X-Entertainment's Christmas Season & Advent Calendar, 2008.

07/24/2008: X-E’s ‘08 Summer Megaparty: Zzzzzz.

I haven’t been sleeping well, lately. Not for any good (or bad) reason — I’ve just found it preferable to do all the things I really need to do when nobody else on this side of the planet is awake. It was totally fine to live like that years ago, since anything in-between unemployment and self-employment doesn’t really call for 9-5′ing. Now? Not so much.

I try to convince myself that three or four hours of sleep will suffice, and sometimes it does. But I guess there’s a cumulative effect to this sort of thing, as I headed into work today needing to read eight scripts to clients with a certain level of zeal and eloquence, and it finally hit me that I was really fucking tired. Well past the point of having bloodshot, glassy eyes, I was literally stumbling on my walk from the bus stop to the office, very unable to navigate the sea of people doing whatever it is people do in Times Square.

When I got into the office, I noticed a peculiar side effect of sleep deprivation: It makes me talk like the filthiest, most exaggeratingly stereotypical truck driver ever. Was a series of audible “fucks” warranted by a faulty stapler? Probably not. I mean, sure, I had to staple a lot of papers together to prepare for this meeting, but I work in a fairly large building that had many other staplers available. In an industry that swells with pressure, it probably isn’t a good idea to mark myself as the type of person who can lose their shit over a faulty stapler.

While somewhat slurry in general, I managed to keep it together for the twenty minutes that I needed to keep it together, and quietly ducked out afterwards. I’ve mentioned the long, long commute I have many times before, but today I was actually looking forward to it. There isn’t much else to do on a long bus ride besides sleep. I settled in, cranked up the iPod, and as soon as the real world started blending with the dream world, a gigantic man sat almost literally on top of me, and spent the next 90 minutes guffawing into his phone with such incredible vigor that I’m still wondering if one of my enemies hired him to keep me from sleeping.

Yeah, this is pretty much my way of telling you that I’m too tired to write anything of substance tonight. As penance, I offer the embarrassing confession that I eat lemons much in the same way other people eat apples.

We now transform this into a random chat thread, only I guess it won’t be so random since I’m going to give you a theme for discussion: Things that scared the shit out of you as a child, or maybe even now.

I’ve always been scared of someone breaking into my house. I had a huge window in my room as a child and I always would watch the shadows to make sure that it wasn’t a human figure.

I was terrified of the Incredible Hulk as a child. As a result, I still can’t watch anything Hulk related without wondering how other people don’t find him terrifying…

Also ET used to scare me, which is really weird, since I remember watching his movie previously as a very small child with no problems. At the same time, it isn’t weird, since he did look, sound, and act pretty creepy.

gingela5: That was going to be my still-current #1. Windows at night that are on a ground or deck level. A part of me always believe there’s someone there, and it alternates from random hoodlums to Robert Stack-level spooks.

Anyway, I just saw “Lifeforce” tonight for the first time and laughed my ass off for pretty much the entire movie.

Ooh, I’ve never posted this close to the top before. I don’t remember being scared of anything in particular as a kid, but my sister was scared as hell of Humpty Dumpty. You know, the egg from the nursery rhymes? That one. Being the sweet big sister that I was, I made sure to take advantage of that fact every chance I got.

Later, we found out that her morbid fear of the giant egg came from this video we had of Mother Goose rhymes. In the movie, a puppet version of Humpty Dumpty falls off the wall, per the story. Then it got weird as all the other puppet children started wailing “He’s dead! Humpty Dumpty’s dead!” Then Mother Goose starts some crap about being able to fix him and later on we see him covered in band-aids. So yeah, apparently my sister spent her whole childhood under the impression that Humpty Dumpty was a zombie.

Zeke the plumber was harrowing. Was that the episode where they trimmed Ug’s nose hair?

Scarecrows, Clowns, Spiders, Heights…I’m doing better with them now but, still kinda creepy. Of course, worst is being trapped at the top of a scaffolding in the web of a half-man, half-spider creature, whose appearance is covered like the creature in Jeepers Creepers but underneath the burlap hood you can just make out the face paint.

Also, Matt, I totally sympathise with sleep, especially self-inflicted. I tend to do the 3.5/4 hours thing a lot, but damn is it worthwhile!

gingela: I was also terrified of someone breaking into our house when I was young. I used to lie in bed until all hours of the night convinced that certain sounds were much too loud to be a simple creak or other settling of the house. I remember going through a specific phase when this occurred every night for a couple of months. Maybe this is subconsciously why I need to sleep with a fan on, to drown out any “creepy” noises.

All things at shin height only: legless zombies, Critters, dogs, thumping limbless corpses sneaking down the stairs, children, midgets, chickens, paraplegics, old people, amputees, short people, Danny Devito, The Penquin, Danny Devito as The Penquin, Glenn Close, pigs, snakes, munchkins, Oompa-Loompas, my sister-in-law, mice, rats, guinea pigs, even short people, pirates.

I remember catching a grasshopper when I was really pretty little and trying to find something to put him in. He somehow managed to escape my grasp someplace in the kitchen. While stood there looking around the area I was standing, I looked down and found he was on my shirt. Lo and behold, he jumped right on my face. I think I pissed myself slightly.

I also have to give a shout out to Large Marge…..that was one freaking looking biatch.

I was fucking terrified of the Joker after seeing Batman for the first time when I little, so much so that I had regular nightmares of him.

I had a few dreams about him a few months ago, probably due to TDK’s hype. Even weirder is that it’s a totally sub-conscious thing, because I can sit through both movies and enjoy them. I’m a freak.

I too was terrified of the hulk. And my grandparents got me a toy box that had a huge glow in the dark, 3D head on it. That blasted thing scared me *less the first time I saw it. Of course i was only four at the time, lol.

Clowns. Freaking clowns. And you know what else? Dr. Who. I kinda sorta remember some creepy opening in the show when it was on in the early eighties. For some reason, it got to me.

And I’m a night person too. Awake when every other sane person in the province is asleep.

Also, I used to find weapons to sleep under my pillow or my bed, pieces of wood, kitchen knives, heavy toys, pipes, hockey sticks, plastic silverware, so that I’d be prepared if someone broke in. I got in huge trouble when my arsenal was discovered each time, my parents became convinced that I was planning a school “stabbing” of some sort each time.

How could i forget! The X-Files theme song has always scared the crap out of me.

On the night of maybe my ninth? birthday I suddenly became morbidly afraid of being buried alive. I didn’t get the Lego pirate set I’d been begging for and was kind of depressed. I can’t imagine how annoyingly whiny I must have seemed to my best friend who was sleeping over, but I ended up making a silly note on note paper and taping it to my chest saying “I’m not dead, don’t bury me.” Or something to that effect. I didn’t know about modern embalming procedures or anything gross like that… but I seriously got this temporary phobia of being in a death like state and buried alive. Other than the disappointing gifts (selfish brat that I was/am) I don’t know what motivated that.

