Saw IT many times. Now I’m afraid of Evil Sewer Clowns. People may scoff, but Stephen King really touched on something when he came up with Pennywise- It appears as a ~urgh~ clown, that lives in the sewer and eats children. Sometimes when it rains i’ll happen to look at a storm drain and daydream, there could be a Sewer Clown in there… waiting. :eek:
The Descent and Sanctum also really scared me. I guess the idea of being trapped somewhere underground and dark is just some instinctual aversion in that reptilian part of my brain. Descent also had these fluke men chilling out in a lot of WTF was that? Was there something there?! :moments: . Sanctum didnt have monsters but did have a lot of claustrophobic moments that always made me feel like there wasn’t quite enough oxygen in the room for my comfort.
I enjoy these movies despite this, and other horror films (though aside from getting startled at “jump” moments, I’m not scared of zombies, aliens, killer robots, etc). Conversely my wife doesnt care for horror films but what really freaks her out is people getting possessed, or poltergeists (guess it comes from growing up in a supersticious Catholic family).
The possession plot does it for me too. It started with the original Invaders from Mars – which also has some scary holes – and worsened with Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
In real life, the aversion applies to drunks, especially mean drunks and mopey drunks. It makes me uncomfortable when people aren’t their usual selves.
Botflies, subcutaneous worms, filaria … being inhabited by something is one of my issues. I don’t mind small dark places - I used to cave when I was younger with my Dad. I am not claustrophobic in the slightest. If it weren’t for liking to read and having had several thousand books to deal with, when younger I could have lived in one of the classic tube hotels from science fiction perfectly comfortably.
Now that I have discovered the fun of ebooks and streaming netflix [or at least being able to watch video online on my tablet, I have my laptop and tablet set up comfortably on my bed table and am pretty mugh perfectly happy [though I do wish I could get every book, fiction and nonfiction in the library of Congress, and every DVD netflix has in download or dvd form streamed in. I can’t wait until netflix puts their entire catalog online.]
Fear of holes is trypophobia, which is something I learned here on the Dope, but it’s not the kind of holes you mean. You’re afraid of being attacked by something jumping out of a dark place, which is a way more rational fear.
I suddenly had a vision of running away from a killer clown, jumping on an airplane, moving to Portugal, meeting a woman, raising a family, and living a full and satisfying life. Then, when the twins graduate from college, my wife and I will head back to our “empty nest”, and I’ll walk upstairs to look at the rooms they’ve left behind and reminisce, and suddenly that damned clown will jump right up through the staircase and grab me. I’ll say, “Dude, really? It’s been, what? Like 25 years!” And the clown will look sheepish and say, “That takes a lot more preparation than they make it seem like in the movies.”
Thanks! That’s sweet of you to say. I’ve amused myself since yesterday embellishing the details into a sketch performed by The Kids in the Hall. If only I’d thought of it 25 years ago.
What with headcrabs and barnacles from Half-Life and xenomorphs from Aliens, I can’t look at an open ceiling panel and not worry about what might be up there.
I swear to god you could place a tape recorder on loop playing the poison/black headcrab sounds from Halflife 2 in a hole/closet/ceiling and absolutely anybody who has played it will absolutely flip out until they find it.
I use the motion tracker sound effect from Aliens on my phone as an incoming txt alert. A few times I’ve played it while walking at night with some movie-geek friends. Time it right and it gets a great reaction.
nothing to do with holes or even fright, but movies or tv (and it doesn’t matter what genre) nowadays have made me wary of peaceful, quiet scenes of two characters in conversation, especially if one of them is crossing a street or both of them in a car. the ninja <insert noun> who may or may not be awaiting off-screen has ruined a lot of shows for me.
– and worsened with Invasion of the Body Snatchers.