kindertrauma

Year: 2011

Kinder-Spotlight :: Inside

Posted on By aunt john

What's this? Two Sundays in a row without Kindertrauma's "Stream Warriors" feature? What gives? Well we are still nursing the wounds inflicted upon us by Netflix's sneaky price increase. We had forgiven them for destroying bricks and mortar video stores but this new bait and switch is just too much! Someone has gotten too big for their britches! Why should we use coveted Kindertrauma real estate to promote those cheap ingrates when it can be better utilized by wonderful sponsors like Intel and Toshiba? Yes, the following is a sponsored post, paid for by Intel and Toshiba!

Are you sick of passively streaming dullsville movies on Netflix and have you ever asked yourself why the heck can't I get involved with the events that happen in the film I'm watching? Do you wish to be a participant in something new and exciting rather than just an observer? You're prayers have been answered and not by Netflix either, they have been answered by the good folks at Intel and Toshiba.

Starting tomorrow YOU will be able to take active part in a movie! INSIDE is a film that stars EMMY ROSSUM and is directed by the guy who did DISTURBIA (DJ CARUSO) and another person called YOU! Folks will get a chance to alter and experience INSIDE as it happens thanks to the help of social media favorites like TWITTER, FACEBOOK, and YOUTUBE! You can learn more HERE and from the embedded video below.

Name That Trauma :: Reader Lizzie C. on an Illuminated En Masse Abduction

Posted on By aunt john

I absolutely love your website and have been visiting it daily since I discovered its existence! I've been knocking around the idea of sending in my own Name That Trauma for quite some time now, but I had always held off on it because I'm not sure how solid my memory of the scene I want to reference is, and also, I'm not entirely sure it wasn't just some crazy fever dream. But I decided, what the hey, I'll just submit it for some peace of mind and if someone knows what I am talking about, I will have ended a many, many years long mystery, which will be a relief!

I remember being 8 or 9, and I want to say the movie had to be from the mid-to-late ‘80s or early ‘90s. I remember that there was a class of children who made lanterns as a project and they were going on an evening parade to show off the lanterns to their parents and families. They went over a hill and disappeared on the other side. I remember being extremely creeped out by seeing the lanterns going over the hill, just little lights in the darkness, and you could barely see the children. There was a boy who was in bed when this happened, and he was watching out of his bedroom window. I think he had gotten in trouble or had not completed the project or some other thing, so he was not at the parade. He watched through those curtains with horizontal slats in his bedroom, and he saw the kids go over the hill and then saw a bright flash of light…he didn't know what had happened, but it was at that moment when the kids went over the hill that they all disappeared. Which makes me want to believe that this was some kind of alien abduction movie, or some other sci-fi flick. But that one scene is all I remember of this movie because it made me horrified to go outside in the dark – I might suddenly disappear like the kids in the movie, you know!

I apologize if it is a really well-known movie (or, for that matter, if it is not even a movie, and just something that I dreamed). I will feel stupid. But I do not typically watch alien movies or sci-fi movies…I'm much more into slasher flicks and survival horror. So forgive me if this is a common film…it just isn't in a genre that I usually watch!

If anyone has any ideas about what movie this might be, I would be so grateful! And please keep in mind that it was fifteen years ago and my memory of the scene may be shaky; so take my synopsis of the scene with a grain of salt. I'd appreciate anything that sounds at all similar, just for the leads, and who knows, it might be right!

Thanks so much for your help!

— Lizzie C.

Name That Trauma :: Kinderpal Brother Bill of The Haunted Closet on a Creepy Crack

Posted on By aunt john

After lurking at Kindertrauma for several years, I FINALLY have a Name That Trauma request worthy of the site. I've had a run of good luck tracking down spooky books and films that haunted me as a child, from the haunted house oral hygiene film I saw in 2nd grade (The Haunted Mouth), to the pair of creepy anthology books I used to check out from the school library (Roger Elwood's Monster Tales and Horror Tales), the classroom vandalism film that never let go of my soul (The Boy Who Liked Deer) and the disturbing image of an exotic dancer biting off the head of a live snake that I needed to exorcise from my subconscious (Stanley!)

But there is one fragment of a memory from early childhood that I've never been able to locate. A short animated piece (I remember sparse black-and-white line drawings) where a little girl or boy is in the bedroom and a crack on the wall starts moving, talking, and forming different shapes. I remember it finally formed a monstrous, scary face, before freezing and becoming just a crack in the wall again. I want to say this was on SESAME STREET or ELECTRIC COMPANY, but not sure. This would have been in the early-to-mid '70s.

