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Strange Things That Scared You (But Aren't Obviously 'Scary')

Does anyone out there remember finding the 'Saturday Morning Pictures' at their local flea pit a strangely scary experience? Not necessarily the things they showed (though some of those were pretty 'out there') - but the whole experience of being there and the faintly feral 'Lord of the Flies' vibe to the whole thing. I didn't go very often but I remember thinking 'why am I here?' It felt almost like I was there under duress and we were supposed to think it was fun when it wasn't really. It was shot through with a weird undercurrent of threat. Maybe it was just me.
 
They used to have a newsreel before the main picture at the movies.
When I was 5 and my Mother was in hospital having my sister my father took me to see something.
I can still remember the news showing an earthquake in New Zealand and me thinking that it was somewhere I never wanted to visit.
Now of course I have visited there twice although after we left the first time there was the Christchurch earthquake and last time the volcano after we had gone.
 
CharmerKamelion said:
Does anyone out there remember finding the 'Saturday Morning Pictures' at their local flea pit a strangely scary experience? Not necessarily the things they showed...

...the faintly feral 'Lord of the Flies' vibe to the whole thing.
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Oh good grief, yes! Maryhill cinema, Glasgow, early 60s... do I correctly remember going to see the 'Lone Ranger', 'Batman' and... was it 'Casey Jones'?!!
 
Enjoying all your Saturday Morning Pictures recollections! It really was just one of those things that happened in your childhood that seemed a bit 'out of kilter', one of the things that left you thinking 'not sure what that's about'. Another one was the loft. It only occurred to me a few years ago that despite living in the family home for nearly 23 years, I don't think I ever actually went into the loft, or attic as we called it. The hatch was in the ceiling right outside my bedroom door! Where was my curiosity? I wasn't really scared of it, it just feels like it never occurred to me to go up there. I think I stuck my head up there once when my dad had to go up there for something and it looked very large and shadowy and looked like there would probably be spiders up there, so I didn't bother.
 
Whilst looking through some of the online Glasgow related forums and nostalgia in respect of the Saturday morning picture shows, I came across something which was a subject of heated debate.

It concerns the 1950s and when the cinematic legend Roy Rogers visited Scotland.

Claims abound about whether he did ride Trigger down the staircase of his Glasgow hotel, which children's home he may or not visited during his stay in Scotland and whether he later adopted a child from either of them!

A discussion perhaps typified by someone commenting, "I've just phoned my 90 year old auntie and she quite clearly remembers...".

Remaining on topic, I have however unearthed a newspaper article and apparently trustworthy evidence of a Scottish story, which itself seems worthy of associated, legendary status.

www.forteanmedia.com/Roy.jpg
 
A Roy Rogers song turned up in my Youtube in-tray yesterday. Given his wholesome persona, the title made me curious . . .

She's All Wet Now! 1939

"She got all wet and you can bet she's paying for it now . . . "

I think he is referring to her lachrymose singing of the blues but imagine what George Formby would have made of this one! :yellowc:
 
Eponastill said:
Your description reminded me of 'The Children of Green Knowe' (it may well not be that for you though). In the garden of the house there were topiary animals that came to life (or maybe, at least in the boy's imagination) and also the statue of St Christopher against a wall and surrounded by ivy?. But even if it's not that, I'm sure that series probably gave a few children a few nightmares. I like it though
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Yeah, that walking st Christopher in the series scared me as a kid! I'd love to watch it again - but wonder if it would be disappointing as an adult!
 
escargot said:
We're already quite appalled by what YOU'RE making of it!
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I'll have you know that, in the field of music, I am hysterically-informed!

I do sup deep on Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, though I emerge, from time to time, gasping for air.
I was mightily surprised to encounter Roy Rogers in those-there parts! Imagine how Trigger must feel! :kersplat:
 
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JamesWhitehead said:
I'll have you know that, in the field of music, I am hysterically-informed!

I do sup deep on Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, though I emerge, from time to time, gasping for air.
I was mightily surprised to encounter Roy Rogers in those-there parts! Imagine how Trigger must feel! :kersplat:
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So, Chicken Heads for breakfast? hhhmmm. Some old style blues bars in the US can be scary.
 
As a kid i was petrified of Punch and Judy shows,apparently i used to scream blue murder until i was removed from the audience! are they still a thing?? - its not exactly pc is it?
Was anyone else freaked out by that awful bl**dy 'rabbit' Hartley hare from Pipkins? it still gives me the creeps now lol
 
plastic wiganer said:
As a kid i was petrified of Punch and Judy shows,apparently i used to scream blue murder until i was removed from the audience! are they still a thing?? - its not exactly pc is it?
Was anyone else freaked out by that awful bl**dy 'rabbit' Hartley hare from Pipkins? it still gives me the creeps now lol
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He was a hare rather than a rabbit, I assume you mean this one:-

hartley.jpg

Please enjoy your sleepless night responsibly.
 
plastic wiganer said:
As a kid i was petrified of Punch and Judy shows,apparently i used to scream blue murder until i was removed from the audience! are they still a thing?? - its not exactly pc is it?
Was anyone else freaked out by that awful bl**dy 'rabbit' Hartley hare from Pipkins? it still gives me the creeps now lol
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Hartley Hare was nightmare fodder :eek:
 
Hartley Hare? Roadkill Rabbit, more like!

