10 Things That Frightened Me During My Childhood
Since this is Halloween week, I would like to do a whole Top 10 based on the holiday with films, candy, costumes, characters, and fears. With this one, I'm going to start with my own personal fears from my childhood.
10. Preacher Kane from Poltergeist II: The Other Side: This guy gave me the creeps. You can say the clown should be on there from the original film, but there's something about this guy that makes my skin crawl. Too bad in the third film of the franchise they made him just an average guy with tons of zombie make-up. Hats to the late Julian Beck of making me be aware (or beware) of strangers.
9. Judge Doom from Who Framed Roger Rabbit: Christopher Lloyd did a wonderful job playing the main villian that hates cartoons yet turns into one at the end of the film. I get creeped out easily when I see eyes that are not normal looking too.
8. Going to the woods--I remember my sister used to give me *beep* about monsters who live in the woods to come and get kids like me and be their next meal. Sometimes, I hate nature and glad to grow up in the suburbs.
7. Zhuls from Ghostbusters--They may not be so scary now, but back at the age of 3-6, they scared the wholly *beep* out of me. Especially when Sigourney Weaver transforms into one with the famous line "There is no Dana, only Zhul!"
6. The wooden Jackie Robinson statue from Enchanted Village (Federal Way, WA)--Jesus, it almost made me not to watch baseball again.It looked like it wanted to eat me alive. It wasn't until I was about thirteen years old when I did a book report on Jackie that not only got over my fear of him, but I also consider one of the best things to ever happen in baseball to every race to play in the big leagues.
5. The Wheelies from Return of Oz--These *beep* are scary (and little too scary to be in a children's film), enough said!
4. Large Marge from Pee-Wee's Big Adventure--No wonder Pee-Wee's frightened of her, she sure has a way of scaring people into listening to her stories. It was one of the best scenes of that film because it came out of nowhere.
3. The He-Man Nightmare--When I was a wee guy, He-Man was the top show to watch in the mid-'80s. I was a huge fan of that show and the toys until that nightmare I had where I thought the golden gladiator was gonna save me from the dangers of Skeletor and his evil minions but he chopped my head off. I became afraid of him for over a month or so. I got over my fear when my cousin Dolph played He-Man and since there was nothing to be afraid of. My family still wouldn't let me forget it.
2. Teddy Ruxpin--I think this so-called playful mechaincial bear was the inspiration for Chuckie from the Child's Play films. You may think he's the most harmless thing ever but at night he looks very sinster and wants to eat me alive. I would rather have Freddy Kreuger tell me bedtime stories then Teddy sing "Come Dream with Me Tonight" anyday.
AND #1 THING THAT SCARED ME IN MY CHILDHOOD:
Micahel Jackson's Thriller--I know what you guys are going to ask, You're a metal fan, how could you out of all people be afraid of "Thriller"? First of all, I was three years old when I first saw the video and I haven't even discovered metal yet. Secondly, this "video" (it's orginally a short film that's going nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Feature of 1983, but it didn't work out so it made to the airwaves on MTV instead) has two parts that scared me out of my wits like no other:
1. Michael's werewolf (or werecat) transformation--Especially with those yellow eyes which I thought were orange.
2. The Zombie Dance scene--Something about those zombies that scared the living *beep* out of me.
Ironically, I didn't become a fan of MJ until his Bad album came out so I wasn't ready to embrace Thriller yet. I didn't get over my fear of that video until I was thirteen years old. Talk about childhood trauma.
HERE ARE MY HORRIBLE MENTIONS:
Tom Petty's "Don't Come Around Here No More" video
Dee-Lite's "Groove is in the Heart" video
The face ripping scene from Poltergeist
Kifer Sutherland's orange eyes from The Lost Boys
Michael Jackson's transformation scene to Poptimus Prime in Moonwalker
Arnold Scwartzenegger's bug-eye scene in Total Recall
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