This was a post I originally did for a Friday the 13th in March of 2009. It is suitable for Halloween, as well, so I am re-posting. Below the post, I am adding the comments from back then and I hope to get more comments about what scares you!
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Okay, so I am one who likes being scared. Love horror movies, love creepy stuff. Like that feeling of eeriness you get from a good scare. So, here are 13 things that creep me out. I am sure there are more, but these are the ones that came to the top of my mind, so they have obviously had a lasting effect. I am not saying these movies or shows are the scariest, most unnerving things out there, but these are just parts that stuck out, to me.
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1) The way Michael Myers watches Laurie in HALLOWEEN. There are a bunch of instances in this film: the scene after she drops off the key at his old house and walks away and he steps out onto the sidewalk to watch her; the scene in the school when she sees him outside the window; the scene in her backyard standing amidst the drying laundry. Not to mention when only Laurie spots him near the hedge on their walk home from school. CREEPY!
This is also done to great effect in HALLOWEEN 5: THE REVENGE OF MICHAEL MYERS - there is a scene, where the teens are in the park and talking and in the background you can see Michael, wandering around some trees. He isn't so much as hiding as just staying slightly obscured. Creepy! And the scene where Rachel is showering and what-not, and Michael is in the house, as well. I bet this scene can still scare people who are home... "alone".
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2) The scene in JEEPERS CREEPERS where they are driving past the old church and see the Creeper dumping something in the pipe. What creeps me out here is when HE LOOKS BACK AT THEM! Something about evil being there but unaware of your presence is so much better than when evil looks at you and says "Oh, I see you, too..."
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3) The same feeling plays into the very creepy X-FILES episode "Home". I think the scene towards the beginning, when Mulder and Scully are examining the ball field and they are told about the Peacock family and they look over to see the three men on their porch, watching the agents themselves. So much about this episode is wrong (in a good way), but the fact that those disturbed, bizarre, homicidal creeps were right there out in the daylight was scary stuff.
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4) Clowns, to me, have lost that lovin' feeling. But that damn creepy clown doll from POLTERGEIST? Ugh, who in their right mind would give this to a kid, even before this movie came out? Just so wrong and such a nightmare inducer. I would never have just left it sitting on a shelf to watch me sleep at night. That fucker would have been locked up tight, preferably in another room. In another house.
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5) The scene in FRIDAY THE 13TH: PART II where Ginny and Paul are in the cabin and the lights are out. When Ginny says "There's someone in this room!" and Jason is there, quietly waiting in the dark. THIS is why grown people can be afraid of the dark - there might be a once-dead-but-now-alive-with-a-sack-on-his-head-irrational-killer in the corner. Also in this movie, when Ginny is in Jason's shack and she peers out and see Jason running towards her. Holy momma! Where the flip can she go? There are only two rooms, and we KNOW what Ginny finds behind door number two.
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6) The original THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE is scary stuff, especially when I first saw it as a wee lad. But there is one scene that always freaks me out. When Kirk enters the house and Leatherface just appears and whacks him. Before you know it, the door is shut and Kirk is just GONE. What just happened? The fact that something so unexpected and horrific can occur so damn quickly... Well, it just goes to show you why you should stay the hell OUT of strange farmhouses in the country. The fact that they made an actual toy/collectible of this scene tells me I am not alone in this feeling.
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7) It may not hold the same punch these days, when everyone has a cell phone, but the 70s film WHEN A STRANGER CALLS was seriously creepy in it's time. The 'calls coming from inside the house' scare was something babysitters (and loners) feared already and this movie just made them jump up and say "SEE??? I TOLD you it could happen!!!" The very different sequel WHEN A STRANGER CALLS BACK has a semi-creepy scene, when that movie's killer hides himself right in the woman's apartment - by painting himself to match her brick wall and just standing still.
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8) The flying monkeys in THE WIZARD OF OZ. They are creepy in their own right, with their bizarre monkey/human hybrid faces and expressions of perpetual glee - which they shouldn't have. But, what puts them over the top are their little coordinated outfits! Holy buckets! The witch was evil, but this just proves the bitch was bat-shit crazy! She spends her off time making matching outfits for her band of flying monkeys?! Run, Dorothy, run!!!
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9) The Oompa Loompas from the original WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY. They were like midgets but not, with odd colored skin and green hair and strange white jumpsuits and... they were helpers from hell, is what they were. ONLY Wonka would be okay with living and working with these bizarre and unsettling little men. The Oompa Loompas from the remake were odd, but not stay-the-fuck-away-from-me odd.
