Alison / October 15, 2007 9:11 AM

I read a story about people being buried alive before embalming became the norm, so I was so scared of that...

...I also used to check to make sure there weren't any tarantulas under the covers by my feet every night when I went to bed.

Alison / October 15, 2007 9:12 AM

I read a story about people being buried alive before embalming became the norm, so I was so scared of that...

...I also used to check to make sure there weren't any tarantulas under the covers by my feet every night when I went to bed.

Andrew / October 15, 2007 9:14 AM

Question cribbed from Adventures in Snack Canyon, where it was more about movies.

jennyp / October 15, 2007 9:28 AM

Shadow people.

pantagrapher / October 15, 2007 9:28 AM

The Twilight Zone

And to make matters worse, I'd get the theme song stuck in my head at night.

ac / October 15, 2007 9:30 AM

The wizard guy on the Bozo Show

carrie / October 15, 2007 9:45 AM

The green eyes on the wall... probably saw those b/c I saw "Nightmare on Elm Street" and was scared of that.

Also, i was always scared of people hiding behind open doors so I'd always push the door open as far as possible before entering a room.

Spook / October 15, 2007 9:45 AM

Dead people coming back to life and people possessed by the devil

ahn / October 15, 2007 9:54 AM

big storms and tornadoes. (still do.)

ghosts in the basement. a chainsaw growing out of the hinge in my canopy bed and slowly lowering to chop me in half in the middle of the night (my mom never forgave my dad for letting me watch that david copperfield show). a wolf that "lived" in my closet - i had to sleep with the closet door closed always. i think it was based off the nothing from "the never-ending story." i was a weird kid.

Robyn / October 15, 2007 9:58 AM

The, uh, video for Thriller and the metaphorical "Boogie Man."

jasmine / October 15, 2007 10:02 AM

My mom didn't really shield me from anything, so I was terrified of a lot as a kid.

Dogs - I was 23 when I finally got over that fear.

E.T. - still terrified of him.

Drought - "Mom, how long would it take for Chicago to look like Africa?" "About six months of no rain."

Thunderstorms

Nuclear War - I chalk this up to being allowed to watch "The Day After" with Jason Robards when I was like, nine.

1997 - I think that was the year that Nostradamus said the world would end. Thanks, mom, for letting me watch that Nostradamus documentary when I was 10. And then not explaining that HE MIGHT BE A HACK.

The basement. Am still afraid of most basements.

kate / October 15, 2007 10:09 AM

I was afraid the jetway walls were going to close in and crush me.

No other walls, just the ones on the jetway.

consumer / October 15, 2007 10:29 AM

Getting fat(ter). Shame!

m / October 15, 2007 10:33 AM

i dont know what horror movie this stems from (although im sure it does stem from a movie), but i was (and still am) scared of getting my neck slashed while i'm sleeping. i learned to sleep on my side and pull the covers up to my ears since clearly a blanket is going to stop a homicidal maniac from slitting my neck... i actually still sleep on my side with the blankets up to my ears.

and, i was afraid of alligators (or freddie krueger) coming up and out of the toilet when i was sittin on it. i grew out of that one.... although im still wary of snakes doing it.

also, i used to freak out at sleepovers when people did the whole dark bathroom w/ a mirror "bloody mary" bit. i guess because my name is mary. but that shit freaked me out. still does a little.

eep / October 15, 2007 10:36 AM

I was also afraid of the "Thriller" video. This probably explains my hatred of all things zombie, even today.

Bugs, especially spiders. Having a hallucinogenic reaction to my childhood athesma meds and seeing spiders and bugs all over for three days straight didn't help.

Tornadoes. They still freak me out.

Being chased.

Josh / October 15, 2007 10:38 AM

I heard about people seeing The Exorcist who ran from the theater screaming and "people who didn't believe in God" that started sleeping with crucifixes underneath their pillows. Sometime around 1982 everybody started buying VCRs, and kids would say to each other; "I dare you to rent The Exorcist!" None of us would.

I have been deathly afraid of tarantulas my entire life.

kd / October 15, 2007 10:42 AM

A classmate told me that on average people eat 6 spiders a year in their sleep, so I started sleeping with the blankets over my mouth so no spiders could crawl in. I still sleep that way.

