# Once-scary childhood memories of pop culture **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 10, 2012, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783 "2012-07-10T12:34:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/21 "2012-07-10T15:21:58Z")
_Dark Shadows_, the old 1960s soap opera, scared the crap out of me when I was 7 or 8. It was the disembodied hand that did it, mostly. I sneaked and watched it all the time but it gave me nightmares and my mother absolutely forbade me to watch it. Tired of the nightmares, I eventually I took her “advice.” Recently I was watching a _Dark Shadows_ blooper reel. Even without the bloopers MAN was that show cheesy! ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/22 "2012-07-10T15:33:00Z")
I was terrified of the hallucination sequences in _Gateways to the Mind_ (one of the Bell Laboratory Science Series with Dr. Frank C. Baxter). I recently got a DVD of it; I can see how it was disturbing at the time, but it’s really tame. One other thing I’ve posted before: I was scared of “[Wild Honey Pie](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dr7wD3NRcUI)” on the Beatles’ “White Album” for a long time. (A few of the things that people have been posting probably don’t really qualify for this thread because they’re _supposed_ to be scary. My examples are sort of borderline.) ---
**Author:** ![Labtrash](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/labtrash/32/528_2.png) [@Labtrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labtrash)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/23 "2012-07-10T15:50:50Z")
[That little Zuni bastard](http://www.ebay.com/itm/ZUNI-TRILOGY-OF-TERROR-DOLL-HANDMADE-WITH-SCROLL-14-INCHES-/320942071909?pt=Art_Sculpture&hash=item4ab9a36065) gave me nightmares for weeks. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/24 "2012-07-10T15:55:27Z")
> [@Labtrash](#): > > [That little Zuni bastard](http://www.ebay.com/itm/ZUNI-TRILOGY-OF-TERROR-DOLL-HANDMADE-WITH-SCROLL-14-INCHES-/320942071909?pt=Art_Sculpture&hash=item4ab9a36065) gave me nightmares for weeks. That MIGHT have scared me if he didn’t remind me so much of “Nature Boy,” the Australian aborigine that Bugs Bunny toyed with so mercilessly. I just wanted Karen Black to tell him “Onga Bonga Bonga Inga Binga Binga BUNGA.” ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/25 "2012-07-10T16:10:22Z")
That KISS TV movie from the 1970s where they have a Scooby-Doo like adventure in an amusement park? That was scary. KISS themselves were pretty scary to a 3-4 year old, but the “Phantom of the Park” had moments that replayed in nightmares. Also, the Tasmanian Devil from Looney Tunes. I had a recurring dream where I would wake up in my bed and look over the side and Taz would be laying there in wait and growling at me. Beyond the cartoon, my older sister tormented me with a stuffed Taz once she knew it was a recurring nightmare, leaving it next to my bed so it’d be the first thing I’d see when I _really_ woke up. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/26 "2012-07-10T16:18:36Z")
A lot of those production logos creeped me out when you saw them late at night. I can’t explain why but they did. I did a thread about it once so I know I’m not alone 🙂 The frowning Alien face at the end of the Star Trek credits scared me when I was very young. I loved the show but would avoid the credits for years. I was also scared of The Elephant Man when I was kid. I saw him when I was watching the Academy Awards with my parents. It was nominated for best picture and they showed a clip where he runs from a crowd with a hood on his head and someone pulls it off and they chase him. It’s the “I’m not an animal” scene. His face scared me but the reason I was really scared is I was sure he was going to blame me for how mean people were to him when he was alive and take it out on me. To this day when I catch a glimpse of his face on TV or something, it gives me the willies. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/27 "2012-07-10T16:54:31Z")
> [@HelenGawn](#): > > The original _Invasion of the Body Snatchers,_ at about nine years old. Saw it on TV in the middle of the afternoon and had to sleep with Mom that night. > > At a younger age, I saw a Christopher Lee vampire movie and again slept with Mom, plus I woke her up to see her teeth every hour. I found an old VHS of a Christopher Lee Dracula movie. \*\*\*Dracula, Prince of Darkness. \*\*\*The very movie that I saw in the theater, and spent part of _ **under the seat** _. Found it at a garage sale a year ago… haven’t watched it yet. Just been… y’know, busy. And stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/28 "2012-07-10T16:55:40Z")
I had multiple nightmares about the Superman 3 scene where the lady is turned into a robot. Saw it many years later and found it comical. My wife can’t be scared of the flying monkeys–she ran out of the room shrieking _during the opening scene with the lady on the bicycle._. I am fascinated at how many people are freaked out by corporate logo sequences from the eighties. I don’t get it at all! ---
