MetaChat - Scarred for Life

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21 December 2009

Scarred for Life My hubby and I have a wee blog where we collect memories of things (especially media) that traumatized us as kids. →[More:]You know, the kinds of things that either weren't meant to scare you (Leo Sayer dancing with a room full of bird-headed monsters on The Muppet Show) or WTF were they thinking (Rikki Tikki Tavi was gave me nightmares for weeks). Sleestaks, Daleks, nuclear war, that thing you saw on tv late at night and still have no idea what it was, etc. Catch is, I am running out of ideas at the moment. Does anyone have anything they would like to suggest??

post by: evilcupcakes at: 13:34 | 51 comments

The #1 media-related thing that traumatized me as a child was this movie.

http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0069732/

posted by pinky.p 21 December | 13:36

OMG I have never seen that! Jamie Farr is in it?? Random.

*puts into Netflix queue*

posted by evilcupcakes 21 December | 13:41

In 2nd grade, some genius decided to show us the movie version of Roald Dahl's "The Witches". The part where the boy eats the chocolate and turns into a mouse scared the shit out of me, and continues to haunt me to this day.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 21 December | 13:42

Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, where Violet is transformed into a giant blueberry. I thought that could happen to me.

I was also terrifed by the movie Cocoon. And by Splash (so scared I would turn into a mermaid). And by a bunch of others. I was a very high anxiety child.

posted by amro 21 December | 13:42

I was afraid of planes overhead. Planes I was in were fine.

posted by tangerine 21 December | 13:55

Poltergeist saw my entire family sleeping in the same bed.

posted by Specklet 21 December | 13:58

When I was tiny, I was terrified of tomato stalks. I think I thought they were spiders. One of my earliest memories is of my mother showing my grandmother how she could keep me in a room by putting a tomato stalk by the door, because I wouldn't walk past it.

(yeah, that's kind of sadistic, but it's still kind of funny.)

posted by gaspode 21 December | 14:02

not that that's media, but you know, it's a good story :)

posted by gaspode 21 December | 14:03

"Scaredy Cat"

Still scares the hell out of me.

posted by Joe Beese 21 December | 14:13

I was quite delighted to learn a couple of years ago that my seemingly solitary childhood memory of crouching behind the sofa during the Dr. Who theme music is evidently a full-blown, well-recognized cultural phenomenon.

That music wigged me out, and the big floating head didn't help.

posted by Elsa 21 December | 14:22

Seeing images of the Holocaust on television on occasion of Remembrance Day.

posted by jouke 21 December | 14:24

Of course, there's the TV Tropes section on Nightmare Fuel, which they define as:

those things that scared the pants off you as a kid, though they weren't meant to. It's something that was meant to amuse, entertain, or be only slightly scary to the audience; but in execution, they're so trauma-inducing that they may cause adults to void themselves in terror.

posted by Elsa 21 December | 14:25

I somehow saw Bela Lugosi's Dracula when I was about six. That messed me up really bad for awhile; I needed company while falling asleep, due to my fear that he would fly in my second story window!

posted by richat 21 December | 14:26

I remember staying up late to watch The Black Sleep with my sisters when I was seven or eight or so which totally freaked me out.

posted by octothorpe 21 December | 14:41

The tomato stalk by the door thing is cracking me up.

posted by Specklet 21 December | 14:43

There was some show on New Years Eve on 1998 on cable or something that was about how in the year 2000, all our kitchen appliances and everything else was going to turn against us. Like pets attacking their owners, shredders grabbing ties and strangling people, a waffle maker squishing someone's face...I want to say it had pyramid in it's name or some sort of logo with one--but goddamn, that show has scarred me for life. I still won't use waffle makers. I try to stay out of their cord length. I know it was on cable because it was at my friend's house and we were very drunk off smuggled champagne and nail polish fumes.

posted by sperose 21 December | 14:55

Jaws.

posted by Melismata 21 December | 14:58

I had nightmares of the bumble in Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer when I was in kindergarten.
≡ Click to see image ≡
I was sure he was after me.

Subsequently and consequently, I didn't care so much for Herry Monster.
≡ Click to see image ≡

posted by plinth 21 December | 14:58

Okay, you know that scene in Who Framed Rodger Rabbit? The one where the judge gets crushed by a steamroller?- And then goes after Eddie with a whirring golden blade?

