I'll try to keep this as short as possible! I just watched a rather gruesome episode of 'Hannibal', and was turning off the tv/lights etc before heading for bed. (It's 11:30pm here).
I go to check if the back door is locked, and to my surprise it is actually ajar. Oh well, I close and lock the back door. Then when I turn around I hear a short 'tap' from the window or garden. Maybe it was next doors cat. But the coward in me tells me not to open the back door, but to peer through the back window. I open the blind but its pitch black outside and all I can see is a reflection, so I have to press my face right up to the glass. Suddenly I feel vulnerable. I decide to pull myself together and head back to bed. But then as I walk through the living room I suddenly hear a strange rustling sound right behind me, level with my head! I spin around, the hair literally standing up on the back of my neck like in the novels, and for a horrifying second I am face to face with someone, an adult, a very tall adult. I instinctively prepare to defend myself and then I realise it is a helium filled balloon from my daughter's birthday party at the weekend! I quess you had to be there, but for a brief moment I had a taste of the fantastic.
Anyone else ever had any brushes with fear??
Yep! I've been there! (not in your house, of course....but scared) I call it "getting spooked". It seems to happen when I watch movies with serious demonic possession themes. I will not watch them any more! I watched some based- on- a- true- story demon possession movie several months ago.....alone.....at night....and I got spooked!!! I kept hearing my stupid scary sounding name being whispered. It made me wish my name was Aunt Bea, or Wilma or something less creepy! HA! Those kind of movies mess with your head! Especially when the subject is pretty foreign to you!
I really miss being scared by monster movies when I was a kid. I still love my monster movies (obviously), but they don't really scare me anymore...with the exception of one. The original Exorcist. And, I'm not even religious. I treat that one with respect.
It's funny, I was never scared of films or books as a kid, but as I've gotten older I'm much more easily spooked. I suppose it could be down to being more aware of my mortality (I was never scared of heights as a kid, but am now!) and also being aware of the evil in the world, and hearing horrific accounts of crime in the media.
Charpie - I imagined the noise you heard like that sound fx from Friday The 13th - Cha Cha Charlotte!!
I once was riding in the Disneyland Haunted Mansion, nd my ride vehicle got stuck in the hallway with all the doors, just before the guy in the coffin screaming to get out. Although I know it was all make believe, I was real glad when the ridecar got moving again.
I don't think that there is a single being on this planet that hasn't been spooked at one time or another .. One day my cat came racing at me from behind (he doesn't have a bell on his collar) and pushed me down .. I didn't know what was happening or why I was falling.
Also, my heart skips a beat if I slip on ice .. many a time, just as I'm drifting off to sleep, my right foot will kick out .. waking and scaring me as I feel as if I'm falling.
Basements also tend to scare me for many reasons ... but I won't go into that right now .. ;)
The one film that did really scare me as a child was 'Pet Semetary', specifically the horrid Zelda character who pops up two or three times in the movie. Now my family were well aware of how much she scared the bejesus out of me, but it didn't stop my dear mom playing a nasty trick on me. One night as I left the bathroom, she was waiting in the semi darkness, crouched down with a baggy t-shirt stretched over her knees and head, and letting herself known with a ghastly shriek she scuttled towards me on the floor! I almost had a heart attack. She was very apologetic afterwards, when she realised the extent of my terror. Cheers mom!
I get that 'jumping' in your sleep thing Flower, but I kind of like it! It's disconcerting but slightly fun!
Quote from: Flower on July 16, 2013, 06:19:38 PM
I don't think that there is a single being on this planet that hasn't been spooked at one time or another .. One day my cat came racing at me from behind (he doesn't have a bell on his collar) and pushed me down .. I didn't know what was happening or why I was falling.
Also, my heart skips a beat if I slip on ice .. many a time, just as I'm drifting off to sleep, my right foot will kick out .. waking and scaring me as I feel as if I'm falling.
