People all the time on this board talk about the scariest or creepiest episode or interview or whathave you.

Whats never talked about is what people did when they found the show scary? How did it affect you?

Did they lose sleep at night? Did they sleep with the light on? Did they stay awake for 4 days straight? Were they paranoid the rest of the day and night?

What did you do when you got scared, or still get scared by UM and its segments?

I think its safe to say quite a few of us still have segments that stick with us, even now, maybe years after seeing it.

What scared me the most when I was a kid is the fact that composite sketches would appear without warning, plus the fact that I was often all alone when I was watching that show at 8 or 9 PM (Don't ask me where my parents were...). I developed a phobia of composite sketches from these kinds of shows. Even today, I have trouble struggling with seeing them.

So, I would usually close my eyes or shy my away when I was certain than a composite was close from being showed on TV. It worked most of the time, however the few times that I got a glimpse on a composite sketch it would haunt my sleep for days.

I agree, the one sketch that still sticks with me after 13 years is the guy who killed Bill Henderson. He had dredlocks and numerous small ponytails in his hair. They did catch him though, thank God. But that sketch still creeps me out when I look at it.

It affected me in the sense that I couldn't sleep, so I would wake up my parents because I was too scared to be in my bedroom alone. When my mother realized that UM was the cause of my fear, I was barred from watching it ever again. I think this was the genesis of some of my initial fascination with the show, because it was something "forbidden". I remember watching it and trying not to be scared. A lot of times a "lost love" story would come on and I would think "this is nothing" only to be scared ----less by the next segment which would usually be an "Unexplained Death", "Missing Persons", "Wanted" etc.

I think a lot of my current fascination with the program is rooted in those feelings I had for it as a child. So, I guess I'm vicariously reliving my childhood when I watch some of these episodes now. Of course, the segments don't scare me like they used to, and I enjoy them on other levels now that I couldn't necesarily see or comprehend as a child.

Good topic.

When I got scared watching Unsolved Myteries, I would turn every light on in the house, and every little noise would make me jump.

To be honest, I got scared all the time watching, the music was just creepy.


Did the same thing when I would watch America's Most Wanted. And to this day I still leave a bunch of lights on. Makes me feel safer.


TB24

good topic. UM was one of those shows that was so interesting you almost had to watch no matter how creepy it was at times, especially for young kids like myself.........As i started watching the show at age 6. My grandmother watched it so I really didn't have a choice....unless I wanted to be in my room alone. I would get scared, but still watch anyway. I also lived in a bad apt. complex in Houston(with my grandmother that year)...where multiple crimes were committed. My father actually got robbed for his wallet when he came up to visit me one time. That just added to the fear, especially when Houston was featured on the show. Let's just say I've never been as scared as I was living with my grandmother in Houston that year. Obviously, living in a bad spot was a reason. but UM had a lot to do with that as well.

UM has changed the way I think about the world. As a kid, I was so scared after watching it (I loved to be scared by the way, still do) that my parents had to walk me to the bathroom, walk me to my bedroom and often I would hold my pee at night because I was afraid of getting up because of those dang composites!

Now that I'm older, I still get freaked out by the composites, and I am always looking over my shoulder. Probably not a bad idea the way the world is today though. I don't know why, but when I'm alone or walking down the dark hallway at night, a composite always pops in my head and I get so freaked out! Eeek!

UM has changed the way I think about the world. As a kid, I was so scared after watching it (I loved to be scared by the way, still do) that my parents had to walk me to the bathroom, walk me to my bedroom and often I would hold my pee at night because I was afraid of getting up because of those dang composites!

Now that I'm older, I still get freaked out by the composites, and I am always looking over my shoulder. Probably not a bad idea the way the world is today though. I don't know why, but when I'm alone or walking down the dark hallway at night, a composite always pops in my head and I get so freaked out! Eeek!
that's a good point. I've always been that way to(looking over my shoulder) and that goes back to my early UM days. so that's a good thing. the more alert you are the better off one is to prevent those types of things from happening or at least reacting when they do.

My mother in law went to a meeting last might with some old friends of hers and she said she'd be home by 9, and by 10:30 we were kinda worried. Well, my hubby, not so much, but I was because I had already had her potentially abducted and murdered in my head!!! I played out this scenario in my head and it cracked my husband up, but then he was like "Okay, I'll call her."

Yeah, I go a little overboard at times, but you never know!!!

My mother in law went to a meeting last might with some old friends of hers and she said she'd be home by 9, and by 10:30 we were kinda worried. Well, my hubby, not so much, but I was because I had already had her potentially abducted and murdered in my head!!! I played out this scenario in my head and it cracked my husband up, but then he was like "Okay, I'll call her."

