# 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:** 15\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2010, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/161 "2010-08-04T18:04:32Z")
> [@Icerigger](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > I saw “Don’t be Afraid of the Dark” when it first aired, when I was 8, and still had an occasional nightmare related to it up into my late teens. I’ve seen it once or twice as an adult as can see how cheesy some of the effects are, but the memory of those wrinkled little gnome faces still creeps me out. > > Is that the one with Kim Darby? Yes, that’s her. I remembered Kim Darby and William Demarest being in this, but when I read the review linked above, I was surprised to see that Kim’s character’s husband was Jim Hutton. You’d think Ellery Queen would have a little more on the ball when people in his house are being stalked and murdered by nasty little gnomes! ---
**Author:** ![Morgis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@Morgis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgis)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2010, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/162 "2010-08-04T18:48:30Z")
Gremlins. Never know when they could be under your bed. The wolf creature from _The Neverending Story_. The scene with the troll in _Willow_. The melting Nazis scene from _Raiders of the Lost Ark_. ET, especially when he’s all pale and sickly. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2010, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/163 "2010-08-04T21:27:23Z")
I had a recurring dream where I woke up in my own bed, then looked over the side of the bed to the floor, where the Tasmanian Devil roared at me. I wasn’t so much afraid of the cartoons themselves, the nightmares started after my sister won a Taz stuffed animal at Marriott’s Great America…it was always the stuffed animal that came to life. Movies that freaked me out: - Melting Nazis, 'nuf said. - The bug in the ear from _Wrath of Khan_ - _Dreamscape_ - The end of _Time Bandits_ where the parents disappear and no one seems to care - Poor Kermit in the “electric chair” in the _Muppet Movie_ ---
**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:** [August 4, 2010, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/164 "2010-08-04T21:31:45Z")
Oh, pale sickly ET was the WORST. I hate sick things and I hate E.T. so together it was horrible. ---
**Author:** ![Robotico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@Robotico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robotico)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2010, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/165 "2010-08-04T23:44:57Z")
“Invaders From Mars” - 1953, William Cameron Menzies. I saw it on TV one afternoon. Kid wakes up in the middle of the night and sees a spaceship landing behind a hill. Tells his parents, who don’t believe him, and before you can say “alien implant” everyone’s got these chips in their necks. But you never know who until you see the little scar. Scary, scary, then…he wakes up! Goes to Mom and Dad! All is well! Hahaha! Goes back to his room and looks out the window and sees…a spaceship landing behind a hill. AAARRRGGGHHH!!! I was afraid to fall asleep and I was afraid to stay awake. ---
**Author:** ![MegaBee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@MegaBee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MegaBee)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/166 "2010-08-05T17:03:45Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > The bunyip in _Dot and the Kangaroo_. Anyone else seen this? GAH. Yes, childhood trauma right there. ---
**Author:** ![MegaBee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@MegaBee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MegaBee)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/167 "2010-08-05T17:12:52Z")
Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and God. I watched a LOT of _In Search Of…_ as a child. I was scared of Jack the Ripper, too, but he was real. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/168 "2010-08-05T17:53:05Z")
My grandparents had a coconut head (similar to [this one](http://www.swankola.com/thrift/cocohead01.jpg)) that somebody brought them from Hawaii. They kept it on a shelf in their hallway. That thing scared the bejeezus out of me- I’d have to close my eyes to go down that hallway sometimes. ---
**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:** [August 5, 2010, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/169 "2010-08-05T19:15:01Z")
There was a scene late in the movie **Fright Night** where the heroine (Marcy from Married With Children) was crying and normal looking, and the hero went over to console her, and from the camera’s point of view (but not the hero’s) she lifted her head up and had this horrible toothy evil smile. Yeah, it [freaked me out](http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/gallery/dose_vampires/071018vampires_frightnight.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![bink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/439d5e/32.png) [@bink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bink)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/170 "2010-08-05T20:36:13Z")
