Top 5 unintentionally frightening videos

The humor website Cracked.com has a great 80s list that needs a little more love: Top 5 unintentionally scarring videos of the 1980s. (Click here to see it.)

Cracked goes into great detail on the emotional damage inflicted by each video. Not to mention the great phrases they use. Stuff like "pant-crappingly troubling" and "Pinocchio from Hell."

I don't want to give away its list, but I'd like to add a few of my own:

ROCKIT (Herbie Hancock): Directed by Godley and Creme, the video plays out like "Blade Runner" on acid. I keep waiting for Herbie to jump out of the closet and scream, "Time to die!" (By the way, if you haven't seen it, here's the song performed at the Grammys in the '80s with Hancock, Howard Jones, Thomas Dolby and Stevie Wonder. Amazing.)

TWILIGHT ZONE (Golden Earring): "When the bullet hits the bone." As soon as my mom heard that lyric, I wasn't allowed to watch that video anymore. But it's the syringe being jabbed into the arm that makes me turn off this video on my own every time it came on.

LAND OF CONFUSION (Genesis): Give credit to Britain's "Spitting Image" puppets for this nightmare-on-a-stick. Heads being yanked out of ground by storm-troopers? It's not bad enough that we have to picture Ronald Reagan as president again -- no, now he's waking up from deep inside a pool of sweat with Nancy wearing a snorkel.  (And how come Mike Rutherford's puppet looks better than the real thing?)

What other videos from the 80s scare the bejeebus out of you?

Comments

[Jeff in Cuba]

As much as I admired the technical mastery of Godley & Creme's "Cry" video, the whole "morphing faces" thing was a little unsettling.

I know in today's digital era it seems like no big deal, but back then it was almost surreal.

And I'm still amazed how seemless the crossfading looks, even though it was done with analog technology.

[surfdog]

just for the subject matter..
Jim Carroll "Catholic Boy" CD
"People who Died"

[Big Tex]

Spearsy, thanks for the Hancock/ Dolby/Jones/Wonder clip. It had promise at the beginning, but falls apart at the end. What was Dolby thinking? He's conducting Stevie Wonder? Is he not aware that Wonder can't see him? Good idea poorly executed, but that's the Grammys for you.

[lauriec]

Wang Chung's "Everybody Wang Chung Tonight" freaks me out everytime.

Michael Jackson's "The Way You Make Me Feel"----SUPER scary! Whacko Jacko humping the road? Someone, hold me!

[CHAD]

i think land of confusion is genesis' best video. it didnt creep me out, it was hilarious. i always cracked up at that video.

[Rick]

Honestly, almost any The Cure video, most especially "Lullaby." But even an upbeat tune like "Friday I'm in Love" has a pretty creepy video...

They all make me want to see the sunshine or watch a John Hughes movie.

[Derek]

I just recently rediscovered the video for the song "Icehouse" by the band Icehouse. I remember being scared to death of that video back in the early days of MTV. You can find the video here: http://tinyurl.com/5dyjj9.

[Rick]

But I suppose The Cure WANTED to creep us out, so they don't count...

OKay, then... What about "When Doves Cry" (Prince)? Sheesh, watching Prince in the bath made me wanna take a shower,
and not a cold one either.

Or what about the glowing eyes on the choir boys in Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart"?

[Miguel]

I don`t think the A-Ha video was frightening at all.
You know what i find frightening? The Pee-Wee`s Playhouse TV theme.Absolutely scary!

[Rick]

Here's a working link to Icehouse:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c3i8x6XhO4

I read it was banned from Australian TV for its macabre images, so, Derek, it might be that it falls under the same category as The Cure: intentionally creepy

[jane]

Gotta go with Rockit. Horrible, horrible video -- and the fact that Herbie played that song at Gator Growl one year to terrible, tedious effect.

However, that Cracked article is a riot. Rasputin, Clint Howard and an adjective made out of M. Night Shyamalan = a slice of nirvana.

[tipps]

Yeah. I'm voting for Rockit. Not sure why, exactly, but when I saw it on the list I immediately remembered that creepy feeling I'd get when it came on.

[Bassnote]

Peter Gabriel's video for "I Don't Remember" always freaked me out a little. It had like an alternate universe thing happening with the bald albinos running around. Then there was the scene where he is swallowed by the couch, very creepy.

[Cait]

*the robot head in Duran Duran's "Wild Boys"

*the super close-ups in Huey Lewis & The News' "Hip To Be Square"

*Yes' "Owner Of A Lonely Heart"

*Eurythmics "Love Is A Stranger"

*Billy Joel's "Pressure"

[Marissa]

I miss so much when I work all day. I'm suffering from brain drain and unable to think of any music vids that freaked me out.
Whitney Houston vids were pretty annoying.
The Pointer Sisters dancing in ANY video was pretty creepy.

[Miguel]

Isn`t Hello by Lionel Ritchie kind of creepy?

[Michelle]

As much as I wanted to be Rindy Ross playing sax while wearing red stilettos, I find "Harden My Heart" disturbing.

Black leotards, robot-head drums, midgets, "Children of the Corn"-looking kids. What more could they throw in there?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1_E6pHa3hc

[Miguel]

Isn`t Hello by Lionel Ritchie kind of creepy?

[Michelle]

As much as I wanted to be Rindy Ross playing sax while wearing red stilettos, I find Quarterflash's "Harden My Heart" disturbing.

