Scenes that scared the crap out of you as a kid.

[Admiral_Young]

When I was taken to see "The Great Mouse Detective" as a kid I was absolutely terrified by Rattigan (the Professor Moriarty character) along with his evil bat henchmen Fidget. I think I spent two third of the film curled up in a ball in my chair with my hands covering my eyes. I love the movie now though, i was seven when I saw it and one of the first movies I ever saw in a theater.

The most scariest scene though that I saw totally by accident is that one night my dad was watching my brother and I (I think I was about seven or eight at this point) and he let me stay up late to watch "The Incredible Hulk) and during a commercial break flipped through the channels and came across the scene from "An American Werewolf in London" where the main character transforms into a warewolf for the first time in a bed (or so I was told later). I was horrified at the sight and screamed and started crying...my dad turned the channel back but it was too late I'd seen enough. I was traumatized for a good week after that. My mom came home from work that night wondering what the hell happened...lol. I've never seen the whole of that movie ever since.

 

[RandyS]

Most of the original Twilight Zone series scared me as a kid. Ironically, it's now one of my more favorite items in my DVD collection.

 

[Trekker4747]

Dr. Alan Grant with no eyes in Event Horizon.

Actually the character's name was William Weir. Grant was, AFAIK, from Jurassic Park.

And William Weir was played by....

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ I was getting to that.

 

[Greg Cox]

Most of the original Twilight Zone series scared me as a kid. Ironically, it's now one of my more favorite items in my DVD collection.

I was positively terrified by the Outer Limit's credit sequence. "We have taken control of your television set," etc. For some reason, that freaked me out so much I had to leave the room until it was over!

There was also an OUTER LIMITS episode about talking rocks (which only the protagonist could hear) that terrified me as a kid.

 

[RandyS]

Most of the original Twilight Zone series scared me as a kid. Ironically, it's now one of my more favorite items in my DVD collection.

I was positively terrified by the Outer Limit's credit sequence. "We have taken control of your television set," etc. For some reason, that freaked me out so much I had to leave the room until it was over!

There was also an OUTER LIMITS episode about talking rocks (which only the protagonist could hear) that terrified me as a kid.

Talking rocks scared you huh? What about "The Savage Curtain"? Kirk and Spock fight talking rocks with glowing eyes and claws. Did that scare you?

 

[Greg Cox]

Most of the original Twilight Zone series scared me as a kid. Ironically, it's now one of my more favorite items in my DVD collection.

I was positively terrified by the Outer Limit's credit sequence. "We have taken control of your television set," etc. For some reason, that freaked me out so much I had to leave the room until it was over!

There was also an OUTER LIMITS episode about talking rocks (which only the protagonist could hear) that terrified me as a kid.

Talking rocks scared you huh? What about "The Savage Curtain"? Kirk and Spock fight talking rocks with glowing eyes and claws. Did that scare you?

Not as much, actually. I think it was the fact that only the hero could hear the evil rocks plotting against him that spooked me!

 

[Lookingglassman]

The scene from The Godfather where some guy had his windows shot out by the mob.

 

[stj]

Probably it's just merciful amnesia, but I think the scariest movie I saw as a smaller kid was the Fifties version of Invaders from Mars, especially the tentacled head in the flying saucer.

I took my kids to see Return to Oz. At the climax, when Nicol Williamson turns back from near human form into the Nome King, my youngest leapt up and tried to run from the theater. So that's his.

 

[Reverend]

Ghostbusters, no question. First and foremost the library ghost freaking out right at the screen sent me running for the stairs when I was...must have been 5? The bit where slimer faces off at Bill Murry was another one and I defiantly remember having a nightmare about a terror dog coming up the stairs while I was in bed. The fact that when I woke up everything looked as it did in the dream (sans dog) didn't help much.
I remember my eldest brother had the soundtrack on cassette and used to love tormenting me by playing the beginning of the theme tune at full blast.

Of course as I got older I became a huge fan, had the car, the firehouse, the pack and Ghostbusters 2 was the first film I ever saw in the cinema. Possibly for that reason I have rather more affection for the sequel than most.

Other big scares? Robocop, the bit where the bloke get melted by acid. Saw that when I was 8 or 9. Poltergeist - the bit with the mirror. The Thing - the bit where the blood jumps out of the petri dish made me jump about 6ft in the air.
Oh and only Brits will probably know about this one, but the BBC did a "mockumentary" called Ghostwatch back in '92. I was one of those who thought it was real and live. Scared the shit out of me.

 

[Joy]

Oh, I just remembered another one... I was 10 when Jumanji came out, and for our Father-Daughter movie excursion, my dad and I decided to go see Jumanji.... Ended up having to walk out and get a refund 'cause I got freaked out so much by the monkeys.

