Category: Name That Trauma!

Hi. I currently peruse the site under the user name "duckofthedead." I'm not a prolific commenter but I enjoy reading everything.

Anyway, I'm searching for a book. It was a book about UFOs and I am 99% certain I got it either at a school book fair or through the mail order book lists we got at school. It would have been between 1980-1985 because I know I got it while in elementary school. The book had a lot of the usual UFO photographs but one stood out and gave me the creeps. The photo in question was of a sculpture of sorts of an "alien." What makes it different from everything I have seen since is it had three legs and looked like it was covered in foil (I thought for years it was connected to Hopkinsville, KY incident but when searching online I found nothing connected to that remotely resembles the photo I remember). I know it's not a lot to go on but that picture stands out. In the years since I have remained intrigued in all things paranormal and have never seen that picture again. The book itself was paperback with black and white photos. I think the cover was primarily dark blue at top of the cover with grayish on the bottom half of the cover. The title may have been in yellow but I could be wrong.

Thanks for any help and thanks for your site.

Duckofthedead

Hi! I have a question. I saw a movie when I was younger and to this day can not figure out what it is. I saw it on TV so I don't know if it was a TV movie or an actual film. But this is what I remember:

-it's most likely from the late 80s

-the children in it had some sort of tree house

-the monsters or spirits in it sucked the kids into the walls or ceiling.

I know that's not a lot to go on. But I thought you may have a clue since you all seem to know so much and I very rarely watch horror films.

Thank you so much for your time!

UNK SEZ: I have only a guess for this one based on the time period, the presence of a treehouse and folks getting stuck in walls. Could it possibly be 1987s THE GATE? Check out the trailer below Mindy and if anyone has another theory please let us know in the comments!

Greetings friends of all things creepy!

Here's one that hopefully one (or more) of you will be able to answer.

When I was growing up, I was a fan of horror comics. Although they would give me terrible nightmares, I would keep buying and reading them.

One of them that stands out in my mind I didn't buy, but found in my grandparents' attic. I am assuming it had belonged to one of my uncles. I am estimating this to have happened some time between 1977-81. I don't recall the title of the story or the comic in which it appeared, but I remember vague details from the story line. It involved a creepy house that the main character was curious about. In one of the panels toward the end of the story, it showed him standing outside of the house in the daytime, thinking about going inside. He finally did, and at the end he fell into a pit. I think the final frame showed him falling, his face either screaming or frozen in horror. There may have been a "spiral" he fell into — either that, or I'm confusing it with the intro to Lidsville. I am positive on him falling into a pit, though.

Do any of you horror comic fans know either the comic or the story title I'm semi-remembering?

Thanks!

Dustin in Minnesota

I remember as a kid, turning on my little b/w tv set and seeing, what was either the ending of a movie, or an episode of anthology series. It had to have been around 81 or so. In it, a woman wakes up and upon opening her bedroom window and door, discovers that she has been bricked in! But this was apparently a nightmare. When she wakes for real, she opens the bedroom window and sees trees and hears the chirps of birds. Opens the bedroom door and nothing… But when she opens the front door to the house, it has been bricked up!

I may have the events scrambled a bit. (It has been 30+ years ya know!) Any leads would be greatly appreciated!

Keep up the great work on this AWESOME site!

Hey there Folks,

Just stumbled across your great website and thought I would add in my two cents. There's a movie that's been floating around in my head since I was a little tyke…but I can't remember what the heck it is. It may even be a TV show.

All I remember is a room that is on fire (possibly) and a creepy red cowboy boot moving across the floor on it's own. I seem to remember it killed people or something stupid like that. I just can recall a lady in a room on fire, with a red boot passing by her, as if the boot has caused this mayhem. That might sound incredibly stupid, but it has been in my head for years. Think you guys could help me out?

-Ren

Dallas, Texas

Hi folks,

I've been visiting your site for a couple years now and really enjoy it. I was hoping you guys could help me with the name of a movie.

It was a mid-to-late '70s movie with people in a cabin being attacked by a mud monster. During one point in the movie, the front door is opened and the monster is there. They shut the door on its arm and cut if off. It comes toward them and I think one of them throws it against the wall. Plans for "building" the monster are found.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

UNK SEZ: That's a good one Charles! You're thinking of another Kindertrauma favorite, the 1978 TV movie THE WORLD BEYOND, which also aired as simply THE MUD MONSTER! It featured a pre-POLTERGEIST JOBETH WILLIAMS and was a follow up to another TV flick called THE WORLD OF DARKNESS, both were produced in hopes that a series might follow. Oh, how I wish one did! Check it out below!

Hello! I only found your site a few days ago, but have already trawled through pages and pages of NTT. I am incredibly impressed with the answers you guys pull from obscurity and tiny clues, and so hope you can help me with a movie that I still remember giving me the utter creeps as a kid.

