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Public information films in the 70s and 80s.
Especially Lonely water, Disused Fridges, Rabies Kills and the kid flying his kite near the pylon.
Being a kid was an extremely dangerous profession in the old days.
I remember watching a documentary hosted by Ade Edmenson on public information films a fair few years back and so many of them were terrifying! Even ones from my era (early to mid 2000s) were horrifying, especially the road safety ones
The one saving grace was, after my first sight of Dath Vader on the big screen, my brother leaning over and saying.. "It's okay, it's the Green Cross Code man".
Poor bugger had his voice dubbed in all but one of the Green Cross Code PIFs, let alone Star Wars.
Hardly gets to say a word in Clockwork Orange, either!
Was also in a horseman riding by ,if I remember right.
An episode of Callan and played the monster in a hammer house of horror versions of Frankenstein.
I'll have to go looking for that that sounds amazing. The best ones I've seen have been a Charlie Brooker one (I think it was How TV Ruined Your Life, episode Fear, or a screen wipe), or the britmonkey vid on YouTube
There was a Public Information film in the 70s telling parents to get their kids taught to swim, with the presenter surrounded by kids at a swimming pool.
Rolf Harris.
Swim away! SWIM AWAY!!!
Do you remember the "Not the 9 of clock news" sketch of a van driving around kidnapping kids, and when it drove off it said "Rolf on Saturday" on the side....
The one with the girl who picked up a sparkler after it burnt down on Guy Fawkes night traumatised me so much that I am now nearing 50 and still terrified of sparklers!
āLay a rug on a polished floor? You might as well set a man trap.ā
Stuff your 2001 - that is the greatest match cut in film history!
āAnd to think heād only just come from the hospital.ā
For a few afternoons in a row at my primary school in the early 2000s the 2 classes in my year group were gathered into the hall and the massive telly was wheeled in to watch old fire safety videos. Donāt play with matches especially when youāre sitting on a massive pile of hay bales etc. One of them had a fire killing a family of 4 in their home overnight but the bit that upset me for ages was the dog whimpering stuck in the same room as the fire nudging the closed door.
I'm from Northern Ireland and we had some *really* intense ones about car safety. I still can't listen to 'Body to Body'. Some of them were only allowed to be shown after the watershed.
I was 13 when I watched it. We knew it was fake, laughed at some of the silly effect (like the girl talking in the deep voice) but still got shit scared.
It's interesting on a rewatch how slowly it unfolds. It's the pacing that draws you in. Compared to modern horror it is glacial.
I wish I was around for when it first aired! It fascinates me completely, the show itself and the controversy surrounding it. Think Iāve watched multiple YouTube videos dissecting it at this point
I was 7 when it aired, and all the kids in my year were so excited to watch it, begged our parents to let us watch it and then were terrified afterwards!
I was genuinely disappointed when the papers outed it as fake, though. Justice for Pipes!
17 years old, me and two girl friends watching it, both of them ended up cuddling me under a blanket as they were terrified. I thought my luck was in that night. (Narrator: it wasn't)
My sis and I used to listen to tapes of this when we went to sleep (and argued over who had to get up to turn the tape over, haha). Then I watched it on tv and was terrified and couldnāt even listen to the tapes anymore.
Iāve never watched a full episode of it, but Iāve seen a fair few clips of it and can 100% say if I ever watched it as kid Iād be absolutely terrified of it! Hell even the clips I saw as an adult creeped me out š
I just straight up hated the Demon Headmaster. For some reason I never changed the channel and used to cover my face when heād start hypnotising students.
To anyone reading this, it's probably been a long day working or scrolling on reddit, right?
*And so you must be feeling tired... so tired you can barely hold up your head*
Children of the Stones, particularly the [fucking theme song!](https://youtu.be/-V6dSNlh0_k?si=LnLj9hkvrc4iqmPO). 4.30 in the afternoon, eight years old. Scare the bejaysis out of you it would.
Kids TV was seriously weird in the 70s. My first freak out was over something called The Changes and I don't even really remember it, but it made me shit scared of electric pylons.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Changes_(TV_series)
Charlie Brooker did a bit where he describes Noseybonk as the sort of twisted character who murders you in your sleepā¦ complete with a visual of Noseybonk attacking Charlie with a knife, lol
Fun Fact: Ashens played āNoseybonkā in that sketch.
Yes! I was terrified of that film and used to have nightmares about the bulldozed bunnies.
I also was scared of the Last unicorn as a child and for some reason the caterpillar that was at rhe beginning of Lets Pretend
Richard Hillman attacking Emily and Maxine with a crowbar in Coronation Street. I think I was around 10 at the time and Corrie was a regular watch in our house at that time, then that night it became unexpectedly terrifying š
Looking back I really appreciate how they seemed to intentionally play into horror elements (the horror movie soundtrack on the TV Emily had on as Richard approached her, Maxine's attack suddenly cutting to a slab of bloody meat being served in the pub). They even had a creepy trailer to promote the storyline I recall. Haven't watched the soaps in a very long time but that era was top notch.
Ragetty in āRupert the Bearā.
Space 1999ās āDragonās Domainā - the one with the tentacled monster on the abandoned spaceship.
The Wirrn larvae in Doctor Whoās āArk in Spaceā; the shape changing Rutan in āHorror of Fang Rockā; Mr Sin in āTalons of Weng Chiangā.
Some of the Christmas adaptations of MR Jamesās ghost stories.
Those public information films about pylons, quarries, drowningā¦
The 1970s were TERRIFYING for kids.
