’t been able to watch since.

I blame crime watch for why I am scared of the dark!! I can't have lights on and curtains open if its dark as I know anyone can see straight through. I will not go out in the dark alone, not even in my own garden or to put something in the wheelie bins

 

[Lynseyp]

The one thing that frightened me when I was younger was watching Tales of the Unexpected especially when the music came on and the lady was dancing in the flames.

 

[TheDevil'Son]