What Really Scared You As A Child?

JasonStatham · 31-07-2020 9:26am

The scene in Indiana Jones where the guy drinks from the holy grail. Even today that gives me a shudder haha.

razorblunt · 31-07-2020 9:43am

Unsolved Mysteries theme song, only when the show was finished, especially if it finished on a really creepy story.
I think Sky One used to follow up with X-Files then, two bad episodes in a row and you were up the stairs like lightning!

Also, the baby snatching ghost in Ghosbusters 2. Saw that recently enough and still creeped me out.

boardlady · 31-07-2020 10:38am

The wardrobe in my bedroom. It came from my grandparents house and was really dark wood and ornate carving. Probably a bloody antique worth money but I hated it for every second it stood in my bedroom. If you didn't turn the key in the door properly, it would slowly open again but could take ages - you might have undressed and got into bed before you noticed, in the dark, that the bloody door had crept open.

Also, the fact that my parents insisted on turning off all lights at night. Just one light left on would have saved me from years of misery. And now that we are all grown up and gone, my mother sleeps with the hall light on!

Doctors room ghost · 31-07-2020 10:43am

_Whimsical_ wrote: »

Quicksand occupied the minds of a lot of children of the 80s and early 90s.
I think it was a really cheap stunt in low budget 1970s tv shows that were recycled 10 years later on RTE. I definitely remember Wonder Woman and 1960s Batman having a few run-ins with it.

The horse drowning in quick sand in the never ending story scared a lot of kids.
The bad bastard wolf involved didn’t help things either

monkeysnapper · 31-07-2020 10:47am

Mine was a program called "V" that was a tv show about alien lizards that had human skin on , and they eat hamsters ....

There was a few clips of them ripping the skin off them exposing the lizard underneath.....

It was totally terrifying and exciting all at the same time .

If ur brave enough here is a video below of the horrors

https://youtu.be/QihkWmS7dTI

Wibbs · 31-07-2020 12:17pm

That BBC "Threads" TV flic in the early 80's that others have mentioned, jaysus yeah. Because it seemed like a real possibility that WW3 could kick off and this wasn't the US of A it felt much more "local".

The main attack scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrHoMSRZOS4

Though the aftermath scenes were truly chilling and shot in a way that never gave you a break or feeling of your average story.

Another I saw around the same time was Herzog's Nosferatu and the opening credits are haunting and terrifying at the same time.

The earliest fear I can remember is walking as a toddler on a very windy beach in Kerry with my parents and clutching so tightly to my teddy bear, because I was afraid he'd blow away and be lost in the sea. I was terrified and kep holding him tightly in the car as we drove away. I didn't lose him, he's safe and sound in a wardrobe today.

Sardonicat · 31-07-2020 12:26pm

Ah, Threads. Genuinely traumatising to watch that as a twelve year old. The woman wetting herself when she saw the mushroom cloud is the one scene seared into my brain, for some reason!

As a small child I was absolutely petrified of airplanes. Not flying on them but those passing overhead. I thought they would either fall out of the sky or bomb us. I've no idea where I got the fear of being bombed from. I guess my folks must have let me watch a film about The Blitz when I was little or something but the fear persisted in force til I was about 7. I would become hysterical if a plane flew over and try to hide Even now, I can feel physical anxiety symptoms if a plane passes low or the rescue helicopter flys over my house on the way to the hospital up the road. It's the sound, I think, so low and droning and ominous.

Errashareesh · 31-07-2020 12:43pm

Saw Threads in about 2005 - the aftermath is the worst part IMO. Humanity has to start from scratch but in a highly contaminated atmosphere with contaminated water and crops. And the children are animalistic. One young girl doesn't bat an eyelid when her mother dies of leukaemia - she just carries on. And she is raped but still doesn't pay much heed. They're kinda like feral cats.

After that I watched The War Game (similar - preceded Threads), The Day After, and the terrifying Protect & Survive public information series. No silver lining whatsoever. Better off dead.