The scene from a Farthing Wood episode where the shrikes impaled the mouse family on a thorny bush. It panned upwards showing them all (mice that had been regular characters may I add), including the babies, all stabbed through hanging on spikes. I've never forgotten it. One of MANY horrifying scenes from that show actually.
When i was a kid there was some kids drama type show called Moon Dial. I remember little apart from THE FACELESS CHILDREN HAUNTING THE GARDENā¦. just smooth moon faces. That gave me sleepless nights. Shudder. I know these are not strictly TV but films ā¦honourable mentions for Watership Down and When the wind blows. They loved to tempt us 70s/80s kids in with a nice sounding cartoon only to leave us scarred. No wonder we have trust issues š . I still canāt hear bright eyes without thinking of suffocating rabbits and fields of blood. Saying that both excellent animations BRIGGGHT EYYYYES š š± š«
Oof thatās another show I have trauma from, I remember one episode in particular where a bunch of ghost spiders climb inside a boys mouth and make webs in his stomach. Still haunts me to this dayā¦.
I also remember the one where there's a barber who cuts the tongues out of gobby kids, and in his barber shop there's a jar of all the cut out tongues that continue to whisper in a tormented way
The one that got me was if you didn't go to sleep then Mr Peeler Sleep Stealer would come in and peel your eyelids off... Not fun when I always had trouble dropping off
The Cybermen from Doctor Who, specifically the bit in Doomsday where they break down a door to get into a house, a boy runs upstairs and finds another cyberman waiting for him. Iād been scared of them anyway but was comforted by the fact that they could never break into my house. And then I saw that. Wankers.
Parents encouraged it as well (also wankers)āused to buy me cyberman toys and laugh when I was upset. To this day at the big age of 25 Iām still scared of them and usually I know Iām going to have an anxiety episode because I start having nightmares about them (isnāt the brain weird?)
(Ironically, though, now the cyberman episodes are my favourite.)
This would be a very topical show to bring back considering the sewage being dumped in rivers, climate change and the need to build housing for a growing population.
Exploring these challenges through the eyes of animals would be interesting.
watched way too much of that as a kid and thought everything was going to kill me. didn't help that I went for a joyride in a cessna and during the flight the pilot said 'they used this one to film that 999 episode where the plane crashes'.
Michael Barrymore being shunned by the nation.
I grew up with him being the cool guy who did fun shows.
Yes it's suspicious what happened. A guy died at Michael's home.
But what bothered me most of all as a teen realising they may be gay was the absolutely deranged homophobia that sparked because of it. From the father wishing to believe Lubbock was gay to tabloid innuendo of how sinister and perverted gay people are.
That along with a few other events and the existence of Section 28 caused me to go down a very dark and miserable path in my teens.
Anybody want to nominate Public Information Films? Some of them were almost intentionally traumatic! Like this one: [Sparklers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa1pC9aLNsQ&pp=ygUNUGlmIHNwYXJrbGVycw%3D%3D)
Every Public Information Film. Scarredforlife is a good source. I particularly remember the kid playing on a farm and drowning in a slurry pit. Graphic.
The farm one is called Apaches and features numerous gruesome deaths - glad I didn't see til I was an adult otherwise it would have put me off playing on my Grandparents farm !
I canāt remember what it was called but there was a public information film about fire safety which involved someone walking through a burned house all the while the screams of a woman yelling for her child and the child yelling āmummyā can be heard, I still get chills thinking about it
Doctor Who. When I was a kid we went to Blackpool (early 80s) and there was an exhibition where you go into the Tardis and down some stairs. I didn't make it down the stairs, think there was one monster visible but I could hear the Daleks. I turned and went back out.
Several moments from Sapphire and Steel creeped me the fuck out. In one story they are up against an entity that can exist in any photograph ever taken. It has a habit of trapping people inside pictures where they are conscious but can't move then setting the picture on fire. When you finally see it's true face it's revealed that it doesn't have one. It cannot be destroyed only contained for a time. When the surviving member of the cast asks how she can keep safe Steel has this advice for her.
Find every photo ever taken of you. Destroy it.
Absolutely chilling.
And the film is actually bleaker than the book.
He cowed to pressure from the publishers and rewrote the ending to be happier. When he sold the film rights he insisted on his intended ending as he regretted changing it.
He was right to do so as well as narratively the more harrowing version works better.
Tom Baker in The Book Tower, probably because of the weird opening titles but also because, well, it was Tom Baker.
Oh, and Children of the Dog Star. That weather vane still gets me in my 40's. On YouTube for the curious among you.
A lot of those PSA's from the 2000's featuring car crashes/injuries and ones concerning health especially smoking, alcohol and drugs, it'd usually be the exaggerated make up work/drama to show the consequences.Ā
There was one about people getting a stroke as well, like I remember finding that particular advert difficult to watch.
I think I remember the stroke one, if I remember correctly it would depict the person having a stroke burning and how to detect it by using F.A.S.T (face, arm, speech, time)
There was a tv show that we watched in school for some reason (early 80s) called āthe boy from spaceā. Totally freaked me out. Terrified me for some reason.
To be honest most of the stuff aimed at kids in the 70s and 80s was pretty traumatising. Some of the public info campaigns were horrifying. Kids getting drowned, electrocuted, set on fire. nuclear Armageddonā¦ā¦
Sapphire and Steel, I've posted this before but the standout freakout moment is the solider in the railway station. Even thinking about it raises hackles and makes me uncomfortable
Captain Black standing in the graveyard on the opening credits of Captain Scarlet! š³
I watched it again recently and it still creeped me the fuck out!
