Category: Name That Trauma!

Hi Kindertrauma,

I am a massive fan of your website and was wondering if you or your readers could help me out. I'm looking for a film they used to show on the Disney Channel (I know, SCARY) around Halloween in the mid to late 90s and early 00s and nobody I know remembers the title. It was about a TV show presented by a Captain Birdseye lookalike and his puppets who were actually real disturbing creatures (one looked a bit like a prostitute and may have been called Esmeralda?) that was going to be shut down. There was also an evil woman that looked a lot like V's Jane Badler who wanted to take over the show/TV studio and she was followed by a goth henchman who kept saying "executive producer" in an eastern european accent. I think in the end the show was saved and the baddies defeated thanks to the help of some kids who loved the show. My friends and I thought it was called 'Little Monsters' but IMDB told us otherwise.

Anyway, the puppets as I remember them were terrifying! If anybody can shed a light on what the film was I would be hugely grateful as it would save me many more fruitless searches and sleepless nights.

Thanks!

Charlotte

Hey Kindertrauma,

I wonder if anyone can help me with this. Just before bedtime one night in the late 80s or early 90s I came upon a tv show about Robin Hood. Robin Hood was my hero, so yay! However something was not quite right this time. I only remember one scene (guess I turned it off in horror after that): Robin Hood is down by a river with someone. At one point he turns his back to the person, who keeps talking. And then SUDDENLY Robin Hood turns around, and he is EVIL now (fangs? crazy eyes? don't remember what gave it away). I think the story was that this wasn't Robin Hood, but some impostor. One clue: I'm pretty sure the actor playing Robin Hood had blond hair. Who can help me?

Hey. I have been wondering forever about this Japanese horror film from the 50's that I saw when I was a youngin'. All I remeber is that two witches who were quite tall came into the bedroom of a brother and sister and glided towards their bed. They had melty noses and black garb on and the set outside had drawn trees and lighting and a crescent moon. I have never found it. Any help or knowledge would put my insane mind at ease a bit.

A friend told me to seek you out, after I shared my traumatic horror movie memory with him, and so, here I am. I'm afraid, though, that my trauma might be too esoteric to be pinned down, but I hope I'm wrong.

It was a movie I saw in Puerto Rico as a kid, it was in Spanish, so it's quite likely that it was a Mexican/Latin American production. The setting is a boat in the Bermuda Triangle–I remember the ad campaign cashing in on the "mystery" surrounding the region. On that boat is a family, including young boy and girl siblings, and her doll. Naturally, the boat eventually becomes adrift at sea, and the family comes across some survivors from another ship. These are merchant marine types, who quickly hatch a scheme to take over the family's boat for their aims.

But the thing about the area they are in is that some malevolent spirit(s) reside there, and it(they) take over the will of those who are morally and mentally weak, and, somehow, the doll. Here's where the trauma comes in, there are numerous sequences where the doll threatens the kids, and is even responsible for the deaths of one of the kids and a couple of the adults…

That's if I remember correctly. It's been almost thirty years since I saw the flick, and I'm sure it left an impression despite being a cheap z-grade movie because of that damn doll. I can't be more specific than I've been however…

Good luck,

jose'

UNK SEZ: I think I do know this one! I believe our pal Francisco once wrote in about it (HERE)! Could it be 1978's THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE directed by RENE' CARDONA JR.? There's definitely a creepy doll in that one!

Almost a year ago you guys helped me out with 2 movies. Thanks again for that. Now I've got a new movie I'm looking for. Here's the description:

It's a British 80's horror movie (maybe 70's). Don't remember a lot of it. All I know is there was a scene where a guy hangs from a helicopter and falls off, landing on electrical wires and being electrocuted.

In another scene there was one (or multiple) people getting a tourguide in a factory. If I can remember correctly, an accident happened, someone fell into one of the machines (but I'm not sure about this anymore).

So I hope you guys can help me out with this one.

Thanks in advance and kind regards.

Goorlap

UNK SEZ: I may have this one Goorlap! Could you possibly be thinking of the Australian vampire flick THIRST(1979)? I'm pretty sure that HENRY SILVA falls out of a helicopter in that one and lands on some electrical wires (you can catch a glimpse of that in the trailer below) and I recall some tours through a (blood) factory too! Hope this helps but do let me know if I'm off the mark!

I have a "Name That Trauma" from about five years ago, when I was in high school. I would go to the library during lunch and look at the paranormal/mystery section, and I read pretty much every book. Technically this is 2 different traumas, and I remember they came from different books, but both were "nonfiction", and about aliens. One of them was a thinner book that I think was part of a series, titled something like Mysteries: Alien Encounters (that wasn't the exact title).

Anyway, I remember reading an account of a group of schoolkids who apparently encountered aliens (just like walking around, they didn't abduct the kids or anything), and they were described as being tall, and wearing jumpsuits, and their faces being featureless except for square (this part stuck out to me) black eyes and fleshy beaks. They were also described as walking in a manner reminiscent of a Nazi parade. It was mentioned that the kids encountered another "alien", who looked like a woman but parts of her kept "phasing in and out" (like, appearing and disappearing like a hologram). The aliens apparently walked through walls at one point.

The other book was specifically about abductions, I think (and may have been written from a skeptical viewpoint), and it mentioned a case about a man recalling being abducted and describing his abductors as being like a huge white box with a red triangle on top, a metal coffin/silhouette, and one of them apparently had a robotic arm sticking out of it which performed tests on him. Sorry I can't recall more information, but does anybody know anything about these books or the cases they mention?

