# 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:** 7
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/121 "2015-11-09T15:22:47Z")
> [@Mann\_Slaughter](#): > > “[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! The TV commercials for **[It’s Alive](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071675/)** did it for me as a kid. Looking it up on IMDB reminded me that the poster creeped me out, too. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/122 "2015-11-09T16:04:53Z")
Twilight Zone’s [Nightmore at 20,000 Feet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightmare_at_20,000_Feet). That monster scared the hell out of me. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/123 "2015-11-09T19:46:41Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > The secret no man can witness nor woman tell. An Aussie Internet friend & I were discussing the original Wicker Man. She said that her Mom told her about a similar movie made for American TV. I knew immediately that Harvest Home was it. > > Never issued completely on video (only as half-abridged edit) & is only available by questionable DVD sellers. …Nor consumer rent nor buy. Apparently. ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Mama](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5ac83/32.png) [@Atomic\_Mama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Mama)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2015, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/124 "2015-11-10T00:23:35Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > I was six or seven and came in late one afternoon to Vincent Price’s “The Tingler.” The scene where they’re trying to scare the mute woman to death. It Was On In The Afternoon! :eek: I remember that, too! But the one that got me was the original “The Blob” – I was about 9 when I saw it at the local movie theatre (a matinee show). We lived in an old creepy wood-frame house that creaked. I slept in the bedroom next to the attic stairs. The door to the attic was always closed, & we weren’t supposed to go up there. But I would imagine the blob ooozing down the attic stairs and through the gap at the bottom of the door … :eek: ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2015, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/125 "2015-11-10T01:24:39Z")
Who needs movies or tv? Basements and attics all by themselves are scary enough! ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2015, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/126 "2015-11-10T01:28:24Z")
I forgot about the soap opera “Dark Shadows.” Creeped me the hell out. Also, The Amityville Horror (original) scared the crap out of me because I had heard people talking about the book beforehand and how it was a true story. My 16 year old self didn’t realize what “based on a true story” actually meant. There are a few scenes in the movie where George Lutz wakes up at exactly 3:15 AM most mornings. That happened to me once a few days after seeing the movie and I thought I was going to die of a heart attack! ---
**Author:** ![BaldDudePeekskill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5e925/32.png) [@BaldDudePeekskill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BaldDudePeekskill)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2015, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/127 "2015-11-10T02:58:28Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > [This commercial](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwA_58KIEcs) (_Suspiria_). The first time I saw it I was not expecting it and holy cow did it freak me out. Every time it would come on after that I would leave the room with my hands over my ears. > > The opening music for _Night Gallery_ was every bit as creepy as the episodes themselves. I was home alone a lot as a child and this scared the hell out of me yet I kept watching it :smack: Over thirty years later still the single most terrifying thing I’ve seen on television ---
**Author:** ![DummyGladHands](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/49beb7/32.png) [@DummyGladHands](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DummyGladHands)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2015, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/128 "2015-11-10T14:30:02Z")
> [@Mann\_Slaughter](#): > > 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! God yes, the Cheaters. Last time I mentioned that someone sent me the YouTube link. The music opening the Twilight Zone. Once a girl friend and I went over to her house when her parents weren’t home, in the early evening, darkening. Her dad had wired the TV to come on when you turned on the living room light switch, I guess, because we did and there it was–we ran upstairs like scared kittens to her room. A Vincent Price epic-House on Haunted Hill. Price vamping all thru it and the last scene. And of course the “mother” scene at the end of Psycho. ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2015, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/129 "2015-11-15T02:07:43Z")
The only thing that ever gave me the nightmares for some reason, was back when I was bout 5 or 6, perhaps 7 and was a faithful viewer of voyage to the bottom of the sea. And one episode where they had rock men coming out of the walls kinda gave me nightmares for a few nights. Declan ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2015, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/130 "2015-11-16T04:41:11Z")
The mid-80s Amazing Stories, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and the “new” Twilight Zone had several episodes that scared the hell out of me as a kid. The one that was bone chilling was about a woman in prison who made a deal with the gravedigger to be buried with the next deceased person and then be dug up later (presumably outside the prison walls). After being the coffin for what seemed too long, she flicks her lighter and sees the body next to her: the gravedigger. My nine year old self was scared shitless for months. ---
**Author:** ![LuluFysh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LuluFysh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LuluFysh)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2015, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/131 "2015-11-16T06:41:31Z")
I’d have to say the X Files scared me a lot when I was really little lol. ---
**Author:** ![Mixolydian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Mixolydian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mixolydian)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2015, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/132 "2015-11-17T19:10:59Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Twilight Zone’s [Nightmore at 20,000 Feet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightmare_at_20,000_Feet). That monster scared the hell out of me. Came in here to post this as well. Some other movies/TV mentioned (“The Night Stalker” comes to mind) might have scratched the surface, but this was far and away the most frightened I was watching something on TV. ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2015, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/133 "2015-11-17T20:23:15Z")
As a kid, I had a love/hate relationship with “monster movies.” I wanted to see them all! I’d take every chance I’d get to watch a scary movie. But some of them did stick with me. I had no problem with flying monkeys or any “monster” that was more or less of human form or origin (vampires, mummies, Frankenstein monsters, etc.). What got me were the bugs and such. **The Fly** (1958) – that claw hand, and then the reveal with all the eye facets. Some weird mandible-monster (likely from **The Monster that Challenged the World** or some monster that looked like that). I remember I was swimming in a motel pool at night (I must have been 7 or 8) and there’s that weird underwater bulb on one end to light the pool in that spooky greenish wavering glow, but the deep end is dark…I was sure that mandible monster was down there ready to grab me! I was 8 or 9 and on a sleepover at a friend’s house when the TV movie “It Happened at Lakewood Manor” was shown. Bugs? How about millions of little ants everywhere? I was scratching myself and itching all night, worried that ants were going to cover me up if I fell asleep. Perhaps the most horrifying thing I remember scaring me was that scene in\*\* Invasion of the Body Snatchers\*\* when the pod tries to duplicate Donald Sutherland and that pod thing was so unformed and pulsating (and then Donald smashed it with a shovel if I recall). I was probably 10 or 11 when I saw that and I was certain an evil pod would appear if I fell asleep. ---
