I've never been able to meet up with one of my first memories, delivered by television between 1962 and '66?
Memories being the nebulous things they are, as I recall it involved a group of teens that enter an old dark house, where they are picked off one-by-one by a bulky mummy-type thing that lurks behind secret panels in the walls. In the end, the hero makes it out alive…only to be paused at the sight of some gollum perched on the top of the gate archway, gnawing on…something.
Hello everyone at KT,
I've been searching on and off for years, looking for a film that traumatized me as a child.
I remember a kid, maybe around 8-12 years old. He either gets lost or escapes into a forest. Exhausted, the kid falls asleep. He wakes up, covered in bumpy bites. Upon inspecting them, maggots start to come out of the sores!
This was extra disturbing to me, as my dad would spend much of his free time tanning outside. I would witness flies landing on him, and I thought for sure what happened in this film would happen to him!
I was probably around 12 when I saw it, so late 80s or early 90s is when I most likely watched it. I thought it might be The Emerald Forest 1985, but I just watched it and it was a no go.
Thanks for any help, and long live KINDERTRUAMA!
~ Darkko
Hey, KT
I've been trying to remember what this one was for ages, and it terrified me when I was young. From what I can remember, this may not have been a movie, but more likely an episode of some series.
The scene I remember has a black teenager tied down to an operating table and he is surrounded by a horde of tormentors, one of which has very subtle clown makeup and is about to cut open his chest with a scalpel. I think he had a fear of surgery or something, and so it was likely something to do with nightmares coming to life. I think the kid may have had a yellow and black jumpsuit on, but that's not so clear.
Perhaps your readers can help!
Hello there once again Kindertrauma,
I am looking for 2 movies of which I forgot the name.
Movie 1: Don't know much about this movie except the ending: a crane with a wrecking ball is demolishing houses while people are still inside. The crane is being operated by what I believe a girl with telekinetic powers. I think it's a movie from the 80s or 90s.
Movie 2: A movie about a psychopath that puts bombs in buildings. A cop who is a skilled bomb dismantler goes after the bad guy and disables more than 1 bomb in the movie. In the beginning he is dismantling a bomb in a small claustrophobic space, sort of a tunnel in the building. I believe that this bomb is being protected by laser-beams. The ending of the movie sees our good guy dismantling a huge bomb on the highest floor of a skyscraper. The bomb is as big as the top of the skyscraper. The bomb gets dismantled and it's a happy ending. I think it's a movie from the 90s or begin 2000s. Or maybe from the 80s.
Someone know what the names of these movies are? I watched both movies on television (I'm from Belgium btw). I'm pretty sure that they are both American movies.
Friendly greetings,
Goorlap
Ok, these two may be from the late '70s – early '80s, and may have been television shows or movies.
My memory is quite limited, but I will share what I can recall, and hopefully you can help so I can revisit my kindertrauma!
The first show had a little girl, about 10-years-old, and she had burnt up ashy skin. Can't recall the background… Wicker Man? Village of the Damned???
The second (again with limited memories) had something to do with hiding the body of a girl in a heating duct or something….possibly in a large mill or factory… For some reason I feel that the name "Eleanor" was connected to this, somehow.
I know it isn't very much to go off, but it scared me enough to have created a block about any further details!!!
Please help if you can!!!
Thanks!
-T Vester
UNK SEZ: Thanks for writing in T. Vester! I've only got guesses for you today but I guess that's O.K. 'cuz guesses are movie titles and movie titles are what we eat for breakfast around here. Even if they are wrong, they might give somebody an idea of what to watch next or maybe just joggle a memory or two. The first one instantly made me think of EYES OF FIRE (1983) because that has a kid with a charred face in it (see image above) but maybe that one has just been on my mind a lot lately because of that scary trailer for THE WITCH…
The second I have no clue about but it did make me think of FRIENDSHIPS, SECRETS AND LIES (1979) the notorious TV movie in which a baby skeleton is found in a demolished sorority house and the suspects include folks like LORETTA SWITT and TINA LOUISE. Hopefully one of our learned readers will have a better guess. Anybody got any ideas?
Hello, Kindertrauma!
I was hoping you could help me name a primordial trauma from my youth.
