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

blessmycottonsocks said:
Then there were some of those early Betty Boop cartoons, that took the sinister vibe of unwholesome creepiness way off the scale.

Check out the 1932 Minnie the Moocher.
Starts off great - enjoy that Cab Calloway routine, but from around the 4:20 mark.... WTF!

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Oh wow. Many of those vintage cartoons had a nightmarish vibe but that Betty Boop cartoon is off the scale creepy. What I would term "well f*cked up" were I not in such polite society. And just when you think it can't get more screwed, they chuck in ghosts (I assume) cheerfully being executed in electric chairs. Delightful.
 
CharmerKamelion said:
Oh wow. Many of those vintage cartoons had a nightmarish vibe but that Betty Boop cartoon is off the scale creepy. What I would term "well f*cked up" were I not in such polite society. And just when you think it can't get more screwed, they chuck in ghosts (I assume) cheerfully being executed in electric chairs. Delightful.
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It was the hollow-eyed mother cat being drained dry by her equally horrific looking kittens that freaked me out.
And when you get lost in the woods, whatever deranged mind decided to throw a moon-walking ghost walrus into the mix?
A good candidate for the most nightmarish ever use of the cartoon medium.
 
There was a remarkably creepy stop-frame animation I saw many years ago on TV, which has haunted me to this day. I have ever been able to find it since, despite several attempts to search for it online.
It featured preserved museum specimen type animals in pickled jars of formaldehyde. They gradually came to life and escaped their jars. Then the group of animals - still very obviously dead, wet, pickled & stitched creatures - set off in a sort of procession. I cannot now remember whether they ultimately enacted some ritual or gathered to dance, or congregated for another purpose. The whole thing was both horrific and yet terribly moving. It had a look of an experimental short, and in my memory it had a vibe similar to the magical tribute to Mervyn Peake‘s Gormenghast ‘The Web’, by Joan Ashworth:
Does anyone recall seeing anything remotely like this? I am fairly sure it was not some strange fever dream!
 
Comfortably Numb said:
Wish I hadn't read that...

You remind of when I was around 5 years old and we lived in a typical old Glasgow three storey tenement, which has a shared outside toilet in the building.

Whether it was the fact there was no internal lighting on the stairs, or in the toilet, or when you had to visit at night the need for a dimly lit torch, the plethora of spiders hanging from the toilet ceiling, or the toilet paper consisting of torn up newspaper...

Thinking back... no wonder I was absolutely terrified.
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One toilet for everyone to share?
 
Amergin said:
There was a remarkably creepy stop-frame animation I saw many years ago on TV, which has haunted me to this day. I have ever been able to find it since, despite several attempts to search for it online.
It featured preserved museum specimen type animals in pickled jars of formaldehyde. They gradually came to life and escaped their jars. Then the group of animals - still very obviously dead, wet, pickled & stitched creatures - set off in a sort of procession. I cannot now remember whether they ultimately enacted some ritual or gathered to dance, or congregated for another purpose. The whole thing was both horrific and yet terribly moving. It had a look of an experimental short, and in my memory it had a vibe similar to the magical tribute to Mervyn Peake‘s Gormenghast ‘The Web’, by Joan Ashworth:
Does anyone recall seeing anything remotely like this? I am fairly sure it was not some strange fever dream!
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Re-animator or From Beyond with Jeffery Coombs? I don't have time to check, but several of his B movies he's done come to mind.
 
I've been told I was taken to see Snow White at the cinema as a small child and became upset when the witch was killed.


There are those who would say I'm still a bit strange. :cool:
 
Erinaceus said:
I've been told I was taken to see Snow White at the cinema as a small child and became upset when the witch was killed.


There are those who would say I'm still a bit strange. :cool:
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Oh no! You mean the witch dies!!?? Spoilers!!!!

I was planning to get around to watching "Snow White" some day (my prince will come). But there's just no point now. Thanks, Erinaceus.

Guess I could just watch "Titanic" instead and hope no-one spoilers that for me.
 
blessmycottonsocks said:
It was the hollow-eyed mother cat being drained dry by her equally horrific looking kittens that freaked me out.
And when you get lost in the woods, whatever deranged mind decided to throw a moon-walking ghost walrus into the mix?
A good candidate for the most nightmarish ever use of the cartoon medium.
Click to expand...
Yes the cat and kittens were sad....
 
