Name That Trauma:: Julie B. on a Bedridden Corpse

Hello Friends!

I have been trying for a few years to find the film that terrified my sister when we were kids, but with no success. It was shown on Sammy Terry's show, our local late night horror host here in Indianapolis, and we had snuck downstairs to watch it. It was well past our bedtime, and we were never allowed to watch anything that awesome, so this was a covert operation.

It was the opening scene of the film (or very near the beginning) and the setting was a very creepy, very dark Victorian mansion (or a castle?) on a stormy night (Classic!) People are gathered around the curtained bed of an old woman who had recently died, and when they pull back the bed curtains for the reveal, she is in full rigor mortis, eyes staring directly into the camera with a rictus grin.

My sister shrieked and bolted upstairs, we got in trouble, and that was it for Sammy Terry for a while. I was able to torment her with that face for a long time afterwards though, which felt like appropriate payback for ruining a good time!

That was decades ago, but I'd love to find the film to see if it's as terrifying now as it was then, and because (obviously!) I need to retraumatize my sister.

Thank you so much for your help!
Julie

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Chuckles72
Chuckles72
1 year ago

Unk, we may not get this one, but the pics you come up with crack me up.

julianne606
julianne606
1 year ago

Hey Unk! Thank you so much for sharing! Honestly . . . maybe??? I thought the title was Black something . . . I thought it might have been Black Sunday, but MAYBE Black Sabbath was it?? This trauma was 40+ years ago, so my memory of it might not be accurate! Those pix are GREAT though! I may have to send them to my sister anyway, to see if she freaks out, just for funsies, and keep an eye on the comments! Love this site!

julianne606
julianne606
1 year ago

I just spoke to my sister! The plot was (apparently) that a woman had stolen the dead woman's ring, so the dead woman haunted her and had that rictus face and big eyes. I had forgotten the actual plot of the film . . . maybe this helps!

Dylan Donnie-Duke
Dylan Donnie-Duke
1 year ago

If you had a better boyfriend, Julie, he would have figured this out. Unfortunately, you're stuck with me. I'm going to blame the B&W part of the description.

Dr. Future
1 year ago

Boy, you had me at "Sammy Terry"!

Being a Louisville native (whose horror host was the unforgettable "Fearmonger" of "Fright Night," the stuff of nightmares), I know the college town of Bloomington IN loved their Sammy, and he was a well-known local TV personality before that and I am sure a great guy, but in that guise it seemed like he took the disturbed role much too seriously, and something about that character and how he played it read John Wayne Gacy all over it, to the point that I don't think I would have let my kids walk down his street. I don't know what seemed so creepy and completely unnerving and too real about him to me…

julianne606
julianne606
1 year ago

So I watched Black Sabbath last night on YouTube and that is DEFINITELY it! Thank you! I realized that I remembered it in black and white, because my sister and I were watching it on a little black and white TV. (We're that old, and I had totally forgotten that black and white tv's were a thing) She remembers us huddled really close to the set, adjusting the rabbit ear antenna with foil on it to get the picture to come in. She remembered the plot, with the theft of the ring, which I had completely forgotten until she mentioned it. We never got past that first story in the anthology, because the ghost attacking the nurse at the end was what got her. And honestly? It still holds up! They build some genuine tension, and it's atmospheric and still delivers the creepy. Also? This is my new Facebook Cover!

Black Sabbath.jpg