Wow, that Suspiria trailer is fur-REAKY, Gordon! I have seen the movie a couple of times as an adult, & it always fills me with both paranoia & claustrophobia…no one listens to the main character, & her little ballerina/girls school world keeps closing in around her…but I had never seen the trailer and as a kid, I am sure that would have given me nightmares forever too, Foxy40! That last bit of the clip is enough to terrorize a girl into sleepless nights, watching every movement at windows and doors…YIKES! But you’re right, I don’t believe the skeleton-lady is actually a part of the movie—kinda reminiscent of Psycho, however, isn’t it?
When I was little (early-mid 80’s) I saw a cartoon of this song. I loved it though - the kitty was this tiny cute little thing that kept getting the best of the man. I don’t remember the ending though. I feel like the man finally admitted defeat and the tiny kitty won, but I’m not positive.
Around the same time frame, a book about alien invasions came out. I think it was called “Communion”. Anyway, the commercial for that book freaked me the hell out. That long, blank face just staring at me from the TV screen.
I was convinced aliens were going to come get me b/c they knew that I knew about them from the commercial.
I can’t watch it at work, but I sent it to myself at home. My brother and I saw this years ago, and laughed til we nearly wet our pants! The part where the rat blows out the match…
The Jabberwock scene from an old made for TV version of Alice in Wonderland (Alice wore a yellow dress in this version.)
To this day I have not seen that scene, because we had it on video as a kid, and I stopped it at that scene (the lights are going wonky, there’s screaming, a mirror breaking, freaky stuff!) I’m fairly certain I could make it past that scene now, but that video has long since been thrown away.
Anyone remember the ad for Dip-It coffee pot cleaner from the late 60’s? It featured a bunch of witches doing the “bubble, bubble, toil and trouble” routine. Pretty scary for a 5-year-old.
It’s not terrifying or anything, but I was pretty young when I saw The Tin Drum; could it have been on cable, or video? My father was watching it, and I remember being deeply unsettled by two scenes:
Live, wriggling eels in a rotting horse’s head
Oskar screaming in the doctor’s office, glass specimen jars shattering and their contents spewed all across the floor
Shortly after the infamous sex scene began my mother turned off the television and sent us to bed, so at least that didn’t really scar me.
The eyes at the end of Fright Night freaked me out. So did the librarian in Ghostbusters, when she turns bad.
Also, I was totally freaked out by the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark collection. The art on the front was just freaky, and the stories were seriously scary for a kid my age. But I kept buying them, and I kept reading them, and I kept my blankets over my head so the monsters couldn’t see me.
I’ve remembered two things as I’ve been reading this thread. I never really ran into problems with some of the horror movie stuff - even trailers because my mom seriously regulated what I could watch. However:
When I was 4 or 5 (I think), my parents put a Tot Finder sticker on the window (and door, maybe) of my bedroom. (The design was different than the one on the website; it showed (IIRC) a fireman carrying a little girl.) My mother explained to me that it was in case there was a fire, so the firemen could rescue me. It had the unfortunate side effect of making me EXPECT the house was going to catch fire. This was reinforced one year at Christmas when the red & orange lights from the Christmas tree were reflected in the shiny mylar sticker so I could see it from my bed. I did NOT sleep well for a while - nightmares are a bitch. :eek:
The other thing was The Incredible Hulk. I remember it being very popular at school, and my mom didn’t have any objections to my watching it, but when he got angry…well, it TOTALLY freaked me out. I never have been able to watch the series, although I can watch clips of it on TV. I don’t think it would still scare me or anything, but I just don’t see the point now.
I forgot to mention the little girl who becomes a blueberry in “Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.” I refused to chew any gum from the ages of 8 to 18 (well, partly because I had braces from 14-16, but still…)
However, it starred Agnes Moorehead (AKA Endora from Bewitched), and not Tallulah Bankhead. I thought this was the case, but just to be certain, I did verify it on IMDB.
I felt so sorry for her, being so terrified–then I ended up feeling sorry for the poor astronauts, suffering at her hands!
Like so many of you here, this scene along with the one of Karen Black throwing the doll into a suitcase and trying to drown it really stuck in my head.
I hate you.
I don’t make wishes much anymore.
In other news, the Mark VII Productions thing at the end of shows scared me when I was a kid, and, believe it or not, the Monkees t.v show scared me! I was a very timid child with a very vivid imagination.
Something Wicked this Way Comes
Jaws
Original House of Wax
The original The Thing
Orininal They came From outer Space
I like them all.Scary movies good.
