Category: Name That Trauma!

First off just wanted to compliment you on a fantastic site. For someone like myself who grew up during the 80's slasher heyday this site has been invaluable in sourcing out those titles from memories that are 20+ years old.

However, I have a few here that I am still having trouble with.

1) This is from the mid to late '70s I believe, possibly a TV movie. Maybe not so much a horror film, but something that has stuck in my psyche for years. A boy and a girl are on a beach with a small turtle and carve something onto it's back. Years later, the boy lives under the water or something and we see the turtle (now huge, I think) swimming by with the carved initials??? On it's shell!

2) This one was possibly part of a trilogy type story from the '80s or maybe from a TV show like RAY BRADBURY THEATRE, TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE, etc. but not sure. It involves groups of people who come out to the scenes of auto accidents. Don't remember much other than these groups of people all showing up when there is an accident…turns out they are all accident victims and are already dead????

3) And finally this one WAS part of a trilogy or quartet of horror stories popular back in the '80s VHS days. All I remember of this one was a guy who was performing a "Punch and Judy" type show on a beach or waterfront somewhere. I don't remember if the Punch and Judy theme was the connecting story or one of the stories itself.

Sorry to be so vague but it's all I have. Hopefully it will spark someone's memory and I can finally re-watch these and "put them to bed."

UNK SEZ: O.K. Sonny I know at least two of these three. The first one is certainly THE BERMUDA DEPTHS, a made-for-television movie from 1978. There may be more than one giant turtle movie, but only one has the initial carving scene you mentioned. The third one I'm pretty sure, is a British anthology film from 1983 called SCREAMTIME, which indeed sports a segment involving Punch and Judy puppets. The second one sounds a lot like CARNIVAL OF SOULS from 1962, but since you didn't mention it being in black and white I have my doubts. Anybody out there think they've got a clearer handle on the second one? If so leave a comment or contact us at Kindertrauma@gmail.com!! In any case Sonny, in the words of MEAT LOAF two out of three ain't bad!

NOTE: Currently you can watch THE BERMUDA DEPTHS on Youtube! The first part is below, double click the screen to get to the rest. Best to do so now, it could disappear at any time!

This one has been plaguing me, and comes from when I was older. It stays with me to this day.

The plot is something like this. A geneticist mixes human sperm (his) in the mix and impregnates a captive laboratory gorilla. The result is a gorilla-boy, who, through some long sort of process, the doctor manages to hide its origins. As he is being nursed, the Gorilla boy has this really weird whimper cry. I think the Gorilla-boy eventually loses his body hair, and the doctor has his vocal cords fixed, and pawns him off as an orphan that he's taking care of. He has all kinds of hardships trying to fit in, but is still regarded (and looks) more-or-less like a human boy.

The Mad Doctor (and I do need to point out that this wasn't a sci-fi movie as you may expect…it was much more like a melodrama) is proud of his accomplishments…however Gorilla-boy, now Gorilla-teen, senses something's not right, as he yearns for the jungle, and can climb trees with reckless abandon. He also falls in love with the Scientist's teenage daughter. In the end, he finds the Mad Scientist's notes, and overwrought, goes to confront/meet his mother, the captive gorilla….who seems to notice him for a few seconds, stroke his face….and then beats him to death!

Here's the clincher, the Mad Doctor takes in relative stride the death of Gorilla-Teen, but months later, his daughter (who was pregnant) gives birth to a baby off screen at the hospital. The Mad Doctor is satisified….until the baby does the whimper-cry!  The movie ends with a freeze-frame of the Mad Doctor's eyes bugging out as he realizes the implications….

I have no idea the movie name, or anyone in it. I'm convinced it was English. The last freeze-frame of the movie, if ever shown to me, would probably induce cardiac arrest.

AUNTIE SEZ: Readers, I am not monkeying around when I say I have no idea what this movie is, and… it's driving me bananas! Please leave your tips in the comments or email them to us at kindertrauma@gmail.com.