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10) This albino dude from FOUL PLAY, the 70s movie with Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase.
I don't remember much about the movie, but he scared the CRAP out of me when I was a kid. Anytime I saw this movie in the TV Guide I would look away for something else. I couldn't watch it again cause I knew I would see him. Turns out he was an actor named William Frankfather and he WASN'T really an albino. Don't care, really, as he has haunted my brain for decades now.
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11) The old 70s show IN SEARCH OF, with Leonard Nimoy. Hot damn, this show freaked me out. Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, aliens, heck - even Amelia Earhart and her disappearance scared me. But it was all because of the combination of fear and mystery and the unknown they infused into each episode. From the eerie music to Nimoy's normal-yet-scary-uncle narration, I was scared spitless.
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12) This creepy, creepy, CREEPY picture. It just gives me the willies. I have lost the image twice over the years (probably subconciously deleted it) and had to search the 'net for it, never recalling what to actually use as search terms. "Creepy midget", "Scariest dwarf", "What the fuck?".
I finally remembered something about him being arrested, so I searched for "arrested midget" and wham-o! As soon as I saw it, I jumped and aged another year. Great googly moogly ... I don't know if it is real or not, but frankly it doesn't matter. It freaks the ever-loving-beejebus out of me. I would jump up into Michael Myers arms for safety and tell him to high-tail it to Jason's shack if I was confronted with this alleged "peeping tom". Can you even IMAGINE seeing him looking in your window? I would move to a place with one entrance, no widows. And then blind myself.
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13) Okay, the peeping tom midget IS less scary than one thing:
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Comments on original post:
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1) The way Michael Myers watches Laurie in HALLOWEEN. There are a bunch of instances in this film: the scene after she drops off the key at his old house and walks away and he steps out onto the sidewalk to watch her; the scene in the school when she sees him outside the window; the scene in her backyard standing amidst the drying laundry. Not to mention when only Laurie spots him near the hedge on their walk home from school. CREEPY!
This is also done to great effect in HALLOWEEN 5: THE REVENGE OF MICHAEL MYERS - there is a scene, where the teens are in the park and talking and in the background you can see Michael, wandering around some trees. He isn't so much as hiding as just staying slightly obscured. Creepy! And the scene where Rachel is showering and what-not, and Michael is in the house, as well. I bet this scene can still scare people who are home... "alone".
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2) The scene in JEEPERS CREEPERS where they are driving past the old church and see the Creeper dumping something in the pipe. What creeps me out here is when HE LOOKS BACK AT THEM! Something about evil being there but unaware of your presence is so much better than when evil looks at you and says "Oh, I see you, too..."
(the first 45 seconds here are the creepiest part)
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3) The same feeling plays into the very creepy X-FILES episode "Home". I think the scene towards the beginning, when Mulder and Scully are examining the ball field and they are told about the Peacock family and they look over to see the three men on their porch, watching the agents themselves. So much about this episode is wrong (in a good way), but the fact that those disturbed, bizarre, homicidal creeps were right there out in the daylight was scary stuff.
(I see you on the porch! Knock it off!!!)
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4) Clowns, to me, have lost that lovin' feeling. But that damn creepy clown doll from POLTERGEIST? Ugh, who in their right mind would give this to a kid, even before this movie came out? Just so wrong and such a nightmare inducer. I would never have just left it sitting on a shelf to watch me sleep at night. That fucker would have been locked up tight, preferably in another room. In another house.
(Bet you look under your bed tonight!)
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5) The scene in FRIDAY THE 13TH: PART II where Ginny and Paul are in the cabin and the lights are out. When Ginny says "There's someone in this room!" and Jason is there, quietly waiting in the dark. THIS is why grown people can be afraid of the dark - there might be a once-dead-but-now-alive-with-a-sack-on-his-head-irrational-killer in the corner. Also in this movie, when Ginny is in Jason's shack and she peers out and see Jason running towards her. Holy momma! Where the flip can she go? There are only two rooms, and we KNOW what Ginny finds behind door number two.
(OF COURSE a dude with a sack on his head lives here.)
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6) The original THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE is scary stuff, especially when I first saw it as a wee lad. But there is one scene that always freaks me out. When Kirk enters the house and Leatherface just appears and whacks him. Before you know it, the door is shut and Kirk is just GONE. What just happened? The fact that something so unexpected and horrific can occur so damn quickly... Well, it just goes to show you why you should stay the hell OUT of strange farmhouses in the country. The fact that they made an actual toy/collectible of this scene tells me I am not alone in this feeling.
