How many ghost movies can you identify? One lucky guesser is going to win VERTIGO 's new ghostly anthology comic aptly titled GHOSTS featuring NEIL GAIMAN's DEAD BOY DETECTIVES! Only those who guess will have a ghost of a chance of winning! Good luck!
Hey Kindertrauma,
I wonder if anyone can help me with this. Just before bedtime one night in the late 80s or early 90s I came upon a tv show about Robin Hood. Robin Hood was my hero, so yay! However something was not quite right this time. I only remember one scene (guess I turned it off in horror after that): Robin Hood is down by a river with someone. At one point he turns his back to the person, who keeps talking. And then SUDDENLY Robin Hood turns around, and he is EVIL now (fangs? crazy eyes? don't remember what gave it away). I think the story was that this wasn't Robin Hood, but some impostor. One clue: I'm pretty sure the actor playing Robin Hood had blond hair. Who can help me?
UNK SEZ: Happy Halloween! Recently our good pal Stacy Pershall gave her students a special Halloween homework assignment and got them all to write some traumafessions for Kindertrauma! Here is the first one out the gate, a very scary memory of one Cessie Adair! Take it away, Cessie!
Uncle Jed and his new wife, Fran went to bed early, leaving Brad and I upstairs to stay up late watching TV. I had been doing aerobics after dinner so I was still wearing my tan leotard that mademe look like I was naked. At twelve years old I was already concerned about body image. Even though I was muscular with a dancer's body, I was already concerned about being fat.My brother was sitting on the couch against the wall directly across from the open stairwell that led to the bedrooms downstairs of my aunt and uncle's town house. I had a hard time sitting still so I was stretching and pirouetting all over the living room carpet that was the same colour as my leotard.
The television was on the top shelf of one of those flimsy rolling type stands with wheels on the bottom. "Don't Look in the Basement" was on. I think part of the reason I couldn't sit still was because the movie was scaring the crap out of me. Even though I loved scary movies, I was driving myself mental with some kind of morbid desire to scare the daylights out of myself.
Not only was I driving myself mental, I was also driving Brad mental, getting in his way so I could do a handstand without breaking any thing if I fell. "SIT DOWN!!" he yelled at me. "No! I'm doing my exercises and working on my dance, numbnuts!" He kicked me in the leg so I sat down hard on the floor and glared at him. I decided I would just do my stretching on the floor and pay more attention to the movie.
The movie was getting more intense and I remember the new nurse in it finally discovering that there were bodies in the basement. As she was going down the stairs I started to freak out because in the window directly to the right of the television I saw a shadow of what looked like curly hair.
Pause. I felt someone spying on me. Perverts and creeps from before this day had already caused paranoia in a child who really should be too young to know that someone wants to rape her.As the innocent nurse was finding bodies and the other nurse who was crazy was doing everything she could to stop the new nurse from escaping, I suddenly jumped up without thinking and ran to the kitchen to scope out the knives. I paced quickly on my tippytoes, back and forth in the galley kitchen. The vinyl floor felt so cool compared to the rest of my body. As I looked at the knives I thought that getting a knife was too dangerous and he could kill me with it. Just as I decided to not grab a knife I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. They were soft but quick and just before he tried the door handle to get in, I locked the door.
Then I saw it again, that shadow of a man's curly head outside the window in the living room. He wanted to hurt me. My heart was pounding and I didn't know what to do. Terror coursed through my veins like speedballs. Quickly, I was high on adrenaline. My brother was oblivious on the couch. He was used to me running around being a spaz. Then I saw him. The man was coming up the stairs. That's when I jumped up and down, pounding both feet as hard as I could with the weight of my fit, twelve year old body into the carpeted floor. I felt on fire with fear. I pounded as hard as I could. My aunt and uncle's bedroom was directly below us.
I screamed, "THERE IS A MAN IN THE HOUSE!!!" pounding the floor until I might pass out. Just as I finished screaming the man disappeared and my uncle came running up the stairs yelling, "What the hell is going on?" I was pointing at the window beside the TV yelling jibberish and pointing some more. Jumping from one foot to the other like I had to go pee right now. My uncle thought I was freaking out about the movie. "It's just a movie." He tried to calm me down. I said, "NO! There is a man in the window!" "He's coming up the stairs!" Uncle looked perplexed and said, "There is NO ONE there!" I cried again, "There is a man trying to get into the house!" Uncle ran down the stairs and into the bedroom across the hall from his room. I could hear him from upstairs. "Jill! Call the police! Someone broke in!"
