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!
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” 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.)
That little Zuni bastard 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.”
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
The Golem (Mud Monster) from The World Beyond (1978).
The mummy in the opening credits of Jonny Quest.
The Gargoyles in The Gargoyles (1972)
“Night Gallery” vignette Brenda (the shambling seaweed monster).
The Orangopoid 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.
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.
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.
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.
Rising up out of the bathtub? Yeah, that image stayed with me.
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.
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.
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.
The invisible monster 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.
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.
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.