I'm trying to track down an episode of a TV show, maybe a made-for-tv movie. This would be from the mid-to-late 1960s, in color. The gist of it was that there were these two kids of about 12 or 13, sort of cruel versions of Spin and Marty, who were pranking an old lady who lived in a remote area into believing that she was being attacked by aliens and/or flying saucers. They used speakers to make weird sound effects and projectors to make weird lights. The old lady went into utter hysterics, and at one point was filling roasting pans full of boiling water to hurl at the invaders. Ring a bell? I thought it was an episode of Suspense Theatre, but I can't find mention of it in any of the online episode guides. Any clues helping me resolve this trauma? Thanks!
-Mike
OK, I have two for you, if you're interested. I have had zero luck over the years figuring out what these are.
1. A man arrives at an inn that is (of course) in the middle of nowhere. He checks in alongside another new guest, a middle-aged woman. During the evening, the man meets a beautiful young woman, who is also staying at the inn. They eventually go back to his room for a romantic engagement and are in the midst of said engagement when the clock strikes midnight and the woman turns evil and attacks him. (I think maybe her eyes change somehow.) It turns out that everyone in the inn, except for the man and the middle-aged woman who checked in at the same time, are malevolent beings intent on killing the guests. In the mayhem, a fire erupts. The man tries to save the middle-aged woman but cannot, so he flees the burning building. The next morning, the man and a police officer he told his story to arrive at the site of the inn. But there's nothing there. No inn. No sign of fire. Just an empty field. But not entirely empty. The corpse of the middle-aged woman is there, among the tall grass. The end. … I'm pretty sure this was an episode of a horror anthology series, like Tales from the Darkside or Hammer House of Horror. And I think it was a British production. I saw it circa 1984.
2. There's very little to go by on this one. It's the ending of a horror movie from, I'm guessing, the late 1960s or early 1970s (based on my hazy memories of the production values and costumes). The "bad" guy, who is either a Frankenstein's monster type or a hunchback/Igor type, is trying to escape the police via a rooftop. But he is shot and falls to his death. Here's the part that stuck with me, though. He was carrying something bundled up in his clothes. As he lay dead on the ground, a few kittens emerge from his grasp and mew pitifully while walking around on his chest. That's it. That's all I have. I've long hoped that the moment involving the cats is specific enough to help lead me to answer. But, thus far, I've had no luck.
OK, sorry if I am cheating a bit here for the film I'm looking for probably traumatised my parents more than it did me. I distinctly remember when I was a child, my mom and dad took me to a local video store here in Holland. I come from a tiny village with its nearest city being a 20 min. car-drive away. As it was only worthwhile for us to rent films from the video store in that place for a week, my parents never exposed me to the shelves displaying the latest titles. Of course I didn't know that, so one day I rented a tape really hoping it was THREE MEN AND A BABY, only it turned out to be the original French film. I couldn't have been a day older than 10 years old, so imagine my confusion. It distinctly wasn't in the language my prepubescent ears were more or less familiar with, meaning it sounded a whole lot different than the language being spoken on my favourite show back then (PUNKY BREWSTER (The "The Perils of Punky" – episode must have popped up on this site SOME TIME), it definitely scared the bejesus out of me back then!) not to mention it lacked one very famous black mustache I was pretty acquainted with already. I never knew what was going on, because it clearly had three men and a baby on its cover, so how could have it been anything else than that Guttenberg/Danson/Selleck-masterpiece? Back then I always stuck to comedy-films, as my parents didn't let me rent anything else, and I just loved ‘funny things'. I ended up taking home loads of tapes, the titles of which I can't remember now, but more often than not turned out to be lousy European films I didn't enjoy a second of.
