# What specific character scared you the most as a kid.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [August 21, 2001, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364 "2001-08-21T17:01:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Sophie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sophie)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2001, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/41 "2001-08-21T21:27:47Z")
What were those goddamned monster/zombie hybrids on Popeye cartoons? I want to call them ‘goons’ but I’m not sure.
Ohmy. They scared the pants off me.
---
### Author:  [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2001, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/42 "2001-08-21T21:33:44Z")
ooooh, \*\* Eve\*\* yes, Richard Speck was treamendously scarey. I remember when the news story came out and he was still at large, the thought of that woman hiding under the bed. My folks went out that night, we had a sitter and I just **knew** he was under my bed. I lay there trembling for quite a while, knowing that if I so much as stuck out one foot, he’d grab my ankel and I’d be doomed.
Finallly I got up enough courage to leap out of bed, I think I put one foot on the floor before I hit the door and went to the living room to watch TV with the sitter.
We watched Alfred Hitchcock Presents. (explains a lot about me, don’t ya think?)
So, that was who scared me IRL. In literature, Injun Joe.
In movies - the blue hairy things in the _Time Machine_,
on TV - one episode of Alfred Hitchcock presents - staring that guy damn, what’s his name? Kinda goofy looking a little heavy set usually plays a country bumpkin type of guy (I think he played Mr. Haney on Green Acres). Anyhow, he’d obsessed about some ‘creature in a jar’ thing at the County Fair, his wife (obviously younger, prettier than he ‘deserved’, called him all sorts of names etc.) he bought the thing, and she goes ballistic about wasting the money and how useless he is, how she only married him for his money and now he went and spent it all etc., telling him that it ‘ain’t nothin more than pigs eyes’ and other assorted things etc etc etc. then smashes the thing to the ground.
Final scene is some one else looking at the creature in a jar, noticing ‘gee, now the eyes seem to be blue’ .
Still creeps me out.
---
### Author:  [@LordVor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LordVor)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2001, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/43 "2001-08-21T21:33:52Z")
Well, nice to know that I’m still the only guy I’ve ever met who was scaried out of his mind by the Shaggy DA. When he started turning into a dog, I had to run into the next room until he was done. Then I was fine with the talking dog, it was just the “turning INTO a talking dog” part that freaked me.
Kinda like the Wolfman.
LordVor
---
### Author:  [@Sultan\_Kinkari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sultan_Kinkari)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2001, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/44 "2001-08-21T21:37:16Z")
I was always afraid that I would wake up and see **Freddy Krueger** streching out from behind the latex paint over my bed.
---
### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2001, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/45 "2001-08-21T21:48:38Z")
"In movies - the blue hairy things in the Time Machine, "
Morlocks.
---
### Author:  [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2001, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/46 "2001-08-21T21:58:21Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Miller \*
> \*\*"In movies - the blue hairy things in the Time Machine, "
>
> Morlocks. \*\*
ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
::runs screaming in fear from the thread::
---
### Author:  [@Ich\_Bin\_s](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ich_Bin_s)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2001, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/47 "2001-08-21T22:06:54Z")
I’m with Okielady. The Shining freaked me out. Specifically, the scene with the two little girls at the end of the hallway who kept saying “come and play with us…”, getting closer, closer…
(on a side note, this was an element that made Sixth Sense so good. In the scene where the boy is trying to get into his tent, and he keeps looking down the hall, the camera keeps getting further away…brilliant)
There was a snippet of that scene in the movie Twister, which sent me into cardiac arrest. When the Simpsons did a Shining take-off, my prayers were answered.
Runners up:
The clown from Poltergeist.
The dummy from Magic
The Bigfoot from the two-part Six Million Dollar man episode.
The rocking chair in my bedroom. If I stared at it long enough, it would move.
That shaggy salt-sucker monster from Star Trek. It had the trumpet shaped mouth and would leave little sucker marks all over it’s victim’s faces. When it was in human form, Spock tried opening up a can of vulcan whup-\*ss on it and got knocked across the room.
---
### Author:  [@darkgarden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/darkgarden)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2001, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/48 "2001-08-21T22:46:57Z")
I was reading this and thinking, wow, I must not be as easily scared as I thought, then somehow had to go and mention Poltergeist. ARGHHHHHHHH!!! There was this one scene where this entity - I think it was like half a skeleton or something - was writhing across the floor in someone’s room. I swear, no movie scene ever freaked me out as much as that one. I must’ve been about 13 when I saw that, and it _still_ gives me chills just thinking about it. This was probably one of a million memories that contributed me not being able to sleep in a room alone, even now at the ripe old age of 29. ~shudder~
---
### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2001, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/49 "2001-08-21T22:47:05Z")
Hah! I now know how to win any debate with **wring**.
**wring** : …but if Ahab v. Moby Dick is Man against Nature, how can Ishamael be Everyman? Have you even read Edinger? He disproved all of this. How can your theory stand up when your take on Jungian analysis is completely rebuffed?
**Miller** : Morlocks.
**wring** : Ahhhhhhh!
**wring** : The fundamentals of liberty were laid out in…
**Miller** : Morlocks.
**wring** : Ahhhhhhh!
**wring** : I think that…
**Miller** : Morlocks.
**wring** : Ahhhhhhh!
😃
---
### Author:  [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2001, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/50 "2001-08-21T22:56:34Z")
The **Oompah Loompahs** from _Charlie and the Chocolate Factory_. I had nightmares about them for years.
Along with the maniac I was sure lived[sup]\*[/sup] in our creepy basement, I was pretty much scarred for life.
