UNK SEZ: Can you spot the TEN differences in these two photos? This is the house that scared and fascinated your poor Unk when he was a kid! It's right next door to where my Grandma used to live and behind both houses believe it or not, is an old graveyard. If all goes as my delusional imagination plans, someday Kindertrauma Headquarters will be in there!
I've tried hard over the years to better understand THE BEAST WITHIN (1982). Heck, I even coerced myself recently to read the same-titled novel it's loosely based on thinking that might help me fathom it further. (It's by Edward Levy and I secretly loved it.) Both the book and the movie involve a man who is chained in a cellar and subjected to a tortuous existence, feeding on rats and human flesh. His ordeal is such that he physically converts into a subhuman beast who eventually escapes, rapes a woman and passes his acquired depravity onto the resulting offspring. The child is seemingly fine for a while but eventually the inherited malevolence breaks through. In the book, the transformation involves traditional werewolf or demonic possession motifs and in the movie, the poor guy turns into a cicada. Don't laugh! I think that's well, original and the cicada's 17-year stagnation period fits in nicely with parents and teenagers' anxiety about the changes that come with adulthood, you know, the natural morphing of sweet obedient children into those terrible creatures with their own ideas! Plus, cicadas are gross, shed skeletal husks and chirp that terrible tune! They certainly do deserve an invite to the horror table.
Only it doesn't really work. It's a big jump going from a man turning into a feral brute and a man transforming into an ugly loudmouth grasshopper and THE BEAST WITHIN doesn't quite have the springboard legs to achieve the leap. I'd blame the script but how can I when it's from the pen of TOM HOLLAND of PYSCHO II, FRIGHT NIGHT and CHILD'S PLAY fame? I have to assume something larger went haywire during production although I guess talent has been known to hibernate on occasion too. One rumor I came across stated that about a half hour of filming was lost and that they had to move ahead regardless which would explain much but not everything. Besides the movie mumbling and muttering its way past the dubious cicada issue (if you listen closely black magic band-aids are placed over the hole), there's still the frustrating problem of having barrels of exposition and little of it useful. And then there's the beast itself who, when caught at the wrong angle, looks less like an insect and more like drunk E.T.
Don't get me wrong I fucking adore the special effects in this movie. They are over-the-top outlandish, freakiskly fantastic and deliciously squishing, especially in the traffic-stopping transformation scene. It's just that the monster in its fully evolved form is a bug-eyed goon in a wobbly rubber suit…not that he doesn't give good decapitations. So why do I keep returning to this flick when I'm fully aware of its limitations and why would a rational person expect it to be anything other than its crazy self knowing that it's directed by the same dude (PHILIPPE MORA) who dosed the world with THE HOWLING 2 & 3 and my personal favorite brain-exploder COMMUNION?
No matter its disjointed nature, THE BEAST WITHIN has a weird, off-putting apprehensive vibe. Maybe that's just residue from my own trepidation after succumbing to its effective "WE DARE YOU TO WATCH THIS!" advertising campaign thirty years ago or maybe it's due to the swampy, sleazy, southern-fried insanity setting- I don't know. It's also got a great cast. RONNY COX and BIBI BESCH make nice, sympathetic parents and the rouges gallery of creepy local residents is gonzo strong with DON GORDON, LOGAN RAMSEY and JOHN DENNIS JOHNSTON. (If you don't recognize their names, you'll recognize their faces) An I WAS A TEENAGE CICADA movie would be bound to the ground without a decent actor playing the teenage cicada and PAUL CLEMENS does an admirable job and is remarkably adapt at melding himself with some seriously heavy make-up. Really, the way he contorts his face into unnerving expressions makes some of the lesser effect reliant scenes the strongest and I'd bet LON CHANEY would give him a thumbs up (after he threw-up).