In my own search on-line, I find reference to this film in talkbalk conversations by other people also desperate to identify it (the consensus seems to be it was from SESAME STREET, possibly called "Crack Master") but no one is 100% sure, nor does anyone have a screen capture or video clip of the film… any help?

Thanks, Kindertrauma!

— Brother Bill

The Haunted Closet

Traumafessions :: Reader "doihaveto" on Ratboy

Posted on By aunt john

I don't know that I have found anything about this horrid little gem on your website. It's a 1986 movie called RATBOY directed by SONDRA LOCKE. Now, it may not be a horror movie, but there were elements that really rang true to one in my seven year old mind. My father took immense pleasure in watching the horrified looks on my brother's and my face when he found a particularly good kindertrauma-esque movie. RATBOY was one of the over the top ones for me.

It's harmless enough, but it begins with a scene that has COURTNEY GAINS in it. After seeing CHILDREN OF THE CORN, that guy scared the bejesus out of me. That is a whole different traumafession that has already been touched on by many here.

Needless to say, that was the beginning of the horror for me. I think I might have peed a little, but I don't remember this movie all that clearly. At 31, I am still too scared to watch it again. Anyhow, when we first find Ratboy, there is an old '50s style box type record player that has Lloyd Price's "Personality" playing on it. I distinctly remember this song being prominent throughout the movie. I still think of the movie every time I hear the song, but the memories are still very fuzzy for me. I think the director really wanted it to be a life lesson sort of the thing, but it was surreal and strange. More of a dark comedy than a horror flick. It had all of the wholesomeness of an Afterschool Special and most of the camp of a Late Night Screamer. I think there was some kind of underlying morality message and you were to be saddened by the plight of Ratboy, but honestly, with Malachai in the opening scene and the makeup job, that was phenomenal for its day, I just couldn't see it. I think I need to man up and give this one another watch, but I am home alone right now and don't think I could do it.

I am interested to see if any of you guys remember this one. I would hate to think that I am the only one who was terrorized by this movie.

— "doihaveto"

New reader!!

I love your site by the way!!

Razorback (1984)

Posted on By unkle lancifer

Okay, now I'm all obsessed with RUSSELL MULCAHY's giant pig movie RAZORBACK from 1984. I did catch this one back in the day on cable and I remember being struck by the visuals and left with at least one strong scene trapped in my head, but why has it taken me so long to return to this handsome misfit flick? In my defense, copies don't exactly grow on trees in my neck of the woods but I'm still ashamed of not putting forth a bit more effort. We're talking a killer pig movie from the director of the "Total Eclipse of the Heart" video after all. How is that not going to work for me?

GREGORY HARRISON stars as vanilla urbanite Carl Winters who hits the gritty Aussie outback in search of his missing reporter wife. While in the Land of Oz he encounters obstinate man of the land Jake Cullen (BILL KERR) whose grandson did a similar vanishing act. Locals accuse Jake of the tot's disappearance not believing his account of a tusked boar or "razorback" the size of a rhino snatching the kid away (I thought only dingoes did that!) The two are helped by a beautiful piggy expert (the late ARKIE WHITELEY of THE ROAD WARRIOR) and hindered by two nutzo brothers (CHRIS HAYWOOD & DAVID ARGUE) so twisted they'd feel right at home at the family dinner table from THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE.

I'm not going to lie, not everything is firing on all cylinders in RAZORBACK. Much like the previous year's THE KEEP, the visuals tend to bully if not suffocate the narrative. Unlike THE KEEP though, RAZORBACK provides us with at least enough information to know what's going down. It may not always tell its story in the most coherent way possible but there is never any doubt that we are watching a man vs. beast tale not unlike JAWS or even ALIEN. MULCAHY's effort may not be the smooth running machine those two examples are but give him a break; there are easier tasks in life than constructing and convincingly displaying on film, a monster pig. I don't think the title creature looks that bad myself but the effort to keep the questionably convincing porker under wraps tends to render some of the action overtly obtuse.

Various shortcomings aside, RAZORBACK is gonzo gorgeous nearly all of the time and the decades have only made it more dazzlingly esoteric. MULCAHY has brought along his bag of video tricks: light beams, reflections and flares bounce off of everything but what is really astonishing is how other-worldly he presents his homeland. I swear it looks more like another planet than another continent on multiple occasions. That's never more so the case then when mid-way through the film, Carl's exhaustion leads to hallucinations and we're gifted acid-flashback eye candy, perfectly doused in an IVA DAVIES' (of the Aussie band ICEHOUSE) score. I'd say this film is only a proper DVD/Blu-ray release away from having its cult status explode triple fold.

