Category: Name That Trauma!

Hey Kindertrauma! Dylan Donnie-Duke from The Walter Paisley Movie House here! A TWPMH member asked this question, and I am at a loss, so I am looking to the real experts for help. Thanks in advance! Here's what he asked:

Do any of you Gen Xers remember an animated movie from the early 80s? I think it was on HBO a lot. It was about pirates, brothers who were a pirate and an admiral, and there was this weird Chameleon critter in it as well. I also seem to remember this movie being somewhat lascivious.

Hello Horror Fans!

I am trying to recall the title of either a short story adapted for television, or a television episode that I saw around 1979-1983.

I don't remember much about it. It was on one of those PBS educational shows where they would adapt a youth novel or short story for television. The only scene I remember involved a girl trying to guess what something meant in French (and coming remarkably close, for a guess).

She thought it *sounded like* it might mean "ghost if I can," or "devil if I can.' The translation was something like "diable si je peux," which does indeed translate into "devil if I can." I don't think she was a native speaker, because she was reading it and trying to figure out. She actually said the second part "sounds" like "if I can."

It was a darkened room, possibly a study or library in an old house where she was reading. Suspenseful music was playing, and she may have been reading by candlelight

That's all I remember. Did anyone else see this?

Thanks

Dustin in Minnesota

Hi Kindertrauma, I've just stumbled upon your site after wandering through the web. Most interested in your "name that trauma" section as I have been haunted for many years by a TV show opener. It is in black and white and is animated, one scene morphs into another and another an so on. I cannot remember the order but I think it starts with a boy bouncing a ball which then changes into maybe an eagle then maybe a dark alleyway then maybe a mummy. Each scene turns quickly to the next to create the intro. It is English and dates back to the early seventies and I believe the show told a different story each episode. I found the intro so creepy that it stays with me to this day over forty years later. Please could someone tell me the name of the show.

Many thanks

Stephen B. – a lifelong horror fan.

Hi Kindertrauma!

Love your website and have been enjoying your posts for many years. I'm finally going to submit my Name That Trauma that's been haunting me for 40+ years. I was very young so some details may be inaccurate but I'm open to any suggestions.

A woman returns to her family home after being away for many years. The interior of the house looked vaguely gothic with two or more floors and big rooms. The mother and other family seem very hostile to the returning woman.The family members speak of her brother (or maybe father?) who never leaves his room and is never seen. A tray of food is delivered to his room every day and then picked up outside the door with empty dishes. There's extended build-up and mystery about the never seen brother, climaxing with the woman finally entering his room where she of course finds his skeleton propped up in a chair. The mother (?) comes flying into the room after her discovery screaming "You must die! You must die!" while wielding a knife or ax.

Obviously this sounds like Psycho by way of Burnt Offerings with a touch of Silent Scream but it's none of those. I know several of the plot points sound like Hammer's "Scream of Fear" but it's not that either – though it's entirely possible that I've mixed that one up with another movie or TV show. I saw the movie sometime between 1972 and 1977 (based on where we were living when I saw it) so I was no older than 7 and I'm sure my memory isn't entirely reliable. I think it was in black and white but that might have just been our TV at the time. The "You must die!" part is what has stuck with me over the years. It's so campy and over the top it's hard to believe it's not from some well-known movie.

Appreciate any help or suggestions from you or your readers!

All the best,

Geoff C.

Hey there KinderTrauma,

I hope this is the right way to reach you about a certain program I saw on TV that scarred me early on and I have been trying to uncover for close to 22 years.

So at some point in the mid 90's I was traveling with my dad on business and we were staying at a hotel for one night. He left early in the morning and I had the hotel room all to myself so I preoccupied myself by watching TV.

One of the first things I came upon was a movie/procedural TV show that seemed to be horror in nature, though I was too young at the time to make a clear distinction between horror and mystery thriller.

Anyway, the scene that freaked me out was of a long hallway, possibly a hospital or school building. Wandering the lone halls is a woman. I remember her wearing custodial garb, but I could be wrong. So as she is wandering, at some point, a figure clad in all white passes behind her from one side of the hall to the other. She continues to wander until the thing closes on her and she screams. The next scene is of detectives discussing the found body, noting that many or all internal organs had been removed.

The suddenness of the white clad figure and the grotesque method of killing really disturbed me, and I laid int that hotel room in terror until my dad came back hours later.

If anyone can solve this one, that would be great.

Thanks,

Chris

UNK SEZ: Chris! I'm thoroughly convinced you were exposed at a young age to the infamous night nurse scene from THE EXORCIST III (1990). It's got to be it! You mentioned the white clothes, the hallway and the police investigation afterward. If it makes you feel better, this horrific scene has gotten the better of many a hardened horror fan. No wonder it freaked you out as a kid!