Basements also tend to scare me for many reasons ... but I won't go into that right now .. ;)
Baements can be scarry for good reason. Lacvk of lighting, and possible residential area for black widows and poisonous snakes. When I bought our current home, there was no way I was going into the basement, until I was armed with a flashlight.
Taking showers when I'm home alone is okay unless I hear a noise ... ::) Or if someone comes home early and I see unexpected lights on.
One day I was walking home and saw the vertical blinds move .. I didn't see any cats on the first floor but knew that the blinds had moved .. I checked the house, closets and under all the beds and was scared until I checked the entire house out. I was being silly but was scared.
I don't think I could live in a house with a basement. Too creepy. Nor do I like large houses and mansions, too many rooms. How can you be sure there isn't someone lurking, always two doors ahead of you?
Oh, dude! That balloon thing sounds familiar. A couple of weeks ago, my wife was out of town for several days, so I had the place to myself. It's just an apartment and it's not cool & scary like the house in the country I used to live in. Don't know if it was being by myself or what, but I began to feel slightly uneasy. I hit the sack around 3 am. About an hour later, I woke up, thinking I heard a noise. So I get up to check it out. It was dark and I didn't turn on any lights. I was at the foot of our bed, about to open the bedroom door, when I sensed movement to my left (which creeped me out for a micro-second). I glanced over and in the gloom, about two feet from my face, a 7 foot tall distorted alien demon from hell drifted toward me. I would like to say I punched the bugger in the face, but a freeze (not chills - freeze!) went through my body. It was a large mylar balloon that my wife got for her birthday back in February! It had been slumped over in the floor for a couple of months when it suddenly decided to rise up and scare me! Damn mylar. For that few seconds, I thought I was in a real life horror movie. I threatened the balloon and it hasn't bothered me since.
Quote from: Unknown Primate on July 16, 2013, 06:45:00 PM
I threatened the balloon and it hasn't bothered me since.
;D
Oh yeah!! Cold sweat and the adrenalin high!! I think I've posted this once before, if so sorry for the repeat, if not sit back and enjoy.
In 85 or 86 I was reading Stephen King's book It. At 1 or 2 in the morning I finally decided to go to sleep, put the book down, turned out the light, shifted to my side and waited for sleep. Just as I was beginning to doze I heard a noise behind me. My bedroom at the time was a bit big, with a sliding glass door leading to the back yard. My bedroom was paneled, and what the noise sounded like was claws bing tapped against the paneling, and high up, as if a man of normal height had put his hand against the wall and was tapping the wall. It wasn't just once, but several times. Now, I knew that whatever was making the noise was easily explained and normal in nature.
I knew that for about 10 seconds. Then every monster and creature that ever walked, crawled, slithered, shambled, etc, in movies made an appearance in my mind as the cause of the noise. It was an awesome parade.
My dog, who slept in the bed with me, did not stir or wake up (Man's best friend--yeah right!!! I'm about to be slashed into luncheon meat and all he wants to do is catch up on some z's. Thanks pal!!)
I decided to turn on my light and see what was making the noise. My lamp was a mere 12 to 14 inches (feet) away, and I really think it took me a minute to reach. I switched on the light and turned to look.
Yes, there was something there.
Yes, the source of the noise was about 5' 5" from the floor.
Above my stereo, a mouse had crawled up the antenna wire I had taped against the wall and the noise was the wire I hitting the wall. After a l-o-n-g exhale to release the tension, I got up and went after that friggin' thing. I got my t-shirt and was going to grab the mouse with it and it ran down and I lost it in the room.
I got even the next day. About 15 minutes after I set a mouse trap I heard that revenge-satisfying SNAP!!
Yep, mess with me and you get the business!!
OMGosh! My husband bought me a Minnie Mouse balloon a couple years ago, and that blasted thing was behind the bedroom/monster room door for weeks. Since I never shut the door, I had forgotten it was back there, and sure enough- my husband hung a hanger on the doorknob and made the door shut- just enough- to have that dang balloon creep through the room...dragging its ribbon along the floor...AND of course I was awakened by the crackling sound! I saw it move because the ceiling fan was on and I jumped out of my skin! I don't think I made a noise, but I knocked over a lamp trying to turn it on!
