It was the Reader’s Digest Book of Facts, published in the early/mid 80s. That’s all I can tell ya.
In “Rudolph…” and “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” whenever the characters reacted in surprise or horror at something, their pupils would expand. THAT creeped me out for years. I still find it slightly disturbing.
Also, there was an old sports arena in my neighborhood that had a German shepherd guard dog that would bark at you behind the glass door. I would have nightmares about taht dog, except that, in the dream, he would have glowing teeth!
citygirl:
You really need to read Dolores Claiborne.
My mom had “The Book of Health”, a huge medical encyclopedia with all kinds of livid illustrations. Gangrene, festering wounds, horrid skin conditions. What freaked me out was a photograph of a man who had no nose. I’d dare myself to get out the book and turn to that page. I could only glance at it before slamming the book shut and running away. Oddly, that photograph wasn’t really gory at all compared to the others, but that was the only one that bothered me.
Another reason I hated the bathtub was the oogy stuff that grew in the tracks of the sliding shower doors. The bathroom was generally pretty clean, but there was always some pink, gray, and black slime caught in the tracks. I was afraid of what might happen to me if I accidentally touched it or if, god forbid, some of it got into my bathwater.
I instilled a deadly fear in a friend of mine, who was two years younger than me. We had plenty of big seashells at my house; I told her that if she listened carefully to this certain shell that she could hear my dead grandmother’s voice calling out to us. She could hear the voice, she found, and she ran home crying. When I bumped into her twenty years later, she admitted that she was still afraid of seashells.
Originally posted by Poysyn
I do that to myself, too (scare myself). I’ve tried writing horror stories as well, but there’s a certain style I’m aiming for that I haven’t been able to hit yet. I play around with it, though, like in the (true) story I wrote in the “Very vaguely creepy II” thread. Got anything you’d like to share?
I remember that episode. There was another episode about a guy who would see this hat-wearing creep in mirrors and shiny surfaces, but when he turned around there was no one there. Every time he saw it, it was closer. Very creepy, but the ending kinda sucked.
My mom’s antique porcelain doll with the teeth.
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Man…I hate dolls with teeth. Anybody remember that show back in the '70’s…“Night Gallery”? Hosted by Rod Serling?
They had an episode once about dolls, specifically dolls with teeth being evil and could come alive. They chased people and grinned like little demons. IIRC, they bit people and killed them, too.
I had nightmares about that episode til I was in my 20’s.
<violent shudder>
Also, (not relating to dolls, btw) when I was about 10 my family went to the State Fair. There was a huge booth set up by a pest control company. They had pictures of spiders and termites and every other kind of nightmare bug in the world in there,as well as pictures of the damage termites can do to a house. I was spending the night at my grandmother’s house that particular night, and I was up ALL night worrying that termites were eating the house out from under us. I worked myself into a panic about it. I made my grandfather turn on the attic fan so I couldn’t hear them chewing. She couldn’t understand why I was so hysterical about it. I guess the pictures made it look like the house was going to fall in at any minute; like it was barely held together by strips of wood.
Plus, I wigged because I figured if the damn termites didn’t get me, the recluse spiders WOULD. To this day, I bang shoes on the floor, upside down, as hard as I can, to make sure none of those little monsters are in there waiting to bite me.
Sounds very familiar - it could possibly be a collection of Stephen King short stories.
Boy did I HATE that guy. I think his name was Reddy Watt.
He was creepy just to look at, jagged like cactus.