Category: Name That Trauma!

I remember watching a faux TV news broadcast that was live reporting the WAR OF THE WORLDS story — alien invasion, etc. This would have been in the late '80s, maybe early '90s. I remember that coming back from every commercial break, there was a disclaimer notifying the viewing audience that the news report wasn't real. They kept "losing signal" or "losing contact" with their reporters in the field as things got more and more intense — I believe it ended with color bars or snow or something that made it look like the station feed was lost.

I was little — maybe 7 or 8 at the most — when I caught this, so it would have been '88, '89 maybe. Scared the bejesus out of me… even though there were the disclaimers, it was SUPER realistic and I was completely freaked out. I know there was a TV series around the same time, but I don't think this was part of it, unless it was a special episode or maybe some kind of promotion for it.

Can't find anything on this out there but would love it if you could help me identify it. My boyfriend has followed your site for years, and he suggested I reach out to you — I'm a librarian and I'm kind of embarrassed that my awesome research skills can't dig anything up on this, so I defer to your considerable expertise.

Thanks!

—Erin M.

UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Special thanks to reader chopmeup for knowing it was WITHOUT WARNING!

First of all, thank you for your wonderful site! It's like catnip for me.

I've been reluctant to submit this "Name That Trauma!," because my memories of it are so bare bones and fragmented, and I'm not sure if I've made up parts of them (just like any good trauma!) But I figure that if anybody can help me find this movie, it's somebody on your site.

I'm pretty sure that it was on HBO in the late '80s or very early '90s. It was in the afternoon, so it probably wasn't rated R. I remember imagery of a mother and her baby in a house, a large diamond or other clear magic jewel (very SUPERGIRL-y), and a monster. In particular I remember a shot of a big, monstrous arm/hand with claws. The monster might have been after the baby or the diamond, or both?

Also, I think that there were shots taken from the monster's point of view, and in these shots everything was bathed in greenish-yellowish-brownish hues. I remember looking it up in TV Guide and seeing that its genre was listed as "fantasy," but I somehow forgot to retain (repressed?!) the title! Kindertrauma, can you help me?

All my best,

— Ben S.

UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! By Reader Ben S. no less! Turns out this trauma comes from 1982's TIME WALKER!

Hey, Kindertrauma!

Hope you guys are doing OK. Just wanted you to name this movie that traumatized me as a child, to the point it made me feel amazingly disgusted by the sight of slugs.

I can't for the life of me remember what was the name of this movie, all I remember is that there was some night scene where some janitor (a woman) was paralyzed, laying on the floor, and something forced her mouth wide open… and from the corners of the hall she was lying, a HUGE amount of slugs started to crawl over her…

slower and slower…

to the point they start crawling on her body…

with her jaw, WIDE OPEN…

And THOSE FUCKING SLUGS, BY THE HUNDREDS, STARTED SLIDING DOWN HER THROAT, CHOKING HER TO DEATH.

I was probably around 8-9 at the time… I cannot unsee that scene ever since.

Could you guys name that movie? I'd really appreciate it!

Keep up the great work!

Regards,

—D

UNK SEZ:: All I can think of is SLUGS (1988) but does it fit? I know snails chomp on a chick in FULCI's AENIGMA (1987) and I know that slug like creatures attack in NIGHT OF THE CREEPS (and SLITHER) but all I can think of is SLUGS which seems way too easy. Anybody have any other guesses?

NOTE: Top slug image is from the SHAUN HUTSON novel SLUGS and comes courtesy of the ever excellent TOO MUCH HORROR FICTION!

UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Thanks to reader visitedbyvoices for naming it with AENIGMA! Per a follow-up email from Reader D.:

Hey Aunt John!

First of all, I wanna thank you for posting my Name That Trauma! 😀

As for the leads, "Squirm" looked pretty damn close, but I'm gonna go with visitedbyvoices's one, "Aenigma"… I've watched that scene over and over again, while trying to remember what I've seen like, 20 years ago, and I have to say it has to be that movie!

