# Things in media that scared you as a kid. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 20, 2018, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890 "2018-08-20T00:16:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/41 "2018-08-20T15:37:45Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > I have mentioned this often. In NYC there was a thing called The Late, Late Show that showed movies. The intro was The Syncopated Clock and both the graphics and the music scared me. In > > Both me and my husband remember it as The Late, Late Show but,[having found it on the internet (everything is on YouTube!),](https://youtu.be/paEpDEON6MA)I see that it has just one ‘late’. Just remembered! The show that came on after The Late Show was called Chiller Theater. This show had creepy music and a six-fingered hand reaching out from the grave. This did not scare me in the slightest. I was a weird kid. [Chiiiiilllleeerrrrrr!](https://youtu.be/ok6uzndOmPA) ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/42 "2018-08-20T15:41:58Z")
The scene that scared me the most (so much so that I always had to leave the room whenever it came around again in the syndicated rotation) was in an episode of _Speed Racer_. Speed is missing during a thunderstorm. His girlfriend, Trixie, has a nightmare where she sees him from behind, runs to him and hugs him. And he turns around to reveal that he is not Speed, but a hideous demon! Gaaahh! [Here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN_CZLJoFKE) is the scene. I think you’ll agree that it is utterly terrifying. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/43 "2018-08-20T15:43:39Z")
The Child-Catcher in _Chitty Chitty Bang Bang_ was creepy. The banshee in _Darby O’Gill and the Little People_ was scary. But for sheer terror, nothing could match the Lovecraftian critter in the _Space: 1999_ episode “[Dragon’s Domain](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bag8PNAUrBI)”. Darkened doorways and windows made me nervous for years afterward. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/44 "2018-08-20T15:46:31Z")
I remember when I was 5 or 6 in California, a woman was executed in the gas chamber. Coverage was live streamed on the radio, culminating in a deathwatch that counted down the minutes until the pellets dropped in the gas chamber. I remember when they announced, “Mrs. Duncan is dead!”. That scared me. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/45 "2018-08-20T16:02:15Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Until I was about four years old, or so, I was terrified of the Alice the Goon character from the Popeye cartoons. Fuck you Paul Shannon and fuck you Joe Negri for running Popeye cartoons in such heavy rotation on your respective children’s shows. Down goes the curtain . . . and back up again with The Three Stooges!😃 ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/46 "2018-08-20T16:03:07Z")
The Monster in the Pit from The Outer Limits or Night Gallery, I forget which scared me quite a bit and kept me up. But Danny Glick from f#@#$@# Salem’s Lot TERRIFIED me. For days later I was still shook, even today I get apprehensive. ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/47 "2018-08-20T16:34:36Z")
What WASN’T I afraid of as a little kid? When the worst thing you ever see is saturday morning cartoons, anything out of that norm in scariness is terrifying. Hell, even some of that fare got to me. HATED the Sleestaks in Land of the Lost - as soon as they made that sound AHHHH! Hated the Gentleman Ghost episode of Superfriends where he started turning the team into ghosts. PSAs for child poisoning (namely Mr. Yuk) were big in the 70’s and they got to me. Scoobly doo never got to me though. Any movie in the horror genre would have scared the hell out of me (I remember my grandma watching a B&W movie with a woman in a wheel chair getting decapitated and that is SEARED into my memory). Disaster shows, any supernatural horror (witches, ghosts, skeletons), yeah I was done. Probably didn’t grow out of that until I was a teenager. I’d kick my own ass for being such a wuss now. LOL. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/48 "2018-08-20T16:44:52Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Down goes the curtain . . . and back up again with The Three Stooges!😃 I think that is exactly why I, to this day, am so fond of The Three Stooges (except for that twat Joe Besser). ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/49 "2018-08-20T16:58:05Z")
There was an _Outer Limits_ episode that scared me to death. I don’t remember much except for some crablike creatures chasing people and when the people fell down, the crabby thing would get on their back and the person would shriek. Freaked me right out and gave me nightmares. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/50 "2018-08-20T17:01:04Z")
I believe Doctor Who is reasonably well known in the US; but what I don’t know is whether the trope of small children hiding behind the sofa is. This was to do with being terrified of the Daleks - and, so help me, I’m sure I remember hiding behind the sofa myself when they were on. j ---
