Pajiba

E.T.

E motherfucking T

That little shit made me a PARANOID child. I was always checking behind me to see if E.T. was there. What an awful movie, the alien isn't "cute" he's goddamn terrifying!

For some reason my Dad let me watch the Stephen King's IT mini-series when I was like three, and I had nightmares about Pennywise the Dancing Clown for years.

Jumanji (the movie) freaked me something good, too. I had that poacher hunting me through my bad dreams for a while. Not too mention the stampeding rhinos, the giant floods and, worst of all...

...ROBIN WILLIAMS.

Hands down #1: JAWS. That movie messed people up. Enough said.

#2: My mom took me to see some Raggedy Ann and Andy movie in 1975 and I (my 3 yr old self) flipped out. I couldn't handle the dark, the loud sound or the large movie screen. I didn't go back to movie for 3 yrs and then it was Star Wars! (Yes it came out in May 1977 but was in theaters for 2 yrs or so.)

#3 I remember bawling my eyes out when Charlotte died and her little babies fly away in the original Charlotte's Web. Good thing I never saw Old Yeller as a child.

the first scene in Fantasia, with Mickey Mouse and the multiplying broomsticks and that relentless, rolling, marching music. I still shudder just thinking about it. I didn't even make it all the way through to see the scene with the monster in the mountain and the tortured souls... I doubt that would have gone over well, either, but those broomsticks really did me in. And I have no memory of it, but apparently I had to be taken out of the theater during the field scene at the beginning of ET. I don't think I was especially disturbed by anything more or less benign, though.

Also, I don't know if it counts as freaking me out, because it more upset me than scared me, but I also COULD NOT HANDLE the scene where Atreyu's horse gets stuck in the quicksand in Neverending Story. COULD NOT HANDLE it.

I confess I was a little bugged out by the scene in Debbie Does Dallas when...

Wait.

Wrong site. My bad.

One of the first horror movies I ever saw was "And Now The Screaming Starts". Horrible movie, but I was scared of hands for years afterwards.

Also, I was scared of Frankenstein - in all incarnations. When we went to Universal Studios on a tour, a guy dressed as Frankenstein got on the tour bus and I freaked out so badly they had to pull over and let us off.

Dave I recently found my ET doll and it is freaky..gross pleather.

That movie scared me too! But my best friend looked so much like Elliott that we also found it funny. (Literally, people used to stop him on the streets on NYC for autographs.)

Jurassic Park - had many dreams where T-Rexes chased my family and I. Then I saw the sequel for some reason when it was first out and it wasn't as bad as I remembered.

Aliens - About the time Independence Day came out, I spent too much time watching those "Alien Abduction" shows on the Discovery Channel and History Channel. Scared the hell out of me so much that I didn't have a decent night's sleep for 6 months, thinking they were going to beam into my room and take me away.

Heh, I was quite the impressionable kid.

Without a doubt it has to be Gordon Jump as the pedophile on a very special episode of Different Strokes.

Jaws. MF-ing Jaws. I hate Jaws. I was 5. Some member of my family thought that it might be a good idea to watch Jaws. I developed an unhealthy and irrational fear of sharks. To make matters worse, my cousins had a wind-up shark that swam that they put in the tub one day. It was awful.

Arachnophobia. I am also irrationally afraid of spiders and that is not a good thing to watch this movie. I had nightmares for weeks afterward. I think I was 8 for this one.

1. There was a Dracula movie I saw when I was in grade school that was the only flick to ever give me nightmares. I think it was the one titled "Bram Stoker's Dracula" but I don't remember for sure.

2. The wolf in Neverending Story used to scare the hell out of me.

Return to Oz. The scene where the lady with interchangeable heads (one of them was Vanessa Redgrave I think... she freaked me out something fierce due in no small part to here turn as the wicked stepmother in the Shelly Duvall Faerie Tale Theatre production of Snow White.)The woman with interchangeable heads starts screaming. And all the other heads in their separate cases start screaming. The jittery spasms of the Wheelers. The claymation rock faces. The creepy voice of the Goblin King... just so many freaky things about that movie.

I was afraid of an episode of Goosebumps, adapted from the ridiculous children's series of the same name. It was called "Piano Lessons Can Be Murder" and involved a piano teacher attempting to cut off the hands of his student because they were such nice looking hands, or some such thing.

There was also a movie that began with a hand coming up out of the ground, but I can't remember the name of it. All I know is that it was enough to make me jump over the back of a couch and run screaming to my parents.

Holy shittified seems an appropriate name for this: I believe it was the movie Trolls, where Sonny Bono's character slowly morphs into a pulsating mass of green moss. Ick.

Childhood freak-out: Episode of He-Man with Evilseed, when Evil Seed dies and rots away. Great, now I have to go change my shorts... again.

Unsolved Mysteries, hands down. After watching an episode of that, it was usually time for bed, so I'd either think I'd spontaneously combust, get kidnapped, or my mom would go psycho and whisk me away and we'd live out of our car for months, never to be seen again.

V
The tv show.
The lizard aliens (V is for visitors) were perfecting the fastest way to 'process' the humans, to eat them... Among very disturbing performances from the 'actors'.

I have no recollection as to how old I was, but I'm pretty sure I was no older than middle school. I came downstairs to use the bathroom and the TV was still on (we only got one channel) and I saw one scene from Salem's Lot. One kid is flying outside the window scratching on it and the next moment the kid inside is dead and contorted. I still can't bring myself to either see the entire movie or read the book although I really enjoy most everything Stephen King.

Also, there was a holiday special about a donkey with big ears. I only saw it once and don't even remember the plot or the name, but it made me sob uncontrollably and mom was smart enough to not let me see it again.

In the UK they did a Halloween special that was billed as a documentary following a family in a house with a poltergeist - all these things were happening to the little children like scratches appearing on their arms out of nowhere etc. I was five and thought it was real. To be fair, a good few gullible people in the UK actually thought it was real too and there was a big stink about it afterwards.

Also Star Trek the Wrath of Kahn - my bro made me watch it - the thing with the bugs in their helmets - I still have nighmares about that ;-)

As a kid,I freaked out every Saturday night when "Creature Features" came on. It was never about the movie of the week itself; I had an irrational fear of the film montage they played as the opening credit along with a theme song.

Bob Wilkins, you terrified me as a child!

1. That scene in "What About Bob" where Bill Murray gets committed to the asylum. That really bothered me for some reason, although I love that movie now.

2. In "The Little Mermaid" when she loses her voice. Fuck you all.

3. The entirety of Robin Williams in "Toys" still bothers me to this day.

4. My dad rented "Papillon" for some crazy reason when I was 12. I wasn't freaked out, but I was pretty messed up for a while after that.

Don't know if you had it in the US, but there was a "horror" movie called "Night of the Lepus". The premise was that some kind of nuclear accident turned rabbits from furry little pets into these giant homicidal monsters. They still looked like rabbits, but they were bigger than houses. They bred (as rabbits do) and took over Australia. There were scenes (now absolutely hilarious to look at) in which giant rabbits squash people, tear people's heads off, demolish houses, etc. But the scariest part was the thud that would reverberate from miles away before you could see the rabbits and it let you know they were on the way and you were doomed. There was no CGI or animation here. They just used film of real rabbits blown up to make them look huge and they could close up on their eyes looking all red and menacing....and...well, I have to go to a safe place now and lie in a fetal position for a while.

Nate, the Gmork from the Neverending Story wins, HANDS DOWN. Damn I hate CGI and miss puppetry.

First, I must preface this by saying I was practically raised on scary flicks by young parents. With little money to hire a babysitter, I got to see "Alien" with them when I was four. Explains a lot about me as an adult, and subsequently it took a lot for a movie to really freak me out as a child.

There were two notable exceptions:

1. "Something Wicked This Way Comes" The scene that sent me racing from the theater on the verge of a panic attack was Will and Jim hiding from Mr. Dark under a sewer grate during the circus parade through town. Mr. Dark stands right over the grate talking to Will's father. I was terrified for them, trapped like that, and I think I gave birth to my current claustrophobia.

2. "Tombs of the Blind Dead" Crazy-ass Spanish zombie movie I watched one night with my babysitter on Elvira's show. We were holed up in my bedroom with a tiny B&W TV set. Because my door was closed and the TV turned up loud, we couldn't hear the phone ring when my babysitter's mom tried to call and check on us. Then worried, she came to my house and we didn't hear her knocking at the door. So she comes around to my bedroom where we are totally absorbed in the frightfest of blind Templar zombies and knocks on the frickin' window. Nearly peed ourselves. I gave birth to my zombie phobia that night. I've always wanted to rent "Tombs" again to see if it is as creepy as it was to a nine-year-old.

Also there was this "Tales From the Darkside" episode I watched in middle school about a creature who lived in a little closet that had me jumping in bed from my doorway for years.

1. Gremlins. I had recurring nightmares featuring these guys (and I was actually really uspet by the whole "I hate Christmas because my dad got stuck in the chimney and died while pretending to be Santa on year" thing).
2. Tanner - I second "Return to Oz" I was terrified of the wheelers when I was little, and those interchangeable heads were creeeeepy.
3. The Boogyman. there was some disney movie - I'm not sure what it was called, but it featured some green-skinned guy haunting some people's house. He scared the crap out of me.
4. Poltergeist - especially the clown doll and the tree

Would you believe...Agnes of God?

There was something about that angel-rape that sent me huddling into a gibbering corner. And I don't even--haven't ever--believe in angels.

It's a poser.

The movie "Magic" with Anthony Hopkins has forever ruined me for anything that resembles a puppet--Ventriloquist dummies, marrionnettes (ick! The only scene from Sound of Music that I CANNOT watch), and hand puppets. BLEH!

Now I will say that I don't feel that way about muppets. hmm...interesting. Maybe its because they aren't very humanoid and bring back happy childhood memories. But anything else gives me the super creeps.

And RichD -- I am with you on IT. I always had an irrational distaste for clowns and that movie just turned into a primal fear. I don't even like to think about clowns. (shudder)

I think it was Tales From The Crypt maybe? But there was this black blob thing floating in a lake and it basically enveloped and dissolved swimmers. I STILL won't swim in natural bodies of water unless it's clear ocean water.

