this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2023
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Back when I was very young, like still in elementary school, I started playing Super Metroid for the first time. I was running around Norfair, generally having a good time, when I opened an innocuous-looking super missile door and encountered... Crocomire.

If you're familiar with that game, you might be thinking "Oh, you got scared when Crocomire's skeleton popped out of the lava, right?" No, I never even made it that far. Instead, on finding myself suddenly confronted by this huge, grotesque monster to a background of intense, blaring music, I freaked out. I didn't even think of aiming for his mouth, instead just firing all my missile and super missiles in a blind panic as he slowly pushed me toward the spiked wall at the far end of the room. At the time, I didn't know you could hurt bosses with the charge beam, so once I was out of missiles, I used the only other weapon I thought might work: a power bomb. Turns out that's the worst possible thing you can do. Power bombs make Crocomire go apeshit, charging at you and quickly smashing you into the rear wall, at which point you're basically guaranteed to die. Sure enough, I did.

I didn't quit the game forever, but I did put it give up on progressing further until I was older, wiser, and generally better at video games. And even then, for years afterward, I played the Crocomire fight with the volume off.

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[–] LarsAdultsen@hexbear.net 26 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I dunno if "it wasn't supposed to", but the Bilbo/Galadriel ring scenes from The Fellowship of the Ring lived rent-free in my head and continued to haunt me throughout childhood

[–] blight@hexbear.net 9 points 1 year ago
[–] UlyssesT@hexbear.net 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Ever see the "not going anywhere for a while? Grab a Snickers" joke version of that with Bilbo? troll

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[–] TupamarosShakur@hexbear.net 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Courage the cowardly dog scared the shit out of me, but specifically there was an episode where anthropomorphic eggplant try to take over the world. I couldn’t eat eggplant for years after that, and I still mostly avoid it

[–] Yurt_Owl@hexbear.net 16 points 1 year ago

Return the slab was my one. Would scare me to tears lol.

[–] hopelessbyanxiety@hexbear.net 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The monsters in Minecraft. They always freaked me out but they're manageable with sound off. So, I listen to podcast and stuff instead of the sounds of the game

[–] Smeagolicious@hexbear.net 17 points 1 year ago

There were multiple times when a younger me got spooked by cave noises enough to put the game down. I still turn cave ambience down to zero lol

[–] CthulhusIntern@hexbear.net 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In Ocarina of Time, the scene after you get the Master Sword and walk out of the Temple of Time and see the ruins of Castle Town infested with ReDeads scared me so much, I didn't play the game for 4 more years.

[–] BeamBrain@hexbear.net 6 points 1 year ago

Oh yeah, that was terrifying. ReDeads were the absolute worst.

[–] duderium@hexbear.net 18 points 1 year ago

My sibling and I ran screaming from the room when my family was watching a presidential debate in 1992. We were about five and were convinced that Ross Perot was an extraterrestrial. Which, to be fair, he was.

[–] KnilAdlez@hexbear.net 16 points 1 year ago

There was a commercial for funding for PBS that ran when I was a kid, and in the middle it said something like, "If we run out of funding, the channel will go" and then the screen just went black. It freaked me out so much as a kid that, in front of my whole family, I stood up and turned off the tv before it got to that part. I just stood there and glared down my fam for about a minute before I turned the tv back on.

[–] drinkinglakewater@hexbear.net 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Motherfucking ET that was one disgusting looking creature

[–] grayatrox@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 year ago

I'm 35 and still haven't finished the movie

[–] blight@hexbear.net 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The ending of Assassin's Creed 2 where

spoilerthe camera zooms in on the goddess and she breaks the 3.5th wall and stares right into your soul

[–] usernamesaredifficul@hexbear.net 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I was spared that by being really bad at assassins creed I never managed the tutorial mission where you have to race someone to learn the parkour mechanics I just kept losing the race and gave up in frustration. I wish there was an option to say "yeah I get the mechanic I'm bad at it though can I please move on with the game"

That really annoyed me as I had saved up to buy the game and hate racing games because I've never been any good at them - comically so I was once playing need for speed at a friends house and I managed to be so bad at it I escaped the racetrack and got into the open world without finishing the race

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[–] BennyHill500@hexbear.net 14 points 1 year ago

That 3 eyed monkey from the production company logo at the end of Jimmy Neutron credits gave me nightmares for some reason.

[–] manuallybreathing@hexbear.net 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

my parents told me that creepy james and the giant peach movie from 1996 have me nightmares as a kid, to be fair all of roald dhal media is pretty terrifying (and sketchy as heck)

please dont let this thread be the cia gathering info on how to torture children lol

[–] JK1348@hexbear.net 6 points 1 year ago

I never watched it but I always saw the trailers and felt something unsettling about it

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[–] Drewfro66@lemmygrad.ml 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I still remember getting so freaked out by the music in the Ocarina of Time Forest Temple that I had to put the game down. The ghosts and spiders didn't bother me, but those ceiling hands did.

I was going to leave the game running overnight to save my progress but the music made me so scared I had to turn it off, but I was too scared to touch the controller so I just ran up and shut the GameCube off

[–] NoYouLogOff@hexbear.net 5 points 1 year ago

Same, the sounds of the hands falling and the increasing shadows is horrifying to the young mind.

