Category: Name That Trauma!

Dearest Kindertraumatics,

I saw a film as a kid and the only scene I remember is that there was a group of people at a house and seems like they had been warned to stay out of a certain room. One of them went into it and ended up walking in circles, staring up at the light bulb, in a trance. That's all I remember and it's been bothering me for 25 years. I know it's not much to go on but if anyone would know it'll be you guys.

Thanks,

— Brad

UNK SEZ: Brad H, I think (hope) I've got this covered! This sounds like one of my favorites and it's a bit of a kindertrauma for me too even though I saw it when I was much older. I'm thinking it must be the segment from SCREAMS OF A WINTER NIGHT entitled "The Green Light". In it a bunch of frat guys dare each other to stay in an old abandoned house and end up eerily hypnotized and swarming under a green light bulb like crazed moths. Read my review HERE and check out the clip(s) below!

When I was about 7 years old, I was watching T.V. and I thought the movie was about a leprechaun who wanted the family's gold. But I was so scared I kept changing the channel back and forth. It's definitely not one of the LEPRECHAUN movies. For all I know this could have been two separate things, but it's been bugging me for years.

There was a scene where a girl lays down on her bed and goes to reach for her teddy bear and it bursts open and maggots come out. I'm not the only one who remembers something similar. Might have seen the same thing, but I'm not sure that it is from GOOSEBUMPS. I'm guessing late '90s or earlier.

Thank you!

— Kelly G.

Okay… So I can't remember a lot about this movie, but I saw it on T.V. when I was about 7-9 years old and the puppet in it scared the hell out of me. It wasn't even a horror movie, it was a family film!

The puppet looks like some sort of cat/dog or mammal in a cartoony style. I don't recall ever seeing his legs, but they could possibly have been shown. (Most likely without his top half in the shot.)

He has the ability to appear random places and pop out of anywhere like cupboards, trash cans, lockers etc… just general holes/crevices/places the camera can't see into fully, so it gives the illusion that he disappears into some weird Narnia place like all the good creepy monster puppets.

The puppet is a good guy and helps this kid for some reason, or maybe the kid is helping him? …I just remember, he wasn't the bad guy/villain in the movie.

So the kid in this movie plays baseball or some type of sport because I remember a scene in which he was in the changing rooms in his uniform talking to the creepy puppet that had popped out of a dirty laundry basket or something.

There is another part I remember… The villains/bad guys in the movie that want to capture the puppet for some reason unknown, are in a magic shop or some place that happened to have an ancient scroll depicting the puppet in ancient Egypt, canoeing down the river Nile with the pyramids in the background.

This is all I remember of the movie, I hope somebody can help me! Thanks in advance!

— James L.

UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Special thanks to reader Matthew Hurwitz for naming it with MUNCHIE.

Dear Kindertrauma:

How're you doing, folks? I'd like to track down a movie I saw a bit of as a kid that burned into my brain. The movie, as I recall, was an "Orlac's Hands" kind of thing, with a brilliant pianist who somehow loses the ability to play… which of course makes him a dangerous psychopath who goes off with the slightest provocation. He goes to call on somebody, all normal and not-crazy-acting, and the only person at home is a little All-American kid of about 8 or 10. The kid says that the person the injured -hand/former pianist guy is looking for is out, and the kid and the pianist sit down at the piano in the living room to kill time until the person in question comes home.

This is a very, very, bad idea.

The kid plays the piano, and does a pretty good job tickling the ivories. Then the formerly brilliant pianist tries to play, and botches it. The kid says, "Gee, you're not very good, Mister!" Whereupon, the former pianist grabs the kid's hands in his own and crushes them, gibbering and shouting about how great he used to be, and the kid is screaming, screaming, screaming at the top of his lungs and the camera is tight on kid's face in agony. We cut to the next scene, the cops are there, and it turns out the kid died from his injuries.

It was a very cheap-looking, black and white number with a low-rent, 1950s vibe. Any help you guys could provide would be huge.

Thanks!

—Mike M.

I will give you a short description of the movies I'm looking for.

Movie 1:

A creepy '60s or '70s (maybe '80s) film where an evil telepathic woman or woman involved with black magic lives in a creepy house on an average street and never goes out. Her husband does everything for her, and there's a young woman involved (I think it's the "good guy" of the movie).

In the end, an old man steps into his car, the car catches fire, and we see the man stepping out of it on fire and falling on the road. And that's the end of the movie.

Movie 2:

An '80s or '90s movie about a dog that went through some kinda genetic experiment in a laboratory. The dog escapes and becomes member of a typical American family, living in a suburban street.

The dog is very protective towards the family.

If I remember correctly, there is a fight between the dog and people in the laboratory, somewhere in the middle of the movie.

The movie ends with a dog giving birth, and the puppy's looking like the dog that was experimented on.

So, I hope you guys can help me out with these two movies.

Thanks in advance!

