# What creeped you out as a kid? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 12, 2008, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeped-you-out-as-a-kid/452712 "2008-06-12T17:25:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![paffinity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ec9cab/32.png) [@paffinity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paffinity)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2008, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeped-you-out-as-a-kid/452712/101 "2008-06-15T00:40:16Z")
[QUOTE=beanpod] The idea of vampires somehow found its way into my head when I was little. [/QUOTE] ``` I remember mentally drilling myself on how I would get to a light switch if a vampire came into my room. I would hope he didn't notice me and slowly roll on the floor towards the switch, unraveling my blanket like one of those carpets in the cartoons. Then I would leap up and hit the switch and laugh maniacally as the vampire screamed in pain. I think I heard somewhere that Bill Nye the science guy actually had a little string and pulley system to turn off the lights from the safety of his own bed. ``` ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2008, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeped-you-out-as-a-kid/452712/102 "2008-06-15T02:18:46Z")
[QUOTE=The Composer] Missed the edit window… [Kingdom of the Spider](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_the_Spiders) [/QUOTE] For some reason, I don’t think that was it. The thing I remember about the movie is that the tarantulas came in with a cargo shipment on a plane. **Giant Spider Invasion** freaks me out too. Freaks me out with laughter, that is. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2008, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeped-you-out-as-a-kid/452712/103 "2008-06-15T03:03:39Z")
The scene where Donovan drinks from the false grail in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I must have watched that movie two dozen times when I was little but I never watched that scene until I was a teenager. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2008, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeped-you-out-as-a-kid/452712/104 "2008-06-15T04:42:58Z")
> [@as\_u\_wish](#): > > Without a doubt, the thing that most dislturbed me was the death of the elephant king in Babar the Elephant. The king eats a mushroom, turns GREEN, and dies. He dies! After turning GREEN! From a mushroom My mother put mushrooms in our food. And made us eat them. > > It still creeps me out, actually. The episode of The Smurfs where the little guys got some ultra-contagious disease and turned green creeped me the fuck out for a long time. Every once in a while I would remember one of them turning green and it would bring about the darkest, most disturbing mode of despair for me. By the way, I had sort of a reverse version of this phenomenon in adult life. About a year ago I watched the original _Dawn of the Dead_ for the first time ever and enjoyed it. Yes, _enjoyed_ it, as if it were a drama with an unusually high amount of action, not a terrifying horror movie. It didn’t creep me out at all. Then I watched it again a couple of months ago and it _freaked me the fuck out_. I couldn’t sleep until 4 AM. The worst part was realizing how nonchalantly I had taken it the first time. I must have been in a really dark place in my life to have been so callous. > [@jsc1953](#): > > Speaking of Sesame Street, my son was freaked out by the skit where Smokey Robinson sings “You Really Got a Hold on Me”, while being squeezed by a giant plush “U”. Oh man! I _loved_ that one! > [@Ferret Herder](#): > > Oh god, YouTube has it. I still think that would have been creepy for kids to watch, but it scared me away from paying attention to the commercial, rather than from the decals per se. Wow, that really _does_ look creepy. I remember a much less creepy version from my childhood in the late 80s/early 90s, and those stickers were still everywhere. I think this was a regional thing by then, because nobody of my age in California seems to remember it. ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2008, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeped-you-out-as-a-kid/452712/105 "2008-06-15T09:45:05Z")
Oh, yeah. There was this live-action historical show (for kids? I don’t know) and there was an episode about the Conquistadors. It starred two Inca or Aztec children, and there was something about a curse, and there was a significant golden frog (I think that was the cursed part). Anyway, near the end, they come across the main Conquistador dead in the forest, and that image sent me into hysterics. He was dead, and I think turning green. Does anyone remember that evening a little? ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2008, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeped-you-out-as-a-kid/452712/106 "2008-06-15T11:42:54Z")
The Fly,the Gorgons and Mermaids. The theme running through this is human/non mammal Hybrids,I was perfectly O.K. with Centaurs or the Minotaur for example. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2008, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeped-you-out-as-a-kid/452712/107 "2008-06-15T11:52:39Z")
