The Guide #159: Won’t somebody think of the children? The shows that traumatised you as kids

Last week we asked for your most traumatising TV or film moments – those scenes that kept you up all night as a child, eyes wide as saucers, and have stayed with you ever since. We got such a big reaction that, in semi-regular Guide fashion, we’ve decided to devote the majority of this week’s newsletter to the subject. It’s no surprise we had a big response – TV shows and films really have a way of sticking around in the squishy, still-developing brains of young people, particularly in those early teenage years where they first encounter things that they definitely aren’t old enough to comprehend.

A case in point: I remember watching The Silence of the Lambs, or a portion of it, when I was 11, for reasons unknown or since forgotten (it was probably while staying round a friend’s house or evading a curfew). In truth, a lot of the heavy psychosexual elements of Jonathan Demme’s film seem to have gone completely over my head, and I think a parent might have intervened before we reached some of the gnarlier moments – Hannibal Lecter biting a guard’s face would have definitely stayed with me! Still, Lecter himself definitely found his way into my subconscious – the soft speech patterns, the slight wry smile, the intense, unblinking eyes. Even without the whole brain-eating element, he was the stuff of nightmares.

So without further ado, here what’s fuelled your own childhood nightmares. Surprisingly, especially given it’s back in the public eye for its 40th anniversary, no one has picked the dreaded Threads . But there are creepy dolls, giant mechanical eyes and mass canine-icide ….

“When I was 12, my older sister and her stoner friends took me with them to see John Carpenter’s The Fog (pictured above). I don’t recall a particular moment, only sitting through the entire film absolutely terrified. When we left, my clothes were completely soaked through with sweat – to the complete amusement of the teenagers who experienced the entire film high as kites. (This came on the heels of a neighbour taking me to see Alien, and the chest-burster scene that absolutely ruined me.) Growing up at the intersection of 1979 and 1980 was not for the weak of heart!” – John Sarvay

“As a young teen, I remember being allowed to watch a BBC drama called Maelstrom , set in Norway. Part of the plot revolves around a secluded house filled with dolls. The dolls were so creepy that even thinking about them today makes me shiver.” – Rob Mansfield

“The bird attack scene in Omen II . Not sure of my age but I was probably too young and stayed up late to watch it on broadcast TV. (Remember that?) It was way more graphic than The Birds, which no doubt influenced it, and I’ve had a phobia about any eye-related trauma ever since. The lorry incident was the icing on the cake and the obvious use of a dummy did not relieve the horror.” – Matt Sparkes

“I still have flashbacks every time I think of Tag, the Belstone Fox , leading a pack of hounds on to a railway line. Laurie Johnson’s brilliant theme music pretty much sums up the whole film.” – Sharon Eckman

“ Return to Oz (pictured top) – as an eight-year-old I was terrified by this ‘children’s film’. I thought maybe I’d built up how horrifying it is in my mind, but I recently rewatched it as an adult and it’s still one of the darkest and scariest films I’ve ever seen. Just thinking about the severed heads, wheelers and Dorothy in the psychiatric hospital, I know I’m going to have nightmares tonight.” – Kate Bolsover

“The scene I always remember scaring the bejesus out of me as a nipper, was when the giant, bronze statue came to life (animated by the great Ray Harryhausen) in Jason and the Argonauts . The Argonauts stole treasure from the room at the base of said statue, despite being told it was forbidden, and the statue slowly creaked into action [above]. When it stood astride the cliff banks and picked up the Argo, it gave me nightmares for weeks!” – Dave Morgan

“The death of Optimus Prime in Transformers: The Movie (1986) cut pretty deep, although in retrospect that seems like a canny business decision to promote a new batch of toys. However, my first cinema trip involved ruling out Back to the Future as containing too much peril … and seeing Bambi instead. No spoilers, but I still don’t think I could face returning to that seemingly idyllic forest.” – Richard Hamilton

“This may well be the earliest TV trauma-inducing programme as well as the scariest. As one of the first families in our village to get a TV, it wasn’t just the Coronation we watched. I was sent to bed when Quatermass was on, but hearing it without seeing it only increased the fear. One night I was even more scared by the noises than the punishment I’d receive for coming downstairs. As I pushed open the living room door, I saw the TV screen filled by a huge mechanical eye which swivelled to look at me as I entered the room. I ran screaming out of the house into the garden. I’ve been uncomfortable with out-of-context eyes ever since! Screens may have been very small in those days, but it was a monstrous vision for an anxious five-year-old.” – Daphne Pleace

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