I'll always be a tad disappointed in this movie's inability to state its case in a less jumbled manor but if you invite the right people to the right place, can't you still have fun even if cohesiveness is a no show? I think we all know I can. THE BEAST WITHIN is a monster movie and monster movies can get away with dancing around with a lampshade on their head especially if that head is committed to expanding to ten times its size in the finale. That's a party in my book and if I have to crawl around in the dark to get there so be it.
Hello,
As with many of you I have a memory of watching a TV show in the 70's but cannot put a name to it. I have always believed that it was from Tales of the Unexpected but I cannot find a matching description in any of the episodes. It concerns a man who has been murdered by his wife and she, along with her lover hide the man's body in a well. His ghost then terrorizes them. It's set in a desert-like location (possibly the southwest). I remember that his body was possibly wrapped in cloth prior to being lowered into the well.
Thanks for any help & love the site!
Hey Guys,
Here's my two cents on what scared me or gave me nightmares: Kolchak: The NIght Stalker Episode 6 "Firefall". The conductor, or should I say his doppelganger, tried to annoy Kolchak by repeatedly knocking against an open window of a church. It was that smirk and the insane look on his face with the knocking that bothered me as a little boy. I had nightmares about that doppelganger for a few days. Also from the 70s was that smiling cow on every bottle of Elmer's Glue. For some reason, I kept superimposing Mr. Clean's face with the cow and the two together had this I'm-going-to-get-you look. Weird and scary.
Lastly, any of the Bigfoot documentaries of the 70s. Chills down my spine all the time. It was hard to get any sleep. Oh yeah, I almost forgot: the neighborhood pedophile who always looked at me and my brother whenever we were out playing or going to the store. He was thin and tall like Norman Bates with sunken eyes and super creepy. I later discovered he had a record for molesting a neighborhood boy.
That's all folks! Keep up the Traumatic work.
It's a Horror to Know You: Eric of FilmFather!
1. What is the first film that ever scared you?
It's been said by several people already, and it goes for me, too: JAWS. I saw it on HBO more times than I should have as a kid. Ben Gardner's head and Quint's demise gave me nightmares. On the opposite end of quality horror, the scene in KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS of Woody Strode's lifeless head slumping out of his overturned truck scared me so much that I had visions of him creeping past my bedroom door at night. Honorable mention for scar(r)ing me deeply goes to the trailers for IT'S ALIVE, MAGIC, CARRIE, and PROPHECY.
2. What is the last film that scared you?
I don't know if you'd call it scared, but the last film to traumatize me is WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN. As a parent, I felt terrified and helpless watching Tilda Swinton try in vain to bond with, control, or even love her son. The scariest part isn't even teenage Kevin; it's when he's merely 8 and already a full-blown sociopath.
3. Name three Horror movies that you believe are underrated.
THE HILLS HAVE EYES (2006) — Many horror remakes are rubbish, but this redux by Alexandre Aja is more brutal and agonizing than Wes Craven's original. As a parent, I can appreciate the depths Doug goes to in order to retrieve his infant child. And his killing of the mutant Pluto had me cheering; I love how he broke the big man down.
THE BLOB (1988) — Another horror remake I prefer over the original. Co-written by Frank Darabont and highly underrated. Great action, impressive effects, and certain people you think will survive…don't.
DEAD AND BURIED — A semi-forgotten flick about a town of murderous mobs and reanimated corpses, featuring dear old Jack "Grandpa from WILLY WONKA" Albertson as the town's creepy undertaker. The "you think he's dead, but he's not" and needle/eyeball scenes (both involving the same character) are forever burned in my memory.
4. Name three Horror movies that you enjoy against your better judgement.
BRIDE OF CHUCKY — When people would ask me if BRIDE OF CHUCKY is a good movie, I honestly tell them it was one of the most thoroughly entertaining movies I have ever seen. Great horror? No. But the pairing of Chucky and Tiffany, be it human or doll form, had me in stitches. Everything about this movie is outrageous: the kills, the punchlines, and yes, the hot doll-on-doll action ("Have I got a rubber? Tiff, look at me. I'm ALL rubber.").