Black leotards, robot-head drums, midgets, "Children of the Corn"-looking kids. What more could they throw in there?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1_E6pHa3hc

[Jeff from Vegas]

"She's a Beauty" by The Tubes was a little creepy, especially at the end where the little boy is now an old man (trivia: that little boy was "George" in The Wedding Singer. "He" is now a "she" and goes by the name "Alexis Arquette". Yep, she is Rosanna Arquette's sister).

"Shock the Monkey" by Peter Gabriel.

"Dance With Me" by Lords Of The New Church. Stiv Bators is creepy all by himself.

"Close (to the Edit)" by Art Of Noise. I can't even explain this one.

You can find all of them on YouTube.

[Jeff from Vegas]

@miguel: I agree -- "Hello" is creepy.

For me, its gotta be the last shot of Wall of Voodoo's Mexican Radio. The video is fine, until that dude comes out of that pot of beans.

Ewww

[don in tulsa]

i'm sorry but that list sucked bigtime. they even called the guys in the a-ha video policemen but they always looked like part of a racing team to me, hence the large wrench brandished so overtly. at least that's the way i saw it.

[Spears]

I thought they were a whacked-out NASCAR pit-crew too until I read that they're policemen.

[Former Producer Dave]

Oh man, way to go "Jeff in Vegas". I'd forgotten all about "Close to the Edit". That little girl jumping around and the guy with the chainsaw all moving around in an undercranked camera shot! Brings back fond memories of "Night Flight" on TBS. Steve, you need to do at least one video podcast featuring all of our favorite music videos!

[Miguel]

Steve i red on Wikipedia that the guys from the A-Ha video are two race competitors,which makes sense.I don´t think they`re policemen

[Rosa]

"Land of Confusion" gave me fierce nightmares as a kid, to this day I can't watch it. "Sledgehammer" also totally freaked me out.

[Miguel]

Really Rosa? Sledgehammer is one of my favourite music videos from the 80s,actually from all time.

[Miguel]

Of all time i meant,sorry.

[Debra]

"Shock the Monkey" by Peter Gabriel

"Charlotte Sometimes" by The Cure

"Oh Father" by Madonna (seeing the woman - her mother - in the coffin and you can see the stitching holding her mouth closed)

Sorry to ruin the list with Madonna, Steve.

And even "White Wedding" by Billy Idol (the end mostly)

[Blaine]

Weren't at least some of those Richard Simmons "Sweatin' to the Oldies" videos released during our favourite decade? Those are pretty scary.

The Art Of Noise video reminded me of another jerky one that's a little freaky: "Wonderin'" by Neil Young and the Shocking Pinks (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a6A6oTFdcw). Neil's "just not right" in the video.

And if insane asylums freak you out: "Bang Your Head (Metal Health)" by Quiet Riot (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJChh7ghGnE). Straightjackets and face masks years before The Silence of the Lambs.

And "Whip It" by Devo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxH39QlRuhg) is just disturbing on so many levels.

[Jeff from Vegas]

I almost forgot "Don't Come Around Here No More" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5H0wUo37RY). That one's pretty freaky through and through, especially at the end where Alice becomes a cake and she gets sliced up and eaten.

[jane]

True confession: I totally dig the "Mexican Radio" video, with my favorite part being the face in the beans.

And I ADORE that Neil Young and the Shocking Pinks video -- he's so fabulous and odd in it. Even had a poster of this album cover on the wall of my room in the sorority house.

Yeah, I know...

[Marissa]

Jane, this once again proves you are a chica in a league of her own. And that's not necessarily a bad thing.

I can't remember most of the videos on MTV... Unless it was Duran Duran. I believe I had a laser disc of their vids. I needed all the John Taylor I could possibly get.

[The Shark Guys]

Speaking of frightening videos, here is a compilation of the Worst Bon Jovi Cover Versions of All Time (Disclaimer: They butcher 'Fever' and 'Help', among others---not to be viewed before a nutritious breakfast or at the very least, a coffee)

http://www.thesharkbook.com/blog/2008/03/livin-on-prayer-bon-jovi-guitarist-dui.html

[The Shark Guys]

Speaking of frightening videos, here is a compilation of the Worst Bon Jovi Cover Versions of All Time (Disclaimer: They butcher 'Fever' and 'Help', among others---not to be viewed before a nutritious breakfast or at the very least, a coffee)

http://www.thesharkbook.com/blog/2008/03/livin-on-prayer-bon-jovi-guitarist-dui.html

[GlennS.]

"Dirty Creature" by Split Enz, which included Tim Finn losing his head. The fact that it was incredibly low budget didn't make it any less disturbing.

All of this reminds me of how my mother would watch MTV and repeatedly ask "What are they trying to represent?"

"I think they're just trying to be weird," I would say.

[ian]

I'll second Billy Joel's "Pressure".

Olivia Newton John - Physical
Even back then, the guy with red headed 'fro was a bit freaky to me!

[jane]

Ian, you are right on the mark with "Physical" -- it's freaky and odd and more than a little disturbing, actually.

[ian]

So once again we're on the same page!

...oh, and Munchos!

[Bassnote]

I have to nominate "Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This" by the Eurythmics. Anne was quite creepy in that video.

[don in tulsa]

so me, Spears and Miguel are on the same page with a-ha. come on, there must be others out there. surely we're not alone.