Gen X childhood TV and film moments that felt genuinely frightening

[Txutxioyigx]

Gen X scary things:
Noseybonk
Mr Bronson -‘kendalllllll’
Triffids
Chocky
Tripods
Worzel Gummidge when he changed heads
Daleks
The Wheelers in Return to Oz
Any others ?

I watched this when I was about 11! The one with the alien spaceship in the London underground.. (Quatrrmass and the Pit?) My Dad let me watch it. it absolutely terrified me and for years after. About 20 yrs later it was on TV and I actually made myself watch it. It completely healed me from the trauma.. it was so funny.

DH stuck this on when I was on ML. I am still traumatised! I still wouldn't watch the Omen or Poltergeist on my own and I'm 57. Dr Who used to terrify me. Quatermass and the Pit. A Hammer House of Horror with dead bunnies. Marianne Dreams and the Amityville Horror. An episode of Alfred Hitchcock presents where a prisoner made a deal with the doctor to escape by getting in a coffin when the bell rang for a dead fellow prisoner - only to find he was in the coffin with the....DOCTOR! This still gives me shudders.

Public info films were awful. I remember one about a boy wandering off from his mum onto the moors, getting lost in the fog then collapsing near a dead sheep. Horrible image.

Also had nightmares after the fire service visited school and showed a model house, how the fire spread and smoke killed a girl in bed.

I hate all horror films so avoided the worst as a teen, but the child catcher terrified me when younger. Also Jaws, and I accidentally read a bit of The Omen when I was about 14 and had bad dreams for weeks!

“Lollipops”
🍭

The kids programme Sky ( 1975 ) he had solid blue eyes and found covered in leaves . Still gives me the chills

A primary school trip to the Maritime Museum in Greenwich. I’m sure Admiral Nelson’s uniform was on display. The one he died in. OMG as a sensitive kid it haunted me disproportionately for years.

All the Hammer Horror films and a nasty Frankenstein adaptation from the late 60s/early 70s.

I mean this was made for children!😳

I was genuinely terrified that secondary school would be like Grange Hill. I remember crying to my mum about it when I was about 9 or 10.

Turns out my secondary school was much worse! 🤣😮

@LondonLass2026 I loved Will O the Wisp, although looking back, that was another acid trip show 🤣

I loved Moondial at the time, although I don’t remember much about it other than a girl called Araminta (I’d never heard such a very posh name before!), the Moondial itself and vague recollections of Victorian housemaids walking through walls.

Also saw this/read the book.

Also scary:
The witch in Quincy’s Quest
The Dr Who series set in a block of flats where people were eaten by wheelie bins and garbage disposal units
Jaws
Choose Your Own Adventure books
Point Horror books
The song in the charts that sampled the Dr Who theme tune used to make me shudder
Goonies

Zzzap! It was because they never talked. Someone did tell me it was aimed at deaf children

The Ichabod Crane story on Picture Box

Not helped by the theme to Picture Box.

Various Tales of the Unexpected episodes - the one where the landlady is a taxidermist and the homeless man with the priceless painting tattooed on his back.

Being allowed to watch the horse scene in the Godfather.

All those video nasties we'd watch in church youth club. 🫣

Was it called The Changes? I think I remember it too!

Armchair Thriller

Professor Yaffle in Bagpuss. The whole of Bagpuss was a bit sinister, really.

Yep

My first ever sleepover aged 10 at my best friend's house. Her parents let us watch Jaws. I had a nightmare there was a shark in the toilet, woke up crying, had a nose bleed and had to be picked up to go home. I'm still scared of that film.

The Witches and the Grinnygog.
The Restless Ghost on Dramarama, about the glowing drummer boy.

Watching 999 scarred me for life. The music triggers that feeling!

The girl who trapped her hair in a vent in the swimming pool.
The kid who got the javelin through their neck!

Yess! I remember this from one of the Omen movies, I think it was the first one. The girl fell through the frozen lake and got trapped by the ice, scared the wits out of me

@Echobelly yes - anything Moomins was terrifying!
I still don't like to look at pictures of them

Casualty terrified me especially the theme tune
crime watch (understandably really)
gremlins
nightmare on elm street (also understandable)
the British Gas ad about not turning on the light
the fireworks sparkler ad
public information videos - drowning, railway lines, electric railway lines

They were my favourite books. Totally normalised incest and rape !!

The Changes was based on a book, I think. It was really unnerving. I remember pylons..?

No I have! Rats of Nimh too? Or is that something entirely different?!