# 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:** 4
### Author:  [@Zanshin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zanshin)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2001, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/61 "2001-08-22T16:06:44Z")
Hands down, it was ‘The Boogeyman’ from the Stephen King short story of the same name. Before he succumbed to the same must-put-a-new-book-out-every-three-months disease that first claimed Dean Koontz, he published a short story about a family stalked, and then killed one by one, by a boogeyman that lived in the closet. Young Krunk reads this story at the tender age of nine – it scared me so badly that I started blocking his closet door shut with a pile of books so the boogeyman couldn’t come out and get me. Then I got the bright idea of sleeping with the closet door OPEN, because if the door’s open, then there’s no way the boogeyman could be in there (because I can SEE in the closet and there isn’t anyone there, right? Hey, it made sense when I was nine). It became such a habit that to this day I still sleep with my closet door open.
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### Author:  [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2001, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/62 "2001-08-22T16:29:52Z")
**Miller** that would be cruel.
I _like_ that in a person.
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### Author:  [@Evnglion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evnglion)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2001, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/63 "2001-08-22T16:41:29Z")
I must say that, although not THAT scary, the wolf in _Never Ending Story_ would make me leave the room in a heartbeat. But, I think this may not be specifically that wolf, but any wolf, cause I would watch \*The Sword in the Stone[i/] up until the part when the wolf started to show up all the time. I believe this fear should be credited to my father, who made me, well, no literally “made me”, but he had me watch _Silver Bullet_, a movie that was, naturally, about werewolves. Oh well, I am over it…
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### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2001, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/64 "2001-08-22T16:52:25Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by kaiju \*
> \*\*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’. \*\*
If this is the movie I’m thinking of be glad you didn’t see it in it’s origianl release in selected theatres. They wired the seats to give electric shocks to people at certain moments during the movie.
I wasn’t scared of fictional monsters too much as a kid. I had an older bother that was bad enough.
**Miller** you should read the books by Lemony Snicket about the Baudeliers. Not only are they orphaned on the first chapter of the first book but in each they are given to evil or incompetent gaurdians. It’s hysterical. The series is called ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’.
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### Author:  [@Trout\_Mask\_Replica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trout_Mask_Replica)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2001, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/65 "2001-08-22T17:02:54Z")
Sloth from _The Goonies_. I went with my parents to see it when it first came out and after that scene when Chunk finds him chained up in the house, I think I had my hands firmly clapped over my eyes for the rest of the movie for fear I’d catch a glimpse of him again.
Oh, and can I second the banshee from _Darby O’Gill_?
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### Author:  [@BlueMoonofKentucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlueMoonofKentucky)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2001, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/66 "2001-08-22T17:20:54Z")
**Sam the Eagle** From the Muppets.
Really, Really creeped me out. I had fears of that cursed head sticking up over the foot of my bed at night.
I’m better now tho…
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### Author:  [@caveman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caveman)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2001, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/67 "2001-08-22T18:01:57Z")
I would run from the room when the Wicked Witch came on…and those damn dirty flying monkeys…\>shudder\<
Oh, and the Harpie and the Red Bull (especially the Red Bull) from the Last Unicorn
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2001, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/68 "2001-08-22T18:05:23Z")
Late one Friday night circa 1973, Big Chuck & Houlihan on WJW Channel 8 showed some cheap color horror flick, can’t remember the title. It was post-nuclear war and there was a nuclear mutant stalking the woods, with dark red skin and white fright wig. Even though the movie was totally cheezy & hokey, the mutant creature scared the living shit out of me.
Once I just saw a TV ad for _The Man from Planet X_. I didn’t even watch the movie, but the horrible white face of the Creature really freaked me out and left me disturbed for weeks afterward.
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### Author:  [@mblackwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mblackwell)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2001, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/69 "2001-08-22T18:47:13Z")
A cactus. In a picture book.
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### Author:  [@missdavis102](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missdavis102)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2001, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/70 "2001-08-22T19:03:40Z")
“Fantasy Island” was a big deal in my household when I was a little thing. I was allowed to watch it, but it always scared me. Boss, the tall guy in the white suit with the wavy hair, was the scariest. I think it was because all the people came to his island and he let them do things that would be _wrong_ in real life. It made me sick to my stomach to watch it. Five minutes into each episode, I’d be in my room playing barbies.
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### Author:  [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2001, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/71 "2001-08-23T16:13:06Z")
The **Hamburglar.** Had nightmares about him.
A close second were the flying monkeys in the Wizard of Oz. We watched the movie every Easter on TV and they scared me every year, a lot!
