kindertrauma

Year: 2014

Five Hidden Hulu Horror Gems

Posted on By unkle lancifer

Today's picks are all available to stream for free on HULU. I'm not sure if HULU is available everywhere so if you don't get HULU, seek out these flicks anyway. HULU is pretty annoying. You gotta deal with commercials, pathetic attempts to convince you to upgrade to HULU-plus and the generally loud and unappealing look of the joint. It's like the place is lit with industrial florescent lights. Have I mentioned I loathe the color white more than hydrangeas? Who cares because they have FREE movies and we're all about that! Here are five flicks that deserve your attention.

ENTER NOWHERE (2011)

I took this one out from the library a while back (support your local library!) and now I'm so glad I can share this find via HULU. The only reason I wanted to see this was because of THE INNKEEPERS' SARA PAXTON but I ended up liking everybody in it and digging it more than I expected. It's about three strangers who inexplicably find themselves lost in the woods. I was all convinced I was being set up for ye old "We're already dead!" routine but ENTER NOWHERE has a whole other batch of tricks up its sleeve. There's a very interesting TWILIGHT ZONE vibe going on here and I found the limited setting and the eventual camaraderie between the characters highly enjoyable. PAXTON is predictably charming, KATHERINE WATERSON is genuine and convincing and SCOTT EASTWOOD is exactly the right level of handsome to get away with clunky acting every one in a while. The camera loves him like it loved his pa CLINT circa THE BEGUILED, and that goes a long way. ENTER NOWHERE is so story and character driven that it could easily work as a stage play and I'd put it up along with THE DARK HOURS (2005) and DEAD END (2003) as a worthwhile head-trippy independent keeper.

ISOLATION (2006)

This one was recommended to me a while back (review HERE). It was something I could have very easily passed over and I'm so thankful I didn't. You'd never know it but ISOLATION is an engaging, wonderfully slimy monster movie.

TESIS (1996)

Released the same year as SCREAM, TESIS did not make anywhere near a comparable impact but it's amazing what a better predictor it is of themes that are popular in horror today. It's also interesting to consider it predates THE RING and BLAIR WITCH with its preoccupation with VHS/found-footage horror. Director ALEJANDRO AMENABAR would go on to deliver OPEN YOUR EYES and the hit THE OTHERS, but the darkest road he has traveled remains this quietly influential debut.

YELLOWBRICKROAD (2010)

I have quite the love/hate relationship with this movie (full review HERE.) As much as I refuse to outright like it, here I am still thinking about it. I don't get it. It's very possible that this movie just has some real, undiluted crazy in it and therefore I shall never truly be capable of fully scraping it off of my shoe. It may be more fun to think about than it is to actually watch but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

TOWER OF EVIL (1972)

We previously covered this one in our SEVEN FROM THE SEVENTIES post. I love me some seaside horror and this movie has the coolest seventies clothes, deliciously grisly death scenes and plenty of fog infused atmosphere. The original story comes courtesy of GEORGE BAXT who's responsible for another favorite I can always count on to put me in the desired creepy mood, CITY OF THE DEAD (1960). This is a must see but you might want to wait till its dark out to get the full effect.

Hope you guys enjoy these and try not to let those pesky commercials ruin the fun!

Name That Trauma:: Dustin in Minnesota on a Sneaky Stepmom's Summer Camp Switcheroo

Posted on By unkle lancifer

I was watching "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" one night recently, and it reminded me of a TV-movie trauma I saw in the late 1970s or early 1980s.

As best as I can remember, it involved a girl (possibly Eve Plumb, but I can't find this in her filmography) whose new stepmother was committing her in a psychiatric hospital, under the guise of taking her to a summer camp for near-sighted girls. I do recall the girl said, "Great, we'll all be bumping into each other."

At the asylum, the girl didn't "play ball", so the staff tried various methods of breaking her, one of which was putting her into the same cell as a violent inmate, hoping she'd get beaten up – but the two girls became friends instead, playing patty-cake when their cell was opened later.

