Category: Name That Trauma!

Long time lurker, first time poster. It's truly amazing how much stuff you guys have made me remember from my own childhood that I thought I had forgotten. Keep up the good work!

So anyway, I've been hearing a lot about the new STEPHEN KING book, Under the Dome. The thing is, KING's new door-stopper of a novel sounds like a movie that scared the crap out of me as a child. It was about a small town that had what looked like a Plexiglas dome placed over it by aliens. The townspeople all behave semi hypnotized for a good chunk of the film, just like the THE STEPFORD WIVES. Turns out there is this building in the town that has an entirely black room with only a plastic chair in it. One of the main character's friends sits in this chair and ALL KINDS OF '60s BAD ACID TRIP HAPPENS!

The guy starts mumbling and a theremin starts playing. Then all sorts of bad latex Halloween masks start flying around. But what really got me as a kid were the disembodied leprous hands waving around in the camera frame. After a few minutes of this trauma the guy snaps out of it and is now acting just like the townsfolk.

For the life of me I can't remember the title of this flick that fueled many of my childhood nightmares. I leave it to you and the mighty readers of Kindertrauma to help me place a name on this fear factory.

UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Special thanks to Reader MercurialM for being the first to chime in with THE BUBBLE (a.k.a. THE FANTASTIC INVASION OF PLANET EARTH.)

Have a trauma question.

O.K., love your sight by the way, it has helped me in the past.

O.K., so I think this was a PBS T.V. movie, most likely at least. Anyway, it takes place around the 1800s or so. This guy (possibly a soldier) has a meeting with the Devil while walking down the road. The Devil gives him this coat which is magical; it will never run out of money. The catch is the man must not take a bath, shave, trim his nails, etc. for a year or maybe more.

At first he parties and has the time of his life. But soon as he gets smelly he is forced to go stay in barns, etc. At this one farmhouse he helps out the owner with money in exchange for letting him stay there. The farmer promises him his daughter in marriage. He makes her a ring out of his nail trimmings. In the end he wins the contest, the Devil cleans him and he marries the girl.

Any help? I saw it probably 15 or more years ago.

UNK SEZ: Andrew, my hair stood on end when I read your Name That Trauma because I came across this same production on PBS at roughly the same time. You remembered a lot more concrete details than I did, but the time period and the deal with the devil rang a bell with me. I had too little to go on myself but with your added information, it seems I have solved this mystery for both of us!

It's called BEARSKIN, OR THE MAN WHO DIDN'T WASH FOR SEVEN YEARS. It's based on a story by THE BROTHERS GRIMM and it's a short film (20 min.) that was frequently shown in classrooms and on PBS. Even better, I found a clip that brought the memories flooding back which you can see below.

Thanks Andrew, I would never have found this without you!

Hey guys and girls,

Great site, I thought perhaps you could help me with my own scary vague memory/trauma from childhood.

I saw it sometime in the early ‘90s, but the film might be a bit older. The scene I remember is when the main characters, a man and a woman, are trying to escape from a village where some bad stuff has taken place (which I can't remember…)

So they're in the car driving away but don't seem to be getting anywhere. In fact, they keep passing this creepy old lady on a creepy old bicycle. They can't escape, everything just repeats itself, and they aren't getting any further from the bad place.

At one point they actually hit the old lady on her bike; the two people get out of the car to check if she's alright, but she's dead. They stand there for a bit discussing what to do, then when they turn back to the body of the old lady, she's gone…

This is all I remember, it would be so great if you knew per chance where this scene is from, I would love to relive it.

Keep up the good work!

Sebastian

UNK SEZ: I might be wrong here, but I think you're talking about JOHN CARPENTER's IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS. It's actually an old man that gets hit and seems to momentarily disappear, but I've heard him being mistaken for an old woman before (probably due to the long hair.) He's shown as a young boy at first but as he tries to escape the town of Hobb's End he appears to turn into an old man. After he is hit, he says in a young boy's voice, "They won't let me out."

It may be the creepiest scene in the film and the way its shot is truly nightmarish. I also wonder if it was a partial inspiration for this scary (and Kindertraumatic) music video from BATS FOR LASHES…

Hi. I discovered Kindertrauma about a month ago and I'm hooked. Awesome site. I'm wondering if you might know of the short film that scared to me death when I was about eight or nine years old, in the late nineties. I thought it might be called "Monster in my Closet" but evidently I'm wrong. It was a short movie for kids (maybe on the Disney Channel?) about a kid that discovers a large monster with a cartoon-ish face in his closet.

At one point, his mom opens the closet door to show him there is nothing there, and when she turns the light back out and turns to face him, the monster's eyes can be seen in the open closet behind her, blinking. If you know the name of this movie, I would love to see it again. Love your site!!

—Kelly

Been wracking my brain about this one and my search engine skills are apparently lacking. I believe it's a late sixties or seventies era supernatural horror and it really freaked me out as a kid. All I remember is this: a bunch of teenagers go on a picnic (for some reason I remember they ate fried chicken) and naturally the weird stuff starts happening. At one point they see some kind of castle in the distance that vanishes and fight a giant bipedal monster in a cave. In the end one of them ends up committed and screaming about demons.

