25 Horror Icons That Terrified You As Child

Kids have a very active imagination.

And that means that they can make anything worse in their mind. We have all seen horror movies before we should have seen them as they weren’t age-appropriate. And we have all regretted that decision afterward when we couldn’t sleep properly for months. I know I regret watching the original grudge when I was 13, I was having nightmares for years to come. That croaking noise will never get out of my head. 

So while you might have regressed these memories, we are here to bring those back out once again. After all, you are an adult now so you can handle this, right? That is why we have compiled some of the worst characters that scared us as children for your ‘enjoyment’. Scroll below to take a look for yourself. Some of these might bring back some bad memories so here is our warning. 

#1 I always thought Freddy Kreuger would come to get me in my sleep.

#2 Pennywise is the reason the world is so afraid of clowns.

#3 All the monsters in Scary Stories to tell in the dark are terrifying.

#4 The Ring is one of the scariest movies to this day and Samara is the reason behind that.

#5 All the ghosts in Thirteen Ghosts were terrifying but The Jackal was by far the worst.

#6 It might be an old movie but Poltergeist scared the heck out of the kids.

#7 I think we all know why Jason Vorhees is on this list.

#8 We have always been scared of dolls coming to life and Chucky was the perfect villain.

#9 Slappy the Puppet has always terrified us and for good reason.

#10 Another clown? Who would have thought? This is Zeebo from Are you afraid of the dark?

#11 The Exorcist is known around the world for a reason and Captain Howdy plays a part in that.

#12 We might have gotten used to sparkling vampires but Nosferatu still exists.

Some of these choices may seem weird since the characters aren’t even scary but remember that you are looking at these as an adult. These characters with their fake-looking prosthetics might be laughable now, but they could easily elicit a scream from us when we were all kids. Just taking a look at these from a young one’s mind is quite different to now.

#13 Yes, This is how Witches used to look like in older movies. Here we have the Grand Witch.

#14 Toy Stoy isn’t even a horror movie but Baby face was ripped straight from one.

#15 The Library Ghost from Ghostbusters has scared children for generations.

#16 This monstrosity is known as Large Marge.

#17 I think we all got a fright when the zombie dogs jumped through the glass window in the first Resident Evil.

#18 Another clown entry and this one is from Outer Space.

#19 This is ‘Boy’ from Little Monsters.

#20 I don’t think Gmork from The Neverending Story needs an introduction.

#21 The snake hair that Medusa had in Clash of Titans always gave me nightmares.

#22 This might be a surprise but some people actually do get scared of Edward Scissorhand.

#23 That disgruntled look on Vigo The Carpathian says it all.

#24 The T-1000 what from all our nightmares combined.

#25 Last but not least, we have Tooms from The X-Files.

Who was the scariest character you feared when you were young? Were they mentioned on this list? If not, let us know in the comments below.