I remember being scared of nuclear war breaking out when I was a kid at the time of the 1990/1 Gulf War but that fear - while still there some bit due to the Cold War being so recent - was dissipating.

Can't imagine the terror in the '80s. Especially with Chernobyl. Threads and The Day After made the news. Understandably so.

Terminator/Judgement Day paint a terrifying picture too.

Nesta99 · 31-07-2020 1:57pm

.anon. wrote: »

Billy Mitchell from EastEnders is a rat.

With an accent like his its a miracle he survived up North!

As it happens im also still scared that Eastenders will suck every ounce of good mood and humanity out of me.

EmmetSpiceland · 31-07-2020 2:01pm

The Deadly Ernest Horror Show when it showed an old ‘Hammer Horror’ film about a haunted tennis court.

Nesta99 · 31-07-2020 2:14pm

Errashareesh wrote: »

Can't imagine the terror in the '80s. Especially with Chernobyl.

Meh, it wasnt a constant in the forefront of the mind. Not like it would have been for my folks in previous decades with the Cuban Missile Crisis, tanks rolling in to Budapest, Vietnam and Korean proxy wars with WWII still in recent memory then. Chernobyl did stop us from being allowed outside occasionally if it was raining depending on the winds, there were news reports of sheep in Donegal with 5 legs. Sellafield was th big nuclear concern especially with perestroka and glasnost improving east/west relations

And we were all focused on being terrified by HIV/AIDS public health campaigns, the afroe mentioned ads from Northern Ireland, The Troubes in general with the bombing campaign in England. Fear of the country being bankrupt, mass emmigration and with massive dole queues the prospect of food vouchers was truly scary and used to good effect by parents as a motivation for kids in school 'Think of the food vouchers!!! If ye dont work hard at school you'll be on butter vouchers...' Most had never seen them but were terrified by them!!

Dial Hard · 31-07-2020 2:22pm

Godzilla. Like, the crappy cartoon version that also had Godzuki. I genuinely had to leave the room when they pushed the button to summon him. My siblings thought it was absolutely hilarious and still do.

Zebra3 · 31-07-2020 2:25pm

Absolute b@stards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SESI19h4wDo

Tired Gardener · 31-07-2020 2:26pm

Mr Noseybonk... not sure what they were thinking with that one!

But Nuclear war was the ultimate fear.

Yester · 31-07-2020 2:33pm

I had a golliwog that scared me. I kept hiding him but he always found his way back. I don't know where he is now but I wouldn't be suprised if he turned up again someday.

matchthis · 31-07-2020 3:05pm

That monster coming through the portal in Howard the duck. That and getting my Sunday clothes dirty

Jimmy Bottlehead · 31-07-2020 3:06pm

Yester wrote: »

I had a golliwog that scared me. I kept hiding him but he always found his way back. I don't know where he is now but I wouldn't be suprised if he turned up again someday.

Don't worry, he'll be cancelled quick if he appears in 2020.

Irish_peppa · 31-07-2020 3:10pm

There used to be a "childrens programme" in the early 8os these alien type shape shifters who drove an old black hearse and oozed slime it was utter knightmare fuel "under the mountain" knightmare stuff

ShatterAlan · 31-07-2020 3:15pm

RedXIV wrote: »

1930s king kong movie I saw when I was 4 or 5, and in particular this scene (55 seconds in) where kong gets mad and stamps on someone. Had nightmares for years about it

He used to bite people in half as well i think or bite off their their legs and discard the rest. Freaked me out.

Aglomerado · 31-07-2020 3:42pm

Sardonicat wrote: »

Ah, Threads. Genuinely traumatising to watch that as a twelve year old. The woman wetting herself when she saw the mushroom cloud is the one scene seared into my brain, for some reason!

