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?

I did actually love Jim Hensons the storyteller though as a child!! Totally forgotten about til this thread. Although looking at that hedgehog man I can't understand why!!

I watched No Place to Hide at a way too young age (5/6) when being babysat. The "soon Amy soon" thing totally freaked me out.

Oh gosh, Dark Towers, hands down. Still terrifies me. Witness the horror here.

Davros in Doctor Who.
The warlocks in the film 'The Time Machine'
Michael Bentine's potty men
Poodle pie being force fed to a film critic in a horror film. Can't remember which one.

Train lines, can't go near the edge of a platform, those awful 80s films they showed us to stop us jumping on the tracks stayed with me.

I can't watch Dumbo either, gut wrenching.

House of Wax

@Totallyaddictedtoshoes that Lord of the Rings scene absolutely terrified me. The music and there eyes..... getting me scared now!
I think parents thought because it was a cartoon it would be a nice film.

Return to oz. all of it 😱😱😱😱

glasgow357 agreed. Especially the Wheelers

@Imissmoominmama I am sorry you have been scarred too- I loved Starsky and Hutch, but that episode......

@sobersides

Poodle pie being force fed to a film critic in a horror film. Can't remember which one.

That may well be the rather gloriously bonkers Theatre of Blood
www.imdb.com/title/tt0070791/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_55 in which Vincent price and Dian Rigg's characters force feed Robert Morley's theatre critic his own pet doggies in an act of Shakespearian revenge.

There was a scene in (I think) Crossroads, where someone comes into a room and there is a lump in the bed, and the lump moves.

I've no idea how old I was, but that scene sent me running from the room (my mum was bathing my younger brother upstairs). I was terrified! I've no idea what it turned out to be - a dog or a cat, I imagine, but I still remember that creeping horror of the 'moving lump'...

Another one for me was the Triffids. I’d somehow seen a bit of it on telly and was petrified. One of my sisters who is three years younger than me chased me round the bedroom pretending to be one!

In my first year at high school we went on a trip to London and went to Madame Tussaud’s waxwork museum, I was scared of the chamber of horrors part and remember holding my teachers hand! They wouldn’t be allowed to do that these days.

So many people watching scary things way too young. I had the same. Ghost watch was awful. I totally believed it.

@cinnamonbun was that the Casualty episode where the fire was started through the letterbox? That traumatised me! For years I was worried someone was going to set fire to our house like that.

@BlueSuedeStiletto How amazing that your Father was the Paramedic for that rescue. I remember that well. I think that's one of the most infamous episodes. A good thing too that he kept you from going to that deathtrap of a pool. It's horrifying to hear how little regard the council had for the lives of their residents.

Candyman the film. I'd still never say it 3 times in the bathroom mirror!

Birds, was terrified of them as a kid, am even worse now, would rather step under a bus than encounter a pigeon, I'm nearly hyperventilating thinking about it.

I'd forgotten about the Hedgehog man program, however one scene from it has stayed with me. I was about 5 and remember crying my eyes out seeing this Hedgehog boy getting bellowed at by his Father for (I think) eating nosily/messily. The Hedgehog boy looking so sad. Don't remember anything else about it and am not brave enough to google.

Another one is Raymond Briggs When the Wind Blows. Had to watch it at Junior school and didn't sleep well for days after. Will not revisit that one either.

The Storyteller episodes are on Amazon Prime😱

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

@BlackCat91 I came on here to say exactly the same thing! I watched it as an adult on my own in my flat, years ago, thinking I would laugh at how silly it was. Well I didn't laugh, I nearly shat myself and was up all bloody night. Had to sleep with the hall light on for weeks afterwards and I was about 27 at the time. Fucking terrifying.

@DeeCeeCherry

I found tales from the crypt @@@@ing terrifying 😱

All sorts of things used to scare me as a kid. Not even obvious ones like Mr Noseybonk from Jigsaw or Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water, although I've watched things like Apaches and The Finishing Line as an adult and found them deeply disturbing. What were the COI thinking?

I was scared of one of our local newsreaders on Ulster Television for usually delivering sombre news back in the early 80s. He was very calm and well spoken so that made it more eerie. There were never any warnings about what you were going to see either.

Abraham Lincoln also gave me the heebie jeebies. And when the statue of him came to life in the video for We Built This City by Starship (cringe) that freaked me out.

I was scared of birds for quite a while too after seeing The Birds much too young. And although I loved Worzel Gummidge there was a scene where he was having a nightmare (I think) and that there was a scary toothless woman hacking away at him with a sickle. I don't think I'm imagining that.

I loved Robin of Sherwood but the bit where Satan appeared after an evil abbess played by Rula Lenska and her henchwomen presented him with the 7 swords of Weyland (sp?) was creepy.

The James Bulger killers. I had a brother and was really affected by it. It feel like the end of my innocence.

I still feel really sick when the case is mentioned.

There were a lot of children allowed to watch scary stuff far too young! But then, is today's generation of children just a little bit too protected from anything scary? Will be interesting to see what they grow up to be scared of!