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?

Going to bed and being followed up the stairs. DD is the same, if we are going to bed at the same time we argue over who goes first!
I get the heebiejeebies just thinking about it😱

YY to the safety vids shown in schools in the mid 80s. I remember the head teacher telling me I was a "very naughty girl" because I didn't want to watch them . Doubt that would happen now.

The Guy on the train from the Film Ghost... "GET OFF MY TRAAAAIN!!" (Scares me even typing that )

I remember once I pretended to be asleep when I mum came in to check on me. She knew i was pretending so came over and tickled my palm as my hand was up on the pillow. Completely innocent parenting moment. I still can't sleep with my palms up out of the duvet incase someone does the same.

I calso can't sleep with my feet out of the covers or my neck uncovered. That's just sensible avoidance of monsters though.

Benny from crossroads. I was very young but terrified

Having to talk to a group of people! Still scares me!

I used to have recurring nightmares of a man stomping upstairs and tickling my back. I never saw his face but its was so horrible

@iwishihadamargerita

Omg ghost watch.

I saw that.

My dad had to take me to bed I was about 14.

@Lardlizard me too!! Am terrified of them!

Spontaneous Human Combustion, the photos they use to illustrate it in particular.

Blank faces, like The Man Who Wasn’t There in Sapphire And Steel.

@iamtheoneandonlyyy

Benny from crossroads. I was very young but terrified

Sorry but that’s made me giggle

@QuestionableMouse yes Threads! Bloody terrifying thing to make young teens watch, traumatised us all! I can still feel that utter dread and despair in my stomach if I think of it.

JAWS. I’m 49, hated the sea since then. Can’t bear it if I can’t see my feet, ugh

Watership down
The wheelers in return to oz
The black cauldron
Dm took us to see Peter and the wolf - film on screen live orchestra thing and it was version and DD was terrified

Flowers in the attic still scares me from being a teenager!

Oh and a 2 parter about an earthquake in LA mid 90s I think. I was a permanently scared child.

&Saucery yes also to Spontaneous Human Combustion. This image I really recall? Wasn’t it a hoax though?
I also read a book called Buried Alive in the early 80s I think that was debunked as a hoax. I’ve always had a taste for the macabre.

@suzeb

Flowers in the attic still scares me from being a teenager!

Yes!!!!!!

The book Marianne Dreams. I have no desire to revisit it.

@Snooks1971

&Saucery yes also to Spontaneous Human Combustion. This image I really recall? Wasn’t it a hoax though? I also read a book called Buried Alive in the early 80s I think that was debunked as a hoax. I’ve always had a taste for the macabre.

Eeeeek! Yes, that’s the one! I still get the little jump in my stomach when I see it, 40 years later. Debunked as a hoax? I’ll look that up, thank you.

I though the Michael Jackson thriller video was pretty scary as a kid.
Also, the dark riders in lord of the rings cartoon, the red eyes glaring in the dark.
I was a sensitive child though. Wouldn’t even go upstairs to bed alone.

Back in the early 1970s, the news programme Nationwide reported on a family who had dug up two small stone heads, brought them into the house, and stirred up a werewolf! It petrified me! If you want to know the full story, just look up "Hexham heads"; it gets a lot of coverage on the web.

I’m in my 40s and I still do not understand how the film ET was ever classed as a children’s film. That alien scares me even now.

A public safety advert for grain storage where a doll was sucked into it. Terrifying. I was also very worried about rabies.

@Saucery I think so but I don’t know! Surely it was a 70s ‘urban myth’ type thing (prays). Why was it just the feet in shoes left??

The music at the beginning of crime watch, it used to scare the bejesus out of me as a child.