Maybe don't read this post if you're alone. You've been warned...

By ROSIE WATERLAND

This guy right here is the reason I had nightmares for months as a kid. Pennywise the Dancing Clown, the main character from Stephen King’s IT, scared me so far out of my mind I actually threw up once. Seriously – I was so scared of sleeping in my own bed that I think my brain willed my body to throw up so my mum would come and take care of me and I wouldn’t have to sleep alone.

IT was a pretty low-budget telemovie with some very crappy special effects that, for some reason, I watched when I WAS 5 YEARS OLD.

Let me try and show you what I was up against with a picture:

I didn’t stand a chance.

Now, I’m not here to cast blame. I’m sure my mum didn’t mean to let me watch a film that would almost certainly haunt me for the rest of my days. Maybe she saw the clown pre-murderous rage, assumed it was a kids movie and left the room. Maybe my sister and I did it on the sly. Maybe it came on TV and she was just too busy, oh I don’t know, being a working single mum to notice.

Whatever the reason, the point is I watched it and it had a lasting affect on me. As in, I’m about to clear my hard drive just to make sure these pics don’t stay on my computer – just in case he crawls out in the middle of the night and gets me. I’m not kidding.

So, which scary character from your younger years kept (keeps) you up at night? Everyone slipped at least one scary movie past their parents that ended up scarring them for life. I’ve put together a gallery of the ones I’m still afraid of I can remember:

Have I missed any? What character gave you nightmares?