The 1979 TV series Quatermass properly gave me the fear for a while as did the old black & white movie Night of the Demon, I also remember a film about gargoyles which made me scared to go to sleep for a few weeks after watching it. And of course When the wind Blows caused some serious anxiety in my young mind for a long time after seeing it.
I got scared by League of Gentlemen as an adult. As a kid it was Dr. Who (Cybermen), scary public information films and something hardly anyone remembers called āThe Singing Ringing Treeā it scarred me for life.
Watching Eastenders as a kid and the little Mo and Trevor house fire scared me. Didn't sleep properly for ages incase there was a fire.
Around the same time my dad was watching Thunderbirds. There was a fire in that episode as well. It had a family that were trapped and the smoke was effecting them. - it was then I learned fire is much more deadly than I thought.
I'm convinced my lifelong morose demeanour stems largely from being exposed to so much death at a young age through obsessively watching The Animal of Farthing Wood. So, maybe not trauma but definitely imprinted.
I think it was actually a movie shown on tv years ago when I was a kid . It was was entirely from the perspective of a man they thought was in a coma but was actually wide awake whilst they performed painful procedures on him. It was all from his perspective and through his eyes with him helpless and narrating his thought and ends with him screaming.
It terrified me at the time and left a lifelong impression.
That one Jonathan Creek where the basement flooded and floated the body to the top of the stairs, when they opened the door it looked like a zombie had climbed up the stairs
My parents had fun with that one
Doctor Who, the episode where the Doctor and Rose go to 19th century Britain and visit Queen Victoria at Balmoral and someone transforms into a werewolf.
Distinctly remember that terrifying me as a 7 year old
As a very young kid the crystal maze traumatised me.
Why would they just leave a family member in the jungle zone just so they could get a few more quid? Savages.
Of course now I know they're not trapped there forever.
I remember watching a snippet of a TV program in the 80s/early 90s where somebody killed a pizza delivery guy with a bottle and was subsequently hanged. I don't have a notion what the program was, which channel it was on, etc. but the visual of the hanging stayed with me a for a looooooong time. Part of me would like to see it again. The other part not so much. (Edit: while it sounds American it was 100% British. Of that I have no doubt)
For the life of me I canāt remember what it was called but there was like a kids supernatural mystery type of show that presented strange or unusual events.
And two traumatised me.
One was this woman who drove a village and noticed that everyone was in like vintage clothing. She didnāt think much of it, yknow like an event or historical reenactment. But she went out of her car to use a phone box and the people were utterly convinced it was like 1940. She saw adverts in the phone box that had the year on it and it was 1940. She drove away and on her way back tried to find the village but it was gone.
Second one was this family who noticed strange black patches on their kitchen floor. Over the next few doors more sprouted up but they were no longer patches but human faces, like in pain or moaning. Just these like ten patches of black stains in the shape of creepy faces with extended jaws. No. Thank. You.
Two that spring to mind was I think Space 1999 and someone was lying down with their back to the camera and she rolled over and her face was really aged or rotten, can't remember which but it burnt into my brain.
The other was Rupert the Bear and some little bastard who lived in the woods called Raggety. Properly shit me up as kid.
Certain scenes from āThe Owl Serviceā (1969/1970) the tv drama series based on the Alan Garner book. It was supposed to be for young people but it was quite harrowing in parts. Caught some episodes on YouTube and it is still edgy even by todayās standards.
I remember there was episode of Hollyoaks (I **think** it was Hollyoaks) where someone's mum died and instead of reporting it they had a breakdown and just lived with the dead body and then it gets discovered and the rotting corpse is always *just* offscreen but all you can hear are the flies buzzing about the house. Really creeped me out as a kid.
The singing ringing tree.
Tales from Eastern Europe.
A big fish, a spoilt princess who needed spanking, a prince turned into a bear and a malicious dwarf.
Iām shaking as I write this after all these years
[singing ringing tree](https://youtu.be/6wIQBORCLLE?si=qwgmFwOV7cPZC3mb)
Going back a bit, an episode of Metal Mickey with a headless horseman (āhold on, if youāre in here, whatās that out thereā etc)
And Chocky on ITV (1984 so I probably shouldnāt have been watching it). Terrifying. I see it was John Wyndham (Day of the Triffids) so not surprising really.
Does anyone remember Jeopardy on CBBC? I think it was about some kids in Australia playing a games where they pretended to hunt for aliens but I was too young to understand when I saw it and an episode where some of the kids disappeared in a flash in the woods scared me for ages.
There was a kids tv show called Interference and I remember this old lady would appear in the static of the tv these kids would watch and it freaked me out big time. Itās number 94 on this list of amazing forgotten kids tv shows.
http://www.curiousbritishtelly.co.uk/2022/01/159-british-childrens-tv-shows-from.html?m=1
Century Falls - an early 90s Russel T Davies CBBC series. Folk horror for children - weird old ladies, psychic twins, a village trying to possess an unborn baby via a glowing golden maskā¦
Not a show but I vaguely remember one of the public safety advertisements on TV freaked me out as a kid because I had a phobia of fire and was experiencing recurring nightmares of my school being on fire around the time as well. Not actually sure which came first.
Anyway, I just remember it had a little girl in it and there were tanks inside a building that shot fire. I think it was emphasising the importance of shutting doors.