It just occured to me or perhaps I missed it but has there been no Summer Juke Box this year?

attack of the killer clowns… scared the bejesus out of me like no other when i was a kid.

currently the only thing that really scares me is the fact that our president thinks he’s smart

El Loco (and Norbert I know you asked too) — Unfortunately I’ve been unable to get the Juke working the way I want to just yet. The good news is that I really haven’t even considered all of this July a true Summer Megaparty without it, so we’re probably gonna go long into August.

1) Wrote about this before, and it still holds true: If I’m alone at night, just thinking about the Unsolved Mysteries theme will fuck my shit up proper.

2) On the more natural fear side, I’m pretty deathly afraid of spiders and sharks, even though I’ve read more books about spiders and sharks than any other subject. Except maybe dinosaurs. I’m not afraid of those, though.

3) Jacob’s Ladder, after seeing it under the influence of many, many things during what I’d like to classify as my youth but was actually young adulthood, fucked me up for months.

4) My grandmother’s old basement in her long-sold house. If a horror anthology needed a few extra frames for its spooky opening montage, this was the place — and my family had “true” ghost stories to go along with it. Extremely dim, filled with creepy stuff, with lots of clanking sounds and an adjoining wash room that looked like it was converted from a castle dungeon.

Jacob’s Ladder is some freaky sh*t. That’s a movie I probably won’t watch again because it was so messed up. They don’t make horror movies like that these days.

When I was little, my mom made me sit on the porch to wait for her to take me to school. Right next to me on the tree branch is a dead bird hanging upside down. So I screamed and screamed and etc….she did’nt beleive me til she came and saw it. That and the movie The Birds scared me too when I was 8. I always feared that my poster or curtains above my bed would open and a dead bird or two would flop out and land on me.

My aunt eats lemons all the time. With salt. She’s always stealing the lemons from our water at restaurants.
I was afraid of my stuffed animals eyes at night…they followed me. AND, because I expected it, they randomly turned red whilst I was looking at them, especially the bunnies. Also, the ceramic figures in my room, and the shadows on my wall at night. I think I am a child who did not need a night light…

Also, Cereal Killer… did you ever go to a summer camp on the Columbia river near Portland, OR? If so, we found some of your knives under a mattress and it traumatized several kids/counselors. You need to remember to take that shize w/ you when you leave.

The Hulk scared me as a child too. For some time after I saw Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, I would not
watch the Large Marge scene. I still won’t watch
the scene when I’m watching the movie. I
remember getting scared whenever I heard moaning
noises in the bedrooms of my home. The moaning
noises turned out to be the wind blowing into
the rooms. Sometimes it happened when someone
left the window slightly open. Matt, tell me if
you still go to the House. The one with that
water rocket.

Things that creeped me out:
Tarantulas (I’m fine with regular spiders, though)

The Crypt-Keeper’s laugh when he jumps out of the coffin in the Tales from the Crypt theme.

It’s always disturbed me when I saw a Muppet monster eating another Muppet. Why would the smaller Muppets even hang around them knowing they could become dinner?

I kinda gets the willies walking into a costume shop during Halloween looking at all the eyeless masks. Even something innocent like a child’s Scooby-Doo mask looks kinda creepy without eyes behind it.

Chuckie from Child’s Play. Creepy dolls in general. I love the movies though, they were my introduction to the horror genre, which I love. Child’s Play 2 is definitely the best.

I was scared shitless of carwashes when I was three or four. I was also scared of the planes flying over my house, which was pretty bad considering I lived next to an airport.

My biggest fear as a child was thanks to my brother. There was a clown face in my basement that laughed and spit at you when you pulled its tie. My older brother used to pull its tie so it would spit in my face and then tell me the clown was going to kill me in my sleep. I used to hate that thing with a passion. I couldn’t find a good picture of the one I’m talking about online, but I actually bought one for my own house a couple of years ago (I got over my fear

). Its a clown loosely modeled after Uncle Sam. I might take a picture of what I’m talking about to show how scary this damn thing is tomorrow. To give you an idea I did find another one the same company release though. What I can’t demonstrate is the evil laugh the thing makes when you pull the tie.

The lemon thing isn’t that strange, I once dated a girl who would eat the lemon rind with salt on it. I always found that rather disturbing.

As a kid: Gremlins, as I’ve said before. And watching Jaws essentially concluded that I could nevergo to the beach the same way again.

Now: fearing that someone is breaking in. Fat chance, but every little creak I hear I think its someone other than my parents. Always manages to scare the hell outta me.

Granted, they are only the size of a small dog, but when you are walking under a fire escape or if one gets in your attic, the last thing you want to see - and it would be the last thing - is a bullet-shaped face dropping at you with rows of teeth and dripping mandibles, it’s legs twitching and the back ones working furiously on the web behind it, a gnarled fin on it’s back and a pair of semi-redundant gills that just seem to breath out “ch-ch-ch, ah-ah-ah”?

–Mr. Bill
–the credits of the Carol Burnett show, where she is a cartoon mopping the floor
–the movie “UFO’s Are Real” (especially the music)
–the “Unsolved Mysteries” theme
–clowns
–eyeless ceramic masks that people hang on the wall
–Large Marge
–someone looking in my windows/breaking into my house
–that l’il goblin in “Cat’s Eye”
–dreams where I am falling, flying, suffocating, or drowning
–walking past a carwash

Back in the 6th grade we were allowed to bring in a snack to eat midway through the morning. Most kids brought a juice box, a Little Debbie snack cake, or an apple - you know, something normal. Well, one day I decided to bring in a lemon. I didn’t really grasp the concept that people didn’t really eat lemons in the same way that they would chow down on an apple, a grapefruit, or an orange. I happily pulled it out of my desk at 9:45 and began to ponder just how I would begin to eat this sour treat. One of the other kids looked at me with surprise — apparently more socially aware than I that lemons were not a typical “snack” — and had the gall to suggest that there was no way that I could finish the lemon in the 5-10 minutes were alloted during snack time. I furrowed my brow, decided to accept the challenge, and dug in for my “battle” against the lemon.

Moments later it was gone. To this day I still enjoy the citrus fruits more than all others. I don’t really eat whole lemons any longer, but every time I cut one up for cooking I certainly set aside a wedge or two for myself. So yeah… don’t feel bad… I am a lemon addict as well.

