# Scariest/eeriest moments on TV **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 7, 2003, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559 "2003-08-07T10:43:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![shelbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@shelbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shelbo)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/61 "2003-08-12T17:04:49Z")
2nd grade, sleeping over at Danny Martinelli’s house, downstairs in the dark family room, the rest of the house asleep, Danny and I watch the original, black and white version of _Night of the Living Dead_. Jesus that was 30 years ago, and I’m still freaked by the memory. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/62 "2003-08-12T18:00:15Z")
eenerms, the full title of the TV movie was The Dark Secret of Harvest Home, from the Thomas Tryon novel titled simply Harvest Home. “The secret no woman can tell, nor man can behold…” _G_ It’s kinda like an American version of The Wicker Man. Kobaltblu- Cool Air btw was an HP Lovecraft story & was redone in the crapfest film Necronomicon, and not as well as the NG episode. SteveSteve- the NG episode about the uncle rising from the grave was actually in the pilot TV movie & the nasty nephew was Roddy McDowell. (so help me, I almost typed Roddy Piper- now THAT would have been scary!) ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/63 "2003-08-12T19:00:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by FriarTed \* > \*\*eenerms, the full title of the TV movie was The Dark Secret of Harvest Home, from the Thomas Tryon novel titled simply Harvest Home. > > “The secret no woman can tell, nor man can behold…” _G_ > > It’s kinda like an American version of The Wicker Man. > > \*\* Good call. That’s a really appealing theme for me personally – the “we still follow the old ways, here” plot. Shirley Jackson’s short story _The Lottery_ may be another example. Also a second for _Special Bulletin_. Very underrated – should be on the list of best made-for-TV movies ever. Similar vein - the creepiest moment in _The Day After_ for me wasn’t the bombs hitting, but the missiles launching. The football stadium with the missiles in the background…definitely a “boy, are we screwed now” moment. ---
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/64 "2003-08-12T23:04:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eve \* > \*\*Oddly enough, it was an old _SNL_ sketch. > > Gilda Radner played a little girl who kept infuriating her parents by waking them up when she got scared; by a man coming into her room (the repairman retrieving his tools) or the bed kept shaking (a family of Gypsies living under her bed). “You’d better not get us up again, young lady!” > > So she walks to her closet, opens it, and . . . There stands a huge, drooling monster with an ax. > > I’ve never heard that kind of sound coming from a studio audience: a low moan of utter horror, like they were all simultaneously soiling themselves. \*\* Yes, I remember this one. You didn’t mention the rest of it. She lets out a noise, her parents yell “What is it?” pause “um…nothing…” she was great ---
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/65 "2003-08-12T23:06:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SteveSteve \* > \*\*The Night Gallery episode where a guy inherits his uncle’s mansion…with the family graveyard next to it. When his uncle died, they buried him in the family graveyard…right next to the house. (can we see where this is going?) Of course there is a painting of the house in the front hall…with the family graveyard in the picture. The nephew is a piece of crap in general, in particular to the butler, and one day he notices something different about that painting…there seems to be a new grave in the graveyard…with his uncle’s name on it. He asks the butler if he notices anything different about the painting, butler says no. Time goes by and he starts noticing other changes, now the grave is open, he can see the casket in it. Then the casket is open and he can see his dead uncle’s corpse in the casket. Then he can see his dead uncle out of the casket walking towards the house. Every time he looks atthe painting the uncle is closer, just as the uncle is at the door in the painting, there is a knock on the door (oooooh!), the nephew has a fit and falls down the stairs. Turns out the butler was paying an artist to alter the painting when ever the nephew left the room. After the nephew’s funeral the butler notices something odd about hte painting…there are two new graves in the grave yard, one for the uncle, and one for the nephew…needless to say it gets really scary from there. I am 32 I saw this first when I was 12, while I wrote that, I got such an emotional fear flashback that my eyes teared up. May sound stupid but that shit scared the living fuck out of me. > > Seen it since as an adult, and of course it is cheesy, predictable, low budget and stupid. Still the memory of my fear is far more powerful than my intillectual understanding of bad TV. Scary scary scary scary. just thinking about looking up and seeing something that should be static, a picture, a painting, a building, a graveyard changed in a way that is not possible, something painted long ago now has something not quite natural in it. EEEEEEEEEEE!! \*\* I remember this too! It was good and scary! ---