As a small child I was absolutely petrified of airplanes. Not flying on them but those passing overhead. I thought they would either fall out of the sky or bomb us. I've no idea where I got the fear of being bombed from. I guess my folks must have let me watch a film about The Blitz when I was little or something but the fear persisted in force til I was about 7. I would become hysterical if a plane flew over and try to hide Even now, I can feel physical anxiety symptoms if a plane passes low or the rescue helicopter flys over my house on the way to the hospital up the road. It's the sound, I think, so low and droning and ominous.

I was 8 the time of the Chernobyl disaster and it genuinely scared me. Especially when watching the progress of the radiation cloud across Europe on the news. I later became obsessed with a book called Children of the Dust by Louise Lawrence. It's a teenage novel but is essentially Threads in book form. Yikes.
Planes not so much but I grew up near Shannon airport and the flight path was over our house. Concorde used to come in regularly in the mid 80s and the noise from it used to terrify me, it was like really bad thunder.
It flew over once or twice in 2000 when I was going home from work as well and I remember pulling over the car so I could look up at it. The sound brought it all back..that said I would love to have had the chance to go on it.

Dub Ste · 31-07-2020 4:09pm

The school at the end of our street.

I had a dream as a young one, I can still remember it now, forty something years later..

In the dream I was walking past the school, when something started to drag me towards the fence, it pulled me up and over the fence and into a darkened room.
I was then tied to a chair, and could feel that whatever it was that dragged me over the fence coming nearer to me.
Thankfully I woke up, but even now I can remember how scared I was.
Hated walking past it every day.

partyguinness · 31-07-2020 4:13pm

Down escalators- my legs would go to jelly. Partly because when you are 6-7 standing at the top you cannot see the bottom so it is like a big drop.

Yester · 31-07-2020 4:15pm

partyguinness wrote: »

Down escalators- my legs would go to jelly. Partly because when you are 6-7 standing at the top you cannot see the bottom so it is like a big drop.

Yes and if you get caught at the bottom they will rip all your skin off.

partyguinness · 31-07-2020 4:16pm

Aglomerado wrote: »

I was 8 the time of the Chernobyl disaster and it genuinely scared me. Especially when watching the progress of the radiation cloud across Europe on the news. I later became obsessed with a book called Children of the Dust by Louise Lawrence. It's a teenage novel but is essentially Threads in book form. Yikes.
Planes not so much but I grew up near Shannon airport and the flight path was over our house. Concorde used to come in regularly in the mid 80s and the noise from it used to terrify me, it was like really bad thunder.
It flew over once or twice in 2000 when I was going home from work as well and I remember pulling over the car so I could look up at it. The sound brought it all back..that said I would love to have had the chance to go on it.

Yeah I remember watching some hard core documentary about a nuclear war circa 1985 with all sorts of gory special effects. I remember going to bed that night and the sun was setting- brilliant golden hue of a setting sun in the sky but of course it looked just like the special effects from the film and a nuclear warhead going off.

Still not right after it truth be told.

punisher5112 · 31-07-2020 4:21pm

Butter

EmmetSpiceland · 31-07-2020 4:21pm

Dub Ste wrote: »

The school at the end of our street.

I had a dream as a young one, I can still remember it now, forty something years later..

In the dream I was walking past the school, when something started to drag me towards the fence, it pulled me up and over the fence and into a darkened room.
I was then tied to a chair, and could feel that whatever it was that dragged me over the fence coming nearer to me.
Thankfully I woke up, but even now I can remember how scared I was.
Hated walking past it every day.

If you ever get the chance you should pick up a book called ‘Summer of Night’ by Dan Simmons. Nice bit of creepy school setting in it.

ThewhiteJesus · 31-07-2020 4:23pm

Banshee
Salem's lot,
and finally my ma

partyguinness · 31-07-2020 4:24pm

Fat on meat. I still have an irrational fear of it. Will go to great pains to scrap off every little morsel.

RandomViewer · 31-07-2020 4:25pm

The robots in the six million dollar man, was 5 or 6 at the time. Their faces came off,

Re-watched a lot of that kind of stuff a few years back, realised how poorly done it was,

Dub Ste · 31-07-2020 4:27pm

EmmetSpiceland wrote: »

If you ever get the chance you should pick up a book called ‘Summer of Night’ by Dan Simmons. Nice bit of creepy school setting in it.

