What character scared you as a child?

I just thought of another one...remember that ABC movie of the week called Trilogy of Terror which starred the late Karen Black in three different roles? That little voodoo doll that terrorized her in third story scared the hell out of me. And I was a sophomore in high school!

Oh yeah, that little guy was frightening!

Cricket posted a photo of that little guy back on page 7.

Falconetti (William Smith) in Rich Man, Poor Man (1976) ...

Nice try, Tommy Ray, but I won't be fooled again!

I, too was terrified of Tim Curry's Pennywise in the original ABC miniseries...not so much Skarsgaard in the recent theatrical remake.

I found this movie so terrifying that I have never been able to watch it from beginning to end, I always end up turning it off at some point. This movie is really hard to watch.

I remember that character, Falcon Eddy, he hit Peter Strauss in the knee with a hammer!

Definitely King Kong, the 1933 version. I saw the movie on TV when I was very young, and it's the scene where Anne Darrow is in the tall building and the giant ape peers into the window, his face covering the whole window. For about 2 weeks, I had to have the curtains shut in my bedroom by an adult, who would check outside to be sure there was no giant ape in the back yard.

Chucky from Child's Play

The aliens in The War of the Worlds (1953). Until the ending there was a feeling of absolute helplessness to defeat them.

Actually the aliens in Spielberg's 2005 re-make weren't too shabby either...

Started watching hard core horror at the movies in the 70s, so pretty much all of that stuff.

Another one that I was probably too young to see, The Forbidden Planet, the Id Monster. You see foot prints in the sand, hear strange sounds, then it starts roaring. You don't see anything until the earthling's ray guns outline that giant monster. That one lived on in my dreams for a while too. Given a lack of digital animation, the hand-done animation where you see the monster outlined by the raygun bolts was very effective and the sound scared the crap out of this kid. I still like that effect now.

About 3 minutes into this clip the monster gets going. The sound production in this one is terrific for that time, so if you have good sound, it's worth turning it up.

None. It was those characters that were scared of me!

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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.

Growing up in Tallahassee, Florida from 1985-1991, the specter of Ted Bundy still loomed large over the city. My older sister had a curfew. I still remember the live news of his execution. This was in 1989 I think?
So, 11 year old me was just learning that the killers in films could actually exist. This was amplified when I learned the Texas Chainsaw Massacre was based off of actual murderer, although exaggerated, of course. Still, 11 year old me didn’t know much outside that “he existed”. So now I start thinking any slasher film could have happened.
This was right when Halloween and Friday the 13th were dominating the cinemas. And of course, I was afraid they could exist in some way beyond the screen. So those two had real estate in my over active imagination.

It gets worse……there was this neighbor who convinced me that Bigfoot, or maybe something similar, existed in the swamplands near our house, and the woods behind us, by telling me tall tales that he found duck and/or geese torn up to bits….by something unimaginable.
So now, any creature film spooked me because it could easily be in my friggin back yard…..

It gets worse…..somewhat down the road from our house, under a small bridge, my brother and a mutual friend found a dead deer torn up and half way inside a garbage bag along with other animal carcasses strewn about. The horns had been removed. The rumor? Occult sacrifices.*
So now I had that fear going for me….

So yeah, pretty much every shadow spooked me with my overactive imagination and the stories being passed around with these occurrences.
And any horror movie legitimately frightened me because….well….it could have been real to me at that age.

*I was just asking my brother about this to make sure I remember the details correctly, and we both agree that it was likely hunters who wanted the horns as a keepsake. As a child, however, we believed any story that was passed on to us.

Yes, In the Seventies that serial killer fear was real. My family was visiting New York at the time of the Son of Sam killings and it was rumored that he went after woman with long brown hair. At least, that was what I was told.
As for the occult or satanic practices, a documentary on Netflix posits (or at least the man who the doco is about posits) that the Son of Sam murders in New York were linked to satanic worship some how. Or it could be that David Berkowitz just enjoyed toying with the writer who visited him. the documentary series is called The sons of Sam: A Descent into Darkness.

Oh yeah!! That was hands down the greatest sci-fi movie in that era, and I think it still holds up today. Wonderful special effects for its day. It scared the hell out of everybody.

It was probably the first time that an established serious star actor was featured in a sci-fi film. It's also a kick to see the young Leslie Nielson in his role.