(The kicking legs make it all the worse.)
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7) It may not hold the same punch these days, when everyone has a cell phone, but the 70s film WHEN A STRANGER CALLS was seriously creepy in it's time. The 'calls coming from inside the house' scare was something babysitters (and loners) feared already and this movie just made them jump up and say "SEE??? I TOLD you it could happen!!!" The very different sequel WHEN A STRANGER CALLS BACK has a semi-creepy scene, when that movie's killer hides himself right in the woman's apartment - by painting himself to match her brick wall and just standing still.
(Carol Kane, your eyes speak volumes. So perfect for horror flicks.)
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8) The flying monkeys in THE WIZARD OF OZ. They are creepy in their own right, with their bizarre monkey/human hybrid faces and expressions of perpetual glee - which they shouldn't have. But, what puts them over the top are their little coordinated outfits! Holy buckets! The witch was evil, but this just proves the bitch was bat-shit crazy! She spends her off time making matching outfits for her band of flying monkeys?! Run, Dorothy, run!!!
(WHY would you even own this picture? And the dude got it signed!)
9) The Oompa Loompas from the original WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY. They were like midgets but not, with odd colored skin and green hair and strange white jumpsuits and... they were helpers from hell, is what they were. ONLY Wonka would be okay with living and working with these bizarre and unsettling little men. The Oompa Loompas from the remake were odd, but not stay-the-fuck-away-from-me odd.
(STOP looking at me!)
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10) This albino dude from FOUL PLAY, the 70s movie with Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase.
I don't remember much about the movie, but he scared the CRAP out of me when I was a kid. Anytime I saw this movie in the TV Guide I would look away for something else. I couldn't watch it again cause I knew I would see him. Turns out he was an actor named William Frankfather and he WASN'T really an albino. Don't care, really, as he has haunted my brain for decades now.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
11) The old 70s show IN SEARCH OF, with Leonard Nimoy. Hot damn, this show freaked me out. Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, aliens, heck - even Amelia Earhart and her disappearance scared me. But it was all because of the combination of fear and mystery and the unknown they infused into each episode. From the eerie music to Nimoy's normal-yet-scary-uncle narration, I was scared spitless.
(Could have done a show on missing socks - I would have been petrified.)
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12) This creepy, creepy, CREEPY picture. It just gives me the willies. I have lost the image twice over the years (probably subconciously deleted it) and had to search the 'net for it, never recalling what to actually use as search terms. "Creepy midget", "Scariest dwarf", "What the fuck?".
I finally remembered something about him being arrested, so I searched for "arrested midget" and wham-o! As soon as I saw it, I jumped and aged another year. Great googly moogly ... I don't know if it is real or not, but frankly it doesn't matter. It freaks the ever-loving-beejebus out of me. I would jump up into Michael Myers arms for safety and tell him to high-tail it to Jason's shack if I was confronted with this alleged "peeping tom". Can you even IMAGINE seeing him looking in your window? I would move to a place with one entrance, no widows. And then blind myself.
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13) Okay, the peeping tom midget IS less scary than one thing:
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Comments on original post:
Good list, I'd add Danny Glick tapping at the window in Salem's Lot. And the looming hag from the original House on Haunted Hill...
I'm so glad I'm not the only person creeped out by the oompa loompas. They seriously gave me nightmares as a kid. The most horrible scene in that entire movie is when they roll away the little girl who has blown up into a giant blueberry. For a kid with separation anxiety, that was absolutely terrifying!
The one thing that still creeps me out - statues, especially religious ones.
Prediction: I will have night terrors and wake up crying like a schoolgirl due to your midget picture.
Great list.
"Beast With Five Fingers" about a concert pianist whose hand is cut off and the hand takes revenge by hand walking about and killing people. Five or six when I first saw it on television; I'd been locked in a room by my older playmates who wanted me to watch it and be scared. I was. I am.
"Outer Limits" tv show had an episode about a spacecraft of criminals from another planet sent into exile and they land on earth.
They turn out to be robotic looking bugs who climb out of the space craft and crawl up people and kill them. I have an image of these things overwhelming someone and just taking him down!
Alfred Hitchcock Presents "The Jar" I think was the name of this particular episode from his old tv series about a jar containing some globby blobby looking mass with an eyeball. Don't know if they ever figured out what it was but that eyeball in the jar haunted me for years.
Yes indeed, Freud would have a field day with these responses...