**Author:** ![Runestar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/74df32/32.png) [@Runestar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Runestar)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/29 "2012-07-10T17:00:17Z")
Put me down as another who was freaked by the flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz. Also, the Abominable (“Bumble”) Snowman from Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer sent me shrieking from the room when I was a child - at least when he first appeared (I was OK once he was a “humble Bumble” 🙂 ). Couldn’t watch that scene for many, many years afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/30 "2012-07-10T17:17:55Z")
The Golem (Mud Monster) from [The World Beyond (1978)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0235068/). The mummy in the opening credits of Jonny Quest. The Gargoyles in [The Gargoyles (1972)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068622/) “Night Gallery” vignette [Brenda](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0660795/) (the shambling seaweed monster). The [Orangopoid](http://flashgordon.wikia.com/wiki/Orangopoids) from “Flash Gordon.” Bigfoot. I didn’t actually see any of the Bigfoot movies while they were all the rage, other than the Patterson film, but that was enough. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Bird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Little\_Bird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Bird)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/31 "2012-07-10T17:32:35Z")
Large Marge. Forced myself to re-watch it recently, and it’s pretty creepy, but no where near the levels of terrifying as when I was a kid. ---
**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:** [July 10, 2012, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/32 "2012-07-10T17:33:33Z")
There was a skit on Electric Company where two characters paint a train tunnel on the wall and then a train comes rumbling through right at the camera while the two guys hang on for dear life at the side of the tunnel. That used to freak me the freak out. ---
**Author:** ![CapnPitt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/edb3f5/32.png) [@CapnPitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CapnPitt)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/33 "2012-07-10T17:34:27Z")
Growing up in Pittsburgh in the 70s, you couldn’t avoid the Mr. Yuck commercials that scared kids from drinking chemicals under the sink. A good cause for sure, and the stickers worked, but the “bwahaahahahahaha” and the “bloody eyeball” beginning were pants-shittingly scary to a young lad like myself. [Mr. Yuk](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLsONa3gKIQ) ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/34 "2012-07-10T17:34:34Z")
> [@Labtrash](#): > > [That little Zuni bastard](http://www.ebay.com/itm/ZUNI-TRILOGY-OF-TERROR-DOLL-HANDMADE-WITH-SCROLL-14-INCHES-/320942071909?pt=Art_Sculpture&hash=item4ab9a36065) gave me nightmares for weeks. Rising up out of the bathtub? Yeah, that image stayed with me. ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/35 "2012-07-10T17:38:48Z")
The Bugs Bunny cartoon based on _Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde_. I loved watching the Looney Tunes cartoon show on Saturday, but there was always a bit of sick dread at the possibility that that one would be on. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/36 "2012-07-10T17:54:11Z")
The old video game Berzerk got to me. I remember trying it out in a pizza parlor, and the combination of robots swarming from every direction and the evil synthesized voice screaming, “Bzz! Bzz! Kill the humanoid! Kill the intruder!” shook me to the core. Plus, I was terrible at it, so my doom came swiftly with mocking robots jeering me and making me feel I had let down the whole human race. Stupid game. ---
**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:** [July 10, 2012, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/37 "2012-07-10T18:07:30Z")
I used to be terrified of those ventriloquist doll dummies - the one with the slicked hair and tuxedo. I used to hang around the toy section while my parents shopped in Towers (back in the day when you could leave your kid unattended) and I’d be scared to walk up the doll aisle if one was there. My dad used to threaten to buy me one for Christmas if I didn’t behave. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/38 "2012-07-10T18:37:51Z")
The [invisible monster](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=G5JSKeUaC28#t=329s) from the original Jonny Quest. I shivered watching the scene again in the link. Just now. I’m 42 years old. Funny story: my brother used to be scared of the scene from Charlie Brown’s Halloween Special where the Red Baron is snooping around in the dark and the ominous music plays. He just discovered that his 4 year-old son also hates that scene. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/39 "2012-07-10T20:18:51Z")
_Stairway to Heaven_ would freak me out when I would listen to my radio at night as a kid. Would always dread it coming on as I fell asleep. Don’t know why, just totally creeped me out. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/40 "2012-07-10T20:42:09Z")
> [@Sattua](#): > > I remember getting shivers down my neck every time I heard the _Unsolved Mysteries_ music. That’s the one I came in here to say. And I could pretty guarantee I’d have a sleepless whenever they’d air a UFO abduction episode. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783.md?page=3)