Also, thunder and lightning.

amyc / October 15, 2007 10:47 AM

When I was about 7 and just starting to really get into the Beatles, my brother made me listen to Russ Gibbs' "Paul is Dead" radio broadcast -- I think he had it on tape or something. All the "clues" and the backwards masking gave me the howling fantods for years. I was in college before I could listen to "Strawberry Fields Forever" all the way through. Once the siren guitars kick in, I still get a shiver, but now I know for sure that John is saying "cranberry sauce" and not "I buried Paul."

At least, I'm pretty sure.

p / October 15, 2007 10:48 AM

bad stuff in the basement

the young homeless

Bob from twin peaks

cool kids finding out i didn't have hair on my bizzalls yet

Spook / October 15, 2007 10:50 AM

oh and the book "Mary Culhane and The Dead Man"

sb / October 15, 2007 11:06 AM

ronald reagan.

Baldeesh / October 15, 2007 11:08 AM

Fire.

This was due to the fact that my father was a paranoid schizophrenic, and would completely lose it if someone left anything on the floor, often getting graphic as to how said sock/toy/pencil would be responsible for killing us all and how horrible it is to die in a fire and how it would be all my fault.

It wasn't until I lived with people that I wasn't related to that I realized that it probably created a couple of strange OCD habits.

Other than that, I was afraid that Slimer lived in my closet, but then I decided I was friends with him, and then got to worrying about the great unknown under my bed.

paul / October 15, 2007 11:11 AM

The Chiller Thriller intro, where that hand come outs of the mud.

The fear of the boogieman coming to get me, but worse was his physical apparition, in the form of my brother, pretending to be the boogieman coming to get me.

Anne / October 15, 2007 11:26 AM

I used to walk around the edges of swimming pools before getting in them, checking for sharks.

Mac / October 15, 2007 11:28 AM

The movie "Jaws." Any bodies of water heard a toothy death in my mind: Lake Erie, swimming pools, even the bathtub.

And seconds to Jasmine, above, The Day After scared the HELL out of me (I still remember the doctor picking bits of glass out of someone's bloody arm...eeewww!)

G.P. / October 15, 2007 11:37 AM

An episode of The Bloodhound Gang called "The Case of the Cackling Ghost". That laugh scared the hell out of me!

Anybody remember this one?

jjc / October 15, 2007 11:49 AM

Clowns, especially that one with the claw hammer.

Spook / October 15, 2007 11:59 AM

Charles Manson

and

"Something Wicked This Way Comes"

DXO / October 15, 2007 12:14 PM

The basement.

ac / October 15, 2007 12:22 PM

I remember staring at the grate at the bottom of the pool and convincing myself that alligators or sharks could come swimming out at any moment and eat my legs. The moment I got out of the pool, the spell was broken and I would tell myself how ridiculous I was being.

It was like a weird mental test to see if I could psych myself out.

Mindy / October 15, 2007 12:26 PM

i had this illustrated book about the polio vaccine and it had pictures of kids with rabies who had foam coming out of their mouths. that always creeped me out.

shermann / October 15, 2007 12:27 PM

The abominable snowman from Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer.

and I used to imagine that I was being chased by a psycho to my front door and if I got my key in the lock on the first try i would live and if I fumbled with them or messed up putting the key in, he got me.

ken / October 15, 2007 12:38 PM

Im with you jennyp -
Shadow people still scare me

Yep It Is True / October 15, 2007 12:38 PM

Not having health care.

Luckily, Governor Blagojevich has fixed this problem for all kids in Illinois.

annie / October 15, 2007 12:42 PM

The flying monkeys in Wizard of Oz.
Jaws. Actually still afraid of the ocean thanks to that movie.

annie / October 15, 2007 12:42 PM

The flying monkeys in Wizard of Oz.
Jaws. Actually still afraid of the ocean thanks to that movie.

Wendy / October 15, 2007 12:53 PM

This one episode of Fantasy Island, where there was a dancing clown. And then its head popped off. And then flames came out of its neck. And then all the toys in the room were on fire. Toy monkey playing cymbals! On fire! Melty doll face on fire! FIRE CLOWN FIRE FIRE OH NO FIRE STOP FIRE DOLL FIRE

Shasta / October 15, 2007 1:03 PM

Nod to the Thriller video and The Day After. Both of those jacked. me. up.