UPDATE: I figured out one of the cases in my first email- The Prospect Alien Abduction Case. Now to figure out the one with the beaked aliens…

Congratulations on hosting such a brilliantly informative and addictive site!

Many films and T.V shows scared the crap out of me growing up in the 90s, but there was one film that truly disturbed me and I believe it was the first gory death I'd ever seen on T.V, I must have been about 6 at the time (I am now 17). This film was a rerun of a late 70s/early 80s film nonetheless, so dates aren't really relevant here. There isn't much information I can give about this film because I vaguely remember shortly after the 'climax' of this one scene I saw, my parents turned off the television and ushered me out of the room.

From what I remember, there were 4 people and a black, hulking, humanoid robot, they were in a rocky, alien landscape and seemed to be standing at the foot of a volcano, surrounded by mist from a warm rock pool nearby.

Anyway, one of the men walked off (or was killed, haha, take your pick) and the three remaining (two women and a man) started to undress, the man and one woman climbed up into a rock pool and sat together, while the other woman decided to climb further up the mountain, the robot, who had previously been quite dormant reached out his claw and tried to stop her but she snapped at him and refused, to which the robot took hold of her jaw, picked her up slightly, then gradually crushed her skull in a Darth Vader-like fashion, the other two watched on and the woman screamed "No! Stop it!", then all of a sudden blood was leaking out of the woman's facial orifices and she was dropped limply to the ground. I saw nothing beyond this point, but I believe that was very near the end of the film.

It would be great if someone could get back to me and tell me what film this was from! I may just want to watch it again and rediscover why this messed up my childhood so much!

THANKS!

Greetings Kindertrauma!

First let me congratulate you on having such a cool and informative website! I have spent many hours going through the entire Name That Trauma and Traumafession archives and haven't seen anything on these two '70s made-for-t.v. movies. The first one involves a man who goes into a big department store to buy his daughter a doll for her birthday. He goes into the bathroom right as the intercom is announcing closing time. He is mugged in the bathroom and knocked unconscious then dragged into a stall. A few minutes later a security guard checks the bathroom and sees no one. The man awakes to find he's been locked in the store with several guard dogs running loose in the store. The rest of the movie has him fighting for his life as these guard dogs want to rip him to pieces.

The second one involves a family living in a cabin far out in the country.The dad gets bitten by a rabid skunk. For some reason they are not able to get to the nearest town for help. The dad tells his family to chain him to a pole outside so he can't hurt them if he goes rabid. The scene that scared me the most is when the dad is hallucinating and the bushes start to shake and all of the sudden this skunk roars out of the bushes and straight for his face! That scared the bejesus out of me! Anyway, if anybody knows what these movies are, I'm dying to know.

Great site, keep up the good work!

UNK SEZ: So glad you are enjoying the site and what an awesome "Name That Trauma!" Two animal-centric TV movies from the seventies, what's not to love? I'm happy to tell you that I happen to know the identity of both! The first is called TRAPPED and it's from 1973 and stars JAMES BROLIN.

The second one you mentioned is called A CRY IN THE WILDERNESS, it's from 1974 and stars GEORGE KENNEDY. I've never seen that one but I'm thinking I'd enjoy it because I'm a big fan of both GEORGE KENNEDY and skunks, even when they are rabid!

Hey Kinder-Crew. Bloodylocks Bathory here again, but this time with a Name That Trauma. In fact it may be one of your most obscure yet. I've been searching and searching and googling and yahooing, and yet I still can't figure this one out.

I'm not sure if this was a movie airing on tv, a movie made for tv, or even an episode of a tv series, but all I can remember of it was the climax, and even what I remember may be completely inaccurate. But here it goes anyway…

Our teenaged heroine of the story is confronted by an older woman who reveals the grisly fate of another woman (the girl's mother?) in a flashback. As it turns out, the teller of the story was the killer, having bludgeoned the unfortunate lady, even with the girl as a young child as a witness, if my memory serves me correctly. In the flashback there was possibly rain, or a river, but either way, I can't get the image out of my head of the victim's motionless body laying there with water running over her, possibly interspersed with shots of the child's doll laying in the running current as well. Cutting back to the present, the killer has grabbed a branch or bit of wood and plans to do the same thing to the teenaged girl… when someone shouts the typical "so-and-so, look out!" Was this the supposed murder victim? How the heck does that make sense. I seem to recall the killer being quite shocked about this interruption, so perhaps it was… Hell, I dunno… I think the killer was then shoved a.) into the river or b.) off a high distance. What I always remembered most was the actual flashback involving the murder.

Did this really happen in a show or film? Am I crazy and just turned some memory of a real killing into fiction? I have no idea. But I hope someone can help me figure out that it was the former, and what specifically it had been from.

Thanks,

Bloodylocks Bathory

Hello,

As with many of you I have a memory of watching a TV show in the 70's but cannot put a name to it. I have always believed that it was from Tales of the Unexpected but I cannot find a matching description in any of the episodes. It concerns a man who has been murdered by his wife and she, along with her lover hide the man's body in a well. His ghost then terrorizes them. It's set in a desert-like location (possibly the southwest). I remember that his body was possibly wrapped in cloth prior to being lowered into the well.

Thanks for any help & love the site!