Funniest thing is that later, we found out that my mom and 7-year-old sister went to the same exact movie & showtime for their Mother-Daughter movie excursion... and my sister being my sister (she's into horror movies; I'm not), she sat through the whole thing.

 

[DeVario]

The face-ripping in Poltergeist.

And also the Mork & Mindy 2-part episode "Mork In Wonderland" where he shrinks after taking some cold medicine. The part that freaked me good was at the end of part one, where he completely shrinks away and falls down some psychedelic vortex while frantically shouting for Mindy. I couldn't sleep that night. I swore off of Mork & Mindy episodes for quite a while after that scene.

 

[JacksonArcher]

^ I was getting to that.

When I was younger, I would associate actors by the recongizable characters they played, and not by the actors' real names. So, when I saw Event Horizon as a child, it wasn't Dr. Weir, it was actually Dr. Grant, and so when he went crazy toward the end of the film, I was like, "No, Dr. Grant! No! Think of the dinosaurs..."

It opened the doors to crossovers of unimaginable potential, as you could imagine.

 

[sevenstars]

I was positively terrified by the Outer Limit's credit sequence. "We have taken control of your television set," etc. For some reason, that freaked me out so much I had to leave the room until it was over!

This. This is what I was paging through looking for. I heard it every week, and every week I was convinced it was true. They actually demonstrated their control right in front of your eyes.

Flying monkeys were a distant second, though still permanently scarring.

 

[Silvercrest]

And also the Mork & Mindy 2-part episode "Mork In Wonderland" where he shrinks after taking some cold medicine. The part that freaked me good was at the end of part one, where he completely shrinks away and falls down some psychedelic vortex while frantically shouting for Mindy. I couldn't sleep that night. I swore off of Mork & Mindy episodes for quite a while after that scene.

That one didn't freak me out exactly, but ... the last I saw was him falling down that vortex and shouting for Mindy. I never saw part 2, and I never knew how he got out of it. What happened?

 

[3D Master]

I was positively terrified by the Outer Limit's credit sequence. "We have taken control of your television set," etc. For some reason, that freaked me out so much I had to leave the room until it was over!

This. This is what I was paging through looking for. I heard it every week, and every week I was convinced it was true. They actually demonstrated their control right in front of your eyes.

I wonder how much worse that effect is before there was remote control, when you actually had to get out of your creaky chair, physically walk through your dark house lighted only by the tv to switch channels... and with reception the way it was, there be a more than good chance the next channel was snowy and garbled as well.

 

[Etched]

Pretty much everything scared the crap out of me as a kid but there are two that stick in my mind.

The 1981 BBC adaptation of Day Of The Triffids terrified me in general and my older brother told me that the hollyhocks in my nana's garden were triffids. He also told me the big old gas heater in her bathroom was a dalek - my brother has a lot to answer for in terms of childhood trauma.

And the birth scene in V, the lizard baby gave me nightmares for weeks. Even now, having seen how rubbish it looks through the eyes of an adult, I can still physically feel the fear it provoked in me back then.

 

[GalaxyX]

And the birth scene in V, the lizard baby gave me nightmares for weeks. Even now, having seen how rubbish it looks through the eyes of an adult, I can still physically feel the fear it provoked in me back then.

Funny you mention V. I remember 2 scenes that scared the crap outta me. One was when one of the guys is moving into the ship, and he gets to this compartment where there a woman being electrocuted and he manages to shut the system down and rescue her out of there. That was messed up.

The other scene was when one of the aliens has the skin ripped off to reveal the lizard inside. I misunderstood the scene, and I thought they were skinning a human, yikes!!

 

[Joel_Kirk]

Two scenes that scared me as a kid:

*Superman III: Ross Webster's sister gets turned into a robot...

*Star Trek: TWOK: The ear scene....

 

[DeVario]

And also the Mork & Mindy 2-part episode "Mork In Wonderland" where he shrinks after taking some cold medicine. The part that freaked me good was at the end of part one, where he completely shrinks away and falls down some psychedelic vortex while frantically shouting for Mindy. I couldn't sleep that night. I swore off of Mork & Mindy episodes for quite a while after that scene.

That one didn't freak me out exactly, but ... the last I saw was him falling down that vortex and shouting for Mindy. I never saw part 2, and I never knew how he got out of it. What happened?

It's been a while since I saw the episode, but from what I recall he ends up in some backwards parallel world where humor isn't allowed, and he meets an alternate version of Mindy (called Mandy this time). They join the fight to restore humor to the world. At the end, the effects of the cold medicine wear off and Mork returns to his normal size, bursting through the kitchen table where he shrunk from sight. It was very Alice In Wonderland-like.