Also, the idea that Abraham Lincoln's coffin would slide though my living room, into my bedroom, then next to my bed. Then Abe would pop out and thrash a knife over me like he was gonna jack. me. up.

Kelly / October 15, 2007 1:09 PM

I was afraid of the indian that stands at 63rd and Pulaski.

Driving by, I was fine, but my mom convinced me that he walked around at night and would peek in people's windows.

Similarly, my mom managed to convince me that someone disappeared in a carwash because there was a shark. I figured she was joking, but I still felt a little creeped out in the carwash.

JAH / October 15, 2007 1:15 PM

Ever since my brother made me watch The Serpent and the Rainbow with him when I was a kid, I've been terrified of being buried alive.

snuh / October 15, 2007 1:56 PM

the emergency broadcast system tests. i know they said "this is only a test", but it still may as well been the apocalypse to me.

Mo / October 15, 2007 2:00 PM

The illustrations in the books Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

Especially the woman with the scraggly hair and empty eye sockets. They STILL creep me out!

llaves / October 15, 2007 2:05 PM

my brother told me the alligator in the toilet story and of course, I believed him. I got really good at my hovering skills early in life.

Sam / October 15, 2007 2:36 PM

nuclear war - due to watching "the Day After"

ghosts in the basement

my babysitter dying - this was a frequent nightmare; my mom left us, so if she died, we would be alone

jennifer / October 15, 2007 2:48 PM

oh snuh, you're so right. those damn emergency broadcasting system tests freak me out, especially when I'm alone. I've got the shivers just thinking about that eerie voice.

other things that creeped me out when I was little: mice in my bed and that someone was right behind me and was 'going to get me.' these two still linger on...

sadie / October 15, 2007 2:51 PM

Two words:

Flying Monkeys

Cheryl / October 15, 2007 3:28 PM

Richard Speck. Yes, I am old enough to remember him.

Russians. Not that I knew who they were or anything, I just knew they lived to blow me up.

Swinging bridges. I got spooked by that one at Lookout Mountain in TN when I was 4 years old. I'm still scared of them.

printdude / October 15, 2007 3:41 PM

Phantasm

The Dark corners of the old UA theatre on Dearborn.

The Deep Swirls of the River in Winter.

Now, I am afraid of the collapse of Society As We Know It, or, the Fall of Man. It seems scarily emminent.

67 / October 15, 2007 3:50 PM

Hilary Clinton!! OOWWW!!

And "The Changeling"!

Greg / October 15, 2007 4:28 PM

At age 3: Grumpy on Land of the Lost.

later:
Sybil (TV movie)

Bloodletters and Badmen by Jay Robert Nash, particularly the chronicles of Ed Gein and Albert Fish.

A particularly vivid nightmare about my parents leaving me somewhere.

Dutch101 / October 15, 2007 4:37 PM

Nuclear war scared me a lot, but I was a little precocious as a young 'un, so my fear came not so much from Day After, though that probably helped with the visualization, but from a pretty solid grasp of the fact that Montana, where I am from, is chock full of buried ICBMs and thus surely had a place on the target list.

fluffy / October 15, 2007 4:37 PM

1)Sharks in the pool and even the bathtub
2)the devil and all of the possible ways it could manifest itself (like, take over my dolls and start talking and scratch my eyes out! or get inside the dog who would then bark ferociously at me and then bite me with its vampire dog fangs!)
3) that the virgin mary would appear to me but somehow I would fuck it up (whatever it was she asked me to do) and she'd get mad at me!
4) my dad
5) burn victims (sorry)
6) horse-face lady
7) my mom when she had cramps
8) apes from planet of the apes and flying monkeys
9) earthquakes and volcanos - most natural disasters
10) scared that the pink panther would die. i couldn't deal with that

Elizabeth / October 15, 2007 4:48 PM

The song Mr. Roboto always freaked me out when I was little.

Amanda / October 15, 2007 4:55 PM

A movie called "Trilogy of Terror", where this woman (Karen something) plays in 3 seperate vignettes. The last was the scariest. She is possessed by some doll that chases her around the apartment. I had nightmares for weeks. Has anyone else ever seen this movie?