RAZORBACK was MULCAHY's first theatrical film and although not a financial victory, he, along with cinematographer DEAN SEMLER (THE ROAD WARRIOR), delivered something vibrantly cutting edge and trash chic unique that looks like science fiction, feels like horror and struts like an action-adventure/western. The story loudly argues with the semi-slacking special effects but the overall dynamic look of this batty opus is the ultimate peacekeeper.

Things may have fared better with a leading man who could possibly compete with the surroundings and supporting players but GREGORY HARRISON can at least be said to sufficiently convince us that he's in over his head. One could argue that HAYWOOD & ARGUE as the rat-like brothers Benny & Dicko Baker slyly swipe some of the titular beast's thunder but my personal favorite scene involves the porcine powerhouse dragging off the side of a home, with blasting TV included, away from an in-shock couch potato. That'll do pig!

Name That Trauma :: Reader Dane on a Killer Cuckold

Posted on By aunt john

Hi there! Dig the website!

Anyway, I have a vague recollection of either a T.V. show or a movie…all I remember is a man bursting into a hotel room to find his wife having an affair. The man shoots both his wife and her lover. In one of the next scenes, he's shown filling the dead guy's chest cavity with bricks, and has decorated the woman's coffin with icing or something of that sort. Very vague, but it freaked me out majorly as a kid and I'd love to know what the hell it's from after all these years!

Thanks and happy traumatizing,

— Dane

Traumafessions :: wellyousaythat© on Automatonophobia & Other Side Effects of Watching Dead of Night

Posted on By aunt john

You want trauma? I've got trauma; 1945's DEAD OF NIGHT. Known for its segment starring MICHAEL REDGRAVE as an unhinged ventriloquist this portmanteau of terror was, it's fair to say, my childhood nemesis.

Dissected

It's got the lot: a ventriloquist dummy (never a scarier artifact in the light entertainment business), premonitions of death, a psychiatrist, Victorian ghosts, haunting, a sinister undertaker, a supernatural mirror, murder, horror at a children's party, fatal accidents and a twist at the ending.

The children's party is a harsh reminder of the dangers of wandering off as a child; even in the comparative safety of a sedate Christmas party. The Dorian Gray-esque segment is creepy in the extreme in its portrayal of vanity, and the Grim Reaper taps on an unsuspecting chap's shoulder to chilling effect. There is some light relief in a story about death and golf, but this is just false hope that things may lighten up.

Truly horrifying prison sequence

The ventriloquist story is, in itself, a clear example of the evil that lurks inside these pint-sized plaster and paint artificial humans.

The film was responsible for many a sleepless night and is a major factor in my aversion to all things ventriloquy. I also would be averse to any type of wandering in other people's houses, and think twice before getting on the local bus.

DEAD OF NIGHT was absolutely bowel opening in its eerie and terrifying atmosphere and content. A childhood memory revived by a recent viewing. And guess what? It's still scary!

The awful truth

— wellyousaythat©

Name That Trauma :: Reader Ashley R. on a Hoovered Hamster

Posted on By aunt john

Hey there, I adore your website. I was wondering if maybe somebody could shed some light on something that has bothered me for years. I used to watch NICK AT NIGHT back in the '90s/early '00s when I was a little kid, and used to be a big fan of the sitcoms (which all sort of run together in my mind now). I remember I saw something on that network on one of the sitcoms (a rerun, not sure of the original air date), and then refused to turn on nick at night for maybe about a year after because it upset me so badly.

I don't remember what show it was, but I remember that a young boy got some sort of small rodent (either a hamster or mouse or something) and a bully (I have a feeling that it was his older brother, but I could be wrong) murdered it by sucking it into a vacuum cleaner. I was really shocked by it, because I didn't realize that the older boy had killed the cute little animal until the two younger boys are shown having a funeral for their pet, which I clearly remember was in a brown paper bag. I ran out of the room crying, and never finished it, but I remember that it bothered me for weeks.

Does anybody know what show this was?

— Ashley R.

UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Special thanks to Facebook kinderpal Heather S. for knowing this trauma comes from the Season 2 WONDER YEARS episode "Hiroshima, Mon Frere."