Am I the only one that was creeped out as a child by Mr. Rogers? Gaaaahhh

1. The puppets from Genesis' the Land of Confusion video...I would always watch it, because I was a six year old sadist, but they scared the piss out of me.

2. The part in Poltergeist when Robby says in his high pitched voice "One one-thousand, two one-thousand..." and the tree would bust through the window. Gah.

3. The skeksies from The Dark Crystal. That Jim Henson was one fucked up dude, god love him.

"WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT?"

When Christopher Lloyd, a.k.a. Judge Doom, gets doused with the cartoon killing acid stuff, and his cartoon eyeballs pop out of his human head, I freaked. the fuck. out. That was the scariest thing ever. I remember not sleeping at all for two nights in a row. Every time I closed my lids those bug eyes would pop right into my head, and I'd die a little more inside. I haven't watched that movie since, and don't plan on it for some time, if ever again.

i think when i was like 8 or something my uncle was watching this movie,er i think it was called Leprechaun or something.all i know it that movie freaked me out ,of course now that i look back its a stupid little movie but eh i was a weird little kid

People always laugh at me when I tell them this but as a wee child I was TERRIFIED by a certain Bugs Bunny cartoon. The opera one. Anybody remember that one where it opens with Elmer Fudd decked out in a viking outfit, helmet and all, whilst repeatedly singing, "Kill Da Wabbit, Kill Da Wabbit" to the tune of "Flight Of The Valkyries"?!

He sings about how his helmet is magically and Bugs tricks him in regular Bugs' fashion and then all Hell breaks out (I think I can still smell the sulfur) and the next thing you see is Bugs Bunny lying prostrate on a rock looking all sorts of dead with Elmer Fudd being darkly lit from behind.

That damn cartoon gave me nightmares for a long time. Even thinking of it now I feel the strange urge to cry a little.

Sesame Street had a song about a muppet who went to get a haircut. She has all this long, long hair and at the end of the song there's just a big quivering pile of hair with the two barbers buried underneath it. Terrifying!

Almost forgot - the Banshee in Darby O'Gill and the Little People.

People always laugh at me when I tell them this but as a wee child I was TERRIFIED by a certain Bugs Bunny cartoon. The opera one. Anybody remember that one where it opens with Elmer Fudd decked out in a viking outfit, helmet and all, whilst repeatedly singing, "Kill Da Wabbit, Kill Da Wabbit" to the tune of "Flight Of The Valkyries"?!

He sings about how his helmet is magical and Bugs tricks him in regular Bugs' fashion (cross-dressing, but of course) and then all Unholy Hell breaks out (I think I can still smell the sulfur) and the next thing you see is Bugs Bunny lying prostrate on a rock looking all sorts of dead with Elmer Fudd being darkly lit from behind.

That damn cartoon gave me nightmares for a long time. Even now I feel a strange urge to cry just a little.

The Exorcist - couldn't sleep for months after seeing that movie -

Anything with a clown in it -

the exorcist.



Maybe it was the catholic upbringing. or perhaps it was the sight of linda blair spider-walking down the stairs. Afterwards I couldn't sleep in my room without feeling like my bed was going to levitate.



also, are you afraid of the dark.

Left one out folks: The intro for the show "Tales From the Darkside". The creepy music, the slow pan across a creepy swamp, the ominous voice over...and the fact that it aired after midnight just...man, it still creeps me the fuck OUT.

1. Everything in Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Particularly those motherfucking Oompa Loompas.

2. The scene in Pocahontas when Kocoum gets shot. That animated blood scared the shit out of me.

Ok, this came up in last week's Diversion, Name that Movie. The mid-70s, made-for-TV movie Bug was the first horror movie that I ever saw and it left its indelible mark. (This is why I was able to identify it last week.) It was one of those "I can't sleep alone, so scoot over mom" type of experiences.

Smello: Your holiday special is Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey. It is on every Christmas season on ABC Family, along with the rest of the many, lesser-known Rankin-Bass Christmas specials. You can also check it out at IMDb.

I know this isn't a movie/TV scene, but is anyone else creeped (yes, I am making up my own words now) out by the music played by ice cream trucks?

I definitely agree with the people who said E.T. I HATE that movie. It scared the crap out of me.

Also, The Wizard of Oz. Those flying monkeys gave me nightmares.

And finally, the movie that turned me off the ENTIRE horror genre to the point where I haven't seen even ONE horror movie in the past 15 years: Poltergeist.

1. The Dark Crystal scared the ever living piss out of me when I was a kid. Skeksis, freaky evil skeletal bird creatures, extracting "everlasting essence" from Gelflings and other woodland creatures? Instant freak out.

2. I second the Gmork from The Neverending Story, with his big yellow fangs and growling, fatalistic message delivered to Atreyu right before he pounced. Yikes.

3. Then there were those yellow and orange creepy puppet characters in The Labyrinth that started pulling their heads off and juggling them that I found profoundly disturbing.

I guess puppets and animatronic creatures really freaked me out as a kid, but in a good way, because all these films are endearing childhood memories now. Weird.

Santa Claus (1985): It was the first movie I ever saw in a theater, I was four and Santa DIES 5 minutes into the movie. I just remember throwing myself at my Mom shrieking "NOOOOOOOOOOO, Not Santa!!"

I was also tearily terrified of the Gmork from the Neverending Story but scarred for life when Artex bites it.

Tamatha- there is an ice cream truck that slowly cruises by my house every day, playing YMCA with the chipmunks singing, sped up to a frenzied beat over and over and over.
I feel you.

1. The crazy-ass boat ride in Willi Wonka and the Chocolate Factory - centipedes, fish, Gene Wilder screaming, WTF? I was totally freaked out.
2. Alien. I had nightmares that an alien was hiding in my closet, and I'd wake up to see those nasty, mucous-covered double jaws slowly emerging from the closet. To this day I won't sleep with a closet door cracked open.

Michela -- Oh My God, Yes! I will never watch Wrath of Khan ever, ever again! I am still traumatized by the bugs in the helmet scene.

I seem to be the only person I know who remembers the TV show Project UFO but I do remember it and it freaked me out every week. I'm sure it was cheesy and totally fake looking, but I was afraid to take the trash out at night after watching it.

Flight of the Navigator scared the crap out of me as a kid. Everything was the same but different! How could that not scare you.

Lauren:

The movie "where Big Bird and Snuffy find a little Egyptian prince who is seperated from his dead family, trapped on Earth, questioned every night by a demon, and must have his heart weighed by Osiris in order to move on to the afterlife!" is called "Don't Eat the Pictures". I am sorry it freaked you out because I loved it so much as a child I bought it when I visited the History Museum in New York and now own it on VHS.

My 30 year-old boyfriend just refused to see ET with me when it was playing in the park. He said it gave him nightmares through junior high.

My freak-out would be the Skeksies from "The Dark Crystal". I seriously cannot believe that was appropriate for kids. I own the dvd and those muppets still freak me the eff out! Worst of all, that film ruined Grover for me because the main Skeksie was voiced by the same guy!

Carrie - I'm with you on Willy Wonka. I was totally freaked out by Augustus "drowning" in the chocolate river then getting sucked up that tube. My child brain thought he was really dead.

My older brother also let me watch the full video for Michael Jackson's Thriller when I was 6 years old. Gave me nightmares for months!

I agree that Fantasia was scary as shit as a child. Now it's just kind of boring. And Are You Afraid Of The Dark on Nickelodeon always freaked me out too.

Also, any true-crime show would leave me unable to sleep for about a week, as I lay in bed waiting for someone to break in and stab me to death right there.

As soon as I saw the title of the post and the picture of Bert and Ernie I thought of EXACTLY that Sesame Street movie with the Egyptian prince. I believe, though my memory is vague, that there was another movie (or maybe it was the same one) that involved big bird at the great wall of china.

They both scared the SHIT out of me when I was little.

Hee! This is great! I second the calls for Never Ending Story and Who Framed Roger Rabbit; the scene where Judge Doom "dips" the poor little shoe character also deserves mention as pretty damn horrific.

(1) The flying monkeys from The Wizard of Oz. Their faces in particular. Evil, evil, evil.

(2) The Swarm. Killer bees.

Okay first were those big monster things on fraggle rock. Then the tv show sightings, and the theme music from x files still creeps me out.

(1) The flying monkeys from The Wizard of Oz. Their faces in particular. Evil, evil, evil.

(2) The Swarm. Killer bees.

'ET' was incredibly creepy, but the movie that truly traumatized me was 'Killer Klowns from Outer Space'. I somehow came across this on tv one night when I was 8 or 9, and the alien clowns wrapping people up in cotton candy and then sucking them out a few days later was far too much. That was it for me and aliens. And clowns.

ET...

Specifically a man dressed like ET at our local video store. My dad left me in the kids section to go pick out a movie for him and my mom. Then this guy dressed as ET comes up to me and I FLIPPED. I went screaming and tearing through the store until I found my dad. In the end I probably freaked out the poor high school kid in the ET suit even more. (I see alot of ET, glad I'm not alone)

The Princess Bride also scared the shit out of me, those rat things in the forest especially. Then in junior high, X-Files left me with nightmares. Actually just recently I was watching the X-Files before I went to bed and had some freaky ass dreams that caused me to wake up screaming.

I saw someone said Fantasia, the last bit.....I don't think I've ever watched it to this day.

HEE, David, I was scared of that scene in Roger Rabbit as well!

I also have to agree with whomever mentioned the wolf from Neverending Story. Those glowy eyes...eep. But what scared me the most about that movie was when that huge turtle would sneeze Atreyu into the mud. Heh.

Ohhh, and when the hands would come out of Dana's chair in Ghostbusters...something about the way she would scream when she was being pulled into the kitchen...terrifying.

When I was 10 my babysitter decided it would be a good idea to watch Psycho with me and my (younger) brother. THAT was a good idea. As long as you never want to sleep again.

I also remember watching an animated movie by a famous anime director (still around the same age) and being freaked out by the fact that some unicorn sent all the parents into a factory and baked them into gingerbread people.

Definitely the scene in Poltergeist where the guy is washing his face and it just keeps coming off and eventually it's just a sick, bloody mess. We had just moved into our house when I had seen it at the time, and I was not too keen on sleeping for a while after that.

Also, an Are You Afraid of the Dark episode where not the episode scared me, but the fact that my babysitter was hiding behind the couch and jumped out at possibly THE worst time. Bitch.

