# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![Electric\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9de0a6/32.png) [@Electric\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electric_Sky)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2010, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/81 "2010-07-30T09:59:40Z")
The dying Skeksis Emperor in _The Dark Crystal_ scared the everlasting crap out of me. I usually \*loved \*being scared as a kid (and still do), in horror movies or haunted houses and what-have-you, but that was just a step too far. I was about five when I first saw it, and ended up being so freaked out that my grandparents let me stay up with them…as they watched _Terminator 2_. To this day, that film is absurdly comforting to me. ---
**Author:** ![Lobot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce7236/32.png) [@Lobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobot)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2010, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/82 "2010-07-30T11:22:33Z")
> [@WolfpackJeep](#): > > [_Nutcracker Fantasy._](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutcracker_Fantasy) > > Strangely, I don’t remember a single nutcracker-related thing…just the freakin’ Ragman. I saw this at the cinema and it scared the crap out of me, too. I was actually going to mention this one myself. Others: The MCP from _Tron_. The scene of the supercomputer turning the villainess into a robot in _Superman III_. The boatride in _Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory_. Actors with their faces painted a single, solid colour (e.g. the Wicked Witch, Oompa Loompas and the green woman in _Lost in Space_). And perhaps the weirdest was when my mum told me about the students getting put through a mincer in _The Wall_. She told me when I was four! ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2010, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/83 "2010-07-30T11:33:52Z")
The Wizard of Oz (the movie, not the book itself) was just full of these sorts of things, wasn’t it. The flying monkeys were probably the worst, but I didn’t always make it to the damned monkeys before I hid under the bed. My father took me to see _Close Encounters of the Third Kind_ when I was a young’un and it freaked me out for about a week. I saw it again as an adult and understood it, but I also understood what scared me about it! This is after my time, but one of my boys loved Pingu and used to watch it as often as we’d allow. For a while he refused to watch the cartoon in which [Pingu has a nightmare about a walrus.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCV-ee4oZ9U) Eventually he did watch it, and we had a very nice talk afterwards about bad dreams. At least that one scares kids for a reason… ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Accident](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Mr.Accident](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Accident)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2010, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/84 "2010-07-30T12:30:48Z")
Not much freaked me out as a kid, due to early exposure to horror movies, and worse. (I watched an autopsy live at 4.) There’s 3 things I do remember that creeped me out something fierce. The theme to M_A_S\*H being the first. Even to this day I get chills when it plays, despite it being one of my favorite shows. My sister can’t even be in the room when the show comes on. The second is the X-Files theme. For the longest time I had to flip to a different channel until the show had finished coming on. The third is, as mentioned above, the pictures from the Scary Stories series. I bought the series just for those pictures. ---
**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 30, 2010, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/85 "2010-07-30T13:24:18Z")
> [@Wile\_E](#): > > > [@Paintcharge](#): > > > > 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. > > That sounds like Damnation Alley, but that starred George Peppard and Jan Michael Vincent. Is it possible you’re mixing up Jan Michael’s co-stars, since he and Ernie were in Airwolf about that time? Thank you! I’ve trying to come up with the name of that thing for years. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2010, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/86 "2010-07-30T13:25:57Z")
The Gremlin in the Twilight Zone episode starring William Shatner. ---
**Author:** ![YamatoTwinkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/cc9497/32.png) [@YamatoTwinkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YamatoTwinkie)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2010, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/87 "2010-07-30T14:22:15Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Did you think Wheelers were scary, too? From Return to Oz. I saw it as an adult so I don’t but I’ve heard those were really creepy to kids. Definitely the Wheelers. Also, quite a few of the creatures in Labyrinth (the Jim Henson movie) freaked me out as a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2010, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/88 "2010-07-30T15:37:02Z")
The [Invisible Monster](http://www.classicjq.com/info/JQEpGuide_20-InvisibleMonster.shtml) from _Jonny Quest_. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2010, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/89 "2010-07-30T15:44:35Z")