Ramsin / October 15, 2007 4:58 PM

Hell, another Great Depression, and my sister.

eric / October 15, 2007 5:00 PM

Dreamscape.

Ditto on the thriller video. I saw it at a sleepover. Long after all the other kids had fallen asleep, I was still awake whimpering, trying in vain to wake someone up to keep me company.

Clarke / October 15, 2007 5:02 PM

Michael Myers, Michael Myers, Michael Myers. This was back when there was only 1 'Halloween' movie and I first saw it at a sleepover on my friend's new VCR. For years -- and I'm talking for the next 15 to 20 -- I would have a recurring dream of trying to run on a wet sidewalk after a thunderstorm, with Michael Myers coming closer every time I looked behind me. It probably helped that in the years following the first 'Halloween' the follow-up movies were so bad they made the character cartoonish...but back in the early 80's, walks home at night or (gulp!) being home alone was hell.

eep / October 15, 2007 5:06 PM

Oh! I thought of another, and probably my most irrational, childhood fear of all. In Dr. Seuss' book The Sneetches and Other Stories, there was a tale of pea-green pants that moved about on their own at night. That story scared me SO MUCH that I couldn't even look at it in the book. I would turn just the corners of the dark blue pages so that I could skip that story. It didn't matter that the pants were just as scared of the little dog-boy in the tale as he was of them, and that they wound up friends. They were still PANTS that MOVED BY THEMSELVES.

Freaked me out.

Spook / October 15, 2007 5:08 PM

I totally loved Trilogy of Terror!

I remember seeing that movie the same night as Lets Scare Jessica to Death

Hal / October 15, 2007 5:32 PM

This wierd plastic toy monkey that would "walk" with its hands. I got it for Christmas and it scared the crap out of me. I had nightmares about that thing for a long, long time.

And fire.

SMG / October 15, 2007 5:43 PM

the movies:
Mr. Sardonicus
Devil's Rain
Where have all the people gone?
the abominable snowman

Also
tornados
spiders
the basement

leah / October 15, 2007 8:04 PM

Thriller video

V miniseries

And the priest from the Thorn Birds who I also found somewhat hot at the same time. Huh. I was 6.

Leelah / October 15, 2007 8:28 PM

Best thread ever!

I was afraid that vampires were going to come get me in the middle of my night, and the only way to prevent them from doing irreparable damage to my neck was to sleep with the covers up to my bangs (it was the 70s). I still don't like to sleep with my neck uncovered.

kelly / October 15, 2007 9:36 PM

DITTO on the Day After Business, jasmine AND Nostradamus. I thought I remmeber his prediction being like, 1990 though. I also remember thinking in 1983 when I died in 1990, I would be like, 17 and that would be PLENTY old enough to live. Or, at least that is what I would try to convince myself in order to sleep at night.

Friends my age and I recently had a conversation about being RAISED ON THE APOCALYPSE in the 80s, what with the Day After, Mad Max, Billy Idol videos. It was all there to consume!

I did recently face the Day After again thanks to Netflix. Sure, it looks hokey now but MAN. I am glad I wasnt the only one so freaked out.

Mo / October 15, 2007 9:40 PM

Leelah, so weird! When I was a kid, I saw my parents sleeping, and they had their hands under their pillows. So somehow, I got it in my head that if your hands were uncovered, vampires would come in the night and bite your hands off. I still can't sleep with my hands exposed!

Also, the illustrations in the book Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. They still scare me today!

Michelle / October 15, 2007 10:25 PM

Eep, that story about the pants cracked me up.

Me, I was afraid of OCTAMAN, the 8-legged creature from some horrible B-movie. I was sure he was going to climb up two stories to my window with his sucker feet and eat me. My solution, to add to all of the other creative monster-avoidance sleeping stategies, was to get all the way under the covers and splay my limbs out, so I wouldn't look like a HUMAN. Just like something else. In a bed. At night. In a little girl's room.

mbwa kahawa / October 15, 2007 10:57 PM

I am not alone...

basements,

Flying Monkeys,

spiders coming out of a nest on my face a la Believers... I believe.