The lion and the bear in that Teletubbies episode can still absolutely get to fuck. Also, I have absolutely NO idea what show this was, I just remember being utterly terrified of some teapot???
I love it, but I do find something quite creepy about the eyes of the characters from Wallace and Gromit, and really struggled with stop-start animation in general as a kid. I also hated people in costumes and puppets.
But all my major trauma is from Dr Who: The Empty Child, The Weeping Angel's, those hoards of infected people in the New New New (etc) York hospital, and the creepy Dickens ghosts. To name bur a few.
British kids show escape into the night 1972 ...nightmare fuel rocks with eyes coming for you trapped in a house ...or children of the stone 1976 horrific music people wailing, sacrifices, mind controlled country folk and flairs
The Auton shop dummies in Doctor Who. When I was young, shop dummies were in every clothes shop and I was scared they might come to life grab me or shoot me with the hidden gun in their hand. It took 2 years before I went into a clothes shop and discovered they were just plastic.
Not British but....
I saw Threads on PBS when I was maybe 14 and it was the mid 1980s and I lived near a place that was loudly rumored to store nuclear weapons and I was.... horrified. That was an incredibly graphic depiction of nuclear war and oddly, it's not the scenes of \*burning bodies\* that wigged me out, it was this scene of the bomb going off and this English woman peeing herself in the street.
I watched it again just recently and wow, I didn't remember all the burning bodies and the rape and the dead sheep and its just incredibly dark and sad.
I'm not british, I mean. Threads is British
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Public information films in the 70s and 80s. Especially Lonely water, Disused Fridges, Rabies Kills and the kid flying his kite near the pylon. Being a kid was an extremely dangerous profession in the old days.
Oh, and Tales of the unexpected
The one with the nun in the rocking chair. Omg.
It was the guy with the artwork on his back that freaked me. And the landlady who taxidermied all her guests. š
Royal Jelly.
I remember watching a documentary hosted by Ade Edmenson on public information films a fair few years back and so many of them were terrifying! Even ones from my era (early to mid 2000s) were horrifying, especially the road safety ones
The one saving grace was, after my first sight of Dath Vader on the big screen, my brother leaning over and saying.. "It's okay, it's the Green Cross Code man".
Poor bugger had his voice dubbed in all but one of the Green Cross Code PIFs, let alone Star Wars. Hardly gets to say a word in Clockwork Orange, either!
Was also in a horseman riding by ,if I remember right. An episode of Callan and played the monster in a hammer house of horror versions of Frankenstein.
Will nobody let the poor guy speak? :D
I'll have to go looking for that that sounds amazing. The best ones I've seen have been a Charlie Brooker one (I think it was How TV Ruined Your Life, episode Fear, or a screen wipe), or the britmonkey vid on YouTube
Have you seen the Inside No9 episode Wise Owl? If not, I highly recommend it. Disturbing yet brilliant
"JIMMMMYYYYYYY!!!"
There was a Public Information film in the 70s telling parents to get their kids taught to swim, with the presenter surrounded by kids at a swimming pool. Rolf Harris.
Swim away! SWIM AWAY!!! Do you remember the "Not the 9 of clock news" sketch of a van driving around kidnapping kids, and when it drove off it said "Rolf on Saturday" on the side....
Jimmy Savile reminding you to strap up with "clunk click, every trip"
Pylons kill. Don't be a twit-you.
Thanks, Wise Owl!
Iām a 90ās child but have seen a few of these. Was there not one about a grain pit and farm machinery ?
Apaches (1979)? [Someone made a death compilation that runs for 2m30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_we-3Uqu5sw) (out of a 26m film)
The one with the girl who picked up a sparkler after it burnt down on Guy Fawkes night traumatised me so much that I am now nearing 50 and still terrified of sparklers!
We used to get shown the one where the kid tries to get his football boots back after bullies threw them on the wires over a train track. Horrifying
I canāt walk on a beach without thinking of a kid running and the broken bottle
Happened to me at Skegness 1976.
What to do dining the event of a nuclear attack one was pretty scary, back in the 70s.
Yep. Also: "When the wind blows." - even the plot synopsis on Wikipedia is seriously depressing. (Not to be confused with "wind in the willows")
āLay a rug on a polished floor? You might as well set a man trap.ā Stuff your 2001 - that is the greatest match cut in film history! āAnd to think heād only just come from the hospital.ā
That one's so unwittingly hilarious, a true classic
Those children walking into the railway tunnel was the one that put the fear of God into me!
I remember the kite/pylon ad. Terrifying as a kid.Ā
Definitely this. The lonely water one freaked me out.
For a few afternoons in a row at my primary school in the early 2000s the 2 classes in my year group were gathered into the hall and the massive telly was wheeled in to watch old fire safety videos. Donāt play with matches especially when youāre sitting on a massive pile of hay bales etc. One of them had a fire killing a family of 4 in their home overnight but the bit that upset me for ages was the dog whimpering stuck in the same room as the fire nudging the closed door.
I'm from Northern Ireland and we had some *really* intense ones about car safety. I still can't listen to 'Body to Body'. Some of them were only allowed to be shown after the watershed.
Billy!!!!!!!!
Those were great, and the workplace safety ones where they'd use a match to cheat the earth on a socket then get electrocuted.
It's a wonder a whole generation survived! š
Those ones about wearing a seat belt were terrifying in retrospect... What was it "Clunk" something..?
Clunk click every trip. Jimmy Saville
Afraid. It took me years to get over this and finally be able to fly my kite by pylons again.