Electric Company had a couple, including [this one](http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9136731852491146563&q=%22electric+company%22+lollipop&ei=nAFVSKGfEYnQwgPK1qH_BA&hl=en). I remember the ending credits of the show also had disturbing music featuring some kind of tubular bells. ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2008, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeped-you-out-as-a-kid/452712/108 "2008-06-15T12:25:10Z")
FLYING MONKEYS :eek: Also, pretty much everything ever created by Sid and Marty Krofft. ---
**Author:** ![beanpod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9adbd/32.png) [@beanpod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beanpod)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2008, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeped-you-out-as-a-kid/452712/109 "2008-06-15T12:40:03Z")
[QUOTE=paffinity] I remember mentally drilling myself on how I would get to a light switch if a vampire came into my room. I would hope he didn’t notice me and slowly roll on the floor towards the switch, unraveling my blanket like one of those carpets in the cartoons. Then I would leap up and hit the switch and laugh maniacally as the vampire screamed in pain. [/QUOTE] Rolling? Hm. Too much opportunity for him to grab you while you were disoriented. (They _always know_ you’re there! :eek: ) I figured they’d be about a million times faster than me, so my only hope was a chaotic surprise attack. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2008, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeped-you-out-as-a-kid/452712/110 "2008-06-15T12:46:33Z")
Tsk. You guys are silly. Hide under your blankets and they’ll not be able to get at you. ---
**Author:** ![Satellite\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Satellite\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satellite_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2008, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeped-you-out-as-a-kid/452712/111 "2008-06-15T19:05:45Z")
I have no idea what had prompted the dream, seeing as how I was about 5 years old at the time, but just imagine this: You’re laying in bed, on your back, eyes open, when all of a sudden a green face that looks like a cross between Alfred Hitchcock and Vincent Price is about a foot away from your face. You turn your head all you want, that face stays right there, in front of your eyes. That’s one of the only things that has stayed with me from that early an age. hmm… I wonder if I had started watching Hilarious House of Frightenstein yet… I know V.P.'s voice during his poems would creep me out… S^G ---
**Author:** ![pestlewhipped](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/eb9ed0/32.png) [@pestlewhipped](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pestlewhipped)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2008, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeped-you-out-as-a-kid/452712/112 "2008-06-15T20:36:59Z")
[QUOTE=kingpengvin] There was this commercial for a cheap crappy movie in the 70’s “In search of Bigfoot” or something like that ( May have Legend of Boggy Creek). The end of the commercial always had the sound of the creature roaring. It had me wetting my pants… it got so that everytime it came on I would plug my ears when I knew the commercial would end. I’m not sure why I didn’t leave the room… I was also frightened of: Alfred E Newman The Planet of the Apes Eagle eye GI JOE I have no Idea why, just that they all freaked the piss out of me. [/QUOTE] My dad and uncle took me to Legend of Boggy Creek when I was 10, and then made noises outside the bathroom widow when I was getting ready for bed. Scared me for a long, long time. My uncle had just gotten back from 'Nam so it must have been fun for him to see someone scared of (seemingly) nothing for a change. ---
**Author:** ![tarragon918](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d26b3c/32.png) [@tarragon918](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tarragon918)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2008, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeped-you-out-as-a-kid/452712/113 "2008-06-15T22:14:22Z")
Okay, yes, the Wicked Witch from the Wizard of Oz scared me half to death as a young child. Yes, I used to hide behind the sofa when she was on. Later, when I was 10, my parents took me to see a few movies that were not aimed strictly at young children (“grown-up” movies maybe? LOL). One movie I saw was The Phantom of the Opera, with Herbert Lom as the Phantom. OMG, that eye, when the Phantom was looking through the peep hole… well, I was so scared by it that for months afterwards I had trouble going to sleep at night. Had to say the 23rd Psalm, sleep with a nightlight, the whole nine yards. It was years before I could even think of watching that movie again. And then, when I finally did, I was embarassed to have been so frightened by it. The eye was scary, though. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2008, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeped-you-out-as-a-kid/452712/114 "2008-06-16T13:56:06Z")