[sup]When I have to do laundry at my parent’s house, I go into and out of the basement as quickly as possible. That place is still freaky, and I still have a vague suspicion that a scary maniac lives there[/sup]
---
### Author:  [@Myrnalene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myrnalene)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2001, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/51 "2001-08-21T23:21:07Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Eve \*
> \*\*Dwight Frye as the creepy, laughing Renfrew. \*\*
Whazzawho? Isn’t it Renfield? (Dwight Frye is my BOY!)
---
### Author:  [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2001, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/52 "2001-08-21T23:30:25Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Miller \*
> \*\*"In movies - the blue hairy things in the Time Machine, "
>
> Morlocks. \*\*
I was 7 years old when Time Machine came out, and I saw it at a Saturday matinee with my big sister, and I was thoroughly, totally freaked by the Morlocks. The movie came to a merciful conclusion, and I was trying to beat a retreat to the safety of the lobby, but Sis started yakking with a friend in the aisle…and then the next showing started! Aaaahhh! So I started dragging my sister up the aisle, so I wouldn’t accidentally see a Morlock during the opening credits.
---
### Author:  [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2001, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/53 "2001-08-21T23:34:24Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Eve \*
> \*\*“How about the little possessed fetish doll with the mouth full of pointy teeth and wielding a sharp kitchen in the movie “Trilogy of Terror”?”
>
> —Oh, he was HILARIOUS! The one who chased cross-eyed Karen Black around her apartment going “yanni yanni yanni!” and it never occured to her to drop-kick the little bastard and just OPEN THE DOOR AND LEAVE? Loved that movie . . . \*\*
Because the little bastard would just grab onto her ankle and start stabbing her in the calf. That was one cool scary movie; you just have no imagination. 🙂
---
### Author:  [@Mofo\_Rising](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mofo_Rising)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2001, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/54 "2001-08-22T01:36:37Z")
Those aliens from **Sesame Street** scared the hell out of me. They weren’t on very often, and for those of you lucky enough not to have seen them, they were these fuzzy, tentacled things with crazy fish mouths who went around going “yip yip yip yip”.
This girl here was crazy enough to put up a [webpage](http://www.angelfire.com/tv2/yipyip/) about them. She thinks they’re cute, poor deluded fool.
---
### Author:  [@kaiju](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaiju)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2001, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/55 "2001-08-22T02:29:57Z")
Runners up: Flying Monkeys, clown dolls, and Karen Black’s stupid little doll.
2nd place: The eyeball at the begining of The Twilight Zone. I never remembered seeing the series, just the damn eyeball in the credits.
1st Place: The Tingler. A two foot long centipede that will crawl up your spine and strangle you if you don’t scream. For years, I was sure that thing was at the foot of my bed, waiting to get me when I fell asleep. I saw the movie again when I was in college: Vincent Price drops acid and sees a big rubber worm. How humiliatin’.
---
### Author:  [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2001, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/56 "2001-08-22T04:08:34Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Wonko The Sane \*
> \*\*Winnie the Pooh sorta gave me the willies.
>
> Sure, he’s a cuddly bear and all, but I could not get over his name. Poo(h)! I think that naming anything so obviously nice and cute and wholesome after excrement is decidedly odd. I mean, who wants to hug poo? \*\*
Heh. I had Pooh issues as a very small child, too, something which my loving family delights in reminding me of now that he’s trendy. :rolleyes:
---
### Author:  [@Wicked\_Blue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wicked_Blue)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2001, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/57 "2001-08-22T04:11:15Z")
Mine is really stupid…
I was scared of Mr Peanut.
You know, the Official Spokespeanut for Planters.
There was something sinister about that monocle…I couldn’t look at him. And that cane! I bet it was for beating children.
One day, I was out with the family at an amusement park, and there he was. Six feet of peanutty terror. My mom, who thought I’d be thrilled to see him, pointed him out to me, and I immediatly started crying. I wanted to get away _fast_, before he locked that evil monocle onto me.
I still hate him. 🙂
Damn peanut.
Rose
---
### Author:  [@cichlidiot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cichlidiot)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2001, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/58 "2001-08-22T12:45:17Z")
I’d have to go with what **Zebra** mentioned, the “Child Catcher” from Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang. I had forgotten about him.
The one that is shameful to me, would be the Sleestack (sp?) from Land Of The Lost. I was terrified of them, and my older brother knew it. He would tease me by chasing me around with his hands out in front, hissing. I knew I’d only encourage him by running, but couldn’t stop myself. When this topic has come up with friends, and I mention this little story…there is always someone who decides to mimic my brother’s behavior. I don’t run any longer, but I still find it disconcerting.
---
### Author:  [@bobkitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobkitty)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2001, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/59 "2001-08-22T13:18:04Z")
Clowns (Poltergeist… UGH!), ANYone from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, though those damn Oompa Loompas win hands down. The head evil bunny in Watership Down. The movie Time Bandits totally freaked me out, except for Sean Connery’s character(s). The ants from Them… to this day that _noise_ freaks me out. And Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest… that scene where she’s wearing the cold cream and freaking out about wire hangers… _shudder_ I also have terrible frog fear… Kermit was not welcome in our house. The Budweiser commercials sent me into apoplectic fits.
Hey, Kittie… did you grow up in Massachusetts? We had a huge paper mache Big Bird too… I’d hate to think there’s more than one of those things running around. 😉
---
### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2001, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/60 "2001-08-22T15:41:53Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Heloise \*
> \*\*Mr. Slugworth from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. When he just popped up, AAUUGGHH!!!
>
> I was very young and didn’t understand why he was there, or the plot of the show, just that he was the bad man and he SCARED me! \*\*
I had no problem with Mr. Slugworth, but the freakin’ boat ride on the other hand… :eek:
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364.md?page=2)
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364.md?page=4)