Although those are snails and not slugs, and the woman doesn't look like a janitor at all (don't ask me why I remember the scene like that, I've no clue lol), it's a night scene, she's paralyzed and those fuckers pretty much covered her entire face, killing her!

Thank you so much for solving my childhood greatest mystery! I really, really appreciate it!!

Keep up the excellent work! 😀

Kind regards,

— D

I was reading a post about the burnt Spider-Man, which reminded me of another movie around the same time that was very traumatic, to me at least, I was eight at the time. A man was married to a woman he believed to be a witch, or something along these lines, and he spends the movie trying to prove to others that she is, in fact a witch.

The scene that was so terrifying to my eight-year-old brain was the man walking into an upstairs room walking up on a rocking chair, in the same vein as PSYCHO, thinking he is approaching someone else, turning the chair and finding his witch/wife sitting there instead. He is startled to the point of backing himself out of a window and falling to his death.

Thirty years later and the images are fuzzy, but they gave me nightmares at the time. I thought ROBERT CONRAD played the unfortunate husband but a glance at IMDb didn't uncover anything.

— Josh D.

I think it was a made-for-T.V. movie back in the '80s. I only remember the opening and parts of the end, but not much in between.

It starts with a bunch of kids going up into an old bell tower. They form a circle around this girl with long, very straight, blonde hair, doing some sort of ceremony. The bell falls on top of the girl and I think it might have even bounced, for when it's removed, she's gone.

Disappeared.

(At least, I THINK there was a bell. It might have just been a great flash of golden light. But I'm 99.9% sure a big huge bell fell on her then maybe bounced away.)

Years pass, I forget entirely what happened in between, but eventually the kids, now adults, return to the bell tower and repeat what they did. I think, but I'm not sure, that the bell fell again. I do know that this time the missing girl's mom, now a grey haired old lady, is there, and the girl reappears, I'm pretty sure she was still the same age she was when she disappeared – or she might've grown up to her early 20s while gone, but I'm thinking the former. I remember her going to hug her mom. And – that's it. If they ever resolved how people were going to explain how she reappeared or any thing like that, I don't remember.

Heck, I don't even remember if the bell tower was supposed to be haunted or what have you. And for some reason, even though I remember a bell and a long climb up, the set reminded me more of a barn loft. Lots of room, sunlight, and unpainted wood.

UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Special thanks to Reader Robert S. for naming it with THE WATCHER IN THE WOODS!

Hi,

My sister and I have been searching for years for a movie or show we saw as kids. There were three parts to the film, each separate stories, but I really only recall one of them. It would have been on T.V. around 1990, I think on a main network.

The second story (which is the one I recall) was set in the early 1900s, I think. It begins with a boy, whose parents are circus performers. The mother is having an affair and the father catches her in bed with another man. He ends up stabbing her with a sword and the boy witnesses this.

The story then jumps to later in his life when he is an adult. He is a struggling artist. He becomes romantically involved with some woman and she tells him of a wax museum that will be opening and she offers to buy his childhood story from him to display there. They show him drawing up images of what happened while sitting at a desk with only candlelight. He cuts his hands on the blade he is using to sharpen his drawing utensil.

After they have created the wax sculptures of the death scene of his parents, the woman takes him to view the display prior to the opening. It is incredibly detailed with a statue of the child him standing mouth agape in terror. He and the woman begin to argue and he ends up accidentally stabbing her with the sword from the display. It ends with him standing by her body and the statue of himself as a child with the same terror struck expression.

Any help you can offer would be much appreciated!

Thanks,

— Susie

Hello,

Love the site. A good friend and I were reminiscing about scary movies that our teachers projected in class during the '70s & early '80s. The teacher would declare a certain day as a movie day and a student would be sent to the A/V room to return with a 16mm projector.

I remember being herded into the gym one day in the 70's and watching WINTER OF THE WITCH……not really scary but fun, and on another day seeing Disney's SKELETON DANCE on 16mm.