BTW, the best lemonade known to man (that is manufactured and sold) is made by a company called Nantucket Nectars. If any of you lemonade lovers out there have never experienced the bliss that is an ice-cold bottle of Nantucket Nectars all-natural lemonade… well, get on it. It is worth mail-ordering.

…and “The Exorcist” scares me too, so thanks a lot for that picture up there…

My parents had this weird little Stuffed Gorilla that was stored in a toybox in my bedroom for ther first several years of my life. It was rare for me to have a good night’s sleep because I had always imagined that it would come to life in the middle of the night.

And then one year we had a garage sale and it was sold. I’ve been sleeping like a log every night ever since.

Those who eat lemons with salt on them are pussies. In addition to eating lemons I regularly drink lemon juice and water, because I am somewhat of a pussy.

When I was a kid, the part in Thriller when Michael Jackson turned around and was half-werewolf disturbed me so, because I was a total pussy.

When I was a kid, my parents had some aboriginal-made artwork in the upstairs hallway. That stuff creeped the HELL outta me. Heights too. I went to the CN Tower once with the family and spent half the time there scared shitless.

The MGM/UA Lion logo from the 80’s - the one with the still picture over scrolling MGM/UA letters in the background with fanfare. Still gives me the creeps.

Skeletor..I was convinced he lived at the “threshold” of the stairs in my house…I grew up in a creepy old Victorian house so that didn’t help.

Does anyone know if this Target coupon (click my name) is legit? I’d hate to get all the way to the register and have it turn out to be a fake.

-When I was a kid (about 4 or 5), I had a Donald Duck doll that scared the shit out of me. What’s especially weird about this is nowadays, Donald Duck cartoon’s are my absolute FAVORITE kind of Disney shorts.

-Later, I had a wicked-awesome Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pup tent that I set up on top of my bed and slept in. For weeks everything was fine, until I had a weird nightmare where the Turtles were werewolves trying to eat me. Never slept in it again.

-Finally (when I was about 9 or so) I saw a cartoon about a wicked prince who ran into a demon (or something) and was forced to look in a mirror, to see how he looked “on the inside.” The monsterish reflection resulted in the moral of the story being lost on me, as for the next several years I was afraid of looking at my reflection at night.

I think I was in 2nd or 3rd grade at the time growing up in California. I was scared of the night stalker, serial killer Richard Ramirez. Before they knew his real identity, the newspapers published a police artist’s sketch that sacred the living shit out of me….

Plus, I got really scared by the ghost that like to smoke cigarettes in our backyard when I was like 5….

BoddahBoom, I respectfully reply that I, at this time in my current state of mental wellness have no statement on my whereabouts, and or activities at any time, unless a crime was committed that involved violence, in that case, I was with you, right?

TF, I also love the Nantucket Nectar, and had a horrifying experience at a Taco del Mar restaurant, ordered a delicious fish burrito and a NN lemonade… then (due to my cough syrup addiction) proceeded to slur my words to the cute african-american clerk, ordering, a nantuck nucker, which sounded like a racial slur (to me at the time) and left in shame, although I couldn’t see if she saw/heard my weirdness.

my first scary thing from childhood (thankfully I’m over it now) were the mushroom monsters from “mom and dad save the world. I know they were such a small part of the movie, and yet for some reason, I just thought they were under my bed.

The second thing I was scared of was because of watching “Unsolved Mysteries” just before bed time. Whichever creep on the show seemed the most cold hearted and likely to slaughter a family for no good reason was the subject of me sleeping with a baseball bat on those nights.

The first “Poltergeist” movie scared the hell out of me. And the original “Halloween”. I literally had nightmares for weeks after seeing Halloween. But looking back on it, it was worth it.

Mirrors. As a kid I would never look into a mirror at night because I thought that there were ghosts trapped within them trying to get out and if you looked, you released them. I’m still a little afraid.

There wa an episode of Nickolodian’s “Are You Afraid of The Dark” that featured a kid who read a comic book about an evil Jester that comes to life. The Jester was only hinted at and never shown on screen. But then all of a sudden him in all of his evil yellow skinned glory appeared in full view on screen laughing.
I screamed as loud as I could and ran upstairs, with the image of that Jester burned into my mind.

Oh, and Id also like to add Large Marge. She was in my nightmres for days after seeing that movie.

I had this clown money-bank my aunt bought for me. The thing freaked the hell out of me. It was just a head with a big yellow bowler hat and hands where the ears should be.

There on my nightstand it sat… always watching… I’d have to turn it around to be able to get to sleep.

But I would not be afraid of the face at the top of the page. It looks like he got kicked in the nuts.

Hey all! Long-time reader and occasional poster{I used to post under the name DuckieDobler}. With all this Unsolved Mysteries talk I thought I’d pass along the info that the show’s coming back October 13th,with Dennis Farina hosting. Apparently the aforementioned theme song is remaining intact,UM’s Wikipedia page has a bunch of links to different sites mentioning its relaunch{such as Sitcoms Online}. As far as stuff that scared me out of my wits back in the day,I’ve got seven words for ya:
“The Tale of the Dead Man’s Float”.
And echoing earlier posters,yes…Zeke the Plumber was pretty freaky at the time. That poor unfortunate hippo…

That fuckin pot of boiling water from that Bugs Bunny Shriner’s PSA. That ain’t right.

Zelda from Pet Semetary was the scariest thing ever to me as a kid, and I was one of those kids who watched horror movies all the time without being scared or grossed out. Dear god was Zelda creepy; in appearance, and that freaking voice. Raaaacheeeel! Raaaacheeeel! I haven’t watched the movie in ages, and I’m pretty sure Zelda is what’s stopped me from doing so, even if I’d like to think I’m over my fear.

I also had several traumatic run-ins with cats as a kid that led to a fear of them for awhile. I’m over that now, however I still don’t trust them.

my rule on spiders is that if i were to step on it and still be able to see its legs, i am afraid of it.

All this talk about scary TV themes and not a mention of the US “Are You Afraid Of The Dark” theme? That is one song you don’t really want to hear ANYWHERE. Plus the credits had a slightly-less-scary synthrock remix.

The dinosaur Sharptooth from The Land Before Time scared me very, very much as a child. I spent nights lying awake in my bed, fearing Sharptooth might come and eat me.

Nowadays I’m afraid of Pennywise from It and Sadako from The Ring crawling out of my PC monitor and killing me.

Kapprika, don’t worroy, if they try it at the same time they’ll get wedged halfway through and you can just switch the monitor off!

Now, clown-faced, pointy yellow-teeth, wet-haired Sadako crawling from your screen…chuckling with a gravelly voice “They all float down here. When you’re down here with us, you’ll float too! Seven days!”

