Things in media that scared you as a kid.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Dragon's Lair. As in, the laserdisc game.

I remember it being so much LOUDER than anything else in the arcade. No one played it and it just kept looping this spastic opening scene. It always made me tense and uneasy. I just couldn't stand the thing.

Oh yeah, and those "dog" monster things in Willow scared the shit out of me. First time I watched the movie I was too scared to look directly at the television, so I instead gazed into the reflection the TV was casting onto a Christmas bulb ornament.

[Jagosaurus]

This lady... geeze.



Robin Hood: The Prince of Thieves

And Penguin in Burton's Batman Returns.



Ok... maybe they both still creep me out

[Anapan]

The Witches (1990) had some great camera work and practical effects that were particularly creepy. I think they were muppets (Jim Henson).
I have vague memories of a particular scene on Sesame Street that was replayed often. The Crack in the Wall. It's kinda creepy still.
My parents used to watch Unsolved Mysteries about 30 minutes after my bed time in elementary school. I listened to this every single night before falling asleep .

[PartridgeSenpai]

There was a show on TV (can't remember which channel) called Ghost Writer (iirc) about a ghost that could spell things with existing letters to help solve mysteries. For whatever reason, there was a episode arc about a slime monster that ate people and lived in the sewers and that thing gave me SUCH terrible nightmares when I was little. I wanna say I couldn't've been older than 5 or 6 when I watched it.

The other real nightmare fueler from when I was younger was the 2005 War of the Worlds, which I watched the first half or so of at a friend's house when his dad got it on DVD. I was like 9 or 10, and I should NOT have been watching that movie. It legit took years for me to stop being afraid of the sounds of airplanes over the house (we live a quarter mile from a small-craft airport) and then like another 5 or 6 (into high school) to lose my anxiety about alien invasions Xp

[Pulsar_t]

When I was really young, I enjoyed The NeverEnding Story, but there was something about it that really creeped me out, that I don't really remember. Maybe Falcor? I don't think it was that specific, though. Not sure why I liked it so much despite being generally creeped out by it, either.

It deals with fundamental human themes such as loss, sacrifice, hope and strength against bullying. The horse scene alone was strong stuff. It's genius filmmaking.

[Jagosaurus]

The other real nightmare fueler from when I was younger was the 2005 War of the Worlds, which I watched the first half or so of at a friend's house when his dad got it on DVD. I was like 9 or 10, and I should NOT have been watching that movie. It legit took years for me to stop being afraid of the sounds of airplanes over the house (we live a quarter mile from a small-craft airport) and then like another 5 or 6 (into high school) to lose my anxiety about alien invasions Xp

I took my then GF on a date to this in theaters. She had a break down (near panic attack) in tears and almost had to leave . Pretty sure we were 18 & it freaked her the eff out too apparently

[prfsnl_gmr]

The other real nightmare fueler from when I was younger was the 2005 War of the Worlds, which I watched the first half or so of at a friend's house when his dad got it on DVD. I was like 9 or 10, and I should NOT have been watching that movie. It legit took years for me to stop being afraid of the sounds of airplanes over the house (we live a quarter mile from a small-craft airport) and then like another 5 or 6 (into high school) to lose my anxiety about alien invasions Xp

I took my then GF on a date to this in theaters. She had a break down (near panic attack) in tears and almost had to leave . Pretty sure we were 18 & it freaked her the eff out too apparently

If you haven’t already done so, you should read the book. It is terrific, and despite its extreme age (for a science fiction novel), it still really holds up.