Yeah, I go a little overboard at times, but you never know!!!
very true. I'm the same way when I don't hear from my wife when she's out or not answering her phone.

What scared me the most when I was a kid is the fact that composite sketches would appear without warning, plus the fact that I was often all alone when I was watching that show at 8 or 9 PM (Don't ask me where my parents were...). I developed a phobia of composite sketches from these kinds of shows. Even today, I have trouble struggling with seeing them.

So, I would usually close my eyes or shy my away when I was certain than a composite was close from being showed on TV. It worked most of the time, however the few times that I got a glimpse on a composite sketch it would haunt my sleep for days.

Hey Drakken, I felt absolutely the same! I usually held my hand in front of my eyes so that I could just see the bottom of the screen when the scary composite sketch part was over! But usually you would get a glimpse of it! :S

And to make it worse they combined the composite sketches with some really creepy music! Scared the living daylight out of me!!! :o :eek:

I swear I have a phobia of composite sketches!! :eek: Ones that really creeped me out was the Blind River killer, the shaggy-haired Son of Sam, and the revised DB Cooper.

I too was always more alert, looking over my shoulder after UM!! If anything, it made me very cautious.

Because of the Blind River killer, I STILL have a horrible fear of camping!! :(

...well I'd rather not think about how UM affected me back-in-the-day :eek: :lol:

As a kid I was spooked so easily it was funny as hell. As MavFan92 has stated, I too, had/have a huge fear of composite sketches. After watching UM I would not step into ANY dark rooms, the light would have to be on before I got there. Needless to say, my parents got a kick outta this. Still, today, I enjoy the fear that UM brings.

Some certain ghost stories have always creeped me out a little. Not so much the murders. I really don't know why. The one ghost story that's on the Ghost DVD, its called Frightened Family. When that guy with the gray trenchcoat appeared in front of that kid on the stairs...that image still creeps me out.

UM was always the reason that from the age of eight or so, I kept my bedroom door shut and locked at all times, just in case. :P

And back when there were still video clips of the show still readily available elsewhere online, I once went on an hours-long marathon, watching them all while knitting in my computer chair. Somehow watching it all alone in my dorm room with all the lights shut off creeped me out so badly, I couldn't sleep at all that night. Ugh.

the freakin music scares me .it creeps me out late at night an im not scared of anything....

I still get freaked and have to leave a light on and I'm 25!

I've been watching Crystaldawn's dvds at night in the dark before I go to bed, and...OMG WHY DO I DO THAT???? :confused: I get freaked out every single time! If I have to go to the bathroom or kitchen, I have to run there and run back to my bedroom and slam the door shut. On the other hand, I find Robert Stack's voice familiar and soothing.

I watch them late at night and will wake up around 2 or 3 am and the dvd will be done and on the menu and i think there's someone at my window lol cause it's the first floor .and all even be scared to get up and go to the bathroom .it will take me a a min. to get the guts to move. and Im a mother of three thats pathedic isnt it?

these stories are all too funny. because they strike a nerve....it appears many of us are from the same generation and were effected in a similiar fashion by the show. Eventhough at the time I thought i was just a little chicken when I was a kid. It's good to see I wasn't the only one. but certainly there were times late at night...even as an adult where I would get chills again. I feel pretty safe in the neighborhood I currently live at, but before when I lived in arlington I had trouble sleeping at night when I watched UM. I made my wife get an alarm system in the apartment we lived at when I joined the service. I'm gonna be getting my hands on CD's DVDs soon enough. Maybe those feelings will return.

Oh the ghosts affect me the most...at one oint after watching the UM when they came on Lifetime awhile back and I mean awhile back I always happened to catch resurrection mary and at that time I was living by myself and I had to drive home past a cemetary..there was no other way about it and I always had pictured her popping up in my backseat or walking down the street (always pictured that with Carrie as well) always gave me the chills and still does..so to this day ghosts ones always scare me because my imagination goes on a rampage...

Of course, the composite sketches are really some of the scariest aspects of UM. I definitely know about covering my eyes with my hand so that I can only see the bottom of the screen, or looking away and watching for the screen to change in my peripheral vision.

But I've noticed film quality hasn't been mentioned yet. That's what makes the early episodes ('87-'93) the best. That filmy, grainy, old documentary-style stuff that screams "eighties." That was always sort of scary to me. And the blue light it seemed to cast on everything. Creepy....but fun.