"Good old-fashioned nightmare fuel"

[cleolinda]

Okay, now I want to know. People started talking about things that scare them in the comments of the last entry, and I'd like to put a list together of things that freak people out on a really deep, inexplicable, primal level. Things that you should be afraid of, like guns or spiders or heights or other real-world things that theoretically WILL KILL YOU, do not count. I'm talking about clowns, people. I'm talking about nun-clowns. I'm talking about "Happy Halloween from Nun-Clown: 'I'm Standing Behind You Right Now.'"

So: Let me start you off.

1) People standing behind you. (See above.) I hate sitting at my desk with my back to the door. Dammit.

2) People standing behind you, seen in mirrors or reflections. (I don't know if this was in The Ring, but I am always afraid I will see Samara in my bathroom mirror. Dark TVs started weirding me out for the same reason.) Also included: shit you think you see out of the corner of your eye.

3) Something behind the shower door/bathtub curtain. You know nothing is there, man. But you hate it when your little sister makes you check for her. Hell, just showers and/or bathtubs in general (Psycho, Diabolique [no, man, the good version, the original French version], The Grudge, the old lady who had dissolved into mush at that freaky guy's house at the end of Silence of the Lambs--I bet half of you didn't even notice that).

4) Something behind a door. Like, "THE DOOR IS OPEN." ACK. (And yes, I will stop posting that link... as soon as I get over it. Eventually.) There are actually a lot of stories about doors that only the narrator can see, and the narrator's ensuing frustration that it is creeping his shit out but everyone else thinks he's crazy, and inevitably he goes nuts in his attempts to either open it or make people see it. As soon as I can remember a specific story, I'll link to it. Unless you pay me not to.

5) Closets. Closets are baaaaad news, man. Saw and The Grudge come to mind without my ever having seen the actual movies.

6) Deep or murky water. You know, just opaque enough that you can't tell what's in there. Bonus points if it's in a bathtub. Super mega bonus points if you're in it.

7) Masks. Particularly weird animal masks (Saw, Donnie Darko, tons more that I don't care to think about right now. And isn't there a really freaky little throwaway glimpse of a guy in a fur suit kneeling and a man in a tux sitting on a bed in The Shining?). I think the scariest possibility with a mask like that isn't what's under the mask--it's that it might not be a mask.

8) I don't even have a name for this, but it was in In the Mouth of Madness. Sam Neill is walking past the counter of the little hotel where he's staying, and the camera is looking at him from behind the counter, and what the old woman at the counter is trying to hide from him is that she's got her wizened old husband cowering down on the floor, chained up and naked. And Sam Neill just walks past and doesn't see. The whole thing lasts like two seconds and is never mentioned again, which is what makes it so freaky. It reminded me a lot of that episode of Ren & Stimpy where they're selling rubber nipples door-to-door and that weird horse answers and he's hiding, like, a walrus in a gimp suit or something behind him (my memory is a little foggy here), and the walrus whispers, "Caaaaall the poleeeeece." End of scene. That's what I'm talking about here--that weird little "What the fuck was that?" moment you get every now and then that is totally ignored by the rest of the movie/book/show/whatever. Because, seriously--the fuck?

9) People standing with their backs to you. I didn't really think about how utterly freaky this is until I saw the Jack-centric episode of Lost and his father kept standing with his back to the camera. Just hands down at his sides, completely robotic. Because you keep wondering what's wrong with the front of him, you know? It's also kind of zombie-like. The end of The Blair Witch Project tapped into this in a major way.

10) Clowns. Of course. I'm not scared of "normal" clowns, although I know people who just don't truck with no clowns no way. There's just something about a particularly evil-looking clown that just doesn't look... human.

11) The dark. I mean, of course we're scared of the dark because we can't see what's going on. But I think there's something at least a touch irrational about the things we start imagining might be there. Like that whole "Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the light?" urban legend.

12) Eyes. This is a whole subcategory right here. Shit being done to people's eyes. Shit being wrong with people's eyes. Scary devil eyes or Anakin goes to the Dark Side eyes or Event Horizons eyes. *shudder* There's an entire ten-minute section of Minority Report that makes me curl into a little ball and sob because I have a severe horror of Eye Stuff.

13) I'm not doing a #13, man. Oh hell no.


Your turn! Meanwhile, I will be sleeping with my Galadriel doll tonight. If I can sleep.

Comments

[shoiryu.livejournal.com]

First off, Me as evil clown at job before this one (http://www.smalltownwitch.com/shoiclown.jpg). :D

Second off: Things that scare me!