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### Author:  [@sidle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sidle)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2001, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/72 "2001-08-23T16:29:45Z")
I was scared of Tina the Talking Doll from the Twilight
Zone. Was wary of all my dolls after that-especially my Amish one with no face. Yuck. Also scared of clowns-
remember the scene in Poltergeist? That still freaks me
out. Also-the Shining. Never even saw it. Didnt have
to. Just seeing the beginning of the trailer would keep
me awake all night. Spent one whole Christms Eve night
at grandmothers-watching the window-waiting for that
evil grin and knife. UGH.
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### Author:  [@The\_Great\_Gazoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Gazoo)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2001, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/73 "2001-08-23T18:22:32Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by ShibbOleth \*
> \*\*George Wallace… I still get shivers. \*\*
Richard Nixon - there was another scary guy!
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### Author:  [@mikehardware](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikehardware)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2001, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/74 "2001-08-23T21:09:03Z")
I saw a movie as a kid that gave me nightmares for weeks. An alien zaps a gas station attendent with a ray gun, turning him into a skeleton. Years later, I finally saw it again, on MST3K, and laughed my head off. I think the title was something like, Teenager from Outer Space.
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### Author:  [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2001, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/75 "2001-08-23T21:32:02Z")
Oh, where do I start? Jayjay was a freaky little nervous twitching scaredy-cat as a child…
Commercials for “It’s Alive!” and the sequel…scared the living crap out of me! I was about six or seven…just the sight of that bassinet with the claw-hand hanging out… _shudder_! I used to close my eyes and put my hands over my ears when that commercial started.
Witches (ironically enough) used to scare me. The Wicked Witch of the West made my childhood enjoyment of TWoOz problematic. I was even afraid of Witchie-Poo from _H.R. Pufnstuf_!
Oh! Forgot about Sybil. Scared me. The dream about the cat…I still have flashes of that scene popping up in my brain occasionally.
The mutant bear in **Prophecy** was another one. Mercury poisoning was my major concern for about a year when I was 10 or 11. I refused to have my temperature taken because I was afraid of swallowing the mercury in the thermometer and becoming like that bear. _shudder_
Yeah, I’m messed up…
jayjay
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### Author:  [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2001, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/76 "2001-08-23T21:32:31Z")
Oh yeah, chalk me up for Poltergeist too, I still can’t watch the clown scene. Brrr!
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### Author:  [@AMM9132](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AMM9132)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2001, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/77 "2001-08-23T22:25:11Z")
Michael Myers, from the Halloween series. It always creeped me out how when a victim was running from him, as fast as they humanly could, he was always right behind them and he was always WALKING with this huge butcher knife in hand. He was just so possessed looking, kind of like, " No matter how fast or where you run, I am still going to kill you."
::petrified in chair, sweating profusly::
I definitly think he gets #1.
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### Author:  [@AMM9132](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AMM9132)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2001, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/78 "2001-08-23T22:27:35Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by AMM9132 \*
> \*\*
>
> ::petrified in chair, sweating profusly::
>
> \*\*
I will preview first.
I will preview first.
I will preview first.
I will preview first.
I will preview first.
I will preview first.
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### Author:  [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2001, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/79 "2001-08-23T22:31:53Z")
Thought of some more:
It’s always scared ME that Mike Myers is also an actor/was a player on Saturday Night Live. Now that’s what I call a double life! 😉
Thought of a few more.
I was scared of a guy dressed up as Santa Claus on my fourth birthday. :o
Edward Scissorhands was a bit alarming for me when I was younger. Not anymore though.
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### Author:  [@okielady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/okielady)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2001, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/80 "2001-08-24T01:35:30Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by jayjay \*
> \*\*Commercials for “It’s Alive!” and the sequel…scared the living crap out of me! I was about six or seven…just the sight of that bassinet with the claw-hand hanging out… _shudder_! I used to close my eyes and put my hands over my ears when that commercial started.
>
> Oh! Forgot about Sybil. Scared me. The dream about the cat…I still have flashes of that scene popping up in my brain occasionally.\*\*
I had COMPLETELY forgotten about “It’s Alive!” until now, TYVM. _shudder_ I used to do the same thing when I saw that commercial. _deep breath_ _shudder again_
Sybil…The cat dream…YIKES! I think I posted this in another thread, but I bought the album “Songs From the Big Chair” by Tears for Fears, and there was a song on there (called “The Big Chair” big surprise) that was EXTREMELY creepy sounding and contained soundbytes from Sybil. I found a sound clip of it recently, listened to it, and closed it before the 15 second clip was over. Still gives me chills!
And this one’s not from my childhood, so this is a slight hijack, but the previews for “The Others” with Nicole Kidman gave me nightmares about 2 or 3 weeks ago. Yes, I’m still a scaredy-cat when it comes to spooky movies. I was sound asleep and I hear this little girl’s voice with a British accent say “Are you mad? I AM your daughter!” I swear I sat straight up in bed, my heart pounding. _blushes_
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