**Author:** ![Rough\_Draft](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@Rough\_Draft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rough_Draft)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/51 "2018-08-20T17:09:45Z")
> [@Jennshark](#): > > “Darby O’Gill and the Little People” scared the crap outta me. I had nightmares for months about flying funeral carriages and banshees. Yep, that movie and those banshees were the first thing that popped into my head when I saw the thread title. The other movie that scared me almost to death as a kid was _The Haunting_ (the 1963 version). The bulging doors and scary faces in the scrollwork were more terrifying than any CGI monsters could ever be. ---
**Author:** ![Noelq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noelq/32/16438_2.png) [@Noelq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noelq)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/52 "2018-08-20T17:19:49Z")
Lighter Side: Jaws. Wouldn’t swim in our pool anymore. I knew the shark would come up the drain, and eat me. Serious Side: The news media and AIDS. It was in its infancy, and every news report was AIDS WILL F\*\*KING KILL YOU! HUGGING WILL KILL YOU! SHARING DEODORANT WILL KILL YOU! BREATHING THE AIR WILL KILL YOU. It was all before I knew not to trust the news, and it really, really affected how I was relating to people. Kissing someone, even on the cheek, was now a death threat. Touching someone would kill you. It really, really affected social interactions for those of us that watched the news. My non-news-watching friends carried on as normal teenagers, and nothing happened. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/53 "2018-08-20T17:40:15Z")
No "things that scared you as a kid"thread would be complete without the [commercial](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RryaqGHep0) for the movie \* Susperia \*. I couldn’t run out of the room fast enough when that one came on. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/54 "2018-08-20T17:50:45Z")
I remember watching **Logan’s Run** on TV in the late 1970s. The Carousel scene in the beginning disturbed me. It still disturbs me. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/55 "2018-08-20T18:07:00Z")
Mentions of late night horror movie shows reminded me of another one: When I was eight or so, I was sleeping over at my cousin’s house (they lived three blocks away from us). We stayed up late, watching the “Creature Features” movie on WGN – the film was “[Frankenstein 1970](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein_1970)” (which, oddly enough, was actually made in 1958). The last scene which we watched, before my aunt made us turn off the TV and go to bed, was of Dr. Frankenstein removing the heart from someone, and placing it in the body of his new creature. The “heart” didn’t look particularly real, but that image, of someone’s heart in Frankenstein’s hands, stuck with me for years, and scared the hell out of me. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/56 "2018-08-20T18:15:42Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > I believe Doctor Who is reasonably well known in the US; but what I don’t know is whether the trope of small children hiding behind the sofa is. This was to do with being terrified of the Daleks - and, so help me, I’m sure I remember hiding behind the sofa myself when they were on. > > j In my area _Doctor Who_ played on Saturday late nights on PBS just before _The Star Hustler_ and station signoff, so no kids up. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/57 "2018-08-20T18:34:57Z")
The protagonist muppet things from _The Dark Crystal_ were super creepy and terrifying. I don’t even remember the rest of the movie, I think there were enemies that were supposed to be scary. For news stories, when own-child killer mom Diane Downs escaped prison in 1987 I was sure she was coming straight for me. Through my third story window. I was 8, give me a break. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/58 "2018-08-20T19:11:09Z")
> [@somepumpkin](#): > > The oompa loompas. > My most memorable part of WWatCF is that my older cousin (who had taken us kids to the movies that day) was so distressed when i ran out of the theatre bawling with _fear_. I was probably in my 20s before I ever saw that movie. BTW, it’s still a little creepy. That whole movie is high-test Nightmare Fuel. Alien? Yawn. Jason? Freddie? Whatever. Oompa Loompas are good for an unsettled night of tossing/turning; Gene Wilder’s Willy Wonka for a night lying awake staring at the ceiling. ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/59 "2018-08-20T19:11:53Z")
> [@teela\_brown](#): > > There was an _Outer Limits_ episode that scared me to death. I don’t remember much except for some crablike creatures chasing people and when the people fell down, the crabby thing would get on their back and the person would shriek. Freaked me right out and gave me nightmares. The Sand Kings? ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/60 "2018-08-20T19:30:24Z")
> [@Rough\_Draft](#): > > Yep, that movie and those banshees were the first thing that popped into my head when I saw the thread title. > > The other movie that scared me almost to death as a kid was _The Haunting_ (the 1963 version). The bulging doors and scary faces in the scrollwork were more terrifying than any CGI monsters could ever be. We read the novel and watch this film in my gothic lit class – these scenes scare some of my college students, even those who are fans of modern horror flicks. A student told me that Netflix (maybe Hulu?) is making a series of the novel, coming out this fall. I hope they don’t mess it up; the 1999 remake of the film was a shitty travesty, I’m sure Shirley Jackson was twirling in her grave. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890.md?page=4)