Supernatural stuff. I mean, if it's something I can hit with a baseball bat? it doesn't scare me. Ghosts and weird presences are an entirely different story.

People moving in freaky unnatural ways. Jerky walking, scrabbling around on all fours, that sort of thing. Ohmygod.

Going up stairs when the first floor is dark and the second floor isn't. I take 'em two at a time.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

People moving in freaky unnatural ways. Jerky walking, scrabbling around on all fours, that sort of thing. Ohmygod.

Nerrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

[channonyarrow.livejournal.com]

Semi-trucks. Ones that are running are less scary than ones that are stopped, and those are less scary than ones that are wrecked. I blame the Transformers episode where Optimus Prime came back after he was killed in the movie for this, but then again, I was freaked out by the episode, before it even got to the bits with him in it, so perhaps it goes back earlier than this.

[gershwhen.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you watched Steven Speilberg's first TV Movie "Duel" as a young child. The semi-truck trying to kill Dennis Weaver was just FREAKY.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Deeeeeep water, like ocean deep. Lakes bother me a bit, especially because you cna't see in them, but contemplating the depths of the ocean -- seven miles</> in the deepest parts! - freaks the hell out of me. And here's a picture of an iceberg (composited out of several pictures) that really FREAKS me the HELL out:

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/tests/images/thumbs/iceberg.jpg

[divabat.livejournal.com]

Same! Though I know it stems from my first swimming class when I was younger. I could barely figure out how to swim, and the instructors wanted us to DIVE. into a 5 METER POOL. I freaked out when diving (even with a float) and the instructors had to grab me out.

Ever since then I have not dived, and if I can't feel the floor of where I'm swimming, I freak out. This absolutely ruined my experience in Mabul last year; it's a gorgeous coral reef-type place, and we were supposed to go snorkelling, but as soon as I got in the water, I felt the lifejacket bobbing up, I panicked, and I went back in the boat. Missed all the fishies. :(

I also used to have a fear of getting lost - I'm better at it now, but it doesn't help that my parents would call me when I'm out and go "HOW DARE YOU GO OUT LATE AT NIGHT SOMEONE'S GONNA RAPE YOU OMG". o_O

I also used to have a fear of calling people on the telephone. Yes. Weird fear, I know. But I always thought that if I called someone I'd be bothering them, so I'd push the phone over to someone else. It took some receptionist-type work earlier this year to rid me of it. And I used to have a fear of public speaking - ironic, since I'm a chatterbox and an attentionwhore. XD

This isn't really a fear, but I hate it when people show up out of nowhere. I hate being startled.

And oh, I hate needles. HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE. Stupid, because I've been poked with them a gazillion times, but I don't facy having any extra holes in my body kthx.

[mademoisellenon.livejournal.com]

Les Diaboliques kicked such major ass. Yup, the original version :)
As a result I hated bathtubs and pools for a few months. I mean gah!


What about driving along at night and you look out the window and you *think* you saw something but you're not sure. So you're busy freaking...And now I succeeded in making myself stay awake for the rest of the night!

[lilerthkwake.livejournal.com]

What about the thought that there might be someone behind you in your car? Like, in the back seat. What, you say? You checked your backseat when you got in, like any normal, rational, paranoid fucker? Doesn't matter! Someone could have crawled in through the trunk, if you have a car like mine where the trunk is attached to the backseat. Or it could just be a supernatural monster. Monsters don't obey the rules of physics. They just appear.

Fucking A. It's broad daylight but I'm alone at home and...eeeeee, freaking.

[altiloquent.livejournal.com]

I have a completely irrational fear of closets and stuff being under my bed. One time, my dad hid under my bed, knowing that I was terrified of it, he got a face full of foot for that. Closets *shudder* there aren't even words for the creepiness.

I know what you mean about sitting with your back to a door. I am in my dad's office right now like that. Worst of all though, I am facing a window that I can't see out of because it is dark, but I can see the door reflected in it and I keep waiting for the alien from Signs to appear.

I definitely need to get out of this room!

[lacrimaeveneris.livejournal.com]

Oh God, CLOSETS. Especially ones that are just slightly open when it's dark. *shudder*

[yanks02.livejournal.com]

1. Clowns scare the shit out of me. Actually, any dolls scare me. Something that has their smile painted on, and can show no other emotions just freaks me out.

