Hi you wonderful and weird people, you... O.K., so this is all I can remember, and typing it is making my heart race and worry about sleeping later, I'm 38 for God's sake! Trouble is I don't recall how old I was, but probably around 11, 12, back in '84-ish. And, I didn't see the entire film; it was actually a clip of a film being shown on a quiz show...
So, there's this kid ill in bed, it's a dimly lit room I think, and he's lying on his back clearly out of it covered in sweat; his mother touches his forehead then leaves the room, closing the door behind her. An item of clothing, can't remember what, falls off a hook on the door onto the floor. After a few seconds of the camera still on the clothing, it suddenly but slowly starts to move across the floor to the bed...
And that's it, forty seconds of film and a lifelong fear of clothes on the floor.
I'm hoping naming the source of my fear will help cure me of it, but I don't think it's that simple. But I can't afford a therapist, so let's give it a go.
Thanks!!
Sim
I saw a clip very like that years ago on TV. I think it was a entry in a short film competition, the title was "Fever Dream" and the guilty garment was probably a bathrobe though it might have been a pullover. I remember it dragging itself along with its "arms". It was probably twenty years ago at least, and I can't swear to any of those details.
You're both right in saying this was a clip from a quiz show, with Screen Test the show in question. 'Fever Dream' was shown as part of the Young Film-Maker of the Year competition. I clearly recall the presenter telling the audience "that's all we can show you of that film." Â
"Screen Test"! Of course! I'd forgotten that show entirely. I never did get to see the rest of that film.