Now about the tape I've always wondered about and can't seem to find any information about. It was a compilation tape of sorts and featured a T. Rex in a director's chair on its sleeve. I thought it would be fun , because after tons of unfunny euro-sleaze, I probably ached for a comedy featuring an American (how could it possibly be from somewhere else with a T.rex in a director's chair??) Alas. I remember when I popped it in one day with my parents being present. It started with a reel of clips mostly featuring sex-scenes, some insipid humour, and then supposedly ‘funny' sex-scenes. And yet more sex-scenes. After watching 10 minutes of it my parents thought it best to yank it from the VHS player and to run off with it to the kitchen, where they probably hid it in the deep fryer. So that was that. I remember also that I was still of so ripe an age, that the sight of copious amounts of bare titties didn't make up for what I was really aching to see: a T.rex in a director's chair…
I'm really curious as to what the name of the tape is …and if I can now appreciate the tape's content for its ‘artistic worth' more than I could back then. Funny thing, a couple of years later a new video-rental store opened in a village much closer to ours. The first thing I grabbed back then was a copy of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET PART IV (my interest in film-taste received a firm jolt after seeing a picture of Freddy Krueger in a teen-science magazine). Being used to the system of our former video stores, we unwisely kept it for a week, costing my parents approximately 35 dollars worth of overdue expenses in the end (!)So that's two film-induced traumas I gave my parents before I had probably turned 12. Not bad, I hope someone can unveil the title of this life-changing piece of VHS-magic.
Rudy – a regular reader from the Netherlands
Hi! I've submitted a Name That Trauma once BEFORE and it took your readers only about 3 hours to solve that lifelong mystery. So I'm back with two more. I think these are gonna be pretty tough. I've tried everything to find them, but I can't. Let's see if your readers can come through again!
1. We'll start with the really difficult one. This was an anti-drug PSA that aired in the early 70s. I remember a man would go into his bathroom, and look at himself in the mirrored door of his bathroom medicine cabinet. He was in a robe, had messed up hair, and a 5 o'clock shadow. He opened the medicine cabinet, frantically swallowed some pills, and closed the medicine cabinet. But when he looked at his reflection after taking the pills, he was…gasp…a werewolf! Clearly, the message is that drug abuse causes lycanthropy. Anyway, it scared the crap outta me.
2. I think this one will be easier, because I am about 90% certain it was an episode of "Night Gallery". Again, this aired in the early 70s. The scene was set in the old west. There were horse and buggies, and everyone was wearing old west attire. I remember a man running through the streets screaming for someone to help him (I don't remember why he needed help). But everyone he ran to for help had ghostly white faces! They reminded me of mimes. Not see-through ghostly, just white clown paint. I specifically remember a man in a top hat with a ghostly white face, but there were many others ghost-faces also. The ghost-faced people would laugh at his cries for help, and mock him. I think I remember the scene ending with them surrounding him – pointing and laughing at him with their white ghost-faces, and closing in on him as he shrieked in terror. One last detail – I think I remember that the man did not belong in the old west. He had gotten there accidentally through some wacky time travel mishap. But I may be fuzzy on that detail.
I'd really appreciate it if you could share these two submissions with your readers. I'm hoping to finally confront these traumatic experiences as an adult!
Love your blog! Been reading it forever!
UNK SEZ: Thanks Gary! That first one sounds awfully familiar but I think I'll have more luck helping you with the second! The movie you just described sounds a whole heck of a lot like 1971's BLACK NOON! We've got a full review for that one back HERE! It's a western with the TWILIGHT ZONE vibe you described and a real knock your socks off revelation at the end! Let me know if I got it right and if so, thanks for giving us a chance to mention that creeptastic gem again!
I have grown up in the NYC area my whole life, but this was probably a nationwide PSA that I have only seen once and never again. Saw it before I turned 10.
I believe it was for some organization or institute: a featureless, unmoving mannequin head and neck in a dark room with faint lighting. In slow shots that faded from one scenario to the other there was the sound of some large noise (probably construction work); then a pair of headphones on the mannequin with audible music; then some other loud noise (probably trains in the subway).
The part that creeped me out was the final shot of the mannequin head, each ear having a glowing red spot and the shrill, deafening sound of what seems to be tinnitus from the exposure to all of those intense decibels. The high-pitched ringing seemed to go on forever but probably lasted for a few seconds at most. I do not recall if there was a narrator at any point in this, but I do believe this was from the late 80s.
I haven't a clue where to begin my search! I know the Kindertrauma family are super spies and I just know it can be figured out. Even without an answer, I think you guys are great besides!
– Carol