I still get nervous going on escalators because of the public information film when I was a kid.
Ghostwatch
I was 13 when I watched it. We knew it was fake, laughed at some of the silly effect (like the girl talking in the deep voice) but still got shit scared. It's interesting on a rewatch how slowly it unfolds. It's the pacing that draws you in. Compared to modern horror it is glacial.
I wish I was around for when it first aired! It fascinates me completely, the show itself and the controversy surrounding it. Think Iāve watched multiple YouTube videos dissecting it at this point
I was 7 when it aired, and all the kids in my year were so excited to watch it, begged our parents to let us watch it and then were terrified afterwards! I was genuinely disappointed when the papers outed it as fake, though. Justice for Pipes!
The Inside No9 episode Dead Line, which was inspired by Ghostwatch, lingers in my mind for ages every time I watch it. And I'm 49!
This and most of Strange but True would shit me up too
17 years old, me and two girl friends watching it, both of them ended up cuddling me under a blanket as they were terrified. I thought my luck was in that night. (Narrator: it wasn't)
this..i was a 8 year old mess when it aired lol, they got me good
Day Of The Triffids Threads Cybermen
Threads is the only movie i've seen that triggered an anxiety attack
We watched it in damn middle school!
Yes... I first watched it when I was about 18 and needed a stiff drink after it.
Threads Threads Threads Iām 56 & still mentally scared from it.
i kinda regret buying the blu-ray because i never want to watch that thing ever again still, nice part of the collection :)
Me too
That episode where people got converted into Cybemrmen was traumatic as hell! Will never get those sawing noises out of my head
Easy win - Threads. Harder win - that scene from "Sapphire and Steel" with the guy with no face!
"Are you my mummy?"
That creeped me out in my 30's
All of Worzel Gummidge!
Folk Horror
My sis and I used to listen to tapes of this when we went to sleep (and argued over who had to get up to turn the tape over, haha). Then I watched it on tv and was terrified and couldnāt even listen to the tapes anymore.
I'm with you on that one, also Rentaghost.
Iāve never watched a full episode of it, but Iāve seen a fair few clips of it and can 100% say if I ever watched it as kid Iād be absolutely terrified of it! Hell even the clips I saw as an adult creeped me out š
I just straight up hated the Demon Headmaster. For some reason I never changed the channel and used to cover my face when heād start hypnotising students.
To anyone reading this, it's probably been a long day working or scrolling on reddit, right? *And so you must be feeling tired... so tired you can barely hold up your head*
Children of the Stones, particularly the [fucking theme song!](https://youtu.be/-V6dSNlh0_k?si=LnLj9hkvrc4iqmPO). 4.30 in the afternoon, eight years old. Scare the bejaysis out of you it would.
Kids TV was seriously weird in the 70s. My first freak out was over something called The Changes and I don't even really remember it, but it made me shit scared of electric pylons. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Changes_(TV_series)
God what a fantastic era of strange kids TV it was, I remember being freaked out by Ace of Wands, it was all so much better than the rubbish on now.
Effin hell!
Noseybonkā¦ utterly terrifying.
Charlie Brooker did a bit where he describes Noseybonk as the sort of twisted character who murders you in your sleepā¦ complete with a visual of Noseybonk attacking Charlie with a knife, lol Fun Fact: Ashens played āNoseybonkā in that sketch.
Not strictly British TV I guess, but Watership Down.
But that's a chilrens story about bunnies finding a new home! /s(?)
Yes! I was terrified of that film and used to have nightmares about the bulldozed bunnies. I also was scared of the Last unicorn as a child and for some reason the caterpillar that was at rhe beginning of Lets Pretend
The Last Unicorn is so creepy but what an amazing soundtrack
Richard Hillman attacking Emily and Maxine with a crowbar in Coronation Street. I think I was around 10 at the time and Corrie was a regular watch in our house at that time, then that night it became unexpectedly terrifying š Looking back I really appreciate how they seemed to intentionally play into horror elements (the horror movie soundtrack on the TV Emily had on as Richard approached her, Maxine's attack suddenly cutting to a slab of bloody meat being served in the pub). They even had a creepy trailer to promote the storyline I recall. Haven't watched the soaps in a very long time but that era was top notch.
Currently rewatching the Richard Hillman storyline on YouTube and it's pretty good. A lot there, but worth the watch.
Ragetty in āRupert the Bearā. Space 1999ās āDragonās Domainā - the one with the tentacled monster on the abandoned spaceship. The Wirrn larvae in Doctor Whoās āArk in Spaceā; the shape changing Rutan in āHorror of Fang Rockā; Mr Sin in āTalons of Weng Chiangā. Some of the Christmas adaptations of MR Jamesās ghost stories. Those public information films about pylons, quarries, drowningā¦ The 1970s were TERRIFYING for kids.
The scene from a Farthing Wood episode where the shrikes impaled the mouse family on a thorny bush. It panned upwards showing them all (mice that had been regular characters may I add), including the babies, all stabbed through hanging on spikes. I've never forgotten it. One of MANY horrifying scenes from that show actually.
When i was a kid there was some kids drama type show called Moon Dial. I remember little apart from THE FACELESS CHILDREN HAUNTING THE GARDENā¦. just smooth moon faces. That gave me sleepless nights. Shudder. I know these are not strictly TV but films ā¦honourable mentions for Watership Down and When the wind blows. They loved to tempt us 70s/80s kids in with a nice sounding cartoon only to leave us scarred. No wonder we have trust issues š . I still canāt hear bright eyes without thinking of suffocating rabbits and fields of blood. Saying that both excellent animations BRIGGGHT EYYYYES š š± š«
I knew I didn't imagine that show! There was a girl with a birthmark across half of her face, can't remeber what the storyline was but it was scary af
I watched an episode of Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids and it gave me nightmares. In that episode a girl got crushed to death by a cow for lying.