Could. Not. Watch. I closed my eyes during the scene all the time. The screaming, the melting, the body being blown back up- *shudder*.

posted by The Whelk 21 December | 15:15

Oh, man, that Judge Doom scene. That was way out of line for that movie. I still resent that.

posted by Wolfdog 21 December | 15:45

Subsequently and consequently, I didn't care so much for Herry Monster.

Frazzle was by far the scariest Muppet!

posted by evilcupcakes 21 December | 16:19

Straight-Jacket. My sister and I left very early in the film, after the heads of Joan Crawford's husband and his GF rolled. The first time I had ever seen that, and it's very subtle but the heads definitely do roll.

I had the creeps for months.

Curiously, when she caught them, they were both clothed on the bed, each in a supine position, almost like if you shared a bed with someone on a platonic basis. I at first thought "well they weren't DOING anything," but I was pretty young and didn't know much.

posted by danf 21 December | 17:38

The 3-D movie It Came from Outer Space. I was 8 when I saw it in the theater. I had to take my glasses off because it was too scary.

posted by Obscure Reference 21 December | 17:51

Oh, man, that Judge Doom scene. That was way out of line for that movie. I still resent that.

It's so out of context! Just blood-curdling screams and goo. I remember thinking the Dip Scene (with the shoe) was scary too (as it should be), but no were near as "watching it from behind fingers omgno!) as the Doom scene.

Gah! I loved that movie to death growing up but I was like 10 before I didn't have to leave the room during that scene.

Going back in my memory, I think i was a pretty unflappable kid when it came to scarred for life stuff, but I also think the stuff that freaked me out I just never watched again.

(Okay Audrey getting eaten in Little Shop of Horrors made a wince a bit, but it was less the SHE'S BEING EATEN and more the big close-up on the Monster's glistening, purple, vein-y innards. )

posted by The Whelk 21 December | 18:16

Oh wait! The heart-ripping scene in Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom made me shut my eyes every time, but I think that was the point. The wall of bugs was also pretty creepy, but again more in a gross-out way. I thought the bugs looked pretty cool - I just didn't want to *touch* them.

(I still defend that movie. It's *perfect* For exactly 11 minutes. The opening Shangrai number was, to Little Whelk, just so gosh darnd exotic and exciting and bam bam! guns! rolling gong! poisoned drinks! Diamonds mixed in with ice! bang bang! It was like a 30s Adventure serial distilled into a heady paste. Then it all goes completely downhill.)

posted by The Whelk 21 December | 18:22

Food of the Gods. I have no idea why the adults thought it was a good movie for us kids to see. I had nightmares for months.

posted by deborah 21 December | 18:39

I used to be scared of those street-sweeper machines, you know, the ones with the circular brushes on them. And Cybermen. And daddy-long-legs (still hate those fuckers).

posted by essexjan 21 December | 18:53

Kinder Egg freaks me the hell out.

(oh c'mon, you knew I'd bring up an ad, it's like I never watched anything else my entire life. Messed up.)

But as a wee lass, I was just really really terrified of giraffe-statues. I have no clue why.

posted by dabitch 21 December | 19:07

A friend and I went to see "Phantasm" in the theater (we told our parents we were going to see something else), and it WRECKED me. Terrified for weeks.

Now I love that flick and horror movies in general, so apparently the trauma wasn't permanent.

posted by BoringPostcards 21 December | 19:15

Hands down: Lily Tomlin as Edith Ann on Sesame Street. I *hated* that as a kid, to the point that I'd run out of the room crying the moment it popped on.

posted by ufez 21 December | 19:16

The single TV show that had the greatest traumatising effect on me was a documentary about CFCs & the ozone layer & the greenhouse effect. I recall being nearly paralyzed with eco-catastrophe worries for quite a while afterwards.

posted by misteraitch 21 December | 19:24

-the girl in Willy Wonka who turns into a blueberry. Terrifying. (This came right to mind even before I saw amro's comment).