"The Devil and Daniel Mouse". It's an animated movie from the early 80s and features two little mice, a boy and a girl who want to be rock stars. The girl ends up selling her soul to become famous... there are ensuing and disturbingly dark scenes of said little mice being chased through a forest by the devil and/or his minions. For years afterward it drove my sister and I nuts remembering specific parts and not knowing what it had been! And for whatever reason, we would get it confused with episodes of "The Raccoons" and somehow underscored it in our imaginations with Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out For a Hero", but nontheless I recently found it discussed online and realized we hadn't made it all up. Soooo weird. Pajiba parents, please don't ever show this crap to your kids.

Gremlins y'all. Gremlins.

I was terrified and traumatized by Child's Play. I used to fear an uprising of my Cabbage Patches and stuffed toys. The especially scary ones, I would sometimes stick pins in or stuff in the closet, but then I got scared that they would feel resentment because of that and strike back twice as hard. It got really bad with this stuffed raccoon I fell in love with, decked out in tea party dress and bonnet. No matter how I looked at it, it seemed evil.

I was also scared of Pee Wee's Big Adventure, when that convict describes pulling the tag off the mattress, and then with Large Marge the trucker.

Are You Afraid of the Dark?, especially the ones with clowns (The Tale of Laughing in the Dark) and vampires (Tale of the Nightly Neighbors, Midnight Madness, and especially Night Shift). I watch them on Youtube occasionally and it's still pretty freaky.

There's probably lots more, because I was a big wimp as a kid.

Claire!!!, if you could in anyway post clips from the movie online, I would love you forever. The full title is Don't Eat the Pictures: Sesame Street at the Metropolitan Museum, is it not? I've looked for it everywhere.

>>>>Also, The Wizard of Oz. Those flying monkeys gave me nightmares.

I'm reading the responses thinking "jesus people, will no one mention those flying monkeys"....I still think those fucking flying monkeys are as creepy as can be.

I couldn't tell you why but I was terrified after watching The Little Mermaid. Scared for months, and couldn't swim in dark waters for years after that.

1) The scene in The Little Mermaid where Ursula sings "Poor Unfortunate Souls" in her cave-lair and the shrivelled human-plants writhe in agony. I used to hide behind the couch if I was left to watch it alone in my grandma's basement. Hands down one of the creepiest Disney moments.

2) In Ernest Scared Stupid there is a scene where the girl gets this uncanny feeling there is something evil under the bed, so she crawls over to one side and peeks under... nothing. Her bed isn't up against a wall, however, and when she rolls back up, the gnarly-looking troll has snuck up the other side and is lying next to her. Someone posted above about clowns releasing a primal fear? Well, I guess my own primal fear is of the monster under the bed. To this day, whenever I rearrange my bedroom, there sure as hell better be a wall butting up against one side of the bed!

And the last one I can think of right now...

3) The ending of the Ghostbusters movie where all the eggs crack. I know that the portal to hell is opening or some such supernatural madness, but when all those eggs start going ape-shit, I knew that something scary was about to burst forth and I was heading for the back of the couch.

I probably should have mentioned this one during Ranylt's diversion since I don't remember the title but... it terrified me as a kid. Anyhoodle, during the movie a boy is stabbed in a cloakroom. He's also haunted by a little girl who was murdered. The girl ghost appears randomly throughout and hums a creepy tune?

Absolutely nothing scared me as a kid half so much as, well, The Nothing, from The Neverending Story. The simple idea that it was just nothing was enough to blow my fragile little mind, and gave me horrible nightmares about non-existence. Like a little Camus, I was. Also I was really scared of G'mork.

The only thing I remember is that first horror movie I saw at a friends house (mentioned it in the "Name That Move" post) - still see snips of the stabing and blood every once in a while and just remember being very creeped out by it.

On an unrelated note, Vick pled guilty

Oh, God, Tanner, you're so right about "Return to Oz". Those Wheelers are the creepiest fucking things EVER. And what's funny is I was watching that very movie when I read your comment.

I also really hated that scene in "Fantasia" where the dinosaurs die and the music is all like "dun dun dun DUN DUN DUN BWAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Nightmare on Elm Street

Granted I had no business watching this as a five year old but I was at my friend's house next door. The only scene we watched before her mom came in and changed the channel was Johnny Depp asleep and getting pulled into the bed and a geyser of blood shooting out.

I don't remember how long I slept on the floor after that, but lesson learned. If my parents didn't allow me to watch it, it was probably for my own good.

Absolutely nothing scared me as a kid half so much as, well, The Nothing, from The Neverending Story. The simple idea that it was just nothing was enough to blow my fragile little mind, and gave me horrible nightmares about non-existence. Like a little Camus, I was. Also I was really scared of G'mork.

The beginning scene of Ghostbusters where the ghost in the library freaked out. It was just awful.

princessweiner... Ghostbusters? Eggs cracking?

What?

About Last Night...the horror of watching it with my mom remains with me to this day. She took me to the damn R rated movie when I was 10.

The only thing I remember is that first horror movie I saw at a friends house (mentioned it in the "Name That Move" post) - still see snips of the stabing and blood every once in a while and just remember being very creeped out by it.

On an unrelated note, Vick pled guilty

Betty Boop cartoons. We had this tape of a bunch of them, really old ones, and those are among the most terrifying things I have seen. I still can't watch them. This one is the absolute worst. I used to burst into tears as soon as it started. Actually, I kind of still want to. Damn those Fleischer Brothers.

The beginning scene of Ghostbusters where the ghost in the library freaked out. It was just awful.

The beginning scene of Ghostbusters where the ghost in the library freaked out. It was just awful.

Absolutely nothing scared me as a kid half so much as, well, The Nothing, from The Neverending Story. The simple idea that it was just nothing was enough to blow my fragile little mind, and gave me horrible nightmares about non-existence. Like a little Camus, I was. Also I was really scared of G'mork.

Am I the only one that was creeped out as a child by Mr. Rogers? Gaaaahhh

Posted by: Buttercup at August 20, 2007 2:33 PM

No Buttercup, you are not alone. My sister really didn't like having to watch Mr. Rogers (we only had one tv back then) so she convinced me that he was the boogeyman and came after children late at night. I'm still kinda freaked out by the re-runs that show on PBS everyday.

Oh, Buttercup, I thought I was alone.

I was a good kid who never fell asleep during naps, so after a few months my babysitter let me sit up and watch tv during naptime. By seven I had memorized every line of the Poltergeist movies, and the one where the toys come to life and threaten the kid (starts with a fake phone ringing) as if they were Disney films. Also, I decided I had wanted to be adopted into the Addams Family, and slept in pigtails with my hands folded over my heart like Wednesday.

But Mr. Rogers? Even with my back turned to the television and kids all around me, I could feel him staring right at me with that glassy smile, slowly tying one of his sneakers. shuddershuddershudershudder....

Ok. Given that I STILL can't watch horro movies, and STILL have to sleep with a night-light on, this could take a while... I'll keep it to non-horor movies, since it sort of goes without saying that those might be scary for children... But here goes:

1. DARK CRYSTAL: not so much the Skeksies themselves, but the way they sucked the life essence out of those other muppets... horrible.

2. NEVER-ENDING STORY: death of Atreyu's horse, absolutely tramatic.

3. THE NUT-CRACKER: did anyone ever see this? The crazy-ass claymation version that had the most terrifying rat king ever...

4. FLIGHT OF THE EAGLE: this film is about a group of vaguely Scandinavian explorers (I think) who set out to reach the North Pole, but went insane from lead poisonning they contrived from eating canned food circa 1892. Anyhoo, the scene where one of them gets eaten by a polar bear prompted me to donate ALL of my stuffed animals to a nearby Salvation Army.

5. WINDWALKER: I recommend this truly beautiful and hard to find film about warring Native American tribes to anyone. However, if you have a 6-7 year old, don't let him/her see the part where the mom gets brutally killed holding her papoose, 'kay?

GW - I love the theme music for X Files, but only because my roommate, Sarah, made up really awesome lyrics

This is the X-Files show
With Scully and Mul-der
They make a somber pair
And they both have real nice hair

Perhaps singing that the next time you hear the theme will make it less creepy...

Also, those of you who have mentioned Tales from the Crypt, I have two, though since I was in my teens (or older?) they can't count as childhood freak outs. The first involved a scarecrow, a creepy farmer and his wife, and some poor teen-age girl. The second was about a ventriloquist's dummy (and I think starred Bobcat Goldthwaite), which turned out to be this weird mutant thing attached to his hand under the puppet--and even when he chopped it off, it was still alive (and either attached itself to someone else, or simply scampered away--I can't remember which). Ugh.

Yeah, I agree with a ton of those mentioned above... does anyone also remember the thing from Sesame Street where Big Bird got sold to a circus or something where he was locked up and painted blue? Freeeaky. I honestly feared that they were going to kill Big Bird.

I kind of had the one-two punch for my freakout. I had a beloved book called Who's Who in the Zoo and it was an encylopedia of all types of animals. I loved it so much- except for one page. There was a picture of a frog with her babies coming out of the skin on its back. Even typing that makes my mouth get all spitty and my stomach cramps.

Then, I was told the story of The Frog Prince. It wasn't bad enough that this obsequious little frog follows the princess everywhere, wanting to be near her, eat near her plate and SLEEP ON HER PILLOW (shudder), but then (in the version I was told), she throws the frog against the wall. I was so grossed out by the thought of a frog being thrown against a wall that frogs now completely gross me out.

That's my story.

Sorry about the double post - machine is moving slowly and I wasn't sure if it was loading

Two more occurred to me after I posted this diversion: 1) My entire view of relationships was horribly shaped and scarred by the ending of The Last American Virgin, when the girl (Diane Franklin) left the good guy who paid for her abortion for the guy who impregnated her. Far more frightening than any horror movie I'd ever seen. I was 8.

And, also, Stephen King's acting vignette in Creepshow, in which he falls prey to "meteor shit."

The freaky white-haired dude in The Bodyguard gave me nightmares.

When I was a kid, I was there for a non-horror type movie and they showed the trailer for Phantasm and I didn't sleep for about a week after that. That little flying ball with the drill on it scared the shite out of me.