FRIDAY THE 13TH PART V — I saw this on opening weekend 1985, bailing on my family who all went to see WITNESS. My theater was fully packed. Maybe it was the crowd mentality that made seeing FRIDAY THE 13TH PART V one of the most fun experiences I've ever had in a theater. The audience ate up every creative kill, and broke out in cheers when little Reggie (Shavar Ross) busted out the bulldozer!
BASKET CASE — One of the first horror films I ever saw (back when we had to rent the VCR with the tapes!). Trashy, splatty fun featuring a man and his blob of a conjoined twin seeking bloody, gory revenge on the doctors that separated them. Ah, the stop-motion animation of little Belial… [kisses fingertips] magnifique! I'm a sucker for horror films that capture the seediness of New York / Times Square in the late '70s/early '80s, as BASKET CASE does.
5. Send us to five places on the Internet!
Cinema du Meep — A great retro movie site, with focus on genres of the '70s and '80s (horror, teen comedies, etc.).
Dinner with Max Jenke — The tagline is "New Horror Opinions at '80s Prices." Here, Jeff Allard waxes poetic and nostalgic about all things horror, comic, and sci-fi – often providing insight I hadn't thought of before.
The Droid You're Looking For — A great blog featuring a mix of classic film, horror, lists, and even some TV on occasion.
Every '70s Movie — Daily movie reviews by filmmaker Peter Hanson (TALES FROM THE SCRIPT) of films from the 1970s.
Space: 1970 — A recently discovered gem. A blog dedicated to the science fiction films and television series of the 1970s — polyester, feathered hair, and all.
Hi, I have been a fan of your wonderful site for a long time, and I have something that I hope someone can help me with. When I was younger there aired on TV an episode from some cop program, it might have been Starsky and Hutch, I'm not sure. There was a crazed woman killing people, who would dress up as a man, wearing a derby and a suit, and would walk in the darkness saying to victims "You, you, I'm going to kill you". Thats all I can remember, and if anyone remembers what TV show this was from I appreciate it.
Is it possible that I read too much into horror films? Am I hallucinating subtext where there is none in order to justify my obsession? Well, I needn't worry about subtext when it comes to Brian Yuzna's SOCIETY (1989). If I interpret it to be about rich people sucking the life out of the poor, it's because in the film, rich people grow giant puckering lips, seize the poor and suck the life right out of them. Actually, they do far worse than that but to describe it would mean thinking about it and I just had lunch. Much of SOCIETY operates as a paranoid mystery, so I'm sorry if I just gave away the ending. Don't worry, even though everything suspected within the film is revealed to be true, there's no way you can possibly imagine what that entails. Suffice to say, the wealthy are not shown in the best of light but I suppose into each life a little rain must fall.
Bill Whitney (BILLY WARLOCK son of DICK WARLOCK of HALLOWEEN II and III!) is at the age where he is starting to feel disconnected from his family and their values. Part of his mounting alienation may be due to the fact that he is adopted and part of it is probably because he's heard a tape recording of his parents planning and participating in a deranged orgy with his sister. His parent's obsession with garden slugs and his sister's ability to twist and contort her body in impossible ways while showering only add fuel to the fires of mistrust. You'd think that having three-time scream queen HEIDI KOZAK (FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 7: THE NEW BLOOD; SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE II's zit girl) for a girlfriend would be enough for a guy, but Bill has got his cagey eye on exotic and suspiciously limber Clarissa (DEVIN DeVASQUEZ). His psychiatrist is zero help and if you've watched any conspiracy movie in the history of ever you know why.
