# 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:** 5
**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 15, 2003, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/81 "2003-08-15T04:25:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bifar \* > **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.** In the alternate opening sequence, you hear the baby crying while they’re digging. Adds a new dimension, doesn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Kobaltblu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/77aa72/32.png) [@Kobaltblu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobaltblu)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/82 "2003-08-15T12:38:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sylkyn \* > \*\*Oh God…for me, it was the Night Gallery episode “The Doll”. The damn doll has _ **teeth** _!! Evil with curly hair and a shark smile! I had nightmares about that damn episode until I was into my thirties. > > The “Trilogy of Terror” episode with Karen Black made my ass suck up the entire cushion of my chair, as well. > > Christ, who wants dolls with _ **TEETH** _?! I just canNOT handle that. > > [sub]I have always secretly wanted an evil toothed doll, but was too afraid of them to have it in my house…I know they’ll come after me at night. I just know it![/sub] \*\* There is an artist friend of mine, who used to create fine-art quality dolls, very whimsical looking. Because she was interested in dollmaking, she bought some doll magazines. I looked at them when I visited her, and they seriously creeped me out. The artists featured in these would make them look as human as possible, and teeth was standard. The dolls wouldn’t always have smiles, but they would have open mouths, so I’d imagine them coming down from the bureau at night…to feed. _Ewwww._ Just creeped myself out. ---
**Author:** ![nisosbar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c37758/32.png) [@nisosbar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nisosbar)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/83 "2003-08-15T19:34:38Z")
When I was a kid, I saw something on TV - the opening shot was some kind of garden party at a big house; cut to first person camera walking through the woods in back to a girl’s playhouse, and she asks him something like, “Do you want to play?” and he murders her or kidnaps her (can’t remember now). Scared me shitless! ---
**Author:** ![Chicago\_Faucet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chicago_faucet/32/13910_2.png) [@Chicago\_Faucet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicago_Faucet)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/84 "2003-08-15T19:57:07Z")
Okay. Don’t laugh. The Simpson’s episode where the bum inherits the Itchy And Scratchy empire because it was plaigerized from him. All throughout the episode Bart and Lisa keep running into their evil twins (Brat and Liza?). Well, the final shot of the episode is the family in the living room, and Bart says something like, “I guess that is taken care of.” He looks up and sees evil Bart skateboard by the window, staring at him from outside. It was just the juxtapositioning of the comedy abruptly replaced by eerie music and a creepy little kid skateboarding by that creeped me out. But I have an honorable mention. Nobody remembers this except for me, so I’m looking for validation. The Amazing Stories episode about the couple who lived out in the middle of nowhere, a desert. It’s Thanksgiving, and the guy goes to town to get a turkey. To get to the point, the wife drops something down the well in their backyard. She is immediately rewarded by a geometric piece of gold hurtling out of the well. The rest of the episode the two of them are throwing things down the well, and an equal amount of gold keeps coming back up, being thrown by something living down in the well. The guy gets dressed up in a biological suit and goes down the well on an elevator to meet them. There’s a pause. Then a scuffle. Then a pause. When the elevator comes back up, his suit is still standing there, however, the entire suit has been filled with gold. Whatever was down there ate him. ---
**Author:** ![Gulo\_gulo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bcef8e/32.png) [@Gulo\_gulo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gulo_gulo)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2003, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/85 "2003-08-16T02:00:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by FriarTed \* > **all out scary moment- the damn Zuni Festish Doll going after Karen Black in TRILOGY OF TERROR** Was it a little black doll? Was there a scene where she was holding it and talking to it and it bent at the waist? (There’s no way in hell I’m going to rent this and see for myself.) One of my earliest childhood memories was seeing this on tv and needless to say I was scarred for life. Dolls _still_ freak the crap out of me. After seeing that evil show, if I was given a doll I’d throw it away, give it away or bury it. 🙂 [sub]Perhaps this is why I grew up a tomboy?[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2003, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/86 "2003-08-16T03:32:07Z")
**Chicago Faucet** , I remember reading the short story that episode is based on - and that it had a line about “send more turkey, the last one was delicious” or something (they’d previously sent down a dictionary to teach the well-dwellers English). However, I can’t recall the name of it. ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Boods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2003, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/87 "2003-08-16T05:33:28Z")
As a kid, I was terrified of ‘UFO’ I think cos you couldn’t see the baddies’ faces; one episode that did me in was when one of the heroes was kidnapped by the aliens and forced into one of their spacesuits… I also remember nightmares from an episode of ‘Space 1999’ – a beautiful couple show up on the moon and everyone is just entranced by them, and one by one go on to their spaceship – only to find themselves suddenly unwillingly walking into the back of the spaceship to be devoured by some sort of beastie which then spat out the charred remains! I was horrified &screaming, my oldest brother breathless on the floor in hysterical laughter, and mum mum shouting above it all that this was yet ANOTHER programme banned from the house… ‘Space 1999’ used to annoy the stuffing out of me anyway, cos if you look at the opening sequence, the moon blows out of Earth’s orbit on 13 September 1999 - and my birthday is 13 September! ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Boods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2003, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/88 "2003-08-16T05:34:55Z")
Should read, MY mum…overwhelmed and regressing cos of the memory, I suppose… ---
**Author:** ![Hoops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoops/32/6408_2.png) [@Hoops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoops)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2003, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/89 "2003-08-16T10:15:00Z")
Yet another _Twin Peaks moment_ . . . when Agent Cooper has become emBobbed, and he stumbles to the bathroom mirror, sees Bob’s face staring back at him, and _headbutts_ the mirror. The mirror cracks, cutting his forehead, and he sits back and giggles as the blood trickles down his face. It’s really quite charming. ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2003, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/90 "2003-08-16T16:15:40Z")
**Chicago Faucet** - this is the version I know - I can’t find any story it was based on, but I know I didn’t see the Amazing Tales one as I was very young when it aired. This film is a blatant ripoff of “Thanksgiving,” the episode of “Amazing Tales” you remember, and has the same plot and stuff. > **[Scifi.com](https://www.syfy.com/scifi/exposure/frameup/hole.html)** > > Visit Syfy.com ---
**Author:** ![Why\_A\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Why\_A\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Why_A_Duck)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2003, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/91 "2003-08-16T16:22:56Z")
Maybe it’s just me, but either the Michael Jackson crotch-grabbing/car-smashing scene from the Black or White video or his kiss with Lisa Marie. That was eery. ---
**Author:** ![acrossthesea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@acrossthesea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/acrossthesea)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2003, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/92 "2003-08-16T17:19:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Hoops \* > \*\*Yet another _Twin Peaks moment_ . . . when Agent Cooper has become emBobbed, and he stumbles to the bathroom mirror, sees Bob’s face staring back at him, and _headbutts_ the mirror. The mirror cracks, cutting his forehead, and he sits back and giggles as the blood trickles down his face. > > It’s really quite charming. \*\* “emBobbed”!!! What a great word! That was pretty freaky for me too, I remember, because I didn’t expect that to happen to him and I always kind of wondered what would happen after that… ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Michael\_Ellis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2003, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/93 "2003-08-16T18:19:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Steve Wright \* > **_Doctor Who_ was full of them … the ones that stick with me are the Cybermen coming out of the sewers in “The Invasion”, the shop window dummies coming to life in “Spearhead from Space”, the mask coming off in “The Talons of Weng-Chi’ang” …** Ah yes, _Doctor Who_, my favorite sci-fi series. Thinking about the cliffhangers, one of my favorites is from Part 6 of _Inferno_, with the huge tide of molten lava bearing down on the Doctor an company. Another favorite is the famous first appearance of the Daleks. It’s a POV shot, and the Dalek arm is moving towards one of the characters, who screams. Fade out. Still effective even when you know its coming. > [@](#): > > **Nigel Kneale’s seminal TV play _The Stone Tape_** Nigel Kneale is one of all-time my favorites. I can think of what would have been two scary moments he created. One came at the end of Episode 5 of _The Quatermass Experiment_, a live TV crew filming inside Westminster Abbey pan up to the window in Poet’s Corner and see a huge plant monster spreading across the Abbey. Unfortunately, this was a live broadcast, and it no longer survives. The other one (also from a live play) was the climax of _The Road_. Two 17th Century intellectuals are investigating reports of ghostly noises in a wood. The sound is actually from motorists fleeing an impending nuclear attack. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2003, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/94 "2003-08-16T23:32:01Z")
In the mid 70’s there was a massive UFO craze, and I was scared to death of an encounter with aliens. I remember watching the network news and JOHN CHANCELLOR came on with a backdrop behind him featuring a fleet of saucers with the story title **UFO**. I almost peed my pants, if John Chancellor was talking about flying saucers the invasion was imminent! Hey Ms Boods, was this it? [http://www.space1999.net/~moonbase99/dragon.htm](http://www.space1999.net/~moonbase99/dragon.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/95 "2003-08-17T00:11:31Z")