Humphrey Cushion from 'Hickory House' .... WTF??

..... and does anyone else remember..... Zokko! Freaky skull-faced-robot-pinball thing. That was just WEIRD !!

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plastic wiganer said:
As a kid I was petrified of Punch and Judy shows
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They ought to scare us but I have to admit to having loved the surreal level of violence, as a kid. The baby used to get thrown into the audience several times; we all wanted to throw the mute thing back for some more punishment! Then there was still the crocodile, the sausages and the hangman to look forward to! Or should that go in "spoilers?"

The odd thing is that Codman's show visited our infant school, which was where I first saw it. No doubt, the schools were a way of keeping the hat full in the long, sunless off-season. We later caught up with the show on its more usual patch: Llandudno beach!

I would be surprised if there has not been some muffling of the anarchic violence* in recent years. :axem:

*Though the show is in viral abeyance, tripadvisor has the welcome news that the show, when last seen, was fully traditional! :yay:
 
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plastic wiganer said:
haha that was why i put 'rabbit' his names a bit of a giveaway lol AND thanks for the picture of IT! look at it.....just look at it......horrid thing.... its voice too..... aaaarrrgghh
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I was pleased to see Hartley make an appearance in recent Brit horror movie The Owners. Some would say it's the most appropriate place for him.
 
GNC said:
I was pleased to see Hartley make an appearance in recent Brit horror movie The Owners. Some would say it's the most appropriate place for him
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Haha! Indeed! Intrigued to see how Horrible Hartley is incorporated alongside a cast that includes such notables as Maisie Williams, Rita Tushingham, Sylvester McCoy and Andrew Ellis - and a sledgehammer! Definitely have to see that film. If anyone has any sense, they will take that (long overdue) sledgehammer to that messed-up hare!

On the subject of Punch & Judy (shudder) I can vividly remember a Sugar Puffs promotion from my childhood where there were colourful P&J characters to cut out on the back of Sugar Puffs boxes. Even as a kid it struck me as quite an odd, creepy set of images. I hadn't thought about it for many years, but I can summon the 'feel' of those images (including the policeman and the crocodile IIRC) quite readily. I did a quick search which, disappointingly, only yielded the advert below, from 1966, but at least it proves the whole thing wasn't a product of my imagination!!
20210315_120852.jpg
 
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EnolaGaia said:
Did the cut-out figures look like this?
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Yep, thanks EnolaGaia, that's pretty much how I remember them. I remember sitting at the breakfast table scoffing my Sugar Puffs, around the age of 5, so quite a long time before the Honey Monster arrived on the scene, and being fascinated and slightly creeped out by the colourful figures on the back of the box. I would love to see them all again, especially the aforementioned Policeman and Crocodile ones.
 
Good spot, Stormkhan! And seeing that pic, with his blank black eyes, makes me wonder why he didn't creep me out more! Also, looking at that pic, makes me wonder if he might have been a distant cousin of Bok the living stone gargoyle from the 1971 Doctor Who story "The Dæmons"......

IMG-20210315-WA0001.jpg
 
MercuryCrest said:
I just thought of one that spooked me as a little kid. I don't know where we were exactly (part of me thinks it may have been Virginia), I remember distinctly my dad and I driving around and we passed this weird looking water-tower. Now, I don't know if it's the same anywhere else, but towns in the U.S. like to have fun and paint weird things on them, etc.

This one for all the world, looked like a bowler hat and it just scared the bejebus out of me. Not sure why. Mayhap an instance of megalophobia?
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Familiar things given a disproportionate scale, or that are out of place, can often trigger an uneasy sense of the uncanny.

Has anyone experienced such a feeling, when surprised by unexpectedly spotting a full moon low on the daylight horizon?
Or when you go outside and a full moon is shining bright in a clear sky?
 
HypnosMetis said:
Yeah, that walking st Christopher in the series scared me as a kid! I'd love to watch it again - but wonder if it would be disappointing as an adult!
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It was the tree that walked about that scared me in the books. The one that had been cut into the shape of a man and then nobody dare topiarise it again so it was all grown out and whiskery....brrrrr...
 
Amergin said:
Familiar things given a disproportionate scale, or that are out of place, can often trigger an uneasy sense of the uncanny.
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. . . disproportionate scale—like your avatar has? :eek:
 
A hand puppet in a fun house mirror?
 
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