Scariest moments in tv series when you were young

You might not find these as scary now, but when you were a young un, what moments made you shit the bed.

For me I'm going to say.

Angel and Buffy probably scared me the most of any two tv shows growing up (apart from True Who.) The scariest moments for me where.

The Gnarl Demon. Fuck me even today this is the stuff of nightmares. We have a creature that paralyses it's victims and then eats their skin off in long strips whilst they can't move. Fuck the Gentlemen LOL, this guy is the scariest monster in anything. As an aspiring horror writer I'd be happy to come up with something a tenth as nightmarish as this.



Even more impressive when you consider how powerful Willow was the previous year that this thing could make her a damsel in distress!

Other scary moments are Buffy's little cousin being killed by Der Kindestod, Marcus the pedo Vampire calmly saying "hello boys and girls", the Gentlemen obviously, the girl being trapped in the hotel for 50 years while her life goes by in Angel season 2, Catherine Madison being trapped in a statue, and Zombie Joyce walking by the window in Forever.

As for True Who, well moments that scared me when I was younger where the guys face melting off in Dragonfire, which is still a great effect.



Other scary or gruesome moments for me where Colin being pulled under by Zombie hands, the Wirren transformation scene (which is sadly a bit goofy now. It's well written and acted, but I can't unsee the bubble wrap LOL.) Benton being turned into a Primord and Ghostlight where Light turns the two women into statues. It always creeped me out the way those two women were still alive, but trapped and unable to move or speak in those statues. They remained in that state for over 100 years until Ace burned the house down.

It made me paranoid to go near any statues after that in case there were really people in there screaming for help LOL.

Believe it or not Red Dwarf also scared me at points when I was a child. As it was a comedy I never expected it to be scary, but there were some moments that from a child's perspective you can see how they'd be unnerving.

Doctor Lanstrom's death for one, and Epideme. Though he is hilarious, Epideme is actually one of the darkest villains in the series.

This moment always scared me. When I first saw this (I must have been about 5.) I turned it off it scared me so much.

Christ, you're young.

The kid vampire scratching at the window in Salem's Lot. I must have been like 5 or something.
The evil sorcerer Gulnar in Robin of Sherwood always creeped me the hell out as a kid.

The only thing that scared me on the telly was Marilyn Manson. I used to shit bricks whenever one of his music videos came on. I didn't watch programs with scary stuff in them when I was a kid although Bear in the Big Blue House is a bit creepy. Can you imagine him coming at you with a knife in a dark alley?

Bloody hell, you guys really make me feel old which I suppose is only right as I'm sure most hivers here are rather younger than this old fart!
Well I was only a very young child back in the early 70s but I can tell you that television, including childrens' television, was a lot more scary then compared to later eras imo. The only Doctor Who stories that really scared me as a kid were on during this time - notably Spearhead from Space with those incredibly creepy killer Autons and also The Silurians with its heavy breathing monsters at their most effective when they were lurking just offscreen.

Even many programmes that were specifically made for children were often surprisingly creepy and I think frequently exploited then topical interests involving the weird and the occult. One show that definitely spooked me as a young kid was called Escape into Night about a young girl's drawings coming to life in her dreams. This imaginative tale featured some extremely sinister talking stones with cyclops eyes and even the theme tune for this was enough to give me nightmares! I later saw a movie version made in the late 80s - Paperhouse - but it didn't seem scary at all to me so was far less memorable (although I was older by then obviously).



Later in the 70s there was a show called Beasts by Nigel (Quatermass) Kneale with several macabre episodes but one of them called Baby certainly put the wind up me back then. It was an atmospheric piece about a newly wed couple having a very disturbing encounter with some witchcraft related thing. There was lots of scary stuff like this back then. The Brian Clemens series Thriller was another series with some occasionally scary episodes and another suitably memorable theme tune of course to unsettle any young viewers as well.





Funny thing is that, even though these series undoubtedly scared me as a kid, they must have impressed me too because I quickly developed a lifelong passion for the horror genre that grew and grew. Happy, scary memories!

BillPatJonTom wrote:Bloody hell, you guys really make me feel old which I suppose is only right as I'm sure most hivers here are rather younger than this old fart!
Well I was only a very young child back in the early 70s but I can tell you that television, including childrens' television, was a lot more scary then compared to later eras imo. The only Doctor Who stories that really scared me as a kid were on during this time - notably Spearhead from Space with those incredibly creepy killer Autons and also The Silurians with its heavy breathing monsters at their most effective when they were lurking just offscreen.