The horror genre is one that is granted some added leeway to be as bizarre and inappropriate as it can get away with, so it's a big fat shame that more filmmakers don't take advantage of that extra elbowroom. BRIAN (BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR) YUZNA's SOCIETY is refreshingly oblivious to good taste and it delivers all the creativity and originality that audiences beg for and so often overlook once they receive it. I'd say it's a little too breezy and footloose in the storytelling department but if it is that type of freewheeling attitude that ultimately opens the door for the gooey, loony, hilariously unhinged insanity that concludes the film, I'll take it. I'd appreciate a better mapped out route but as long as I end up someplace I've never been, I'm happy.
There is a downside to SOCIETY though, at least for me, knowing that the last third of the movie is an explosive orgy of ferociously perverse, audaciously surreal, bold-faced bacchanalia, makes the first two thirds feel like a bit of a semi-chore. Before we're finally gifted with the full-disclosure finale, we're subjected to more than any movie's fair share of stalling. Suspicious evidence is discovered, discounted and rediscovered in a tiresome loop and too much of what transpires has no relevance at all. Fortunately the cast is likable enough to keep things afloat and of course there's always the added charm of the time period in which SOCIETY was filmed. More than anything though, if you have any interest in the art of pre-CGI special effects the work here, care of SCREAMING MAD GEORGE, is required viewing. I don't know if it "holds up," I just know that it's fantastic and that it's gorgeously grotesque and thank God it's captured on film. So what if we end up with a half hour's worth of material stretched like taffy to three times that length? Since that half hour is three times more potent than what is standard, I say, fair enough.
Hi, I just discovered Kindertrauma a little while ago, and I have loved reading it. I'm a big horror fan, and reading some of the traumafessions led me to try and remember some of the things that scared the hell out of me as a child.
I remembered something I had seen a long time ago that I couldn't name that absolutely scared the shit out of me as a kid. I used to love watching Wallace and Gromit with my mom, growing up. We would rent the VHS tapes from the local blockbuster. I remember that on one of the tapes, and sadly I can't remember which, there was a preview for another stop motion animation. The style was sort of crude looking, and from what I can recall it was about a young girl and her… Well, I'm not sure if it was her aunt or her grandma or what, but there was something about her being dead, or coming back from the dead, and there was this crazy swirly portal. I think it was probably a comedy, but all I can remember is this creepy old dead lady, and that she called the little girl 'dearie'. I used to have nightmares after that, where I would go into my parents room to wake my dad up. I'd approach from the back, climb over mom, and then when I got to the side where his face was I'd find him as a zombie with one eyeball hanging out of its socket. After that I was sometimes afraid to lift the covers off his face in the morning. I would check to make sure both my parents were still alive. It was the idea of an adult relative, someone who you're supposed to trust and rely on, becoming something other that scared me so much. I have often wondered if the 'trailer' itself was just a nightmare. I've tried googling it, but I can't find it. So, did I hallucinate it entirely? Or does anyone else remember this?
It's a Horror to Know You: Todd Miller author of A Silence of Spiders!
1. What was the first film that ever scared you?
My parents did a pretty good job of keeping me away from scary images in the movies and on television—until that fateful plane ride to Amsterdam in the summer of 1978. Just seven-years-old, I was tricked into watching the in-flight movie: Who's Killing the Great Chefs of Europe. At some point Jacqueline Bisset is wandering around in some fancy kitchen, when she opens up one of the ovens and out pops a hideously charred human arm! I spent the rest of the plan ride cowering under the seat, bitterly cursing Dutch hospitality.
But the first scary movie I remember seeing all the way through was The Black Hole. I can hear Walt Disney now…
"Hey, kids! Come to our wholesome Walt Disney movie! It takes place in Outer Space, just like that other Outer Space Movie you kids like so much. And our movie's got robots! In fact, our movie has a big, scary red robot named Maximillian. And he's got little chainsaws for hands. Look out, spaceman Anthony Perkins! Maximillian is going to get you! Oh, no! Look, kids! Spaceman Anthony Perkins is getting butchered right before your very eyes! And here's a bunch of black-robed, lobotomized drones with hideous ghoul faces under their gleaming metal masks! And here's that lobotomy machine we were talking about earlier. It shoots lasers into your brain! Uh-oh, now everybody's getting sucked into that giant black hole, and oops! Now the bad guy is trapped in a burning Hell surrounded by the flailing bodies of the damned!"