Doyle / October 16, 2007 7:52 AM

Spook: couldn't agree more on "Something Wicked..." That movie wrecked me for a year!

(The possibility of) getting jumped on Halloween while trick 'r treating.

The M.C. Escher print my parents had up on the wall...the one depicting the fish-eye reflection of a man holding a metallic sphere. It was like an acid-trip for my grade-school mind.

milena / October 16, 2007 8:49 AM

basements and they still sort of freak me out--i have to turn the light on first thing and having someone with me is pretty much mandatory

those old victorian dolls with the piercing eyes and any type of clown with an enormous grin--which is pretty much every clown

legs / October 16, 2007 8:50 AM

House centipedes have got spiders hands-down in the scary pest arena--I am more afaid of them NOW, at age 32, than I ever was of any darn o'l spider.

That being said, I'll add my name to those who were afraid of basements and add a general "killers" to the list.

South Side / October 16, 2007 8:57 AM

"I did recently face the Day After again thanks to Netflix."

That is the best story EVAH...

Sol / October 16, 2007 9:14 AM

This reminds me of that New Yorker article about how people in Manhattan were afraid of flying sharks and people in the Bronx were afraid of being homeless.

In any case, I've been afraid of going to jail since the 6th grade when my evil friend Monica Dunaway made me watch "Concrete Jungle" - a heartwarming story about a woman wrongfully sent to prison (her boyfriend set her up, of course), whereupon hijinx ensue. (No 11 year old should have to watch a scene of a woman giving birth while in another room a woman's getting raped by a guy who doesn't take his pants off. I don't think I even knew what sex was at that time, but I knew you had to take your pants off to do it - I was so confused.)

Also, thanks to Calvin & Hobbes, I was afraid of accidentally selling my soul to the devil.

Dubi / October 16, 2007 9:43 AM

To Robyn ,Eep ,Shasta ,Eric ,leah and everyone else who was scared of the thriller video. You can overcome your fear if you learn the dance moves and perform it in a controlled setting. For some reason I think Thrill the world Chicago is one of the options.

kp / October 16, 2007 10:02 AM

Crazy dave the neighbor. He was found hiding under our front porch, drunk and really bloody after a fight. Cops had to haul him off. That memory stuck with me for a while. He looked like a hairy, bloody caveman.

miss lady fingers / October 16, 2007 10:31 AM

The first movie that actually scared the crap out of me was Clan of the Cave Bear ( the part with the earthquake and the mom loosing) and then this one time my Dad tried to rent "Goonies" but then he rented "Ghoulies" and I was pretty terrified of monsters crawling out of the toilet and eating me, butt first.

sparky / October 16, 2007 10:35 AM

Willy Wonka and the Cholocate Factory

peta / October 16, 2007 10:41 AM

The Chamber of Horrors in Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.

Escalators.

The Twilight Zone.

Tobermory / October 16, 2007 10:44 AM

I had a R-OK at the local video store which meant that when my parents would go out to dinner and leave me $10 to go to McD's and rent a movie I would often stupidly choose a horror film like My Bloody Valentine, Haloween, Friday the 13th or whatever else looked particularly gruesome. I'd get myself so worked up I'd be afraid to move off of the easy chair and my parents would come home to find me huddled under a blanket holding our not very cuddly dog for protection. I still enjoy watching horrow movies but they still get me all freaky.

Sam / October 16, 2007 11:05 AM

I remembered a few more:

Dolls - I saw some horror movie about dolls coming to life, and for weeks after, I would line up all of mine and kiss them goodnight out of fear of them killing me in my sleep.

Vampires - I remember crawling in bed with my dad after seeing "Monster Squad" for the first time. That I was young enough to be scared by that movie is funny.

Witches - I read that Ronald Dahl book straight through in the car on the way home from a family vacation. I was throughly freaked out for quite some time.

Bill B / October 16, 2007 11:14 AM

1. nuclear war. i saw a nostradamus special on HBO as a kid which predicted a coming nuclear war. that messed me up for a long time.

2. sharks. i couldn't watch jaws without thinking we were going to be eaten the next time we went to montrose beach. my parents very patiently explained to me that sharks don't hang out in lake michigan.

3. girls. i got over that one, thankfully.