When I timidly went to the bedroom my brother and I were staying in during our visit, I saw a moccasin on the floor. The guy lost it when he took off. The amazing thing is that he had to crawl under the patio to get into the window. It was a narrow space. How he got out so fast I will never know. What I do know is that I will never be able to think about or see "Don't Look in the Basement" without recalling that night.
Hey. I have been wondering forever about this Japanese horror film from the 50's that I saw when I was a youngin'. All I remeber is that two witches who were quite tall came into the bedroom of a brother and sister and glided towards their bed. They had melty noses and black garb on and the set outside had drawn trees and lighting and a crescent moon. I have never found it. Any help or knowledge would put my insane mind at ease a bit.
A friend told me to seek you out, after I shared my traumatic horror movie memory with him, and so, here I am. I'm afraid, though, that my trauma might be too esoteric to be pinned down, but I hope I'm wrong.
It was a movie I saw in Puerto Rico as a kid, it was in Spanish, so it's quite likely that it was a Mexican/Latin American production. The setting is a boat in the Bermuda Triangle–I remember the ad campaign cashing in on the "mystery" surrounding the region. On that boat is a family, including young boy and girl siblings, and her doll. Naturally, the boat eventually becomes adrift at sea, and the family comes across some survivors from another ship. These are merchant marine types, who quickly hatch a scheme to take over the family's boat for their aims.
But the thing about the area they are in is that some malevolent spirit(s) reside there, and it(they) take over the will of those who are morally and mentally weak, and, somehow, the doll. Here's where the trauma comes in, there are numerous sequences where the doll threatens the kids, and is even responsible for the deaths of one of the kids and a couple of the adults…
That's if I remember correctly. It's been almost thirty years since I saw the flick, and I'm sure it left an impression despite being a cheap z-grade movie because of that damn doll. I can't be more specific than I've been however…
Good luck,
jose'
UNK SEZ: I think I do know this one! I believe our pal Francisco once wrote in about it (HERE)! Could it be 1978's THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE directed by RENE' CARDONA JR.? There's definitely a creepy doll in that one!
UNK SEZ: A couple years ago I listed ten of my favorite movies that took place on Halloween (HERE). There's probably not too many surprises on that list but hey, I had a relatively limited barrel of apples to bob from. This year I thought it might be better to pick out ten films that have NOTHING to do with Halloween but that still somehow carry something that feels like the Halloween spirit to me. These movies don't involve the holiday itself, but their tone or subject matter is simpatico and regardless of their aspirations or taste level, they all share a healthy respect for the eerie unknown.
BURN WITCH BURN (1962) Behind every great man is a great witch. Skeptic Norman Taylor learns the hard way which side his bread is buttered on when his life goes to pot after he forces his wife to can her craft. BURN (aka NIGHT OF THE EAGLE) earns extra charm points for allowing me to cram THE INNOCENTS into the conversation as its star PETER WYNGARDE appeared in that classic as the menacing Quint!
CURSE (NIGHT) OF THE DEMON (1957) (not to be confused with NIGHT OF THE DEMONS (1988) which does take place on Halloween) When will science ever learn to take its hat off when black magic is in the room? You'll find some kids cavorting in spooky masks in this non-Halloween tale and I swear the holiday itself makes a cameo in the form of a chillingly ominous windstorm. Non-believers beware!
THE EVIL (1978) What Halloween is complete without a visit to a haunted house and what better time period to dress the excursion in than the late seventies? Subtly is refreshingly kicked to the curb and any thoughts that you've seen all this before are swept away by a surreal eleventh hour house-call call by old scratch himself!
ONE DARK NIGHT (1982) Staying overnight in a haunted house is one thing but who would have the nerve to camp out in a psychically animated corpse occupied mausoleum? Possibly tame by today's standards, who can complain when the company you are keeping includes MEG TILLY (PSYCHO II) and more importantly the one and only E.G. DAILY? Keep an eye out for my favorite tunnel (Los Angeles'2nd Street), which has also appeared in BLADE RUNNER and THE TERMINATOR among others!
