I took my daughter(10) to Harry Potter the other night. She is pretty tough when it comes to scary movies, but she was terrified(she likes to be terrified at movies-her grandmother is the same way) We had tried to take my son(7) the night before, and had to leave after five minutes.
Anyway, the movie was scary. For me, though, it was scary because the werewolf in the movie was EXACTLY like a recurring nightmare I had as a child. It was of a white dog, sort of greyhound-looking, who stood up on its hind legs and walked like a man. In the dream, it ran beside our car as we drove through the cemetary, which was across the street from my grandmother's house.
Watching the movie, I felt like I was back in my childhood, stuck in that dream.
I might add that Anubis really creeps me out as well. (nd those statues of hands some people collect. And Dresden people. Ew.)
So, what is the stuff of your nightmares?
Posted by Book (Member # 5500) on :
When Lupin asked them to find what they feared most, I kept envisioning a handicapped man, howling and screaming at the top of his lungs in something between fury and fear, writhing on the floor in blood and vomit.
I never dreamed this, and I can't recall any time I encountered something like that, but that is the definition of utter-skin crawling horror for me. Just thinking about it makes me want to scream.
Man. I need to take a nap or something.
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
Yikes, that was another scary part!
My stoic daughter imagined the dementors as she was falling asleep last night. You know that moment before sleep? She saw an open mouth coming at her. She came into our bed, and Steve slept on the couch. How could I tell her to tough it out in her room, when I remembered my own dogman nightmare? When I was having one myself?
Posted by mackillian (Member # 586) on :
Gremlins. Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
Puppets and dolls. I was having Chucky nightmares until one night, he was chasing me, and I said, "I don't have to run from him. I'm a Jedi!"
So I waved my hand at him, and he flew into a wall. He twisted in mid-air, kicked off the wall at me, and was sliced cleanly in two by my lightsaber.
Then his little legs ran off while I stabbed him in the heart. Then they stopped running.
Since then the Jedi thing has been my response to almost anything supernaturally scary in my dreams.
Dagonee
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
That is wild that you can call out a dream superhero. I wish I could do that.
Begone, Evil Dog Man!
Posted by DocCoyote (Member # 5612) on :
Satan dreams. Anytime the bad guys are coming, they are always manifestations of Satan for me. Ultimate evil. Demons I can deal with. The big guy, no way!
Being a long-lapsed Catholic, I've found that in my horrible dreams I lapse back to the prayers of my childhood, specifically the Apostle's Creed or the Hail Mary.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
quote:That is wild that you can call out a dream superhero. I wish I could do that.
You just have to be an uber-Star Wars geek, know the movies almost by heart, and read the books right before going to bed.
Dagonee
Posted by Megan (Member # 5290) on :
Most of mine are VERY bizarre...the scariest one in recent memory involved me fleeing through a neighborhood in a van, swerving around giant, dismembered plastic cows. I have no idea what I was running from, but that's pretty common in my "fleeing" dreams.
I'm never conscious enough of my own actions in dreams to try any sort of superhero escape method, and I have to say, given the large number of memorable nightmares I've had since I started grad school, I'm jealous of those who can!
Posted by Shan (Member # 4550) on :
I've had any number of horrifying dreams but for wahtever reason (no doubt due to the breastfeeding and L&D discussions going on elsewhere) I remeber this one with particlar dread:
I was about 8 months pregnant and dreamed that I was newly pregnant again and the baby slipped out of me while I was using the toilet. But wait! It gets worse! The baby grew to about the size of Jack (in Jack-n-the-Beanstalk) with a Jack-the-Ripper mentality and chased me around the house trying to kill me.
I hated pregnancy dreams. *shudders*
Posted by mackillian (Member # 586) on :
Teeth crumbling. Teeth falling out. *shudder*
Posted by weezer (Member # 6643) on :
In my bad dreams I always have to do something really challenging, and I'm always doing it alone. One time when I was only 14 it was trying to drive a huge semi on a freeway covered in black ice. It was really weird.