Oof thatās another show I have trauma from, I remember one episode in particular where a bunch of ghost spiders climb inside a boys mouth and make webs in his stomach. Still haunts me to this dayā¦.
I also remember the one where there's a barber who cuts the tongues out of gobby kids, and in his barber shop there's a jar of all the cut out tongues that continue to whisper in a tormented way
I remember the one when the kids get turned into cider.
The one that got me was if you didn't go to sleep then Mr Peeler Sleep Stealer would come in and peel your eyelids off... Not fun when I always had trouble dropping off
I had nightmares after watching a couple of episodes - but I still carried on watching it.
I had completely forgotten about that show! I used to love it!
Littlest hobo. Bawled my eyes out at the end of every episode.
The Cybermen from Doctor Who, specifically the bit in Doomsday where they break down a door to get into a house, a boy runs upstairs and finds another cyberman waiting for him. Iād been scared of them anyway but was comforted by the fact that they could never break into my house. And then I saw that. Wankers. Parents encouraged it as well (also wankers)āused to buy me cyberman toys and laugh when I was upset. To this day at the big age of 25 Iām still scared of them and usually I know Iām going to have an anxiety episode because I start having nightmares about them (isnāt the brain weird?) (Ironically, though, now the cyberman episodes are my favourite.)
Animals of Farthing Wood
Properly upsetting stuff. The hedgehogs, the shrike! So sad.
The hedgehogs were a sad and tragic, but an accident. The shrike on the other hand was pure evilā¦
This would be a very topical show to bring back considering the sewage being dumped in rivers, climate change and the need to build housing for a growing population. Exploring these challenges through the eyes of animals would be interesting.
Have vague memories of being petrified after watching the Tripods as a child in the 80s.
Various episodes of ā999ā chilled me to my very marrow.
watched way too much of that as a kid and thought everything was going to kill me. didn't help that I went for a joyride in a cessna and during the flight the pilot said 'they used this one to film that 999 episode where the plane crashes'.
Almost any episode of Round the Twist.
Children of the Stones.
Are you my Mummy?
Michael Barrymore being shunned by the nation. I grew up with him being the cool guy who did fun shows. Yes it's suspicious what happened. A guy died at Michael's home. But what bothered me most of all as a teen realising they may be gay was the absolutely deranged homophobia that sparked because of it. From the father wishing to believe Lubbock was gay to tabloid innuendo of how sinister and perverted gay people are. That along with a few other events and the existence of Section 28 caused me to go down a very dark and miserable path in my teens.
Anybody want to nominate Public Information Films? Some of them were almost intentionally traumatic! Like this one: [Sparklers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa1pC9aLNsQ&pp=ygUNUGlmIHNwYXJrbGVycw%3D%3D)
I mentioned this very one in a reply to another comment. I am still terrified of sparklers because of this!
Every Public Information Film. Scarredforlife is a good source. I particularly remember the kid playing on a farm and drowning in a slurry pit. Graphic.
The farm one is called Apaches and features numerous gruesome deaths - glad I didn't see til I was an adult otherwise it would have put me off playing on my Grandparents farm !
I canāt remember what it was called but there was a public information film about fire safety which involved someone walking through a burned house all the while the screams of a woman yelling for her child and the child yelling āmummyā can be heard, I still get chills thinking about it
House that Bled to Death
Ghost face thing on Star Trek credits and the child catcher from CCbangbang
Apaches, the kids safety film about farms and farmland
Doctor Who. When I was a kid we went to Blackpool (early 80s) and there was an exhibition where you go into the Tardis and down some stairs. I didn't make it down the stairs, think there was one monster visible but I could hear the Daleks. I turned and went back out.
Paul Danielās, Halloween special. Iāll never forget the silence in my living room just after it ended
When The Wind Blows
Several moments from Sapphire and Steel creeped me the fuck out. In one story they are up against an entity that can exist in any photograph ever taken. It has a habit of trapping people inside pictures where they are conscious but can't move then setting the picture on fire. When you finally see it's true face it's revealed that it doesn't have one. It cannot be destroyed only contained for a time. When the surviving member of the cast asks how she can keep safe Steel has this advice for her. Find every photo ever taken of you. Destroy it. Absolutely chilling.
Was that the one where the being would have been somewhere in the picture, like in the next room? Thatās my one memory of S and S.
Watership Down! And some film length cartoon about a couple of Swallows emigrating to Africa, I can't remember the name of it
I'm going to go recent (even if I'm 40) When the sirens went off in Years and Years. Watching that drama at the start of lockdown was an eerie moment.
Plague Dogs - like watership down, but bleaker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Plague_Dogs_(film)
And the film is actually bleaker than the book. He cowed to pressure from the publishers and rewrote the ending to be happier. When he sold the film rights he insisted on his intended ending as he regretted changing it. He was right to do so as well as narratively the more harrowing version works better.
Tom Baker in The Book Tower, probably because of the weird opening titles but also because, well, it was Tom Baker. Oh, and Children of the Dog Star. That weather vane still gets me in my 40's. On YouTube for the curious among you.
