# What fictional things scared you as a child? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 29, 2010, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480 "2010-07-29T17:27:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/41 "2010-07-29T20:16:25Z")
The fat kid getting sucked up the chocolate tube in **Willy Wonka…** and the tunnel/cave scene in the same movie. ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/42 "2010-07-29T20:19:17Z")
Tim Curry in “It.” Good god that clown was awful. There was a movie, I think made for TV, early 80’s, possibly with Ernest Borgnine, in which our heroes are driving a super RV through the post apocalypse Southwest. They got to Las Vegas and were chased out of town by a massive swarm of cockroaches. Since then I can’t stand swarms of bugs. ---
**Author:** ![limegreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/82dd89/32.png) [@limegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/limegreen)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/43 "2010-07-29T20:21:33Z")
For me it was The Ten Commandments where the “fog” that was supposedly the angel of death was drifting through the streets to kill the first born. Yeah, I’m the first born. I seriously had nightmares every year when they would show that movie. But you have to watch it – it’s Charlton Heston! ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/44 "2010-07-29T20:22:06Z")
> [@Paintcharge](#): > > There was a movie, I think made for TV, early 80’s, possibly with Ernest Borgnine, in which our heroes are driving a super RV through the post apocalypse Southwest. > > They got to Las Vegas and were chased out of town by a massive swarm of cockroaches. > > Since then I can’t stand swarms of bugs. Are you telling me before then swarms of bugs were A-OK? 🙂 Speaking of swarms of bugs, I don’t have the image at hand (and I’m not feeling up to looking at this right now), but are you guys familiar with Joshua Hoffine’s work? He takes really scary photographs. He’s got one particular one involving bugs which would make even the most insect friendly of us vomit in terror. ---
**Author:** ![filling\_pages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@filling\_pages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filling_pages)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/45 "2010-07-29T20:25:40Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > **filling\_pages** , newly illustrated? That’s absurd. I’m the last person to judge a book by its cover, but honestly, these books were defined by their pictures. And those pictures were wonderful. Every person I meet who has read the books comments on the illustrations. They were incredibly powerful and Stephen Gammell was incredibly talented. > > He could make the simplest things seem so incredibly unwholesome. Even simple things like black cats seemed intensely evil when he drew them. Exactly my thought. He was a master of the uncanny valley - everything was just _off_ enough to give you the willies. Remember the one about the guys who make the dummy to take their anger out on? ---
**Author:** ![Indyellen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/indyellen/32/4176_2.png) [@Indyellen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indyellen)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/46 "2010-07-29T20:34:35Z")
The _Incredible Hulk_\* TV series. When he would transform into the Hulk - ugh! I was probably 7-8 when it was on and it terrified me. (I still haven’t seen the movies - not because I’m scared, though, but because I heard the first one sucked and I just haven’t gotten around to the Ed Norton one yet.) ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/47 "2010-07-29T20:37:12Z")
Oh yes! The Incredible Hulk also scared the bejesus out of me. Man, I was a wussy kid. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/48 "2010-07-29T20:39:40Z")
> [@filling\_pages](#): > > Exactly my thought. He was a master of the uncanny valley - everything was just _off_ enough to give you the willies. Remember the one about the guys who make the dummy to take their anger out on? Oh yeah, Harold, right? There was just something so odd about it, even though you couldn’t really define what it was. It was never, “That’s creepy because of all the blood and monster goo!” And for dead/deadish things, they felt so lifelike. I half expected them to run screaming off the page. I think I’m going to dig out my Scary Stories books from my bookshelf. (Making sure that the lights are on and I’ve got my protective stuffed animals manning their posts to ensure maximum monster under bed/in closet patrol.) ETA: Found [this](http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRvg4RDL34x2N1jSg7f8hb0S97O12lTGRBJu_iA5XUPWuFWE1k&t=1&usg= __xUOvtwbWx_7o-A__ sNTAY2OYENc=). It’s just a hand but it’s so _wrong_. And it sets the mood of that story (girl who gets pranked at nursing/med school) perfectly. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/49 "2010-07-29T20:40:52Z")
> [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](#): > > Bloody Mary. > > You know. You go into a bathroom at night with the lights off at midnight, and all your friends chant “BLOODY MARY BLOODY MARY” and you look in the mirror and YOU SEE HER FACE INSTEAD OF YOURS!!! > > I still don’t like going past a mirror in a darkened room. Hahaha, me too. I was twenty-five before I could stand being in a dark bathroom. ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/50 "2010-07-29T20:41:21Z")
The first thing I remember having a truly scary nightmare about was the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland- you know the “hitchhiking ghosts” at the end? Yeah, those. I was also terrified of the Thriller music video. I’d sob and cry and wail. My mom would tell me it was Michael Jackson, but I used to shout back to her that Michael Jackson would never be that mean, so she was lying. Then she bought the making of Thriller and had me watch it, after which, I was fine. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/51 "2010-07-29T20:44:52Z")
