Category: Name That Trauma!

This was probably 15+ years ago, but I was at my grandmothers house and there was a movie playing. During the opening there is this young woman and she somehow ends up in a church or some old building of the like. She walks up the a lectern and there is a book on it, she walks up, opens the book, and there is a beating heart inside. She then looks down at her own chest and there is a big bloody hole. I don't remember anything else except being traumatized by fear and running out of the room. Any help is greatly appreciated. I want to say it was an old version of Phantom of the Opera or something like that, but really I have no idea.

Hi! I have very, very vague memories of this one movie me and my brothers got from the library once. It didn't necessarily scare me, but I really want to know what it was called, because the plot was pretty interesting.

It centered around a few friends trick-or-treating on Halloween night. I think they were all dressed up as standard, classic monsters,for example one was a witch (the only one I remember), and this creepy mythical old guy comes and takes them through time(?) to show them the history of the monsters they're dressed up as. I know that he takes them to see the Salem witch trials. I also remember weird details like the girl dressed as a witch tapes a broom to her bike as part of her costume in the beginning of the movie. Part of me is wondering if I just imagined it?

PLEASE HELP

UNK SEZ: Thanks Gus! That must be an adaptation of RAY BRADBURY's THE HALLOWEEN TREE! The presence of the witch makes me think it has to be the 1993 animated version! Check out the video below, I spy that broom on a bike you mentioned, and check out an earlier traumafession HERE!

Early nineties, a chef in a small town, he owns a bakery/deli. He gets a package that has a giant statue or totem inside. It possesses the cook and he kills people and serves them. At the end of the movie there is a huge party that he caters and serves the body parts.

Does this sound familiar to you? If so, please let us know what the movie is called?

I absolutely love KINDERTRAUMA! Not only is it intelligent, a feast for the eyes and a nostalgic's dream – it is also oodles of fun! Your Sunday Streaming and review archives always turn me on to new flicks that I love! I've never followed one of your recommendations and been disappointed – thank you for that!

I'm hoping there is something else I can be thanking you for – helping me track down a trauma! I've noticed that you've helped some people locate books that left impressions on them in the past and perhaps you could do the same for me? I don't really remember what the tale I'm looking for was about, except for it involving a creepy older neighbor man who lives alone and who carves a lot of pumpkins and the story's heroine becomes convinced is the serial killer terrorizing her town (although in the end, I believe, he turned out to be quite the opposite and saved her life from the actual murderer).

It has been years and the details of the book are a little hazy so some of that may be off. But it was the book's cover that really freaked me out. This would have been in the early '90s and the artist did a bang up job for sure. It featured a dark haired girl glimpsed through a window (I think a bedroom window, she may have been peering into it) with a look of shock on her face – maybe because of what she is seeing in the bedroom or maybe because on the porch surrounding her are tons of spooky, glowing pumpkins. This one was probably meant for pre-teens and middleschoolers.

I'm still not sure why it freaked me out so much, as I love all things Halloween – perhaps some of the pumpkins had sinister faces – but I know that it gave me nightmares and I was terrified after waking from them that I'd look at my bedroom window and see an evil glowing Jack o' Lantern or a diabolical hairy handed killer looking right back at me!

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and for any help you can provide! I certainly do appreciate it!

— Jordan

Hi,

I have faith that, if anyone can answer this question for me, it would be someone from your website:

There is a TV movie I recall from my childhood that I always found to be a bit eerie. It would have to be from either the '70s or '80s and was something along the lines of an "After School Special," but I'm pretty sure it was not a part of that actual series. All I remember is that it featured a school aged kid and there was a giant, pretty crudely animated, disembodied mouth that spoke to him and was basically encouraging him to believe in himself and all that stuff. The movie ends with the young protagonist catching the winning fly ball in a baseball game. Does this ring a bell for anyone?

Thanks for any info!

I'm a huge (well ok at 60 inches, a short) horrorphile freak and I've adored the genre since I was much too young to partake. One of my earliest memories was waking up in the middle of the night and pushing play on the VCR containing a horror movie older relatives had been watching earlier and hadn't allowed me to view. Back in the day they were not kind and did not rewind so it opened on a scene from the middle of the film. I've never found out the title, even after years of devouring guides to horror films and even writing my own (currently with Citadel Press, maybe one day on a bookshelf somewhere!). So I'm turning to my fellow horror fans on one of my favorite websites here.