All the talk of Are You Afraid of the Dark? made me watch The Tale of Laughing in the Dark. Man, I want to go to a carnival ;_;;

Large Marge from Pee Wee’s Big Adventure almost single handedly destroyed my young innocent soul when i was a youth. When I watch the movie now, i laugh at how rediculous the character is….but back then….she was something to be feared

The Exorcist doesn’t scare me, but creepy subliminal images featuring Pazuzu do. Thanks a lot, a-hole.

Also, I don’t remeber this happening, but apparently when I saw Roger Rabbit in the theaters with my parents, when Doom gets flattened by the steam-roller I freaked out and told them WE GOTS TO GET OUT OF HERE!!! I was like 4 or 5

Hey, my name is catching on… I used to be afraid of any noise that woke me up from sleeping when i was between 4 and now. I try to keep every drop of light out of my bedroom when it’s slumber time and when i would be woken (awaken?) out of a deep sleep, i would barely open my eyes, so as to not be noticed as being awake by whater ghoul/boogerman that was currently taking up residence in my room. I would then stare at whatever shadows or dark forms my eyes could make out waiting for some sort of tell tale movement that would signal the oncoming zombie apocalypse. All the while I would barely be breathing so as not to give away my exact position. I also don’t like sleeping with my feet/legs hanging over the side of the bed for fear of a Chuckie type creature cutting my feet off.

The scene in Superman III where the woman becomes part of the computer freaked me out as a child. Haven’t seen it since, though I suspect it wouldn’t be as terrifying now.

I’m crasy tired too. It’s 4:30am here on the West Coast of Canada, and I’ve had a lot of web design projects to keep on top of lately and it means too many times seeing the dawn approach. At least when I have these days in the winter, it’s still dark when I do get to bed. I thought clients usually get inactive in the summer as they head off somewhere with kids, but not this year. What I fall into thos is that I’ll decide around 1:30am that I need to have a “quick ten minute nap” so I can get my brain in gear to finish of the last few things before bed, and stop dozing off at the computer and wonder why I had teh File Open box open. Well, ten minute nap never happnes, it always ends up being an hour out on the couch from which I wake up, realize the time, and then go back to work on the computer. The good thing is that when that happens, I’m now in extra motivated mode. And now I am done and could be going to bed, but I suddenly thought, “Hey, I haven’t checked x-entertainment today”. Okay, now it’s bed time…

Oh, and yes, I too like to get things done in late hours when the world is sleeping. I’m self-employed and work at home doing graphic design, so at least there’s no regular commute for me. But, I have to say I do grumble when clients call at 7:30am. I’d never call anyone before 9am, even if I knew they weren’t a night owl like me.

I think I was scared of the dark as a kid and thunderstorms, but I got over both of those.

As an adult, I’m scared of being held hostage and tortured. You hear these bizzare stories and it’s scary to think it could happen to me.

I have had someone break into my place. I lived alone. I was asleep and he broke into my bedroom. I had seen on TV where people have acted nice and friendly to keep from getting hurt. I did that and it worked. Luckily the guy didn’t hurt me and he left. He didn’t even rob me, he was just running from the cops and looking for a place to hide. He was arressted a few days later…but I didn’t sleep well for weeks after!

I never was scared of much when I was a kid, partly due to the fact my brother was almost the same age so we conquered most things together. As evidenced buy the list of dumb shit I did before I was a teenager I wrote here a while ago.

But Matt you mentioned your grandmother’s basement scaring you and it reminded me of something similar. When I was oh about 5 my family lived in a Duplex. Take a stab at what was in the other unit? A funeral home, no shit. First place I ever saw a dead body. But the basement…Think of your average creepy basements and than have stacks of coffins lying about. We would not go down there even with the lights on and a parent with us.

Hmmm, where do I begin? I was such a wuss when I was little, I was scared of many things. An episode of the Ghostbusters cartoon featured the Boogey Man living in a bedroom closet and it made me think he was living in mine. I cannot sleep with the closet open to this day. I hate looking into a mirror in the dark or even staring at myself for too long no matter what the lighting conditions are. When I was little, I would stare into a mirror and wonder if I was real or think about alternate dimensions. Mirrors are just freaky. Windows in the dark spook me, especially if the blinds/curtains are closed and I have to open them. I always think I will open them to see some shadowy stalker (I’ve had this fear since I was young, and had it confirmed a few years ago!). I was always scared of the drain in the bathtub. I would make sure to get out of the tub first, then open the drain and bolt out of the bathroom. I was also kind of scared of drawing a bath, probably because of Ghostbusters 2. For some reason, I would turn on the water and start singing the theme from “Jeopardy” to distract myself from the water. Porcelain dolls or any older-type dolls freaked me out (and still do), especially if they have those weird blinky eyes. That damn monkey from the commercial for “Monkey Shines” scared the bejeebus out of me. I still don’t like any type of stuffed/plush monkey. Oh, and there are the traditional fears of heights, the dark, and spiders. Spiders are devil-spawn from the very bowels of hell!

1. Driving next to a semi with my windows down, I’m always afraid a tire is going to blow.

Here’s one - the opening to the original Land of the Lost. At the every end, the big-ass T-Rex would look right into the camera and roar as the camera moved inward, into his mouth. I cried every time until I eventually had to look away at that part.

Been having the same problem lately, Matt. I end up messing around on the Net till about 12:30, but have to get up at 5:30. I’ve always been kind of a light sleeper, and I somehow feel this can’t be good. I make it through the day with a lot of coffee and sugar (we’re one of those offices with a steady supply of candy).

Toxikfoxx I won’t drink water from a bathroom faucet period. I know it is irrational, but I just can’t do it.

These days I fear falling onto a large pile of used syringes from a great height.

Seeing some of the other posts reminds me of when I was little–thunder would terrify me. I would yell for my mom and I would do this thing with my ears that was called “Taco Ears” where I would fold them up like a taco and apparently that was supposed to drown out the sound of thunder…I think I’ve shared too much

gingela: I remember when i was younger as soon as I saw the flash of lightning I’d be running to my parents room because I knew the thunder was next.
Funny thing is, I actually really like thunderstorms now. I’ll open the door and watch the lightning.

DCI’m the same way! I think a thunderstorm is the one thing that can wake me up in the middle of the night and I won’t be mad!

Freddy Kruger scared the life out of me as a child! Parents, DO NOT let your 5 year old watch Nightmare on Elm Street! GEEZE!

I also had some irrational fears:
- windchimes
- the theme song from “Sanford & Son”
- Robots (ok, i’m still a little afraid of those)

Any Canadian readers may appreciate this, when I was a child The Polkaroo from “The Polkadot Door” use to terrify me. Click my name to see a clip of old Polkie in action. Its quite embarassing to thing that I would run and hide whenever it was on tv.