I'll pass on that if you don#'t mind:D

It still spooks me that I can remember that dream so vividly, cos these days, I can barely remember what I did yesterday.

Another dream I had as a young one, was sat around a campfire, when a pair of hands made out flames came at me and started to strangle me...

Thankfully, don't have these kind of dreams anymore...

partyguinness · 31-07-2020 4:29pm

Yester wrote: »

Yes and if you get caught at the bottom they will rip all your skin off.

Never considered that. Thanks.

theoneeyedman · 31-07-2020 4:33pm

The Yorkshire Ripper ðŸ™„.

In the 70's I assume when the Ripper was in the news, I used to stay at night in my grandmother's house some nights, and walking about 200 meters up the road at night it her house I have memories of absolutely sh1tting it in case I was going to be abducted or killed!

FFS

partyguinness · 31-07-2020 4:42pm

I was frightened about my 'guardian angel' for a small period. I found it quite intrusive.

punisher5112 · 31-07-2020 4:45pm

Dead people

partyguinness · 31-07-2020 4:51pm

Marrow fat peas.

the purple tin · 31-07-2020 4:51pm

My friend's granny, I only met her once and she threatened to beat me to death with a poker and then use it to rip my guts out through my throat! :eek:
She said she had done it to other children before.

Looking back she was completely off her rocker.

Mr. CooL ICE · 31-07-2020 5:01pm

Jurassic Park. Left the cinema a quivering mess after the T-rex killed Nedry on the jacks.

X-Files, the episode about The Host, i.e. that fluke thing crawling around in the sewers. Made me afraid to sit on the jacks for fear of my arse being attacked by that thing. Hover pooed for longer than I care to admit.

Yep. I was a wimp back then. Still kinda am.

partyguinness · 31-07-2020 5:05pm

One of the old Star Trek films- this creature went into this guys ear. I have never looked at woodlouse the same.

Or does anyone rememeber the TV series "V" as in the original? Freaked me right out.

ShatterAlan · 31-07-2020 5:09pm

Used to go white at the sight of a spider. They don't bother me now at all. I still have a bit of a phobia about ear-wigs and I used to freak out when I'd catch a ladybird. They were fine when they just crawled around on my hand but when they did that sort of convertible car roof thing with their coloured shell so that wings could come out the hairs on the back of my neck would stand up and I'd have to get away from this abomination of an insect. It was like they were morphing into something truly evil.

the purple tin · 31-07-2020 5:17pm

Oh Whistle and I'll Come To You My Lad, a spooky old horror starring Michael Hoarden.
The giant spiders on the Tarzan films. You could get stuck in their webs.
The original The Fly, when he got caught in the web and the spider was approaching. Help me! Help me!

gammygils · 31-07-2020 5:27pm

The clergy and religion. Growing up in 70's the clergy were everywhere! Priests, nuns Christian brothers and they were all as contrary as fcuk. And telling us shlt that would happen us when we were "bold" or didn't know our prayers or catechism
And I was an altar boy FFS

mags1962 · 31-07-2020 6:21pm

RAT's, the dirty flea infested furry ones with their sharp teeth, that could jump at your throat and rip it open and even more so when it as dark or you couldn't see then but hear them scurrying about and didn't know which direction they would attack from.

Them and me Da when he was pushed too far by 5 kids when he was trying to sleep. He only lost it twice during about 15 years but f**k me it was scary and you didn't want a repeat ever. Hand prints on my arse for days after, far removed from the snowflakes being raised nowadays.

RandomViewer · 31-07-2020 7:08pm

partyguinness wrote: »

One of the old Star Trek films- this creature went into this guys ear. I have never looked at woodlouse the same.

Or does anyone rememeber the TV series "V" as in the original? Freaked me right out.