I had a babysitter one night when I was probably about 10, and I ended up watching some of the movie Burnt Offerings on TV. It features a guy with white make-up all over his face driving a hearse around town, among other peculiar crap. It scared the living hell out of me. In fact, I remember writing about this in another comments thread, or somewhere else -- it's really stuck with me.

Escape from (fucking) Witch Mountain.

The orphan-ness of the lead characters. The creepy music. The flashbacks.

It still makes me nauseous thinking about it.

I'm with Melody on Arachnophobia. I have a total and irrational fear of spiders and I just remember my older sister pinning me down to the couch and forcing me to watch it while i screamed and tried to close my eyes. Ah, family. The scene where the guy's putting on his shoe and the spider's inside scarred me enough that i STILL check the inside of my shoes.

also... the episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark with some freaky clown. I really don't remember that much about it but I know it scared the shit out of me.

and finally.. the episode of Unsolved Mysteries detailing the disappearance of a man who turned up years later encased in a block of ice. It doesn't sound that scary but, man, I had nightmares for months.

E.T. - It was sold as if all kids would love it. My dad is a fan of alien movies so he took me and I spent what felt like an eternity crying with my arms around his neck facing the audience in the theatre. Years later, an uncle tried to make my young cousin watch its TV premier & I stepped in!

Thiller - My favorite music video show was going to premier it, but once it began I had to hide behind the couch and was too scared to go near the TV to turn it off. I tried to plug my ears to keep from hearing Vincent Price's voice.

The Secret of Nymh - I went with some kind of afterschool group and found most of it to be very disturbing. I had vivid nightmares of going underground and being stuck there with the dusty owl and backstabbing rats.

Benji - I think this is the one where Benji wanders through a desert like a canine Moses. I bawled for days thinking about sweet dogs out there suffering. None of the adults seemed bothered, but I wanted to get out there and save Benji gawddammit!!!

The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Fun when you're 16, scary when you're 8.

A family friend took her daughter and me for what has to be one of the worst planned outings ever. I was terrified of the audience members, all dressed up and throwing toast, running around with water guns and faux-making out. I was so completely confused out when Dr. Frankenfurter crawled into bed first with Janet, and then with Brad. "What is he doing? I thought he was with that oily blond." And the oral sex? And the spaceship? And the murder of Meatloaf by the Dr.? To gruesome, too, too much. I was truly worried for weeks afterwards that hyper-sexed aliens might kidnap me and make me do weird things with them, like eat a fat biker for dinner.

does anyone also remember the thing from Sesame Street where Big Bird got sold to a circus or something where he was locked up and painted blue? Freeeaky. I honestly feared that they were going to kill Big Bird.

Yes! I remember that too. I had always thought that might be a bad dream I had. That was definitely freaky.

Oh and speaking of freaky muppets, the flipping Fire Dance creatures from Labyrinth. Catchy song, but when they try to take off her head, FORGET ABOUT IT. We just re watched it on the big screen and I had to hide in my sweatshirt.

Swarm. A bad piece of B-movie horror from the 70's about a swarm of killer earthworms that take over a small town, yada yada.

I never actually saw this film. I just saw an ad for the film that was going to be shown on a Sunday afternoon creature feature on channel 11. And just that image of the killer earthworms, coming to eat you, in their own, unique, SQUISHY way, freaked me out.

A few days later I was at a swim meet. You may recall, if you did any sort of competative swimming, of the lane dividers, or lane lines, that broke the pool up into six or seven lanes. And there were small holes in each lane buoy, to let water through.

My race was the 50 yard freestyle, for boys 8 and under. I was never a fast swimmer. And, underwater, if you let your mind wander, it can go evil places. And I pictured killer worms coming THROUGH the holes in the lane lines, all after me.

I panicked, and almost drowned. My father had to save me.

Wow, you guys are making me feel really old. I was in high school with poltergeist/ET/ghostbusters came out.

"Magic" w/ Anthony Hopkins left me a complete mess. After that Child's Play seemed really cheap and stupid

"What ever happened to Baby Jane" w/ Bette Davis. Saw it by accident as a kid, and if freaked me out just as much as Excorcist, which left me sleepless for days.

and yeah, the flying monkies didn't help things at all.

I want to add myself to the list of people traumatized by "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" That bit when Christopher Lloyed peels himself off the floor and then starts shrieking terrifies me to this day, even though I love the movie.

The other thing that freaked me out was the 'Thriller' video. My parents (who were young MTV lovers at the time) used to make me leave the room when that video came on, but one time I sneaked back in and hid behind a chair to watch it. I firmly believe it caused my lifelong phobia of zombies.

The Wizard of Oz. Freakin flying monkeys

I second the comments about Fantastia (the scene with the broomsticks) and Jumanji. Both of those movies really bothered me as a child.

What terrified me the most though was the Disney animated Pinocchio. I freaked the fuck out when those children turned into donkeys. To this day I don't think I've ever seen the conclusion of that movie.

Brian: Not to hijack the diversion or anything, but yeah! Vick is going down as he deserves to.

Ghost Story. I used to sneak out of my room after bedtime to watch "grownup" programs. One time I peered around the corner right at the point in this movie where a woman lifts her bridal veil to reveal a rotted head. That freaked my shit out like nothing else. I slept with the hall light on for years afterwards.
To make matters worse, just when I was starting to get over Ghost Story, we watched Psycho. The mother's dessicated corpse triggered my fear all over again. I've watched Psycho since and gotten over it; Ghost Story I won't touch.

The Lord of the flies.
Crushing Piggy's glasses, and then pushing that rock on him.

Constance,

I think the movie you're talking about is 'Lady in White' with Lukas Haas. IMDB tells me it was made in 1988.

I don't know why I knew that, but I did.

Emily: The scene when Big Bird was painted blue was from the movie Follow that Bird :) I LOVED that movie.

TK: I think princessweiner is talking about the beginning scene with Dana when the egss crack and cook on her counter and then she opens the fridge to that demon dog thing that says "Zuel!!" Heh.

I fully agree with The Sorcerer's Apprentice, that totally freaked me out. And this one may have been just me, but the "Secwet weapon" in American Tail, that giant mechanical rat that sparked and shrieked that they used to run off the cats...completely holy shittified me.

Fuck, now that I'm thinking about it, I am getting the heebie-jeebies right now...maybe I'll leave the hall light on tonight.

Return to Oz-YES ME TOO! When she just pops her head, I pretty much lost my shit right then. Atreyu's horse dying really freaked me out as well. And this last one may not count, but I actually teared up when the horse went overboard in The Ring. I was 18. I like horses, so don't you judge me! Also saw A Clockwork Orange when I was about 10. Probably a bad choice.

Oh, and can we just take IT or Killer Klowns from Outer Space or anything else involving clowns as just a given? Aren't like 95% of the population terrified of clowns? Even as adults?

I totally agree with The Dark Crystal and ET, I couldn't sit through either of those as a kid. However, I adored Labyrinth (even the orange guys who take their heads off!).

But seriously? Jacob's Ladder with Tim Robbins was on one day when I was little and he's having some sort of PTSD after Vietnam and hallucinating monsters and it scared the living crap out of me. I can safely say I will never EVER watch that movie.

Tamatha - Not sure how I feel about knowing Nestor, the long eared donkey's name. I might've been better off keeping him mostly blocked out.

However, now that I've read the summary on IMDB, I recall that it was his mother's death that freaked me out. WHY is it OK for mothers to die in cartoons??

-the opening sequence of Ghostbusters: I always had to ffwd the part where the ghost goes "boo" at Bill Murray and Dan Akroyd. that once moment always freaked me. saw it again recently, not so freaky.

-the only movie I had to stop the tape on when i was a kid was Shockwaves, and, watching it again (on youtube of course) I have no idea why. it is not a good movie, and not very creepy at all. I guess it was just the wrong moment for undead nazi supersoldiers....
the whole thing is on youtube:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwtbj7XrMZw



and I found Escape From New York a bit freaky as a youngster. my parents would let me rent anything! it was the 80s! VHS!

1. I also was freaked out by Return to Oz, i just remember when they were giving Doroty electric schock therapy freaked me fuck out.

2. Also does anyone remember the show Rescue911? It was like Cops but with 911 calls. And all the call of people screaming about how they are hurt and dying scared the crap out of me as a kid.

3. There was a TV movie called secrets in the attic, or dolls in the attic where this girl was staying with her aunt and she had a mentally retarded sister and this dollhouse in the attic had these dolls that moved and they were trying to show the girl who murdered her grandparents. freaky.

Siege: Yay! I'm so glad you knew that - I'll definitely have to go rent it and gauge the creepiness as an adult:)

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs- forrest scene where she is running and all the yellow eyes start showing up. I screemed so loundly that my mom had to take me out of the movie theater.

Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory - boat ride scene.

The Kindred - monster sci-fi movie. Tentacles entering the back of someone's neck. Freaked me out on all horror movies for life. I still can't watch more than a few seconds of any scary scene.

Indiana Jones and the motherfucking Temple of Doom. I was never easily scared by scary movies, but this movie totally haunted me: the scene where they're at like the banquet, and there's eyeballs in the soup? The scene where they tear out that guy's still-beating heart? Plus they get stuck in a room full of spiders or giant bugs at one point. It didn't scare me, but it sure did disturb me.

That and Home Alone; I was always really disturbed at how the horrible violence was supposed to be funny.

Wrath of Kahn - Ear things, ew.

Aliens - My grandma made us watch it during a dinner of lamb chops and mint jelly. Needless to say, I haven't gone near any of those things since.

Nightmare on Elm Street - I slept with a cross necklace on for weeks after catching 20 minutes of this movie. I only stopped when my mother took the cross and hid it after explaining that mormons don't wear crosses. That'll kill a religion for you. I want full Freddy Kreuger protection along with afterlife perks in MY religion.

This is actually a combination of the childhood-freak-me-out and last week's diversion on movies- you-don't-know-the-name-of. Here goes:

The movie (which I believe came out in the early 80's), as I recall, took place in a jungle type setting and there were these monkeys that were psychotic and had beady red eyes. I don't remember exactly what made them so scary but I'm sure it had something to do with attacking and killing people. At the end of the movie after the hero (and perhaps heroine) were saved and taken away via helicopter from the jungle, there was a shot of a monkey in the helicopter or hanging onto the landing platform underneath.

