What Scared the Shit Out of You as a Child?

Frank

Frank

What bits of media or anything else out there scared the holy fucking shit out of you when you were younger. Come on, we all had things. Some of mine make sense, some of mine are ridiculous nonsense.

NUMBER ONE!



The episode of Ghostbusters, Ain't NASA-Sarily So. This specific episode. It probably has to do with a combination of many things, but when I was young, we didn't get cable. My aunt would stick a tape on early in the morning and let it tape till noon or so for me every week. I was watching this particular episode one afternoon after school, home alone. I was only about 7 years old (heh, I was allowed home on my own all the time at this age, I was a trustworthy kid). This episode came on and I suddenly became aware of how alone I was in the house. The skies outside were cloudy and it was dark for an afternoon. I freaked the fuck out, ejected the tape and went outside to find some neighborhood kids to play with. ANYONE would do. I just couldn't be alone. This fucking episode creeeeeeped me out. The music in it. The atmosphere. It just did it.

NUMBA TWO!




Skeletons, rotting corpses, etc of ANY kind. I was a fucking teenager before through sheer force of will these stopped causing me to have almost outright anxiety attacks. It was a painful and personal and unshared ordeal for me to get over this fear since I didn't tell anyone about this until I was an adult for fear people would think I was a freak or crazy. It made it VERY difficult for me to watch so many of my friends' favorite movies. Movies like pictured above, Batman, Ghostbusters, Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Goonies.

I'm gonna try and think of some more. SHARE YOUR childhood FEEEARS!
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

Stripe jumping in the pool always sent me running upstairs for some reason.



And speaking of downstairs, I was scared of my basement in general. The way our house was built, we had a long staircase going downstairs. At the bottom, to your right, was the living room. To the left was the laundry room. But way in the back was also the boiler room. And I was scared of that in general (probably because I was watching a lot of horror movies around the same time, including Nightmare on Elm Street movies). But the bottom of the stairs was pitch dark unless the light was on. Even if the light at the top of the stairs was turned on, I don't think you see all the way to the bottom.

As a result, I had recurring nightmares where an unknown, evil force somewhere in that darkness would yank me out of my bed and pull me towards the basement. I always woke up just before I was pulled into the basement, usually clutching to something for dear life at the top of the stairs.
 
drawn_inward

drawn_inward

That clown in Poltergeist, hell, that whole movie. But, clowns in general don't scare me or didn't when I was a kid.
Jaws messed me up (the scene where Jaws eats the boat captain). I was scared of bathtubs and swimming pools. I am still leery of the ocean.
Since, I grew up in the tale-end of the cold war, nuclear holocaust scared the bejeebus out of me: DefCon4, etc. Any movie showing melting faces or houses being swept away.

Freddie and Jason never really got me, but Leatherface scared me good. That whole "true story" bit is what terrorized me.

Oh, I forgot The Shining old lady and the axe in the head bit.

And, the original Amityville Horror freaked me out too. I think the blood coming out of the walls and portal to hell thing got me good.

Good grief - why did my folks let me watch all that shit.
 
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Fun Size

Fun Size

My parents had no filter, which was difficult for those of us raised by televisions. As such, I grew up watching things like this:



In and of itself, it's not that bad. Grouped together with all the other episodes, In Search Of, random movies, etc., you get a kid who has intense nightmares involving ghosts in the house. To this day, I can watch horror movies all day long, but if it's a decent ghost story, that shit ruins me for dark rooms for days.
 
fade

fade

Staff member
I wasn't allowed to watch much TV, but movies were a different matter. My parents--well, my dad anyway--let me watch anything he brought home. I know I've posted this before, so apologies for reposting, but those damn silver balls from Phantasm scared me for literally years. I found out later that part of the reason they're so creepy is that they hired a pro baseball pitcher to throw them for all the long shots.
 