ForcesTV have been showing it back to back with Buck Rodgers the last month, they ain't scary.
Wrath of Khan is the movie

Ko Chow · 31-07-2020 7:45pm

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

We were out for a Sunday walk in Birr when I was a small kid, and a black helicopter (not a Garda helicopter) landed and some detectives got out of it.
My Mum said one of them had a gun, and we had to leave, at the time it seemed very exciting.
We found out they were after some Spanish rapist who had attacked a woman, or women, and was on the run.

I didn't know what a rapist was, and it didn't seem to matter, because it surely meant "serial killer". No doubt he'd be after us as potential witnesses. Me, specifically, for some reason. I became genuinely afraid of what I called "The Spanish Lad", and it was often used against me.
It was "Don't go to the river the Spanish man will catch you" or, "Come in before dark or the Spanish will get you" (there was a mildly racist undertone).

The threat of Santa's Bad List was trivial compared to the certain catastrophe of the Spanish lad ever locating me.

Writing this how, I wonder if there ever really was a Spanish man. Either way, he kept me on the straight and narrow between the ages 7 —10

If it was around 1993 it could have been this fella en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Angl%C3%A9s . Had a memory of a very scary news report about him possibly landing here, after escaping Spain on a ship. Thought I somehow made it up until I saw 'The Alcasser Murders' on Netflix. Whereabouts still unknown you will be glad to hear.

mookishboy · 31-07-2020 8:27pm

Errashareesh wrote: »

Going to the doctor.

The TV series of Day Of The Triffids - the sound that the plants made was terrifying.

That right there. Still hear that sound in my nightmares

31-07-2020 9:40pm

My grandmother told me (perfectly innocently) that God was everywhere, and saw everything, and you couldn't hide anything from God. I can't remember how old I was, but sub-ten at any rate.

I literally shook even having a pee because I could feel him watching me. And it's very hard to take a bath or shower knowing an omnipotent being has you under surveillance. The thought of sleeping while being watched creeped me out too.

My poor granny has no idea how she scarred my childhood.

31-07-2020 9:51pm

Triffids
To this day they still freak me out.
Tapping at the windows, crossing barren tarmac buffers, engulfing buildings and nobody could stop them? :eek::eek::eek:

THE NIGHTMARES.

Gregor Samsa · 31-07-2020 9:52pm

I used to be convinced that my parents removed their rubber masks after I went to bed to revel horrible alien faces. I remember getting up out of bed one night and standing outside the shut living room door for ages trying to muster the courage to open it - half wanting to catch them as aliens revealed, and half hoping they’d heard me outside and put back on their masks. In the end, I went back to bed.

AIDS and nuclear war scared me too. I remember being quite horrified after watching the animation “When The Wind Blows”, particularly the bit where he’s dying from radiation poisoning during the nuclear winter.

On a more practical level, I remember seeing a junky shoplifter smash a glass shelf over the head of an employee in Easons in the Irish Life Mall in Talbot Street, Dublin when I was about 7. I was right beside them with my mum, and there was blood and glass everywhere. That freaked me out, but I never spoke about it. First time I realised that the world wasn’t a safe place.

irishguitarlad · 31-07-2020 9:54pm

X files intro and the show in general scared the life out of me. The ghostbusters Cartoon had an episode with a Monster outside kids bedrooms saying "come out and play little Child, come out and play", and it creeped me out for ages. There was also an irish language programme on RTE that had Ghost stories that frightened me. Saw Dracula also when I was small and used to sleep with the light on and the covers completely over my head and a little Air hole to breathe so that the vampires wouldn't suck my blood. Of course this all wasn't helped by growing up in rural Kerry with parents, family and neighbours believing in all that ****e and constantly waffling about ghosts, Monsters, demons, the devil, piseogs and aliens every time they met. They still are like that, but now i just cringe.

freshpopcorn · 31-07-2020 9:54pm

Gerry Adams!

What Really Scared You As A Child?

Comments