Listen to us monster lovers, who surround ourselves with all things spooky, terrorised by a bunch of balloons!!
Zackuth - your tale reminded me of something my eldest sister told me, about watching Salems Lot in the early hours, then being woken by the window cleaner scratching at her window!
I may have also posted some of this before, but here goes...
The town I grew up in, and my father before me, was at one time a leading sea port in Europe and was heavily bombed during WW2. In the fifties, my dad played in the ruined streets known locally as 'Bombies', (even during my childhood there were still two 'bombies' remaining).
In one such street there was a house that was still barely standing, with only half a roof, and most of the windows smashed. Apparently an elderly lady still lived there, having refused to leave, who in her old age and after living through the trauma of being bombed was now quite mad. No one ever saw her and the poor woman had become something of a local legend amongst the local youngsters. One day my father was given a dare to enter the house, to catch a glimpse of the mad woman. He obliged, and crept through a back window. When he reached the front of the dilapidated house he peeked into the living room, and there she was, sat in a rocking chair asleep. According to him, he suddenly felt guilty and was just about to sneak out, but she suddenly awoke, saw my dad and leapt from her seat and chased him through the house screaming, her face livid and her hair tangled and white. He dived through a window and severely gashed his ankle, leaving a scar which he has to this day. I suspect my dad made up the story, but I would make him repeat it to me over and over when I was a kid.
When my mother was a little girl, she collected 'golliwog' dolls, which to anyone unfamiliar, were a type of rag doll depicting a black character from a children's book. They are somewhat controversial, and are considered by some to be racist, but in any case my mom had them as a child.
My mom's younger brother was spookef by these dolls, (I can see his point, they are quite creepy), and developed a genuine terror for the pile of dolls stacked in the corner of the room he shared with my mother and two other siblings. One night, my uncle became hysterical and my grandfather, a hard Scotsman who at the time was working nights, took the pile of dolls, bagged them up and threw them over a bridge into the dock on his way to work. My uncle was no longer afraid, but my mother told me she then started having nightmares herself. She kept imagining the dolls crawling out of the water at night, and creeping back to the house to settle at the end of her bed, dripping in sea water!
Quote from: long live kong on July 17, 2013, 12:38:25 PM
Zackuth - your tale reminded me of something my eldest sister told me, about watching Salems Lot in the early hours, then being woken by the window cleaner scratching at her window!
I first read Salem's Lot when I was stationed in San Diego. I read into I the early morning, turning out the light at 2 or 3. I believe it was in Novermber, but the night was foggy and there was a street lamp close by that shined into the window. So I had illuminated fog outside my window, just after reading Salem's Lot. The tv movie kept leaping into my mind.
My mind goes into self preservation mode when I am truly scared ****less.
We used to hang out in a graveyard at night as kids. We would drink a couple 22's, smoke a couple cigarettes and try to impress our girlfriends with feats of bravery. The worst thing that a teenage boy could do in front of his girlfriend was chicken out on a dare.
One night I was dared to go back into the old, abandoned trees of the graveyard without a flashlight. I put on my best brave act and started off away from my friends, into the trees. I thought I was smarter than my friends and being that it was a full moon, I could see perfectly well without a flashlight.
Until I got into the trees.
I kept walking, noticing how old some of the grave markers were and suddenly I heard a loud crack. I stopped dead in my tracks. I looked around a bit and then I heard another RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. I quickly turned my head and saw something dart into the trees. At this point, like something out of a Roadrunner cartoon, both of my contacts popped out of my eyes.