David / October 16, 2007 11:15 AM

The same things that still scare me now, number one being by far the freakiest: deep water. All that placid stillness on the top, all that water and darkness and weird fish and pirate skeletons underneath...no thanks.

I am also extremely grateful that I grew up in a place which was so remote that we didn't get cable until I was in high school. Sounds like 'Thriller' would've messed me UP.

leah / October 16, 2007 11:39 AM

Holy heck. As an adult all those "sexy fans" on the article from the front page are scaring the crap out of me right now.

Spook / October 16, 2007 11:56 AM

When I was a kid, their was a boarded up and abondoned house three blocks way that rumor had it a young girl ran into to escape the rain and was never seen again.

The book "Salem’s Lot"

The book "The Shinning" although not as scary as "Salem's Lot"

skafiend / October 16, 2007 11:59 AM

Nothing. I didn't really get scared of things until I became an adult. Seriously. War, car accidents, random street shootings, John Wayne Gacy, small countries with nukes, dirty bombs, the idea that nothing is stopping anyone from walking onto a CTA train or bus and pulling a "London" on us, etc. etc. etc.

OK, maybe when I was a kid, I got a little freaked out by "The Birds" but that feeling was gone by the morning. And I solved the Closet Monster and Under-The-Bed Monster stuff by just looking in and under there. But I can't think of anything that really stuck with me like the stuff today. Guess I'm a late bloomer when it comes to being scared of stuff...

Emerson Dameron / October 16, 2007 12:39 PM

Satan. Large dogs. Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. I'm cool with all of them, now.

vanessa / October 16, 2007 12:52 PM

The farmer. When we were bad, my mom told my little brother and I that we would be sent to the farmer to work in his fields and sleep on a dirt floor in a barn w/ the rats.

Then, when I was 6, I went w/ my class to the zoo and met Farmer Joe at the petting zoo. That was not fun. I screamed. A lot.

Back story: my grandpa grew up in Lithuania and he was sold to a farmer from age 8 to 15. Everything my mom said about the farmer happened to my grandfather.

Thanks, mom and grandpa.

fluffy / October 16, 2007 1:10 PM

a few more:
there was a school for the deaf nearby. I made up a story in my mind about a kid who, because he was deaf, couldn't hear the school bell ringing and dismissing everyone for the day. Of course, this happened to be the last day of school. So, everyone left and locked him in the school, not knowing he was there. He died after a week and now his ghost haunts the school yard (but not inside the school because even as a ghost he never goes back in - just in case it happens again) I never ever played in that schoolyard.

maggots- one time, i reached into a box of raisins and there were maggots! I was so disgusted I didn't really notice I was puking.

When my older brother found out I was 'enhancing' his coffee with my Mom's hormone pills while he wasn't looking , he told me that now he'd be half-woman. I was scared I completely ruined his life and he'd never be able to have kids.

Winediva / October 16, 2007 1:21 PM

fireworks.
I thought the sparks would land on me and set me on fire.

Spook / October 16, 2007 1:29 PM

yea the original Night of the Living Dead scared me pretty bad and of course started me on my most things Zombie craze

Spook / October 16, 2007 1:29 PM

yea the original Night of the Living Dead scared me pretty bad and of course started me on my most things Zombie craze

Bill V / October 16, 2007 1:39 PM

Those folks that vote Republican for every single candidate in every single election. I guess that goes for Dems too.

Also AC/DC, Willie Wonka, Gigglesnort Hotel, The Banana Splits and Tankboy!

steven / October 16, 2007 2:29 PM

Walking in the basement at night. Was always afraid that someone was hiding down there.

Also, the word "undead". You see it all the time at the end of movies and tv shows, about how the characters are neither "dead or undead". Great way to scare the holy jujubees out of a kid.

Alexandra / October 16, 2007 2:55 PM

The Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz. She still kinda freaks me out.

d. / October 16, 2007 3:09 PM

the movie aliens scared me a lot! my father and i watched that movie together and i couldn't sleep the whole night because i kept imagining monsters coming out of my chest.

also, winediva -- one time i watched fireworks and the bits of burning cardboard casing fell on us. it was kind of surreal, but nobody was hurt or anything. it was like...solid snow.

