In the 80s, Steven Spielberg had an on-again, off-again series called Amazing Stories, and in what I believe was the premiere episode, Christopher Lloyd starred as a horrible, twisted Shakespeare teacher. A goof-off student somehow accidentally decapitates the teacher, and the headless corpse (and the head) pursue him around the neighborhood at night. It sounds corny, but Christopher Lloyd is such a good actor, that he made the sequences terrifying. I still love to watch it when it occasionally reruns.
Pat Buchanan’s speech at the 92 Republican convention.
Twilight Zone - "Nightmare at 20,000"
Yeah Shatner was the airplane passenger in it but just put that aside.
The passenger keeps observing a gremlin jumping on and off the airplane - in flight. (The window of the plane has a curtain in front of it). The passenger looks out later on and sees the gremlin fooling around with the engine. Still later on he thinks hmmmm maybe another look outside? He hesitates to move the curtain but oh what the heck…there is the gremlin about 2 inches from the window staring right in !!! Creepy ?? Damned right !!
Night Gallery- "There Aren’t Any More McBains"
One scene - a guy is wondering why 2 people he had known were literally torn apart. Suddenly the lights in the apartment go dark. He runs like Hell out of the apartment. He runs to the basement. Whatever was chasing him now seems silent. Guess the guy is safe right? All of a sudden from outside we see hands breaking the small window pane in the basement. Then these hands proceed to bend the iron bars in the window frame. At this point we get to see this creature’s eyes glowing bright red.
Spooky huh ???
Icerigger, that Buchanan speech is even more ominous in the original German </shameless rip-off of Molly Ivins>
This thread prompted me to go hunt down the one made-for-TV movie that scared me crapless as a kid. I didn’t sleep for a couple of nights after seeing it. Johnny Whitaker (Family Affair) was in it, and it had this weird baby’s cry in it, and in the windows was this reflection of a flaming demon. Hell, I still look for flaming demons in windows.
Anyway, after a bit of IMDB digging, turns out it’s called “Something Evil” and was directed by a young Stephen Spielberg, who eventually also scares the shit out of me with “Poltergeist” a few years later. And with “A.I.” but that’s a totally different sort of scare.
Thanks ALOT, FriarTed, now I will never get to sleep tonight!!! 
The 2 scariest moments for me were in the aforementioned Salem’s Lot:
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When the kid is outside the 2nd floor window scratching on the glass :eek:
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When the vampire is chasing them around the kitchen. (I think it’s the juxtaposition of the vampire in a mundane place like the kitchen that just scared the crap out of me. Sure, vampires will show up in a cemetary, but in the KITCHEN!!! Yikes!!!)
Another vote for Home. I watched it on tape late at night, and it scared the living hell out of me, especially the scene where
[spoilers]
the Peacock boys go after the cop (chief of police, maybe?) and his wife hides under the bed. You think she’s safe, but then… one of them sniffs the air…
[/spoilers]
I think that episode did to Johnny Mathis’s “Wonderful, Wonderful” what Reservoir Dogs did to “Stuck in the Middle with You.”
I also remember being quite scared by an old Twilight Zone episode about a woman who sees faces in patterns, cracks in the ceiling, etc. Haven’t seen it since, but I read a synopsis of the show and, well, can’t really see what was so scary. Meh, kids.
Uhhh… yeah. For anyone who hasn’t seen the episode, just pretend you didn’t read that. Ah, whatever, it’ll still be plenty scary.
And now, I’ll show my age.
There was a movie in the 70’s, a very low budget film, called Duel, directed by Steven Spielberg.
It only cost $375,000 to make.
I first saw it in 1972 when I was 14 years old, and I see it advertised in reruns, and to this day, I cannot watch that movie - scared the hell out of me back then, and I’m afraid it would do the same today.
Simple.
really simple.
Its 11:40 on a friday night. I’m 12. My parents are out for the night.
I’m watching “Creature Features” on TV.
“The Legend of Boggy Creek”
In which one character goes to the bathroom, and the Evil Monster outside smashes the window, reaches in, and tries to get the poor teenage swamp-dweller.
Scares me to this day – every time I use the facilities at night, I stare at the window… and that visual creeps into my head.
::shudder::
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!!
We have a winner. That’s not the scariest moment on TV, that’s the scariest thing ever. If it’s the same scene I’m thinking of:
Maddie’s sitting on the couch, after her friends have left. She looks at the carpet and sees a faint red splotch. It slowly spreads and grows darker and darker as a big pool of blood. Cut to her and she’s just staring at it with this silent expression of pure terror. 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.
I was watching it with a couple of friends of mine, and they were screaming. Not just a gasp, or a short shriek, but wailing like banshees. And I was about to join them; that whole scene is just burned into my brain.
Cat Fight, that part of Home is exactly what I came here to post. It’s basically the reason that I can’t bring myself to watch that episode again even though I bought it on tape. It’s not even the monsterous creatures doing it that’s the scariest part for me, it’s imagining someone real bursting into my house and doint the same thing. I could not sleep that entire night.
BTVS - The Pack, when a group of students posessed by hyenas corners Principal Flutie while he’s attempting to punish them. It’s extremely disturbing watching these thugs physically intimidate poor Flutie (who was very harmless and a good guy) while laughing hysterically. Later, Giles raises the ick factor to 11 when he tells Buffy
“They… ate him.” I watched that episode with my dad, and his jaw about hit the floor.
Hmmm, it wasn’t The Third Eye was it? Back when I was a kid (20 years ago) Nickelodeon used to run The Tomorrow People and The Third Eye back to back on weekday afternoons. Your description made me think of it…
http://www.johnsrealmonline.com/classicnick/thirdeye/main.html
I saw that movie at a theatre matinee when I was about 12. It was dusk when the movie let out, and I had a five mile bike ride to get home. I imagined hearing things moving behind me all the way home. Shudder indeed.
That scene gets my vote, too.
“Leland says you’re going back to MONTANA!!!”
Also the scene in the jail after BOB/Leland is captured
Iteki, Lobelia - Children of the Stones!!! When I read your posts I am not kidding - the hair on my head and legs just stood up straight and I got goosebumps running down my back. What a terrifying series. Brilliantly done. Can’t believe it was made for children.
Off to google it now.
Good news - here’s a fan site, and here’s where you can buy the DVD.
It’s not, although the scene you’re thinking of is also creepy. Maddie’s death happens in a later ep.
AllShookDown, I found the scene in the jail (are you talking about the death scene or another scene?) to be poignant, not scary or creepy.
It’s known as Episode Fourteen or “Lonely Souls”
Cooper (and most of the cast) are at the bar where Julee Cruise is performing. The Giant appears to Cooper and says, “It is happening again”.
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.