For some reason, I always associate that Toto song, "Africa" with this movie though I'm not sure if it is because the song was in the movie or if I associated the continent with jungles.

If you remember this movie, please help me out--I'm dying to know what it was and try to put it on my Netflix queue.

Also, the movie a couple people mentioned on last week's diversion, "Fortress" scared the crap out of me. Those guys in the creepy masks of "Father Christmas" and such was absolutely terrifying. I don't think I slept well for months after each viewing.

I second the vote for Gremlins. To this day, the nightmare I had where I was trapped in an attic with Gremlins and a casserole in a Corelle dish is the only nightmare I can recall. I'm sure I've has others, but this one still creeps me out.

Jim posted: Without a doubt it has to be Gordon Jump as the pedophile on a very special episode of Different Strokes.

This is on top of my list. But along with it, the very special episode of Good Times that dealt with child abuse. Janet Jackson played the neighbor girl -- and the scene where her mom comes at her slowly with a curling iron to burn her, before the jump to commercial, sent me over the edge.

ANYTHING fantasy. The hobbit, Neverending story, Dark Crystal. All that purple lit, fuzzy puppet, flying magic crap. HATE it.
Also, VERY MUCH "Chocolate Factory." Every moment. Even when the main kid is still at home talking to all his sick grandparents. Gah! The filth! (I think that fear of "normal" stuff like this came from my anxiety disorder. I couldn't stand watching people in poverty or in situations that would not be comfortable/familiar.)
And finally, there was one TV show on some cable channel about Nostradamus. I was about 11. It started this whole life long phobia of the Apocalypse. I'm better now, but I still cannot stand to be around people discussing it with out getting lightheaded and nauseated.

Ooh and I can't remember if it was in the movie, but the book Return to Oz starts with Dorothy having electroshock therapy to cure her of her fantasies about Oz. So I don't know if I ever saw the whole movie OR read the whole book. What a way to start a kids' story.

Catherine Deneuve in Repulsion?

Children really shouldn't watch it.

Really.

(where the hell were my parents?)

Oh Manny, no kidding about the Tales from the Darkside intro. As soon as it reversed the colors I would flip the hell out. I saw it the other day and it STILL scares the hell out of me. I'm 28.

Watcher in the Woods scared the living hell out of me. Bad. With the camera view of the watcher, and the weird music, and the broken glass. Ugh.

I didn't let go of my mother for a week after seeing Bambi in the theater.

And when I was a kid, I was taken to the mall to meet the Smurfs. There is a picture of me terrified and sobbing, clinging to my father's leg as a 6-foot-tall Papa Smurf looms over me. I remember looking up and thinking "that's way bigger than 2 apples tall" before completely losing my mind.

All Dogs Go to Heaven

yep...

I can't believe I forgot!!! Large Marge in the Pee Wee Herman movie where he's looking for his bike. That ghost trucker bitch ripping her face off F$#@ED me up for YEARS and years. Oh. My. God. I watched it at the house where I went after school during 2nd grade and those horrible children laughed at me. So they kept rewinding it and making me watch it until I punched the ringleader. Christ.

"Return to Oz"

Hands down, the scariest movie I saw as a kid was "Return to Oz." I was a sequel to "Wizard of Oz" I think. The Wheelers gave me nightmares for months. And the part where Dorothy is running down Mumby's hallway and all of her heads come to life and start screaming at her....damn, 20 years later and thats still the scariest shit I've ever seen.

I should have realized, every time I refused to watch a movie or television show that looked remotely scary or violent, that I was depriving myself of fun times like this. All I can offer is ... um ... Goosebumps. Man, those books freaked the hell out of me. Yep.

Labyrinth - it is one of my favorite childhood movies but at the same time, the scene where Sarah meets the "fire gang" and their detachable-limbs still bugs me, I usually just fast forward through that section.

The Watcher in the Woods. 'Nuff said.

The one I remember most clearly is absolutly balling my eyes out during Seven. My mom took me to see it in the theater. I was ten. Her head showed up in a motherfucking box, people! That dude on the bed was supposed to be dead and then he started moving and shit! And I was ten! And when your ten you don't care that the movie is really well made and the acting is really good. It's fucking gross and terrifying!

I was also really disturbed by Sleeping Beauty when the prince kills the witch/dragon creature. That was freaky. And Flotsom and Jetsam (the eels) in Little Mermaid creeped me out.

And the part in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade when the guys face melts off. That scared the crap out of me. I think that might have been the moment I gave up religion...

I can't believe so many people are freaked out by ET. Thank God, because I thought I was the only one.

1. The scene that really creeps me out is when ET falls down the ravine or whatever, and Elliot finds him and ET's skin is all pale and sickly. That scared the living shit out of me. Even now I cover eyes when that bit comes on.

2. Independence Day. Yes, this is semi-recent, but I was a pre-adolescent when this came out, and that alien terrified me. I was the only kid covering their eyes when it was speaking. My father and older brother thought that was just the funniest shit ever.

3. The Thriller video. I didn't get how someone was wonderful as Michael Jackson (I was 5 years old, guys!) could be a gruesome, horrifying zombie.

I echo everyone who has mentioned The Little Mermaid. That movie scarred me so badly that I had to fast-forward through the Disney Castle logo at the beginning of other VHS tapes because I so closely associated it with that effing octopus lady.

My other nightmare was the Sesame Street episode where the apartment building catches on fire -- remember Gordon's little boy, woken up in the dark, surrounded by smoke, the pinging of the smoke detector in the background? I hid in the dining room after that one.

Jaws came out in theaters a couple years before I was born, but it came out on video when I was very little, and I watched it with my (wildly irresponsible) father in kindergarten. However, that did not freak me out. I don't remember it even bothering me at all.

What FREAKED me the HELL out was a documentary I watched when I was about 7 (probably on PBS or some other ostensibly harmless channel) that was about how beef and milk are processed. The meat rendering didn't scare me or turn me vegetarian or anything, but there was this part about how they enrich milk with vitamin D, and they showed how they process it from shark liver. They cut the liver out of this hulking shark carcass and did unspeakable things to it and made milk. I literally refused to drink milk that had vitamin D added to it for like two years, until my mother told me they didn't use shark liver vitamin D anymore, but added synthetic vitamins instead. I have no idea if she lied to me or not - I don't have a clue what the technological state of vitamin additives was in approximately 1987. To this day I'm too gutless to ask her.

The scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, where the guy takes the wrong grail and dissolves. HOLY FUCK.

Someone told me about the Texas Chainsaw Massacre when I was ten, and I couldn't sleep for a week.

The new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (note that I was sixteen when this movie came out) had me rushing out of the theater HYPERVENTILATING with the creepy dolls that catch on fire. I don't like animatronic dolls (got stuck on Small World at Disney World when I was three. For hours. Did some serious damage), and them burning was enough to send me over the edge.

Longtime reader, first time commenter, but I couldn't miss out on this one.

Summer vacation, 8 or 9 years old, mountain cabin. Activity time with Ranger Bob around the campfire, Bob shows an old-style 16mm movie, Dot and the Kangaroo. It's supposed to be a kid movie, but there's this song in the movie called "Bunyip Moon." Jesus. You can still find it on a popular video-sharing site. You will never sleep soundly again, I promise.

Goddam Australians.

Actually, that Sesame Street episode in the museum freaked me the hell out, too. Worst of all time, though? Neverending Story. That black warthog/boar thing just terrified me. I don't think I've ever seen the end of that flick.

Had no problem with Freddy, V, or Critters, though, oddly.

1. Guy Smiley from "Sesame Street". He's the character that's a generic talk show host. I have no idea why, but I had to leave the room when he came on. Completely terrified of him.

2. Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty and The Queen in Snow White. Not the Witch, mind you, but the Queen, because I was scared so shitless we had to leave the theater as soon as she appeared on screen. Same thing with Maleficent; started screaming for my life.

The scene in Disney's Alice in Wonderland where the cards are chasing Alice around to chop off her head, and the "Pink Elephants" scene in Dumbo.

Oh Jeez...I just remembered two more:

1) That puppet on Sesame Street who plays the piano and smashes his face into the keys whenever he hits a wrong note. I can remember cowering in fear whenever he came on. I mean...WHY DOES HE DO THAT? It's disturbing.

2) An episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark. I don't remember the title, but the story is that an alien ship, disguised as a toy factory, latches onto the top of an apartment building, and two kids living in the building get tricked into going into the ship. And it's full of faceless aliens...and then one of the kids takes her face off to show she's one of them! I had horrible dreams about people I knew losing their faces for God knows how long after that!

So many memories:

1) Wrath of Khan: convinced myself that those ear things lived at the end of my bed and would enter my body through my toenails, so after I was sure my parents had gone to bed I would creep into the hallway with a blanket and a pillow to sleep wearing two pairs of socks for good measure. Kept that up for a few weeks until my mum found me one night.

2) Labyrinth: Toby bore an uncanny resemblence to my new baby brother and I became convinced the goblins were coming to get him, too. I was in hysterics throughout most of the movie.

Holy crap--this diversion is reminding me just how big of a p*ssy I was as a kid.

1. Return to Oz - Thank you, Tanner. Creepy as hell.

2. IT - When Jonathan Brandis is looking at the picture of his little brother and it winks at him, I'm pretty sure I peed.

3. Masters of the Universe - There was plenty about this movie to be frightened of, you know its true.

4. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? - I had the same problem all of you did: Judge Doom was terrifying!

Couple things: Manny, YES on the Tales from the Darkside main titles. Those shots were so damn spooky. Carey, I think the thing with the black blob in the lake you're referring to is "The Raft", one of the segments of "Creepshow 2" (the only good segment from "Creepshow 2", actually). And S. Pisaster, the disney flick you're talking about I think is "Mr. Boogety" which also scared the pants off of me when I was a kid.

I have ALWAYS been afraid of clowns but my head nearly explodes when I see Tim Curry as "It". He is so cool but his clown persona is so freaking scary. Ventriloquist dummies are almost as bad as clowns. I also have to admit that the flying monkeys in "Wizard of Oz" were very scary. I am mildly creeped out by monkeys to this day.

