When I was in college, I came home one evening and my roommate was watching it. It terrified her; I thought it was cheezy and unintentionally funny.
I didn’t like that EBS test either. Still don’t, although the “emergency” they’re referring to is meant to be weather-related (I live in Tornado Alley).
My dad subscribed to Esquire magazine when I was a kid, and AFAIK still does. That face that “dotted” the I creeped me out.
“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.
In the '70s a local radio station ran an old mystery/horror show late at night (1940s or 50s show? The name of it escapes me). The intro was the sound of a creaking door opening and it terrified me, especially after I sneak listened to a frightening episode about an evil ghost ship and people drinking blood.
I was a voracious reader and read a lot of scary shit I was probably too young for – like “Salem’s Lot” at age 8. The book that really terrified me was “Helter Skelter,” I think I was 9 or 10. The odd thing about my parents was they wouldn’t have a Tv in the house due to their Mormon morals, yet were totally unconcerned about what we read.
This scene from Star Trek TNG haunted me as a kid. It was so unexpected because there was rarely anything very scary on that show.
Brainflash: I think the show was “Inner Sanctum.” Does this ring a bell for any older Dopers?
The last…quarter or so, when the creature possessing Jeffrey Jones’ character starts to really take control does have some serious scare to it… He starts zombifying, gets a creepy long tongue (which he sticks into a cigarette lighter to eat the electricity)…when the actual creature comes through is actually kind of a relief. (Although it’s still rather freaky…within the confines of 80s stop motion.)
Some things are really scary, even ones apparently directed at really little kids. I remember putting the telly on for the kids I was minding. It was a Care Bears movie, and jeez it was scary. There was this “Dracula type” guy in a creepy castle and the little care bears went inside… It even made me anxious, the little kids were starting to freak out, their eyes were getting bigger and bigger so I switched it off and lightened things up. Way too scary for little kids, IMO. Luckily I was there with them, and didn’t just “park” them in front of the telly thinking it was a little kid’s movie.
Another one that scared me witless was a movie called “Sisters”. It had Margot Kidder (RIP) in it and was something about these siamese twins. My much older brother took me and I spend most of it with my eyes shut. I’m sure it is probably a pretty innocuous movie for adults but I found it absolutely awful.
The Johnny Smoke anti-aging commercials.
I was a little kid and school was out for the summer. The local movie theater had a “new” movie, Tod Browning’s FREAKS. I bought a ticket and some candy and sat down to enjoy the film.
The movie freaked me out a bit. Then, the next day everyone was talking about the horrible movie that had already been pulled from the theater. I never told my parents that I’d seen the movie.
I was afraid of the HBO intro/flying logo. Here’s a link. I do not know why this wigged me out so much as a kid, but it really, really did.
Many Italian kids of the 80s like me are still recovering from Ottiero 2000, the riddle-spewing robot :eek: (and his riddles were pretty hard, too)
We’ve done at least one thread about station identifications / logos that freaked us out as kids so you’re definitely not alone. I can totally see why that one would creep you out:)
I spent a lot of unsupervised time as a kid and saw and read many things that were almost certainly not age appropriate. Sunday afternoons were spent watching Sinister Cinema (then after it was cancelled, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark). Usually the films were cheesy B movie types but you’d get the occasional * Suspiria* or * The Legacy*. The granddaddy of them all, for me, was a giallo picture called * Death Smiles on a Murderer*. I cannot remember a movie before or since that produced such abject terror in me. Of course, much of it was due to my age, but such is the impression it made on me that I wasn’t able to watch it again for another 40 years. At one time I found it on VHS and purchased a copy, which then sat,* unopened* until I got rid of my vcr and tapes. I did make myself watch it recently and damn if I wasn’t tense and viewing it through my fingers :o It’s no cinematic masterpiece and it’s really more atmospheric than scary, but I could remember exactly why it freaked my and my young friends out, This is the picturethat was in the TV guide listing at the time and * that* itself sent me into a frenzy, such that I wouldn’t so much as pick up that week’s edition again.
The creature from Twilight Zone’s Nightmare at 20,000 Feet. (No, not William Shatner)
The credit sequence on the Incredible Hulk reruns. I don’t think I ever watched an episode because I would change the channel as soon as the transformation began.
Speaking of credits, the alien at the end of some Star Trek episodes was really disturbing. And I know some of our male Dopers might disagree, but the green lady was almost as bad (I don’t care if it is “Bat Girl” Yvonne Craig ;)).
It might be only SA and New Zealand dopers of a certain age who will get this, but - the Wilberforces. Shudder. I still quietly freak out at anyone with a too-jutting chin
YES!!! The first thing I thought of when I read the thread title. That episode(s) scared the crap outta me as an 8 year old kid!! Also the Sasquatch episodes too.
For a little kid in the early 60’s, the Outer Limits intro was rather effective:
Also, there was a commercial regarding dyslexia that played all the time. It showed a boy slowing drawing a simple square. But after drawing 2 of the lines at a right angle, his third line went off in the wrong direction. The voice-over began “Scott isn’t stupid…” That always gave me the WTF? unsettled feeling in my stomach.
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!),I see that it has just one ‘late’.
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.
