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?

The ChildCatcher in Chitty Chitty bang bang

Another one for Watership Down - it gave me nightmares for months afterwards, and I still can't listen to Bright Eyes 30-odd years later

The first two chapters of The Secret Garden when everyone dies of cholera. I literally woke up in the middle of the night screaming. I re-read it recently and was surprised by how mild it is - not graphic at all. I guess it was the idea more than the actual words.

Ghostwatch!

I was completely horrified by what I was watching but I couldn't tear my eyes away.
Am pretty sure my grandparents who I was watching it with were equally as terrified and I remember the terror in their front room.

@BlackCat91 I still hate going to the toilet in the middle of the night because if that scene!

Clowns
Porcelain dolls
Old ventriloquist dummies (the ones that look like Jimmy Carr)

Yes and the rocking chair scene too. Although bizarrely this thread has made me want to watch it again now

Watership Down scarred me for life 😂

.

That public information film about playing on train tracks - Jonny won't need his football boots anymore.

Daleks.

A for Zachariah and all the nuclear war YA fiction and films that were huge in the late 1980s.

Attics/ Lofts - no idea why and I’ve never been in one. Dh has to go in the loft, I’m never setting foot in it, they bloody terrify me!

Yes to Watership Down, never again. Also the window scene in Salems Lot.

I grew up on a farm and we were the Apaches!
Dark Water is chilling.
Tales Of The Unexpected and Armchair Thriller.

My grandma used to tell a story called Jack Shine The Maggie about an old bloke that came to the window with an old style lantern. Jesus I don't know what she was thinking.

That scene in 3 men and a baby with the boy hiding behind the curtain.

The advert with the welly booted foot getting crushed on an escalator.

Ghostwatch

Various safety films from 1970s - kite near pylons, frisbee in electricity substation.

The tale of Samuel Whiskers when the kitten nearly gets made into roly poly pudding.

The child catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Also until very recently slept with the covers pulled right up because the monsters from under the bed might come and nibble your toes/fingers/nose if they poked out.

I saw the trailer to Chucky when I was 3 years old and was absolutely terrified. Apparently I refused to watch TV for a month afterwards. I've been scared of dolls ever since, and Chucky gives me shivers down my spine.

Getting up for a wee during the night, I always imagined the witch that lived under my bed would grab my ankles as I put my feet on the floor. After doing my wee, I was terrified the witch that lived in the toilet, would reach out and grab me as I flushed the loo. I never washed my hands after the loo at night. I would flush, flick the light off, tear along the hall and leap onto my bed from the bedroom door, because the witch under the bed was still waiting... I use the past tense here, but I'm now 50 yo and those witches are still waiting.

Another for E.T he still scares me to this day.

I saw an episode of The Walton's when I was five called 'The Changeling' it was fucking terrifying and the worst thing was that there was no explanation for all the poltergeist activity.

I didn't sleep for months after it was the Waltons ffs I wasn't expecting that!

The cybermen in Dr Who. I guess it was the hissing but I used to hide behind the sofa. I’d long forgotten about them until I visited the Dr Who exhibition at Longleat some 30 years later, entered the room they were in and I was frozen with terror. So not forgotten after all just buried deep.

Nightmare on Elm St. watched it on my own aged about 6/7. I was scared for years and only slept on my back for two years. And still don’t like bubble baths or baths in dim light because of the bath scene.

Also china dolls. From telling scary stories as a kid. ‘Sally, I’m on the first step.’ If anyone knew that story. Told it to my husband the other day and he said it was shit

Ugh yeah, going for a wee! I hated flushing-- I always thought the monsters were coming for me.

The Tripods (1980s BBC programme) especially the noise they made.
Those weird walking hammer things on Pink Floyd's 'Another Brick in the Wall' video. They still make me feel sick

The testcard girl . That bloody clown . I remember getting up early in the morning before telly started and being terrified of that picture .

Also on the same line, video and audio cassettes . Scared after they stop playing something else will start . Something to do with Poltergeist which my mum let me see bits of at age 3 or 4 .

And weirdly an Andrex advert (dog runnng with paper and boy laughing) that has a strange reaction , leaves me sobbing .

Watership down. Those poor bunnies.