WITCHBOARD (1986) If you'd like to know what it's like to be the best Ouija board-centered horror move ever made, you'll have to ask this one! I don't know what's more awesome, the first glimpse of bearded, axe-wielding evil spirit Malfeitor or seeing music video vixen TAWNY KITAEN dressed in drag. Extra points for yanking a still feisty ROSE MARIE and quirky character actress KATHLEEN WILHOITE into the mix!!
GHOULIES (1985) Silly though it may be, there's something so weird going on in this movie that I have to give it a nod. I find the titular creatures more adorable than scary so I'm placing blame solely on "Greedigut," the lady little person with the ill-fitting demonic voice (the late great TAMARA DeTREAUX) for my inexplicable unease. Joining the kooky chaos is JENNIFER's LISA PELIKAN, KILLER PARTY's RALPH SEYMOUR, TWIN PEAKS' JACK NANCE and good lordy, MARISKA HARGITAY!
STIR OF ECHOES (1999) You'll find a career high performance from KEVIN BACON here and even more impressively, a truly unique and refreshingly un-flashy presentation of the supernatural. What sets this flick apart is its sense of loss, after the scares have dissipated, there's a rank tragic vibe that's a little bit harder to shake. Extra points added for recruiting both ILLEANA DOUGLAS and the unnerving nightmare LIDSVILLE to take part in this spooky RICHARD MATHESON-penned mystery.
THE GATE (1987) Aw, remember the giddy fun it was when your parents would take off and leave you alone in the house all night as a kid? Makes me want to pop corn and watch QUINCY M.E. This movie is tons of fun and the stop motion monsters are super cool yet how flipping scary is it when the folks return home but are not acting quite themselves? SPEILBERG would be proud (if he was drunk). Extra points rewarded for upgrading the usual dusty book with a heavy metal record played backwards!
DOLLS (1987) Knowing that killer dolls inhabit this film should be enough for anybody. This creepy compact dark fantasy takes place on "The longest night ever" and when it's not fulfilling your requirements for biting bloodshed, it's making you chuckle like hell. The opening scene that involves a teddy bear's grizzly revenge is too good to be true and the moral warning that if you don't keep the kid inside you alive, you're likely to end up a puppeteer's plaything, is one we're always happy to back up here!
DEMONS (1985) O.K., now it's time to get a little rowdy. Who can say no to a free ticket to a horror movie? Not me. The premise, about a demon outbreak occurring during a movie show while the audience is trapped within the theater is wildly out there, so how come whenever I watch this flick I believe every thing it tells me as if it were the gospel? Ack! Maybe it's my claustrophobia and fear of crowds that takes over, but I can never help putting myself in the place of the characters and noting that I would be a shivering wreck hiding under a chair looking for a way to kill myself and praying for a helicopter to land on my head. DEMONS has no time to explain itself. You're already dead.
THE FOG (1980) While everybody and their brother was scrambling to duplicate HALLOWEEN's success by lifting the more obvious stalk and stab aspects of the film, its co-creators took the less crowded route and delved head first into the uncanny ambiguity that really made the flick tick. What they came up with is the ultimate ghost story that is THE FOG. It may take place in April, but this telling of a night when the supernatural world collides with ours is arguably just as appropriate for the holiday as its predecessor. Plus you get to see what really happened to Laurie Strode after the night he came home, she changed her name to Elizabeth and went hitchhiking!
Hello,
My name is Anthony Sant'Anselmo and I wanted to thank you for the labor of love that is your website. I, too, have yet to put away 'childish' things – and it all started with 'The Dark Crystal' back in '82… But before I delve into that, I should back up about twenty years when my father started a business to make an interactive child's toy, partnering up with Ken Forsse and Teddy Ruxpin was invented. Of course, it wasn't until 1985 that it finally came to fruition and was on the shelves just before the holidays. Already having a love of puppetry with 'The Dark Crystal' and 'Gremlins' – it was seeing the killer doll movie craze come forth a couple of years after Teddy's debut, that I couldn't turn back and I began making stop-motion animated puppet horror movies. I'm 35 years old now, animate for 'South Park' (a low-tech form of stop-motion puppetry) and I run a traveling exhibit of screen-used and replica puppets from horror movies of yesteryear called, 'Evil Puppets' – with an exhibit that includes Gremlins, Ghoulies, Critters, Trilogy of Terror, Troll, Monkey Shines, Meet the Feebles, Puppet Master and lots more. I have an online shrine (HERE) dedicated to these wonderful pieces, but the facebook page is really where the interactivity is.