Posted by Azile (Member # 2312) on :
Mack,
I remember reading something on dreams and symbolism that losing your hair or your teeth in your dreams represented vanity or over preoccupation with your appearance.
Which is, er- rather strange because I never thought of myself as very vain at all and like you, I had one or two dreams about losing all my teeth at once too.
Yeah, the dream scared the crap out of me. It was like losing an arm, man. Scary.
Posted by beverly (Member # 6246) on :
The dementors were very reminiscent of nightmares I have had. They were honest-to-goodness scary to me.
Posted by Eaquae Legit (Member # 3063) on :
Dag, you are my hero. That's hilarious.
I had a recurring dream when I was younger. As far as I can tell, it terrorized me for years. It took place inside my own house, and so for the longest time I wasn't sure what was real and what was dream. And when you're little, that can really mess with you. Anyhow, there were monsters that lurked in dark doorways, and as soon as I passed through, they would chase after me.
To this day, I can't stand having a dark doorway at my back. And I don't like them all that much at my front, either.
Posted by fallow (Member # 6268) on :
This movie shocked me when I saw the dementors. They gave me a chill, and though I was with a group of adults, I pictured a younger version of myself paralyzed.
Posted by mackillian (Member # 586) on :
Liz...I don't think it's so much what's IN the dream, as to the emotional content.
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
True, Mack. It was just that the werewolf in the movie was EXACTLY like my childhood nightmare. Eeek.
And Weezer, I often have a dream where I am driving a car with my eyes closed. Very scary.
Posted by punwit (Member # 6388) on :
I remember one dream that scared the crap outa me and I was in my late teens or early twenties. I was looking out a window at a squirrel playing in the yard when it suddenly stood up and looked directly at me. I backed away from the window but could see it running towards the house. As I backed up I lost sight of it momentarily until it jumped up and caught hold of the window sill. I can still recall the evil malevolence in it's eyes as it pulled itself into view. I woke up with the eebie-jeebies.
Another scare the bewillikers out of me nightmare starred an ancient man confined to a wheelchair. In the dream I am on the couch that I am actually asleep on in real time. Some neighbor kids wheel the old man through the living room and as he looks at me, with true evil glittering in his eyes, I feel an invisible force pushing me down into the couch. I know this is related to the glare from this old man but am powerless to do anything besides breathe and move my eyeballs. I wake up and am still unable to move for roughly a minute or two. I've heard this described before but I don't remember the proper term.
On a happier note I still chuckle when I think about my daughter and her bout with nightmares. She was worried about monsters under the bed and I told her they were frightened of her too and that a good loud growl or snarl would scare them away. I can still remember hearing her growl in her bedroom every now and then.
[ June 27, 2004, 02:44 PM: Message edited by: punwit ]
Posted by mackillian (Member # 586) on :
I've just had the THIRD night in a row of constant nightmares. I can't remember most of them, and they're the wake up drenched in a cold clammy sweat type of nightmare.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
(((((mack))))) Posted by Alucard... (Member # 4924) on :
I have this recurrent nightmare of a large bear coming out of the woods and running off with my 22 month-old daughter. No matter what I do in the next dream, the bear seems to outwit me and make off with her again. IRL, my daugher tends to run off alone, and without fear, to the playground equipment in the back yard where I cannot see her. This just sends a jolt of fear through me everytime I realize that she has run off while we are outside doing work around the house.
Earlier this month, I had a skunk tussle with my Golden Retriever right in front of the open garage at about 5AM. Two nights later, I killed the skunk on a skunk hunt (a nice Father's Day present as I remember). Anyway, one night I came home after dark and could smell nothing but the overpowering stench of skunk. I assumed that the dog had dragged the carcass back to the yard. I happen to have this 1 million candlepower spotlight, which I fetched, and began to scan the yard for a carcass. Behind the house, in the back field, which I am afraid to mow down, stood a glaring yellow pair of eyes reflecting all one million candles back at me. This was about 200 yards away. I tell my son to slowly limp his broken leg and crutches up the front stairs into house before he is consumed by the monster. He hobbles faster somehow, wimpering in fear. I go and get my 30-30, which is already loaded, and hold the spotlight in one hand, the rifle in the other. I expect to meet that horrible essence of my nightmares and finish this thing.