Dr. Who! Cybermen! DALEKS :eek: Yeah I’m hiding behind the sofa again ☹ Anyone watch the BBC’s version of the **Tripods**? Aliens rule the world, patrolling the earth in towering triped machines called Tripods. In one ep’ the main characters think they have eluded a Tripod only to see one of its feet and realise its standing towering right above them :eek: again! ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Boods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/96 "2003-08-17T01:03:56Z")
Icerigger – yikes! That looks like the one – I seem to have combined in my memory 2 episodes, but what I remember most vividly was that thing spitting out the remains of the victims, yeesh! Looking at the plot synopsis now, decades later, I think, ‘Pah! This is nowt!’ but as a kid it just about did me in… Dr Who I could handle, except for seeing a rebroadcast once of the one with the lighthouse, and that nasty Rutan crawling up the stairs – I was in my 20s, but very sick with flu and a high fever, and I became CONVINCED that thing was in the cellar… ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Boods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/97 "2003-08-17T01:07:22Z")
Oh! This isn’t a fiction show – when Jeffery Dahmer was murdered, the local news ran a segment, and part of it was just a close up of Dahmer speaking. Now, my dogs have never ever cared about anything on the screen, but the moment Dahmer came on and started speaking, my one dog, who’d been sleeping peacefully on her side, suddenly rose to her feet as if she were on marionette strings, very slowly, all her fur hackled up, and crept up to the tele, snarling and growling as I had never seen her before or since. As soon as he was off the box, she yawned and went back to sleep. Now THAT was creepy, her reaction to that man… ---
**Author:** ![papergirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/aca169/32.png) [@papergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/papergirl)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/98 "2003-08-17T02:17:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SolGrundy \* > \*\* > Maddie’s sitting on the couch, after her friends have left. She looks at the carpet and sees a faint red splotch…Cut to the front door, and Bob is standing there, behind a potted plant. He _slowly_ comes out from behind the plant, and _slowly_ advances towards the camera, climbing over the couch, never stopping – the whole time staring intently at the camera with a creepy grin on his face. > \*\* That was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. I _still_ have to be careful of the way my living room is arranged… ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/99 "2003-08-17T03:04:35Z")
Would you beleive an episode of _Get Smart_? I forget the plot exactly, but I think it invovled an evil agent pulling tricks at a mansion where a wealthy widow has recently died. Basicly pulling a scooby-doo villain routine. Anyway, the climax is where Max confronts the baddie at her grave at night. They struggle for a while and Max get the worse of it, ending on the ground with the baddie ready to pull the killing blow. _Then the disembodied ghost head of the widow appears!_ Much larger than real life, and she yells some kind of vengence thing in a booming voice. It causes the baddie to fall into the grave. Agent 99 shows up and says she wasn’t behind the ghost head. It freaked out my young mind. Another one was some nameless 70’s detective show (Columbo??) where the basic plot line is to drive a fragile guest character insane with scary visages. IN the begining, she wakes up in a thunderstorm and goes downstairs, out of her living room window she sees a body hanging from the limb of a tree. :eek: Anyone knwo any more about these episodes? I think I saw them both in Syndication. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559/100 "2003-08-17T03:27:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Greywolf73 \* > \*\*The episode of the X-Files about the creatures with the glowing red eyes that lived in the woods and only came out at night. (I have no idea what the name of this one is) A boy and his mother were alone in their house and the lights were off, and the boy looks down the hall and sees two glowing red eyes…_shudder_ > I got up and turned all the lights on after seeing that scene. I felt silly but safer. \*\* My first thought when I opened this thread. The episode is called Detour. [Here’s the script.](http://www.insidethex.co.uk/transcrp/scrp504.htm) I saw that when it first aired, placing me at the very tender age of 11, at my grandmother’s house. My grandmother’s very old, very shadowy house. Parents, sister, and grandmother are one block away at my aunts, I’m lying in bed with the flue. Alone. In a shadowy bedroom. The only light on was a tiny, dim bedside lamp and the TV. I can see out the window onto the dark street from my bed. Are those red dots taillights? I was terrified. And really, really glad I wasn’t sharing a room with my sister (only time I’ve been glad to be sick), so I could [try to] sleep with every light in the room on. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-eeriest-moments-on-tv/193559.md?page=6)