We have a show this weekend at Spooky Empire in Orlando – should be a great time.
Just wanted to introduce and say thanks – I've gotten a lot of enjoyment from your site.
Anthony Sant'Anselmo
Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.
We passed the school, where children strove
At recess, in the ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.
Or rather, he passed us;
The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.
We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.
Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.
It's a Horror to Know You: Kyle Kuchta of Fantasm: Season of the Con!
1. What is the first film that ever scared you?
The first film that ever scared me was Child's Play when I was about 8. Well, I guess I never saw the movie, but Chucky scared the hell out of me. I remember having a dream where Chucky was going to kill me, but then Beavis and Butthead saved me. And then I remember going to a Haunted Hayride where they were showing the Boogeymen: Vol. 1 documentary before the ride, and I was convinced that Chucky was going to be in there, and I started crying. Years later, I've only seen the first Child's Play and Seed of Chucky. I don't know what's wrong with me.
2. What is the last film that scared you?
It would probably be Session 9. Honestly, that movie freaked me out beyond anything I thought could. I still regard it as the scariest film I've seen. I also am a wuss sometimes, so people get disappointed when I show them. But I think it's great. Ti West's The Innkeepers spooked me quite a bit, too. For whatever reason, I thought it was a good idea to watch at night by myself. I'm also one who gets VERY scared of sounds more so than images, so when the disclaimer comes up about watching it with loud volume, I was already tense. So I spent that film with the volume remote in hand, and it was probably the only film in a while that I had paused because I was scared.
3. Name three Horror movies that you believe are underrated.
1) Tourist Trap: One of my all time favorite horror films. That score, those mannequins, it had everything I wanted in a late 70s horror movie. It's SO damn creepy. Why did I want THOSE things? I don't know, but it was AWESOME.
2) The Signal: I was absolutely blown away by this film, and I wish that other people knew more about it and/or would give it a chance. I'm a fan of anthologies and, while it wasn't necessarily an anthology, the "transmissions" were a nice touch, and a great way to not just make it another crazy-zombie-possessed human movie. I dug it.
3) Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon: While it may not be so underrated in the horror community, I can't help but add this gem to my list. Any time anyone asks me to recommend a horror movie that's "not too scary," whatever THAT means, I suggest BTM. I actually recommend BTM for almost everything. I saw this film at a used video store for $4, and I wasn't sure whether to be sad that this DVD was regarded as a lower price used DVD, or happy that someone was going to buy it for cheap and love it as much as I do.
4. Name three horror movies that you enjoy against your better judgment.
1) Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth: This chapter in the Hellraiser series gets a lot of shit, but I absolutely love it. I think it's so fun, and the cenobites are some of the BEST. They're so ridiculous I can't help but to enjoy myself every time I watch it. All I ever wanted was that cenobite sculpture. Actually, nah, that's probably a horrible thing to have.
2) Shakma: My biggest regret was not having Amanda Wyss sign my Shakma VHS. I love watching this because I'll start the movie, and it'll be awful. And then it'll keep going and keep being awful. And then when I have 30 minutes left I'll be yelling at my TV for the movie to be done, like that's going to change anything. It's sort of an amusingly vicious circle I submit myself to, but I can't help it. Shakma is outrageous.
3) Ticks: Growing up in East Lyme, Connecticut, we had to be very aware of ticks because Lyme disease could cripple you, or whatever Lyme disease does. So ticks always BUGGED me. Lololololol. But seriously, the fact that this movie has Seth Green, Alonso Ribeiro, Clint Howard is reason enough to watch it.
5. Send us to five places on the Internet!
1) Fright-Rags: Some of the best shirts a boy like me could ask for.
2) Outside the Cinema: One of my favorite podcasts.
3) VHShitfest.
4) Death Waltz Recording Company.
5) Fantasm: Season of the Con: My upcoming documentary on horror conventions.