As a kid I was always terrified of very tall buildings. And not from the looking down aspect. It was from the looking up aspect. I firmly believed that one day God would shut off the gravity and I would be sucked into the sky.

Irrational fears eh? I guess it was my fear of getting killed before I could see ‘The Dark Night’

also I’ve never want to get stabbed or chopped up to death, like getting thrown feet first into a woodchipper. just looks like it hurts, give me the ol’ head first into a woodchipper any day

Unsolved Mysteries always scared the fuck out of me when I was a kid. It wasn’t enough that Robert Stack was creepy as hell, but the stories and the reenactments freaked me out. The freakiest was about this lady who had a Poltergeist in her house, so she ran outside and turn around to look at her house. And in the window she saw the face of this sinister looking Pilgrim guy. Stupid, but that still freaks me out to this day.

Dolls, Spiders,small children(especially girls),those wind up monkeys with the cymbals, things with especially long arms.

Zeebo the Clown from “Are you Afraid of the Dark”. Messed with me for a long time.

I used to get really scared after watching Unsolved Mysteries when I was a kid, especially the alien/ufo episodes. I would try and hide under as many layers of blankets as possible at night because i thought that the aliens could see into my house and that by hiding under 5 layers of blankets that i was rendered invisible. needless to say, i grew out of that phase, and now i only get scared after watching unsolved mysteries because of robert stack’s booming voice.

My only current fears are life long. Veins, anything intravenous, anything causing damage to my veins, cuts to the vein area of the neck, anything touching my eyes, and the hands of dwarves and midgets.

As a child I was afraid of Jack the Ripper (thought he was modern, thanks Dad), Sgt. Pepper era John Lennon, and the Mad Hatter. Not the Disney one, but the Lewis Carroll drawing. Apparently hatmakers really did get insane from mercury exposure. I was also afraid of alien abduction, so I find it kind of funny that I’m desperate for one now.

Spiders & Tornados. And I am still afraid of them today. And I live on the coast of New England, so it’s not exactly a tornado prone area, but I read the book “Night of the Twisters” when I was in 3rd or 4th grade and it scarred me for life.

Got to say toilet monsters, especially after watching critters, and I was to damn short to hover so I had to sit in a odd stance ready to launch if need be. Oh and santa claus, can’t figure out why I was a afraid of an old jolly fat guy that would bring me gifts, maybe something to do with being told that nothing is free in life. And I feared the repercussionsâ€™

I also am scared of earthquakes. Yeah, I live in Southern Cali and they’re a kind of regular thing, but I still hate them. I never got “used to” them. The freaking ground should not move under you!
The good thing is I don’t feel the really small one’s. It has to be a 5.0 or greater before I feel it. But it still freaks me the hell out! The largest one I’ve experienced is a 7.2.
I’m freaking myself out now as I type this because we haven’t had a significant quake here in about 3-4 years…which means we’re due soon. Damnit!

Also, sorry about the possible double post, but when my sister was little, about once a week, she would stare into our bathroom mirror for about 5 minutes and then come running down the stairs screaming that she was going to die. when we asked her what happened she said that she was looking in the mirror and she saw an image of herself dead. i dont know if she really did or not, but my parents and i laughed for hours….god we are not very nice. she doesnt do it anymore, but who knows, maybe my sister is psychic.

Man, you sound like me with sleep. I try to get by on a few hours, but it never works. I think I fell asleep talking to someone about a project we are working on

Now, when I was a child, Killer Clowns from Outer Space pretty much was devastating. I know its a real goofy movie, but not to a 4 or 5 year old. I don’t even really like clowns to this day. That particular episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark was also creepy, now that I think about it.

The illustrations in those Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark books. Frankly, they still give me the shivers when I look at them, even at the ripe old age of 25.

I had recurring nightmares of these three monsters that lived in our house. They were very bizzare “monsters” though. One was a box like face that would appear on my headboard and try to eat my hands. The other two were very human looking. One lived under my sister’s bed,, the other came out of the toilet and had a lasso with wich to pull me in with. I would flush the toilet and run out of the bathroom very fast every time.

Another thing that freaked me out was at this arcade I frequented. It was a pinball machine in the back with this very goulish face on it. I would not walk past the halfway point of the longroom for fear of seeing it.

Also, the biggest one for me: BALOONS. They scared the hell out of me, even as a baby. I think I didn’t want them to pop and I knew they always did. I still don’t like baloons to this day.

My wife was deathly afraid of fire. She told me that when she was young if she heard a siren, (any siren) she thought the house was on fire. She also use to wake up at night and see weird shadows and think it was fire.

Took me years, yes years, to get her not so deathly afraid of fire. It took me weeks to get her to hold a Bic lighter, months not to drop it when she spun the wheel. (there were no sparks at this time) I gradually got her to be able to use one, but she still doesn’t like it.
The best, where she works had training to use a fire extinguisher. Small trash can fire, she almost failed it, and used two fire extinguishers…She wouldn’t get close enough.

I don’t really have any fears that have stuck with me, except cockroaches. I can’t even get close enough to them to kill them.

But this one time… when I was reading Stephen King’s IT, my friend thought it would be hilarious to let a bunch of balloons go in front of my window (I’m on the 2nd floor). I nearly crapped myself that night. It was funny for everyone else though…

1) The scene where E.T. and Elliott scare each other the first time they meet…I’ve mentioned this one before.

2) The scene in the “Thriller” video where Michael Jackson transforms into a werewolf…loved the song, liked the video, shit my pants at that one scene.

3) Warped records…I know, I’m a weirdo. We had one in particular that was of the song “Mickey” by Toni Basil. As a result, I was afraid of that song, too. Playing that song full blast was like torture to the 4-year-old version of myself. I would scream until someone turned it off or it ended.

4) After I first watched “The Shining” as a child, I was afraid of my dad. Not that he beat me or anything, but this didn’t truly end until he stopped drinking.

5) In an effort to get me to stop sleeping in their bed when I was little, my folks told me that there were people who watched over houses and would take away little kids who slept with their parents. To this day, I can’t shake the slight feeling that I’m being watched as I lay in bed.

Mid 80’s…goofy looking characters standing approx 4 inches high that had a rubber “ball head” that was interchangable w/ other bodies. Every ball head/character was a different color. I remember a blue cop mostly. I had the whole set and then they disappeared. Sticky fingered neighbor kids probably!

Matt, my dentist told me years back that eating lemons will destroy your tooth enamel; sorry to be a pawtee poopah.

As a very young child, I had a paralyzing fear of rabbits. (For this very reason, the scene early in “E.T.” with the rabbit was mortifying.) Every time I saw one, I was convinced I would have a bad dream that night … and most of the time I did. So obviously I was terrified of nightmares in general, as well. Not sure what kind of psychological problems I was dealing with there…

JillS, I can’t recall the name, but for some reason, I remember Matt reviewing those toys (or something VERY similar) on the site not too long ago. I think it was in an older blog entry.

