Happy October everyone! We’ve now entered the best month of the year for us horror fans! I thought I would kick off the month with a little “audience participation” piece by sharing something a little personal about my childhood. I would like to know what gave you nightmares as a child, but first I will tell you what gave me mine.
If you mention Beetlejuice to anyone in my family, they will begin laughing and immediately bring up my name. This is because when I was very young (too young to remember), I came across my cousin’s talking Beetlejuice doll with a spinning head. My child-brain decided to pull the string on the doll’s back to see what would happen. At the tender age of two, I should have known better, for it would give me nightmares for years. The doll’s head spin around and spouts quotes from the movie. Here’s what the little bastard looks like:
Apparently as soon as the head started spinning my two-year-old self freaked the Hell out. I screamed and screamed and screamed. Weirdly enough, I don’t remember any of this, but it made enough of an impression for me to never live it down. My parents wouldn’t even let me watch Beetlejuice until I was 13 years old! I only really remember having one nightmare about Beetlejuice, and I was in my bed hiding under the covers because I was convinced that he was in my room coming towards me. I made myself cry until my parents came in and told Beetlejuice to shoo (those were my mother’s exact words).
Apparently these dolls from Hell still exist, because you can buy them on Ebay for $35-$60. You can bet that I will never be picking one of these up though. I mean, look how scary it is!
I say all of this in jest, of course. I am not actually scared of Beetlejuice or this doll anymore, but apparently I was legitimately terrified of it when I was younger and had constant nightmares about him. I’m curious to know what gave all of you nightmares as children. Was it something more legitimately terrifying like Chucky (that was my sister’s fear)? Or maybe you saw Hellraiser at too early of an age and Pinhead haunted your dreams. Let me know in the comments below or Tweet me! Share your fears everyone!