A lot of those PSA's from the 2000's featuring car crashes/injuries and ones concerning health especially smoking, alcohol and drugs, it'd usually be the exaggerated make up work/drama to show the consequences.Ā There was one about people getting a stroke as well, like I remember finding that particular advert difficult to watch.
I think I remember the stroke one, if I remember correctly it would depict the person having a stroke burning and how to detect it by using F.A.S.T (face, arm, speech, time)
Yep that's the one.
There was a tv show that we watched in school for some reason (early 80s) called āthe boy from spaceā. Totally freaked me out. Terrified me for some reason. To be honest most of the stuff aimed at kids in the 70s and 80s was pretty traumatising. Some of the public info campaigns were horrifying. Kids getting drowned, electrocuted, set on fire. nuclear Armageddonā¦ā¦
Boy from space was a literacy thing, between the storyline you should have seen that orange boi Wordy telling you about spelling
Sapphire and Steel, I've posted this before but the standout freakout moment is the solider in the railway station. Even thinking about it raises hackles and makes me uncomfortable
The weeping angels and the numbertaker
can't forget the puzzler and spooky spoon
I was a full grown adult when I watched those episodes and they still scared the absolute piss out of me.
The Box of Delights terrified me. I had nightmares for years. Also Tottie: Story of a Dolls House when one of the dolls melted in a fire
Thanks a lot, i'd just managed to forget Box of Delights.
Captain Black standing in the graveyard on the opening credits of Captain Scarlet! š³ I watched it again recently and it still creeped me the fuck out!
The mysterons were really terrifying.
Oh and anything with Saville in
The 1979 TV series Quatermass properly gave me the fear for a while as did the old black & white movie Night of the Demon, I also remember a film about gargoyles which made me scared to go to sleep for a few weeks after watching it. And of course When the wind Blows caused some serious anxiety in my young mind for a long time after seeing it.
The beginning of Dr. Who. The music in the opening credits along with the tardus scared me as a child. Iād always hide behind the couch.
The latest Tom Baker titles used to weird me out. Like a massive spooky eyeball swirling around. Eesh.
When Lee Rigbys murderer was on the 6pm news with his hands red with blood
I got scared by League of Gentlemen as an adult. As a kid it was Dr. Who (Cybermen), scary public information films and something hardly anyone remembers called āThe Singing Ringing Treeā it scarred me for life.
Take your pick from the empty child, weeping angels, vashtanarada, the silence...
Doctor Who gas mask zombies......
Watching Eastenders as a kid and the little Mo and Trevor house fire scared me. Didn't sleep properly for ages incase there was a fire. Around the same time my dad was watching Thunderbirds. There was a fire in that episode as well. It had a family that were trapped and the smoke was effecting them. - it was then I learned fire is much more deadly than I thought.
I'm convinced my lifelong morose demeanour stems largely from being exposed to so much death at a young age through obsessively watching The Animal of Farthing Wood. So, maybe not trauma but definitely imprinted.
I think it was actually a movie shown on tv years ago when I was a kid . It was was entirely from the perspective of a man they thought was in a coma but was actually wide awake whilst they performed painful procedures on him. It was all from his perspective and through his eyes with him helpless and narrating his thought and ends with him screaming. It terrified me at the time and left a lifelong impression.
Still have nightmares about Chocky....
Pipkins and The Tomorrow People. Also the updated version of Quatermass when they found the burnt dog.
Intro of Bagpuss. The creepy music, old photos & yawning (for some reason) really unsettled me. Shivers.
Animals of Farthing Wood in general due to most on the animals dying
Black mirror episodes fuck me up. The ending of Blackadder Season 4 guts me every time.Ā
Terrahawks. Zelda
Ghostwatch. I'm 48. Still traumatised.
44. Same.
49. Same same.
The Cybermen walking through London, in Doctor Who, terrifying. I was convinced they would show up in our industrial town, just North of there.
Adric's death.
That one Jonathan Creek where the basement flooded and floated the body to the top of the stairs, when they opened the door it looked like a zombie had climbed up the stairs My parents had fun with that one
Doctor Who, the episode where the Doctor and Rose go to 19th century Britain and visit Queen Victoria at Balmoral and someone transforms into a werewolf. Distinctly remember that terrifying me as a 7 year old
Grotbags and Terrahawks
As a very young kid the crystal maze traumatised me. Why would they just leave a family member in the jungle zone just so they could get a few more quid? Savages. Of course now I know they're not trapped there forever.
Tommy Cooper having a heart attack on air
Doctor Who genuinely did creep me out at times. Always found the Cybermen disturbing. Torchwood too. That brain tumor alien can rot in eternal hell.
I remember watching a snippet of a TV program in the 80s/early 90s where somebody killed a pizza delivery guy with a bottle and was subsequently hanged. I don't have a notion what the program was, which channel it was on, etc. but the visual of the hanging stayed with me a for a looooooong time. Part of me would like to see it again. The other part not so much. (Edit: while it sounds American it was 100% British. Of that I have no doubt)
The opening credits of Equinox on channel 4 still makes me feel uneasy as an adult. It full-on terrified me as a nipper!
The World in Action opening credits used to disturb me as a child.
Monty Python. I've been wearing a dress ever since.
Mine was also from League; the scene with the Denton twins and the toad in the blender fucked me up as a kid!
Hammer House of Horror and the bending pipes!
All of Rentaghost. All of it. Also anything with Rod Hull.
