Category: Name That Trauma!

Traumatic mission to name my trauma!!!

6 Years ago I left this trauma (HERE) in the hands of the good folks at Kindertrauma but have still never managed to find the culprit…it's time to try again!!!

I remember seeing this on TV in the early nineties ( it was in colour). Hope I'm not getting scenes confused but I'm sure it was a film which initially begins at some archaeological dig maybe in Egypt then focuses on a family either in England or America who are affected by a curse or possession related to the dig? I'm sure their was some kind of bad spirit and hallucinations involved but one scene I remember really vividly after all these years was of a conversation between a woman and her lover – she is laying naked full frontal in a bath (think she had red hair) and he crouched beside her clothed (Either one of them may have been possessed). This was so long ago I couldn't tell you if it was trashy or art-house…whatever it was made an impact on my young mind.

…and I'm sure there may have been a scene where something evil appears to man as he is driving in his car windscreen or looks down from the top of the car into the windscreen???

Suggestions I've had and followed up on are – The Kiss, Playroom, Gargoyles, Manhattan Baby…it was none of these. I wouldn't rule out it being an episode of a TV show either.

HELP!!!

When I was a kid in the early '80s, I made a point to catch Suspense Theater every Saturday afternoon. It aired on WPGH in Pittsburgh and showed mostly horror movies — like Hammer/Amicus/AIP stuff — with a dash of sci-fi (including timeless classics like Starcrash and Starship Invasions). It also showed one unidentified movie that I've wondered about all these years later, but I only remember the opening-credit sequence.

It's in color, and I'm guessing from the '60s or '70s. It starts with a guy walking up a dark stairway. He reaches a door at the top of the steps. The camera stays near the bottom of the steps, looking up at him from a distance. The door opens. Someone or something then emerges and hits the guy, apparently striking his head. He then tumbles back down the steps and toward the camera.

Now here's where it gets especially weird and memorable: the movie loops that footage — starting with the door opening — all the way through the opening credits. So you see the guy take a hit and fall down the steps over and over again until the movie really begins. Sadly, that's all I recall.

I will be grateful (and impressed!) if anyone can ID this movie.

Thanks,

Michael

It's one thing to forget the name of a movie you saw as a little kid 20, 30, 40 years ago but this "Name That Trauma" is just plain embarrassing because the film I'm trying to place couldn't be more than a decade old, meaning it came out sometime in the late 2000s.

All I remember is there is a girl living in a backwoods cabin with no eyes (or eyes were removed, or blind… whatever it was, she couldn't see) and she wears a blindfold with those old-timey flat glass eyes attached to it (looks very creepy.) I want to say the cabin decor and the way she dressed was almost retro-50s ish(?), as if stuck in a time warp, wearing hand-me-down clothes from generations ago. Somehow a man wanders into her cabin and he ends up with his own eyes removed and his still living body hanging from a tree with a rope run through his empty eye-sockets. OUCH! It may have been a subtitled film, I can't remember.

It's NOT Sheitan (2006) which also features eyes getting removed and was around the same time-period sort of maybe.

A little help here?

Brother Bill

HI, (I've never done this) Can anyone there help me find a movie that I caught a glimpse of when I was a kid? It starts right off with there being a male nude scene in the credits and my Mom and Granny instantly turned it off, I however when they weren't looking put the video back in and started watching it. It turns out the girl was dreaming the naked guy! Anyway she goes out later to meet this guy at a gazebo (I think) it was a very foggy place and he kept whispering her name. Anyway that's as far as I got before they caught me and turned the show off! So, now I'm stuck not knowing with what happened with this girl and her boyfriend. I think the girl had a sister who was worried about her younger sisters mental health. Also that the older sister might have had a boyfriend who was a cop- they might have been at a party (But I could be remembering a whole new movie. Anyway, can someone there Please help me – I've tried both Namethatmovie & tipofmytongue – no one knows just exactly what movie it is. The film is somewhere between 1980 and 1993 – we rented it from Hastings video store. I think it must have had a pretty suspenseful title otherwise we never would have rented it. Can anyone help me. Because this has been bugging me for years – don't know why I'm trying to find out what it is now though. If you can please respond, Thanks Robin

Hey! Love the show! Long-time listener, first-time caller, etc. I've had this on my mind for quite some time and am just now getting around to putting pixels to screen to get it solved. It is not a particularly traumatic memory that I need help with but it is one that has stumped me for years. Being a kid who was always interested in the macabre side of life I read every age appropriate ghost story book that I could get my hands on as a child. The one I am trying to find must have come from the library since I have never been able to find it in my collection. The book contained a story about a man walking down a lonely road. He finds a human skull in the road and he begins to kick it along as he walks. The skull begins to talk to him. I can't remember what they talked about or what happened next but I SWEAR that the story ended with a new skull in the road (the walking man's). This skull was described as new and glistening with blood in the moonlight. Well, at least that is my recollection of it. It was a visual that stuck with me as a child and into middle age. But search as I might, I cannot figure out where this story came from. I remember the book was a collection of stories and was most likely written for the elementary school set. Each chapter/story had a black and white illustration at the beginning and I can almost visualize the one that preceded this story (but not quite). Does anyone know what book this story came from? Or even the title of the story? Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks so much and sweet dreams!

Dr. Nick

Hello Kindertrauma!