**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 17, 2015, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/134 "2015-11-17T23:47:01Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Twilight Zone’s [Nightmore at 20,000 Feet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightmare_at_20,000_Feet). That monster scared the hell out of me. When I watched the **Supergirl** premiere in which she saved the plane, after she lands it she stands on the wing and everyone looks out at her, and I thought of this episode. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2015, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/135 "2015-11-18T02:53:18Z")
> [@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. The story that always go me was _The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins_. The King was going to flat-out murder Bartholomew with a bow for something the kid couldn’t help or control. As a kid, that was scary. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Lebodnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/fbc32d/32.png) [@Mr.Lebodnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Lebodnik)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2015, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/136 "2015-11-18T03:59:18Z")
For me it was an old B&W British movie called “Village of the Damned” (not the 1995 remake). IMDB link: [Village of the Damned (1960) - IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054443/) I was about 9 or 10 and was watching the movie on tv. I was alone in a dark living room (only light was from the tv) and had to leave the room when the movie got to one of the scenes where the kid’s eyes start to glow. Really creeped me out; had to leave that room and go elsewhere in the house to get away from those eyes and be around another person. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2015, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/137 "2015-11-18T05:12:50Z")
> [@Mr.Lebodnik](#): > > For me it was an old B&W British movie called “Village of the Damned” (not the 1995 remake). > IMDB link: [Village of the Damned (1960) - IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054443/) > I was about 9 or 10 and was watching the movie on tv. I was alone in a dark living room (only light was from the tv) and had to leave the room when the movie got to one of the scenes where the kid’s eyes start to glow. > Really creeped me out; had to leave that room and go elsewhere in the house to get away from those eyes and be around another person. British people always make a horror film more horrifying. I caught one from the late Seventies or early Eighties about an American couple vacationing in Britain who come across a country house party that consists of famous, wealthy and successful people, all of whom achieved such by selling their souls to Satan. He begins to collect - people start dying in mysterious ways (a rock star chokes on a chicken bone…while eating a steak). The one that creeped me out, though, was the beautiful young woman who was swimming when the top of the water turned to glass. I can still recall the scene - the swimmer desperately hammering at the glass, then slowly drowning. > [@Leaffan](#): > > Also, The Amityville Horror (original) scared the crap out of me because I had heard people talking about the book beforehand and how it was a true story. My 16 year old self didn’t realize what “based on a true story” actually meant. I totally get that. The picture of that house, with the two windows lit up like eyes, scared the hell out of me. I still don’t like houses with Dutch barn roofs - wonder if that had anything to do with it? As far as the distinction between “true story” and “inspired by a true story”, I had a similar problem with a book called The Ghosts of Flight 401, about an Eastern Airlines L-1011 that crashed in the Everglades, and whose passengers and crew made a practice of haunting other Eastern L-1011s. > [@](#): > > There are a few scenes in the movie where George Lutz wakes up at exactly 3:15 AM most mornings. That happened to me once a few days after seeing the movie and I thought I was going to die of a heart attack! Once again, right there with you. I woke up one morning at five to six, and thought for a moment it was a sign that I was going to hell. (Since my digital clock couldn’t show 6:66, the Devil chose 5:55 instead. Hey, it made sense when I was half asleep.) When I was very young, I thought the blanket on my bed might have been evil, because I wasn’t sure of the difference between _Satan_ and _satin_.:smack: ---
**Author:** ![Leonard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a6a055/32.png) [@Leonard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leonard)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2015, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/138 "2015-11-18T23:31:02Z")
[Little House on the Prairie - Sylvia](http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2011/08/25/raped-by-a-mime-the-creepiest-episode-of-little-house-on-the-prairie) That mime mask was stuck in my head for a while. As far as movies goes, it’s Amityville for me, too. I was a little too young. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/139 "2015-11-19T11:53:38Z")
The episode of Gilligan’s Island where a ghost is trying to scare everyone away. There is a scene where Gilligan opens a window and there stands the ghost. I was afraid to open windows after that. They had the creepiest sound and voice of any spook I’ve ever heard and it really scared me. Hard to believe Richard Kiel in a bedsheet could be so scary. But then Scooby Doo kind of made me afraid of the dark also. ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964/140 "2015-11-19T12:30:57Z")
My 5-year old brain confused the \*\*gorilla \*\*soldiers in _The Planet of the Apes_ with \*\*guerrilla \*\*soldiers I’d heard about on the news. I didn’t tell my mom until years later, but I worried when my dad had to travel for him job with the department of defense. Also, the episode of _In Search Of…_ (I think it was) where they talked about Bigfoot. They had video of a “Bigfoot” arm crashing through a big living-room window, and waving around between the couple sitting on the sofa. And I was sitting on a sofa in front of a big living-room window. :eek::eek::eek: Forty years later, and I’m still iffy about sofas in front of living-room windows and must have the curtains closed when it gets dark. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-or-tv-that-terrified-you-as-a-kid/735964.md?page=8)