My Weird Phobia
Is it weird that the Statue of Liberty totally freaks me out sometimes?
It hasn’t always, but I saw the end of Planet of the Apes as a kid and seriously? That thing looks so creepy like that. I try to explain to people that the reason it scares me is because it has such dead eyes, but they point out it’s a statue, IT WOULD BE WEIRDER IF THEY MOVED.
To these people I say: bite me.
It’s not just Planet of the Apes anyway. That was marginally creepy, definitely. But it’s the whole idea of the Statue of Liberty in pieces which is the problem. For example, the poster from Escape From New York. I won’t put it on here because I’ll freak myself out. That’s a poster with the decapitated head of the Statue of Liberty. IT’S TOO WEIRD.
My skin is crawling just writing this you know.
Also, there’s The Day After Tomorrow. The frozen Statue is weird, yeah, but I don’t like the poster where its arm is coming up through a huge tidal wave. It’s just… no. Stop it, Hollywood. STOP IT.
And now of course there’s Cloverfield. DAMN YOU CLOVERFIELD. I really want to see this movie because J.J. Abrams is fairly wicked when he wants to be, and it’s had some interesting hype. BUT THEN. They had to go and have a DECAPITATED Statue of Liberty on the poster, didn’t they? And then, when I was watching Lost the other night, they had to go and put on a really amazing advert for Cloverfield where it’s all shaky cameras, and people seeing the monster from ground level – it was acetastic right up to the point where the camera swirls around and you see the DECAPITATED HEAD of the freaking Statue of Liberty SLIDE (whilst facing you with its cold dead eyes) down the street.
I nearly screamed. And actually, thinking about it, it might just be big statues in general. Because you know that Smirnoff Ice advert where all the stuff flies out of the sea and there’s that creepy woman statue like a figurehead?
I hate that.
Oh, and as a side-note, would it be weird if I went out of the house looking like this?
February 5th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Don’t worry. It’s a lot smaller in real-life than you would think.
February 5th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Cloverfield is meant to be scary on so many different levels, although granted, the people who find the statue of liberty the scariest bit are probably the minority. xx
February 5th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
I am sure it was all bolted together in the first place?
March 4th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Nope it’s not strange, I’m terrified of it too, and largely for the same reasons. Plus anything that is big enough to have stairs inside, and an observation deck, that isn’t a building has to be wrong. Arghhhh!
March 5th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Finally, I discover that I’m not the only one! I am absolutely spooked by the Statue of Liberty. I wasn’t before I went to New York. I wanted to go and see it but caught the wrong ferry and only saw it from a very long distance. After I returned, I started to get a bit spooked by the thought of the statue, and if I see video footage or still photos of it, a shiver goes down my spine. It is bizarre, and I can’t explain it.
I think it is partly the sheer scale of New York and because it is out in the ocean. The dead eyes are one thing but the ‘crown’ with its spikes freaks me out too.
June 7th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
At last! I thought I was the weird one. I have the exact same fear. Not just the Statue of Liberty but all statues – immense shivers down my spine. There are parts of The Day after Tomorrow that I can’t watch, also those Cloverfield trailers and there’s that film with the meteor falling towards earth … what’s it called … Deep Impact I think. The decapitated head bounces on the street of New York under all that water … oh my God … .. freaky.
July 2nd, 2008 at 7:45 pm
OMG, I am 50 yrs old and I also have been freaked out by the Statue of Liberty all my life. If it comes on TV, I have to look away or turn it off. Any stature that you can climb inside is just plain scary. As en ex-catholic, I have a few problems with human size statues, but I swear, that Giant Jesus statue in Rio is right up there with the Statue of Liberty.
I have never told anyone of this fear before, and I don’t know why I looked to see if other people have the same fear of big statues. I was trying to find out the name of the phobia for fear of clowns and thought maybe there are other people out there who are freaked out about the Statue of Liberty too, and I found you!. BTW I hate clowns, too. Planet of the Apes did it for me, I think and I will never watch Cloverfield. Just the thought of the decapitated head of the Statue of Liberty bouncing around the streets of New York is more than I can bear. I sure am glad I am not alone in my weirdness.
July 3rd, 2008 at 7:28 pm
Oh my god, at last i am not alone in this universe, I have developed a massive phobia of “the statue” I even have dreams about it, it seems that everywhere I go the statue is there from every angle so close I could step onto the head (urghh my stomach keeps flipping) Some of my friends know about my fear but they dont seem to understand so its great that ive found this site. I have even started watching you tube clips to try to cure myself but im not even more scared, just watched a movie compilation of statue of liberty clips on you tube (watch it i dare you!) and had to run out of the room several times particularly during day after tomorrow tidal wave clip, i understand what you mean by the arm and torch staying above the water its makes my skin crawl, also saw planet of the apes clip which is again just as disturbing. Been trying to pin point when it happened might have been ghostbusters 2 when the statue carried the torch across the water. Don”t think i could ever go to New York due to the fear that I might catch a glimpse of it by surprise would prob drop down dead. If anyone has any phobia busting tips let me know!!
April 3rd, 2009 at 7:30 am
I’ve been googling “fear of the statue of liberty” in order to find other people like me, and everything you described is _exactly_ how I feel. What’s weird is that the words pop up on google’s auto-complete rather quickly, leading me to believe that this is a fairly common search, even though there aren’t many websites devoted to it. This must be a common fear!
I too am mostly frightened of the statue in pieces. I’ve cooked up this horrible scenario in my head in which I come home and find her decapitated head in my apartment! I’d also be scared as hell of any partially submerged, enormous statue. What on earth is wrong with us?!
