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 ?

Michael Jackson’s Thriller video absolutely terrified me aged 10.

Oh yes I remember that, it was really scary.

I still can't have the curtains open once it's dark after the little boy appeared in his brother's window.

V when the half alien babies were born and one of them is a lizard.

I loved V I was a bit older when it was about maybe 12/13. It was on some obscure channel last year me and Dh re watched it,

Cant believe noone has mentioned V yet, remember them eating the mouse and someone peeling their face off, that series terrified me.
My older brother also used to take me to his friends house where they watched Childsplay and Puppet Master and other horror films that definitely were not suitable for a 7 year old.
Seem to remember the news being on all the time and the threat of nuclear war, it scared me more than anything else.
Between the constant scary news and the tv/books I think i spent a fair bit of my time as a child terrified of nuclear war, quicksand and spontaneous human combustion

Stig of the Dump is a truly wonderful book. We read it one chapter a night and it was sublime.

For my birthday this year my adult son bought me a lovely cloth bound edition with the original illustrations. "Because that was such a magical part of growing up." I may have cried a bit at that.

I came on to say this. The kid at the window .. the vampire in the rocking chair…

Children of the Stones had me creeped out and I lived near Avebury!

The box of delights! Just the trailer is 😲😭

I'm a Boomer (just) and rewatched Threads recently. Christ, it's grim.

The Changes really haunted me with weird pylony half memories and I bought the DVD a few years back to try and make sense of it.
More details https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Changes_(TV_series)

Also when the witch suddenly appeared in the graveyard in Lizzie Dripping

Crime watch ("don't have nightmares"...pfft)
The Incredible Hulk
Agatha Christie

The Mad Death terrified me. If an animal in it had rabies it would be filmed in slow motion while it was barking/growling.
Also Sapphire and Steel episodes The man with no face

It was the Stonehenge one that terrified me. They were all burnt to ashes including an Alsatian dog but some of its body remained. I can still picture it.

Nothing is worse than Threads. I mean, Poltergeist, the Daleks, public service videos, Artax's death, all bad, some haunting.

But Threads .... nope, nothing worse.

Likewise, I will never, ever forget Maelstrom and those dolls.

Ghostwatch

The fact they used prime time presenters - Sarah Greene, Mike Smith, Michael Parkinson and Craig Charles made it feel genuine

I remember being scared of Professor Coldheart in Care Bears 😂

By jove i think you're right, it was The Omen! Thank you

The Finishing Line stayed with me for years. I even mentioned it to other people to see if it had all been a weird fever dream and never met anyone who believed me it existed and we were shown this. It's only a few years ago I found it on t'internet and feel both vindicated and horrified.

I can't stand near a platform edge and I practically shit myself at level crossings.

I think it was an early eighties children's drama called something like Midnight is a Place? Set in Victorian times. Slow mo footage of a child worker nearly being crushed under a huge factory machine press while the evil factory owner looked on and laughed? And children being chased through sewers by evil pig like creatures? One boy wasn't quick enough climbing a ladder and the pigs got him and started EATING HIM ALIVE from his feet up while the camera did a CLOSE UP of his screaming face. I was basically watching a freaking Snuff Movie at 4.30pm on a Tuesday afternoon while my Mum was cooking Findus Crispy Pancakes for tea.

Space 1999 the theme music and maya was terrifying

Moondial!!!!! Loved it but yes, creepy as hell.

never been brave enough to watch Threads. Think I might give it a swerve..

lots of these were my absolute favourites!! The Children of Green Knowe, Moondial, Box of Delights. Brilliant teatime telly.

I will add:

— the face-melting Nazis at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. And now I’m thinking about Indiana Jones, the heart-ripping-out bit in Temple of Doom

— Ghostwatch. Pipes!!

— Misty comic. I had an annual full of ghost stories and it was fantastically spooky

—the Usborne book of ghosts. Think it had Borley Rectory on the cover and that pic of the supposed grey lady floating down a staircase

-the original Woman In Black made for tv film. Was shown on Christmas Eve and was so utterly terrifying that I couldn’t sleep and not because of Christmas and promise of pressies

-there was a brilliant Children’s Film Foundation movie about some kids in Cornwall meeting a ghost miner or something. Think the ghost helped avert a mining disaster. My school thought that appropriate to show on the big telly on wheels in the school hall one snow day and I couldn’t sleep for weeks.

My most frightening thing tho was a poster in the local library. It was a little girl in a corner cowering and crying as a fire blazed towards her. Supposed to stop kids playing with matches which worked but also scared the shit out of me and gave me nightmares for weeks!

@ExquisiteSocialSkills ooh yes Salem 's Lot when the boy taps on his friend's window to be let in 😱