This would have been sometime in the early '80s on TV, in my memory of the movie it feels like late '70s production/design etc., but this was 30 years ago so I could be wrong on that. It involved a ship/yacht/boat that ended up being lost and having something evil show up, kill people one by one and pretend to be them. It ended with the last survivor(s) escaping, only then we go back to the empty boat and we see the body of one of the people who just escaped (I want to say it was hanging upside-down from the rigging, but that might have been an earlier death–that's the big image that sticks with me though).

For years I thought the name was 'The Devil's Triangle', but that doesn't seem to be a movie that actually exists, and searching for variations on that has proven to be not a fruitful source of inquiry.

Is there any chance you guys can help me? I really enjoyed the spooky movie, it wasn't til later when I tried to go to sleep that the creeps got me, but I'd at least really like to know what the movie was.

Thanks, and keep up the good work!

—Kaina in NC

UNK SEZ: I'm so glad you found us Kaina! The movie you are searching for must be 1975's SATAN'S TRIANGLE! I spent years looking for that one myself. It scared the crap out of me as a kid and the very first thing I did once I had access to the Internet was track that darn thing down! It had such a profound effect on me that I was actually scared to watch it again. In fact, wondering if others had similar experiences is what led to KINDERTRAUMA being born! I'm happy to tell you that currently SATAN'S TRIANGLE is available to watch on YouTube. Be careful though, it's still as creepy as it ever was!

Greetings! Discovered your site while looking up memories from my childhood and now have it bookmarked.

There is a short I remember airing on HBO in the early 1980s — it wasn't terrifying, but it was a little chilling. It involved a violinist who kept driving past a mansion that she couldn't get out of her mind. Eventually she noticed it was for sale and decided to check it out, and the butler told her the house was haunted. She said that that didn't bother her, and he said something to the effect of "Why should it? You're the one who haunts it." The violinist's jaw dropped and the film faded out.

I haven't been able to find this one anywhere, and like I said it wasn't terrifying, but it was chilling in the same way that childhood ghost stories were. Does anyone remember this film short, and more importantly, what it was called?

Thanks much!

Dustin in Minnesota

Hi,

Great website, your readers helped me with my brother's trauma before and I am hoping to get help with mine.

Back in elementary school, my teacher would show us these educational short films on a film projector. These movies from what I remember were from the 70's and served to teach kids some lesson about life. In actuality, I found these films to be terrifying and stressful. These movies showed children in impossible situations from which there was no apparent escape from, as they would often end abruptly without resolution. I believe the "go f–k yourself" endings served to promote discussion in the classroom on how to resolve the issue presented in the short.

Here are a few of the crazy ones. A girl witnesses her friends engage in reckless behavior with her imagining the possible deadly consequences of their actions. The short ends with her friends pressuring her to jump in front of a car to "see if it stops in time." Another one involves the new kid in class being brutally bullied by some jerk. The harassment continues into after school hours, where the bully chases the boy into a secluded area. The victim hides in a barn, but makes it seem that he is hiding in the rafters. As the bully is climbing a ladder to continue his abuse, the boy pushes the ladder down causing the bully to fall. This one ends with bully lying injured and pleading for help from the new kid. A third one involves a little girl overloaded with responsibility of school, chores, and babysitting. It ends with the girl breaking down over a pile of dirty dishes as she sees no help in sight.

The one I need help with, actually has a resolution. The story begins with single dad and daughter who perform a Punch and Judy show for kids. One day as the man is performing the show, he has a heart attack and dies painfully in front of an audience of children. The daughter is understandably traumatized as is the viewer by this turn of events. For the rest of the short the girl remains mute and withdrawn. Eventually at some family get together she notices some little kids have discovered her dad's Punch and Judy set. This story ends with daughter finally coming out of her shell, when she puts on a Punch and Judy show for the kids. This one had a somewhat nice ending, but was too much of a sad story for a classroom of 1st graders.

Thanks again for the past help.

Robert

Hello,

I love your website and would like to post a trauma to Name That Trauma. Here it is:

I read a story in the early to mid '70s that haunts me to this day. It may have been part of an Alfred Hitchcock short story anthology. I've searched in vain on the net for the title and that's what I'm seeking here.

The story had to do with a man who has a large storage trunk in his room. Either the trunk was there when he moved in or he inherited it. Not sure. Most of this story lost in the mist of my memory except this — there was a finger in the trunk. Every night, it would poke out of the trunk and wiggle around. The man would lie in bed and watch it and then rush over, throw open the lid and see no sign of a finger. This went on night after night. Finally, the man, at the edge of madness, opens the lid, gets in the trunk and shuts the lid. I don't remember if he somehow locks himself in or not. I think that maybe the trunk is locked the next day and taken somewhere, perhaps to a trash dump. That part is very vague but the finger part sticks in my mind.

I would read and reread this story in our suburban living room — during the day, mind you — and would be terrified. But I'd keep rereading it. At night, in bed, I'd stare at my night stand and, in the glare of my nightlight, wait for a finger to appear.

A fantastic story that I'd love to reread yet again. Anyone anywhere have the title?