Horrifying stuff you saw on TV as a kid?

[AnthonyO'Brien]

The falling man from 9/11 probably comes to mind.

In my early teens I used to watch rock arena, an alternative music show that had some interesting vids from Laurie Anderson, Kate Bush and others. One day they had an artsy vid from interpretive dancer Michael Clark.
He had his bare butt out and appeared to be ahem, salad tossing, with another man. I doubt the network viewed the vid before airing it. It was on late Saturday morning for freaks sake. ..

And you?

[TheBlackTerror]

Threads and The Day After. Having grown up in the 80s the threat of nuclear war was always present, and both movies (Threads more IMO). brought the terrifying aftermath of such a war into people’s living rooms. Far scarier than most horror or slasher movies of the time because it could actually happen. I had nightmares for weeks after watching each of them. Both are available on YouTube if you want to scare yourself silly.

[Nate Grey]

Gozer and The Fly (1986), the latter specifically that scene where Geena Davis accidentally rips off what's left of his human face revealing his fly face and then he hurls her into the teleporter.

Garrett Morris's character's death in "The Stuff" ("The Stuff" was like the first cousin of "The Blob" basically XD)

[caj]

Gargoyles (not the animated tv show) a film from 1972 about a rural town taken over by Gargoyles. It's cheesy to watch now but was terrifying as a kid.

Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark from 1973 about a woman who releases tiny creatures from the fireplace of her new home that continue to terrorize her.

Ssssss from 1973 about a young man who goes to work for an older man obsessed with cobras. His goal is to turn the young man into a king cobra snake.

[krazijoe]

Joan Rivers...

[Captain Smith]

This is very long time ago - there was a version of the Wendigo story on black and white live TV. Scared the crap out of me. Horror was implied.

[Grapeweasel]

I watched a lot of Met games......

[Jokerz79]

I had teen siblings when I was a little kid I had 2 sister lin laws by the 5th grade so a lot of these came from my siblings being like "Let's show the Rugrat this"

1: Nightmare on Elm St. after seeing it I had nightmares about Freddy which trying to explain to a 5 year old Freddy wasn't real after that is almost impossible. I lost my fear of him once I learned he was Willie from V.

2: Zombie kid from Return of the Living Dead 2.

3: Burial Ground. Yeah, they really gave no effs to what they showed me.

4: This was a real life event Challenger explosion. As a kid who dreamt of going to space that was soul crushing.

5: HBO PSA on salmonella poisoning where a family is eating dinner around a fancy table and in the next shot they're all dead at the table thanks to the turkey being improperly cooked and contaminating everything. To this day I immediately scrub my knives, counters, and cook boards after cutting poultry.

[krazijoe]

I was around 11 and HBO was in its infancy. Only coming on at night and showing a limited amount of movies. One movie I remember, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and one of the last scenes where Donald Sutherland does their scream and points at the camera...Freaked me out and still does to this day.

[Username taken]

The Late Late Show had a lot of f..ked up stuff.

Then the opening of the British series- Armchair Thriller always freaked me out as a kid.

[Bunch of Coconuts]

One episode of Tales From the Crypt.

Now, I was fairly desensitized to violence, gore, etc. at a fairly young age, and I watched this show passionately when I was younger. But there was a scene from one episode, about a man who kept hearing voices that he couldn’t get rid of. I forget many other details, but at one point the man shoved pencils in his ears in an attempt to stop the voices. Still squicks me out to this day whenever I think about it.

Edit: ah, a case of misremembering (I hate when people insist they remember everything correctly). Apparently he didn’t actually use a pencil: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.p...orCryinOutLoad

In my mind, it still plays out with pencils though.

And neat…Katey Sagal was in this episode. I love her.

[Username taken]

Just shared this in the Marvel forum.

This scene from Superman 3 probably messed a generation of kids.

[Godzilla2099]

Never saw a horror movie and my cousins pulled me right over and made me watch the scene in Poltergeist where the dude tears his own face off.

Took years to get the courage to give another horror movie a try.

[Riv86672]

Gargoyles (not the animated tv show) a film from 1972 about a rural town taken over by Gargoyles. It's cheesy to watch now but was terrifying as a kid.

Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark from 1973 about a woman who releases tiny creatures from the fireplace of her new home that continue to terrorize her.

^^^Holy Cheesits!
Those are two of the scariest things I saw on TV as a kid, too!

Fun fact, the Gargoyle King actor played Lambda Lambda Lambda fraternity’s President in Revenge of The Nerds.

[Tien Long]

One episode of Tales From the Crypt.

Now, I was fairly desensitized to violence, gore, etc. at a fairly young age, and I watched this show passionately when I was younger. But there was a scene from one episode, about a man who kept hearing voices that he couldn’t get rid of. I forget many other details, but at one point the man shoved pencils in his ears in an attempt to stop the voices. Still squicks me out to this day whenever I think about it.

Edit: ah, a case of misremembering (I hate when people insist they remember everything correctly). Apparently he didn’t actually use a pencil: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.p...orCryinOutLoad

Bro, thought I was the only one traumatized by Tales From the Crypt. For me, it was the "Television Terror" episode with Morton Downey Jr.. Seriously, that messed me up for a years. I think it's why I find "found footage" horror films to be both terrifying and enticing.

In my mind, it still plays out with pencils though.

And neat…Katey Sagal was in this episode. I love her.

Just shared this in the Marvel forum.

This scene from Superman 3 probably messed a generation of kids.

Oh my god, I thought I was the only one!