Things which scared you as a kid and have stayed with you...

[GinJeanie]

I’m talking about things which scared the bejeezus out of you at the time and you would still hate to encounter as an adult- no doubt irrationally. I have two examples and suspect if I revisited them, they wouldn’t be as bad as I remember. I won’t though - still too scared!
The first is a book called A Candle in Her Room. It’s about some sisters who have an vile, evil wooden doll in their house and horrible things keep happening to them. It was a children’s book but I found it terrifying. I’m a middle-aged woman but NOTHING would make me read it again. The thought makes me want to vomit.
The second is a public safety film called Apaches which was shown in the 1970s. It involved a group of children dying one by one on a farm (all had horrible accidents)... I know I will never watch that film again even though it’s readily available on YouTube. My terror is too great.
Anyone else?

Myra Hindley's mugshot. I was terrified of it when I was a child and now as an adult I still can't look at it. I remember as a teenager falling asleep with the TV on and waking up during the night and the mugshot was on the screen with creepy Jack in the box type music and the camera was zooming in. I lay there feeling sick and my heart still drops everytime I see it unexpectedly.

Takes From The Crypt. I was too young to watch it anyway. I'm in my 50s now & whilst I don't remember all of the stories, I do remember the terror I felt very clearly.

The scene in Who Framed Roger Rabbit with the 'unmasking' of Judge Room scared me so much I threw up and couldn't stop shaking. I now love horror films but I still think that's way too much for a kids' film.

This.

Scared the living shit out of me as a toddler (was on the news). I slept under the covers in a ball for years as a result

*Judge Doom.

I hate scary movies,But I did watch"Jeepers Creepers", when I was 15.., that stayed with me...!

Ghost watch, the spoof ghost programme that you thought was real at first. Jeez I nearly shat my pants and I tried to watch it again a while ago (it’s on YouTube) as a an adult and it was a hard No again x

I have not infrequent nightmares about third rails and getting my foot stuck in points.

Oh god Apaches was bloody grim!

The end bit of bed knobs and broomsticks traumatised me, when the clothes come to life. Had nightmares for years and can't watch it now.

Electric pylons

That spaceman was debunked though, right? It was his mum!

Threads (the horrible atomic bombing film)

We were shown it in RE at school and the whole class was traumatised.

Probably didn't help that my school and home were in a town with a nuclear power station so I was constantly worried about that blowing up! I could see it from my bedroom window and used to wake up in a cold sweat and stare out of the window to make sure it was still standing!

Watership Down. Fuck no. Never again.

Salem's Lot with David Soul. That vampire kid scratching at the window to be invited in still creeps me out now.

The opening credits from " Tales of the Unexpected "
The public information film Dark Water.

The wellies on the escalator

Tom Kitten and the Roly-Poly Pudding (or whatever it is called) by Beatrix Potter

Ticking clocks at night give me bad dreams

I have just watched Apache and Lonely Dark Water on YouTube as I'm too young to have seen these at school - they are terrifying now and I'm almost 30! I can't imagine how scary they would have been as a child

When I was around the end of primary school age, there was an NSPCC advert involving puppets that absolutely terrified me. I could probably find it on YouTube but nothing could ever convince me to watch it now, I think it actually got banned at the time

Another one, we had to watch Platoon in a lesson at school during my GCSEs and nothing could make me want to watch that again either

totally senseless but the flat we lived in when I was a kid had silverfish in the bathroom and I hated them they scared the living daylights out of me and even now I don't like them skittery crawly horrid things

My dad told me shredded wheat were made from spiders legs. It terrified me. Obviously I know they are not now, I have tried them and they went bad but the idea of them still scares me - the striped pattern on their strands (shudder)!!. I wont but them!

Watership down!!

I really struggle with Ivy on houses having read a horror story about it!!

ET has always scared the life out of me. I used to be frightened to come out of the bathroom as I'd convince myself he'd be standing outside the door, and I used to imagine him clinging to the bottom of the car whenever we went anywhere! When they did the advert with him in not long ago, I couldn't look. I've creeped myself out now thinking about the vile little alien

Railway safety video watched as a child at primary school. I now have a fear of trains and railway lines.

Watership Down.
Some horrendous cartoon version of Sleepy Hollow in which Ichabod got his head cut off. We watched both on the last day of term. I don't think I slept easy for the whole summer holidays.

The Alien bursting out of John Hurt's chest scared the absolutely shite out of me. The first time I watched it I was about 7 years old, I really don't know what my parents were thinking.

Another vote here for Salem's Lot. The vampire scratching on the window saying 'Let me in' and the rocking chair scene. Terrified me for years!