I didn't get to see the end, as it was past my bedtime, but I was told the nurses there wanted to sterilize her – but she was rescued in the nick of time, possibly by her father.

The concept of being institutionalized frightened and fascinated me at the same time, and I have always enjoyed movies involving psychiatric hospitals. Does anyone else remember this TV movie? I am guessing it aired sometime between 1979 and 1983.

Thanks!

Dustin in Minnesota

Name That Trauma:: Martin on a Afternoon Axe Fight

Posted on By unkle lancifer

This movie might have been on USA Network's Commander USA Saturday morning in the early to mid '80s but I don't know if they showed anything this gory. I was in an appliance video store with my parents and this scene came up on a row of big screen televisions. I was probably 5-6 years old. It freaked me out.

Here is the scene:

It was in a grassy wooded area during the day. A woman slams a logging axe into a man's back who was facing a man on the ground. Blood starts gushing from the wound around the axe. The man turns around to face the woman and the man on the ground pulls a boot knife, throws it into the back of the man's neck, causing him to spit blood from his mouth.

That's all I saw.

I have been looking for this movie for years.

Martin

Rain of Fire aka The Chosen aka Holocaust 2000 (1977)

Posted on By unkle lancifer

There's nothing like scrounging through a used DVD bin. Thank God there are still a few places in my vicinity where I can do that. Buying off of the Internet may be convenient and all, but it kills the thrill of the hunt and robs fate of its chance to shove something in your face that you didn't know you wanted. Synchronicity and serendipity teamed up to insure that RAIN OF FIRE and I should collide. Recently while flipping through some movies at a favorite haunt, I knocked a bunch of DVDs on the ground and there it was just staring up at me. It was ugly and I wondered if it was in the wrong section. It was dressed like a public domain reject. It had the worst cover art ever sporting a shame faced KIRK DOUGLAS standing in front of a wall of fire. So much for love at first sight.

Luckily curiosity got the better of me and I investigated the back of the case. I was shocked to see LION'S GATE had put out this dreadful looking package and then I thought about it for a second and remembered that they have no idea what they are doing. Hold up now! Turns out RAIN OF FIRE was directed by ALBERTO DeMARTINO, the loon that brought us THE TEMPTER and the music was done by our pal ENNIO MORRICONE! The synopsis even mentions something about the devil. This is an apocalyptic Italian Satan flick! At $2.99, pathetic packaging or not, I was sold.

Some folks may complain that RAIN (aka HOLOCAUST 2000 aka THE CHOSEN aka LUCIFER'S CURSE) is a brazen OMEN rip-off, but to me that's nothing to complain about. Truth told it doesn't resemble THE OMEN so much as it does OMEN 3: THE FINAL CONFLICT, which is kinda impressive considering that in 1977 that sequel hadn't been made yet. I guess RAIN saw where THE OMEN series was heading and decided to cut it off at the pass. Between you and me, I found it to be more entertaining than OMEN 3 (though it's still nowhere near as good as OMENS 1&2) though maybe I should watch that one again just to be sure. Eh, on second thought, it doesn't matter. Let's just say any and all end of the world movies involving the devil are welcome here.

DOUGLAS plays a rich business dude who wants to build a nuclear power plant and his son SIMON WARD couldn't be more enthusiastic about the plan because he is secretly the antichrist and doesn't mind destroying the entire world if the opportunity should arise. This movie is not quite as wacky as our beloved THE VISITOR (what is?) but it is certainly cut from the same nutso Italian cloth and features quite a few of its own inexplicable, psychedelic sanity lapses. What really gives it a lead over OMEN 3 though is the fact that at one point some guy gets the top of his head sliced off by a helicopter propeller a'la DAWN OF THE DEAD which by the way, was still a year away. Guess which movie I think handles the effect better? Hint: my answer is absolute horror fan sacrilege.

