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.

[BalloonSlayer]

[thisisyesterday]

i used to be so, so, so, so scared that someone was going to "take me"

this was especially bad at night when I would literally be frozen with terror underneath my duvet imagining a person standing by my bed waiting for me to move.

[Burmobasher]

That bit of the beginning of Watership Down where the field gets built on and loads of rabbits suffocate, I could not get that image out of my head in bed at night.
The skeleton under the bed who would surely grab my feet if I dangled them over the edge.

[TheArmadillo]

The firebird - theatre company did it at my infants school and left me terrified for years after. As far as I remember if you touched it and you were a good person you were fine. But if you were a bad person it burnt you up. I came from an abusive home and by that age I was convinced I was such a bad person it was going to find me and burn me up.

Very young I was scared of the bad fairy in my dreams, so stopped sleeping. Sleep deprivation led to me hallucinating the bad fairy instead

I was also terrified of witches coming to get me and people spying on me. I used to get changed under the covers as I was convinced cctv cameras were in my room. Also that my toys were plotting to get me and would come alive at night. As a teen I was convinced a little man lived on my shoulder and hanging off by back whispering to me and plotting against me. I was also terrified people would find out I was insane and was very withdrawn.

I had loads of fears, each age of my life is marked by what the current bogeyman was. They all shared the common characteristics of constantly watching me and the fear of being punished for being such a bad person.

As an adult I was diagnosed with paranoid delusions and hallucinations. Apparently not unusual in those with upbringings like mine. And I am not as mental as I thought i was. Thankfully now all under control. I spent a large amount of my life in constant fear.

[elvisola]

Fire alarms, bells, anything shrill and alarm like, it got slightly better when I went to secondary school and got used to the bell to change lessons.

It was because when I was 4 my dad ran into a burning house, he pulled out 3 kids and their mother. Unfortunately I was left alone on the pavement watching my daddy go into fire and thinking he was never coming back. I remember it like yesterday.

[Elsiequadrille]

Yes, I could never have arms or legs sticking out of bed, in case of being grabbed by the ghost who haunted the bedroom (man with a floppy wide-brim hat according to my sister). Our house was blessed by the priest but I still didn't feel safe.

I saw a film called Piranha. I suspect it was a load of old rubbish (70s/80s film, can't recall it now), but it upset me and gave me nightmares.

[PelvicFloorClenchReminder]

Fork lift trucks and the big carriage in our local museum.

Entirely rational - both are clearly terrifying, I'll have you know.

[VashtaNerada]

Wurzel Gummidge

Zadok is it When the Wind Blows?

[SPsTotallyMullerFuckingLicious]

Clowns and they still terrify me now. I dont trust the creepy fuckers

[Boaty]

Daleks, The child catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The witch in Wizard of Oz , Dolls, they give gave me the creeps!

[Littleen]

I was terrified of my parents killing me in my sleep. My first memory is of me waking up in bed in the dark, and with the door shut (always been scared of the dark), and I thought I was dead, and that they had "finally done it". I was always so anxious, thinking they were just waiting for the right time. No idea where this idea came from, I was only 3-4. By 5 I decided they maybe wasn't going to kill me, as they would have surely done it by then! :P So strange. Still scared of the dark, and of someone attacking me randomly in the dark!

[gordyslovesheep]

Nuclear War and the sun going out - oh and gravity breaking

[StaticSockMonster]

The video to thriller. Still scares me shitless
Oh and I cannot sleep if there is a gap in the curtains or the wardrobe doors aren't shut properly.

[Binkyridesagain]

Ghosts, I wouldn't enter a room without a light being on because there were ghosts hiding somewhere in the dark.

[mrsjay]

those flying wizard of oz monkies and also a tree outside my window was a monster obviously , I loved Doctor who but davros scared me witless , and i was allowed to watch hammer house of horror with my nana I mustve been about 8 or 9 when it was on, bloody hell that scared me but it was ok cos under the covers keeps monsters and ghosties away

[SofiaVagueara]

Mummies. My brother wanted to go to see them at the British Museum and my parents took me in there despite absolute screaming hysterics and begging to be taken out.

If you go and see the Mummies at the British Museum you can see how that would be terrifying for a child that age.

I was frighten of going upstairs on my own after that until I was about 11. I know that sounds really extreme but it was terrifying.

[Jan49]

I think I saw several scary films on TV when I was too young to cope with them, that is, about 13 : The Birds - the bit where they find a farmer with his eyes pecked out. Let's Kill Uncle - where the children try to kill their uncle with a tarantula, and a TV series where someone is held down under bath water and drowned. I used to feel fear when I walked into our bathroom for ages. I thought there would be a body under the water.

I never realised how much the Daleks scared me until my ds got his first talking Dalek. The sound seemed to trigger a buried fear in me and it took me ages to get used to it.

Apart from scary TV stuff, I worried a lot about my mum as it was a time of terrorist attacks on London (1970s) and she used to go shopping after work at lunchtime and I worried that she'd get blown up. I used to go and meet her if it was school holidays so that if she died I'd hopefully die too, but I never told her that. Sadly she died of cancer when I was a teenager so I feel like I worried about the wrong thing.

[MyNameIsRio]

Nuclear war, emu, the singing ringing tree.

[MiauMau]

Everything!! Really... I was a scaredy cat :)

[Jan49]

Oh yes, and I used to worry about going upstairs to the toilet at my gps' house after dark as it was rather dark and also you had to walk past the door to the cellar in the hall and things come out of cellars and attack you, as everyone knows.

[poshbeaver]

Turniptwirl, the wheelers were the first thing I thought of when I saw this thread, they are the scariest thing ever!! Even now, at the age of 33, I can't watch them!

[Sparrowlegs248]

Films that were more 'real' scared me. Jaws was clearly fake even though my big sister tried to scare me by making me watch it but when i woke up snuggled up to my mum on the sofa and she was watching the posieden (??) adventure (or whatever its called) it gave me nightmares for months.

My horrid recurring dreams scared me.

And the worst - night time fears that my parents would die, or that the house would catch fire. I moved bedrooms aged 9 so i could have a room (much much smaller) with an easier escape route.

[NoComet]

The dark when I was little. My door had to be left exactly the right amount open with just the right sized 'carrot' of hall light on the ceiling.

Oddly, when I was older, everything had to be pitch black and I'd happily walk a friend to meet her mum up a very very dark drive and walk back on my own.

Cybermen, anything to do with brains and skulls.

I still hate skulls in on clothes!

[Xiaoxiong]

I was really scared of one panel in the Tintin story the Seven Crystal Balls - the one where the Inca mummy is climbing in the window of the explorers.

OMG I've just found the image that terrified me: nekkonezumi.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/rascar-capac.jpg