**Author:** ![nisosbar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c37758/32.png) [@nisosbar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nisosbar)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/66 "2003-08-13T02:11:19Z")
Well, I won’t suggest films PLAYED on TV, like Night of the Living Dead or The Amityville Horror or The Exorcist… Parts from two different Stephen King TV Movies: The part of Salem’s Lot when the blond guy from Starsky & Hutch is sitting in the rocking chair as the child approaches… The beginning of It when Timmy (was that the kid’s name?) loses his baseball in the sewer and is about to give up when - surprise! - a friendly clown (looking too much like a serial killer) from beneath the gutter grate starts beckoning him closer… Other films/moments: Duel; Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark; Dark Night of the Scarecrow; a few of the Alfred Hitchcock Presents stories; Dark Shadows… Oh, I KNOW: Kolchak: The Night Stalker - especially the one about the sewer monster with the long stringy hair… ---
**Author:** ![Lenny\_Carl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9dc877/32.png) [@Lenny\_Carl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lenny_Carl)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/67 "2003-08-13T19:03:09Z")
**Kobaltblu** , I totally remember **“Special Bulletin!”** That was great!! Another made-for-TV-movie that freaked me out was aired once in the mid-90’s. I forgot the name of the program, but it was it was on the anniversary of \*\*Orson Wells “War of the Worlds” \*\*radio prank. In the TV show, it was supposed to be like a real-life news interruption about a report that a meteor hit the Earth. They kept doing “real life” news updates and they treated it like a real event. A second meteor hit the Earth and scientists were beginning to think that this was very fishy. Anyway, it was all made to be very real and it was very well done. The ending had a very cool and scary twist to it. Even though I knew it was a staged event, it really freaked me out (I was just a kid). Anyone know what I’m talking about? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/68 "2003-08-13T19:13:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SteveSteve \* > \*\*The Night Gallery episode where a guy inherits his uncle’s mansion…with the family graveyard next to it… > \*\* This is my scariest moment too. I was thinking about writing it up when I opened the thread. Just reading your description gave me chills all over again … . ---
**Author:** ![ladybug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/46a35a/32.png) [@ladybug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladybug)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/69 "2003-08-13T21:43:18Z")
The entire BtVS episode of _Hush_ was eerie, but I actually jumped when Giles’ girlfriend peered out the downstairs window in the middle of the night and saw one of the gentlemen float by just a few feet away, grinning at her. Excellent scare moment. One of the creepiest moments on BtVS is the episode at the end of season 6 when Willow flays Warren in the woods. “Bored now.” (_SHRIP_) The commercials for Nickelodeon’s _The Third Eye_ scared the hell out of me when I was little. I wouldn’t even think of watching the show. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/70 "2003-08-13T22:57:07Z")
Since “Home” (X-Files) and “Salem’s Lot” (especially the levitating little boy… brrrrrr) have already been mentioned, I’ll add two “non-fiction” (well, more or less- both were liberally rewritten for television) movies that made sleep with the lights on for many many nights. The first was HELTER SKELTER- what you DIDN’T see of the murder scenes was terrifying, plus the script thoroughly beefed up the occult and “supernatural” elements (incidentally, Bugliosi’s watch did NOT stop when Manson looked at him; it stopped sometime that day- big difference). and the second was GUYANA TRAGEDY: THE STORY OF JIM JONES- the scenes in the jungle and at the airport as well as a FANTASTIC performance by Powers Boothe just made it terrifying to me. ---
**Author:** ![CadburyAngel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@CadburyAngel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CadburyAngel)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/71 "2003-08-13T23:21:49Z")
“Hush” was definitely creepy, but the B:tvS episode that kept me spooked was “Restless,” the dream episode. Something about the cheese man was so sinister and disturbing, although I guess he was supposed to be comic relief. Also, there was an X-Files episode where Scully encountered a seraphim or something that was only very vaguely shown (if I recall correctly), but I was so scared that if I looked to my right _I would see it_ that I didn’t move for several minutes. The Twilight Zone episode with the hitch-hiker in it gives me the willies as well, although it does go on forever. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/72 "2003-08-14T02:04:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by monstro \* > \*\*When I was young, the opening credits of **Tales from the Dark Side** would always scare the crap out of me. \*\* Damn. I found this on IMdB, and it sez it ran in 1984. I was hoping it would have been the series I remember from 1969-70 or so, when I was little, that opened with terrifying music and the camera balanced in the first car of an absolutely MONSTROUS roller coaster. What th’ hell was that program called…? ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/73 "2003-08-14T02:07:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SteveSteve \* > \*\*just thinking about looking up and seeing something that should be static, a picture, a painting, a building, a graveyard changed in a way that is not possible, something painted long ago now has something not quite natural in it. EEEEEEEEEEE!! \*\* Hmmmmmm…better stay away from the works of M.R. James, then…particularly “The Mezzotint” and “The Haunted Doll’s House.” ---
