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whatever robot was part of Doctor Who around 1980-81. Thanks PBS, for putting that on back to back with Mr Rogers.
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The clown from Poltergeist. I can’t stand clowns to this day.
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The bizarrely chosen cover image on a Poe collection my parents had, that featured a greenish monster hovering over a sleeping person.
When I was 7, my brother (10) and his friend went to a movie and had to take me along. It was *The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. *It was basically “Quasi-Godzilla Takes Manhattan.” I kept telling my brother that I had to go to the bathroom (My mother had told me not to go to the bathroom alone). He was so absorbed with the movie that he wouldn’t take me. So at some extra-scary scene, I peed in my pants . . . and had to sit there in it until the end of the movie.
The song “Timothy” by The Buoys really gave me the creeps when it was popular that summer. I was ten then-
Now I find the song hilarious. “Timothy, Timothy, Joe was lookin’ at you-”
Strangely, I don’t remember a single nutcracker-related thing…just the freakin’ Ragman.
To any Brit of my generation the answer has to be Daleks.
Large Marge, as already mentioned.
The Library Ghost in Ghostbusters.
The bunyip in Dot and the Kangaroo. Anyone else seen this?
What happens in that scene?
For me, ditto the Scary Stories books and Thriller video, and remember that giant mouse siege engine thing at the end of An American Tale? What the hell was that horrific thing doing in a kid’s movie?
Oh, one more. I vaguely remember some poem about a werewolf - I can’t remember what book series it was from, possibly the Scary Stories books or that Tales for the Midnight Hour series. All I can remember about it was that the last line implied that the writer of the poem was essentially writing it while being devoured by the thing. I’d like to read that again actually.
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?
The Grand High Witch takes off her FACE MASK! And her real face makes Large Marge look like a Disney feature!
Giving it more thought, I remembered the the scene of the mom’s sister who is dying of spinal meningitis in Pet Semetary freaked me right the heck out. I still can’t watch that scene.
Then there’s the thing on the wing of the plane in Twilight Zone: The Movie.
I apparently have a very serious issue with long-crazy-haired weird looking creatures. (I STILL will not re-watch The Ring for any reason.)
I never saw the movie Pet Sematary but from the description in the book I don’t think I could see that scene. I think I may have seen stills but not the actual scene. I lived in fear of getting spinal meningitis after that book.
Return to Oz. Pretty much the whole thing. Freaky. Scared the shit out of me.
I watched it recently for the first time in years. I was right. That was some freaky dark shit. It’s still scary. I’m impressed; most of the time this stuff seems silly as an adult. But that movie? Yikes.
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.
Also, the yip yip Martians from Sesame Street would always send me hiding behind the couch. I looked them up on youtube and couldn’t watch more the 30 seconds of the clip still. It’s the way they move their mouths. Eeeech. I also found on Wikipedia that they are the only muppets whose entire bodies can be seen on screen. So we’ve got curious, inarticulate, huge-mouthed aliens that can teleport through walls. BAD!
My mom told me recently that I was scared of Ursula in the Little Mermaid. I think I was just creeped out by the “poor unfortunate souls” in their little shriveled wall-clinging bodies.
But to get back to freaky puppets/muppets, I’m pretty sure every frickin’ thing in The Dark Crystal disturbed me. And yet it was one of my favorite movies.
Finally, the eyeball fungus in Labyrinth was absolutely horrifying. Oh Jim Henson, you will be sorely missed. Wonder and terror indeed.
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!
Rädda Joppe - död eller levande. A Swedish children’s show that thoroughly scarred my infant mind… The whole plot was a kid losing his stuffed animal (a mole, I think) over and over in a variety of settings, and according to wikipedia it “taught kids to handle emergencies”. The hell it did! It taught me one thing, and one thing only: Losing stuff is HORRIBLE. I don’t know if it was as filled with unadulterated anxiety as I remember it, but there’s no way I’m going to check…
The movie ‘Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb’. There was a scene where the mummy’s hand was cut off. I would’t sleep with my hand out, like the blanket would save me.
Actually, I just read this story. It came in the new version of I am Legend by Richard Matheson, called “Prey.” According to my copy it was originally printed in 1969. Amazingly, it predates Chucky and the Puppet Master by a good 20+ years.
Good God, YES! The BANSHEE!
Sleestak!