# Movies or TV that Terrified you as a kid **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 28, 2015, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964 "2015-10-28T14:15:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/101 "2015-11-05T16:10:42Z")
> [@journeyman\_southpaw](#): > > In the early '80s where I lived, the Canadian children’s show “Polka Dot Door” was immediately followed by “Dr. Who” with that creepy intro. Turns out I wasn’t the only one who was terrified as a kid by that transition: > > [TVO Polka Dot Door Outro and Dr. Who Intro](http://www.torontomike.com/2013/12/tvo_polka_dot_door_outro_and_dr_w.html) You’re not the only one. I would have been about 4 and that spooky intro scared the crap out of me too. ---
**Author:** ![oara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/b77776/32.png) [@oara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oara)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/102 "2015-11-05T19:06:18Z")
I didn’t watch Doctor Who on PBS as a child because the intro was unsettling, that combination of music and visuals that seemed something like traveling through an intestine. Even if we put the idea of intestines aside, there were feelings of fast-falling-danger-oh-no. ---
**Author:** ![jrsone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jrsone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jrsone)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/103 "2015-11-05T21:57:42Z")
An Unsolved Mysteries episode about the Queen Mary and it’s ghosts. Someone walks into a room and there is a disembodied ghost head looking around, mouth wide open on the table and it STILL freaks me out. Completely traumatized me. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/104 "2015-11-06T01:26:22Z")
[House of Dark Shadows](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065856/) - I was 12 or so, and saw it near Christmas. I was so scared that I almost couldn’t walk home (lived in a very small town). If there weren’t lit Christmas wreaths in my bedroom, I don’t think I would have been able to sleep for the next week or so. ---
**Author:** ![UncaStuart](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uncastuart/32/404_2.png) [@UncaStuart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncaStuart)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/105 "2015-11-06T04:42:17Z")
When **Rodan** hit the US in 1957, my older brother and I went to see it. A flying monster blasting F-86s out of the sky didn’t faze me, but the larva that dragged miners under the surface in the flooded mines really freaked my 10-year-old self. Really did not like wading in murky water for some time after that. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/106 "2015-11-06T13:57:02Z")
My favorite genre has always been horror and I was watching lots of things wayyyyyyy before I probably should have so I don’t remember being scared by things like the monkeys from _Wizard of Oz_ or anything that wasn’t explicitly meant to be scary. The one movie that literally had me cringing on the couch, hiding my eyes and holding onto my best friend is a cheesy giallo film from 1973 called [Death Smiles on a Murderer](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068972/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1). I’ve mentioned it several times here hoping someone else might have seen it and can tell me if it scared them as much, or even at all, as I have a feeling it probably isn’t in fact scary at all. I wouldn’t know because I cannot bring myself to watch it again. I don’t know about now but when I was looking to purchase it several years ago I ended up having to buy it from some obscure vendor and it was a terrible VHS copy. I was able to watch exactly 7 minutes of it and then the old feeling of dread came over me and I had to shut it off. I actually had to dispose of the tape because I didn’t want it in my house. The story is convoluted and stupid and reviews say the makeup us terrible but I remember is terrifying the ever loving shit out of me and is to this day the only movie that I won’t watch again. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/107 "2015-11-06T15:13:11Z")
Not a movie or on TV but we had a Dr. Seuss record when I was a kid and one side had Bartholomew and the Ooblek on it. That story was creepy with a capital K. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2015, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/108 "2015-11-07T01:48:53Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > Not a movie or on TV but we had a Dr. Seuss record when I was a kid and one side had Bartholomew and the Ooblek on it. That story was creepy with a capital K. I just read to first graders this week, and they dug it. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2015, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/109 "2015-11-07T16:59:32Z")
My very first scare at a movie was when I was about 5. My swanky bachelor uncle wanted to spend a fun afternoon with his pretty little niece (me. that would be me.) So I was all dressed up in a ruffly dress and we went to an ice cream parlor and then to a matinee of ‘Snow White’ (this was in the 50’s, not during the 30’s). I started shrieking at the evil witch, the magic mirror, I don’t know what all and had to be taken out of the theater, screaming my head off. And once outside, I threw up all the contents of my stomach onto my uncle’s expensive shoes. I remember this like it was last week. And my relationship with my uncle never really recovered. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2015, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/110 "2015-11-07T17:23:58Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > I started shrieking at the evil witch, the magic mirror, I don’t know what all and had to be taken out of the theater, screaming my head off. Yeah… I remember seeing _ **Snow White** _ on TV when I was three or four. The witch scared the crap out of me, too. Around the same time, I saw the Max Fleischer cartoon where all the humans have killed themselves off in war, and the animals (cute little mice and bunnies) are free to live happy lives. The scene where the Doughboy/Tommy rises out of a trench in his gas mask and helmet, and carrying a humungous rifle with a bayonet attached, gave me nightmares for a long while! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2015, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/111 "2015-11-08T01:07:48Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Yeah… I remember seeing _ **Snow White** _ on TV when I was three or four. The witch scared the crap out of me, too. > > Around the same time, I saw the Max Fleischer cartoon where all the humans have killed themselves off in war, and the animals (cute little mice and bunnies) are free to live happy lives. The scene where the Doughboy/Tommy rises out of a trench in his gas mask and helmet, and carrying a humungous rifle with a bayonet attached, gave me nightmares for a long while! :eek: Sorry to nitpick but that wasn’t a Fleischer cartoon. It was MGM’s [Peace on Earth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_on_Earth_(film)) and was released in 1939 shortly after WWII broke out. It was then remade in 1955 in response to the Cold War and the development of nuclear weapons. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2015, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/112 "2015-11-08T03:34:34Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > Sorry to nitpick but that wasn’t a Fleischer cartoon. It was MGM’s [Peace on Earth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_on_Earth_(film)) and was released in 1939 shortly after WWII broke out. It was then remade in 1955 in response to the Cold War and the development of nuclear weapons. Well, they sure had me fooled! From what I remember (and I saw it again as an adult), it was identical in style to Fleischer’s work. ---
