Category: Name That Trauma!

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!

This has been bugging me since I was around eleven – that would be in 1992. I saw a little bit of a film in a friend's house – probably a video – and one image stayed with me. Some people – a man and a woman, I believe – are trapped in a cave. They are tied, so they can't escape. Little mechanical children or dolls start walking towards them from the opening of the cave. They have sharp pointy teeth that open and close mechanically. Someone must have set the dolls walking, but I don't remember who. Also I don't remember how the scene ends. My only other clue is that MAYBE in the same film there were some flying creatures, human-like, but with big wings, maybe dressed in white and golden colours.

There.

Any idea, anyone?

Much appreciated!

— Sara B.

UNK SEZ: Biting dolls and people (Pygar!) with wings? That's gotta be BARBARELLA! Thanks for bringing this one up Sarah B, It's such a cool movie and it's been way too long since I've last seen it! Check out the clip below!

I hope you can help.

I am looking for a movie I saw late-night on T.V. as a child. This would have been in the mid-to-late-'70s.

The details are very sketchy, but here are the key points I remember, and I may be mixing up the details because the memory is SO vague:

• There may have been some kind of invisible monster.
• There were soldiers/warriors/combat-group type of people on some kind of quest.
• There was a villain that had his heart separated from his body, up in some kind of tower or something.
• At one point, the heart falls out a window or something after someone throws it deliberately or it falls accidentally or something, and there's this horrible shot where the heart lands with a hard PLOP on the ground.
• There's some kind of path through misty swamp/caverns/something where taking one step off the path will do something horrible to you, like turn you into a caveman or kill you instantly or send you back through time or something.
• The bad guy, if I recall, resembled Genghis Khan or something, a Hun-type person, if I recall.

This piece of, uh, fiction, terrified me as a little girl. The atmosphere of it was literally so spooky I couldn't sleep. At all. For three days.

Help, KINDERTRAUMA, YOU'RE MY ONLY HOPE!

— Becca V.

UPDATE: NAME THAT THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Special thanks to reader Logan for naming it with THE THIEF OF BAGHDAD. I think it's best if you read what Becca had to say via email.

Okay, this isn't your standard trauma but it's been bugging me for years. It's the major pop culture mystery memory that I've never been able to solve, so maybe someone here can help!

Anyway, this is in the early '60s (probably '65 or earlier), and I'm visiting my grandmother's house. For some reason am horribly sick and kind of delusional/hallucinating (and somewhere around 5-8 years old). In the afternoon I remember seeing a T.V. show that's remained in my brain and I can't figure out what it was or why I remember it.

What I do remember is some kids (maybe two to four boys in the 10-15 year old range) on a raft in a river or a marshy area. I have the idea that they've accidentally traveled back in time. I think (this is very tentative) that maybe they were in a natural history museum and entered an exhibit and found themselves transformed back into prehistoric time. There might be dinosaurs. One of them is blaming another for getting them into that mess. I think it was in black and white (I think my grandmother had color T.V. at the time).

I think it was a series or serial of the kind they had on MICKEY MOUSE CLUB or later on THE BANANA SPLITS. I sort of remember seeing it more than once but that one awful afternoon when I was really sick stands out. So it's related to trauma even if it didn't really cause it.

Would be really grateful for any help in tracking this thing down.

—Mike F.

UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Special thanks to reader tychoanomaly for naming it with JOURNEY TO THE BEGINNING OF TIME.

Hello Kindertrauma,

I've been a fan of your site for a few months now. Name That Trauma is definitely my favorite section. I've had this on my mind for a while now, and finally broke down and decided to submit this one.

I think it came out in the early 1980s, and may have been an After-School Special, or maybe a kids show on HBO or Showtime. It didn't scare me or anything, but it stuck in my head for some reason because it was a little bit disturbing. I'm hoping this is an easy one:

There were two kids involved, a boy and a girl, maybe around 10 years old. They had a shrunken head and a pan flute, and I think there may have been bongo drums too. The kids would play these instruments and the shrunken head would come to life and talk to them. I have no idea what the plot was.

Please help me out here.

Thank you,

— Merk H.

UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Kudos to reader Barry Meyer for stepping up to the plate with THE BOY WITH TWO HEADS (aka CHICO THE RAINMAKER)!

Hi there! Huge new fan and have been devouring the site greedily.

OK..I looked and looked and couldn't seem to find this one..so I am wondering if you can Name This Trauma:

It's pretty vague, but I was so traumatized by a scene in a seventies film that involves a woman swimming in a pool who attempts to come up for air and finds she cannot. Like there is glass over the top of the pool.

MY BIG FEAR. Gah. I still have nightmares.

I could have SWORN it was BURNT OFFERINGS and slogged my way through what should have been a great film but was instead…less than amazing, and didn't find the scene. Unless in my frustration I passed it….

Help?

— Jhone

UNK SEZ: Thanks Jhone! Although many horror films contain death scenes involving swimming pools I think I know just the one you are looking for. 1978's THE LEGACY (which stars SAM ELLIOT and a bunch of people who aren't SAM ELLIOT) features just such a trauma scene! Check out the clip below!

I've run this one by the folks at IMDb a while back and I don't think they came up with the correct answer. This is probably the best spot to solve it because I THINK it might be a made-for-TV movie, and you guys are so good at solving those.

Back in the early '80s there was something that played on TV that I was only able to catch a small bit of. We were at my grandparents and they only had antennae TV here in Canada, so it couldn't have been too avant garde. It also played within a fairly early time bracket (late afternoon or early evening) so that's what makes me think it was possibly a replay of a made-for-TV movie movie.

Anyway, there was a scene where two men are digging up a grave with a lady in it. They were interested in taking the ring she had on her finger. As they're doing so, she wakes up, there's a REALLY awkward moment shared among them, and then one of the men slams a pic-ax (or something) into her chest. I was so young and the recollection is so foggy, but it seems to me that she was wearing a gold turban or dress. I also remember my grandmother commenting on how good she looked considering she'd been buried in a grave, so she wasn't a rotted corpse. I also don't think she had any fangs because I never once thought she was a vampire (but it sure sounds like vampire stuff).

Any help on this one?

Hey Lance and John…

How about a Name That Trauma about a one hour special (could be based on a book) about a boy and girl locked in a library and all I can remember is the first story was about a traveling salesman (maybe the name Mr. Pym) and he ends up dead and buried behind a barn or house of a family he encounters?

Maybe a book salesman…Bibles, etc…not sure, but it seemed like the mid ‘80s (could be older)…and kinda creepy.

Any help will be appreciated!

By the way…keep up the Funhouse, I love trying to guess my favorite horror movie scenes.

Take care,

— Thunderknight!

Just discovered your website and I love it! I've been devouring the "Name That Trauma!" entries, and of course, I have one. I remember seeing this movie as a teen in the late '70s/early '80s on a Sunday morning horror T.V. movie showcase, although the movie must have come from the '60s or late '50s.

It was an anthology movie with several segments. The one segment I remember concerned a police captain and his sergeant investigating a strange series of murders seemingly committed by a supernatural being such as a vampire or werewolf. They key in on one suspect and congratulate themselves when he is arrested or killed near the segment's end, just before it's revealed to the audience, but not the police, the supernatural being actually committing the murders is the police captain's somewhat mousy, eyeglasses-wearing female secretary.

I hope this sounds familiar to someone at your website. I've scoured books on horror film to no avail.

Thanks again for the opportunity to write in, and I'll be reading more of the website!

— Robert S.