K. / October 16, 2007 3:44 PM

Night of the Living Dead for sure And the Viacom V of Doom:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10LDTLjEPDM

fasterjim / October 16, 2007 4:47 PM

Clowns. But not in a group, i.e. lots of clowns being clowns at the circus, like in the clown car: o.k. Single clowns like at a birthday party- creepy.

Brandy / October 16, 2007 4:52 PM

Thriller video too.

Seeing the tiiiiniest bit of The Shining at the babysitters house. COMPLETELY scared me.

That 80's music video that had blood coming out of the shower?

The abandoned van that sat in the cul de sac behind my apartment as a kid.

My dad.

Lots of thing. Thankfully I got over a lot of my fears as an adult.

Brandy / October 16, 2007 5:03 PM

I loved Willy Wonka as a kid but the boat in the tunnel scene was nutso scary.

boomer / October 16, 2007 6:23 PM

UFO abductions.

The Twilight Zone episode with William Shatner and the gremlin on the wing of the plane. And the one where Bill Mummy controls the world with his thoughts.

Commies.

Earwigs.

And snakes. Never got over that one.

Oh, by the way- Amanda- that was Karen Black.

kelly / October 16, 2007 8:44 PM

South Side! I hope you are not taking the piss! (insert smiley emoticon) re: facing The Day After! I encourage all of those raised on the apocalypse to do the same! (more emoticons, maybe something that shows a smiley throwing a gauntlet or something, again, smiling of course!)

Also, I should mention: Clockwork Orange.

When cable came into people's homes in the 80s parents really didn't know what their kids were getting into, I saw that one WAY too young.

So I guess you could say, on occasion, Beethovan's 9th will kinda scare me, too.

Norreen Tittsling / October 16, 2007 10:17 PM

Dr Doompuss from that Dirty Dragon/Gigglesnortt Hotel show that was on after school on Channel 7.

South Side / October 17, 2007 8:43 AM

Kelly - no way, girl. Nuclear war paranoia belongs where it came from - back in the 1980s.

I've moved on to new demons, like terrorists using biological weapons in large urban areas. That's the new 21st century paranoia.

Or animals escaping from zoos and going on stampedes. I worry about that sometimes, too

k / October 17, 2007 8:57 AM

jasmine--i was also terrified of e.t. he hid under my bed and in the basement. on the 20th anniversary, you could get an e.t. figurine with 6 boxes of kraft mac and cheese. my mom sent it to me at school and i kept it outside my dorm room.

but i've made progress--i keep him on my night table now. what do they call that? behavioral therapy?

also, fish, sudden death, and the idea that my parents would leave me with a babysitter and never come back (see: sudden death).

p / October 17, 2007 9:21 AM

exposure therapy i think, k. good job.

i confronted The Basement in a similarly move, as i recall. One day i remember running really fast up the stairs out of the basement after retrieving a pack of ramen or something, and feeling like a dork once i got upstairs. So i armed myself to the teeth w/ my mini whitesox bat tucked in my sweatpants, slung my rifle (block of wood w/ a rope stapled to it) over my shoulder, my Entertek water gun over the other shoulder, put on my dad's army hat, threw some gi joes in a backpack for backup and crept back down there. I stalked around that basement telling "them" to "come get me" w/ false bravado. Nobody got me and i felt tuff briefly, but i still think i got away with something.

Clarke / October 17, 2007 11:15 PM

p -- Awesome story. Well done.

kb / October 18, 2007 10:24 PM

Babysitting (thanks to "When A Stranger Calls")

Crows (thanks to "Damien: Omen II")

Molokai (from "Children of the Corn")

The Zuni Warrior Doll (from "Trilogy of Terror")

Leatherface (from "Texas Chainsaw Massacre"

The book/story "Struvelpeter"

Ventriloquist dolls (thanks to "Magic") and they STILL creep me out...

...and yes, those #@$& flying monkeys!!

RUANITA / January 2, 2008 7:40 PM

I guess we all end up having the same fears, like monsters and things of the unknown, and I have overcome most of my childhood fears, except one:
I´m afraid of diving or putting my head under water... It realy creeps me out! rrrr
And over the years I've gained another creapy phobia: the fear of loosing my teath... to the extent of having terrible nightmares where all my teeth fall out!....