There on a mound of dirt, peering over the fields surrounding the house was a doe. A deer. A female deer. I breathed a sigh of relief as she bounded into the woods and I went back in the house.
I still have my nightmares, and I know there is still a bear, the bear, out there somewhere.
[ June 27, 2004, 02:57 PM: Message edited by: Alucard... ]
Posted by mackillian (Member # 586) on :
One evening, my sister walked the cocker spaniel out in our backyard, where we've got blueberry bushes. The dog freezes. My sister looks at the dog, then where the dog is looking.
There's a bear happily munching on blueberries.
Sister and dog bolt for the deck and both run smack into the closed sliding glass door. Posted by Mabus (Member # 6320) on :
I have a number of different "kinds" of nightmares. Some are just unpleasant--I often find myself frantically mopping away at a Cracker Barrel that has grown to immense size, or coming to work and finding the place has shrunk into a coffee shop (how are they gonna pay me?).
I've had the "something is chasing me" dreams before, but it's been a long time since the last one.
The worst nightmares I've ever had have been about being in hell...the most memorable was one in which I was frozen to a board drifting along a frozen river in the sleet, and I just knew I was going to be there forever...*shudder*
Posted by weezer (Member # 6643) on :
Well, I guess heck finally froze over. Posted by Azile (Member # 2312) on :
I hate those chasing dreams. The harder I run, the less I move.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
Has anyone had the one where you're supposed to be driving but suddenly realize you're in the back seat? And for some reason your eyes are dazzled, even when your not looking at the sun, and brakes barely work?
Posted by Azile (Member # 2312) on :
I've had a number of dreams where someone else is driving and then they dissapear. I always try to regain control of the steering but fail miserably. So the car ends up flying off the highway.
It always lands softly though. I have yet to die in any of my dreams.
Posted by weezer (Member # 6643) on :
Yeah, same with me. There have been tons of incidents where I should die or come close to, but never do.
Posted by Ryuko (Member # 5125) on :
The thing that scares me most in real life, I've recently found, is zombies. I rarely actually HAVE nightmares, but they always involve a situation that will hurt or kill everyone I love or the world and I was supposed to have the situation in control, but I didn't. I remember very clearly a dream in which I was a policeperson/official, and I was supposed to stop the villains but they got me and paralyzed me while they launched the missle that destroyed the world. It was the worst feeling ever.
Posted by weezer (Member # 6643) on :
That's something one might feel guilty about.
Posted by Eruve Nandiriel (Member # 5677) on :
Dogs. Dogs scare me. 101 Dalmations was one of the two movies that ever gave me nightmares. My neighbor owns a bunch of dogs, and I'd dream that they would jump through the second story windows.
Tornados scare me, too. I'm not sure why tornados in particular scare me, but I've always had dreams about them. That scene in X2 with Storm creating a bunch of tonados gave me nightmares.
Posted by T_Smith (Member # 3734) on :
Last night I had a couple of nightmares. One of them I did a 180 on a busy freeway and crashed and stuff. Looking back, it was pretty cool.
Posted by Mr.Funny (Member # 4467) on :
That wasn't a nightmare, T... Posted by beverly (Member # 6246) on :
Ever since I can remember I have had tornado dreams. There is some fear, but more a twisted sort of fascination. In my dreams there is only the "thrill" of danger, no real threat. But the image of a dark, twisting, storm of winds really gets to me. I think it all started from "The Wizard of Oz". Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
You just want some kickin' silver slippers!
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Thank you for saying silver!
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
Alcard wrote:
"Another scare the bewillikers out of me nightmare starred an ancient man confined to a wheelchair. In the dream I am on the couch that I am actually asleep on in real time. Some neighbor kids wheel the old man through the living room and as he looks at me, with true evil glittering in his eyes, I feel an invisible force pushing me down into the couch."
