The third episode of Trilogy of Terror is the all-time TV terror classic, of course, along with Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, all those In Search Ofs, and Killer Bob from Twin Peaks. Just an FYI, the Trilogy episode was "Amelia" (not "Amelie") and the Richard Matheson story it was based on is titled "Prey" (it was in an old Matheson paperback collection called Shock Waves). I totally remember that Tales of the Unexpected as well, it was freakin' traumatizing, especially the scene at night with the well. And don't even get me started on Crowhaven Farm and Black Noon; they were so unrelentingly dark in their depiction of evil completely trumping good. Would be amazing for a pair of Made-for-Television flicks, but that was the general pessimism of the 70's for you!

That "Trilogy of Terror" segment is actually based on a Richard Matheson story. I think it was called "Fear", I could be wrong. The story is excellent, too, though.

-nick

I love Sybil, i think it's a really fun movie, i completly agree!

--RC of strangeculture.blogspot.com

i do remember that episode of "Unsolved Mysteries"! I was about eight and that recreation of the white panel-van driving away from a convenience store, leaving behind that polaroid of the bound-and-gagged kids stayed with me for a very very long time. terrifying stuff.

Hey Scott!

Tim here (Brian Lackey) from the production at the Rude Guerrilla. We just had a great performance last night and so I was excitedly browsing profiles on myspace, and the like, and eventually found you here!

I just wanted to tell you that I'm really excited that you and Prince are going to come watch on the 17th. I think this whole production carries such an important message..and the gravity of the whole thing...I just am honored to be a part of it and I respect you both immensely.

I can't wait to see what you think! Much love!
Tim

I remember being traumatized by that scarecrow movie too... I never would've remembered that movie or title if it weren't for this blog.

So I missed out on the movie post, but if you haven't seen PIN, then I recommend it! I would say "highly recommend" it, but then that whole expectation thing happens. So, I'm just recommending it. Its Canadian so that should lower expectations, as well.
Now go check it out!
Its no Magic, but its creepy and good.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000059PP0/qid=1149760839/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-9259197-6748765?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=130

oh my god, that Fantasy Island episode... I only have vague, vague memories of that. Have they put all those bombs onto a dvd set yet?

in the late 70s, when i was 10 or thereabouts, i stayed the night at a friend's house. we watched a movie on a late-night horror-host show, a movie set a rambly, weird house with a lot of christmas lights, a movie with a lot of heavy breathing and shaky cam and scary, squealy shouting. that movie, ladies and gentleman, was the classic black christmas (soon to be remade into a piece of crap), and while the only thing i remembered about it as a child was the use of the word "fellatio," i've seen the movie many times as an adult, and it out-halloweens halloween. it's scarier, it's shot better, and the unseen billy is actually more horrifying that michael myers.

Does anyone remember an episode of Fantasy Island where this woman's fantasy was to remain beautiful forever? She was given some potion that she had to take ever few hours, or else she would go back to her regular age...
but something happened (can't remember what exactly) and she basically turned into this wrinkly, fanged monster woman who terrorized people on the island.
does anyone have memories of that show?
or better yet - screen shots of that episode?
has that ever been made into a DVD set?

scared the CRAP out of me as a 10 year old.

It's way too late to have read this post--I'm freaking out, thinking of the crap that scared me as a kid. My mom had the book Sybil, with the cover you showed, and I used to be scared of it and imagined my face being cut to ribbons (which is what my little-kid mind imagined when I looked at it).

The last scene of Tourist Trap, with the mannequins in the jeep? I don't ever want to see that again. Or, perhaps I should--it cannot be as scary as I remember it from when I was 10.

The picture of Loch Ness from the opening of In Search Of... always scared me, too. And the music. Aw man, I gots the shivers.

I have all the episodes of Vegetable Soup's Outerscope on VHS if you want to copy any of them. For the longest time I couldn't find anyone who knew what the hell I was talking about when I described this freaky, 70s-era kids' show about puppets lost in space. I don't think any other show could do a better job of introducing kids to the concept of existentialism.

Trilogy of Terror pt. 3 scared the bejesus out of me. And Unsolved Mysteries is still my favorite show to this day. If I catch a particularly spooky episode on late at night I have to go sleep over at a friend's house.

And I agree 100% with Corey about the Twin Peaks' episode: "The scene where he (BOB) terrorizes and kills Laura's identical cousin was so frightening I still cannot believe it was allowed on television."