Amergin said:
There was a remarkably creepy stop-frame animation I saw many years ago on TV, which has haunted me to this day. I have ever been able to find it since, despite several attempts to search for it online.
It featured preserved museum specimen type animals in pickled jars of formaldehyde. They gradually came to life and escaped their jars. Then the group of animals - still very obviously dead, wet, pickled & stitched creatures - set off in a sort of procession. I cannot now remember whether they ultimately enacted some ritual or gathered to dance, or congregated for another purpose. The whole thing was both horrific and yet terribly moving. It had a look of an experimental short, and in my memory it had a vibe similar to the magical tribute to Mervyn Peake‘s Gormenghast ‘The Web’, by Joan Ashworth:
Does anyone recall seeing anything remotely like this? I am fairly sure it was not some strange fever dream!
Click to expand...
There used to be lots of animation films shown on Saturdays (I think). I used to watch them. I remember seeing something like this....But I can't remember the story or the animator. But I can remember it being like the "Alice" films.....Were there tins which were opened with eyeballs in? I seem to remember that sort of thing......
 
Amergin said:
There was a remarkably creepy stop-frame animation I saw many years ago on TV, which has haunted me to this day. I have ever been able to find it since, despite several attempts to search for it online.
It featured preserved museum specimen type animals in pickled jars of formaldehyde. They gradually came to life and escaped their jars. Then the group of animals - still very obviously dead, wet, pickled & stitched creatures - set off in a sort of procession. I cannot now remember whether they ultimately enacted some ritual or gathered to dance, or congregated for another purpose. The whole thing was both horrific and yet terribly moving. It had a look of an experimental short, and in my memory it had a vibe similar to the magical tribute to Mervyn Peake‘s Gormenghast ‘The Web’, by Joan Ashworth:
Does anyone recall seeing anything remotely like this? I am fairly sure it was not some strange fever dream!
Click to expand...
Check out the works of Jan Švankmajer.
 
Amergin said:
There was a remarkably creepy stop-frame animation I saw many years ago on TV, which has haunted me to this day. I have ever been able to find it since, despite several attempts to search for it online.
It featured preserved museum specimen type animals in pickled jars of formaldehyde. They gradually came to life and escaped their jars. Then the group of animals - still very obviously dead, wet, pickled & stitched creatures - set off in a sort of procession. I cannot now remember whether they ultimately enacted some ritual or gathered to dance, or congregated for another purpose. The whole thing was both horrific and yet terribly moving. It had a look of an experimental short, and in my memory it had a vibe similar to the magical tribute to Mervyn Peake‘s Gormenghast ‘The Web’, by Joan Ashworth:
Does anyone recall seeing anything remotely like this? I am fairly sure it was not some strange fever dream!
Click to expand...
I think it was an Australian film called 'Toxic'. It had preserved animals including a platypus coming out of jars of formaldahide.
 
lordmongrove said:
I think it was an Australian film called 'Toxic'. It had preserved animals including a platypus coming out of jars of formaldahide.
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Aha! That sounds exactly right! Your mention of a platypus - I am fairly certain there was one of those in the animation. I’ve tried googling though and it looks like a tough animation to find online.
 
Earthly oddity said:
There used to be lots of animation films shown on Saturdays (I think). I used to watch them. I remember seeing something like this....But I can't remember the story or the animator. But I can remember it being like the "Alice" films.....Were there tins which were opened with eyeballs in? I seem to remember that sort of thing......
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Saturday morning rings a bell, My memory is of it being shown in the daytime, not an evening / late night thing. I am not sure about the eyeballs, that sounds more like the Alice film?
 
Amergin said:
Saturday morning rings a bell, My memory is of it being shown in the daytime, not an evening / late night thing. I am not sure about the eyeballs, that sounds more like the Alice film?
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Yes, the eyeballs were probably the Alice film. My memories are not entirely clear - but I do remember watching some disturbing animation films.....
They used to show a serial version of Mahābhārata (BBC2? morning Sat or Sun?) with some very hokey special effects. In fact part of me loved the hokey effects - and I was disappointed if the episode lacked them!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabharat_(1988_TV_series)
 
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WHY was the toilet flush so universally terrifying? Was it because it usually happened when we were alone? In a small room with echoes? The unpredictability of it (which it wasn't really, you knew you pulled the chain or pressed the lever and it made that noise)? The volume?

I think the terror of the flush was why so many children grew up never flushing the toilet, and I know with ours that I HAD to be out of the room, light off and back down the stairs before it stopped 'wooshing' otherwise....something would happen.

Or is it just that, being children, we never really knew quite 'what' it was? Any stories from anyone who saw inside the cistern and was still afraid of the flush? I feel like I can date my losing my terror of it back to watching my dad replace the ballcock and so learning how the whole thing worked (which is actually really fascinating if you think about it).
 