My friend has a memory of a short film about a family of settlers being haunted or threatened by something that lived in the woods at the edge of a field. Does that ring a bell for anyone?

Thanks for any help.

— GhostManor

I'm 90% sure my kindertrauma is from a television show. It may very well be GOOSEBUMPS or ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK?, but I've had no luck finding anything remotely close to what I'm looking for. Here's what I remember: There are two brothers (twins, I think) who turn into vampires on their 10th or 12th birthday or something, but they don't know it until the end of the day.

The day it's supposed to happen, we see the twins go about their daily lives. They wake up in their bunk beds, they eat breakfast, go to school, etc. I can't remember much except that the whole mis en scene of the show or film is very ‘50's/early ‘60s Americana. The twins' mom cooks a huge breakfast, she's wearing an apron and poofy dress, the whole 9 yards. I remember very pastel colors and the twins being creepily well behaved.

In the last scene, we see the twins get into their bunk beds, except the beds have been replaced with coffins as a birthday present. Mom and Dad stand in the doorway looking on as admiring vampire parents. Totally freaked me out!

Help! It's been bugging me for years!

—Robyn

… Apparently pediophobia means "fear of dolls," not fear of children. Although little children can be scary, too, especially when they have glowing yellow eyes, or dwell in the corn. But I digress.

This movie was probably made in the 1970s and has all but faded from my memory, except for the terrifying killer doll (pre-Chucky!) at its core. I think it was called "Lights Out: When Widows Weep," but "Lights Out" may have been a TWILIGHT ZONE-type T.V. show.

A woman somehow bought or was given a pair of old-fashioned, Victorian-style dolls, a man and a woman. Something happened to the male doll, and the female doll went on a killing spree. She somehow caused the woman's husband to die, then began haunting the woman.

I don't think we ever SAW the doll killing people. There would be a scene with someone putting the doll in the car and driving away, and next we would see twisted, smoking wreckage–but the doll would be there, mysteriously intact. Possibly even smiling.

The woman kept trying to get rid of the doll by throwing it in the river, etc., but it ALWAYS returned to her. At the end it killed her–perhaps in that car wreck.

I was REALLY young when I saw this, so I don't remember much of it beyond the killer doll element and the creepy way the doll kept coming back no matter how the woman tried to destroy it. What I do remember, vividly, is that shortly after I watched this movie (no doubt without parental supervision), a family friend sent me a package for Christmas … an old-fashioned, Victorian-style DOLL. I became terrified of this doll and insisted that my mom hide it in the closet. Then I'd be afraid to walk past that closet, lest it jump out at me. She offered to take it to work with her and give it away, but I refused, of course, knowing that if she drove off with it in her car, the car would immediately burst into flames. I'm not sure what eventually became of the Doll of Doom, but I've found dolls creepy and frightening ever since.

Does anyone remember this movie (or T.V. show) or know anything about it? I know I never saw it again (though once was clearly enough to traumatize me for life). It was NOT the KAREN BLACK movie about the African totem doll, but it may have been from around the same time.

Thanks,

— Kathryn K.

UNK SEZ:: Thanks Kathryn! I do not know the answer to this Name That Trauma! but if it involves killer dolls I'm dying to find out too. Hopefully your description will ring a bell with one of our readers. In the meantime allow me to cruelly leave you with a scene featuring a scary doll from VACACIONES DE TERROR (1989)…

OK, here's a kindertrauma that's a bit different than most. In the ‘80s there was a poster that I saw in a couple of Deck the Walls shops that freaked me the hell out. I believe the artwork was also showcased in Omni magazine (RIP) as well.

The painting was of a horned, green, lizard-like creature wearing a human mask and (if memory serves me right) reading a storybook to some unsuspecting children. It was painted in a hyper-real, neo-surrealistic style very close to Michael Parkes' style. In fact, it may be a Michael Parkes since many of his paintings were being sold as posters at that time. Unfortunately, after weeks of searching I've been unable to locate this masterpiece of lurking terror.

Anyone remember this painting/poster?

Thanks,

— bdwilcox