Even many programmes that were specifically made for children were often surprisingly creepy and I think frequently exploited then topical interests involving the weird and the occult. One show that definitely spooked me as a young kid was called Escape into Night about a young girl's drawings coming to life in her dreams. This imaginative tale featured some extremely sinister talking stones with cyclops eyes and even the theme tune for this was enough to give me nightmares! I later saw a movie version made in the late 80s - Paperhouse - but it didn't seem scary at all to me so was far less memorable (although I was older by then obviously).



Later in the 70s there was a show called Beasts by Nigel (Quatermass) Kneale with several macabre episodes but one of them called Baby certainly put the wind up me back then. It was an atmospheric piece about a newly wed couple having a very disturbing encounter with some witchcraft related thing. There was lots of scary stuff like this back then. The Brian Clemens series Thriller was another series with some occasionally scary episodes and another suitably memorable theme tune of course to unsettle any young viewers as well.





Funny thing is that, even though these series undoubtedly scared me as a kid, they must have impressed me too because I quickly developed a lifelong passion for the horror genre that grew and grew. Happy, scary memories!  

Being a child in the 70s isn't that old! Mind you I often think that whatever age you are you feel too old LOL. Even at 29 I know people who bemoan no longer being in their early 20s

Even me just the other day I was thinking how all the things I grew up with like Buffy, and Amy Winehouse are now 20 years old. Still it's nice to see that they are still seen by some as modern

Anyway thanks for those recommendations. I'm always on the hunt for a new horror series, and Nigel Kneale is a big favourite of mine.

Still I take issue that the 70s was the scariest decade.

I'll see your Nigel Kneale drama's and raise you one Gentlemen, hideous Demons who steal people's voices so they can then cut their hearts out.

"You're gonna die screaming but you won't be heard!"



To us growing up in the 00s, the Gentlemen were our Yeti's in the London Underground.

Another Classic Who story that creeped me out at least was The Mind Robber.

It's the first episode. That has a really terrifying premise, the Doctor and his two companions are lost in an endless void outside the universe, and the TARDIS is about to take off. Worse when it takes off, the TARDIS will never be able to find them again.

When the voice lures them out, what's even creepier is we never find out what that voice was, why it wanted them out of there. It was really unnerving.

burrunjor wrote:

I'm always on the hunt for a new horror series, and Nigel Kneale is a big favourite of mine.

Still I take issue that the 70s was the scariest decade.

I'll see your Nigel Kneale drama's and raise you one Gentlemen, hideous Demons who steal people's voices so they can then cut their hearts out.

Thanks for your kind suggestion that I'm not too ancient although I must confess I do feel old when I can vaguely remember bits of the Cybermen stalking the sewers in The Invasion from the original transmission.

I'll defer to your greater knowledge of scary things that are Buffy related (I will have to check out that show to learn more) but indeed those demons stealing people's voice do look impressively disturbing. Great to hear Nigel Kneale is a favourite of yours. I suspect you'll already be familiar with The Stone Tape, a cool blend of the psychic and supernatural, but that's obviously recommended in addition to Beasts. Kneale of course was always a massive influence upon True Who via his excellent Quatermass series and this is certainly reflected in much of Who's seventies seasons, a period when I relished perhaps its most scary stories.

I still think there really was a definite preponderance of scary television screened during the 1970s. It's like there was something in the air back then! I mean we could enjoy classic versions of Dracula (with Louis Jourdan) and Frankenstein: The True Story (with Michael Sarrazin) plus all those marvelous Ghost Story for Christmas specials (if you've never seen, check out The Ash Tree with Lalla Ward!) as well as occasional anthology series like Supernatural or creepy one-offs like Schalcken the Painter. Bear in mind too that stuff like Escape into Night was targeted specifically at children but was no less creepy than many series aimed at adult audiences. And there were similar series like Ace of Wands, Children of the Stones (not the Rolling kind!) and Shadows. Nowadays, I doubt our timid mainstream programme makers would even dare to scare any of the little darlings with anything quite so creepy, more's the pity!

BillPatJonTom makes me feel young by comparison, so thanks for that!

You're all old compared to me. Maybe I should start calling you all sir

Fetch me my slippers while you're at it, boy!

And my pipe