Another big plus to this movie is DOUGLAS and his impossible chin. This is far down on the list of roles he'll be remembered for but the guy has unquestionable presence and brings a certain ‘70s disaster-vibe to the table. I appreciate the novelty of having an older male lead even as I question the choice to have him run about buck-naked in so many scenes. Hey, it was the seventies. The ending probably could have used some retooling, as anything besides the total annihilation of mankind is a let down for such a flick but I was never bored which is more than I can say for my experience with OMEN 3 (there I go again).

What can I say? This movie has a lovely glass insane asylum where everybody is fond of taupe and beige where one guy gets his head smashed into hamburger, a bit where medical professionals are fine with fulfilling DOUGLAS' instructions to pretend to give his pregnant gal pal (AGOSTINA BELLI) a routine check-up while actually performing an unwanted abortion and it has a nifty, giant seven-headed dragon monster that symbolizes a nuclear power plant. And it's all wrapped in this swell "Save the Earth" wrapper that GODZILLA VS. THE SMOG MONSTER would totally approve of.

One thing is for sure, RAIN deserves something more than being completely forgotten. If punch-drunk, THE VISITOR can be reappraised and applauded for its idiosyncrasies, I don't see why RAIN OF FIRE can't be to. If you like cleft chins, Italian rip-offs, the satanic seventies or all of the above, pray to the antichrist that this flick falls into your life. And take a lesson from me; never judge a movie by its DVD cover.

Name That Trauma:: Vi on a Woman in a Red Dress, a Headless Doll & a Frosty Windsheild

Posted on By unkle lancifer

Hello! I recently discovered your site, and spent (no lie) about a day and a half going through the archives trying to see if I could find a movie that no amount of googling has been able to turn up. It was something my mom was watching that I caught pieces of in the early 90s. I think it was a made for TV movie, because of the quality of the production, but it could also have just been an older feature film (I want to say it was made in the late 70s to early 80s, going by the guy's haircut that I can remember). Here is what I can remember, in non-chronological order:

*A woman in a red dress with long dark hair who either lost a baby, or wants one to the point where she is treating a doll as a real baby.

*The abusive husband/boyfriend of crazy red dress lady, who at one point flips the hell out, and rips the doll away from her and tears its head off.

*A mother and daughter are driving in a car, when the windshield suddenly starts to frost over/crystallize, causing them to panic.

I think the aforementioned daughter was kidnapped by Mr. and Mrs. Crazypants at one point. Crazy red dress lady eventually is killed by her equally crazy man. I think this event is seen as a vision by another one of the characters, who sees the man hulk-out in rage as the background flashes in a weird effect. This may have happened immediately after he tears the head off the doll, but I don't think so. Her body is found on a shore, but I don't remember if it washed up or if it was ditched there.

I'm pretty sure there was some supernatural element to the movie, hence the vision and the windshield weirdness. It's also possible that I'm merging elements from different movies in my head. The weird flashing background as the guy flips out gave me nightmares, and I haven't been able to forget it!

Thanks,

Vi

Sunday Viewing Suggestion :: Darkko on Abby (1974)

Posted on By unkle lancifer

Abby (1974) starts with a group of students talking to Dr. Williams, who is an expert on the deity of chaos and trickery, Eshu. Soon to be leaving for Nigeria on an archeological expedition, his students give him a sweet silver cross necklace as a going away gift.

While exploring caves, they find a box with a carving on it. More specifically, it's Eshu with an erection. I can't be sure, but as they struggle with how to open it, I think they end up twisting the wooden boner. Dr. Williams exclaims, "Yes, of course!"

The box is opened, dust flies everywhere, and there are several demon cut away flashes of what looks like a female Hulk (Lou Ferrigno style).