For the life of me I canāt remember what it was called but there was like a kids supernatural mystery type of show that presented strange or unusual events. And two traumatised me. One was this woman who drove a village and noticed that everyone was in like vintage clothing. She didnāt think much of it, yknow like an event or historical reenactment. But she went out of her car to use a phone box and the people were utterly convinced it was like 1940. She saw adverts in the phone box that had the year on it and it was 1940. She drove away and on her way back tried to find the village but it was gone. Second one was this family who noticed strange black patches on their kitchen floor. Over the next few doors more sprouted up but they were no longer patches but human faces, like in pain or moaning. Just these like ten patches of black stains in the shape of creepy faces with extended jaws. No. Thank. You.
Threads.
Anything with clowns. Or Ant and Dec.
Animals of Farthing Wood. Basically any of the death scenes.
The boy from space. The thin man scared the beejesus outta me. And the child catcher from Chitty Chitty bang bang.
The Animals of Farthing Wood. Brutal.
Two that spring to mind was I think Space 1999 and someone was lying down with their back to the camera and she rolled over and her face was really aged or rotten, can't remember which but it burnt into my brain. The other was Rupert the Bear and some little bastard who lived in the woods called Raggety. Properly shit me up as kid.
Watership Down... but what a great film.
Certain scenes from āThe Owl Serviceā (1969/1970) the tv drama series based on the Alan Garner book. It was supposed to be for young people but it was quite harrowing in parts. Caught some episodes on YouTube and it is still edgy even by todayās standards.
I remember there was episode of Hollyoaks (I **think** it was Hollyoaks) where someone's mum died and instead of reporting it they had a breakdown and just lived with the dead body and then it gets discovered and the rotting corpse is always *just* offscreen but all you can hear are the flies buzzing about the house. Really creeped me out as a kid.
The singing ringing tree. Tales from Eastern Europe. A big fish, a spoilt princess who needed spanking, a prince turned into a bear and a malicious dwarf. Iām shaking as I write this after all these years [singing ringing tree](https://youtu.be/6wIQBORCLLE?si=qwgmFwOV7cPZC3mb)
Going back a bit, an episode of Metal Mickey with a headless horseman (āhold on, if youāre in here, whatās that out thereā etc) And Chocky on ITV (1984 so I probably shouldnāt have been watching it). Terrifying. I see it was John Wyndham (Day of the Triffids) so not surprising really.
Does anyone remember Jeopardy on CBBC? I think it was about some kids in Australia playing a games where they pretended to hunt for aliens but I was too young to understand when I saw it and an episode where some of the kids disappeared in a flash in the woods scared me for ages.
Spitting Image. I still get the creeps from those puppets.
Threads Specifically what the world would be like afterwards.
Threads. Nuclear apocalypse tv movie. don't even want to talk about it.
Threads.
There was a kids tv show called Interference and I remember this old lady would appear in the static of the tv these kids would watch and it freaked me out big time. Itās number 94 on this list of amazing forgotten kids tv shows. http://www.curiousbritishtelly.co.uk/2022/01/159-british-childrens-tv-shows-from.html?m=1
Threads. Shown that at school when I was about 14yo.
The Judderman from the Metz advert
Century Falls - an early 90s Russel T Davies CBBC series. Folk horror for children - weird old ladies, psychic twins, a village trying to possess an unborn baby via a glowing golden maskā¦
Blakeās 7, when the Liberator is destroyed.
Not a show but I vaguely remember one of the public safety advertisements on TV freaked me out as a kid because I had a phobia of fire and was experiencing recurring nightmares of my school being on fire around the time as well. Not actually sure which came first. Anyway, I just remember it had a little girl in it and there were tanks inside a building that shot fire. I think it was emphasising the importance of shutting doors.
Animals of faththing wood
The lion and the bear in that Teletubbies episode can still absolutely get to fuck. Also, I have absolutely NO idea what show this was, I just remember being utterly terrified of some teapot??? I love it, but I do find something quite creepy about the eyes of the characters from Wallace and Gromit, and really struggled with stop-start animation in general as a kid. I also hated people in costumes and puppets. But all my major trauma is from Dr Who: The Empty Child, The Weeping Angel's, those hoards of infected people in the New New New (etc) York hospital, and the creepy Dickens ghosts. To name bur a few.
Yes! Threads. Drama about the aftermath of nuclear war. I had nightmares for months after that.Ā
The triffids. Every time I walked past a āplant roomā the memories came flooding back
i don't know what channel this was on but it still haunts me to this day. [The Sandman](https://youtu.be/UjgHbRrnjhU?si=F4TupQdJXOcrmfH7)
British kids show escape into the night 1972 ...nightmare fuel rocks with eyes coming for you trapped in a house ...or children of the stone 1976 horrific music people wailing, sacrifices, mind controlled country folk and flairs
The Auton shop dummies in Doctor Who. When I was young, shop dummies were in every clothes shop and I was scared they might come to life grab me or shoot me with the hidden gun in their hand. It took 2 years before I went into a clothes shop and discovered they were just plastic.
Not British but.... I saw Threads on PBS when I was maybe 14 and it was the mid 1980s and I lived near a place that was loudly rumored to store nuclear weapons and I was.... horrified. That was an incredibly graphic depiction of nuclear war and oddly, it's not the scenes of \*burning bodies\* that wigged me out, it was this scene of the bomb going off and this English woman peeing herself in the street. I watched it again just recently and wow, I didn't remember all the burning bodies and the rape and the dead sheep and its just incredibly dark and sad. I'm not british, I mean. Threads is British