# 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:** 15\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/101 "2018-08-23T17:18:26Z")
> [@somepumpkin](#): > > The oompa loompas. I didn’t mind them. > [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > The psychedelic, frenzied boat ride in _Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory_. Brrr. _That_, OTOH… :eek: ---
**Author:** ![PapSett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@PapSett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PapSett)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/102 "2018-08-23T22:29:01Z")
This is a weird one that is something really localized for me. When I was a kid, the “cool” radio station in town was WJPS 1330! and one of their station identification messages started with some outer space sound effects. For some reason, when I was 8-9, this freaked me out. I got it in my head that it was aliens taking over the station. I still listened to it tho… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/103 "2018-08-23T22:33:29Z")
> [@oliversarmy](#): > > “Superman and the Mole Men” This is my #1 , I bought the DVD of it as an adult. Not scary now. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![MmeRose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ee7513/32.png) [@MmeRose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MmeRose)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/104 "2018-08-24T11:22:06Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > 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. I was frightened of any announcement of executions, I was terrified of being falsely convicted and being executed. ---
**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/105 "2018-08-24T14:06:01Z")
I was around 10 years old when I saw “Yellow Submarine” on TV. The whole thing made me very … anxious, even a little afraid, even as I was compelled to follow the entire story. As I recall the sensation – _Whut. Da. Fook. Waz. Dat._. The blue meanies, with their leering grins, and lipstick, and high heels, I just couldn’t wrap my mind around it. I got the jokes as I aged – Micky Mouse hats as a reference to the cultural stifling by Disney corp, comparisons to Nazism, that the Beatles didn’t want to be part of it, but liked it enough when it was finished they the agreed to appear. However, I just can’t stand psychedelic art even today, its just so busy, and it makes my heart race. I certainly wouldn’t want to take mind altering drugs at this point. I can’t bear the thought of my brain going outside its established operational parameters. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/106 "2018-08-24T17:24:46Z")
> [@edspellman](#): > > Also nukes, still do. Watch any Twilight Zone or other SF about nukes, and I’m sure you’d feel the same, for good reasons. I was born during the cold war years and I really don’t remember any ‘duck and cover’ in school, and no one talked about the Cuban missle crisis, at least around me. But it was impossible to not pick up on a free-floating anxiety. So many old Creature Features about atomic monsters and space/satellites (speaking of which, the song ‘Telestar’ still sends chills down my spine to this very day)…There’s a Lockheed Martin plant, of sorts, here. In the day, they made radar and other equipment, and driving by until recently there were several huge grid-type radar screens on top of the building, rotating. Like for NORAD, looking to the skies for incoming Russian missles. It always made me shudder, just a tiny bit, remembering The Space Race, and Satellites In The Sky, and The Cold War…Alas, the radars are now shut down from their endless search of the sky…and while I am here, let me just throw in my newest terror: sitting there with insomnia at 2, 3, 4 a.m. watching some movie on tv, or a bland sitcom, and all of a sudden there’s that blaring ‘AAAAAHHNNTTT. AAAAAAHHHNTTT. EEEEEE! "THIS IS JUST A TEST. IN CASE OF AN ACTUAL EMERGENCY, THIS STATION…’ Me and the cat jump up wide awake, sleep all the more distant now. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/107 "2018-08-24T19:29:16Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > I was born during the cold war years and I really don’t remember any ‘duck and cover’ in school, and no one talked about the Cuban missle crisis, at least around me. But it was impossible to not pick up on a free-floating anxiety. So many old Creature Features about atomic monsters and space/satellites (speaking of which, the song ‘Telestar’ still sends chills down my spine to this very day)…There’s a Lockheed Martin plant, of sorts, here. In the day, they made radar and other equipment, and driving by until recently there were several huge grid-type radar screens on top of the building, rotating. Like for NORAD, looking to the skies for incoming Russian missles. It always made me shudder, just a tiny bit, remembering The Space Race, and Satellites In The Sky, and The Cold War…Alas, the radars are now shut down from their endless search of the sky…and while I am here, let me just throw in my newest terror: sitting there with insomnia at 2, 3, 4 a.m. watching some movie on tv, or a bland sitcom, and all of a sudden there’s that blaring ‘AAAAAHHNNTTT. AAAAAAHHHNTTT. EEEEEE! "THIS IS JUST A TEST. IN CASE OF AN ACTUAL EMERGENCY, THIS STATION…’ Me and the cat jump up wide awake, sleep all the more distant now. I remember having a nightmare at the age of six, in which I was dying in a fallout shelter. There were special caps (like shower caps) everyone was supposed to wear that would protect us from radiation. I didn’t get mine on in time, and my brain began to swell, and my eyes started to bulge, and everyone said I was going to die … and then I woke up shaking in a cold sweat. I was terrified! I remember this as clearly as if it were last night. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/108 "2018-08-24T21:43:33Z")