Commander Awesome, for some reason, I had the opposite reaction to ventriloquist dummies. Ever since the scene in “Zapped!” where Scott Baio uses telekinesis to make his dummy chase his mom around the house, I thought they were freakin’ awesome. I WANTED them to come to life!

I guess my frustration lies with not having a phrase or name to Google or Ebay. I’d like to have some of ‘dem “ball heads” back.

I still haven’t recovered from my mother tossing out my millions of those jelly-like bracelets that were so popular to layer on until your arm disappeared. ha We have a store here in NE Ohio called Marc’s and I remember them being, like, 20 for a dollar.

Jeremy Whatsisface:
I just had chills run up my spine from you describing that scene. I KNEW there was a reason I preferred “Zapped Again!”

Childhood Fears:
Zelda from Pet Sematary. When the alien peeks past the wall in Communion. I was certain the ceramic raggedy andy on my bedroom wall was going to disembowel me if I ever fell asleep. And the scooby-doo 45 record with the story about the abominable snowman. Good-old-fashioned nightmare fuel.

Also, Freddy Krueger scared the living hell out of me as a kid. I had recurring nightmares about him off and on throughout my entire childhood.

As a kid, my bedroom had the entrance to the attic, which unsettled me to no end. I used to stay up nights, staring at the door to the attic, just convinced that something hideous from the depths of Hell would come lumbering through the door to devour me. During daylight hours, the attic didn’t disturbe me at all. Heck, I used to play up there. But something changed when the sun went down, and the attic suddenly became a place of unspoken horrors.

For some reason, my parents told me when I was younger that if I took a bath/shower with the lights off, I would get sucked down the drain. It worked for the longest time.

Rev. Back It On Up, we have similar fears. The veins, but for me it’s really the ones at the soft places: wrist, throat, behind the knee, ankles.
And also the Cheshire Cat. When I was a kid I used to have this recurring dream where the cat just sits there and looks at me then starts smiling all slow and creepy like.

Hey JillS, I think you are talking about NERFULS! There are a few auctions on Ebay, just type in Nerfuls. And there is a blue “Officer Bob” figure. I was looking for these a few months ago, I rememered having a yellow head guy in a red wagon named Frankie. Hope this helps!

When I was VERY young (probably about two or three), Ronald McDonald on the McDonald’s advertisement scared me. I’m not one of those people who are necessarily scared of clown faces, but something about ol’ Ronald freaked me up good. I seem to recall he was in a big hedge maze where the hedges kept moving position. I screamed the house down and left the room until well after the 30-odd second commercial had gone.

Also, at about four or five, I was scared of K-9 in ‘Doctor Who’! Not the Daleks, not the Cybermen or any other terrifying adversary, I never stuck around long enough for them, but *K-9*! I don’t know why, but he terrified me.

Also, when I was a little older (around eleven or so), the episode ‘The Rest of My Life’ of the excellent late 1980s / early 1990s Children’s ITV series ‘Press Gang’. Where Spike is caught under the rubble of a building that has blown up in a gas explosion, and spends his time talking to an unseen girl who is buried deeper and hurt badly, and who quietly dies at the end. The episode haunted me for years. Later I got a video copy of it, and more recently on DVD, and it’s still excellent.
In fact, I’d recommend any fan of vintage UK teen shows to give ‘Press Gang’ a look.

When I was only a few years old, my mother took me to the circus. A bloody clown snuck up behind me, and grabbed me. He Fucking Grabbed Me! Right around the body, lifting me into the air. Like he has the fucking right to fuck with a kid, y’know?
Ever since then, the site of clowns gives me vertigo and panic attacks.
Also, pennies. They bother me. I don’t like them. I’m also afraid of my apartment’s balcony. I hate it up there.

Maybe if you ate apples the way you eat lemons the way other people eat apples, you would feel more energized? (Apples have a natural form of caffeine-like stuff that will help you wake up ^_^)
Been enjoying the summer posts very much, hang in there!

The original “Dawn of the Dead” VHS with “Zombie Roger” on the cover. Every time I went to the video store, I averted my eyes from this movie. It’s ironic because now I LOVE zombie movies, “Dawn of the Dead” in particular. Posters cover my gameroom walls. I even met “Roger” at a horror convention in Pittsburgh last fall and he autographed the VHS box and apologized for scaring the bejesus out of me.

Poltergeist. That movie scared the shit out of me as a child. Now it’s one of my favorites.

I didn’t sleep well during most of my childhood. Used to have weird nightmares. One of the earliest ones I can remember is going to Walmart with my dad and then he turned into a big, black, hairy monster. In another one, I dreamed I was in bed and then it started to fly and got sucked into this white light. That freaked me out a lot.

And yes, the EBS. I would get so scared when it came on, thinking that the Russians were going to blow us all to hell and stuff like that. Another fear sort of related to this one is technical difficulties on TV that result in dead air or one of those creepy still images. That one still gets me today.

However much the EBS scared me as a kid, I’d take that one over the current EAS. I hate that fucking thing. It comes when you’re not expecting it, it’s not preceded by a voice telling you everything is okay, it just jumps out at you with its weird-ass noises. Sometimes it has a voice after the tone that sounds vaguely robotic and staticy. Brrrrrrr.

Oh yeah, I forgot one of my biggest fears as a child: moths. I hated those things (still do). I remember having a nightmare in which they were trying to eat my hair. Anytime a moth got in the house, I would completely flip out. Other flying insects scare me too, especially the ones that don’t fly all the time. You never know when they’re going to take flight and land on your face or some shit.

Annette: Yeah, when I stay at the Grandparents I sleep on a cot in the guest bedroom. Years ago my Dad moved the doll into that room while I was asleep and put it right next to my head. I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and when I came back I found it standing right at the head of the cot where my head was. I flipped out. That was one of those times when nightmares come to life and you wonder how you would react. I probably sounded like a deaf guy being electrocuted. It wasn’t a typical shriek of a 10 year old.

random bob, I think anything from Mom and Dad Save the World would scare the hell out of me. That was the worst. movie. ever.

As a kid I was afraid of tarantulas after watching this Disney movie called “Something Wicked This Way Comes.” It’s about an evil carnival and there’s a scene where a ceiling cracks open and tarantulas start swarming into this kids room.

4) Old school china dolls, especially the ones of baby faces. My sister had one that had 3 different faces on it so you could turn the head to see smiling, crying or sleeping. Creepy.

5) The Shining (movie). I still can’t watch that one alone unless it is daylight out.