-The song "A Day in the Life" by the Beatles. I learned - I think here on MetaChat, or maybe AskMe - that that song was scary to other people as well. I think it was partly the mysterious intimation of death, the creepy melody and banging piano, and then the chaotic whirlwind of sound leading to the last chord. The whole thing was overwhelming.

-The idea that I had internal organs. Oh wait, that's not media. However, the fear about it was triggered by some 70s miniseries - had to be NOVA or a PBS special or a network special - titled just "The Brain" which featured a lot of brain surgery. That mushy juicy stuff is inside me? NooOOoo!

-Watership Down the movie, the whole thing, but especially the part in the oft-shown trailer where one of the rabbits goes "The field! It's covered with blood!"

Later on, I was one of those early 80s preteens who stayed up late staring at the ceiling worrying about Mutual Assured Destruction with Russia.

This blog sounds great, evilcupcakes. Can we have a link, or is it private?

posted by Miko 21 December | 19:25

Kinder Egg freaks me the hell out.

I had never seen that until just now.

I was happier then. Until just now.

I spent the first half of the clip hope hope hoping that Humpty wouldn't please don't please don't wouldn't please EAT THE CHOCOLATE because I don't want to imagine him later --- and I will imagine him later, but when I do, I didn't want it to be him with chocolate-besmeared lips.

Happily, that was wiped away by his ending tumble behind the wall... from which position, I am certain, he crept stealthily away, and now he's behind my sofa.

posted by Elsa 21 December | 19:30

Trilogy of Terror. The Karen Black part.
≡ Click to see image ≡
≡ Click to see image ≡

posted by arse_hat 21 December | 19:53

When I was about 8 or so, my parents let me sit up late to watch TV with them. I was so excited to be allowed up so late (about 9pm if memory serves) that it didn't occur to me until my adult years that sitting a kid in front of the TV to watch a documentary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki wasn't a great idea. Vaporized bodies. Burn victims. Melted buildings and scenes of total devastation.

I lay awake at night for years, listening hard for the roar of the pressure wave to come swooping up our valley and kill me.

Jesus. No wonder I was so fucked up and anxious as a kid.

posted by ninazer0 21 December | 20:41

Planet of the Apes. At the drive in when I was about 4. At night, & I was NOT sleepy. Still makes the hairs on my neck stand up. Also, Patton.

And the tomato stalk thing is cracking me up too. Reminds me of that video where the dad brings the bag of potatoes out that have roots all over them & the kid cries.

My sister & a friend would stay up late at sleepovers to watch The Web, some black & white show which scared me shitless but I tried to act tough.

William O'Brien's book, No Dessert Until You've Finished Your Mashed Potatoes also terrified me.

Thanks for the nightmare material, arsey.

posted by chewatadistance 21 December | 21:07

This blog sounds great, evilcupcakes. Can we have a link, or is it private?

Here it is:
Scarred for Life
I just didn't want to be all "self=promotey" :D We have been dabbling with it for about a year, but getting married and having had several other huge life changing events this year have kind of shifted our focus.

OMG nuclear war horror was a huge thing for me. As was any apocalyptic scenario. I still haven't forgiven Carl Sagan for telling the sun would die in 5 BILLION years. Seriously, my parents sent me to a counselor because of it.

posted by evilcupcakes 21 December | 21:10

The child catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, with his terrible jail cart. And the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz, of course. Then there was this Saturday afternoon Creature Double Feature movie with a creeping hand - it may have been, in fact, THE Creeping Hand - that I said didn't scare me and I laughed about but in actual fact I was and still am terrified of creeping hands. Hate those things.

posted by mygothlaundry 21 December | 21:59

evilcupcakes, I put a link in the post title, because this is definitely a blog people want to see. Also, we love self-links on MetaChat, didn't you know that? :)

MGL reminds me that holy shit, the Wicked Witch of the West used to terrify me. I distinctly remember my brother and I hiding behind the couch when she'd show up on TV... in fact, I never saw the flying monkeys until I was an adult, because I was such a coward.

posted by BoringPostcards 21 December | 22:26

Also, OMG I'd never heard of The Crawling Hand... this may be what I'm doing after dinner tonight, MGL. Thanks. :)

posted by BoringPostcards 21 December | 22:35

From the blog:

As an adult, I quite like S[imon]& G[arfunkel]. As a child, they were a grim introduction to the ceaseless ennui of the rest of your life.