Frank

Frank

Fun Size said:
My parents had no filter, which was difficult for those of us raised by televisions. As such, I grew up watching things like this:



In and of itself, it's not that bad. Grouped together with all the other episodes, In Search Of, random movies, etc., you get a kid who has intense nightmares involving ghosts in the house. To this day, I can watch horror movies all day long, but if it's a decent ghost story, that shit ruins me for dark rooms for days.
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That fuckin' Sunnyvale Toys'R'Us, I swear to God, not a year of my young life went by where I didn't see some horrifying ghost special that involved it.
 
LittleKagsin

LittleKagsin

E.T.

I'm not sure what it was but the whole first half of that movie, I would just hide behind the couch. And it's odd for me because normally I'm all about the 'monster' character in movies (i.e. my obsession with the Rancor monster, rooting for Monstro in Pinocchio, etc.) but I could not handle that tiny alien!

That movie still unnerves me and I don't really enjoy watching the beginning.
 
Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

I've never really been afraid of "stuff". Clowns, the razor ball, all that stuff. To me, it's just stuff.
I don't get scared at haunted houses. My wife sees Jason running at her with a chainsaw. I see a pimply faced teen sweating it out for minimum wage.

On the other hand, I was very afraid of the unknown. The boogeyman. Things that would come in the night and get me. So, while I had an intense fear of the dark, it wasn't the dark, per se, that bothered me. But what might be in the dark with me.

Oh, and this painting:

http://www.wikiart.org/en/joshua-reynolds/miss-bowles


My grandmother had a print of this painting in her living room. When I was young, that girl's expression seemed so sinister, for some reason..like she was thinking "I just strangled this dog, and you're next." It doesn't help that the splash of light just to the right of her head looks like a demonic face manifesting from the darkness. You know, egging her on.

Whenever my grandmother's house was full during the holidays, and we drew straws for the couch, I always hated losing, because that of that painting. I knew it was irrational, so I never told anyone. But man, it gave me the the heebie jeebies.
 
bhamv3

bhamv3

I remember the giant fan scene from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory scaring the crap out of me as a kid, to the point where I was sobbing uncontrollably.
 
Celt Z

Celt Z

Heights, and I've never grown out if it.

I wasn't entirely certain there weren't things in the dark, like Gremlins, so if I was alone upstairs and had to shut off the lights before coming down, I tended to book it downstairs.

Although I was never afraid of clowns, I do distinctly remember having nightmares from Jack Nicholson's Joker in the theater, and accidentally catching Killer Clowns from Outer Space on tv. Come to think if it, both of those episodes happened on visits to my aunt and uncle's house, so sleeping in a strange bed probably added to it.
 
Terrik

Terrik

This scene from an episode of TOS





I dunno what it was. The thought of some poison gas creature coming out of the vent in killing me in my sleep was pretty terrifying. Vents creeped me the hell out as a kid because of it.
 
Frank

Frank

Terrik said:
This scene from an episode of TOS





I dunno what it was. The thought of some poison gas creature coming out of the vent in killing me in my sleep was pretty terrifying. Vents creeped me the hell out as a kid because of it.
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Oh shit, the fucking alien in the credits from the episode with Clint Howard scared the shit out of me too. I always had to cover my eyes at the end of Star Trek credits.
 
Squidleybits

Squidleybits

A horror movie about a girl stuck in a mirror. I saw it at a sleepover and was freaked out for ages. Bad dreams and everything.
 
Yoshimickster

Yoshimickster

That shoe scene from Roger Rabbit for obvious reasons.

And King Ramses from Courage,

I could not sleep after seeing that the first time.

And that's just off the top of my head, I got freaked out by all SORTS of stuff at that age.
 
sixpackshaker

sixpackshaker

The Batman live action TV series gave my oldest brother nightmares. And it gave me my nickname for the next 25+ years.

Nana nana nana! MATMAN!
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
When I was a kid, I couldn't deal with suspense/jump scares of any sort. It didn't matter what it was, supernatural, a murderer, being stalked by a predatory animal, whatever.. if there was tension building to a jump scare, I freaked right the hell out.

I'm better now, naturally.
 
Chad Sexington

Chad Sexington

Celt Z said:
Heights, and I've never grown out if it.
Click to expand...
Brofist for heights.

