So whilst watching TV (like the lazy sloth that I am) I have run across shows or even movies that terrified me as a fledgling nerd. Shows meant for children, shows meant for adults, even shows meant to be weird artsy crap.
Why not share our own horrifying childhood experiences as we traipse down memory lane and ask, how the hell did they get THAT past the censors? Or even, I can't believe this scared me!
A few of my own. In no particular order.
The theme song of a BBC children's show called the Ghost Hunter. Show was fun. But the theme song just freaked me the hell out.
A British show called Animals of Farthing Woods. This was shown on a block comprised of primarily young children's programming. Think a slightly tamer Plague Dogs or Watership Down (still with animated blood) but in a TV show format. This had several reruns, none of them edited in the slightest, from what I can remember. The baby mice all impaled on a thorned bush, with their blood still dripping into a pool on the ground stands out the most for me, I think. WTF Britain?
That freaky *** Walrus in Pingu. Something so scary for it's viewers the ep was literally pulled from reruns. Pingu was a relatively relaxed (possibly foreign language) stop motion show about a family of penguins and their lives. It was pretty benign. Except for one infamous episode. Where young tots watching shows aimed at preschoolers were introduced to this ****ing thing. Why?
Barney the Dinosaur. No, I don't know why either. But for some reason, 5 year old me was scared stiff by this dead eyed purple dinosaur suit.
Random independent movies. So in Australia there is a channel called "SBS." Which is sort of like the anti Australian Broadcast Channel (which primarily airs Australian produced media.) SBS by contrast airs mostly foreign media, with a particular fondness for the indie scene. Well it did, I watch mostly YouTube and Netflix nowadays, so I don't know what it airs now. Now back in the 90s it hosted South Park. So of course I watched SBS quite often as a child. And I often watched past the South Park episode to see what else was playing. Saw some........interesting movies to say the least. So up comes this I think German made movie. Not sure. Whatever, it focused on a Jewish family before and during WWII. (Spoilers, it doesn't end well for them.) Now WWII was something not normally taught until early High School or at least very late Primary (Middle School to JR High for you Americans.) I was in early Primary School so we were still on WWI stuff. Imagine younger me's horror when the family is in a concentration camp, it's snowing and the father (or son, I can't really remember) ticks off the guards. They then strip down the poor man, chain him to a tree and start hosing him down with cold water until he literally freezes in real time. Now in Australia, after prime time, we generally don't censor nudity or swearing at all, even on Free To Air TV (non cable.) So I saw this poor naked man, get literally covered in a layer of ice, no music playing and even the actors playing the Nazis looked freaked out. Terrifying.
So what are your memories of PTSD inducing media? Adult, child, movie, tv show, whatever. Let us be freaked out together.
Why not share our own horrifying childhood experiences as we traipse down memory lane and ask, how the hell did they get THAT past the censors? Or even, I can't believe this scared me!
A few of my own. In no particular order.
The theme song of a BBC children's show called the Ghost Hunter. Show was fun. But the theme song just freaked me the hell out.
A British show called Animals of Farthing Woods. This was shown on a block comprised of primarily young children's programming. Think a slightly tamer Plague Dogs or Watership Down (still with animated blood) but in a TV show format. This had several reruns, none of them edited in the slightest, from what I can remember. The baby mice all impaled on a thorned bush, with their blood still dripping into a pool on the ground stands out the most for me, I think. WTF Britain?
That freaky *** Walrus in Pingu. Something so scary for it's viewers the ep was literally pulled from reruns. Pingu was a relatively relaxed (possibly foreign language) stop motion show about a family of penguins and their lives. It was pretty benign. Except for one infamous episode. Where young tots watching shows aimed at preschoolers were introduced to this ****ing thing. Why?
Barney the Dinosaur. No, I don't know why either. But for some reason, 5 year old me was scared stiff by this dead eyed purple dinosaur suit.
Random independent movies. So in Australia there is a channel called "SBS." Which is sort of like the anti Australian Broadcast Channel (which primarily airs Australian produced media.) SBS by contrast airs mostly foreign media, with a particular fondness for the indie scene. Well it did, I watch mostly YouTube and Netflix nowadays, so I don't know what it airs now. Now back in the 90s it hosted South Park. So of course I watched SBS quite often as a child. And I often watched past the South Park episode to see what else was playing. Saw some........interesting movies to say the least. So up comes this I think German made movie. Not sure. Whatever, it focused on a Jewish family before and during WWII. (Spoilers, it doesn't end well for them.) Now WWII was something not normally taught until early High School or at least very late Primary (Middle School to JR High for you Americans.) I was in early Primary School so we were still on WWI stuff. Imagine younger me's horror when the family is in a concentration camp, it's snowing and the father (or son, I can't really remember) ticks off the guards. They then strip down the poor man, chain him to a tree and start hosing him down with cold water until he literally freezes in real time. Now in Australia, after prime time, we generally don't censor nudity or swearing at all, even on Free To Air TV (non cable.) So I saw this poor naked man, get literally covered in a layer of ice, no music playing and even the actors playing the Nazis looked freaked out. Terrifying.
So what are your memories of PTSD inducing media? Adult, child, movie, tv show, whatever. Let us be freaked out together.
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