May 13th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
I too have this bizzare fear of the Statue of Liberty. I saw it on Google Earth and lost my mind hahah. If I see it on a movie or even in a picture I have to cover my eyes because it just creeps me the hell out, although I have no idea why. I’m the same as the other girl who posted that if she saw it in real life she’d drop dead hah I feel the exact same way. And I also googled ‘fear of the statue of liberty’ to find this site (with my hand covered over the picture results just incase). Any thoughts on how to overcome this fear?
May 28th, 2009 at 5:54 am
This is so wonderful to finally find other people who are afraid of the statue of liberty. Actually, I am afraid of all statues, not little ones, but ones that are at least a foot high or so and larger. The bigger they are, the worse it is! And the S of L is BIG!!! I am also afraid of animalheads(stuffed,real ones) Anyone else have that problem?? Family members and friends(the few I’ve told) think I am NUTS! One time I saw Levar Burton on Reading Rainbow, go to the S of L when they were fixing it years ago and they showed him next to the foot and by the face, I have been haunted by that for years, when I think of it I get chills, it’s awful. This has become very debilitating at times, I would love to know what to do about it, any suggestions??
May 28th, 2009 at 9:40 am
Yes I know what you mean. The statue arghh is so creepy. Its not even funny; everything about “her” scares the crap out of me, from the crown- to her feet. I noticed that it is starting to get worse. When I was younger I did see her from a boat but she was far away(it did creep me out but I didn’t scream I just walked away). I used to see her from this bridge we would cross and I felt a little safer and I would look at her waiting for her to fall? (The hairs on my neck would stand up) Wierd? I know.. Now I can’t stand the site of her.. Ever since those darn movies. I have this fear of her falling. I also feel like she is right behind me waiting to fall on me. I don’t know what to do. 911 didn’t help either.. I don’t want to think about it.. Her falling scares me … ARGHHHHH! I’m gonna cry (and I don’t usually cry but this is starting to creep me out)
June 17th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Awesome!
I’m absolutely thrilled that I found this. No one understands. “She” isn’t the only thing for me either, dinosaurs (or dinosaur movies, or bones) the big ass statue guys in The Lord of the Rings movie.
And more recently, it took all I had to watch “Life After People” on the Nat. Geo. Channel. I won’t even mention it for all our sakes.
Thanks for the post!
February 7th, 2010 at 5:11 pm
Wow, i’m so glad i found you all! I am TERRIFIED of the statue of liberty! so much so i have panic attacks and vomiting episodes at the slightest glimpse of a photograph or movie clip! I cry and shake and have horrible dellusions of her in the weirdest places! Like flying in planes, i always feel paranoid she’s gonna look through the window or grab the plane and drown it in her ocean!!! Its so strong for me that even fancy dress costumes make me want to die! Literally, she is the most horrible thing in the world, i cant stand it, hate all those movies you guys are mentioning, Ghostbusters has to be the worst one though! how vile and wrong was that scene?!! OMG!!! Seriously i feel ill right now…. horrible hoooorrible statue!! how big is she really… not that big i hear… ok well why would they put her in the ocean if she’s not dangerous?? .. kill her!!!!
May 5th, 2010 at 9:46 pm
Hi guys! I feel the same way as many of you. As a child, I used to get freaked out by rays of light breaking in the sea as I swam, imagining that the head of S of L will stare out at me! My grandma, bless her soul, was an art historian who told me about the mistery of the Collosus of Rhodes, one of the seven miracles of the ancient world (an even bigger statue, with rays on his head). No-one really knows what happened to the Colossus, but a major hypothesis is that–it fell into the sea during an earthquake!!! Ergo the water with S o L phobia!
I find, however, that it helps to stare the fear down and mine has improved a lot with time. Start with smaller statues in catholic churches or, if you are too scared, large outdoor statues. I find that the most creepy things are large indoor statues (Lady Freedom or whatever her name is, I am too creeped to Google it, that stands atop the Capitol is also to be found UNDERGROUND, in the D.C. Metro–you hit it unexpectedly, after a turn. They even built another one for the new Capitol underground entrance-arrgghh!!! Or what about the Jefferson Memorial? The S o L pales in comparison, at least it is far away! That statue scared the daylights out of me and I was 16!!!
Why do we have these phobias? I really don’t understand. Me, I come from Serbia, an eastern orthodox country-we don’t do statues in religion, nor do we have a big hellenism/classicism fetish, so it is not church or public building trauma from infancy, which sound like the obvious suspects.
I do think, however, that even people who don’t fear statues generally fear the S of L, as I think it was DESIGNED to be scary. I really mean it, the scariness could not have eluded the artists.
June 20th, 2010 at 11:35 pm
Hi everyone,
Yes I too am scared, yet fascinated, by huge humanoid statues. You are not alone! I’m also scared by huge ’stand alone’ mountains as well. It’s all very Close Encounters isn’t it? The worst statue for me is ‘Mother Russia’ check it out, if you dare, and you all think Lady Liberty is creepy!!!
Like Veljko poster above, I have found that looking at these statues online has really helped me to combat my fear, but I will always find them disturbing. When I was a kid, I had a really terrifying nightmare about a statue of a Knight which came to life, and this haunted me for weeks after. I also suffer from a weird recurring dream about either a huge mountain or statue (it varies) that I am scared to look at. What’s it all about? It’s good that I am not alone, much love to all my fellow megalophobes xxxx