Eshu proceeds to make an instantaneous cross continental journey back to good ole' Louisville, Kentucky to wreck havoc on Dr. William's daughter-in-law (Abby) and extended family! What follows is a passive aggressive possession of Abby and her violent sexual adventures. I mean, why didn't Eshu just go after Dr. Williams and his team in Nigeria? When Reverend Emit (Abby's husband) calls Dr. Williams to tell him what's going down, Dr. Williams takes a stab at logic and thinks it's because Abby is overwhelmed by, "All the Church and community activities." At one point, Abby feels like some kind of Saturday Night Fever/Exorcist splice up. Disco/funk music plays in the background as Abby alternates between being horny and picking up guys in a bar, to violently tossing these same guys across the room while laughing maniacally.

The cornucopia of expletives that flows forth from possessed Abby's mouth is reason enough to watch this film! As Abby says, "Killing is too much fun!"

Warner Bros. sued the filmmakers and won for copyright infringement of The Exorcist(1973). Abby was actually removed from theaters in 1974 and did not resurface again until 2004!! Hope you all enjoy it as much as I did!

Name That Trauma:: Kristine on a Giant Glue Trap Made for People

Posted on By unkle lancifer

I am a huge horror fan and have been since I was a kid. I watched all the horror shows I could. One that stuck with me was one where there were people in a room that had a sticky floor and they were trying to get out of it. I want to say in the end it was revealed to be just a giant glue trap made for people. I have no idea what it was from and I did some searching and I know it is not from Tales from the Dark Side, Tales from the Crypt or even the Monsters series. I do know that it was in color and not back and white so we can eliminate the old Twilight Zone episodes. I want to say this was during the late '80s to the late '90s. If you horror fans can help me remember it I will be eternally grateful.

Traumafession:: Ytje V. on The Box of Delights

Posted on By unkle lancifer

To be honest , I never was that adventurous or courageous when it came to suspenseful and creepy TV series. I got scared easily. My mother probably meant well when she suddenly would change channels because she thought something might upset me. She once even put her hands over my eyes while I was watching a TV show; she thought some monster on the screen might scare me. I think her sudden shrieking and putting her hands over my eyes was more scary than anything that might've been on the telly at that very moment.

My parents subscribed to a TV guide. The other magazines my parents subscribed to were too boring to even flip through, so I devoured every issue of the TV guide with gusto.. I must've been seven or eight years old when I saw a TV series that I just knew would be great to watch. I persuaded my parents to let me watch it, I even told my friends at school that I was going to watch a great TV show. It would be magic! I would be adventurous for once! I felt great.

The series was called Box of Delights. There is quite some praise for this series, even after its release, some thirty years ago. The story revolves around a magic box, given to a boy by a magician. Dark forces want to get hold of the box, so suspenseful adventure would be duly unfolding, or so I thought.

I didn't make it through the first episode.

At some point during episode one I realized I got more than I bargained for. Why had I persuaded my parents letting me watch this? Why had I bragged at school?

I knew retreat would be imminent. And I know the exact moment; when 'Rat' (a man, made up and costumed as a stinky, skeevy rat) reared its ugly head. I jumped up from the couch, did a spin and buried my head in a couch cushion. I think I cried. I was so disappointed; in myself and in the show that dared to be way too horrifying.

Needless to say I had raging nightmares that night.

In recent years I did try my best to find Box of Delights online. Because the series aired under a different title (original title loosely translated to Dutch) I had a difficult time actually finding it. But when I did, I was delighted.

I can see why Box of Delights scared me, but there are other scenes standing out now, that I find very creepy. The leader with the freaky puppet! Those priests! The fake looking make up on the old magician to make him look aging and wise!

Because I couldn't find other reviews or confessions deeming Box of Delights scary, I consider myself alone in this.

Well, not all alone. In fact, my sister, who's four years younger than I, would start crying just by seeing a picture of Rat. There was a picture of Rat in the TV listings, along with the article about Box of Delights. That's right. I already knew there would be a creepy character somewhere in the series and I still thought I could make it.

My brother would taunt my sister by sneaking up on her and brandishing the TV guide. My mom got so fed up that she took a pair of scissors and cut the picture out. She did this very neatly. Because the week wasn't done yet, we still needed it.

Here's the first episode (part one anyway):

I also included a pic of Rat. Man, is that guy creepy!