I saw the Exorcist when I was 10 years old and it gave me nightmares for a week. Last night was the first time I was brave enough to watch it again (30 years later).

What gave you “the fear” when you were small?

Snufflupagous on Sesame Street

Daleks…

Oh, and Basil Brush for some reason…

With you there Harry – it freaked me as a kid and I saw a bit of it last night but decided against watching it all just in case it scared me again (now 42).

When I was very young that weird stick thing off Rupert the Bear terrified me.

I mean – WTF!!! (It still disturbs me a little even now)
Raggety back then…

These days they have toned it down somewhat…
Raggety for the 21st Century…

Noseybonk – wtf was that all about?!?!?

Sapphire and Steel! Proper hiding behind the sofa stuff!!

Was convinced Captain Black from the Mysterons was in my cupboard when I was going to sleep. Wasn't scared of much else as a kid.

And these days this little fella can still creep me out (great animations though – worth watching).

The IRA

masks – I was terrified of people wearing masks, or evan masks hanging up in shops

didn't really like halloween as a result – and used to hide under the kitchen table when trick or treaters came round (although that wasn't that often in those days)

still remember that hot feeling of terror when I saw one, and my heart racing – shivers

Maggie Thatcher scared me, as did the impending nuclear armageddon that always seemed just around the corner. Oh and American Werewolf in London gave me serious sleeping problems dspite having watched it since realising it's a comedy!

Cybermen, werewolves, yetis, and the Incredible Hulk.

Them films they used to show in school warning of the dangers of playing on the railways. There was also one warning of the dangers of playing by water, that had a monk who said in a ghostly voice…"I'll be back".
A lad we knew climbed over a bridge onto a 25k volt line, didn't see it happen but we were close-by & I'll never forget the smell or seeing the lad's charred body on the tracks below.
Also nearly drowning in a local reservoir…I remember struggling like mad but still sinking & the water getting darker & colder. Managed to get back up but really freaked me out as it was a fair old distance from the edge.

Maggie Thatcher? I thought she was just an urban legend that parents scared their children with to stop them misbehaving.

+1 with the American Warewolf in London

Sea Devils off Dr Who.

The big lad down the next street who threatened to duff me up. I can't remember his name, now.

Like takisawa2 says, I remember a 20-30 min program shown on a Sunday lunchtime (c 1980) that illustrated the dangers or hanging out on a farm. Showed a bunch of kids dying it all sorts of ways, e.g. drinking chemicals from left around bottles, being mangled by machinery, falling into sh1t/swill of some kind, etc. Kind of scary at the time. And where did I grow up? 1/4 mile from a farm! Needless to say that's where I spent a lot of happy times, thankfully without dying painfully.

as did the impending nuclear armageddon that always seemed just around the corner

On the day of the 1983 general election I was terrified that Labour might win. I was only 5, but a bigger boy at school had told me that if Labour won they would get rid of all Britain's nuclear weapons, and if that happened then Russia would fire a nuclear bomb that would go round the whole world and destroy it.

And for years I was scared of wolves. I used to dare myself to stick my foot out from under the duvet to see if one was under my bed.

an orange space hopper around 1976. it stayed under the staircase and i freaked the first time i saw it.i always knew it was there and kept away from the door. i never believed my mother when she said it couldnt bite.

The fear that my frisbee might end up in a substation and then when I climbed up to reach it, my bell bottom jeans would get fried to hell 🙁

Freddie Kruger

Not for the faint hearted

Rupert Bear! The Horror!

Raggerty… Mr Grimnasty…The fecker with the flames coming out of his head… WTF were they thinking?

The paedo that stayed down the road

Zelda off of Terrahawks.

falkirk – was he a paedo OR a Stranger?

When I was a kid there were no paedos just 'strangers'

Lifts, after seeing a lift stuck about 5 foot from the floor and someone climbing out. Was a bout 4 or 5.
Refused to go in a lift for the next 10 years, still not to keen especially when theres loads of people jammed in with you

father christmas
jaws

Dylan8
He had his c0*k hanging out the window when he asked three of us to come inside his flat. Funnily enough we said no. I was about 10 at the time ,but my brother delivered papers in that close for years so he was probably bricking it every time he went in there.The other guy that was with us said we should have went in as the old guy might have needed a hand with summit (he always was a gullible ****t)

Shop dummies- I was scarred they'd suddenly move.
Grotbags off Pink Windmill/Emu whatever it was called.

Christ on a bike!

That raggetty thing scared the bejeezus out me when i was a nipper, looking at that link brought it all back! Is it me or were kids TV shows a lot more scary & weird back then?

A kids tv show called 'Children of the Dogstar', that I've just found on youtube

It's still unsettling me now 😀

What scared me as a kid? Nothing. I did however make sure that my smallest sister was terrified of the killer vacuum-cleaner (previous ate and killed Santa Claus) though 😆

The old man who lived round the corner.

He had white hair, a very big white beard and wore bobble hats. He murdered children, ate them and buried the remains in his garden. I remember being dared to knock on his door. I was too chicken though.

Being grown up now, I suspect he was probably a very nice man. However, it could be true.

Worst of all was the recurring nightmares I had of this strange cross between Zippy & Kermit driving a milkfloat across a lake!

Lifts

Shop dummies- I was scarred they'd suddenly move.

My kid brother once went up to one outside a store, was messing around and shook 'his' hand.

The thing was, it was actually a real man stood waiting for someone and naturally moved when this 4 yr old started shaking his hand. To say it freaked my brother out is an understatement – he screamed for what seemed hours afterwards. We still rib him about it now 🙂

Ena Sharples

Wtf was up with her hat?

Riding my bike through the woods and seeing men taking 'riding their bikes through the woods' far too seriously in all aspects. 😐

The Singing Ringing Tree

ARGH!

growing up! AAAAAARRRRGHHHHHH