LOL

posted by Miko 21 December | 22:55

Only two instances scared me as a kid, but both were meant to scare. One was the trailer for The Skull that featured a disembodied skull floating about. The other was a book called Stranger Than Fiction (no relation to the Ferrell movie) that was a collection of supposedly true occurrences of the supernatural.

posted by Ardiril 21 December | 23:08

The Little Match Girl! Who the hell lets their teeny kid watch a movie about a little girl who freezes to death?!? My illiterate parents, that's who. 30 some years later, I still can barely talk about it.

I was also regularly freaked out by In Search Of...

And yeah, deborah, those giant rats in Food of the Gods were also horrible.

posted by jrossi4r 22 December | 00:04

At some point as a kid I got an eyeful of what must've been a PBS show about Bible stories. Naturally, the Bible being as violent and blood-soaked as it is, the beheading scene was quite vivid, and there wasn't much lead time for my mom to lunge for the channel knob.

The Day After, of course, scared the bejeezus out of me - even though I only saw the commercials, not the film.

And finally - Not so much a terror thing, but thank goodness for the Internet, because for the longest time I had only dim memories of "Wookies having a party, and then Stormtroopers", an image I knew I had seen, but that was not in the movie, and nobody else seemed to know what I was talking about. I guess the disbelief of my peers scarred me.

posted by Triode 22 December | 00:13

What chupahija did when I lost my first tooth:

I woke up the next morning to find a quarter and a picture of a snarling ogre head with tiny wings and fangs dripping blood with "THE TOOTH FAIRY HAS STRUCK!!!!" written underneath.

Every subsequent lost tooth had a plea for "no struck notes"....I have no idea if my brother received the same treatment.

posted by brujita 22 December | 01:22

Awesome blog.

All of the Gene Wilder Willy Wonka for me. I was just too young, and I can't watch it to this day.

In Search Of. Leonard Nimoy made everything scary. Bigfoot, Loch Ness Monster, Table Spoons. The Alien one had me frozen to the chair, unable to move.

Aunt Bea from the Andy Griffith Show. I didn't know why she talked like that. Heck I still don't know. It's a very odd way to talk. It made me think something was wrong with her.

The Exorcist. The other movie I still can't watch.

posted by rainbaby 22 December | 08:57

The Little Match Girl reminded me that ALL of Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tales, which I had in a big shiny-bound treasury, freaked me the hell out. I was still kind of fascinated with them, but they were among the oddest things I ever read. Still are, to this day. The Red Shoes was even worse than the Match Girl - there's a girl who's vain about a new fancy pair of red shoes, and never takes them off, and she becomes possessed by them and they dance by themselves and won't come off. The shoes dance her around to the point of exhaustion, and she can't control where she goes. She learns that she will have to wear the shoes until she dies, dancing all the time. So she asks the executioner to chop off her feet, and he DOES, but the shoes follow her around, tap-dancing all the time.

This is a story for CHILDREN.

posted by Miko 22 December | 12:19

Oh yeah, all those Hans Christian Andersen stories. Argh. I had a big old treasury as well, and kept going back to it, thinking, I suspect that the stories wouldn't be as traumatic the next time around. Boy, was I wrong. Most of the protagonists (little kids) die at the end of the stories, right? The red shoes girl definitely does.

posted by gaspode 22 December | 12:27

Oh yeah, all those Hans Christian Andersen stories.

I seem to be the only person who remembers bizarre story "The Little Girl Who Trod on a Loaf", which is just plain HELLISH.

posted by evilcupcakes 22 December | 12:47

Oh..you know what else? Operation, the wacky doctor game. That loud buzzing noise always made me think I was getting electrocuted. I wasn't real fond of Perfection either. Too much pressure! If you don't solve the puzzle--it will EXPLODE IN YOUR FACE!!

posted by jrossi4r 22 December | 13:17

The time my mother forgot to pick me up after my appointment with the child psychiatrist. You are free to speculate as to whether this is a) true or b) not traumatic on account of the fact that child psychiatrists stock some fine reading material in their waiting rooms.

posted by stet 23 December | 03:12

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