21 Things That Made ’90s Kids Crap In Their Pants

How many of these kept you up at night?

1. The "evil furnace" scene in Home Alone.

20th Century Fox

What made this so scary was that not only was it so completely unexpected, but it also played into your deep-down fears that you lived in a haunted house.

2. The "In the Dreamtime" episode of Rugrats.

Nickelodeon Studios

Nickelodeon Studios

OK, so this episode was just weird, but the scenes where Tommy and Stu turn around and reveal their super-creepy faces, accompanied by a sinister laugh, was downright nightmare-inducing. Hell, even hearing "I'm not Stu!" today will give you goosebumps.

3. The Grand High Witch reveal scene in The Witches.

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros.

Talk about a shit-in-your-pants moment: After much anticipation, the Grand High Witch finally reveals, toward the end of the film, what she really looks like — and it was worse than you could ever have imagined. And you thought she was terrifying when she was dressed as a human.

4. Pennywise in It.

Warner Bros. Television

All right — so this wasn't really a kids movie, but it aired on ABC as part of a two-part TV movie, which means you might have accidentally caught it. Of course, Pennywise personified every deep-down fear you might have had of a clown; or if you didn't have a fear of clowns to begin with, you probably did after seeing this movie.

5. “The Tale of the Ghastly Grinner” episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark?

Nickelodeon Productions

Besides being really scary-looking, the Ghastly Grinner also had a horrible high-pitched laugh that he used to turn his victims into giggling, blue-foamed-mouth zombies — it was all just too disturbing.

6. “The Tale of the Dead Man’s Float” episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark?

Nickelodeon Productions

Nickelodeon Productions

Let's be honest: The pool monster was just way too scary for a kids show.

7. And of course the intro to Are You Afraid of the Dark? was just plain chilling.

youtube.com

Still scary after all these years.

8. The scene where Hexxus comes back to life as the oil monster in FernGully: The Last Rainforest.

20th Century Fox

Hexxus was already a pretty sinister-looking villain, but after his transformation, he came back as skeleton monster that definitely gave you nightmares.

9. The Penguin's death scene in Batman Returns.

Warner Bros.

So there were lots of scenes featuring the Penguin that were pretty traumatizing — like the scene where he bites the PR consultant's nose off — but the scene that truly stands out is his gruesome death where, after coming back to life, he starts coughing up what looks like black ink, before collapsing.

10. Zeke the Plumber in Salute Your Shorts.

Nickelodeon

First off, why, Salute Your Shorts? Why?! Not only was Zeke one scary MF with an eerie breathy voice, he also had a horrific backstory: After he'd had his nose bitten off (by a parrot), he was unable to smell gas and caused a explosion, after hitting a gas pipe, that killed him. His ghost haunted the camp AND your dreams.

11. Slappy the Dummy in Goosebumps.

20th Television

Ventriloquist dummies are just plain freaky without being haunted, enough said.

12. "The Haunted Mask" two-part episode of Goosebumps.

20th Television

Probably the scariest episode of Goosebumps ever! And that's mainly due to the absolutely grotesque mask that gets stuck on Carly Beth's head.

13. But even scarier than the series were the Goosebumps books themselves.

Via movies.mxdwn.com

You probably wanted to sleep with the light on after finishing one of these bad boys.

14. The scene where Elizabeth finds the troll in her bed in Ernest Scared Stupid.

Buena Vista Pictures

Buena Vista Pictures

This is actually a really unexpected horror movie twist in what is primarily a slapstick comedic movie. In the scene, Elizabeth hears a noise under bed. When she looks underneath, she finds only her teddy bear, and upon getting back into bed, she turns around and finds the troll lying next to her staring at her. AHHH!!!

15. Oogie Boogie in The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Walt Disney

Maybe the scariest Disney Villain of the '90s — not only sadistic, but also made up entirely of creepy bugs inside.

16. The rhino in James and the Giant Peach.

Walt Disney

Walt Disney

An evil rhino that comes out of the clouds to kill James' parents? Talk about a traumatizing moment.

17. The chokey in Matilda.

TriStar Pictures

Matilda has its fair share of scary scenes, but this scene was truly every kid's nightmare: being locked in a dungeon by an evil teacher — pure horror.

18. The "You're not perfect" moment in Courage the Cowardly Dog.

youtube.com

OMFG, seriously, that creepy whisper!!! DISTURBING!!!! Also the episode just ends like that, WTF?!

19. The Crypt Keeper in Tales From the Crypt.

HBO

While this show was not targeted to kids, it did get replayed regularly on HBO, which means you probably unintentionally caught an episode or two and were immediately horrified by not only the Crypt Keeper's scary decaying corpse appearance, but also his high-pitched voice and laugh.

20. The theme song to The X-Files.

youtube.com

This did to '90s kids what the Unsolved Mysteries theme did to '80s kids: MADE THEM HIDE UNDER THE SHEETS IN TERROR.

21. Furbies.

Via geeknation.com

Yeah, they seemed like really cool toys until you owned one and all of sudden it started waking you up in the middle of the night, talking its gibberish. You knew deep down that these creepy little fuckers were just plotting your demise.