— Goorlap

UNK SEZ: Hopefully one of our astute readers can help you with the first movie you mentioned Goorlap! I'm not sure about that one but I do think the second film might be WATCHERS (1988) based on a novel by DEAN KOONTZ and starring the one and only COREY HAIM!

Thanks so much for your help with my last name that trauma, but I've got another one for you.

When I was younger I remember seeing something on the television that's haunted me for many years.

My memories are a little fuzzy but I'll try to explain it as best as I can:

A little boy is in the bathroom and there's this old woman (in my memories, she's a 'hag' but I'm not sure if that's just what I think of her as or if they referred to her as that) in the bathroom of a house. She's sitting, possibly naked, in the bath and this little boy walks in.

I think he screams and tries to tell his parents, who are downstairs, but they don't believe him. He goes back into the bathroom and she scratches him all over. The scene sticking most in my mind was of the little boy standing over a railing looking down at his parents in a living room, I believe there may be stairs at one side of the room leading from where he is to where they are. I think he's bleeding and looks pretty bad.

As I said, my memories are fuzzy so I'm not sure about this one, but I definitely know it's not something I dreamed this time.

I hope somebody can help.

— Mason

UNK SEZ: Thanks Mason! I'm guessing what you're looking for may be the television adaptation of STEPHEN KING's THE SHINING (1997). In that version little Danny comes face to face with a hag-ghoul in the bathroom. The confrontation takes place in the book but was only implied in the KUBRICK (1980) version. Hopefully the clip below will look familiar!

I remember seeing a movie about five years ago I think. It must have been from the '90s or '00s. It was about a girl moving to a new town. The popular guy in the movie started to notice her, and hitting on her, and the guy's girlfriend gets jealous, and the movie ends with her killing the new girl.

The thing that really stuck in my head and has bothered me ever since was how she killed her. She cut off her head, but placed it on the neck where it should be, and covered it up with a scarf or something, so when her mother came home, the new girl was laying on the floor, still alive but her head was not actually attached to her body anymore.

The new girl was a redhead I think, and the jealous girlfriend was blonde. I remember one scene where they were at a party, and there was a pool and the blonde girlfriend sees all the boys admire the new girl in her bikini.

Do you know what movie this is from?

Thank you,

— L.A.

UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Reader chopmeup is on a roll and answered this one with THE STALKING OF LAURIE SHOW.

Not my trauma… but it must be someone's. The image (above) is a screengrab from the music video for INFORMATION SERVICES by MOON WIRING CLUB, found on YouTube, which appears to consist largely of clips from strange stuff that once aired on British television.

Some of the images belong to a reportedly very scarring episode of PLAY FOR TODAY called Robin Redbreast, which is notorious for being Brit TV's HARVEST HOME/THE WICKER MAN and is a bit of a holy grail for fans of the weird and obscure, but I have had no luck at all tracking down whatever production this creepy image appeared in. I'm pretty sure it was a TV production, so chances are pretty good that someone out there saw it at an impressionable age and has been dreaming about it ever since, so I was wondering if you could post the pic and the YouTube (video) and, hopefully, some kind soul could finally satisfy my curiosity about this thing, whatever it is.

Love the site!

UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Kudos to reader chopmeup for naming it with the SUPERNATURAL (1977) episode "Dorabella."

First time writer, long time reader – LOVE your site!

OK, this is a sketchy memory, and it's troubled me for ages – here's what I know:

There is a scene where a man has picked up a little girl (by the ankles) and is spinning her around – starts as fun, then he violently continues to spin and starts bashing her head into walls, killing her.

Likely made in the '70s or '80s. No idea of male star or girl, can't tell you plot or anything else about the movie. I just remember that this scene disturbed me substantially, and I'd love to know from whence it came!

Sincerely,

— Taffeta V.

Hi there, I just stumbled upon your site after visiting The Dreamin' Demon, and I am so glad I found you, perhaps you can help me figure out what movie it was that traumatized me as a kid. It's a movie about a cannibalistic family living in the suburbs. It was made in the '80s, possibly early '90s, and it was a horror/comedy type movie. If memory serves me right the dad wore a pair of thick black horn-rimmed glasses.

The scene in the movie that freaked me out was when the family was all sitting down at the table sharing a meal, and one of the kids got into an argument with the dad, and the kid stabbed the dad in the leg (or hand) with a fork (or butter knife). I remember seeing this movie as a young child, and I am 27 years old now. This scene still sticks with me, and for the life of me I cannot remember the title of the movie. Can you help me??

Thanks so much!

— Lauren B.

UNK SEZ: AUNT JOHN got this one right off the bat! The horn-rimmed glasses and cannibal parents made him think of 1989's PARENTS. Check out the trailer HERE and below I found a classic clip of SISKEL & EBERT discussing and disagreeing about the film! Thanks Lauren and thanks to DREAMIN' DEMON for sending you our way!