Oh god, I just remembered this...
People wearing a monk's habit. With the hood up.

Thing is, I know *exactly* why this used to terrify me (I seem to be over it now): it was a spooky episode of Bergerac featuring the aforementioned Chap in Hooded Habit, and one of those books of 'real' ghost pictures including ghostly images of the same. This might be why I only watched 'The Name of the Rose' recently...
( jonnybear Jonnybear, Fri 30 Jan 2004, 12:21, Reply)

When we were younger
there was a new leisure centre built down by Aberdeen beach - circa 88-89 I think??? It had a top of the range fun pool with water cannons, water guns, rapids 3 varieties of flume and ...... THE WAVE MACHINE!!!

The horror that was the wave machine was situated at the deep end of the pool behind a dark and foreboding grate under the water. The Grate was easily 5 ft. high and at least 20+ ft. wide - might have been smaller, i was young then ;)

Because it's dark, because theres a hugh grate, because there is a huge machine behind it there was only one thing to deduce ... SHARKS LIVE THERE!!!! I'd go nowhere near this grate for fear of getting my foot stuck and draged in and shredded by the sharks. I am so petrified of sharks, especially the most harmless one - the basking shark. Have you seen the size of gob that creature has on it. I think I have every right to shit myself.
(fudge the return of the man with the cat on his head, Fri 30 Jan 2004, 12:21, Reply)

Max Headroom
That freaky plastic headed guy

urgh


all stems from when dr who was interrupted by a pirate station with him

(i only saw the report but it freaked me out when i was 7ish)
( Citizen Cavy Admires your passion for conformity, Fri 30 Jan 2004, 12:16, Reply)

I'm long since over this now
but when I was very young, I used to be scared of the sound of an audio cassette being chewed up by a tape recorder, and would always be slightly wary of using tapes in case it happened. I don't know why, but just the thought of it used to make me feel horrible.

Edit: Oh yes, and at some point my friend showed me how to play tapes fast by holding down the pause button a little way on most tape decks, but because this reminded me of my fear of tapes being chewed up, it also gave me the creeps.
( Lumpbucket tekcubpmuL, Fri 30 Jan 2004, 12:13, Reply)

Superman II, argh!
Bingo Bango said:
Ooo ooo Superman II scared the shit out of me too when I was little when they caught some woman in a machine that turned her into some zombie/robot thing - I've never watched it since and never will.

Yeesh, thanks for dragging that one up...
I remember it being on TV and running from the room. Gave me nightmares.
It looked really painful.
( guplik, Fri 30 Jan 2004, 12:00, Reply)

am I sterange?
I absolutely HATE wrists. This is because my older brother used to grab ahold of them and SQUEEZE when I annoyed him. Now I cant even look at them or anybody elses. If somebody touches mine I freak out and cry and hit them.
Also: dead preists. This one came from watching the exorcist. Dead priests just scare the hell out of me, I mean, If preists are dying then something must be wrong. My friend has a fear of priests overall. This is probably because she found lots of photos of priests flying around in the air and took them home for some reason. On the way home she saw a load of the evil bastards walking in some kind of procession. The fear wasnt helped in any way by her brother proceeding to leave the priest pictures lying about everywhere as well as bibles and crosses and stuff. He'd leave them in the doorway to her room so she couldnt go in untill they'd bin removed
And the other major one has been mentioned but still...I hate my feet and hands touching each other after I get out of the bath or any kind of water and they go all pruney. *shudders* I have to wear socks constantly too.
I also have a fear of dolphins. weird ney? I used to think they were cute and lovable untill I went to some kind of museam and saw a to-scale outline of one on the floor. Dolphins are HUGE! I don't like water at all and the thought of swimming with one of them is terrifying. I don't like whales either. Free willy was just wrong.
There's more but I don't want to bore you all to death.
(greenchicken, Fri 30 Jan 2004, 11:41, Reply)

telephone boxes
I used to be shit scared of the old, red telephone boxes when I was a lad.
Probably had something to do with the door being very heavy and on a spring closer, so once inside, you could quite reasonably fear being trapped in there FOREVER!
Probably not helped by watching a wierd Spanish film about a fella who gets trapped in a phone box, and the thing gets lifted onto a truck and carted off to a cave in the mountains, which as it transpires, is full of telephone boxes. Full of skeletons. AAArgh! Fcukin' scary when you're 10.
Does anyone else remember this film, by the way? I can't remember the name, but I'd love to find out. Mail me @ nick_rawle@hot... if you know what the hell I'm talking about.
(doctor sideburns, Fri 30 Jan 2004, 11:29, Reply)

Smash
I used to have a terrible fear of those little tin mens on the Smash (potato) adverts. This came around from the time I was abducted by aliens when i was 14 i guess. It happened whilst i was on a holiday to Bognor which my mum very kindly bought me as a special Christmas treat in 1987.......Freak!
(Mapper, Fri 30 Jan 2004, 11:27, Reply)

Firemen
When I was about 4, I had a dream that there was a fire engine in my next-door neighbour's living room, and the firemen were looking for me but no-one would believe me. I stayed at her house after school everyday, but after this dream I cried hysterically and had to be carried kicking and screaming into her house by my sister. Even today the thought of an army of them in those red suits with the helmets over their eyes....