All I remember is a man in formal wear running from seemingly nothing, from room to room in a large house. Eventually he lies backwards onto a bed, pulling open his shirt and screaming. It looks like his flesh is being burned even though there's nobody in the room with him. I'm pretty sure it had something to do with demons or the devil. And I seem to remember it looked like his stomach was sort of caving in as it burned? If anyone has any idea what movie that was please let me know!

Meanwhile thanks for all the great entertainment!

Fondly,

~Nicole

This is most likely something from the 70's. I remember a lot of it was a conversation between a man (or some kind of being existing within the television) and a boy or young adult. I think the TV-being wanted to get out of there and probably needed the boy's help. Besides the 70's decor and the creepy, slow moving plot, I don't remember anything else. Hopefully, you can help me out.

Thanks,

VS

UNK SEZ: I know the answer isn't SHOCKER but I've got that movie on my mind thanks to THIS superb review over at DINNER WITH MAX JENKE! Sorry I'm not much help. Hopefully one of our readers knows!

This is a little off topic because it wasn't exactly traumatic and I was an adult; BUT, I have been trying to figure out this book for years to no avail. It was incredibly eerie and unlike anything I have read. It's a novel from the ‘90s, Irish I believe, or possibly taking place in Ireland. A woman who works at a grocery store comes home to find her boyfriend has committed suicide. She is pretty much numb and just doesn't want to deal with it, so she takes his body to the attic and promptly forgets about it. After a while, she begins to notice a smell and remembers his body is in the attic. She then chops him up and takes his body parts to a little island in a lake, where she buries him then camps for awhile. That's about all I remember. I picked it up at a library in the late ‘90s from the new releases table.

Thanks for any help!

Hello there,

I saw a movie when I was maybe 9 or 10 years old, back in the mid to late 70s on tv, and I'd like to know the title. Unfortunately I only have one vague scene to recall, where this woman is sitting looking into this lake and there are voices talking to her from it; I think it was in front of this English mansion on this big estate. That's all I have. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

UNK SEZ: Greetings Eldon! I suppose this could be many movies but my bet is on one of my favorites, JACK CLAYTON's THE INNOCENTS (1961) which is based on THE TURN OF THE SCREW by HENRY JAMES! There are several highly memorable scenes that take place by a lake and your mansion on a large estate fits snuggly too! I couldn't find an exact scene on YouTube but I'm sure Miss Giddens (DEBORAH KERR) hears a ghostly voice calling out "Flora," the name of one of the children she's looking after, too! Check out the clip I did find below and let us know if it looks familiar!

Dear Kindertrauma,

I love your page! I discovered it, when I was searching for one of my deepest Kindertraumas with "The Peanut Butter Incident"!

Probably you will not able to help me, as I grew up in Germany, but this Kindertrauma is haunting me for years, so it's worth a shot and probably the book was translated to German anyway!

I am looking for a book of horror stories for children, I read in the '80s. Especially one story I cannot forget. It's about a man who somehow enters an abandoned ship which is covered by a strange grey mushroom. On deck he also notices huge piles of the plant. One day he discovers a small spot on his finger where the mushroom started to grow on him. He cuts the spot on his finger, but the next day it regrew even bigger. The guy has got nothing to eat so eventually he starts eating the mushroom. At the end of the story his whole body is covered with the mushroom and he starts to realize that the huge piles on the boat used to be humans.

All I remember of the other stories is one about a guy who is an aspiring assassin, who is tricked into switching bodies with an old man. All stories where really scary and I would like to hold that book in my hands once again. I guess it was crucial to my deep obsession with horror related stuff.

Thank you so much and keep up the good work,

Jan

UNK SEZ: Jan, I'm glad you found us! I may not be able to identify the exact anthology you're looking for but hopefully I can narrow your search! If I'm not jumping to conclusions, I'm suspecting the mushroom short story is WILLIAM HOPE HODGSON's THE VOICE IN THE NIGHT. It's the same tale that inspired the Japanese film MATANGO which is known as ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE here in the states. You can read the story HERE! I hope it's the right one and that you are one step closer to your trauma-treasure!