I was an undergrad at an Iowa college at the time Twin Peaks was airing, and because a group of us U. Iowa students wrote tons of letters *begging* the network to continue Twin Peaks for a second season, they sent a few characters out to our campus to thank us. I got to meet Deputy Andy, but he wasn't very nice. And I was really hoping to meet BOB or the dwarf instead.

For a while, when I was very young, my family was a "Nielsen family," recording the television programs we watched on what must have been an early incarnation of a pay-cable service (which was likely provided to us free-of-charge, too. I can't imagine my lower middle class parents springing for supplemental TV stations, especially when both of them worked full-time, and I was only three years old).

In any case, I can't recall if it was on "In Search Of" or some other knock-off, but there was this terrifying program about Blackbeard's treasure that had me convinced that my death, and the likely-skeletal (albeit non-corporeal) hand of Blackbeard's ghost was imminent.

I remember being so terrified of the newspaper ad for Magic that I made my mom remove the movie section and throw it out before I would look at the comics.

The commercial for MAGIC scared the crap out of me too, when I was a kid. I couldn't even watch it or hear the commercial, without getting nightmares. My grandpa used to cover my ears so I wouldn't be traumatized by the commercial.
My worst nightmare I had as a child, concerned the MAGIC dummy and The Penguin, from BATMAN, who also scared the crap out of me.

I agree on the TWIN PEAKS, but believe the true moment of terror (although Bob crawling on the bed toward Mrs. Palmer freaked the shit out of me), was the ultimate unmasking of Mr. Palmer as the killer. The scene where he terrorizes and kills Laura's identical cousin was so frightening I still cannot believe it was allowed on television.

I wandered over here from the Bookslut site. I love things horror-related, so I had to check these moments out, and I lament not having seen 1/2 of them. One of the scariest made-for-TV movies had to be Stephen King's IT, with Pennywise the Clown - holy crap! The first scene in which a little kid is riding a tricycle in his/her (can't remember, though I think it's a girl) backyard and then she gets sucked into the sewer by Pennywise. I got so scared I had to tape it and watch it during daylight (with my little brother, who I forced to watch with me). It's Tim Curry under the makeup, but man, he was terrifying.

When I saw this link I instantly thought, "Killer BOB must be on this list." I will never forget the season premiere of season 2. I had planned on taping all the episodes (as I had with season 1) but that first episode was so scary I couldn't bear to have it in the house with me, even on a tape.

oh god. the picture of bigfoot from the In Search of show STILL creeps me out. i don't care if it was a man in a suit. scared the hell out of me.

-the chick coming out of the water after the car crash in "Carnival of Souls"--shudder!

-the Twilight Zone Episode where the hitchiking bum keeps saying "going my way?"
and while we're at it, the TZ episode where the airline stewardess keeps saying, "room for one more, honey."
oof!

i believe "when a stranger calls back" was a showtime movie (does made for cable tv count?)... i only saw it for the first time a few years back on dvd. the entire opening sequence is creepier and trickier than the one in the original, and if you hated ventriloquists before- you'll hate 'em even moreso after you see what this guy does to terrorize young jill. makes coming home each day give you that little extra pause before shutting the door and locking it behind you.
not quite so scary, but often quite bizarre was the friday the 13th television series. there was a creepy little doll that got a little too friendly with a very young sarah polley in the pilot ep.

that commercial for MAGIC scarred me for life, too. i can still hear the voice!!

While it wasn't a kids' show, THE MARCH OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS, which was always shown on Thanksgiving on Channel 11 here in New York when I was growing up, was a kids' movie. I think it was made by Hal Roach Studios. (Of course it was, because, just like the OUR GANG episodes, it had a name-change for broadcast. It was originally BABES IN TOYLAND.) Laurel and Hardy were in it. I was three or under when I first saw it and was scared of the next two things I'll mention, and horrified by the third. First, Babe Hardy being "ducked." (He was lowered on a seesaw into a pond to determine his guilt. I always thought he was drowning. This toyland strongly resembled Salem, circa 1650.) Second, the streams of men in felt costumes and lions' manes, who raced through caves below Toyland, who caused Oliver Hardy to shout over and over again, "The boogeymen!" But third was the part where two of the Three Little Pigs, whose heads seemed to be actual hogs-heads, given sausage links to eat. Tears start gushing from their lifeless eyes, because it's their brother. They're not even under the wrong impression. IT REALLY IS THEIR BROTHER. The cruelty of itleaves me breathless still.

Obviously, I agree with all of these moments since I was present when you watched most of them. However, I had forgotten about how DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW left me unhinged for a good long while. As for commercials, the aforementioned HALLOWEEN had an ad that was scary enough to make me turn the t.v. channel everytime I heard that unforgettable music.

Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)