Once when I was younger, I was watching an older movie (70s, 80s possibly?) that was rerunning on TV. I don't remember much from it, except for this one part that scared the absolute crap out of me. In this scene, a preteen boy and a weird puffy, baggy, yellowish brown alien were sitting in a diner. Something or another happened with salt, and the alien started freaking the fuck out, screaming, and the lights started exploding. The details are extremely fuzzy, but all I can describe it as is an even scarier Mac N Me. If you all have any idea what this movie is called, I would love to watch it in its entirety.

Thank you, Nathaniel

UNK SEZ: An Alien that doesn't like salt? That doesn't sound like NUKIE (watch HERE), that creature from my favorite episode of MST3K, THE POD PEOPLE (watch HERE) or even Turkish aliens BADI (HERE) or HOMOTI (HERE). I'm stumped but I'm sure one of learned readers will know. In the meantime, I'll be watching my long lost pal Spewey below….

Hey y'all!

My boyfriend has been asking me what movie this is and I just can't figure it out. He says in it a guy is hooked up to a bunch of tubes and makes another guy drink some of the stuff from one of the tubes. My boyfriend thinks it was one of the House movies, but I haven't seen any of them in so many years that I can't remember. Can anyone verify what movie this is for me?

Thanks a bunch!

-Kathryn

UNK SEZ: This sounds familiar but I'm stumped! Maybe one of our knowledgeable readers can help! Big thanks to TOM BURMAN's 's MEET THE HOLLOWHEADS for providing today's bumper graphics!

Hey Kindertrauma-

In the mid to late 70's there was a fire safety commercial warning about the hazards of falling asleep with a lit cigarette. It featured a woman holding a photo of herself over her face talking about the fire and how her husband died because of it. I think she says, " He was the lucky one". Afterward, she pulls the picture away from her face to show that she was disfigured and burned in the fire. I remember it being very shocking and unexpected. Does this (exist) anywhere? Does anyone else remember it?

Thanks!

UNK SEZ: Boy, does that sound familiar, Larry! Kindertrauma and fire safety commercials sure seem to go hand in hand! I surely recall THIS ONE HERE which seems to feature my very own Winnie-the-Pooh doll taking a suicidal leap into flames! Hey, all of this fire safety talk has me thinking of 1966's creep-tastic PICTURE MOMMY DEAD (REVIEW HERE)! I say let's grab some images from the ol' chestnut to decorate this post and then let's watch the extra crispy, well-done flick below!

I've been trying to recall this movie that scared the crap out of me as a kid, if I'm not mistaken it begins with a house being shot up with rapid gunfire and the camera pans to a pair of crackled glasses on a table and there's a scene with a well (I think it's of huge significance to the plot) and maybe an ax? It may be b/w or partially b/w? I've seen it several times in the seventies late at night but that's all I can recall? I came across your website in the oddest way but I was so glad to find it, I figured if nothing else I could watch all the movies listed LOL. I'm desperate, I would love to put a name with his movie which has stood out in my memory all these years even though vague!

Thanks!

UNK SEZ: I sadly don't know the answer to this NTT but I do know the unrelated bumper images were kindly provided by 1978's THE ALIEN FACTOR which can be viewed in its stunning entirety below!

WITCH POSSESSION MOVIE WITH GIRL WITH DOLL

Around the mid 70s we watched some movie, which was on in the afternoon, concerning some family possessed by a witch or something. The family was very much of the typical wholesome 70s type group, with a husband, wife and little girl and boy. The big thing I remember about this was that the little girl had a rag-type doll. At one point, either the witch, or the girl herself, altered the doll so that it looked evil. This was a sure sign that the witch was present. Also, I think the parents became mean as well, when they fell under the spell. There might have been one of those typical downbeat twist endings to this one, which were common back in the day. But I swear this almost had the feel of an Afterschool Special. To this day I have no idea what this was, even though I have a ton of horror movie books and have not come across it. It might have been a made-for-tv affair, I can't recall. The one thing I remember was the girl and the doll.

BACKWOODS PSYCHO MOVIE

Ok, I wasn't a kid when I caught this one on TV, but being a horror fan I would have thought I'd have come across this at some point in all these years. All I remember is a scene where some backwoods psychos capture this girl. They're not total hicks, however, as they have access to certain medical drugs. One of the killers injects this girl with something and he tells her its a local anesthetic. As a result, she is fully conscious and aware, but is paralyzed as well. The idea is he and his accomplices are going to chop her up or something and she'll be awake and aware the entire time–a grisly proposition to say the least. There are at least two male villains and maybe even a female accomplice. This all takes place inside an unremarkable interior of a house–no texas chainsaw style weirdo trappings. There was probably some kind of twist ending to this thing (although I can't recall specifics) and it must have come out in the late 70s/early 80s. It was that business with the local anesthetic that I remember though, as I've never before or since seen that plot device used in a horror film. All I know is that it was not "Last House on Dead End Street", as I've seen that movie(thinking it may have been this), and that wouldn't have been on TV back then anyway.

Sincerely,
BFD

UNK SEZ: The possessed doll movie sounds a bit like my beloved CATHY'S CURSE but if that was the case, you probably would have bumped into it by now. As for the second backwoods psycho title, I'm pretty sure you're talking about 1990's marvelous BLOOD SALVAGE featuring ELM STREET's own JOHN SAXON. If I live to be a hundred I'll never understand why BLOOD SALVAGE is not more popular among horror fans. It's such a great flick and it has just about everything going for it except maybe a memorable title. I guess you can lead a horse to YouTube but you can't make him watch! Hey, look! It's BLOOD SALVAGE below! I'm Crossing my skeleton fingers that I'm correct but if not, BLOOD SALVAGE is still worth another tip of the hat!