I have a question maybe someone can help me with. In the early eighties I remember watching a slasher film where a man lived in a boarding house with his domineering mother. She would tell him that he needed to find himself a girl just like mother. He was killing the girls that would move into the boarding house. Using their body parts, he created a woman that looked like his mom. Then he locked his mother up with the body and told her to teach it to love him just like she did. Does it ring a bell? I can't seem to remember the title of the movie.

Unk Sez: How about it kids, anybody know this one? Leave your thoughts in the comments or email us kindertrauma@gmail.com if you do!

I remember being a kid and walking into the living room while my mother was watching a movie on television.  I watched the remainder of the movie and found it very scary.  It was about some kids (teenagers?) who were playing in/around a water tower, and I think one of them fell inside or got pushed inside.  If I remember right, the kid ended up dying.  I could be way off, but I was hoping someone would be able to tell me what movie I'm recalling.

UNK SEZ: Yikes, another day, another "Name That Trauma" stumper! I feel like I've seen this before. It kind of reminds me of THE OTHER but I think those kids where messing around in piles of hay. Wasn't there another movie where a kid fell into a silo of corn and suffocated in it? Falling into a water tower reminds me of something that might happen at the beginning of C.H.I.P.S. Gee, LeeAnn I'm not quite sure what this may be. If anyone has any ideas please dump them in to the comments section…but be very careful around the comment section edge, it's very slippery and several readers have been known to fall in, never to be heard from again!

Reading the article with AMANDA BY NIGHT gave me chills since, for a long time, I have been searching for something that was VERY similar to the Prisoner's ROVER…

When I was a kid (in the 80s) I rented a VHS tape that at the beginning had these previews and one was like this:

In the middle of the desert a man in a suit, laying on the sand, desperately drags himself at a slow pace, like something was about to attack him (but there is nothing around!). Then a quick cut shows us a big city downtown and a horrible noise. Suddenly, in the best HARRYHAUSEN stop-animation fashion we see flying a HUGE giant mechanical bug (shaped like a fly) that gets on top of one of the skyscrapers and yanks the whole thing out with debris falling all over. Cut back to the guy in the desert, cut to the giant fly with the building hanging between her legs, cut the guy, horrible sound getting more intense, cut to the point of view of the bug flying over dunes, cut to the guy hearing the noise, the bug gets on top of him and drops the building…on him.

It was horrific. I remember rewinding it and watching it over and over again. To this day it haunts me to know what that was about.

AUNTIE SEZ: Marcel, you have us stumped! If any of you dear readers know the name of this freaky fly flick, please leave it in the comments or email it to us at kindertrauma@gmail.com.

I don't think this is technically considered a trauma 'cause I kinda liked it, but here goes…

When I was 10-ish and growing up in lovely upstate NY, I used to wake up before everyone else and sneak downstairs to watch a very, very early morning T.V. show. It was probably around 1982 or 1983, and it featured (I think) a Dracula, a werewolf, and a Frankenstein in strangely comedic situations. Every once in a while there would be a musical montage of these goofy monsters dancing to stuff like The Archies "Sugar Sugar" or The Stones "Jumping Jack Flash."

I have often wondered if this show actually existed, or if it was just a psychedelic fever dream.

Either way, please help!

UNK SEZ: Melissa you are talking about THE GROOVIE GOOLIES. I loved that show as a kid. In fact I still love it. It premiered in 1970 and it was a spinoff of THE ARCHIES cartoon. Sabrina the Teenage Witch (who I also love) being the connecting factor!!!! Find out more HERE!

This was a movie about a young girl looking for her missing father seduced by a female vampire, chased and treed by werewolves who were fought off by the vampires as she watched from up in the tree.  This is all I can remember, please let me know if you have any idea what this might be.

UNK SEZ: Claudine, I know just what movie you are seeking! It is one of my personal favorites and it's called LEMORA: A CHILD'S TALE OF THE SUPERNATUAL. I've written about that haunting film on these very pages! Read my gushing ramblings about that gem HERE. Thanks for being traumatized by something I know. I was beginning to develop a complex! You cannot see me doing a Snoopy-flavored happy dance in your honor, but that is just what I am doing!