Hey guys,

I saw this movie as a kid and I've never been able to find it again. All I remember is that there is a woman and her family is trying to drive her crazy. They put a corpse in a window of the house directly across the street for her to see. Does this ring a bell for anyone?

Sean

Hello!

This is what I can remember about a movie that freaked me out when I was 7 years old. I saw in on TV, in Spanish… so, that may not help.

A brother and his sister are in the attic (?), laying on their stomachs, maybe in front of a mirror, drawing a squiggly version of this (which in my memory is way creepier and looks less like a confused, thin, Minion) with red crayons, chanting something along the lines of "Momma gay, give us your power". (Momma gay, dans tu poder.)

The girl is sleeping and the brother places a hand held mirror in front of her face, which reveals the picture they drew. In what I assume was the final scene, the family is going somewhere, you have an eagle view of a yellow (?) car driving up the highway, among trees, and you hear the piercing scream of the girl, inferring she caught her reflection in the rearview mirror.

I'm 32 now. I remember I spent a week avoiding mirrors, and then only allowing certain parts of my body to be reflected, only a leg, or a hand at a time; running past mirrors, washing my hands with my eyes closed, opening my eyes real slow when I felt brave… And I've been looking for this movie, while not always wanting to find it, ever since.

Does it ring a bell?

Bee

Hey gang!

Asking for a friend, so could get touch and go if you need additional info. They told a story this weekend about a movie their parents exposed them to when they were but a wee lass that has ruined their brain for most of their life. They said it was new-ish at the time of viewing, so we're looking early – mid 80's. Set in early 1900's. Quite possibly subtitled and quite possibly French (though this could be incorrect, so hopefully it doesn't misdirect too much). Story is something along the lines of a woman ends up marrying some horrible husk of a man who gaslights her like crazy as she slowly loses her mind. Standout scenes included going to see a doctor (or maybe/more likely a dentist), asking where he keeps the arsenic, plunging her hand into the paste and smearing it all over her mouth and grinning at him in an attempted suicide. Another scene involved her in a prison where prisoners are kept below the floor under a metal grate. The woman apparently walks over top of the grate and squats down saying something like, "you are all my lovers now!" and slurping sounds can apparently be heard.

I can maybe try and extract more, but that's all that she was able to recall about it this weekend. My searches have yielded nothing. Hopefully there's not too much misdirecting info in there to bog down the investigation.

Cheers and more cheers! Thanks for all the trauma always!

-Art L.

These movies (most likely Italian) were played late night around 1989-1991 on cable TV usually around 1-3 am.

A very strange movie where a man is essentially lost and stumbles upon a family in a house where the family is a little weird. It's a bizarre movie and during a dinner scene they converse with him about the subject of death, whereas one of the family members states that their guest is a young man and would probably rather talk about life instead of death.

That is all I have, although I found it strange that a foreign film was repeated played in the US.

Another film (and perhaps this may even be the same one) is a man is lost and trapped in a casino in the middle of the desert. He has no idea where he is or how he got there. At one point he tries to leave, but the heat of the desert exhausted him and strange people from the casino find him and bring him back to the casino where he cannot leave or escape.

That is all I have unfortunately and wish I could locate what in hell I saw.

Thanks and best,

Chris B.

Hi,

First off, I love your website! The Name That Trauma section is one of my favorites to browse in my down time. I was an easily traumatized child and searching the depths of the internet for the culprits of my fears has been a long term hobby. However, there's one vague memory I have of what I believe to be an episode of a TV show (possibly even a show for kids or teens? Disney channel? I swear the intent wasn't to scare) in which a giant insect, I think it was a bee, is roaming the halls of a high school.

Here's where my memory gets hazy and weird. I believe it's possible this trauma was truly a dream because I've never found anything online that sounds remotely like what I remember watching. In my memory, the insect was possibly a human who found the head of a costume (or school mascot?) of the bee/insect thrown in a trash can. When they picked it up and put it on, they became the insect and started to fly around the halls. I think the cause of the whole situation and center of the episode was a science experiment gone wrong.

That's it. That's all I remember. It deeply bothered me as a child. I always hated bodily transformations as well as costumes/masks changing people, so it really affected me. If anyone has an idea of what this could be, let me know. Even if it's only slightly similar to my memory. I suppose it's possible the giant insect was not a human to begin with, and that I'm combining multiple traumas in my head. Again, it's hazy and could have been a dream, but I've been searching for this for years. For time period reference, I'm 20 now and I want to say I was between 5 and 10 when I saw this.

Thanks for your help,

Emma D.