2. Things under the bed. I have this huge insane fear of something grabbing my legs from under the bed. I don't even dangle my legs over it. And when I get out of bed, I jump like 2 feet away from the bed so nothing can grab me.

3. I can't sleep with any doors open. Closet doors, dresser drawers, room door, nothing. I freak out if any door is left open.

4. I hate walking by windows or doors. When I walk down a corridor, I stay right in the middle away from anything that could grab me through a window or a door.

5. I am terrified of cleaning my face at the sink and looking up and seeing someone standing behind me in the mirror. Or closing my medicine cabinet and there being a reflection in the mirror behind me. I just don't look.

6. I have an extreme fear of showers. It's not even rational. I have to have the door locked and I constantly poke my head out of the corner of the shower curtain to make sure no one is there. I like wash my face so fast so I can look.

God, I'm a scaredy-cat.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Ooo, dolls are a good one. I love dolls myself, but my roommate disliked dolls so much that she made me put a happynicefun American Girl doll in the closet.

[girlalmighty]

*cries and fears* Maaaaan. That second link? Didn't even click it. Just was struck by this horrible need to turn around look behind me for nun-clowns at the same time as having my head scream "HOLY CRAP DON'T TURN AROUND WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?!" So. I guess that's one fear right there.

2. I mean, I usually feel like something's there, but when I feel like something's there and it's not, it scares the crap out of me. Seeing things out of the corner of me is only bad when I'm alone; otherwise, eh, I'm used to it.

3. Not really being here. I'm terrified that things aren't real. Like, one day I'll call to someone and they won't hear me and it will be because I'm not real. Because I write and the people in my head are kind of like real to me, but I control them, I have this dreadful fear that I'm just like them and I don't know it — a puppetmaster puppet. So if people don't hear me when I call? It freaks me out.

4. CLOSETS. I'm there with you. I have a desk light on now because my roommate's asleep, and unless I have the full light on or daylight, I can't open it. And there's no handle on the closet in my door, just kind of a carved out hole to use to pull it open, and it's dark in there.

5. Let me repeat: EVIL Clowns. God, Ronald McDonald used to scare me, for crying out loud. And he kind of still does.

6. Actually, for that matter, some statues. Like you know when you go to McDonalds, and there's a bench with Ronald sitting there? Or a pure white version of the Colonel at KFC? Scares me half to death to come up on those things. Oh, man. I think I'm afraid they'll wake up and come get me.

7. Looking out the window at night. I'm not scared of masks being real — I'm not afraid of that. I'm scared that what's beneath them will be something other than what I expect. And looking out the window late at night is the same. I really think that, if I look out the window into the dark when it's late and the light's are low, it won't be the same. It will be something completely different from during the day. It's not so much that I expect zombies and stuff like that, creepy and evil. I just think it will be different, like the world changes when I'm not looking.

8. Mirrors and tvs and other reflective surfaces, but only when it's dark (or I'm alone and I think I see someone in them out of the corner of my eye). I think I read somewhere that you shouldn't look in a mirror at night or, like, something will eat you. Um. I don't remember. I was young and impressionable, and holy crap, don't leave me alone with that stuff at night. . . . And it totally does not help that my bed is right next to the tv here, and I am facing it as I sleep.

9. Accidentally talking to a dead person. This campus is very haunted, and I've seen things before, and my dad's done this, and I just don't want to talk to a ghost and not know until later they were dead. We have a story here about a boy from a nearby college who came to be in our play years ago (I go to an all-girls school), and after opening night went wonderfully, they found out he had died on the way to the play, beheaded in a horrible accident. Except he had been there. And now they won't use that theatre, and it's gorgeous and perfect. So I don't care quite as much if I know they're dead. But if I think they're alive until later? NO. Because if dead people can seem alive, what's to keep half the people around me from actually being dead and I don't know?

Okay, it's very late and everyone's asleep and I can't think of anything more just now. Eep, creepy, so not bedtime. o_0

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Eeek. I'm sending Galadriel over to sit with you until you fall asleep.

[gornishka.livejournal.com]

Am watching SotL right now, and of everything in that movie, the lady in the bathtub is the one thing I simply cannot look at. Any of the rest of it, doesn't bother me (in the Things that Unreasonably Creep Me Out vein, not in the Stuff That's Wrong with Society vein), but that triggers my gag reflex.

Word to the eye stuff. Like the Borg!Picard thing where they stick a needle in his eye.