I was terrified of elevators for a brief time when I was seven or so, because I saw The Shining at way too goddamn early an age, and all that blood pouring out... I was convinced it would happen eventually. To date, it hasn't.
 
Gared

Gared

Suspense got me as well. My favorite show for a few years growing up was Rescue 911 with Bill Shatner, but every time just before the climax of the buildup to whatever caused the victim to need 911, I had to turn away or cover my eyes and ears. Also, I'm still not overly fond of the dark - or rather, the possibility of unseen things in the dark. Ditto with dark water.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

I'm going to buck the trend and say...nothing, really? Nothing outside of a couple of nightmares, at least*. And speaking unprepared in front of groups.

Except for that one episode of Ironside.

I don't know what it is, really. I've been "afraid" of all kinds of stuff...needles, fire, falling from great heights, whatever. But these always felt like I was being "appropriately" scared, like sure I would try to avoid them but they wouldn't cause me to sob hysterically or try to run through a wall to escape.
That one episode of Ironside, though. I can't explain it. Maybe it was because I was alone at night in someone else's house the first time I saw it, which heightened the mood of the episode.
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I was able to happily watch Die Hard and "Starship Mine" without problem, so I don't know what makes Ironside so different.

I don't know what it is. I don't count myself as particularly "fearless," really. I suppose my abnormally high curiosity plus my penchant for rationality have teamed up to replace "fear" for the majority of the lookup table of my reactions to things, maybe? Or maybe I'm just unusually well-adjusted? I'm interested in finding out, if anyone is legitimately, clinically interested in pursuing that.

--Patrick
*I've had two. Yes, for as far back as I can remember, I can only recall having two nightmares, total. I'm sure this supposedly indicate something important.
 
fade

fade

Staff member
Well, I mean I assume everyone is using "scared the shit out of you" as hyperbole. I don't think there's a whole lot of people out there who have had the misfortune to experience real terror.
 
fade

fade

Staff member
You know what movie frightened me as an adult due to events in my childhood? Insidious.

On the one hand, I'm not a believer in the paranormal, but that movie hit really close to home. When I was a kid, I was convinced I was astral walking. I had a detailed understanding of the roof of my house at night. I would start at the top of our long country driveway, run down it toward the house, and leap, clearing the house. Every time, when I cleared the midline of the roof, the world took on the same green murky flavor as it did in the movie--partly due to the green security light we had on our property. But at that crossing point, something would always change about the woods behind my house. There would be creatures dancing in it. The woods would be burning, though the trees weren't being consumed by the flames. There were things walking around in chains. Sometimes subtle changes, like the leaves becoming iridescent or phosphorescent.

Now, of course the rational part of my mind gets that there are probably chemical or behavioral reasons why astral walking experiences are similar, but it's still eerie.
 
Simfers

Simfers

I remember (and am slightly embarrassed about) being terrified of one Scooby Doo episode where they meet the Headless Horseman. Just something about the way he screamed "Give me my head!" (may not be an exact quote, it was in French) freaked me out for weeks.

To this day, though, the best way to make sure I don't sleep well is to have a creepy silhouette in the dark, especially if it's a child's. Bring all the zombies, monsters, and demons you want. I might get grossed out, but that's gonna be it. Throw in one of those silhouettes, though, and I'm gonna be sleeping very poorly for a while. I watched a short movie on YouTube, Lights Out, a few months ago, and I was freaked out by it for weeks. WEEKS! :hide:
 
WasabiPoptart

WasabiPoptart

I was scared of pretty much anything and everything as a kid. But, the worst by far was a painting of The Last Supper my grandmother had in her living room. It was the weirdest thing since it had a light underneath the picture and one on the top. You could flip the switch 4 times, so it would be lit only from the bottom, only from the top, both lights on, or shut it off. When it was lit from the bottom that painting looked evil. I hated it.
 
sixpackshaker

sixpackshaker

My grandparents had this 100 year old photo of three really stern looking Civil War Veterans. Then combine low light, shadows dancing in the room through swaying, dead trees, then the damned disembodied doll's head on the night stand.... no wonder I was never able to sleep there.
 
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