What I remember scaring me the most was, like the kids, I had no understanding of what was happening to them, other than they were all doomed. It seemed like they were fighting the devil and I knew that the devil's pretty good at not losing to people. That's about it. It's not much to go on but if anyone remembers my trauma I'd appreciate it.

Sorry. Forgot to mention that this was a movie. Additionally, a search for "supernatural horror seventies kids picnic vanishing castle monster devil" mostly comes up with SCOOBY DOO episodes – in case anyone's wondering. I need help!

Thanks! Great site!

UNK SEZ: Rob, I knew exactly what movie you were speaking of as soon as you said "fried chicken picnic", it's 1970's EQUINOX a.k.a THE BEAST! That fried chicken picnic has always stuck in my head too which is kind of strange when you consider all the crazy stuff that happens in EQUINOX, like this…

And this…

And this…

Plus it stars FRANK BONNER from WKRP IN CINCINNATI!

Hey there everybody,

In the mid '80s there was a novel about a killer kid called "Lost" or possibly "The Lost." The book also had a creepy T.V. commercial that ran late at night. Every time I try a search for this book everything that comes up is either related to the T.V. show or the Jack Ketchum novel. If anyone could tell me the name of the author it would great and a way to see the commercial again would be even better.

Thanks a bunch,

UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Nothing seems to get past the all-knowing senski, and he knew that this book is LOST by Gary Devon.

Hi there,

My sister told me about your site. Great stuff, and what a cool idea!

I was wondering if you could help me. For as long as I can remember, there has been ONE thing that I can recall from my childhood that scared the living crap out of me (and it still bothers me to this day when I think about it). I believe it was an act that appeared on the MUPPET SHOW, and it involved some kind of Japanese puppet.

Now, I've already done a little research myself and came across this:

This very well might be what frightened me so much, because it seems to match fairly well with what I can remember…but not quite. I seem to recall the puppet's movements being more jerky and frantic. My sister told me that you often track down the things that scared people so much as kids, and I was wondering if you could help me out. It would be much appreciated! If you need me to provide any more details, please just let me know and I'll do the best I can.

Thanks so much!

Megan D.

AUNT JOHN SEZ: Megan, I am pretty sure you might have provided the answer to your NAME THAT TRAUMA; however, I am by no means well versed in the art of Japanese puppetry. Therefore, I feel it's best to ask our infinitely more knowledgeable readers… what says youse guys?

Hi there kindertrauma! I've sent you guys a question before and I don't know if you have a limit of one question per person, but this question has popped into my head and it's driving me nuts!

Anyway what I'm trying to remember is not a movie or T.V. show, but instead a horror book for kids (and no, it's not a GOOSEBUMPS book), it was a picture book about a boy who goes into an abandoned and haunted movie theater and finds a nice popcorn and soda waiting for him and a movie about to start, so he watches the movie which is an old 1950's era B-movie about alien spiders on Mars and suddenly the kid finds himself IN THE MOVIE!

And what really scared me about the book is that it ends with him trapped in the movie and possibly eaten by the spiders.

I'm pretty sure it had "Spiders from Mars" or "Mars Spiders" somewhere in the title, but anything I Google gets me nothing but DAVID BOWIE results. Oh, and in case it helps, I believe the book is from the late ‘90s.

So there you have it, this has been driving me nuts and of course I no longer have the book anywhere, that would be too easy, so here's hoping you guys can help me out!

Hey, your site's wonderful. It's great to read about people's trauma.

I have one from the early ‘60s. It was a film I saw as a kid on television. Maybe it was black & white, but who knows. Maybe it was an anthology T.V show. I don't think it was a feature. I've checked ONE STEP BEYOND and BORIS KARLOFF and ALFRED HITCHCOCK, but I still can't find it.

A woman decides to kill her traveling-salesman husband. She types his fake suicide note on a typewriter. She (somehow) kills him and (somehow) gets rid of his body. All I really remember is her saying, as she cleans up the murder scene, is "Everything…everything" so she won't forget any clues.

And maybe there's a shot of the typewriter falling/plunging underwater, but I might be making a memory from THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER.

Any clues as to what this episode was?

Thanks,

Greg

UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Thanks to Reader Thunderknight for getting it with DEMENTIA 13!

First off… great site. I spent 3 hours on it tonight.

I remember a movie I saw on T.V. when I was a kid in the late '70s early '80s. It was about a group of teenagers in the woods being attacked by a monster made of mud? I believe they were on an island in the woods? or by a large lake?

Any idea on the movie name?

Thanks,

Stephen

UNK SEZ: Stephen C., that sounds very much like THE WORLD BEYOND A.K.A. THE MUD MONSTER! I don't recall teenagers being involved but the action did take place on an island and the monster was most certainly made of mud. Check out our review HERE and the video below and tell us if it looks like it might be the one you're seeking!