Spiders. I can handle snakes or anything else you throw at me but a spider over the size of a pinhead means all bets are off!

9) Stuffed animals that had open access to me at night. I used to have to lock them up in the toy box and put things on it at night. I think this also came from watching Poltergeist. I could have been her (Heather O’Rourke) twin as a child, seriously, I have pictures and that creeped me out enough to think they might come after me too.

10) Drawing on myself with a pen. I was convinced that I would get indian ink poisoning. Not sure why it was “indian ink” but that is what I called it. You can thank my parents and teachers for convincing me of this one. Even as an adult I can’t stand to write on myself and I am not that fond of hand stamps either.

Side note…my husband has a funny fear of Sock Monkey’s. I used to buy them and hide them for him to find. Aren’t I the best wife ever! :c)

Matt - our cocker spaniel Cinder used to eat lemons from the tree all the time. She would jump up to pick one, carry it around in her mouth all day like a ball and end her evening by peeling it and eating the lemon. She left her peels in a neat little pile for us to clean up. She was thoughtful like that. When we would prune the tree she would freak out and grab every lemon and toy she could find and barricade herself in my parents closet for days afterwards. It was funny and sad at the same time. When she died we buried her ashes in an urn under the lemon tree.

My husband, daughter and I are also big lemon eaters. No need to add anything to them. They really are natures perfect treat!

You and I share two major fears - needles and sharks in the swimming pool. That makes us soul mates. How do you feel about the Mad Hatter. This is critical.

I thought of yet ANOTHER one–in the movie Roger Rabbit at the end when the bad guy gets, I think, steam rolled and his eyes pop out–it freaked me OUT!

Cricket: I was the opposite about drawing/writing on myself. It used to drive my mother up the wall when I would come home from school with doodles all over my hands. I also used to write myself notes on my hands. The way I figured it, I could lose a piece of paper with a note written on it, thus defeating the purpose of writing it in the first place- but I couldn’t lose my hand:)

gingela: Chris Lloyd in Roger Rabbit didn’t scare me, but he definitely devastated me by killing the cartoon shoe. I can’t believe I’ve never written about that, so thanks for the reminder. Tribute to dead cartoon shoe pending.

Greetings Sprocket, I’m pretty new here myself. That being said, Something Wicked This Way Comes is a great movie, almost as good as the book.

Matt, yes! That poor damn shoe … I really hated the Roger Rabbit flick just for that one scene. Still don’t think I could watch it. The shoe just wanted to be loved!

undeadhead - I first saw the original (ie. far superior) ‘Dawn of the Dead’ late on night when I was about 17. It was on around midnight, the first time it had ever been on TV in the UK, and I just happened to flick onto it. By that age, films very seldom affected me, but I was TERRIFIED. To the point that I slept with the light on that night! But it was such a great film that I just had to keep on watching.

But I grew to love it. At that point I wasn’t really a horror fan, but it’s the film that introduced me to the genre and now they’re one of my favourite types of films. DOTD actually rivals ‘Back To The Future’ as my all-time favourite movie now. The remake pales rather pales in comparison. Some of the knock-off zombie movies of recent years should look back to the original DOTD to see how it should be done! (Night (original / remake) and the original Day are good too.)

That poor shoe, and not forgetting it’s devasted family, from the partner it left behind and the young flip-flop twins who were only just getting broken in.

OH THE SHOE! How could I forget that! More than likely tears were shed over that…I’m actually tearing up now

Lottie: Even though I was afraid of the tarantula scene, that movie remains one of my all time favorites and as a result I will watch any movie starring Jonathan Pryce (aka Mr. Dark).

I always felt sorry for that poor shoe too. That part always kinda makes me feel like crying. It’s those little whimpery noises he makes.

Power tools- or anything that has a motor and is capable of running on its own. Hand drills, sewing machines, even cars when I was at my worst. I can thank watching Maximum Overdrive at 5 years old for this fear.

German Shepherds- They’re police dogs. And the police have never been kind to me- so why would their dogs be? I’m so scared of one just going flywheel mental and eating my face.

Halloween Costumes that cover head-to-toe- If you can’t see skin, then how can you be sure they’re HUMAN…? Pretty sure this comes from my Dad and Older Brother(9 years older) who went to great lengths to scare the crap out of my siblings and I.

I asked my mom why my dad had so much hair on his arms and legs when I was very young and she (jokingly) told me it was because he was a werewolf and to watch out when theres a full moon.
Next full moon my mom found me trying to sleep with my PillowPals in my closet with my Ghostbusters ghost zapper/ light thing scared to death my dad was going to eat me if he came in my room.

Good god, another one just popped up. Poltergeist was scary, but the preacher in Poltergeist 2 was beyond freaky. I still have a fear of the clergy to this day from that movie.

I once asked my mom why my men had facial hair and she said when God had just finished making Adam he was still wet and sticky. So, a monkey accidentally sat on his face and that’s why men have facial hair and monkey’s have bare bottoms.

I used to eat the skin and all on lemons, too…if that’s what you meant by “eating much like an apple”.
If you were going for the “by breathing and wiping them off on my shirt, then peeling and dancing around the room with the curly peeling hanging off my ears as giant earrings”, then…I’m afraid I have no clue what you’re talking about.

Here are all the details for the “Real Ghostbusters” DVD set. Hope you have alot of $$$ lying about.

That Roger Rabbit shoe scene upset me too mostly because nobody tries to step him to stop him.

I’ve always found The Spitting Image Puppets kinda creepy. If you don’t know them they’re in the famous Genesis music video “Land of Confusion.”

The Ghoulies 2 movie poster with the green ghoulie popping out of the toilet freaked me out. In fact, alot of those horror movie posters are kinda freaky/memorable. You could do an entire article/blog entry on them. Good thing Halloween is coming in 3 months.

LARGE MARGE. Then and now, still can’t watch that scene.
The movie ‘Vamp’ also scared the crap out of me when I was a kid, I had to turn it off after 20 minutes or so. Fastforward 20+ years, my boyfriend and I rented it, I told him it was the scariest movie EVER! How embarrassing to watch it with him only to realize its pretty much a comedy about vampires with some very large and gross fangs.

Crap! I forgot! The demon latex things in the movie, House. And the fat one that got it’s head cut off by sheers. Crap! Kept me awake for a whole year.

The aliens at the end of Close Encounters scare the hell out of me, with their giant eyes and creepy hands all touching the humans. I don’t care how friendly they’re supposed to be, they kept kidnapping people and keeping them in their creepy spaceship for decades. I can watch almost the entire movie, but as soon as the spaceship door opens, and you see their creepy pale skin and little legs wandering about, I have to turn away.