Trevp666 said:
That's a new one on me.
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Maybe Catseye's use of the term "universally terrifying" is rather overstating it. As a kid I was pretty much frightened of - well, perhaps unnerved by - just about anything. But the flushing of the toilet never bothered me. I was probably too busy worrying about why those things on the top of tomatoes looked just like spiders, you know. Important stuff like that.
 
catseye said:
I know with ours that I HAD to be out of the room, light off and back down the stairs before it stopped 'wooshing' otherwise....something would happen.
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I thought that too. I'm not sure what I expected to happen though. Perhaps something was going to be woken by the flush and stick its head round the U-bend to see what was going on. :)
 
Trevp666 said:
That's a new one on me.
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There are lots of examples upthread (includind mine) I was surprised to find I wasn't alone!

I was also surprised when my very rational, down to earth, computer science lecturer neighbour owned up to sharing one of my superstitions/fears, Namely that if you didn't turn off the TV or at least change channels, before the 'East Enders' theme tune had finished playing something bad might happen, which wasn't about inadvertently seeing the programme ... it went beyond that! Neither of us could specify what exactly ha! ha!

Der der d ...... YIKES OFF!
 
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catseye said:
WHY was the toilet flush so universally terrifying? Was it because it usually happened when we were alone? In a small room with echoes? The unpredictability of it (which it wasn't really, you knew you pulled the chain or pressed the lever and it made that noise)? The volume?

I think the terror of the flush was why so many children grew up never flushing the toilet, and I know with ours that I HAD to be out of the room, light off and back down the stairs before it stopped 'wooshing' otherwise....something would happen.

Or is it just that, being children, we never really knew quite 'what' it was? Any stories from anyone who saw inside the cistern and was still afraid of the flush? I feel like I can date my losing my terror of it back to watching my dad replace the ballcock and so learning how the whole thing worked (which is actually really fascinating if you think about it).
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I wonder if some children were afraid they would be flushed away.
 
catseye said:
my dad replace the ballcock
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Any adjustment to that mysterious system might limit the long hissing and dribbling that old cisterns tend to love.

That's the rational thing.

Myself, I believe it is the cries of the spliced-up water-spirits, resentful of their confinement in our tanks . . . :omg:

Yes, I did run downstairs after flushing . . . till I was nearly thirty!
 
GerdaWordyer said:
The threat, by older sibs, of being flushed is the real terror. Never thought of that roaring noise as a threat, but it can't have helped.
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I didn't have any older siblings - just a rather indulged younger brother who was also afraid of the flush (and not because of me!).
JamesWhitehead said:
Any adjustment to that mysterious system might limit the long hissing and dribbling that old cisterns tend to love.

That's the rational thing.

Myself, I believe it is the cries of the spliced-up water-spirits, resentful of their confinement in our tanks . . . :omg:

Yes, I did run downstairs after flushing . . . till I was nearly thirty!
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You could be on to something here - the hissing and dribbling and dripping was something I remember too! So perhaps it was part of the fear, not knowing when that sound would stop?

Nowadays, with low-level cisterns and double-flush buttons and all that new technology - are children still afraid of the flush? I don't remember any of my children being particularly scared of it when they were small, but whether they were once they were old enough to go to the toilet alone, I'm not sure.
 
Trevp666 said:
No, I absolutely refuse to.
TLWR.*
What I prefer to do is make some kind of challengeable statement and then allow others to put me straight :bthumbup:

(* = Too Long Won't Read)
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People do like to correct stuff...I heard that a good way to get a coding fix was to post the question, then sock-puppet post a wrong answer and then everyone piles in with corrections (and the actual fix required as a by-product).
 
catseye said:
Nowadays, with low-level cisterns and double-flush buttons and all that new technology - are children still afraid of the flush?
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Your comment made me reflect that I was very unkeen on the toilets at school when I was about 5 or 6 - and perhaps a lot of it was the way the cisterns towered over me (miles up as it seems now). And you have to admit the sensation of pulling those chains is quite weird, that you have to pull hard but then the thing sort of releases and pulls back away from you. (There were other problems too ie the toilets were cold and outside and potentially spidery). But I don't remember ever having any problem with our low-level cistern at home. You don't get quite the same sensation that everything's crashing down on you (and you were the one responsible for pulling it down onto yourself).
 
Eponastill said:
Your comment made me reflect that I was very unkeen on the toilets at school when I was about 5 or 6 - and perhaps a lot of it was the way the cisterns towered over me (miles up as it seems now). And you have to admit the sensation of pulling those chains is quite weird, that you have to pull hard but then the thing sort of releases and pulls back away from you. (There were other problems too ie the toilets were cold and outside and potentially spidery). But I don't remember ever having any problem with our low-level cistern at home. You don't get quite the same sensation that everything's crashing down on you (and you were the one responsible for pulling it down onto yourself).
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You could be on to something here. As children we were usually told 'not' to pull at big heavy things above us, and often told in graphic detail what would happen if they came off the wall/fell on us.

And then we were expected to do that very thing, with a big china box of water seven feet above our heads!
 
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