EVERYTHING freaked me out as a child. Fricking EVERYTHING. Notably:

1. The Dark Crystal. That one got me so bad I haven't watched it since.
2. Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which I notice has already garnered a mention.
3. Raiders of the Lost Ark, when they open the Ark of the Covenant....yeeesh.
4. Little Mermaid, the "poor unfortunate souls" scene, which I also notice has garnered a mention.
5. is relatively recent, but I saw it when I was 13 and it has freaked me out to the point that my roommates were watching it on Halloween in the other room, so I couldn't see anything, only hear a little bit of the sound and I STILL slept with the light on that night: The Ring. Seriously my bete noir in terms of horror movies - anything else, I can handle, but not The Ring.

Smello--Sorry. I forgot that sometimes ignorance is bliss. :) I was going more for knowledge is power.

Maybe if you watch it again, it'll be less creepy? Hmm, though maybe not. As I know that seeing Wrath of Khan again will make it no less horrifying for me.

Don't know what to tell you about killing off moms in cartoons. Bambi was one of the first movies I ever saw, and I was so very sad when his mom died!

Oh my lord, nobody else was traumatized by The Witches? I could take Willy Wonka, but for my money nothing freaked me the fuck out like witches who look almost exactly like everyone else, turn kids into mice and step on them, and the big reveal where you see the head witch's real face? That gave me nightmares for two years. No joke.

And they're not all movies, but Roald Dahl... a bit much. I devoured his books when I was about six and my parents thought they were age appropriate because they had pictures, but... The BFG? The Great Glass Elevator? Shudder. Although, of course, I loved them.

So I've thought of a couple more:

First, I remember seeing The Talented Mr. Ripley in theaters with my mom when I was 12 (what a misguided parenting decision... but it was all good; I didn't get half of it - Matt Damon was gay??!). But there's some scene transition where the end of the first scene is really quiet and the next scene starts with a really startling drop of a metal tray of ice cubes onto a tile floor followed by Gwyneth yelping in surprise and it scared the shit out of me.

There was also an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark? about this dollhouse or... something. And the main girl managed to get into the dollhouse and it was real. And then she gets up to the attic and there's a real-life doll there, but she doesn't say anything, opting to just remove her (fucking) ARM, which turns out to be made of porcelain. The camera then sort of pans up to the girl who's horrified. As was I.

It's also been a long time, but I remember being terrified by Ursula in The Little Mermaid. I just remember her getting really big and dominating at the end and I was just so terribly sad for Ariel and what might happen to her. But like I said, it's been a while.

Death Becomes Her. I was way young the first time I saw it (like three or four) and Meryl Streep stumbling around with her head on backwards was just the most disturbing thing I'd ever seen.

NEVERENDING STORY - although the wolfe was terrifying, the most disturbing part of the movie was that horrible flying dog - falcor. he still makes me uncomfortable and i belive my dislike for dogs is his fault.

RETURN TO OZ - aside from the obvious, fairuza balk scares the ever loving shit out of me, anytime i see her- no matter what. those wheeler guys are still so unbelievably creepy, i still cant watch.


PET SEMETARY - this is the movie that I still, to this day, cannot watch parts of and i am far too old for that. I am surprised that Zelda and Paskgow have not made this list thus far. Seriously? Zelda is so completely terrifying, just THINKING about her croaking Rachel's name gives me a chill and makes me want to shut my eyes. Pasgow, although he becomes tolerable towards the end, gives me a heartattack when we first meet him. This movie hands down was the scariest shit i had ever seen. it's sequel starring eddie furlong was also scary...for very different reasons.

OK, i'll second a few already mentioned, then add some of my own:

poltergeist - the face washing part AND the part with the steak that starts crawling across the counter. i couldn't eat meat for weeks.

the wizard of oz monkeys... the willy wonka oompah loompahs...

then, around 1976 there was a tv show/documentary about bigfoot. in once scene, some boy scouts are out camping and one is awakened by bigfoot. the kid screams. bigfoot screams and runs off. for several years i couldn't sleep at night for fear bigfoot would peek in at me through my 2nd floor window.

about the same time, the made for TV movie "helter skelter" came out... i just remember the tv promos for it and freaking out. i never saw it until i was in college about 13 years later. still freaked me out.

and finally, also about 1977, one of my 4th grade classmates saw "rosemary's baby" for some ungodly reason. i to this day have never seen that movie, but i remember the day she described the baby to us in class. yikes!

Umm. I'm kinda worried about the parents in this country. You should not be seeing some of these movies under 12 (ahem SEVEN). I get that babysitters are sadistic teenagers with boyfriends to talk to but seriously...parents.

Dustin - Hell to the yes on "Creepshow". That used to be on our local Fox station at least once a year and I'd never make it very far into it but would always try again. The Stephen King meteor moss segment in particular freaked me out so bad, especially when he imagines going to the doctor and they suggest amputation. To this day I find processed and preserved foodstuffs more reassuring than anything natural with the chance to grow, mold, or rot.

Also, on the old animated "Horton Heres a Who" the Wickersham Brothers were completely creepy. They'd jump out of nowhere with really deep voices and sing at people. Uncalled for.

The big-headed door to door saleseman on "Pee Wee's Playhouse" always made Pee Wee freak out, and I followed suit.

I was a weak kid, though. I'd walk through video rental stores with my eyes firmly locked to the carpet until I knew I was safe in the childrens section, just in case an errant poster or tape case for a horror movie was within my peripheral vision.

I can count the number of times I have been freaked out by something on film or TV on 1 hand.

1. CREEPSHOW!!! - The segment where the dude is a germophobe and end up infested internally with cockroaches...especially the scene where they burst out of his body.

2. Poltergeist 2 - When Craig T Nelson spits up that thing that crawls under the bed. And the priest dude was a little freaky too. I watch Parts 1 and 2 now and Pt. 1 is much better now that i know better.

3. Nightmare on Elm...3 or 4 - Dream Master. i am too lazy for IMDB right now. But my dad and i went to see it in the theater. I was 8. I made it about 15 mins into it. We had to leave the theater and go see Young Guns instead. But that solidified my love of all things horror movie and scare related. i will never forget that feeling of exhileration that followed the scare.

I was six years old and my mom finally agreed to let me see a movie in the theater with my college aged uncle. He took me to see The Deer Hunter. The scene with Christopher Walken playing Russian roulette scared me so much, I had a look of horror on my face for about a week. I still feel a little uncomfortable when I see him in movies.

My babysitter let me watch Fantasy Island once. It was a Jack the Ripper episode and I had nightmares for months. That show was out there!

The winner has got to be Jurassic Park. I watched it for the first time when I was maybe 8 years old and did pretty well...up until when the dinosaurs actually got out. In the scene where the T-rex is crushing the van, I saw the kids crying with what looked like blood on their faces and at that point I just lost my shit.

Easily my most vivid freakout.

When I was 6 years old, my 19-year-old aunt made me watch Poltergeist with her while she was "babysitting" me. I had to check under my bed for clowns each night for a whole year. I think that movie still affects me - to this day, I have a wild imagination, and tend to scare myself silly whenever my husband is away and I have to spend nights alone.

I am also freaked out by anything that has anything to do with stigmata. I read a small book about it while visiting my great-grandmother when I was 11 or 12. Then I happened upon a show about it on the Discovery Channel or something...scared the shit out of me. I think it was shortly after that when I began questioning the Church. Seriously.

Somehow when I was little I got the Koozbanian Mating Ritual and the Buffalo Springfield skits from The Muppet Show all mixed up in my head and boy, that is a terrifying mix. Those gaping Koozbanian maws are just so vacant and scary.

Also, somehow I saw an ep of Dr. Who that featured the Autons (Parents? Where were you?) and from that moment on I was convinced that my local Filene's mannequins were just ticking time bombs.

Oh crap, I almost forgot the Twilight Zone movie. The scene with Jon Lithgow on the plane, and the alien/monster/goblin/thing is trying to sabotage the plane and make it crash. Everyone thinks he's going mad, and they cover him up and shut his window shade...and then he pulls the shade up and THERE'S THE THING'S FACE AND IT'S SNEERING AT HIM AND BOTH JON LITHGOW AND I FREAK THE FUCK OUT! Oh, jebus, even now I am nervous just thinking about it. And I'm flying to Hawaii for my sister's wedding in two months. Can't wait.

When I was about 8 I watched The Trilogy of Terror. Karen Black was the star in all 3 stories but one of them was about an evil tribal doll who came to life after it dropped it's spear. 30 years later I still get freaked out when I think of it, especially when the doll is stabbing her in the ankles from under the couch....AHHHHHH!

OMG, Paddydog. My sister and I watched Night of the Lepus one Easter Sunday while our parents were at the grandparents'. We nearly shat ourselves laughing so hard at that movie. I loved the thumping from miles away!
My own personal freak out: I saw the first Nightmare on Elm Street when I was about 6 and when Johnny Depp (I think it was him...) gets turned into a geyser of blood erupting out of his bed...wow. Still can't watch the NOES movies to this day, though I am a fan of horror flicks in general.

There were many things that scared me as a kid. To be completely honest, I still have way too active of an imagination to watch a lot of freaky stuff before I go to bed.

I have to first agree with the scene from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? that I had forgotten about until now. Thanks for restoring that beautiful little memory!

Some of the things that scared the crap out of me as a youngin' were when Angelica Houston pulls of her face in the movie Witches to reveal her creepy real witch face. Another was the movie Little Monsters with Fred Savage. It scared me so much that I never saw it again, but I vaguely recall being scared shitless that a monster was going to grab me from out of the depths of my couch. Does that ring any bells?

There were also a few choice episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark? that kept me up at night eyeing the darkness. First of all the credits with the creaky bicycle in the attic were enough to give me the shivers, but The Tale of the Ghastly Grinner was unbearable for me! I don't know why but that creepy grin with the weird blue drooling was...very traumatic.

Poltergeist. Amen. I saw parts of this when I was young. That night I had to sneak into my older sister's room to sleep on her floor. I couldn't stop staring at my damn closet doors. Also, The Amytyville Horror books because my sister (Thanks, Nicole!) read parts of it out loud to one of her friends when I was around one day and I couldn't sleep properly for years.

Yeah. I'm a complete weakling. That's only a fraction of what I could come up with.

Before today, I had never run into anyone else who was frightened of The Dark Crystal. I don't even remember what the movie was really about (since I refuse to re-watch it, or even read or look at anything related to it). All I know is that those damned Muppets have haunted my dreams for the last two decades...

