Up thread I mentioned how freaked out I was from all the UFO stuff in the 70s. The opening credits of the show Project UFO really did a number on me because they were done in a Faux Official real style that to a 10 year old just proved the aliens were coming to get us.
The alien abduction scene in Fire in the Sky was scary as hell to an 11 year old.
My DAD was so freaked out by the flying monkeys as a child that I was in my early 20s before I even saw “The Wizard of Oz.” In the pre VHS days of the late 70s and early 80’s I never had a chance to see it, and by the time in my teens when we had vcr’s nobody was going to watch it. I had to learn about it at University. From strangers, instead of in my own home from family.
My own two freak outs are a little different.
My parents had a copy of The Reader’s Digest Great World Atlas which I loved, and would pour over for hours. Except the page that showed the eventual death of the sun, going red giant and on to the end. That would make me openly weep at times, and other times it settled like a a stone in the pit of my stomach.
I was also afraid of Spider Man.
Even the beginning of “In Search Of” would creep me out, let alone the rest of the show. Can’t believe I didn’t mention this one.
In my case it was the underwater episode where Tom gets caught by an octopus with evil yellow eyes and is desperately trying to escape, but the octopus just keeps grabbing him and pulling him back :eek: That was a run from the room shrieking moment.
As for flying monkeys, my one sister always said that if anyone had wanted to torture her all they’d have had to to was tie her to a chair and force her to watch the flying monkeys and she’d have caved right in.
The one which “dragged” people into it’s maw, dissolved them to a crisp, and then proceeded to spit them back out? Yeah…:eek:
There was a Bugs Bunny episode where he and Witch Hazel have some kind of showdown where they keep unzipping themselves to show other people inside and leaving piles of “skin” next to them. I had nightmares for years about my family and pets unzipping themselves to discover evil creatures inside.
Oh wow I had forgotten all about those guys - they freaked me out too! But only when they got scared and would shoot their mouths over their eyes - THAT gave me the willies.
As for the intentionally scary, the commercials for that b-movie ‘Phantasm,’ featuring a silver ball that flew around a creepy funeral parlor and spiked people in the head, gave me nightmares for, oh, decades. I VERY recently just looked up clips of that movie on YouTube to confront that trauma and just get over it already. As I recall, it was unimpressive.
An episode of Little house on the prairie. Something along the lines of kids smoking in a basement which resulted in a house fire where a baby dies. later it is made clear that the mother is mad with grief. There is something to do with a music box playing a nursery rhyme as well. made me so paranoid about house fires and gave me nightmares.
The sentient drop of hot sauce from that episode of SpongeBob.
My sister’s friend was freaked out by Swayzak from Toonami, as she was watching Hamtaro during the Trapped in Hyperspace event and he came on during the commercial break. She eventually had to switch the channel.
She thinks he’s sexy now, from the neck down.
The students going into the meat grinder in Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Freaking disturbing, man.
I think you’re referring to Thriller.
It’s interesting that you mentioned Suspense Theatre. The opening sequence of that show, with the animated guy fleeing shadowy enemies and the pounding theme music (by John Williams) terrified the seven-year-old me.
[Oops, just realized I was replying to a post from 2012! My bad.]
“The Doll” episode of Night Gallery. I was a pre-teen and during the show, my brother went up to my room and got my dolls and set them all out on the cedar chest at the top of the stairs so when I went up to bed that night…Eeeeeeeek!!!
That reminds me of part of a movie I saw on tv when I was 17 or so. I don’t remember much at all except it involved people - children IIRC- being put into a meat grinder. I’m pretty sure it was in black & white and the grinder was in a basement (?) I think the villain was a middle aged Shelley Winters type woman and the grinding scene was shown in shadows on the wall. Something about it freaked me out terribly. As in, not the thrilling fun kind of scared but down right uncomfortable, can’t get it out of your mind disturbed. I’ve been watching horror movies since pretty much as early as I can remember and I don’t recall anything before or since giving me the kind of oogie feeling this one did. Does this sound familiar to anyone? Now that the memory has been reawakened I’m tempted to start a separate thread to enlist the help of all our movie watching Dopers here.
I’m in the process of watching all the old “Tales From The Darkside” (1984) TV shows and I STILL have to mute the opening scene because the music freaks me out so bad. It’s been over 30 years.
Egad, yes.
“BUT there is, unseen by most, an underwuuuld, a place that is just as real,but not as brightly lit” <shudder> Why didn’t they just add an evil “Bwahahahaha” while they were at it.