When Snoopy is walking through the woods at night (as the WWI Flying Ace) in the Charlie Brown Halloween Special. Something about the spooky sky and the music. Oddly, my nephew is also scared of this scene, and asks to skip over it whenever he watches the special on DVD. (Which is often). ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/52 "2010-07-29T20:47:13Z")
Books hardly ever scared me, but movies did. I am embarrassed to say that the librarian ghost in _Ghostbusters_ scared the bejeebers out of me. So did _The Towering Inferno_ and a burning car scene in some random KISS movie. I liked Japanese monster movies, but there was one where the monsters terrified me–they looked like standing-up squids and for some reason they got to me (I was only about 6). I wish I knew what movie that was! ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/53 "2010-07-29T20:54:49Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > When I was 5 I saw a horror movie called [_The Lost Continent_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063240/) – really dumb movie, really crappy FX, but when you’re 5 everything seems equally real, you know? It featured a kind of mobile seaweed that eats people. For a long time after, I was terrified to go in the water. I have that movie on DVD and you’re right, it does suck but it was an interesting idea that could have been great. For me it was when I was about five the older kids convinced me that there was a wolfman living in our neighborhood. I had seen the old Universal Lon Chaney movies and knew enough to be totally freaked out. Never occured to me that they might _lie_ to me. They kept it up for weeks. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/54 "2010-07-29T20:55:15Z")
Oh god, the librarian ghost in Ghostbusters. That scared me, too. When I went back and rewatched it, I was a bit disappointed because it wasn’t that scary to me as an adult. (I’m kind of hoping that the Grand High Witch will turn out that way for me one day, but no. I still get bad dreams about the Witches.) I didn’t watch Masters of Horror as a kid (it didn’t exist til I was old enough to be considered an adult), but I’m pretty sure it would have. Even the theme song skeeves me. And I know Jenifer would have haunted my dreams if I had seen it at age seven. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/55 "2010-07-29T21:12:55Z")
As a child, I had at least one nightmare about the giant Muppet monster from Sesame Street. Not Big Bird or Snuffleupagus–the anthropomorphic one. I don’t know its name and don’t intend to find out. ---
**Author:** ![statij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c2a13f/32.png) [@statij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/statij)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/56 "2010-07-29T21:21:49Z")
The creepy king and queen puppets near the railroad tracks on Mr. Rogers!! (Can’t remember their names, don’t want to) They STILL scare the hell out of me. ---
**Author:** ![badbadrubberpiggy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/57b2e6/32.png) [@badbadrubberpiggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badbadrubberpiggy)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/57 "2010-07-29T21:34:08Z")
> [@Paintcharge](#): > > Tim Curry in “It.” Good god that clown was awful. God, yes. I saw this when it first came out, I was 9. I was terrified of our bathroom for months after, and took the shortest showers humanly possible. Also, aliens of any kinds always scared me. Mostly, that they could come into your room and take you and nobody would ever know! Creepy as hell. ---
**Author:** ![ricksummon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ricksummon/32/3333_2.png) [@ricksummon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricksummon)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/58 "2010-07-29T21:34:23Z")
When I was 9 and saw [Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084726/) in the theater, I was freaked out for _years_ by those Ceti Eels that Khan puts into Chekov’s ear. > [@](#): > > You see, their young enter through the ears and wrap themselves around the cerebral cortex. This has the effect of rendering the victim extremely susceptible to… _suggestion._ Later, as they… _grow_… follows madness… and _death._ Then, it takes about 30 seconds for the eel to actually crawl in there! Oh, man, that never fails to freak me out. ---
**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:** [July 29, 2010, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/59 "2010-07-29T21:41:53Z")
When I was very young a very long time ago the Late, Late Movie had The Syncopated Clock as it’s theme song. I never figured out why (probably because it was so very, very late and only bad things happened in the middle of the dark night) but that song scared the bejeezuz out of me. It still kinda gives me the willies. Oh another song-- There was a movie where the girl who was Lucy Van Pelt’s voice played a ghost or something. She sang a song in her ghostly voice: _The worms go in, the worms go out Through your stomach and out your mouth If you should see a worm go by Be aware that it should die._ Holy french toast, did that song scare me! ---
**Author:** ![UncaStuart](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uncastuart/32/404_2.png) [@UncaStuart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncaStuart)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/60 "2010-07-29T21:52:28Z")
I was nine when [Rodan](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049782/) was released, and the scenes of the coal miners being dragged under the water and killed by the creepy crawlers really freaked me out. For years later, my brother and I would tease each other with the “beeblebeeble” sound effect of those bastards. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480.md?page=4)