Maybe I’m exaggerating with the “from cradle” part, but I intend to love horror until I am dead!

I thought for spooky season I’d make a post about how I ended up like this! Who’s to blame for my love of horror? When were the seeds first planted?

I do remember liking horror since a young age, especially paranormal horror because the concept of ghosts always fascinated me. Despite the fact that it freaked me out, I still watched it–even if I had my face covered the whole time. During my preteens I specifically remember a phase where I would just look up horror movie synopsises online so I could enjoy the story without the jump scares.

This post is going to be about the horror media that has stuck with me since childhood–just some of the stories that crawled under my skin and made their home there…

#1 – Shivers: The Enchanted Attic by M. D. Spenser

I remember this book specifically–it gave me a fear of dolls.

Growing up I had three toddler-sized dolls called Roxanne, Rosie, and Robbie. They slept in a mini bunkbed my dad made for them at the end of my room. I never liked that corner and every night I was terrified they would come alive and hurt me because I’d somehow pissed them off during the day.

And that’s all thanks to this bloody book and it’s creepy cover.

(I did also have a porcelain doll my grandad gave me called Suzanne, but she was trustworthy. Still alive, in my child mind, but chill–no murderous vibes. I like to think that she protected me from the other nefarious dolls.)

#2 – Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids

A BRILLIANT gate-way into horror for kids. I must have watched the ‘Bogman’ (4×05) episode of this at a super young age because I remember fearing a skeleton coming out of the toilet since I was a small child–it’s an image that still pops into my head every time I flush the loo actually. It’s worse in public loos, too, because there’s many more toilets for skeletons to appear out of.

#3 – The Sarah Jane Adventures

The Trickster

Frankly, any child who had to watch an episode featuring this character should be entitled to compensation for emotional turmoil. Specifically, the episode ‘Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?” (1×07&1×08) was both terrifying and absolutely heart-breaking–but all the trickster episodes were the stuff of nightmares.

The Eternity Trap (3×07 and 3×08)

This was always one of my favourite episodes because I enjoyed the “ghosts.” As I said, I have always enjoyed paranormal stories.

#4 – Thirteen Ghosts (2001)

I remember trying to watch this at a sleepover but my friends made me turn it off because the blood looked too fake and they thought it was silly.

I like the movie, but it’s not amazing and it’s pretty cheesy. The best bit of the movie though is actually the special features on the DVD–specifically the featurette detailing all the ghost’s backstories. I LOVED that featurette, and I have probably watched it more times than the actual movie.

#5 – The X-Files

Detour (5×04)

I used to watch this with my dad sometimes as a kid and this particular episode always stuck in my head. When we walked my dog at night–in a time before I realised I needed glasses–I was terrified of camouflaged tree people lurking in the dark. I knew that woodland like the back of my hand, but the combination of bad eyesight, the dark, and the idea of creepy aliens made everything a lot more scary.

A lasting impression…

These are just some of the things that have stuck with me since childhood–I was a scared kid but I still loved horror. I slept with a light on, with my head under my covers, facing away from the door in case anything poked out from behind it.

What I couldn’t see couldn’t hurt me–including dolls, toilet skeletons, or tree aliens.