I submit: living foreign objects crawling around under your skin. Like the scarabs or whatever in The Mummy, the things Khan used in Star Trek II, the boll weevils from that 80s Flash Gordon, and the leeches from the 80s Beastmaster that crawled into the guy's ear and ate his brain or something. Saw Beastmaster once as a kid and still have nightmares about that scene.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

AGGGGGGHHHHH. I'm not real fond of that last bit in The Matrix because of the stuff that goes in under Agent Smith's skin. And the Mummy scarabs freak. me. out. Ugh.

I think one of the reasons the SOTL bathtub is so creepy is because it also falls under that "WTF?" category--it's such a brief flash that you hardly realize what you're looking at until later.

[rpp.livejournal.com]

Eyes glowing in the dark. Whenever I'm by myself in a dark place, even if it's just to get up to go to the bathroom at night, I completely freak myself out by imagining that the next time I look into a shadowy corner, I'm going to see two glowing eyes staring back at me. I think I read too many John Bellairs books as a kid.

...Dammit, now I'm scared.

[theatre-angel.livejournal.com]

You're a hard act to follow up. ;-)

1.) Walking down a dark hallway when it's quiet. You keep expecting something to pop out and shriek at you or something to just STAB you.

2.) Shadows. They scare the CRAP out of me. Because what if they're not shadows? I always think they're people hiding in the dark.

3.) Insects. They're going to EAT me.

4.) People walking towards you and you can't tell by their facial expressions what they are thinking and you wonder if they are going to KILL you omg.

5.) Static. Just because I've seen The Ring. I'm so scared of static I have to have other people turn on the television for me. It's pathetic.

You now probably think I'm this totally weird freak who is a sad, pitiful mess of phobias, but I'm not, I'm really not. XD

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

You? My list had twelve things on it. Trust me, I'm the last person to judge someone's phobias. :)

[meredith-mae.livejournal.com]

I HATE Frank the rabbit in Donnie Darko. Why couldn't it be a normal rabbit? Why did it have to be all creepy like that?


Bring out the GIMP! (I think of Pulp Fiction whenever someone says "gimp." Sorry.)

Nt afraid of clows, but I hate them. They aren't funny. My aunt told my dad when he was a little kid getting ready to go to the circus that they used to have another sister but she got stepped on by an elephant. My dad hates the circus. He and my mom used to argue over which one of them had to take me and my brother. Now I hate the circus too.

[pygmymetal.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid of people rushing me from under dark stairwells - a recurring nightmare.

The only thing in films that has freaked me out lately is the trailer for 'White Noise' which combines ghostly images in mirrors walking by a darkened doorway.

I so want to see that film and get scared. :p

[calliopeia17.livejournal.com]

Windows.

Totally windows. Like, the idea that someone is looking in them, just behind the curtain, and if I open the curtain there'll be a face looking back at me.

I live in a dorm room where more or less the entire wall at the head of my bed is a giant window. Not conducive to sleep after having watched scary movies AT ALL.

[rachnye.livejournal.com]

I have really dumb ones (other than most have been put on here, good job guys, now I don't want to go to bed!), like goats. Do NOT like goats. With their crazy devil eyes.

And cornfields. In a movie, nothing good EVER comes from being in a cornfield (Field of Dreams excepted). It's that you can't see where you're going and they make that creepy sound when the wind blows.

My really irrational one is not being able to reach into something (a box, bag, whathaveyou) without being able to see into it first. Kind of rational, until you put my specific on it: Potato bags. I cannot reach into a potato bag without seeing the potato first. The eyes freak me out. I used to get horribly mocked in college while working at the cafeteria, because I'd have to cut up like 200 pounds of potatoes, but I would basically disect the bag first.

I'm weird.

[zoniduck.livejournal.com]

All right, I didn't think I had a lot of freak-out triggers, but reading some of these comments? Damn, there's some freaky shit out there. Only two things came to mind immediately for me:

1. Images from The Exorcist, specifically of Linda Blair in the horrible makeup, make me FREAK THE FUCK OUT. Clips from the movie are understandably freaky, but I can't even stand to look at still images in a magazine. Gives me the heebie jeebies to an irrational degree.

2. My own reflection in a mirror in a darkened room. Like if you get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, and you don't want to turn on the light and wake up all the way, so as you're washing your hands you're seeing your own reflection in the dark, but you can't make out any of the detail. There have been instances when I've had to turn on the light to prevent a complete freakout. I have no idea where this comes from.