[–] footfaults@hexbear.net 11 points 1 year ago

The final part of when Luke was fighting Vader in the cave in Empire Strikes Back and the head explodes and Luke's face is in Vader's helmet

[–] UlyssesT@hexbear.net 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)

ET scared the living fuck out of me, especially when he was wailing in fear and trying to flee the feds while his chest was glowing. I had to leave the theater; was freaking out too much. madeline-scared

[–] KimJongGoku@hexbear.net 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If you watch this ancient video from 12:47 on you'll either get to enjoy some catharsis or you'll be able to relive your worst childhood nightmares, one or the other blob-no-thoughts

[–] UlyssesT@hexbear.net 6 points 1 year ago

That gave me some primordial chills until I adjusted. Well done. sweat

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[–] Hotspur21@hexbear.net 5 points 1 year ago

Bro ET scared the fuck out of me as a kid too. He looks so creepy and gross

[–] JK1348@hexbear.net 5 points 1 year ago

He was freaky looking i used to cringe when the kids hugged him lol

[–] TheWorldSpins@hexbear.net 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

The Weeping Willow screen from the NES version of Kings Quest V. Something about the face and the music terrified me.

A lot of the discordant music in the original Metroid freaked me out too. The series has an amazing soundtrack.

[–] Sickos@hexbear.net 8 points 1 year ago

There's a lot of good unsettling music and triumphant music from Metroid

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[–] UlyssesT@hexbear.net 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Wonder if the drowning music in no-copyright 's earlier 16 bit games freaked anyone out when they were little.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0FZ-I5AIvo

[–] Sickos@hexbear.net 7 points 1 year ago

It makes a great alarm, I wake up panicky and sweating, but I definitely wake up.

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[–] ikiru@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

There was a TV skits show for kids on Fox I watched as a kid in the 90's, God knows what the fuck it was called, but I remember there was one scene with puppet animals playing poker in a dark room and I don't remember the point of the scene nor why but as the different characters spoke it was very tense—probably for comedic effect that was lost on me—and then it just cut to the next scene/skit, but that bit remains stuck in my head as High Horror.

Also, many old timey black and white cartoons creeped me the fuck out.

[–] GrouchyGrouse@hexbear.net 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

PBS had this program called Nova when I was a kid and it had an episode about epidemics and the black death and the hantavirus. Gave me a panic attack or something close to it. The music was super ominous.

[–] MaxOS@hexbear.net 10 points 1 year ago

The opening scenes from Beauty and The Beast. The music is so creepy.

[–] machiabelly@hexbear.net 10 points 1 year ago

I remember when I was a little kid, maybe 3? My babysitter took me to see the iron giant. I thought the iron giant was scary and started crying. We left the theater within the first 5 minutes of the movie.

[–] christian@hexbear.net 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The dianogas in Dark Forces. I went back and played the Anoat City level when I was like twenty and it's so silly to say but I was still scared. Like the memories of being afraid got ingrained really deeply in my brain.

Edit: I just started watching a youtube playthrough of that level and my blood pressure is going through the roof.

[–] Outdoor_Catgirl@hexbear.net 8 points 1 year ago

A imax movie of ocean life where a jellyfish was the whole theater screen. 5yo me literally ran out of the theater crying.

[–] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 8 points 1 year ago

Half the scenes from Body Troopers (Jakten på nyresteinen / Chasing the Kidney Stone), including even just the trailer for it at the start of my family's Grinch video cassette. You'll probably get the most results searching for the original Norwegian title.

[–] MorelaakIsBack@hexbear.net 7 points 1 year ago

the opening disaster sequence in star trek generations, 1994. i was just too young, it jumpscared me and i had to leave

[–] NephewAlphaBravo@hexbear.net 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sluggy the Unshaven from Yoshi's Island for almost identical reasons. "Crush you against the wall" bosses are pretty spooky until you figure them out.

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[–] soiejo@hexbear.net 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Chaos in Sonic Adventure 1. Seeing this weird water ghost slowly creep towards you at the exact moment you gain control freaked me out as a kid.

Also a lot of early 2000 music videos on MTV were weirdly creepy for me, though I can't remember specific examples rn

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[–] Rod_Blagojevic@hexbear.net 6 points 1 year ago

Sesame Street monsters trying to teach me the alphabet.

[–] BelieveRevolt@hexbear.net 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Classic, although I'm not convinced this wasn't meant to be scary.

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[–] Sephitard9001@hexbear.net 6 points 1 year ago

PS1 game called Heart of Darkness freaked me the fuck out. I could never get passed like the 3rd or 4th screen because I didn't understand how to play and despite the cartoon art style the death animations were disturbingly violent

[–] BelieveRevolt@hexbear.net 5 points 1 year ago

The yeti from SkiFree as well as Dopefish from Commander Keen.

[–] HexReplyBot@hexbear.net 5 points 1 year ago

I found a YouTube link in your post. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

[–] YoureNotAlexander@hexbear.net 5 points 1 year ago

Your avatar

[–] MerryChristmas@hexbear.net 5 points 1 year ago

There was this sketch on All That about a character called Pizza Face. It was a joke about a guy with acne I think? I don't remember, but the kids would chase him down the hall and try to eat his face and it terrified me.

Also, there was an episode of this show on Nickelodeon where this guy got sucked into a hand dryer in a public restroom and for years I thought it was going to happen to me.

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