What used to scare you as a child?

[Kasterborous]

I was terrified after I had seen the film Jaws at school, that a shark was going to come up the plug hole in the bath or up the toilet bowl. And for ages I had nightmares about that dead body that appeared from under the rocks in the water. My Mum was that they had shown the film at school I was about nine and easily scared. I also remember being terrified of the Triffids which was on telly when I was young. I remember my sister, who is three years younger than me chasing me round pretending to be a triffid! I still can't watch horror films.

Oops was supposed to be in chat

Pennywise the cown (It) voms a bit

The wheelers from Return to Oz scared the shit out of me and still do

I was also scared to watch The Neverending Story be aide I thought I would never be able to stop watching it and would be stuck forever never able to do anything else

Tractors
Monsters under the bed
Can't think of anything else really, my uncle used to scare me as he would always grab us roughly and tickle us with bony fingers.

I was always terrified that if my arm hung over the edge of the bed whilst I was asleep the crocodile under the bed would eat it .

No idea where that came from

I have memories of finding all sorts of childrens TV programmes disturbing: Pipkins, Krystal Tips and Alistair, The Magic Roundabout, Rainbow, The Herb Garden, Bagpuss, Mr Ben...!

Maybe it was because TV was such a rare luxury. We only got a TV when I was 5, only had three channels, black and white. And my dad had a rule that we couldn't have it on if it was light outside, unless it was raining!

Turnip - the Wizard of Oz has terrified DS1 tonight. Had to reassure him its just a film and isn't real. He was only watching the Tom & Jerry version as well.

Ha ha! Well apparently as a kid I was scared of the honey monster and a character in Rupert Bear (that twiggy thing with the long nose). As a slightly older child (and this will teach me to sneakily watch films!) the 'bed in woods' scene in American Werewolf in London creeped the crap out of me!

whogoestheremovieops.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/an_american_werewolf_in_london_eyes.jpg

I used to run quickly from the light switch in to bed (from about 8) and jump the last step in to bed to avoid scary under-the-bed beasts. and now after horror movies
And I saw jaws around the same age, I would get a sudden panicky feeling in the deep end of the swimming pool. Shudder.

My foster mother.

And I had a cuddly one sat in top of my wardrobe too!

Hulk Hogan. My mum used to watch me (while I was asleep) backing away from him terrified. She ended up using 'magic powder' (talc) in my bedroom, sprinkling it everywhere which stopped bad dreams and it worked.
I use it for my dd3 now.

Vampires. Read Count Dracula when I was 10, think it was a short version, and I went through a phase of hanging garlic up at all the windows. Terrifying!

Love anything horror now though.

The bath plughole
The Muppets

The child catcher from chitty chitty bang bang scared me witless!

Also the bit in teen wolf when his eyes glow red.

War, just the notion of war was very worrying to me. I was 10 when the Falklands Conflict happened, so that just exacerbated it. I remember thinking that everyone was going to die except me and I would be just wandering around some horrible post-nuclear wasteland. Other things that tied in with that time were the assassination of John Lennon and the attempts on the Pope and Ronald Reagan. Oh and that Raymond Briggs thing, what was it called. Not The Snowman.

Also saw Chuckie when I was around the same age, very scary movie.

the demon headmaster! (90s child)

The bath plughole! Yes!! Source of creepiness... Yeuch

Wardrobes.

I used to have this really vague sense that something was waiting for me under the bed.

The feeling has never, ever, ever left me.

I am 33 years old and as far from a 'girly girl' as you can get. I am afraid of nothing and no-one and look like I'd punch your lights out soon as look you.

And yet every night -EVERY NIGHT - I have to have my feet tucked in by the duvet or I won't sleep. Even if it's 35 degrees and all I've got is a sheet, my feet have to be tucked in. If I wake up and my feet are untucked I panic and do this frantic burrowing until they're covered again.

The monsters, you see, won't get to your feet through the covers.

DH says I should just wear socks. what a twat. He knows NOTHING.

I was seriously scared of Daleks, I still shudder if I see a picture of one and I nearly ran screaming from a shopping centre a couple of years ago when there was an actual real life dalek being paraded around for some reason.
Also, there used to be an advert on TV when I was about 3 where someone was sitting at the table eating custard and an octopus came up through the floorboards and grabbed the bowl off them. I have never been able to eat custard to this day!!

Wee Willy Winky.

My mother so knew how to get me to go to bed before 8 O'Clock!

I used to see all sorts of scary things in the crinkles and patterns in the curtains that would keep me awake for ages.

I used to have recurring nightmares of the bit from the film Jason and the Argonauts, where the men have been plundering treasure and the statue guarding it suddenly comes to life. Its head turns round with an ominous creak - I can still remember it and how the image of it kept me awake, 40+ years on, yet when I see the film itself the scene is quite different to my memory . . .