What freaked you out as a kid?

[byron lomax]

Recently my neice had a scared reaction to something she saw on kids' TV. That got me thinking about the things that terrified my own younger self years ago - not general phobia like spiders, heights, etc. but particular characters and images from pop culture (TV, film, comics, books etc) - even if they were never intended to be scary.

What stands out most from my own childhood is the alien face on the cover of Whitley Streiber's abduction book Communion. My dad had the book (not that he was particularily interested in that kind of thing) and that face used to utterly terrify me, but at the same time it kind of fascinated me - those huge, sloping black eyes, the utterly blank expression....

Then I saw clips of the Christopher Walken movie and it freaked me out WAY too much. I wasn't prepared to look at that or anything resembling it for years afterwards (and lucky me, the "grey" became a big cultural icon in the 90s).

So - what made you hide behind the sofa - especially if it wasn't trying to?

 

[sidious618]

My grandmother would send me the same Christmas card every year with this bear on it that was creepy as fuck. I think my parents got wise and told her to stop after the third year or so.

 

[the 4th hanson bro]

The flying monkeys on the Wizard of Oz.

 

[Gepard]

What stands out most from my own childhood is the alien face on the cover of Whitley Streiber's abduction book Communion. My dad had the book (not that he was particularily interested in that kind of thing) and that face used to utterly terrify me, but at the same time it kind of fascinated me - those huge, sloping black eyes, the utterly blank expression....

Oh, Jesus Christ, yes. "Greys" were the first thing I thought of upon seeing this thread. Scared the shit out of me as a kid, and even now can make me a little nervous. (Oddly, though, I love the Asgard from Stargate. Go figure.)

 

[auntiehill]

In the Rankin-Bass animated TV film of "The Hobbit," Gollum freaked me the hell out. His screaming and screeching sent me scurrying behind my mother's chair.

I also remember being scarred silly by the evil Queen/Witch in Snow White. I think I was 4 or 5 when I saw it and it really bothered me when she turned into the old hag with apple. That same year, we went to Disneyland, and my Mom took me on the Snow White ride. It's a little "dark ride" where, amongst all the joyous scenes of the dwarfs, the witch pops out at random intervals. Scared the begeezus out of me.

 

[sojourner]

An episode of "In Search Of" about ghosts. There was a reenactment of someone just going to bed and before turning off the light a dark figure appears in her open closet moving from left to right with a small pause to look at her. Creeped me the hell out. Had to sleep with a night light for years after that. Made worse that in my parents house my closet did not have a door, just a flimsy curtain. So I could never get the "safe" feeling of the door closed.

 

[Bishbot]

Batman: The Animated Series, at the end of "Two-Face" Part 1, the minute or so from the moment the bandages come off to when we finally see what Harvey looks like, illuminated in a flash of lightning. Absolutely fucking terrifying. I'm amazed they got away with that on kids TV.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

The Doomsday Machine and the Balok puppet that they kept showing during the end credits with all those freaky LSD colors (I would quickly change channels before he appeared ) from TOS and The Abominable Snowman from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

 

[Caleuche]

The first thing I remember being scared of on TV as a young child was the soup dragon on British children show The Clangers, whichused to terrify me.
As a primary school kid, the flying machines in the first War of the Worlds (and in fact most things which glided).

 

[melancholymecha]

anyone remember from Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, those creepy little puppet people he would talk to? I think one was King & a Queen who lived in a castle & there was a prince too, and an old hag who lived in a tree? those things kinda creeped me out...

 

[Capn Flukie]

There were a couple things. One that's really dumb was a 'cartoon' on Zoom where all these vegetables are chatting away in a disposal unit, suddenly it gets switched on and the vegetables are screaming as they are chopped to bits. Freaked me right out.

In 'War of the Gargantuas' this giant 'king-kong-sized-bigfoot-type-thing' picks up a girl off the street and puts her in his mouth and chews her up and spits her out and they show a closeup of her remains on the street. WTF?? This is a kid's movie!

*shudders*

 

[Kira's Mom]

The PBS logo freaked me out when I was a little kid. I was sure the P head would jump out of the T.V. and eat me...

 

[Greylock Crescent]

These guys:

 

[Pegaritaville]

Looking back, I'm not sure why it freaked me out so much, but I saw the movie Trog when I was 6 or 7 years old and it scared the crap out of me. It was this cheesy B-movie about a half-man missing link who wreaks havoc after he's discovered. I loved exploring some of the caves near my house, but after seeing the movie, it was years before I went anywhere near a cave.

 

[Gary Mitchell]

A couple of Space: 1999 episodes freaked me out when I was little. "Dragon's Domain" is the episode where they find the big one-eyed tentacled thing on a derelict spaceship that sucks people under it and then spits out charred skeletons. The other one was "Alpha Child". The first birth on Moonbase Alpha starts out ok. They put the baby in an incubator and a few minutes later the child has aged 5 or 6 years.

Very creepy.

Another thing that I remember freaking me out was "The Snow Queen". I'm not sure what exactly creeped me out because I haven't been able to figure out which version of it that I saw when I was little.

 

[wamdue]

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace

 

[Goji]

The titular character in the B-movie "The Wasp Woman". Really freaked me out. I'm not actually sure why, though. I loved the "The Fly", which is clearly what "The Wasp Woman" was so desperately attempting to imitate, and it had far better effects with which to portray its creature.

 

[Brent]

The Yip Yips

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYZxrBpK2Uo

 

[Leroy]

Chucky from Child's play used to scare the crap out of me as a kid, I found his pristine form to be more frightening than when he got all stitched up for 'Bride of Chucky' that's when the franchise started to become more of a horror comedy than just horror.

An episode of "In Search Of" about ghosts. There was a reenactment of someone just going to bed and before turning off the light a dark figure appears in her open closet moving from left to right with a small pause to look at her. Creeped me the hell out. Had to sleep with a night light for years after that. Made worse that in my parents house my closet did not have a door, just a flimsy curtain. So I could never get the "safe" feeling of the door closed

You should try the episode on castle ghosts it had a story where a girl saw a ghost so hideous when she was in bed she died of fright soon afterward, and another about a haunted skull that would scream and sweat blood and kill anyone that attempted to dispose of it.

 

[Vanyel]

Bigfoot from The Six Million Dollar Man.

That "alien" from Scooby Doo episode, Spooky Space Kook, the one with the big helmet and a skeleton head that had a creep "laugh." That "laugh" still haunts me. Here it is.
And here is a picture too.