**Author:** ![Nema98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d2c977/32.png) [@Nema98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nema98)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2015, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/113 "2015-11-08T03:55:44Z")
One is a movie I saw on at a hotel in the mid 90s when I was about 8 or 9. It was a vampire movie, I remember one scene of it, two people were talking to a woman who I think was a mail woman or some type of delivery woman. The camera then shows from behind her two holes(bite marks). The two people leave and do not know she is a vampire. Another scene I remember is of a young guy sleeping a hospital bed, and he was a vampire also. Now I don’t remember the rest because my mom thought it was too scary for me and my brother and my older sister changed the channel. It was different than the usual Dracula movie that is based on Count Dracula. So anyone know what movie I am talking about? ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2015, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/114 "2015-11-08T04:26:02Z")
Not sure if it has been mentioned but this film ["Backstory" Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte (TV Episode 2001) - IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0797987/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte. Not only does a severed head get sent rolling down the stairs, but some evil relations try to drive poor Betty Davis insane. It scared the crap out my little eight year old ass. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2015, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/115 "2015-11-08T04:42:07Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > Not sure if it has been mentioned but this film ["Backstory" Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte (TV Episode 2001) - IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0797987/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte. Not only does a severed head get sent rolling down the stairs, but some evil relations try to drive poor Betty Davis insane. It scared the crap out my little eight year old ass. Wrong link…d’oh > **[Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) ⭐ 7.5 | Crime, Drama, Mystery](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058213/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2)** > > 2h 13m | Approved ---
**Author:** ![Lobot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce7236/32.png) [@Lobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobot)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2015, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/116 "2015-11-08T05:18:19Z")
The witch in _The Wizard of Oz_. The MCP in _TRON_. The green lady in _Lost in Space_. The woman being transformed into a robot in _Superman III_. A coffin you could live in on _Ripley’s Believe It Or Not_. The face of Jesus in a door on _That’s Incredible!_ Those were the real biggies for me. ---
**Author:** ![plankter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ba0ec/32.png) [@plankter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plankter)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/117 "2015-11-09T03:26:23Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > I’ve posted this before, a few times. > > Back in the Sixties, when I was a little kid, I saw an episode of _ **The Outer Limits** _ called “The Zanti Misfits.” It was all about evil ants from outer space, and it gave me nightmares for months. While it didn’t literally induce nightmares, that episode scared me at a very young age. I recall my father assuring me that these ants were imaginary and my trepidacious reply, “Do imaginary ants bite?” ---
**Author:** ![Wolverine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba9def/32.png) [@Wolverine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolverine)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/118 "2015-11-09T03:54:57Z")
I loved and was terrified of “V” as a pipsqueek (I was around 5 or 6 years old). Sci-fi story about humans fighting back against sinister alien invasion piqued my young interests. But the slow reveal of the disgusting reptilian nature of the aliens gave me nightmares. Similarly, the TV show “War of the Worlds” a few years later added more fuel to the fire. ---
**Author:** ![Mann\_Slaughter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@Mann\_Slaughter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mann_Slaughter)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/119 "2015-11-09T08:08:03Z")
As some others have mentioned… The Zanti Misfits from “The Outer Limits”… and The Zuni fetish doll from “Trilogy Of Terror”. But I’d like to add: “[The Cheaters](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqZpZkFC5s8)” episode from Boris Karloff’s Thriller (1960)… I re-watched that episode as an adult a year ago. And though the final shot still made my skin crawl, at least I kept my eyes open to it, unlike when I was a kid! “[The Eye Creatures](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mviLfx3o70Q)” (1965)… I used to have nightmares about this movie after seeing it on TV as a kid. But watching it recently (as well as MST3K’s treatment of it) I’m amazed at how UNSCARY and BAD it is. “[Don’t Look In The Basement](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys27ZxU3M3g)” (1973) It was only after seeing this thread that I even remembered the name of this one. I never saw the movie, but I was 10 years old when the trailer hit the TV… I recall as a kid hearing the narrator’s very first “Don’t…” was enough to send me running from the room with my hands over my ears! ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/120 "2015-11-09T14:48:14Z")
IIRC, “The Zanti Misfits” was going to be about aliens that looked like cats, but the network was afraid kids would be afraid of (and maybe harm) Fluffy, so they rewrote the script. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964.md?page=7)