~shudders~
(~Sunny~, Fri 30 Jan 2004, 11:21, Reply)

apple cores
My brother's mate was TERRIFIED of apple cores.. (he had no problem with apples of corse. just their cores.) My brother employed all the younger years in his school to eat as many apples as they could and deposit the cores in some bin liners. (they filled three of them) Then they went round his house and filled his room with them while he was sleeping. (on every surface in the room, mind) he went properly spaz when he woke up. So they tied him to a chair and put an american football helmet on his head and left an apple core in the front of it. For 5 hours.
(blubear, Fri 30 Jan 2004, 11:05, Reply)

people in animal suits
I got taken on a 'nice' trip to a park when I was little. I got plonked on the lap of some idiot in a giant dogsuit (for a photo) and screamed my guts out (they took me home still grumping and white as a sheet hours later). Actors in normal clothes I can cope with, as soon as something covers their head I am petrified. And other than being scary, they look like fecking eejits.

Clowns have a very similar effect although I get homicidal urges over-riding the fear.
( Derek.T.Wonderllama, Fri 30 Jan 2004, 10:23, Reply)

And another fear
Someone has to have mentioned this by now, but I used to not be able to swim over the drain in the deep end of the swimming pool because I was afraid the suction would pin me to the bottom of the pool. Even now I get nervous at the thought of it.
(pugget, Fri 30 Jan 2004, 10:02, Reply)

One movie:
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

For those who have not seen it, imagine you are six years old and watching the "freak-out" tunnel scene full of colors and weird insect death scenes and eyeballs, and Gene Wilder sitting calmly in his Willy Wonka getup singing

"There's no earthly way of knowing...
which direction we are going...
there's no knowing where we're rowing...or which way the river's flowing..."

It was almost (almost!) enough to scare me off chocolate and sweets! It certainly scared me away from seeing this movie again for many years... and it still makes me whimper!
P.S. I don't want to know what a snozzwanger is.
(pugget, Fri 30 Jan 2004, 9:57, Reply)

Cotton Wool
Actually, someone's already mentioned it, so I'm not alone.
Just the thought of scrunching a ball of the stuff in my hand makes my arms go all weak and makes me shiver in horror. Obviously, being an irrational fear, I can't fully explain this, but it's got something to do with its 'dryness'.
(troemyd, Fri 30 Jan 2004, 9:54, Reply)

The World In Action Credits
Creepy!
(Kaffii, Fri 30 Jan 2004, 9:16, Reply)

Sausages
A propos of sausages dropped on the living room floor, about 15 years ago my family were eating a tasty meal of sausages and mash in the living room in our council house. I dropped a sausage on the floor by accident, and picked it up and dusted it down ready to eat. As I finished the last mouthful, my sister reminded me that only weeks earlier we had suffered an infestation of house mice and started teasing me about the fact that I'd probably just ingested the droppings from what may well have been a thousand rodents.

I started trying to puke up the sausage, but to no avail, so I rang Accident and Emergency:

Me : "I think I might have eaten something poisonous."
A&E: "What did you eat?"
Me : "Well, don't laugh, but..."
A&E: "Yes?"
Me : "Some mouse droppings..."
A&E: "Pthrthrthrthrttt! Erm..."

Result: I've been vegetarian since...
(colourzoom, Fri 30 Jan 2004, 9:14, Reply)

Wobbly teeth
Can't explain it, but the sight of a kid wobbling a milk tooth makes me feel sick to the stomach. I don't mind them once they are out, but seeing a kid wobble a tooth with their tongue has me running away as fast as possible.
(dubbers, Fri 30 Jan 2004, 8:35, Reply)

movies
I'm easily terrified by scary movies. For example after I saw 'The Ring" I could not look at a TV if it was showing static . And after I saw Jurassic Park, I was scared that raptors were waiting to eat me in dark rooms. When I was little, even cartoon (always non-disney) movies would freak me out, like the Secret of Nimph, or Fern Gully... Oh and that movie Jabberwocky with Michael Palin freaked me out to the point where I couldn't sleep for several days..I'm also terrified that one day I will lose my pillow thus causing the world to end.
Maybe I should seek help.
(spiggums, Fri 30 Jan 2004, 7:27, Reply)

When I was young
about 4 to 8 years old, I had recurring nightmares about carrousels. I would be riding along with other children and then one by one they would get pulled up the pole and into the hole in the roof the pole goes into and I would start to get pulled up next.

I still think he things are fucking terrifying, to be honest.
( gracielou, Fri 30 Jan 2004, 6:45, Reply)

I'll try to explain, but it's tricky...
Apologies for the long ramble.

Thankfully, a rather unpleasant spate of panic attacks has ridden me of most of my fears (whomever the lady poster here who wrote a panic book, feel free to drop me a line should you wish), so feel free to have a anxiety disorder and banish most of your fears :P

Anyhoo, my only irrational fear is of big, submerged boulders. I moved to Sydney from the UK and went chugging about in on the crystal clear waters of the Hawksbury. Pootled into an inlet and I was looking out for obstructions when I realised I couldn't see the bottom but I could see a submerged boudler the size of a large car.