Tamatha - You're right. Knowledge is power. I'm still not ever watching it again.

I have to add Hellraiser to my list. I wasn't a kid when I saw it. I was a teenager - late teens - yet even now Pinhead will show up from time to time in my nightmares.

I was freaked from a lot of the stuff on the list 1.I loved (and still do)Pee Wee's Big Adventure, but that Large Marge scene where she turned into a claymation head scared the crap out of me!
2. Willy Wonka- Charlie's house and family and the boat ride through the tunnel. What the hell?
3. Gremlins- I've never seen the movies, but my dad had a big Spike doll that scared me so bad, they had to keep it hidden in the closet. If I went into my parent's room and the closet door was open, I was SO afraid I'd catch a glimpse of it.
MJune-I think I remember seeing a few seconds of that doll movie on TV. That was enough.
And I would have added The Exorcist, but I was 16 or 17 when I watched it. Still the scariest thing I've seen, aside from David Lynch movies!

When I was a kid I loved Gigglesnort Hotel...but I was terrified by the Lemon Drop Kid. He's so horrifying that you can't find a vid of him on YouTube! He dropped lemons on people from a plane and the lemons would make his victim's faces pucker uncontrollably! Lemons!

The Nickelodean series "Are You Afraid of the Dark" spefically the episode about a blue and yellow clown that lived in an arcade... I think blue goop was involved somehow. It was pretty disturbing to my six-year-old mind.

Also, the Count on Sesame Street. When I was 4 my asshole 14 year old cousin explained to me that the Count was a vampire and what exactly that meant. I had nightmares about the Count sucking out Big Bird's blood... talk about weird. This cousin also told me that doll hair came from little boys and girls who had died from cancer. I made my dad put all my dolls in the attic and didn't touch them for two years.

1) Falkor in The Neverending Story made sure I only watched the movie in the daytime.

2) The Lost Boys

3) The video box for one of the Critters movies, I think. There was a monster coming out of a toilet, and that image stayed with me for years.

4) The witch Mombi exchanging her heads in Return to Oz. I had to leave the movie theater immediately.

5) Cat's Eye

The t-rex & stegosaurus fight in Fantasia. That old live action Alice in Wonderland movie, that I can't remember anything of except that it scared the SHIT out of me. Jurassic park in its entirety. Ursula in the live action Little Mermaid play I saw at Disney World.

MISSMIMI!! Holy fucking shit, The Watcher in the Woods! I think I blocked that movie from my memory, because when I read your post? My eyes filled with tears. No. Just no. That movie scared me so much when I was a kid.

Oh lord, so very many things freaked me out as a child...

The 1931 Bela Lugosi version of "Dracula" I saw at the age of 5. That and the banshee from Darby O'Gill (you called it, S. pisaster). I still have nightmares about them both.

I still stand firmly behind The Changeling as the most terrifying movie of all time, though. when the little boy's voice comes through on the recording of the seance? And when his ghost comes up through the floor? AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!! I totally cried for my mommy.

Don't laugh, but the one movie that gave me nightmares as a kid was that lame Omen II. I was nine when it came out, and when my mother and aunt went to the theater to see it, they took me along.

For the better part of a year afterward I had nightmares about the guy in the elevator and the other guy who got squished between the train cars, and I'd wake up in terror and go running to the bathroom, looking in the mirror while pawing frantically through my hair, searching for the Mark Of The Beast.

I mean, really, all the lame horror movies I grew up with, and that was the one that freaked me out? Jeez.

At the age of 6, nothing was more frightening than Ernest Scared Stupid. That demon-goblin-thing gave me nightmares for a month.

I'm pleased to see that I'm not the only who was scarred for life by Return to Oz. Even more than the creepy-ass Wheelers or the Hallway of Severed Heads, I was freaked the fuck out by the girl stuck in the mirror.

Another noteably freaky movie I saw when I was a kid:

The Elm Chanted Forest.

There are so many, many things about this made-for-kids movie that are terrifying. The Catcus King and his army of setient medieval weapons, the bizzare underground mushroom kingdom that torture the main character through song and dance, the forest catching on fire! But the thing that freaked me out the most was one of the main characters was this beaver that could talk (of course) and he would clack his teeth together when he was talking and the noise that it made...I flinched every. single. time. he did it.

The Dark Crystal freaked me out the most. All of that esssence drinking shit gave me nightmares. They had these puppets for the kids at a church I went to that looked like the Dark Crystal muppet/puppet things and every time I saw them I'd still get a little edgy.

Oh, and the themes from both Unsolved Mysteries and Tales from the Darkside are enough to terrify me and keep me awake at night.

Julie, The Watcher in the Woods creeped me the hell out the first time I saw it, at the age of 16. I'd never even heard of it; my best friend thought it was hilarious that I was watching it from behind many layers of pillows and blankets.

I was also terrified by the life-size cardboard cutout of the Toxic Avenger (I think-the guy with a mop? and like one eye or something?) that was in our local video store. Ah!

I was really freaked out by The Hobbit and Fantasia when I was little. Actually Fantasia still kind of freaks me out. I also saw about 10 minutes of Jaws when I was a kid and I had nightmares for weeks. I still have never seen that again. All Dogs Go to Heaven made me cry so much that we had to leave the theater and I don't think it was very far into the movie. And there was this one Sesame Street movie where Big Bird either gets kidnapped and he is really sad and it really bothered me but I don't know what it was called.

1) When I was seven my mother let me stay up and watch "Helter Skelter" when it was on television in the seventies. I became convinced that Charlie Manson was in the attic and had a knife with my name on it.

2) H.R. Puffenstuff. 'Nuff said.

3) The movie trailer for that Anthony Hopkins movie "Magic." Oh. My. God.

4) Finally, those damn flying monkeys. Am I the only person who utterly despises "The Wizard of Oz?" The tornado at the beginning made me wet my pants too.

Oh, I forgot this one: Edward Scissorhands. Not the film itself, but one scene. It was when Edward had his first glass of champagne or lemonade or something, and he kinda projectile pukes on the table. It was so unexpected, it just freaked me out! I was like, "What the hell did he just do?"

Oh, and I'd like to second The Watcher in the Woods. I'm ashamed to say that I couldn't sleep for three days after watching this live-action Disney movie, and would burst into irritable tears whenever anyone spoke to me or touched me.

Here's a few. Some already noted, some not:

1). The Incredible Hulk TV Show-when Banner would start to get angry, and some guy would hit him and he'd look away from the camera. Then, he'd look up and his eyes would be all blue and buggin out. Then with the shirt ripping, etc. It wasn't even the hulk himself, just the transformation. I ran out the room every time. I couldn't have been more than 5 or 6.

2.) Gremlins- when the last gremlin jumps into the pool at the Y or whatever. All the creepy music and noises, and the shadows of the newly spawned gremlins on the wall. Scary.

3). Pennywise from IT- hands down, the champ of all time. When he is in the storm drain, looking up at the little boy...anytime he pops up, and of course..."BEEP BEEP Richie!" yikes.

4). WIzard of oz- when Dorothy is locked in the room with the hourglass, and the witch appears in the crystal ball, and tells her that when the sands runs out, her time is up. Then proceeds to look directly into the camera and cackle maniacally. Still won't watch it.

As an adult, I've only added one more, and its in Twin Peaks, when we get the first clean look at Killer Bob crouched behind Laura Palmer's bed, all the more terrifying since Laura's mom didn't notice him there the first time, only in the slow-mo, crazy music flashback. Whoa! Super Creepy!

Okay here goes.

1. A fucking DISNEY movie called Something Wicked This Way Comes had this tarantula scene that freaked my shit out when I was a kid. Anyone that knows me knows about my arachnophobia as it is truly legendary. Erica O. from up above can testify to that. Oddly enough while giving me the willys, Arachnophobia didn't get me as bad as this movie. Probably cuz I was older when I saw Arachnophobia.

2. Terror Train - I saw this movie when I was about 7 or 8 visiting some family friends in Spain and holy fuck did it freak my shit out. I'm going to have to rent it again because I bet it will be absolutely hilarious now at my age. It's got Jamie Lee Curtis and it's about this graduatiing med school class that's celebrating their graduation on this train but little do they know that this guy who they pulled a mean prank on years earlier is on the train killing them one by one. Muahahahahahah! It's got David Copperfield, that's fucking right, David Fucking Copperfield doing magic tricks on the train until he gets chopped up into little pieces. Nuff sed!

3. This last one isn't really a childhood freakout but it gets an honorable mention cuz it disturbed my shit for a few days after seeing it. Anything that can do that to a fully grown adult deserves to be mentioned. Its a French flick called Irreversible. After watching this you won't let your girlfriend/wife walk to the damn kitchen much less to the damned car without an armed escort.

Yazikus posted - there is an ice cream truck that slowly cruises by my house every day, playing YMCA with the chipmunks singing, sped up to a frenzied beat over and over and over.
I feel you.

This is why Ice Cream trucks should be banned. They are one of the few things that incite rage in me. I hate the one that goes down every street around my house except mine and has one song. I want it to go away.

I would like to add to the Psycho mentions. I saw that when I was 15/16 and refused to take a shower without a chair under the doorknob for months. This is for the original version, not the laughable remake.

I also have to add an old movie with Bette Davis. She is a crazy old woman who went insane after the death of her lover at a party and she kept his hand in a box for years and her sister lived with her. I think the sister was Joan Crawford. Very good and really freaky.

Ohhh, the bugs in the ears in Wrath of Khan. And the clown in Poltergeist. And I STILL (at age 30) check the deep end of the pool for sharks before I'll get in, thanks to Jaws.

There was an old B&W episode of Twilight Zone, where a kid visits his friend's house, and his sister doesn't have a mouth. That was the freakiest thing I've ever seen.

And I read The Monkey's Paw when I was about 7. I had to throw the book away, because I couldn't handle seeing the cover on my bookshelf. When the dead guy comes back to life, but he still looks dead - it was awful. Why would they make a children's book version of that story????

And did anyone read the version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with the illustrations that were B&W pencil sketches? Oh, those still give me the creeps.

Here's a few. Some already noted, some not:

1). The Incredible Hulk TV Show-when Banner would start to get angry, and some guy would hit him and he'd look away from the camera. Then, he'd look up and his eyes would be all blue and buggin out. Then with the shirt ripping, etc. It wasn't even the hulk himself, just the transformation. I ran out the room every time. I couldn't have been more than 5 or 6.

