I first saw this guy in a commercial or in a clip on some talk show for the 1975 TV movie Trilogy of Terror. I just remember a quick image of him running while swinging a big kitchen knife before my eyes closed tight.
For a long time, whenever I imagined something under my bed, it was him. What made him so scary, outside of razor sharp teeth, was it being a doll/puppet/toy wanting to kill you. I never had fear of that until I saw him.
Hand's down, one of the scariest monsters ever seen on film. Every scene or still picture of him from the 1922 silent classic Nosferatu is creepy.
Not only did he make me hide my eyes whenever he popped up on TV for some reason, but he kept me terrified of one particular bookshelf in my grade school's library.
The picture to the left was in a book about movies. When I first discovered it flipping pages, I slammed the cover closed. I then thought all the books on that one shelf had things in it as scary as him.
And now, my number one, all-time eye hiding worthy monster...
The Hand From Chiller Theater
Unfortunately, I think only folks from the New York tri-state area who grew up in 70's would know this one. The WPIX channel 11 weekend horror movie show was called Chiller Theater. The opening had a six fingered hand in claymation emerge from a bloody swamp. For years it freaked me out. I was always afraid the monster connected to the arm might rise up and be seen as well.
The worst part was, I knew to avoid seeing it on Friday and Saturday nights, but sometimes it would show up unexpectedly early or on random weekdays. I think WPIX just used it whenever they aired a horror movie no matter what day or what time it was.
A still picture is not enough to illustrate it. Here's a clip of the actual opening. Imagine being a real little kid and seeing this. Wouldn't you hide your eyes too?
Orlock used to scare me so bad, I was afraid of even thinking about him. Timeless classic, perfect.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that CHILLER hand would scare the snot out of any little kid... who thought THAT up?
ReplyDeleteI also imagined the monsters under my bed being that damn little doll running around. And that hand from Chiller Theater was enough to send a cold chill down my spine.
ReplyDeleteNot Halloween related, but do you remember the Million Dollar Movie? The opening sequence was always the picture of New York I carried in my head for the longest time.
Rich
OMG! That Zuni thing, Karen Black, Twilight Zone...completely freaked me out when I was little!
ReplyDelete♫♫Thanks for the memories♫♫
For me it was "Creature Feature" with Dr San Guinary on the channel out of Omaha. The opening was sound effects off of some Haunted house record with screaming and creaking and a shot of a miniture house with lightning flashes. Always scared the hell out of me as a kid, even when they showed it in the afternoon. http://youtu.be/hi25-93dsh8
ReplyDeleteoh my god the same thing happen to me with the Zuni Doll from Trilogy of Terror i was 6 or 7 years old it frightened me like nothing else in a movie
ReplyDeleteby the way i didn't know what the name of the picture was untill today
Do you remember the sounds that the Zuni doll made? Those were all my dad's (Sammy Caylor)sound effects. He had won an Emmy a few years before working on Steven Speilberg's first movie, Duel.
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