**Author:** ![ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ryan)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/74 "2003-08-14T03:09:25Z")
I have to agree with the Twin Peaks scene where Bob climbs over the sofa while looking at the camera. Scared the living hell outta me! I also remember a TV movie from the 70’s about some sort of witch or demonic woman who in the end winds up having all the neighborhood cats drink her blood. Can’t remember any more details, but that one scene is burned into my brain! I also will say that _Special Bulletin_ was a damn good show. I found _Home_ to be very very disturbing, but not scary, if you follow me. ---
**Author:** ![DarkWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee59a6/32.png) [@DarkWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarkWriter)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/75 "2003-08-14T04:53:22Z")
A few scenes from my childhood that can still creep me out: Some kind of possessed toy horse menacing a couple. I think at one point the horse showed up in the bathroom while the woman was taking a bath. A ghostly apparition reaching out and saying “Give me the baby” over and over again to a frightened woman holding an infant. Somebody going into a barn and suddenly lots of hands thrust up from the ground. A girl who has a dollhouse and makes people out of clay. At the end the dollhouse and the clay figures burn, and so does the girl’s house and the people in it. These may have been from “Night Gallery” type shows. I remember Sebastian Cabot hosting during one of the above stories. I also remember a movie about a woman who was buried alive. Some kids found her, but I don’t think anybody would believe them. But she was finally rescued right before her air ran out. I just remember her hand pushing up through the mud, and it completely freaked me out. I’d love to know what the titles of those scenes are. I’d really like to see them again, if possible. ---
**Author:** ![Ray\_Walker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ray\_Walker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ray_Walker)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/76 "2003-08-14T07:18:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Draelin \* > \*\*I’m going to have to go with what is both my all time favorite X-Files AND the creepiest one I’ve ever seen: Home. > > It’s the one with the inbred brothers who keep their limbless mother on a rolling dolly under a bed … and she’s all for it. I don’t think I know anyone who’s seen the episode who isn’t at least a little creeped out about it. \*\* I gotta agree, that was so fucking creepy. In fact it was supposedly so disturbing that they can’t or won’t show it on network television in the US anymore. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/77 "2003-08-14T07:36:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Iteki \* > \*\ ***jjimm** , I have a vague reccollection of another incredibly scary show from around the same time… a boy and a girl, and they slide down tunnels into a mountain… the tunnels are like irridescent intestines… they often hold glowing stones in their hands, palm sized ones… was that Children of the Stones as well, or was it something else? \*\* That sounds like “Under the Mountain” - [the imdb page](http://www.imdb.com/Title?0202769) A Kiwi story about twins fighting an alien invasion. Creeped me out no end, especially the bits when the slug-like tentacled aliens go shooting along their tunnels. Very Lovecraftian, in fact. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/78 "2003-08-14T07:48:32Z")
Hell, if you thought “Home” was creepy, you shoulda seen the original “burial” sequence that was supposed to roll before the opening titles. It’s on the DVD. Wicked. Anyway, just mentioning the name of “Tales From The Darkside” brought back the memory of the scariest episode, in my opinion. It was called “Inside The Closet”, and it was about a young female student who rented a room. In the room was a tiny door, about two feet high, a closet that was always locked. Oh, but sometimes it opened on its own… ---
**Author:** ![bifar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@bifar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bifar)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/79 "2003-08-14T10:09:03Z")
> [@](#): > > Hell, if you thought “Home” was creepy, you shoulda seen the original “burial” sequence that was supposed to roll before the opening titles. Oh I’d forgotten that bit of it! That episode was amazingly fucked up, when you think about it. Burying dead babies, bonking your mother, killing a nice sheriff… very nasty. I’d forgotten another X-files one, with the cancer-eating guy again. Mulder and Scully rout through a bin of hospital waste (bleugh) and find the guy’s head, which had been stolen. Scully attempts to perform an autopsy on the head, and – inevitably – it _blinks_. Eeep!!! ---
**Author:** ![Iteki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eada6e/32.png) [@Iteki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iteki)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/80 "2003-08-14T13:24:41Z")
**MrDibble** , I actually meant to put that it wasn’t Under the Mountain, that was one hell of a show though. However, having searched around some more, I am beginning to think that it is. Sweet 🙂 thanks! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559.md?page=5)