There I was, alone in a dense wooded and abandoned graveyard, without a flashlight and now blind as a bat. All this after seeing what I thought was the scariest ghost imaginable that was coming to rip my throat out. I screamed. Not like a manly scream, or even a womanly scream for that matter. No, I screamed one of those in audible screams that no one would ever be able to hear. It kid of sounded like a groan of sorts. I must have ran into 3 trees and tripped over countless gravestones as I bolted back towards the voices of my friends.
I never lived that night down.
My contacts have popped out of my eyes on two other occasions:1) seeing my brand new Mercury Cougar totaled on the side of the street after an apparent drunk driver ran into it while parked and 2) walking to a beach campfire I saw what I thought were a pack of coyotes running towards me in the night. Turned out to be our friends dogs
=)
There's a wood right near where I live, ałways full of weirdos at night. It takes a surprising amount of courage to walk through it alone when it's pitch black, but I'm usually ok once I meet up with my nocturnal woodland friends.
So how many of us have done the scarring? A friend showed me how to get into the cemetary at night. As we walked, he started to talk about zombie movies. Very carefully, without bending, or any other indication, I was able to quickly grab the back of his legs. I think discussions of horror films are always better when you can make them an interactive experience.
Guilty as charged. Done my fair share of scaring. Sudden shock scares and long elaborate ones. Luckily, no one killed me. I was notorious for always setting up my cousin (R.I.P. Rocker). Even up until his passing in 2006, he claimed I scarred him for life. Almost backfired on me once, though - if it had, I'd been eatin' splinters from a baseball bat! I had it planned out perfectly - except I left the baseball bat upstairs - and he grabbed it!
A famous shock scare (from the Stamper Family Archives) targeted my Mom & two older Sisters. I was 18 at the time and had seen THE EXORCIST twice, and yes, it disturbed me and still does. Despite the hype, the trio didn't know a lot about the film. Mom wasn't yet 50 and my sisters were 22 & 27. They went to a midnight show and around 2:30 am, I was ready for them. Our garage was at the back end of our house and we had a creepy, dark backyard. For some reason, my sisters were staying the night or something. I watched out the front door until they pulled up. I knew it would take them about one minute to go down the drive-way, park in the garage and walk out of the garage. I slipped out the back door, scooted around the corner through our yard and waited patiently by our creepy fence. The car doors shut and they all three came walking out at same time. I sprung up and in my best guttural demon voice, hissed "I'M THE DEVIL!". Screams, shakes and one of the three peeing her pants! Won't say which one, though ;).
Fortunately, I had a history of doing creepy things so Mom didn't send me to a shrink or anything. ;D
Yeah, me too!! I used to hide by the enterance of our hallway and scare my brother when he'd come out of the bathroom. I was surprised one night when I scared him and it was my mom's scream that I heard (oops).
At my Grandmother's house once I hid and threw a wet washrag in my cousin's face when she came through a dimly lit doorway. She jumped so high, and screamed so loud, it scared the **** outta me and I ran like a little girl. My Granny laughed for an hour. :-[
My older brother's friend stayed over for the night at ours when I was probably about 8 or 9. We shared a room and my little corner was a shrine to monsters and such. (I also had an incredibly cool 6ft poster of Boris Karloff's monster, the money shot of him standing in the doorway, wish I had it now!).
Now, Nick, my brothers friend is a good three years older than me and like most 12 year olds he thought he was a little tough guy. Well, I spent the whole night telling him how the house was haunted, how a previous occupant had been found hanging in this very room. I turned out the lights and told him to stare into my face, to concentrate and behold as my face merged into the twisted countenance of the tortured soul who took his own life at this very spot! (Well, words to that effect haha!). I knew that if you stare long enough at something in the darkness, and particularly with tired eyes, you start to see all sorts of things. It had the desired effect. The poor kid became hysterical. He left at 5 am and had to knock his mum out of bed. He still mentions it to this day and says I gave him nightmares for weeks!
Lol. Mark, I pull stunts like that on Karen a lot. Even borrowed a rubber snake once because of her snake phobia. Tempted all the time to pull stuff on her 83 yr. old mother, but don't want to be responcible for any funerals.