I grew up in a very informed household; my parents regularly watched local and national news several times a day and the radio was always on during the day while my mom watched me. In the 70's we primarily listened to a local AM station that was a CBS affiliate. Every hour I was warned of impending doom by the news sounder that came on before the reporter started reading (the exact news sounder is at 1:14 in the Youtube link).

When I heard that sound, I knew bad things were getting ready to be told: serial killers, cattle mutilations, hijackings, mass shootings, bombings, and the worst of all – gorillas (guerillas) killing people somewhere in a tropical hell. To a 5 or 6 year old, that news sounder, and the dread that always followed, warned me to never go to big cities, airports, or foreign countries. Other than the ominous storm warnings from the National Weather Service, which have been covered already on the site, nothing else came close to producing this kind of trauma in me.

Again, the specific sounder is at 1:14. Thank you for an outstanding and very needed website.

Jamie L.

First off, I love your site. It's strangely comforting knowing a lot of images that scared me as a kid scared so many others too. The Jumanji posting about the plant made me think of Little Shop of Horrors with Rick Moranis. The full-grown plant scared the crap out of me and to this day I don't like the shot when the camera seems to zoom all the way inside the plant's mouth. The little plants that seemed to grow off it just added to my fright. Getting eaten by a plant like that became my worst nightmare. Those puppets were masterfully crafted. My fear of this movie confused me for years because it's a musical and so light-hearted most of the time that I didn't perceive it as a horror. I think immersion therapy helped me get over this movie but I will still flinch a little if I put it on t.v.

Gary S.

Your site had me laughing so hard I cried. I was just posting on a FB page (people who grew up in Rockland County NY in the 70's and 80's) and I posted a new topic–what class film terrorized you? I then described "And Then It Happened", how I was shown this in 3rd grade and it *still* gives me the willies 35 years later! My brother then posted a link to our blog and I practically wet my pants. Thank you oh thank you for keeping the terror alive! (you know, in that 'I want to watch but I know I'm gonna have bad dreams from it' way)

Hello,

I like your page, I found it by searching for Bunyip, I was really scared by it.

One thing that most scared and affected me was the movie "Jumanji", which is actually a good movie and I liked it, but there is that scene where this gigantic plant grows and attacks people. I am still scared by it, so everytime I see that movie I start having nightmares about big human eating plants. That said, I still have problems looking at flesh eating plants or at unusually big plants, also afraid to touch them. When I am in the bathtub, I sometimes have got day nightmares, that out of the sink there might come a big plant and eat me…

That is still scaring me.

Faithfully yours,

Dominik

Is it normal to base a huge part of your life around a box art cover? Probably not but I have an excuse: it was Friday the 13th on the NES. I couldn't play the game because I didn't have a Nintendo but every time I was in the video store, I would stare at the pixelated map on the back and dream about being able to explore the campgrounds in the films I'd watch every time they aired on the USA network. Friday the 13th was the scariest movie in the world (even when broken up by Rhonda Shear segments and the flood of 900 phone sex ads). So the game would have to be the scariest game in the world right? RIGHT? Well, I got the answer when I finally played it years later. But something stuck with me: there was an idea there somewhere. So I started working on the slasher game I had always dreamed of playing.