Scary old people in dreams are frightening! In Germanic myths, the king of the gods(name?) goes around as an old man. He can be good, or he can be evil, depending on his mood.
There are many stories of crones("Snow White"). They can be very frightening to me. (I can just look in the mirror now! ha ha!)
Posted by Eruve Nandiriel (Member # 5677) on :
I remember one dream where there was somebody chasing me and throwing knives at me. Finally I got cornered, and he pinned my thumb to the wall with a knife. I woke up with sharp pains in my thumb. That was kinda creepy.
Posted by weezer (Member # 6643) on :
Weird. It reminds me of that one scene in the James Bond movie Octopussy.
Posted by Book (Member # 5500) on :
Speaking of my nightmare, I remember the two most terrifying scenes from movies I can remember are the Sloth sin from Se7en, which actually made me leave the room, and the scene with the ill sister the wife imprisoned as a child in Pet Sematary. That, and when the son came back to life in the same movie.
Posted by Anthro (Member # 6087) on :
I'm scared of shadows. The things in 'em. Low, creeping shadows.
Posted by FoolishTook (Member # 5358) on :
Wow, Elizabeth! I thought the Harry Potter werewolf was scary as well, and for the same reasons.
Posted by Ryuko (Member # 5125) on :
Book: AHHHH! SEVEN!!! The Lust sin gives me the willies before I even saw the movie!
Also, I watched an episode of the first season of Law and Order which was about a man who sexually abused his daughter, physically abused his wife who then physically abused their daughter until she died, all in an effort to make them "perfect wives." That scared the living daylights out of me. (sickened)
Posted by Book (Member # 5500) on :
Yeah, I like to watch the first-timer's face when they figure out the Lust sin. If they figure it out. They only show that picture for a second. I usually have to explain it, but that's okay, too.
Posted by Alucard... (Member # 4924) on :
quote: Earlier this month, I had a skunk tussle with my Golden Retriever right in front of the open garage at about 5AM. Two nights later, I killed the skunk on a skunk hunt (a nice Father's Day present as I remember).
After buying Pitch Black and watching it last night, I had a nightmare in which I was hunting a flying skunk with my 30-30. Made me wish I had brought the shotgun...Anyway, after picking the damn thing off when it landed on a transformer along the power lines in my backyard, I laid low. Evidently, I had damaged the transformer, and the digital readout on the side of the transformer kept flashing the error codes. I lay asleep/awake dreading the fact that I was most likely going to have to pay for the repair of said transformer. It bothered me so much that eventually I got out of bed and remembered that I have no powerlines since all the lines are buried. Only until after a hot shower and a large dose of caffeine did I remember that skunks don't fly. By themselves.
But in truth, my dog found ANOTHER skunk, which is currently on my most-wanted list. It too sprayed two days ago but I could not get a bead on it. Hence, the strange dream.
Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
Beverly,
Tornado dreams were also my recurring dream throughout most of my childhood/early adult life. They would almost always play out exactly the same each time, with us taking cover in our basement, and I would awaken before it hit, but I would see it clearly.
Then about ten years ago we were actually in a tornado situation (it was called the "Andover tornado" around here because that is the town it created the most damage in). It wasn't even at my house -- it was at my sister's, and I was at her house. Definately saw it coming directly at us, just like in the dream. (We ended up okay)
Ever since that, I haven't had the tornado dreams any more.
FG
Posted by Mabus (Member # 6320) on :
When I have tornado dreams, they tend to be of the Day After Tomorrow variety--huge or multiple funnels swallowing everything. And while most of the time the dream ends before they arrive, once or twice I have been swept up by the wind. However, that happens much more often just in strong normal winds in my dreams, so I suppose it's not the tornado per se that is the nightmare.
Posted by kwsni (Member # 1831) on :
i have sinking suffocating mud dreams.