Dr. Seuss’s “pale green pants with nobody inside 'em” actually were pretty damn creepy. When I was really little, the story of the Billy Goats Gruff scared me—something about that troll under the bridge. And I did have one sleepless night as a kid thanks to [a Batman comic book featuring "Doctor Phosphorus](http://www.poeghostal.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/Detective_Comics_469_Page_01_Front_Cover.jpg)." ---
**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:** [July 30, 2010, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/90 "2010-07-30T15:46:00Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > The bunyip in _Dot and the Kangaroo_. Anyone else seen this? Oh, oh, oh! Me! Me! Me! But I didn’t find the Bunyip scary…I thought he was kind of awesome. ---
**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 30, 2010, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/91 "2010-07-30T16:07:24Z")
> [@Goblin\_Queen](#): > > Me too! For example, I know that ET is a friendly alien, but MAN was he creepy. I think what really bothered me was the scene where he hides in the stuffed animals and the mom looks right at him and doesn’t notice him. UGH. I had piles of stuffed animals and they freaked me out for a while, I was always looking for the one that didn’t belong. Me too. Well, not that scene particularly but just him in general. I really disliked him even though so many people found him cute. Speaking of friendly things, Casper skeeves me as an adult. Not him, exactly, just the fact that he’s the ghost of a kid and he’s so lonely. It just seems like such unspeakably sad concept for a children’s show. I think I have to stop reminiscing about stuff from my childhood while menstruating. It’s probably not Casper–it’s me. ---
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2010, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/92 "2010-07-30T16:10:16Z")
> [@Shark\_Sandwich](#): > > _ **Ahem.** _ > > When I was a kid, I used to hide behind the couch whenever The Bumble showed up on _Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer._ > > It feels so liberating to admit that. Hey, so did I! Only it wasn’t a couch, it was a “comfy chair” – I felt much safer behind that comfy chair… I was also afraid/fascinated by Godzilla, some of the monsters on “Johnny Quest”, the thing in the closet in “The Brain That Wouldn’t Die”, the giant rat/spider thingie from “Angry Red Planet”, and various and sundry other beasties… But I felt a lot better once I got behind the comfy chair, that’s for sure! ---
**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 30, 2010, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/93 "2010-07-30T16:11:01Z")
> [@dangermom](#): > > 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! Could it have been [Yog - Monster from Space](http://dreamslikethat.blogspot.com/2009/10/space-amoeba.html?zx=7f6d4d9b758da2f9)? ---
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2010, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/94 "2010-07-30T16:19:12Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > > [@Shoeless](#): > > > > > [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > > > > > The little devil doll that had the soul of an african warrior trapped in it. Specifically, the shot of it rising out of the bath tub at the end of the hall. > > > > “Trilogy of Terror” with Karen Black. Yeah, it freaked me out when the thing started cutting through the suitcase she had it trapped in. I don’t have any idea what the other two parts of the trilogy were, but that doll sure made an impression. > > Very few people do remember anything of the two other stories. I vaguely remember one about twin sisters but no details. But Lord, the African Zuni Fetish Doll has become legend. Yay for Dan Curtis! I barely remember the other stories, myself. That Zuni Fetish Doll certainly leaves an indelible impression! However, the noise that it made detracted from the horror. For me, anyway – it just sounded silly! Did anyone else think that? ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2010, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/95 "2010-07-30T16:19:49Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > - whatever robot was part of Doctor Who around 1980-81. Thanks PBS, for putting that on back to back with Mr Rogers. > > - The clown from Poltergeist. I can’t stand clowns to this day. > > - The bizarrely chosen cover image on a Poe collection my parents had, that featured a greenish monster hovering over a sleeping person. Kamelian? The robot that could take the shape of whatever. I agree with you on the Poltergeist clown, as well as all clowns. I am pretty certain we had the same Poe album that you are describing. Only for me, I love looking at it. I think that album started my life-long love of all things Poe. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2010, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/96 "2010-07-30T16:24:17Z")
Two of the earliest nightmares I can remember having (separate nightmares I think) involved Charles Nelson Reilly as [Hoodoo the Magician in Lidsville](http://krofft.net/wp-content/uploads/lidsville1.jpg) and [Gossamer](http://lauriekendrick.