Things that absolutely terrified you as a child.....

[lisaJN1986]

And still scare you all these years later?

I'll start... 😂

Theme tune from tales of the unexpected. Gives me the shivers

Bob from Twin Peaks ..

Swimming pool drains. Still can't go or swim near them.

Hot Cross buns , I’m sure one of the Nuns at my infant school told they were made from Jesus’ skin 🤮Not a strange thing really as at my Holy Communion the wafer was put in your mouth as the Priest said “ The body of Christ” I used to keep it in my mouth & then get rid of it into a tissue or if it was a material hanky , that had to be disposed of too . Couldn’t have body parts of Christ in my mum’s washing machine.

Clowns. I have never been to a circus in my life and will never ever go to one. I get the shudders seeing a clown on TV.

Same goes for those dolls with the painted faces, awful hair and frilly clothes that they used to advertise in the Sunday supplements 🤢

The Sea Devils when they first emerge from the sea in 1970’s Dr Who.

Oh yeah Crimewatch, the serious music and knowing at was all real. Many a night I was terrified to get up and go to the toilet and would lie stiff scared to move an inch incase a burglar noticed me.

The sea devils
The Herbs especially Parsley the lion
Clowns

I was a child in the 70's and read newspapers far too young so was terrified of Idi Amin

Rabies seemed to be on TV all the time

Also, the film Masque Of The Red Death. I was home alone on a Saturday night, they never bothered to get a babysitter.

Moving house ( not sure why as we never moved but I used to have nightmares about it) and this:

Ren & Stimpy
Flat Eric
Sharks in the swimming pool

Every year there was a French Canadian film shown called The Christnas Alien (Le martien de Noël). It was badly dubbed and very low budget with a freaky guy wearing a stocking on his head playing the alien. We only watched it for the candy scene in the spaceship. It was just very creepy.

Clowns
The noise the upright Hoover made. Which while I'm not scared per se, explains my housekeeping skillz of today 😂

Pandemics, nuclear war, floods, the next ice age. I’m still scared of the last 3.
The toilet flushing at night. I had to run downstairs before it finished or I’d be sucked in. I’m over that now.

Chocky.

Poltergeist - all of it but the scene with the meat and maggots where the guy pulls his face off over the sink was the most terrifying thing I've ever seen. Why were we allowed to watch this stuff!

And the end credits of Casualty. Not terrifying but brought a sense of dread and doom as it was eerie and signalled time for bed having to think about all manner of accidents that could occur in the home or road.

Has anyone mentioned The Singing Ringing Tree? Bloody hell, it was terrifying.

Spiders, obviously.

Daleks, and they're still scary.

Rabies (Survivors and also living by the sea, I think there were posters, etc)

Nuclear War (I can remember the grave faces of my parents during the Cuban Missile crisis, then later there was more terrifying info,Threads, etc)

Cancer, particularly leukaemia (from reading old Readers Digests, followed up by DM's alarming explanation)

The Hooden Horse, a sinister Obby Oss type figure that was a traditional thing around the south coast with a scarily snapping jaw.

The bath plug hole, obviously. (Is it me , or are they less noisy nowadays? Ours positively groaned)

Getting stuck in the outside loo. It was brick built and windowless with cut outs at the top of the door. I used to imagine they would have to pass sandwiches to me through these.

There are more, but we'd be here all day…

More Doctor Who scariness - The Autons.

Took me quite a while to walk past a shop window without giving the dummies in it side-eye.

ONG yes, Day of the Triffids! Not helped by the fact that we had lots of warnings in school about the evils of Giant Hogweed, which grew by the river on our way home from school.

Alfred Hitchcock The Birds film ……: how/ why I was allowed to watch it I do not know as I had good parents!

Oh also quicksand ……. Definitely that fear is from. Watching cowboy and Indians films!

An episode of ZigZag which was a history programme for schools in the 80s. A bog man rose from the dead and approached the house of young child
via the garden 😰

Gawd no,I see what you mean!😱

Just remembered another one,the original 1980's Salem's Lot with David Soul. I had a bit of a thing for him so couldn't not watch it but dear me, the little boy floating up and tapping on the bedroom window to be let in was the stuff of nightmares😱🧛