Things that scared me as a child (and pretty much still freak me out as an adult):

-Clowns
-Men with beards (especially Santa Claus)
-Crowds
-Being stuck in my room when it was on fire (I tried to convince my father for YEARS to get me one of those collapsible ladders for my bedroom window, but no go)
-Unsolved Mysteries, especially the ghost ones (one was about a poltergeist making a clock radio start and stop randomly, and it was the same make and model clock radio I had at the time, so I was sure my radio was possessed)
-Bugs or anything that flies getting in my hair or face or (GAH) down my shirt
-People or things that pop out unexpectedly from behind something else (carnival haunted houses still freak me out, even when they’re geared toward little kids and the little kids aren’t even afraid, I’m the adult screaming and hiding my eyes like a big loser)
- I read The Exorcist and It MUCH too young and they scared me for years - I still don’t like The Exorcist much, because the Devil? Super-scary.
-Dolls or toys with creepy eyes that seem to follow you in the dark, as well as ventriloquist dummies
-Creepy little kids, a la the twins in The Shining

Commander: I remember all of the posters on that list except for the Pumpkinhead one. I would’ve used any of the “Nightmare on Elm Street” posters instead. Especially the first one with
Nancy in bed with Freddy’s glove on top of her head.

The weird thing is, with the exception of the Blob remake, I have not seen any of the movies on that list. But I remember the posters VERY well.

Power tools-
When I was about 5, I was watchign Maximum Overdrive. My parents thought it’d be okay to watch since it was on TV and didn’t have cuss words. At the time I was watching I was grating radishes for my mum. At the scene where the lady gets cut by the electric knife- I sliced my finger on the grater and freaked out.

The Opening sequence in Scream 2. I saw it in the movie theaters with my mom and my aunt. My mom thought I could handle it since I watched Scream on VHS all the time and loved it. I was 8 and really was anticipating the movie. Luckily the beginning of the movie takes place in a full movie theater, and the girl gets murdered in front of hundreds of people without them realizing it. That was enough for me. I think I hyperventilated before we left the theater shortly after.

I used to be scared to death of my papaw’s Bull. He had a lot of cattle and I was cool with all of them except that bull. I had nightmares for years of that thing, in my dreams it would transform back and forth into the Devil and chase me. I’d fall down and not be able to get back up. I hated that thing. Still do. ugh…

I got locked into my grandparents bathroom on accident when i was about 5 and the lock stuck i cut my thumb pretty bad with a straight razor and have been afarid of them ever since

There where only a few things that ever freaked me out as a child.
- Pet Cemetary the movie, I watched this at my friends house, and remember riding my bike home as fast as I could when it was over.
- Ronald McDonald Doll, I hated this thing. It had a big heavy plastic head and it would blow a whistle when you squeezed its chest.
- Michael Landon, I could never watch little house on the prairie or Highway to Heaven, without getting terrible nightmares of Michael Landon.

You know what I was totally terrified of as a little kid, was that bust of Mozart that sat on Rowlfe the Dog’s piano on The Muppet Show. It creeped me out because sometimes it wasn’t just a bust, it was an animated pupet that spoke, and I think it disturbed me that it was just a talking head. Funny how we can pick out something that scares us as kids. I guess that’s why even G rated Disney movies will have the “Some parts may frighten young children.” I know a guy who was scared of the walking armoire thing in Beauty and the Beast. The one that carries Belle’s father away. My other friend was terrified of Beaker from The Muppet Show.

I like how the text ads at the side of this site change depending on what the topic of discussion is. I see now it’s advertising staplers….

I love Doctro Who, and I never thought about the opening sequence being scary, but you guys who mentioned it have a point. The Tom Baker ones had that big photo of his head with that bulgy eyed stare that’d just loom up over the time tunnel effect.

When I was a kid I HATED clowns. The three movies that contributed to that fear were Killer Klowns from Outer Space,IT and Batman(first Tim Burton one). The worst one out of those three though was Killer Klowns from Outer Space. The VOICES of those clowns were just so FREAKY! I also got a little creeped out by the themes of The X-Files and Unsolved Mysteries.

The threshold to my bedroom was some odd Polish pine or something. And it had the most perfect knot-hole in it that was about 3 feet off the floor. Right at eye level for a 3 year old. On top of that, it looked like the eye on top of the pyramid on the dollar bill. I guess I was at the age where I started to observe things like the drawings on a dollar. And everytime I had to go to the bedroom, I had to close my eyes cuz I was scared begeezus by that knot hole.

Another fear was a ceramic Mary and Jesus statue a neighbor brought by for my mom (we’re Catholic like Matt). And the neighbor somehow stated that the statues was “made by her brother” and for some reason I processed that in my 4 year old head that the statue was somehow “made of her brother”. So I thought he was inside it. I could not go near tha frickin’ statue for years! I was so scared of it!

When I was younger, I was terrified of the Incredible Hulk. I would have long nightmares about him and could never stand to watch the TV show, haven’t watched any of the movies either.

This is strange but when I was little I was afraid of Viggo from Ghostbusters 2, especially the part where he starts thrashing his head around while he’s holding Oscar, and also the train scene with the heads on spikes, “Winston!”. I too have a horrible fear of looking out of a window at night.
Also if someone could help me figure out what book used to be freaked out by as a kid. It involves a bunny as the main character with patches all over him, he breaks out of his maker’s workshop and is attacked by dogs, then there’s some part with a Dracula doll and an evil flapper doll that smokes, and mechanical wasps that fly. I’m pretty sure this is real and not a dream, if it is then it is pretty much the most bizarre children’s book ever, if not then I guess it’s time for an evaluation. Thanks

Any movie that’s more than slightly scary. This includes some purported horror-comedies - I know three-fourths of you love the “Gremlins” films, but they scared the living daylights out of me as a 5-year-old and I still can’t watch the first one all the way through.

Storm grates seriously freak me out. To this day I’m terrified that they will collapse while I’m walking over. When I was a kid I used to have a nightmare that the storm grate in the ShopRite parking lot would give way when I was walking on it and I would be dangling over my (get this) my grandmother creepy, cobweb-filled basement which still had a dimly lit section partitioned off and filled with coal.

The Are You Afraid of the Dark episode where the kid gets trapped in the pinball machine that was like a giant closed down mall. I still get antsy when the mall is getting ready to close and high tail it out of there ASAP.

My college was featured on Unsolved Mysteries which freaked us out when we first heard of that.

And I farkin’ LOVE eating lemons. It freaks out my friend so I make sure I do it in front of her.

- spiders (im still convinced they crawl in and out of my ears while im sleeping at night)

MARY BETH: Was the book “Bunnicula”? I never read it, taking an educated guess here. Click my name for the Wiki link.