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/gossamer1.jpg) (the hair monster rom the Bugs Bunny cartoons). Both freaked me out to the point that I couldn’t watch them, though I could watch _Match Game_ or other CNR shows or other Bugs Bunny shows. One of the Gossamer cartoon featured a mad scientist who says “nnnniigggghhhtttttyyyy nighttttt” in a sleepy voice- also freaked me out. There was a TV show called _Circle of Fear_ that had an episode called Legion of Demons ([available on YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpQisMJJ9Zc&feature=related)) that was cheesy as hell by today’s standards but to a 6 year old who attended a “literal hell” Christian school it was for some reason terrifying. The miniseries _Helter Skelter_ is based on a true story of course, but I’ll count it anyway for reasons I’ll go into: I saw the miniseries when I was in, I believe, 4th grade. Allowing me to watch that is a judgment call I question on the part of my parents, but in their defense most of the other kids in my class seem to have watched it as well because it’s all we were talking about on the days after at school. For those who haven’t read the book _Helter Skelter_, in the 1970s it was available in the paperback section of every department store and lots of kids my age would have to sneak a peek when we were in there; it contains photographs of the crime scenes in which the bodies of the victims are removed and replaced with something like a white silhouette- just absolutely horrifying. The miniseries also beefs up the “supernatural” elements of the case for dramatic effect: claims of Charlie resurrecting dead animals and flying buses, Bugliosi’s watch stopping when Manson looks at him the first time, the girls telepathically sing-songing in unison, Manson taking a Christ on the cross pose in the courtroom, etc… I hadn’t read the book in 4th grade of course, but when I did a few years later I learned the watch story and some of the other events were significantly embellished from Bugliosi’s account, that the claims of his supernatural powers and the impromptu ‘telepathy’ with Manson had been rehearsed beginning before they were ever arrested, and there’s nothing supernatural about a guy striking a crucifix pose (don’t even remember from the book- which I later did read- if that actually happened or not, but certainly it’s something Manson _could_ have done), \*BUT being a kid \*and a religious one at that where any mockery of Jesus was almost supernatural in and of itself and of course satanic people could perform evil miracles- t all added onto the pile. Basically the fictionalization in the miniseries and in my imagination and in the imagination of others talking about it all led to Charles Manson becoming a mythologized combo of anti-Christ/Hannibal Lecter/Freddie Krueger/other-all-powerful-all-seeing-villains/Hoodoo/Gossamer/Hitler/demon/etc. all rolled into one, except far more terrifying because he was ‘real’. Scared the shit out of me for years. It wasn’t until I was a teenager and watched some interviews with Manson (reruns of Tom Snyder among them) that I began to realize “he’s not a demon- he’s a crazy ass hillbilly- he reminds me of that old drunk nutcase James Oscar, that Daddy gives a lift to when he’s hitchhiking down the highway”. Then when I first saw the real pictures of the crime scene it was amazing that, while obvious terrible and bloody, they weren’t _nearly_ as terrible or as bloody as the imaginations of a bunch of 4th graders! Then finally actually reading the book and realizing that the case was fascinating but it was a story of a bunch of drugged up hippies with knives and guns weak enough to be manipulated by a criminally insane hillbilly runt and then being hunted by one of the most incompetent police departments in history rather than the story of a satanic mastermind who dispatched minions to do his evil bidding through his demonic powers- it was actually a major part of skeptical rebirth. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2010, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/97 "2010-07-30T16:26:54Z")
The little shrunken apple headed people in the made-for-TV movie “Don’t be Afraid of the Dark.” A picture of the **Exorcist** ’s Reagan (in full regalia) on the cover of the National Enquirer. [Gorgoyles](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068622/)! ---
**Author:** ![Stauderhorse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Stauderhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stauderhorse)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2010, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/98 "2010-07-30T16:56:54Z")
The Crypt Keeper from _Tales from the Crypt_. His voice and that creepy laugh scared the living hell out of me. It was just so…sinister yet mocking. Not to mention he looked like a rotting zombie. If I heard the theme song, I would literally run from the room because it freaked me out so much. Of course, my brother would specifically turn to whichever channel it was on at the right time just to make me suffer. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2010, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/99 "2010-07-30T16:57:12Z")
The commercial for _[It’s Alive](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8xe8p6zECQ)_ used to scare the shite out of me. Ditto the levitating undead Tobe Hooper, aka [the boy at the window](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC5HZzjjI9Y)in _Salem’s Lot_ (this back when vampires were murdering undead bloodsuckers instead of brooding pale boys with nice buns). ---
**Author:** ![BigBertha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@BigBertha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigBertha)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2010, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/100 "2010-07-30T17:00:57Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > > [@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. > > Oh hell yes. I have still never said Bloody Mary thrice before a mirror in a dark room. I’m going to see if I have the balls to finally do it tonight. I did it last halloween but saying Biggie Smalls. Sadly, nothing happened. To asnwer the OP: vampires. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480.md?page=6)