The alien face at the end of the Star Trek credits The creepy hand from “Chiller Theater” Enough things in the Twilight Zone that I refused to watch it, ever E.T. a commercial when I was little featuring a girl in an iron lung “The only problem is, IT WILL OUTLIVE HER.” the Venus Probe\* from the Six Million Dollar Man the planet-eating thing from Star Trek… also, the salt monster the eyeball from the board game Ka-Bala Oh, there are so many more. I was a pretty nervous kid. \*sounds a lot more sexy and less scary now that I’m grown up… ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/171 "2010-08-05T20:56:49Z")
[ul][li]All the characters (including Max) in _Where the Wild Things Are_[/ul][/li][ul][li]The “Sleestaks” in the old \*Land of the Lost _series.[/ul][/li][ul][li]The whole original Star Trek series. The episodes just creeped me right out when I was young (8-9 years old). It was something about the music and the stories that filled me with a sense of dread. ST:TNG, on the other hand, seemed positively bright and cheery, but I was much older when I saw it, too.[/ul][/li][ul][_]Similarly, \*Space: 1999 \* was creepy as well.[/ul] ---
**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:** [August 5, 2010, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/172 "2010-08-05T20:58:53Z")
> [@robby](#): > > Similarly, \*Space: 1999 \* was creepy as well. Nah…that’s just Martin Landau. ---
**Author:** ![Jelly\_Roll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Jelly\_Roll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jelly_Roll)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/173 "2010-08-05T21:22:55Z")
> [@DiosaBellissima](#): > > 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. This.exact.thing. My mom had to sleep with me (I was afraid of Michael Jackson as the werewolf) and my dad had to sleep with my brother (he was afraid of Michael Jackson as the zombie). My brother and I had seen the video at a friend’s house, so after a few nights of being bunkmates, my parents marched us back to the friend’s house to watch the making of video. Seeing the behind the scenes helped, but it was a while before I was “fine.” Freddy Kruger was the other one I was afraid of, and I’d never even watched any of those movies (still haven’t). I guess I knew him from commercials on tv or something. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/174 "2010-08-05T22:20:06Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > _[The Manitou](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Manitou)_ Oh, wow, somebody else has seen that movie! 😃 It didn’t scare me–in fact I loved it, cheese and all, and it turned me on to a lifetime love for horror author Graham Masterton. But it’s so great to see that someone else actually admits to have seen it. 🙂 As for what scared me as a child–I’m another one who’ll admit that the Bumble on Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer scared the crap out of me when I was little. And Talky Tina, from that old Twilight Zone episode. And that clown from Poltergeist…that thing freaked me out for years. Ditto Pennywise from “It.” I hate clowns. I loved the tunnel scene in Willy Wonka, though. I think I might have been one of the few kids who did. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480/175 "2010-08-06T00:19:27Z")
> [@Icerigger](#): > > Is that the one with Kim Darby? Speaking of Kim Darby (and how often does one?), she was in the movie _True Grit_. There’s a scene in which her character is thrown into a pit that has rattlesnakes. _That_ used to really scare me as a kid; I have a lifelong fear of snakes anyway (one that I manage by figuring out “where are snakes likely to be?” and then avoiding those places) but the notion of being in a snakepit terrified me as a kid because of that movie (and because of my mother telling me that there was a time when people were lowered into snake pits to cure mental illness [no idea if this is true]). I mentioned when discussing the book _Helter Skelter_ that the imagination can produce more terrifying images than celluloid. When I was in third grade they showed a film about stranger-danger in which a little girl gets into the car of a man who’s giving her candy, and then at the end of the movie they showed a little girl’s body being moved on a gurney while the police talked among themselves about how tragic it was that more kids don’t know to stay away from strangers. We weren’t that terrified by the film but the notions of what her body looked like were probably way more chilling than crime scene photos would have been as third grade boys and girls talking, each trying to outdo each other in the creep-out factor, can be amazingly vivid and disgustingly evocative. Perhaps this was intentional on the part of the film makers but I doubt it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-things-scared-you-as-a-child/548480.md?page=8)