In one of them, there was a pile of mud, and people were lining up to canoe into it, acting like it was a roller coaster or something. The freind who's in the dream with me get in our canoe and paddle up the mound of mud, and then we start SINKING. My friend is sitting beside me laughing her head off, acting like she's haivng a blast, and we're sinking in this mound of mud, about to drown.
Ni!
Posted by Brinestone (Member # 5755) on :
I had a series of nightmares about this toilet with purple water in it that would suck you in and not let go. So you'd be arms and legs sticking out of the toilet with your butt lodged firmly in it. The only way out was to get someone strong to pull you out, which was very embarassing. And everywhere I went, I had to go to the bathroom, and whenever I did, there was the toilet. I couldn't escape it.
Yeah, it doesn't sound scary now, but it freaked me out when I was about eight, and I really had trouble going to the bathroom after waking up from it.
Bears were also a recurring theme for me. I wonder why.
One of the scariest was one time when I dreamed an alligator ate my pinky toe and woke up not being able to feel it.
Question: does anyone else have dreams that are so freaky and disturbing that you can't share them and you worry about your inner psyche?
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
I often have a dream where I am somehow flung into the air, but I keep going, higher and higher. I can still see the ground, and I am trying to gain control, but I can;t get it. I usually wake up. One time, though, I fell all the way to the ocean, and then sort of turned into a boat and coasted along the top of the water.
Posted by Mabus (Member # 6320) on :
Short answer: yes.
Slightly longer answer: most of them have to do with sex.
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
Brinestone: yes.
Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :
Elizabeth, know what gets rid of nightmares? Donna the Buffalo, I hear she's going to be in Salt Lake City pretty soon, maybe you should go see her, and take your daughter.
Hobbes Posted by skillery (Member # 6209) on :
Worst dream ever:
My wife was missing, and it was snowing outside. I went outside to look for her and couldn't find her. The snowplow came and tossed her cold, blue body up on the snowbank.
Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :
Wow, that is harsh.
Hobbes Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
Skillery: Ouch!! I have also had dreams of losing my huband. It is always a feeling of cold, black emptiness. (shudder)
As for you, Hobbes, I thought you were SWEET! Ha ha. (also, it is my son who is more into them. We have been on many adventures together.)
Posted by Promethius (Member # 2468) on :
Alucard-
At first I thought you said
quote:I have this recurring nightmare of a large BEER coming out of the woods and running off with my 22 month-old daughter
[ July 02, 2004, 12:29 AM: Message edited by: Promethius ]
Posted by fallow (Member # 6268) on :
I dream of tides.
Posted by Jenny Gardener (Member # 903) on :
I used to have tornado dreams. The worst was when I was driving to pick up my little girl from my mom's house, and a tornado got there before I did. I woke up shuddering and sobbing from that one.
Posted by skillery (Member # 6209) on :
Dagonee:
quote:...driving but suddenly realize you're in the back seat
I dream that I'm driving my dad's pickup from the camper shell with my legs extended through the truck's rear window, my toes just barely able to touch the steering wheel; also driving my motorhome from the dining table. Cool dreams! Always going downhill at breakneck speed. Can't figure out whose feet are working the gas and brakes though.
Last night I dreamed that I was driving a go-cart made of chicken wire.
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
I have also had dreams of trying to drive from the back seat.
Posted by Mabus (Member # 6320) on :
I have had dreams something like that, but I always inevitably shift perspectives until I'm in the front seat and don't even notice what's happened except that it's easier.
Sometimes it works the other way, though...in fact, sometimes I shift all the way out of the car and it becomes like a video game.
Posted by michaele8 (Member # 6608) on :
Maybe this site will help you analyze your dreams and nightmares better:
![[Grumble]](graemlins/grumble.gif)
![[Dont Know]](graemlins/dontknow.gif)
![[Mad]](mad.gif)
![[ROFL]](graemlins/rofl.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
![[Angst]](graemlins/angst.gif)
![[Evil Laugh]](graemlins/evillaugh.gif)
![[Hat]](graemlins/hat.gif)
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
That was kinda creepy.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Frown]](frown.gif)