What Did You Do When You Were Scared By UM?

[themaninblack]

I remember when I was child my parents would love to watch the show...I HATED it lol! Simply because of how SCARY it was!!! I actually begged them to turn the channel but they said NO! lol.
I tried turning the water up in the bathroom to drown out the sound but it did not help!

[MegtheEgg86]

I can clearly remember three instances where what I've seen on UM scared me so much I couldn't sleep the whole night. Only one of those times happened when I was a child.

[Dude111]

How could anyone be scared??

I wasnt.......... Im so sorry themaninblack

[Killarney Rose]

I was an adult when it first aired so I was never scared.

[WishfulDreamer]

The home invasion/spontaneous human combustion episode is the first one I ever saw as a kid. I spent half the night worried people were going to break into the house/that I would catch fire out of nowhere

As an adult, the biggest thing I catch myself doing is locking my car door the instant I get inside due to a couple episodes of perpetrators opening doors. Or in any movie with lovers lanes I want to shout, "No!" even if it's a perfectly nice movie where nothing bad happens lol.

[Jon]

Follow it up with an endearing 'Lost Loves' segment, or a goofy one like the Magic Rock or Aphrodisiacs. That's one of the many great aspects of the show is they gave you a palate cleanser

[TheCars1986]

I vividly remember begging my mother to turn off the Route 29 Stalker segment because Route 29 connects Maryland down to Florida and when they showed the map in the segment I thought it was showing an area where my mother had to drive to work everyday.

[themaninblack]

Originally Posted by Jon

Follow it up with an endearing 'Lost Loves' segment, or a goofy one like the Magic Rock or Aphrodisiacs. That's one of the many great aspects of the show is they gave you a palate cleanser

I had not thought of that!

[tvscript124]

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

I vividly remember begging my mother to turn off the Route 29 Stalker segment because Route 29 connects Maryland down to Florida and when they showed the map in the segment I thought it was showing an area where my mother had to drive to work everyday.

That would be terrifying as a kid!

[tvscript124]

The first non-paranormal segment that scared the daylights out of me was probably the one with the suspect in a car that targeted a woman driving on a country road. The composite was so ordinary that it was creepy. I would just try to watch the other segments, including the Lost Loves ones, and tell myself I was safe.

The one that led to sleepless nights was Beverly McGowan when i was older. The brutality, the senselessness, and the freaky composite. For days after that, I tried to get the segment out of my mind. It faded, but it stuck around in my consciousness. I wrote a play (unperformed) about it years later to try and deal with the emotions. Then, every time the segment would run, I'd watch it as a kind of self-test. I made my parents watch it with me one time, and told them how much I hated the "Sam" composite. My dad said, "Well, they're telling you that this is a bad person. If they said that this was a good person, it would be different."

Wise words, and they made me feel a bit better. I'm still freaked out by the case, but that's what comfort segments are for.

[ghosthouse]

I....kept watching lol. I waited until bed time to be scared out of my mind thinking every creak was a murderer trying to break in.

[dynoguy88]

I was 10 when the Ralph Probst segment first aired. It made me scared to walk by my own kitchen window at night for weeks afterwards. What if someone, likewise, was waiting to do the same thing to me?

I was such a glutton for punishment as a kid with this show. It scared the hell out of me, it gave me some nights where I was too scared to sleep. But I still had to watch it.

Some lessons still stay with me. Like checking the backseat of my car before I enter it because of the Gretchen Burford segment. Good Lord, that will haunt me forever.

[MayorofMedford]

Originally Posted by dynoguy88

I was 10 when the Ralph Probst segment first aired. It made me scared to walk by my own kitchen window at night for weeks afterwards. What if someone, likewise, was waiting to do the same thing to me?

I was such a glutton for punishment as a kid with this show. It scared the hell out of me, it gave me some nights where I was too scared to sleep. But I still had to watch it.

Some lessons still stay with me. Like checking the backseat of my car before I enter it because of the Gretchen Burford segment. Good Lord, that will haunt me forever.

Same... I always check the backseat of the car because of this. I was about eight when that segment first ran and it definitely stuck with me.

Like others here, I just kept watching. There was nothing so bad that it would prevent me from watching an episode start to finish, even at a young age. And I agree, the way the segments were pieced together allowed a bit of a respite between the truly disturbing ones.

There were just certain nuances to UM that were never replicated by any others. The best way I can sum it up is the Micki Jo West segment. When showing the letters that were left by (as it turned out) her killer, they switched from one to another with one of the most chilling sound effects I've ever heard. I've watched that segment dozens of times over the past 35+ years and that singular effect still sends chills up my spine. That's staying power of the creepiest order.

A question I have for people on here in general, as somebody who has no children: do you (or would you) let your kids watch that show at the same age a number of us were when it first aired? Like I mentioned, I was watching at seven and eight and my parents were fine with it, probably because I made it seem like it didn't affect me as much as it did sometimes haha. If I had kids, I'd let them watch as long as I felt very certain it wasn't too much for them. That said, I'd like to think I'd explain the premise of the show, that it was designed to catch these bad people and tell the stories of the people involved. I certainly wouldn't be helicopter parenting around the situation.

I also know parenting has changed drastically over the decades. What are people doing in these situations nowadays?

[tvscript124]

The Tallman Bunk Bed scared me as a kid, the idea that my bed could be haunted. I'm watching it now because it's the Halloween season. It still gives me the willies, and I feel bad for those people.

[Killarney Rose]

My grandson is almost 12. I let him watch but some segments scare him and he leaves the room when they come on. His choice, not mine.