Also? I never used to think clowns were all that freaky, but Tim Curry as Pennywise the Clown in the "It" miniseries completely changed my attitude. ::shudders::

[jedilora.livejournal.com]

Tim Curry can creep out anything if he tries. And yet, I have no inherent fear of Tim Curry.

::is creeped out ALL OVER AGAIN by IT::

[lylassandra.livejournal.com]

People speaking in tongues completely freaks my sister out.

Me... The One Guy. You know him. Everyone's met one. He's perfectly nice, smiles a lot, always the first to volunteer to carry your books... but for no concrete reason, your skin crawls every time he looks your way. Physical contact? makes you feel the need for a shower. And if ever you catch him checking you out? You suddenly feel the need to hire an armed guard. You know... the One Guy.

[girlalmighty]

And he never looks the same twice, but somehow you feel he's the same man every time? I know who you mean. o_0

[noodletail.livejournal.com]

1. Butterflies and Moths. I read a manga once where they attacked people and made them zombies with their disgusting butterfly/moth power o'doom. And the way they move is kinda gross and flailing in my opinion. and they always fly too close. *shudder*

2. Clowns. self explanatory.

3. Dolls. the eyes... the eyes!!!

4. asian girls with dead straight long black hair.. Which is strange because I am one. I think it's all the Chinese ghost stories and movies I've been brought up with. (this is why I hate standing in a dark room infront of a mirror)

5. The song that goes "why do birds, suddenly appear, everytime you are near..." etc etc. That song was tainted when it was put in one of the eps in the ex-files with dogs attacking some old people.. and then i changed the channel with the song still in my head and another sadist movie was on.

6. Children.

7. When you have an eerie feeling and you have to open a door, or open your eyes... I always imagine that someone/thing, will be stading right there with an insane twitchy smile.


Which leads me to another question.. when you're scared, what do you do? or what's your defensive position?
I have to cover up my neck for some reason. So wrap my colar or my blanket all around my neck. I can't stick my whole head under the blanket cos that scares me even more.

[vampychick.livejournal.com]

7--Yes! Me too! I'm convinced the monster or psycho killer or whatever I'm on about at the moment will be right there.

I have to cover up my neck, too. It's that primal need to protect the throat in action.

[iczer6.livejournal.com]

Alrighty.

1. Clowns. I hate them, my Dad hates them, my brother hates them, I don't know about my Mom, but clown-hating is pretty darn strong in our family.

2. As of Dionea House I'm now afraid of single level suburban homes that are missing shingles and can write e-mails.

3. Old farmhouses, I don't why but an abandoned farmhouse will just freak me the fuck out.

4. That episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark with the evil people from another dimension that can only be seen by x-ray specs.

5. X-ray specs.

6. Driving down an old road at night surrounded by leafless trees in the pitch blackness with only your headlights as light. You almost expect an alien attack.


Icz

[mathfu.livejournal.com]

I saw that Are You Afraid of the Dark. And she couldn't throw the glasses away! Freaky.

Maaan I hated that show. The opening with the freaky clown and the ghostly laughter in the background? I though that was the scariest part of the whole show.

[vampychick.livejournal.com]

1)Closets.

2)Looking out windows at night.

3)The dark.

4)Sounds I can't identify the source of. Which, I live in an apartment and before that I lived in a dorm, so...yeah.

5)Graveyards. Didn't used to, but I lived in a church parsonage for a year and my bedroom window overlooked the graveyard. (see also fear number 2) Now I cannot stand them.

6)Things bumping against me in the water. There's a story about a fish I'll tell if you want.

7)Fire. I have a deep, primal fear of fire, which pretty much stems from my house being on fire with me in it. Keep it the fuck away from me.

8)Being in the house alone.

9)Stairs. For whatever reason, I feel more exposed and in danger on stairs than in the middle of a room.

*re-reads list* Great, now I'm not going to sleep tonight.

[ararejul.livejournal.com]

your number four....i was wondering if i was the only one. ugh..what's worse is like when your right on the edge of falling asleep and your all comfortable and then a noise that you can't identify, it's like instant adrenaline, fuck sleep now.

oh man. sorry for the rant but i just identify with you on that.

[azzy23.livejournal.com]

Good topic, by the way...

1) There was this episode of CSI where this serial nutjob was applying pressure to the throats of his female victims. They thought he was strangling them, but it turns out he was trying to block the blood flow to their brains in just a certain way to produce what's called "locked in" syndrome. This skeeved me on such a high level that I actually had nightmares about it. To be trapped inside my body, nothing works except my eyelids, and to be TOTALLY AWARE. Hideous.