Thanks, Walt.
1. What is the last film that scared you?
The last film that really creeped me out was Carnival of Souls. This movie marches along to the beat of it's own drum, and man, that drum is weird.
A young woman named Mary is the sole survivor of a drag race gone bad, and shortly after the accident she takes a new job in a far-away, desert town as a church organist. And, well, things get really strange from there.
What's going on in that dark, abandoned amusement park on the edge of town? Why does Mary always play that creepy organ music as if she's in some kind of hypnotic trance? And what exactly is causing those unsettling moments when Mary appears to become invisible to everyone else?
And then there is The Man. A white-faced apparition who appears without warning, in her dreams, in her waking hours, reaching for her, trying to pull her back to the whirling, never-ending dance at the amusement park…the dance of the damned.
2. Name three horror movies that you believe are underrated.
1. If Frankenstein is the Grandfather of all Mad Scientist movies, then Island of Lost Souls is their Great Uncle, the bad one that nobody talks about anymore. It's too bad that the movie seems to be best remembered for inspiring the lyrics of a Devo song, because Island of Lost Souls is a wild, kinky freak-out festival of darkness and perversity.
The film is based on H.G. Wells's book The Island of Dr. Monreau, but plenty of liberties are taken with the source material and what ends up hitting the screen is a boiling cauldron of American fears, circa 1932. And these fears aren't pretty (or politically-correct): The perils of Colonialism! Eugenics! Miscegenation! Rape! And, of course, the dangers of playing God with Science!
But, I'm making this sound way too academic.
A castaway ends up on a mysterious island and is gleefully taken in by the even more mysterious Dr. Moreau. The good doctor does experiments here in his secret jungle laboratory. Secret, mysterious experiments that usually involve someone…or something…screaming in agony. But don't worry about the Doctor. He's only a cheerful, smirking, civilized little sadist who likes to play with a whip.
And never mind the island's lumbering, hirsute inhabitants, with their fangs and pointy ears. They obey The Law. What is the Law? Not to run on all fours. Not to eat meat. Not to spill blood. Are we not men? Here, meet our only woman, Lota…don't you find her…strangely alluring? Wouldn't you like to…get to know her better? Never mind her strange fingernails…
2. In the 1970s, kids weren't just bad, they were Evil. And the Doublemint twins of Evil are Niles and Holland Perry, from The Other. Based on a book by Tom Tryon (author of the also excellent Harvest Home), The Other is a crafty, gothic tale of madness and murder set during the summer of 1935.
I know what you're thinking: one of the twins is good, and one is evil, blah, blah…YAWN. But, what if both of the twins are evil…or what if something else entirely different is going on? To say anymore would give away the devious plot twists that raise the movie to a whole other level of horror.
Instead, I'll just throw out a few tid-bits: a mysterious well, a woman in the attic, a grandmother from the Old Country, a circus freak show, a rickety staircase, a white rat, a pitchfork, Dad's old ring, a voice in the darkness, a book about Changelings…
The movie's deliberate pace isn't what we're used to these days, but try to stick it out. Holy moley, what an ending! It gave me goose bumps.
3. You know that Roman Polanski movie about the person who goes crazy in their apartment building because all the other tenants are evil? No, I mean the other one. Okay, I mean the other, other one—Roman Polanski's The Tenant, based on a book by Roland Topor.
The Tenant has been called the last film in Polanski's "Apartment Trilogy," and the story involves a somewhat meek man named Trelkovsky (played by Polanski) trying to rent a new apartment in a busy section of Paris. It seems the apartment's previous tenant just threw herself out the window, and when Trelkovsky goes to visit her in the hospital, he can't help but notice that one of her teeth is missing. Shortly after his visit, she dies, and the apartment becomes his to rent.