Terror rose into me like a wave, real primal stuff. Thankfully I managed to control it and was looking at it sideways in a WTF kinda way.

Oddness!
(Rubberband_in_Oz, Fri 30 Jan 2004, 5:41, Reply)

My mother was left home alone for the first time in 15 years,
and it was only for a weekend. On the first night, she felt like there was somebody in the house, so she asked the next-door neighbour to look around. He was very nice and made her feel better... for a while. A couple of hours later, he was so sure there was a man standing in the hallway, she locked herself in the car in the driveway and called 911 from her cell phone. Eight police officers came to search the house and the yard, and found nothing.

The following night, she called the police again for the same reason, and the same 8 officers returned. A year later, when she went manic and didn't want to go to hospital, I called an ambulance and those same 8 officers were on duty and heard the address on the radio. They all showed up to see how she was doing, which led to the incident I posted previously under "My brush with the law".
(ghettobooty, Fri 30 Jan 2004, 4:35, Reply)

I have a fear of heights,
as does my best friend. This is because a few years ago we saw a little boy climbing on a railing on the second floor of the mall. I ran over and grabbed his shirt and pulled him back just as he was tipping over, and ever since my friend and I have both freaked out if anyone sits on a railing. I went to St. Paul's cathedral soon after the incident, and was terrified, clinging to the wall in the whispering gallery for 45 minutes before my friends came and got me down!

I also dated a guy that was terrified of butterflies. He had no problem with any other kind of insect. I know a big burly firefighter with a horrible fear of ladybugs.

Oddly, the butterfly guy also hated buttons. When tracing his family history, he found out that his great grandfather in Scotland also had a fear of buttons. I guess it runs in the family.
(ghettobooty, Fri 30 Jan 2004, 4:29, Reply)

Balconies
I can't stand and look over a balcony without the urge to jump. I start thinking about what would happen if I did, and I have to either stand back or hold onto the rail.

Reading IT by Stephen King also scarred me somewhat. I couldn't stand next to my bed in the dark in case of the old axe murderer under the bed, and drains made me paranoid for a few weeks after finishing the book. On the lookout for the movie. ; )
(isajones, Fri 30 Jan 2004, 4:10, Reply)

This is not a contribution, but more like a call for help.
I'm the worlds biggest loser. I'm afraid of being rejected so I havent had a friend in 6 years, and a good one since 1991. I'm lonely and a virgin.

Problem #1 is that I'm so hot girls cant stop throwing themselves at me and only to be rejected because I'm too afraid of being with them because I'm afraid I'll be rejected. But I'm so hot and sexy.
(Spram, Fri 30 Jan 2004, 1:34, Reply)

being alone for too long
i tend to have to turn around to check to see if someones standing behind me... sometimes i get the feeling i'm being watched.

sometimes it gets so bad i have to sleep with the light on

i'm pathetic, aren't i
(psykit, Fri 30 Jan 2004, 0:59, Reply)

Spontaneous combustion...
I used to be afraid that I would spontaneously combust. I haven't yet, but you never know.
(Mooty, Fri 30 Jan 2004, 0:57, Reply)

Ack!
The Headcrabs from half-life scared me so much I couldn't look at them. I mean you went in a vent then they just popped out from no-where and randomly bite you. Bloody freaky gits I tell thee. At times when I went to bed I swear I could hear one of them and would have constant nightmares of them chasing me.
(Mr. Roboto, Fri 30 Jan 2004, 0:19, Reply)

ooo i forgot...
The clown from 'IT'. The bit where he is in the car driving past and he turns to look at the clown and when he turns round there is a BALLOON in the car. That film still makes me utterly, utterly shite myself. Also at my cousins' birthday party when I was 5 or 6 the clown fainted in the heat and we all ran away screaming. God clowns should be all banned... and mime artists.
Except papa lazarou, although he's not really a clown though...and the clown from spawn
(meatatarian!, Fri 30 Jan 2004, 0:02, Reply)

Kit Kat wrappers,
not the nice new ones but the old skool ones that went over a foil bit. Can't stand them. They give me the heebie-geebies big time. Thankfully they seem to be gradually getting phased out, and my student union has a ban on Kit Kats being sold in union shops, so my life is gradually becoming safer.

Also those very thin plastic bags that you get to put vegetables in at the supermarket. Just nasty.
(cybersquatter_, Thu 29 Jan 2004, 23:56, Reply)

Terrahawks!!!
Oh gawd yeah! Old ladies' heads getting spat out of the side of a spaceship! That scared the cackabab out out me an' all!! What were they on when they made kid's Tv in the 80s? Terrahawks, Dungeons and Dragons, Grotbags... the products of twisted minds. And now we have Teletubbies and Boo-Bahs.

Our children are safe. No terrors can touch them now... (just don't start reading News of the World)
(fourplusone, Thu 29 Jan 2004, 23:35, Reply)