All y’all are posting about scenes from scary movies and TV shows, which make sense. But as a wee one, I was terrified by things that, now, I could not say why. Such as: The “Menah-Menah” song from the _The Muppets_. Not the muppets; the melody itself scared me. Again with the Muppets - there was a recurring story from (I think) _Sesame Street_ that featured these [aliens](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOAkylnrSBU) with big, prehensile jaws that they could pull up over their faces. They would beam down to a house, and get puzzled and scared by some quotidian bit of Earth technology: a phone, a grandfather clock, a fan. According to the interwebz, they’re called the “Yep Yep Martians”. Yep, yep, scared the crap out of young SMV. Also, a short film of a red ball rolling along a metal trackway, crashing through gates and turning flags. Lots of fun to watch, until it rolled into a grinder :eek: and was turned into a powder. Jeez, way to traumatize a five-year-old, guys! Let’s face it, for sheer nightmare fuel for me, _Nightmare on Elm Street_ and _Alien_ and _Silence of the Lambs_ had nothing on _Sesame Street_… ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/109 "2018-08-24T22:25:37Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > OK, going way back, back in the mid to late 50s I happened to be alone in my Grandparents’ house, watching TV, and saw Invaders From Mars (1953). I was maybe 8 or 9 years old, and of course the scariest part was > > where the kid’s parents were taken over by the Martians and started acting mean and strange and evil. Where’s a kid to turn? Lucky for me it was daytime. Yeah, that move was one of the scariest I remember watching when I was a kid. There was such a sense of dread, and you didn’t know WHO WAS SAFE. Then, the little girl next door – Cathy? – with the gas can. Brrrrrrrr… About that same time frame, I saw an American Cancer Society commercial (I think). It showed blood cells as overall-clad workmen carrying buckets. Then, the bad workmen (cancer) came and killed the good workmen and took over. Scared the crap out of me. I was terrified of getting cancer for years afterward. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/110 "2018-08-24T22:27:27Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > Also, a short film of a red ball rolling along a metal trackway, crashing through gates and turning flags. Lots of fun to watch, until it rolled into a grinder :eek: and was turned into a powder. Jeez, way to traumatize a five-year-old, guys! That particular Sesame Street short has come up quite a bit on this board. As I remember, there was another ending where a boy adds the ground up red ball powder to a glass of water to make a Kool-Aid type drink. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/111 "2018-08-24T22:27:41Z")
> [@Jennshark](#): > > “Darby O’Gill and the Little People” scared the crap outta me. I had nightmares for months about flying funeral carriages and banshees. Thanks, Disney. Oh, that black death coach! It was both cool and terrifying!!! ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2018, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/112 "2018-08-25T00:25:58Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > It always made me shudder, just a tiny bit, remembering The Space Race, and Satellites In The Sky, and The Cold War… I saw _ **The Time Machine** _ in 1960 when I was five, and was convinced the Earth would be destroyed by the Atomic Satellite in another six years. I left the theater with my stomach in a knot. ---
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2018, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/113 "2018-08-25T23:29:34Z")
Remember those toothbrush ads that showed a cartoon character opening his mouth so wide - up to 180 degrees? Like this one: [Johnson & Johnson - Toothbrush - Flip Top Head - UK Advert - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WESUiQ07ibY) Anyway, we had a version in Australia and my son used to absolutely freak out over it (he was 3 or 4 at the time). Full screaming, shaking - the works. Good chance of a nightmare that evening as well. It got so he could recognize the ad as soon as it came on, and even if we switched channels immediately (even before the big mouth-opening), he would be off into screaming terror mode. He didn’t mind other cartoons that showed similar deformities (Daffy duck getting flattened etc). ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2018, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/114 "2018-08-25T23:45:09Z")
> [@Wallaby](#): > > Remember those toothbrush ads that showed a cartoon character opening his mouth so wide - up to 180 degrees? Like this one: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WESUiQ07ibY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WESUiQ07ibY) > > Anyway, we had a version in Australia and my son used to absolutely freak out over it (he was 3 or 4 at the time). Full screaming, shaking - the works. Good chance of a nightmare that evening as well. > It got so he could recognize the ad as soon as it came on, and even if we switched channels immediately (even before the big mouth-opening), he would be off into screaming terror mode. > > He didn’t mind other cartoons that showed similar deformities (Daffy duck getting flattened etc). Anybody here afraid of Cesar Romero’s Joker on _ **Batman** _? My younger brother (at age 3) was terrified and ran into the other room to hide whenever the Clown Prince of Crime was on. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2018, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890/115 "2018-08-26T07:39:44Z")
There’s lots of gore in Pet Cemetary which would understandably scare a kid, but for me, even now, was the scene where the father is dozing off and sees Pascow in the doorway, turns to his side and is face to face with him at the bed side. That one scene scarred me. And still stands out in my childhood for most effective cinematic trauma. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-media-that-scared-you-as-a-kid/819890.md?page=5)