Ah, but the landlord is unreasonably strict, the other tenants are boorish and mean, and the noise complaints against Trelkovsky begin to pile up. Soon he can't help but notice that the neighbors are spying on him. A little house cleaning reveals a bizarre object that belonged to the former tenant, an object which sets in motion Trelkovsky's frightening descent into paranoia and madness. But is Trelkovsky going crazy, or is everyone really out to get him?
Why does the landlord insist he hears a woman in Trelkovsky's apartment at night? And why does Trelkovksy wake up one morning with painted fingernails? Or…does he? And, what's with the tooth?
This is a classic Person-Going-Crazy horror film, my favorite in the genre.
3. Name three horror movies that you enjoy against your better judgment.
1. Poor H.P. Lovecraft. There's never been a really good, big-budget adaptation of any of his stories. But there have been plenty of bad ones. One of the goofiest has to be Roger Corman's The Dunwich Horror, filmed in 1970 and staring Sandra Dee and Dean Stockwell as the evil hippie wizard Wilbur Whateley. And hey, the soundtrack is by faux-exotic lounge music composer Les Baxter!
Okay, they didn't have a lot of money for special effects. But, man, they try really hard to invoke the mind-blasting, sanity-shaking horror of encountering one of Lovecraft's cosmic baddies. What other movie presents a hideous dark god from another dimension in the flesh as a really, really bad acid trip? Incense and Peppermints! Yog-Sothoth!
Oh, those weirdo hippies with their Free Love and their Elder Gods! Dean Stockwell is perfect as an oily, ascot wearing youth with dangerous hair who needs the body of Sandra Dee to open up a portal to another universe. And just who is going to come out of that portal? I think you know…
2. The Stepford Wives is another movie which has been reduced to a pop culture catchphrase. You may think you don't need to see this movie because you already know the main surprise of the story. And it all sounds so completely over–the-top. Women getting replaced by robots? Please.
But, really, how is it any different than getting replaced by aliens from seed pods, or getting turned into a zombie, or any other horrible thing that can happen to a person, to their identity, in any number of scary movies? What is the loss of your identity, if not a kind of death?
It's all here, all the trapping of a good horror movie: paranoia, creepy clues that Something is Wrong in Stepford, our heroine's growing sense of isolation and fear as her friends are changed and her enemies grow stronger…
And then suddenly there's violence and the appearance of The Strange Thing…
"I'll just die if I don't get this recipe. I'll just die if I don't get this recipe. I'll just die if I don't get this recipe."
3. Way before Anthony Hopkins played Hannibal Lector, he was Corky Withers in Magic, a movie about an evil ventriloquist dummy. C'mon, we all know ventriloquist dummies are evil. Look at them. With their dead eyes and gaping mouths!
Okay, maybe the dummy isn't evil. Maybe eccentric, short-tempered ventriloquist Anthony Hopkins just has something wrong with his head. Crazy-wrong! Killing wrong!
As goofy as the concept sounds, the movie is incredibly clever. Let's just say that as Corky starts to make mistakes, and the bodies start to pile up, that watching him twist and turn in mental agony is good, creepy fun.
Plus, the dummy really is evil.
4. Send us five places on the Internets!
MATTHEW KIRSCHT – shout-out to my friend Matthew Kirscht, an artist whose work is inspired by 19th century Halloween imagery. (He also draws Wacky Packages for Topps.)
CTHULHU LIVES – The official website of the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. They did a cracking-good silent movie adaptation of The Call of Cthulhu.
SPACE 1970 – A really fun blog about 1970s science-fiction movies. Soylent Green! Rollerball! Logan's Run!
MIKE"S AMAZING WORLD – A great resource for tracking down old horror comics.
THE BOOK DESIGNER– Helpful advice for self-publishing authors.