My sister was very frightened by Mr. Rogers as a young child. She asked mom to “make the scary man go away.” ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2008, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeped-you-out-as-a-kid/452712/115 "2008-06-16T14:28:11Z")
[QUOTE=HelloKitty] I used to always get freaked out when we were watching TV and those “Technical Difficulties Please Stand By” graphics would come on. It was especially troubling when it would be on more than one channel (that was back in the days where we had like 4 channels). Must have been because of some monster or alien movie where I saw that happen and the next scene would be monsters/aliens attacking and destroying transmitters, stomping on buses, etc. I’m still a bit spooked anytime it happens. After all, you never know when the monsters will attack, and anyway they go after all the TV transmitters first–everyone knows that…right??? [/QUOTE] You’re not alone with that one. When I was little, I thought “stand by” meant the same as “stand back” and the TV was telling me to get out of the room. One day, I decided to ignore the warning and stay in the room to see what would happen. The message repeated! The TV knew I was still there! AUUUGHH! There was a book I checked out of the school library in fourth or fifth grade that scared the ever-loving crap out of me. It had a fairly generic “creepy tales” title (aha, found it! [“Baleful Beasts and Eerie Creatures.”](http://www.amazon.com/Baleful-Beasts-Eerie-Creatures-Norton/dp/0528802119/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213626076&sr=8-1)) The first (and worst) story was “The Patchwork Monkey”. I was also creeped out as a kid by the idea of eyes opening where they shouldn’t, particularly paintings of people with closed eyes. And not-so-coincidentally, the upstairs hall in my parent’s house had several paintings and statues, that I had to walk past every night before bed, all of which were people with their eyes closed. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2008, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeped-you-out-as-a-kid/452712/116 "2008-06-16T14:29:54Z")
[QUOTE=Hypno-Toad] My sister was very frightened by Mr. Rogers as a young child. She asked mom to “make the scary man go away.” [/QUOTE] [And so she did !!](http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/TV/02/27/rogers.obit/) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2008, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeped-you-out-as-a-kid/452712/117 "2008-06-16T14:54:24Z")
And, of course, there were all the usual kid legends that scared the crap out of me…Bloody Mary, Mirror Mirror Disappear, vampires and ghosts and crap like that. We had local legends, too, that were hyped up by the local news every Halloween - the lost girl of Buckhorn, the White Lady of Wopsononock Mountain, the ghost of Baker Mansion. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Buttons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@Mr\_Buttons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Buttons)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2008, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeped-you-out-as-a-kid/452712/118 "2008-06-16T15:17:33Z")
Vampires, Clowns (I still don’t trust 'em) and Marilyn Manson’s “Sweet Dreams” video. I was like 10 when I saw that video, had nightmares for a week. Yet I could watch Friday the 13th/Nightmare on Elm Street and not flinch a bit. (Eventually grew to like Marilyn Manson, but a guy dripping blood-like stuff out of his orifices and riding around on a pig is not something a 8-10 year old needs to see.) ---
**Author:** ![AlmondJoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@AlmondJoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlmondJoy)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2008, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeped-you-out-as-a-kid/452712/119 "2008-06-16T16:28:54Z")
I am probably in the minority but I could never sit through E.T. when I was little. I know that sounds crazy cause he is a cute little kid but it freaked me out. That and I used to make my mom sit with me during Are You Afraid of the Dark. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2008, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeped-you-out-as-a-kid/452712/120 "2008-06-16T16:36:00Z")
[QUOTE=Jake] A"The Tingler" (Vincent Price) [/QUOTE] BINGO! Particularly when the deaf mute woman sits up on the morgue table. I don’t know if this is an urban legend or not, but I once heard theater owners would wire certain seats to actually vibrate during the last scene: “It’s there! In the theater! Under your seat! The only way to kill it is to scream! SCREAM! Get up out of your seats and SCREAM!” Pandemonium ensues. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeped-you-out-as-a-kid/452712.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeped-you-out-as-a-kid/452712.md?page=7)