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

[lisaJN1986]

And still scare you all these years later?

I'll start... 😂

Quicksand - thanks to the neverending story, though I’m sure I heard real life horror stories as a child too.

Spontaneous combustion - does anyone else remember this being a thing on the news? There was a documentary on it too which really freaked me out. I think they worked out that it was people sat too close to fires etc but I still think about that documentary sometimes.

Escalators - again, thanks to horror news stories of people being sucked in.

Pylons

Lightning

Fire

The Riddlers

Wolf stories/wolves coming 'to get you/kill you' on a countdown to 1

Quicksand/fire/swimming pool vents thanks to Michael Burke

Having any body part dangling over the bed (still can't) or going up the stairs alone when it's dark downstairs

Another one for Marianne’s Dream.

Daleks. As an adult I went to the opening of a music studio. They had a full size model Dalek. Because it was a music studio with sound effects someone did a very convincing “Exterminate” just as I was walking past. Nearly peed myself in fright!

the monster under the bed, vampires, Carry on Screaming, and a local childhood story about the Green Hand

Also having a bath after watching the ghost come out of the tap on ghostbusters.

Snakes in the toilet waiting for me, especially in the night

My sister.

Flushing the toilet in the dark or on your own. I had to run back to bed and hide.
The AIDS awareness adverts/ posters / campaign utterly horrified and confused my child brain too, I grew up terrified due to them.

No no! Chorton was lovely - Fenella was the witch 🧙‍♀️ 😱

Being in the bath when the plug was taken out; Father Christmas; teachers; strangers; fireworks; dolls; and magicians

Dams and water holes in reservoirs ,
hectors house . Tales of the unexpected .

Cybermen (60's version) and Sea Devils.

How they got away with selling Dr Who as a kid's show is beyond me

Hideous rhyme doing the rounds in the playground about hearing a hideous murderer coming up the stairs. Had some sort of nasty 'jump' ending.

Burglars. I used to lay awake at night calculating how many bedrooms there were in the road and the percentage chances of one creeping into mine...

The movie, Without Warning. I came home from a friends house and my big brother had it on, convinced me it was real. I was done!

Chitty Chitty bang bang. Cant watch it now. I’m 50

Edges, they still do.

That scene in Tommy ( that my older brother and sister let me watch) when his mum irons him.

this was on when I got engaged on weekend away to exH. Should’ve been a sign.

All of this!

This thing 😱

Spiders. I would run, screaming, from any room in which a spider was, say, on the ceiling. Once outside the room I would burst into tears and shake with fear. I could not go back in until it was removed. Then I would sit and cry and shake in an aftershock.

Nowadays I might spot one on my bedroom ceiling, switch off the light and just go to sleep. It can stay there for days for all I care.

Haystacks
Pressure cookers

The version I knew said he was coming upstairs, then into his bedroom then "I'm at the bottom of your bed"

Many many of these

The the episode of sapphire and steel when the baddie set fire to a photograph when there was someone living trapped in the photo so you heard them start to burn to death

🫣

I LOVED grotbags, rod and emu etc 😂

Scared by an episode of midsomer murders where the woman keeps her dead brother “Ralph”
in her house and his corpse shit me up. My mother used to say if I didn’t behave Ralph would come get me

Also an episode of X files where an alien thing burst out of somebody

shouldn’t have been watching these things!

DB was terrified of China dolls.

DH says his was crocodile coming out of the toilet to bite his ass

Gypsies. I read a story about them stealing children. A gypsy lady came to the door begging and my mum gave her my old shoes. I was terrified she would take me as well. Know this is not pc but it was the 70s and I was about 5.

Foxes - too many fairy stories where they were the baddies genuinely thought they could eat a person.

Witches particularly the one from the wizard of oz. Wolves. Burglars. I was an anxious over thinking kid.

The title sequence and music to 'Tales of the Unexpected'

The Incredible Hulk's eyes when he changed...

The video to Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall - particularly the hanging dummy thing....😱