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.

[SaggyOldClothCatPuss]

Threads!
My mother in her infinite wisdom decided that I needed to watch this 'public information' film! I was 9 FFS!
I was severely traumatised about the threat of nuclear war for years! I had just managed to put it out of my head when we went to war with Iraq the first time and one of my teachers gave us a lecture about the chance of Saddam Hussein having nuclear weapons!

[PipkinsPal]

Maximillian's spinning hand blades in Disney's Black Hole. I was actually sick in the cinema I was so scared. Even today hearing the music that accompanied his arrival sends me into a panic.

[EugenesAxe]

I forgot but yes, quicksand I was also scared of.

I remembered a couple more: The War of the Worlds - my parents would sometimes put on the LP when we'd gone to bed and I'd hear it drifting up the stairs. Think it's phenomenal now though.

And weirdly when I was 9/10yo I was scared I was developing a hunchback, because I thought my top vertebrae were too knobbly.

[WinkyWinkola]

Being left by my family.

I woke up alone in the middle of the night on our coach journey to the south of France in 1977. I was 6. My dm, df and brothers had gone gone to clean teeth, loo etc.

I howled so much. I knew all other passengers were getting cheesed off and one young woman, a nurse called Rachel came to talk to me and reassure me my family was coming back.

My mother denies this ever happened. Since then, I scared childhood pals because I believed that their parents,that we were waiting for, weren't coming back either - from the shop or the school gate of older siblings etc.

[Preferthedogtothekids]

Dr Seuss books with their nasty characters shudder

My DC's childhood was never darkened by any green eggs or ham.

[MamaChubbyLegs]

Preferthedog at Dr Seuss.

ET. I was petrified of ET. I refused to even look at it. I was 15 when those bloody BT adverts with ET came out. It ruined TV until I forced myself to look at it and watch the film. I was well proud of myself! I still jump out of my skin if I catch an unexpected glimpse of ET. Horrible rubbery bastard.

[FridaKarlov]

Rottweilers (still scared now)
Ghostwatch gave me terrible nightmares.
Princess Mombi from Return to Oz. The bit where her headless body rises off the bed to chase Dorothy while all the heads in the cabinets scream is still scary.
Pylons. My mum told me they were dangerous and I really took it to heart, and there's also a creepy scene in Watership Down involving a pylon that really freaked me out.
A children's horror novel called Room 13. It involved Dracula.
The AIDS awareness adverts from the 80s

And finally...Aubergines- I thought they were heroin.

[digerd]

One of my earliest nightmares that I remember, was walking in the street with a vest but no knickers on.
Fears of being smothered when DB pulled the sheet over my head, being held so I couldn't move, fear of heights and the sea/deep water.

Being in the pitch black/dark, which made me feel I couldn't breathe.

[PGRated]

The Gremlins ..... Still make me nervous now!
The villain from sleeping beauty - Maleficent (she was bat shit crazy)

[meddie]

Nuns. The ones in the old black and white habits.
We had a convent at the bottom of our road and they always seemed so stern and scary. Used to hear horror stories of how brutal and sadistic they were from girls who went to the convent school.

Evil in a penguin suit

[SaggyOldClothCatPuss]

Oh GOD! Ghost Watch!
I watched this with DP and his parents. I was 16. I had no idea it was a fucking spoof! I made it to the bit when they panned around the room then flicked back and the bloke was standing by the curtain! I had a total meltdown. I was hysterical! DFIL had to take me home to my mum! I was sooo upset! My mum was a total bitch! "FFS! Pull yourself together you silly cow!"

[cjdamoo]

To this day I cannot sleep without the covers completely covering my arms and legs. Because obviously the monsters under the bed cannot get me through the duvet

[ShakeAndVac]

The Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. That scene where the children were hiding in the toy maker's house, and the Child Catcher comes with a van.
"Ice cream, cherry pie, all free today!" So they run out, go into the van and all the sides fall off to reveal they're locked in a cage and he takes off with them.
Shudder!
Those Wheelie things in Return to Oz as well. How was that a kids film, lol?! Wheelies, shrieking heads, and Dorothy getting electric shock treatment as they thought she was losing it as she said she'd been to a faraway land called Oz.

[ShakeAndVac]

Oh GOD! Ghost Watch!

Wow, had forgotten all about that! Was that the one with the ghost, Pipes?!
That was scary stuff - especially as it was billed as being real if I remember correctly!

[SaggyOldClothCatPuss]

It was! Apparently is scared one bloke so much he killed himself!

[RonaldMcDonald]

Terrorists coming to kill my dad. (He is a Norn Iron policeman)
Terrified by the possibility...used to lie awake in the dark listening for footsteps

[Mouserama]

Mirrors in the dark. I remember watching something on tv when I was about 4 or 5, where the character looked in a mirror and saw a ghost in it. To this day, I still cannot look in a mirror when the lights are switched off - I might see a ghost, you see?!

Also, I was irrationally terrified of daddy long legs, moths and grasshoppers/crickets. Don't mind daddy long legs now. Moths are fine apart from the massive hairy fuckers , but grasshoppers/crickets are still just evil and have been sent from the devil...

[Boosterseat]

The Wimpy Man

[MrsBucketxx]

Mine where ET and Ronald McDonald

Stupid now and pretty tame.

[ILetHimKeep20Quid]

Giant Haystacks the wrestler.

[Dontbugmemalone]

The talking toilet from Look who's talking.
Freddy Kruger (sp).

[LadyFlumpalot]

I can't remember the actual name of the programme but it was a sort of supernatural detective series (Sapphire and Steel?) and there was one episode where a man with no face stalked you through any photos you were in.

For years I was terrified of any smartly dressed man in a bowler type hat. Not good when you live smack bang in the middle of the Thames Valley and commute to school on the main Paddington to Reading train line...

[GlobalWarning]

The Toilet Monster.
If I didn't run from the loo downstairs and make it back to bed before the toilet had finished flushing and making all its noise, the toilet monster would get me and I would die

[GhettoFabulous]

The theme tune to World in Action :

[vladthedisorganised]

Nuclear war, being kidnapped (I used to leave a trail of some sort wherever I went when I was about 5 so my parents could follow it when they discovered I was missing), asteroids, Davros, the video to Thriller and most dolls. Most of Watership Down freaked me out, though I loved all of Fantasia including the bit with the ghosts.

There are some pieces of music that scared me witless for no reason at all - I still can't listen to Nights in White Satin without shuddering.