2.) Gremlins- when the last gremlin jumps into the pool at the Y or whatever. All the creepy music and noises, and the shadows of the newly spawned gremlins on the wall. Scary.

3). Pennywise from IT- hands down, the champ of all time. When he is in the storm drain, looking up at the little boy...anytime he pops up, and of course..."BEEP BEEP Richie!" yikes.

4). WIzard of oz- when Dorothy is locked in the room with the hourglass, and the witch appears in the crystal ball, and tells her that when the sands runs out, her time is up. Then proceeds to look directly into the camera and cackle maniacally. Still won't watch it.

As an adult, I've only added one more, and its in Twin Peaks, when we get the first clean look at Killer Bob crouched behind Laura Palmer's bed, all the more terrifying since Laura's mom didn't notice him there the first time, only in the slow-mo, crazy music flashback. Whoa! Super Creepy!

Okay here goes.

1. A fucking DISNEY movie called Something Wicked This Way Comes had this tarantula scene that freaked my shit out when I was a kid. Anyone that knows me knows about my arachnophobia as it is truly legendary. Erica O. from up above can testify to that. Oddly enough while giving me the willys, Arachnophobia didn't get me as bad as this movie. Probably cuz I was older when I saw Arachnophobia.

2. Terror Train - I saw this movie when I was about 7 or 8 visiting some family friends in Spain and holy fuck did it freak my shit out. I'm going to have to rent it again because I bet it will be absolutely hilarious now at my age. It's got Jamie Lee Curtis and it's about this graduatiing med school class that's celebrating their graduation on this train but little do they know that this guy who they pulled a mean prank on years earlier is on the train killing them one by one. Muahahahahahah! It's got David Copperfield, that's fucking right, David Fucking Copperfield doing magic tricks on the train until he gets chopped up into little pieces. Nuff sed!

3. This last one isn't really a childhood freakout but it gets an honorable mention cuz it disturbed my shit for a few days after seeing it. Anything that can do that to a fully grown adult deserves to be mentioned. Its a French flick called Irreversible. After watching this you won't let your girlfriend/wife walk to the damn kitchen much less to the damned car without an armed escort.

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory scared the shit right outta me.

So did the last scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where faces are melting all over the place.

I kinda think that Large Marge's shape-shifting face in Pee Wee's Big Adventure scared me, too.

My list-
1. I too hated The Dark Crystal. I still avoid walking by the VHS cover of this movie, in our local video store. The sound those evil puppets made when they talked (do you know what I'm referring to?) SCARED the SHIT out of me.
2. Twilight Zone movie, where Dan Akroyd shows his passenger "something really scary"...the chick with no mouth...and of course the creepy thing outside the airplane!
3. Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Night of the Living Dead- in my house, there was no such thing as "too young to watch a freaky horror movie". It's my favorite genre now, minus these two movies, still can't watch them to this day.
Great...now I won't be able to sleep tonight!

Smello-- I think the holiday special about the donkey with big ears was called "Small One" about a little boy who has to sell his beloved pet donkey because his family is too poor to feed it, or something. There is this one scene where he thinks he's found a buyer, and all of a sudden he realizes it's a tannery, and there's a big, evil guy with a knife and blood and things boiling in pots--- it freaked me out.

Thanks Jen Abrams! I couldn't remember the name of that crazy doll movie. It was pretty scary but I liked the ending.

Alice Cooper singing "Welcome to my Nightmare" on The Muppet Show. I remember his makeup and he had on a cape that opened wide when he spread his arms.

David Bowie's cod piece in "Labyrinth."

That's right.

re: Mombi from Return to Oz. When I was little, instead of changing the clothes on my Barbie dolls, I used to pop off their heads and swap them. MUCH more time effective. This earned me the nickname "Mombi" in my household.

Yazikus & Melody--So glad it isn't just me. I heard a story on NPR (Fresh Air, maybe?) not that long about about this guy who has come out with a CD of new songs for ice cream trucks, and they didn't freak me out. I think all ice cream trucks should adopt one or more of these songs for their theme music.

The ice cream truck that used to drive around my mom's neighborhood played Home on the Range--sooo creepy!

*shiver shiver*

1) a series of Doctor Who (Tom Baker) called The Stones of Blood where the Stonehenge stones come alive and crush people and suck their blood. worst part though? it was serialised so i had to endure the freak-out for four weeks. come to think of it, there were a lot of episodes and/or things that freaked me out from Doctor Who.

2) the Sherlock Holmes film Hound of the Baskervilles with Basil Rathbone. the swamp, the fog, the hobo/caveman and that freakin' dog.

3)Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits, especially the monsters at the end- 8ft. tall, black robes, longhorn bull skulls for heads and they shot fire balls from their eyes.

When Steve Austin sang that song "Jaimie" in The Six Million Dollar Man. I still have nightmares.

Jaws. I'm 41 years old and still afraid to go swimming in my pool at night.

Alien. When Ripley gets ready to crawl into bed at the "end" of the movie. I wasn't ready yet for those type of endings. I remember seeing that damn alien backlit on the door to my room for the longest time.

I'll make four for Watcher in the Woods. I was so terrified by that movie that my psychiatrist (treating something other than my wussiness re: films) actually had young me watch it with a stopwatch, to see how long I could stand it. Not very damn long, at least at first.

Also, my mom tells me I had a very love/hate relationship with The Last Unicorn: I watched it every chance I could, but always hid behind the furniture when the Red Bull appeared. Evidently I wasn't ready for huge translucent fire-beasts to separate me from my loved ones forever.

1. Clowns. Any clowns. I hated those asshats.

2. Too many stories of the end of the world at church.

3. A movie that I think was called Don't Go to Sleep--no idea who let me watch that one. Some little girl dies in a car crash (I think because her siblings had tied her laces together while she slept so she couldn't move fast enough to get out of a burning car or something). Then she comes back and kills the whole family using her little sister or something like that. Very creepy. She gets someone to walk off the roof, electrocutes someone else in the bathtub, etc. I seem to remember specifically a scene of a scary little girl climbing the stairs and rolling a sharp-looking pizza cutter along the banister. Now I can't think how you could really kill someone effectively with one of those.

1) When I was younger, I thought Jafar from Aladdin was in my closet and that he was out to get me. I actually tied it shut to keep him locked in.
2) I remember getting nightmares from the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of OZ. She scared the crap out of me.
3) I saw Cruella De Ville in 101 Dalmatians in theaters and just her big face and loud scream made me not want to go to movie theaters for ages. I had to run from the TV when the trailers were on.

But now, I'm not a wuss. Seeing as I am a fan of David Lynch/Todd Solondz and Takashi Miike. But my friend was scared of Big Bird because he was so big and had dreams of Cookie Monster eating her.
Yes, childhood was quite a disturbing point of my life.

Scarred for life, by watching Cubs baseball in the mid to late 70s.

Movie was War Games, because I thought my one computer genius friend was whacked enough to start a war via the WHOPPER.

TV show, was Soap and my first run in with the gay topic. Took me awhile to get over my homophobia from this but now I can say a good friend of mine is gay, so I am cured of this close-minded phobia.

After my older brother lovingly convinced me to read the first section of the first chapter of "It," I've had a thing about clowns. "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" didn't help this. Clowns are evil.

My brother also made me watch "The Dark Crystal" with those damn dirty birds that pecked each other's feathers off. He would taunt me about that scene. Still does.

When I was older, my brother (yep, there's a pattern) made me watch "Scream," but he was kind enough to fast-forward through the gruesome scenes. To this day, I haven't seen Drew Barrymore's body gutted like a fish.

And on random note: Our neighborhood Hollywood Video had a poster rack when I was younger, and among the posters was one for "Bram Stoker's Dracula." It had a bunch of monster heads on it -- I'm assuming monsters that were in the movie/were different faces of Dracula/who the hell cares. Scared the crap out of me. But I always went and looked at it, got scared, and ran away. Repeat. This I did to myself -- my brother can't be blamed.

Watership Down - I don't even remember why (I was five or so), but the cartoon movie freaked me the FUCK out.
I also second All Dogs Go To Heaven - my mom had to take me out of the theatre I was so scared, as well as the last sequence in Fantasia (Night on Bald Mountain) and this one episode of X-Files some silly person let me watch around the age of seven with the mutated fluke-worm-thing that sat at the bottom of an outhouse and looked creepy.

causaubon - This is way wierd, but I just saw that that ep. of Doctor Who is available to watch on Netflix (you know, the watch it now thing?). I was looking for something else five minutes ago and saw it listed. I may have to check it out.

There are two that I can remember right off the bat:
1) Watership Down-my family rented it thinking it was going to be a cute movie about a bunch of cute bunnies. But in the first five minutes or so one of the rabbits has a freakout and starts screaming about blood. It goes downhill from there-disturbed me for years.
2)The Incredible Hulk-while I love the cheesiness now, when I was young I was terrified of the Incredible Hulk. Whenever I even saw the opening credits I would run screaming from the room, down the hallway. My brothers and sisters used to fool me into thinking it was another show and have me hang out, then Bill Bixby would turn into the Hulk and I would freak out all over again. One time I even wanted to get the heck away from my Aunt's cottage we were visiting when I thought a neighbor looked a little too much like Bill Bixby. Weird, I know.

Off topic (but Ariel's comment about getting freaked out by scenes in stories and books reminded me of this):

Does anybody remember a horror novel, published in the 1970s, set in the Deep South, where kudzu was spreading over everything in sight and something in the kudzu - maybe the kudzu itself - was eating people? That book pretty much creeped out my whole family when I was a kid; my aunt read it first, then my mother, then I read it when Mom was finished with it. It's long since been thrown out, and we've all forgotten the author and title, but we'd all like to find and read it again, just to see what the hell was so scary about it the first time around...

Actually, most of my childhood freak-outs revolved around books and stories; I've long been an avid reader. Besides the kudzu thing above and The Monkey's Paw - Ariel isn't the only one who got a chill from that one - the two that most stick in my mind from my childhood reading list was Daphne du Maurier's original short story of The Birds (especially the grim ending) and Nicholas Monserrat's World War II novel The Cruel Sea. There's a scene in the latter novel where the protagonist, a British naval captain on convoy duty in the Nor