2) Mood altering medication skeeves me. I'm monster ADHD, was diagnosed when I was 7 (before it was a popular diagnosis), and my parents decided not to medicate me (I went to a religious school, and they told my parents that prayer would heal me... no joke). Well, prayer didn't heal me, I suck REALLY BAD at math, and it's something I have to work hard on every single day. I've developed all these routines to keep me from forgetting the oven's on, to never lose my keys, and I have to stick to those things, and I get by. I had a pretty rough time a few years back, so my entire family was pushing me to get medicated. I discovered this totally violent and irrational fear that I would take this drug, be a totally different person, and I wouldn't even KNOW because of the drug. I have the same irrational fear of big guys in white coats forcibly dragging me off to a mental institution, but only I know I'm not crazy. Scary stuff.

3) Burning to death. I'm absolutely terrified of being in a fire. Irrationally terrified.

4) I am absolutely insane afraid of tornados. When I was a kid I used to have horrible nightmares that the tornados were alive, and chasing after me.

5) This is by far my weirdest fear. The fear that, for just a brief second, gravity will malfunction and I'll go flying off into space. This fear gets me pretty bad when I'm alone at night, walking to my car, and the sky is clear and full of stars. I look at the vast expanse and suddenly get this terror I'll "fall" into it. It's gotten a lot better... Like I said, I went through a rough patch a couple years ago with depression, and this fear absolutely ate me up. Logically, I knew it wasn't going to happen, BUT WHAT IF IT DID?! There were days I had to have someone walk me to my car, or I'd just freeze in the parking lot and stand there in fear. Think about it. It's *skeery*

[girlalmighty]

To be trapped inside my body, nothing works except my eyelids, and to be TOTALLY AWARE.

There was something like that on "The Pretender," years and years and years ago, when I was, like, 7 or 8. Except it was poison from, I think, a blowfish or some such, and the victims seemed to be dead. Not even their eyelids worked. Their hearts seemed to have stopped. Everything but their brain, and they were watching the world from inside. It was awful. I've always been scared of that happening to me.

Cleo, I don't think anyone here is sleeping tonight.

[anna-sinistra.livejournal.com]

Clowns.

[ambiguousreason.livejournal.com]

Clowns. And thinking someone/something is behind you. Yikes.

[syrenssong.livejournal.com]

Ooh.... I am SO not going to be able to sleep tonight.

I've been thinking... so there might be multiple comments as I think of another. ::laugh::

Something that seriously wigs me out is being alone, in a dark building at night. Usually walking down a hallway.

Another is going into a dark room, the moment before I reach to turn on the light.

Seeing things out of the corner of my eye. Once again, moreso at night.


Also, that Dionea House thing? Freaked the shit out of me.

[dawnglider.livejournal.com]

6) Deep or murky water. You know, just opaque enough that you can't tell what's in there. Bonus points if it's in a bathtub. Super mega bonus points if you're in it.
Bonus points times infinity if you're not in it, but you have to stick your hand in despite the razor-sharp things in there that you can't see but know are waiting to get you.

I was freaked out by stairs with no back to them... I always felt like I was going to fall through the gap, despite the fact that I was too big to do that.
Also? Long escalators. Very, very freaky. I can't walk down them. I can only clutch at the handrail and pray. I keep thinking that I'll overbalance, despite the fact that I have never seen anyone fall down an escalator.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

I used to have problems with stairs ... then I discovered eye problems. Apparently I was born with no depth perception.

[meandstuff.livejournal.com]

1) Clowns. I think everyone's afraid of them.

2) Doors that are slightly ajar when the room is dark. I always imagine someone hiding behind it.

3) It's kinda irrational but I'm terrified of the doorbell. It's not particularly ominous-sounding, but it always freaks me out when there's someone at the door.

4) Closets

5) Windows

6) Newborn kittens and puppies. It's the whole "blind" thing. They just scare me.

7) This is completely irrational, but grasshoppers scare me. The way they're so ugly and unpredictable and small and *shudder*

[jonnorthwood.livejournal.com]

Grasshoppers I can deal with.

A Praying Mantis, however ... not so much.

It's the fact that they're predators, and they don't notice size. You look at them, and they look back, and there's a frisson of fear as you realize that they see you--they know that you are there--and they see food. They see prey. It is not the size, it is not the fact that you can crush them effortlessly, it is that they know they have you: and you know, as you look in their eyes, that it's true.