1. First and foremost, the original Unsolved Mysteries theme song.
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2. If the theme song didn't make you shit your pants, then Robert Stack's husky voice surely did.
3. And then if you were brave enough to stick around for an episode, you had to contend with the ghosts from the Civil War in your living room.
4. You had to try to sleep after seeing stories about random early 20th century men holding jugs in someone's house.
5. The episodes about alien abductions were terrifying.
6. Episodes about mysterious fog-like beings.
7. And then whenever they would show a sketch of a serial killer.
8. That was the worst.
9. It wouldn't be fair to talk about Unsolved Mysteries without talking about the witness interviews that were also very unsettling.
10. Anyway, the Unsolved theme song was a straight-up lullaby compared to the Are You Afraid of the Dark? theme song.
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11. The ominous rowboat rocking to and fro in the fog.
12. The swing moving in the breeze as if the ghost of a small child was on it.
13. THE CLOWN.
14. The whole thing was cruel. Like, we were 11 years old watching this shit!
15. Standouts from Are You Afraid that destroyed your adolescent life included the Frozen "I'm cold" Ghost...
16. ...the Pool Monster...
17. ...Old Man Corcoran...
18. ...the kid with the red bike...
19. ...these faceless aliens...
20. ...this old lady from the apartment down the hall...
21. ...the girl with sloppy Joe all over her face...
22. ...this giant doll that popped out of a closet...
23. ...that terrifying girl and her damn locket...
24. ...Zeebo...
25. ...and, of course, the Ghastly Grinner.
26. The Ghastly Grinner was scary and all, but Zeke the Plumber was a whole other level.
27. Rasputin's death scene in Anastasia, which really was extra.
28. That episode of Rugrats with Angelica's "brother" was also pretty messed up.
29. So was that episode where Tommy turned into an adult baby monster.
30. And, of course, the one where Chuckie swallowed the watermelon seed and they were inside his body.
31. The furnace in Home Alone was terrifying.
32. This guy, even though he turned out to be a good guy, was also terrifying.
33. The chokey in Matilda was nightmare-inducing.
34. Courage the Cowardly Dog was a fucked-up acid trip for 12-year-olds.
35. "Return the slab or suffer my curse."
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36. This "lady" in Mars Attacks really creeped me out.
37. Then you have the classics like Pennywise.
38. Chucky.
39. Willy Wonka was freaky too.
40. And then you had the witches from Witches.
41. And this troll thing from Ernest Scared Stupid.
42. Book wise, any of these Goosebumps books.
43. But especially this one:
44. And we all know these three were the absolute scariest:
45. The Disney Channel Original Movie Don't Look Under the Bed was traumatizing.
46. I can never forget Mischa Barton puking under a bed...
47. ...or the dead biker...
48. ...seeing Sixth Sense ruined my life.
49. This toilet still haunts me when I have to pee in the middle of the night.
50. And let me tell you, if a TV has static, I'm running.
51. I have no time for Samara coming out of the TV.
52. Or the dead girl in the closet corner.
53. Any mention of the Blair Witch still gets me.
54. The intro to The X-Files just sent a chill up my spine.
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55. The underrated Halle Berry movie Gothika is also very scary.
56. Michelle Pfeiffer's experience in What Lies Beneath.
57. Nicole Kidman's experience in The Others.
58. Every trip to Blockbuster meant avoiding walking by movies like this:
59. Personally, I found the Silence of the Lambs cover the most terrifying.
60. Then there were things like corn fields that were just triggering and made me think of Children of the Corn, even though I was too scared to watch it.
61. I lived in constant fear of the Bermuda Triangle.
62. And I always thought a piranha was going to eat me.
63. We don't talk enough about how scary the Goosebumps TV show theme song was.
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64. Or how scary Slappy the dummy was.
65. Judge Doom's reveal in Who Framed Roger Rabbit was just so unexpected.
66. The Temple Guards on Legends of the Hidden Temple were just so aggressive.
67. These toys keep me up in the middle of the night.
68. And I know it was a disaster movie, but Day After Tomorrow made climate change a terrifying reality.
69. When I'm all alone, I swear I hear, "I bring you...love."
70. When you're on a highway and see this...
71. ...you definitely think this is going to happen, thanks to Final Destination.
72. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come basically gave you Christmas-themed nightmares for years to come.
73. That Boy Meets World Halloween episode was messed up.
74. Gooey Gus.
75. And lastly, there was nothing scarier than the blue screen of death.
It's been a long time since I've gotten a blue screen of death...
You weren't coming back after seeing that.
It's been a long time since I've gotten a blue screen of death...