What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong has always given me the shudders and I have never been able to figure out why. My best guess is that, if you listen closely, you can hear him grumble and murmur at the end of each line. Demonically. Once I heard that, it compounded the fear of that song for me. A bit like finding out there are ghosts hidden in plain sight in a horror film. It’s always been there, but you’ve never noticed it.

Certain scenes in Finding Nemo also creep me out, but that’s due to my fear of deep water. Still, for a 28 year old guy to get clammy watching a Disney film, it’s a bit sad 😂

38 comments

  1. Opening credits of ‘tales of the unexpected’ still creeping me out after >40 yrs😂

  2. E.T fuck that overgrown scrotum if I find him in my shed I’m setting dog on him

  3. That medical programme that used to be on. The one on BBC that was set in a hospital. The intro has like ambulance sirens and a theme tune that’s slightly upbeat and happy as if they’re all enjoying the emergencies and rushing people to hospital. Every episode has some person who was just going about their day before being hit by some crazy tragedy, kinda like a British TV version of Final Destination.

    Edit: it’s this one here https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3AsR4wspWXo

    And if you look it shows the medical staff characters smiling at the camera then it cuts away to them making more sinister or evil faces

  5. Wonderful World has occasionally been used as a counterpoint against scary stuff. The first instance that comes to my mind is Good Morning Vietnam where it’s used over napalm attacks, civilians getting arrested etc.

    It’s a beautiful song with an amazingly powerful vocal performance by Louis Armstrong, but it has a huge dose of melancholy in there.

  6. I once had a nightmare with the piano from ‘Alright’ by Supergrass blaring over and over. Fuck knows why but it now gives me the heebies every time I hear it.

  10. Wallace and Gromit’s A Grand Day Out.. the robot alien thing on the moon used to put the fear of God in me when I was a kid.

    But I’d watch that VHS at least once a day 😂

    Loved it but even the music/sound effects throughout used to make me uneasy.. when the completed rocket is first revealed, the bleeps, bloops and whooshes inside the rocket, anytime it creaked, and the final chase music when W&G just make it back into the rocket but the fuse isn’t lit.

    I’d be anxious as fuck throughout but was a glutton for punishment I guess 🤷‍♂️

  12. It’s not really media and I don’t know how to describe this without sounding insanely prejudiced, but…northern working class culture? Like the thought of an old northern woman slapping down some mash onto my plate going “”‘ere y’are luv!” whilst grandad sits in the corner eating his tripe or whatever other poverty food exists in my imagination muttering low words of approval like “oooh, loveleh” or “bloomin’ tasteh this!” – this particular scene fills me with that sick kind of fear that must stem from some awful repressed childhood experience or too much LSD watching the Royale Family or something.

    Can’t believe I’ve just wrote this. Deleting it later.

  13. Never been able to enjoy The Eve of the War from War of the Worlds. Proper makes me uncomfortable and fills me with dread (though I’m sure that’s the point maybe?)
    Been this way since I first heard the 1989 remix back when I was a kid.

  14. Any public health information films in the 60’s ( think that there was one with the grim reaper near deep water?).
    Also, a black and white film ( made in the late fifties?), called Night of the Demon ( casting the runes in USA). It scared me as a child as still does 50 years later.The actual demon is laughably poor special effects, but the atmospheric scenes with that bloomin piece of paper trying to escape up the chimney and the kids party etc is excellent screenplay.

  15. The opening or end titles to The Bill.

    Those police officer’s feet walking bothered me as a kid

  16. I physically cannot listen to What a Wonderful World because of his voice. It makes me feel like vomiting. I feel like a horrible person saying that but that gravelly texture is nails on a black board to me and I have to physically leave the room if I hear it.

    I’m kind of relieved to hear I’m not the only one!

  18. Wallace & Gromit. Any stop motion animation for that matter. I don’t know what it is about it but it makes me deeply uncomfortable but I just can’t watch it. I’m sure there’s some deep-rooted childhood trauma that’s unresolved there but who the fuck knows. Let’s not pull at that thread.

  19. Worzel Gummidge always created a really deep feeling of dread in me. Weirdly, I also got the same thing from jammy wagon wheels.

  21. Old timey shows with stop motion animation have instilled in me a very specific sense of dread that I find very hard to articulate. I just can’t explain what about it I find so frightening, or even what kind of fear it is – the best way I can describe it, is like a sense of dread or impending doom. I’ve had friends try and weed out the meaning, or explain it as a sort of “uncanny valley” sensation which is apparently why most people fear puppets, but the thing is, it’s not all puppets. Examples that really freak me out include Bagpuss, Parsley the Lion/The Herbs, Huxley Pig, and this horrible adaptation of Aesop’s Fables that was narrated by Tom Baker, with wooden puppets. I watched all of these shows as a child, and so did my sister, and she has the same fear, but neither of us can explain it.

  22. Sail by AWOLNATION. It makes me super anxious and I’m not really sure why.

  23. The CHICKEN from Courage the Cowardly Dog. Fuck that thing. I shudder thinking about it.

    Actually thinking about it, i guess there is a reason; its fuckin creepy lol

  24. Basil Brush terrified me as a kid and still creeps me out as an adult, then I saw the crack fox and now Basil Brush creeps me out even more.

  25. The song “Eternal Flame” by the bangles – a lovely song, but has the vibe of a creepy nursery rhyme sometimes (perhaps due to the backing music). Would work wonderfully as a horror movie track.

  26. There was a show on when I was a child. I think it was called “Boobah” and it was about these weird round fluffy humanoid things that were essentially a fluffy exercise ball with limbs and a head only half visible from the body.

    I had frequent nightmares about them, the most prevalent of which was them getting so excited that they burst into flames and ran around screaming demonically until they melted into piles of goo on the floor.

  27. As a child I was terrified of Jack Nicholson’s eyebrows and used to have nightmares that they were chasing me.

  29. Does anyone remember the advert for some kind of schnapps that was like ‘beware the judderman when the moon is fat’?

    Scared the shit outta me.

  30. Test Card F (the girl playing noughts and crosses with the clown doll), accompanied by unsettling test tones. Not exactly what 3-year-old me wanted to find when coming downstairs too early on a Sunday morning when it’s still dark.

  31. I’ve only seen watership down once and never again. The scene where the rabbits are all covered with blood scares the shit out if mr

  32. Mr Chips from catchphrase. That thing’s inscrutable blank smile creeped me out as a kid. Even had one or two night terrors involving him coming into my room and walking up to me with that robotic shuffle he does.

  35. The bear from Teletubbies used to have me hiding behind the sofa as a kid, it’s still a little unsettling now.

  37. Antiques roadshow opening theme when I was a kid. Triggers anxiety of a Sunday night before dreaded school.

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