I'm so grateful to have come across this site.

I was about 2-3 years old when I saw this scene. It is of a woman screaming and running up a staircase with a wall on one side and the railing on the other. Hands come out of the wall trying to grab her as she runs up.

That's all I remember.

Everyone tells me I'm crazy, but how can a toddler make that up?

L.O.L.

Anyway it was in 1987 or 1988, and I was in Jacksonville Florida, if that helps. I can't find it anywhere, but I'm inclined to believe it's an old school haunted mansion type movie.

UNK SEZ: Sanabellia, I wonder what movie this is! It certainly sounds familiar, an old house, a chase up the stairs, creepy hands reaching out from the banister. I can't put my finger on it though. Any Kindertrauma readers out there with any ideas? You gotta help Sanabellia!!! Leave your best guesses in the comments section or email us at Kindertrauma@gmail.com. Somebody must know this one!!!

Hi, I am so glad I found out about your site!

When I was little I saw this terrifying movie that gave me nightmares for years, and I have been trying to figure it out for 10 years. My friends think I'm crazy. It was probably either late ‘80' or early ‘90s. The only part I can really remember is a little girl being chased by a big brown monster with horns or something, and she is in her room and the monster is in the mirror.

The mirror is one of those old long oval mirrors that stands on its own. I know it's vague. I think the little girl had dark brown hair. At first, I thought it was the trippy version of ALICE IN WONDERLAND that came out in '85, but I have watched it and that's not it.

The girl and the mirror are totally different.

I think I may have seen this other movie around the same time. If you can help me, I will not know how to thank you. It's killing me that I can't figure out what movie I saw.

Please help!!

UNK SEZ: Emilee, I'm not sure about this one. At first I thought it was MIRROR MIRROR (1990) based on your description of the mirror, but I think the beast in that movie is more of the scraggily hag variety. Then I thought of RIDLEY SCOTT'S LEGEND where the beast in question does have horns and the girl (MIA SARAH), though not a little girl, has dark hair. The beast indeed enters through a mirror at one point in that movie, but from what you've said I get the idea that the action takes place in a more traditional bedroom rather than the fantasy world depicted in LEGEND. You can watch that scene HERE. Let me know if that could possibly be the one you're looking for, otherwise I have to throw it out to our readers to assist! In the meanwhile, through my research, I did discover that a very similar occurrence as the one you mentioned once befell upon SESAME STREET's Grover who took his own monstrous mirror confrontation in absolute stride…

I came in on my father watching a movie and sat down with him.  I was coming in mid-movie so I don't know the whole plot but there was a guy and his girlfriend and a psycho bad guy that was after them.  The bad guy kidnaps the girlfriend and the hero goes after her, he catches up to them in some kind of parking lot at night.  The girl is now chained to the back of a huge semi truck by her legs – her arms are chained to some kind of fence or pipe coming out of the ground.  Bad guy watches it all from his side mirror and keeps laughing, smiling and revving the engine of the truck.  Good guy is pleading with him and finally tries to get closer to free his girlfriend, bad guy stomps on the gas and the truck screeches away amidst the girl's screams.  Now they didn't show the scene of her getting yanked apart, they just cut to the bad guy and the good guy but I was so bothered by the whole thing.

I kept asking my dad, "Is she okay, what happened to her, he didn't pull her arms off right?"

My dad finally told me to go and play in my room so I never saw the end of that movie but I had dreams later of that same scene and it has haunted me all this time.

UNK SEZ: This grizzly act can only be the work of RUTGER HAUER! Absinthe, your pop must have been watching 1986's THE HITCHER. What a crazy scene huh? I'm still kind of shocked. That was JENNIFER JASON LEIGH getting yanked apart and C.THOMAS HOWELL was the guy who had to stand by and watch it happen. It seemed good ol' J.J.L.'s acceptance into the final girl club was as good as written in stone, but maybe her application got lost in the mail or something. As disturbing and as counter intuitive to horror tropes as this scene is, you can be thankful that your young mind missed out on the way THE HITCHER serves up french fries…talk about finger licking good!