Sometimes I hate writing because it reminds me so much of talking and talking reminds me so much of a very loud headache factory I wish to demolish. And so I'm off to walk a dog named Nelson. Hey, let's make a horror mix tape! Here are some songs that I must put on my horror mix tape. Please add as many songs as you can in the comment section so that I have something to listen to when I get back from walking the dog name Nelson. Thank You!
SIDE ONE
SIDE TWO
I think that we all can agree that sometimes, parents aren't the sharpest tools in the shed. How many times would you say that parents have dragged their kids to a movie that anyone else would have been able to tell was more than a little less than kid-friendly. Just take a look at the TV Tropes page, What Do You Mean It's Not For Kids. Other times, you can't really blame them. It's an easy mistake, because you know how covers can lie. Just look at the art on some of the boxes for Watership Down. There has been many a time that someone picked this up thinking it was just another kids' movie, only to have to coax a traumatized child out from behind the couch later. Or maybe you showed your kid Felidae, which is basically film noir with cats, sex scene included. Yes, there is a sex scene. With cats. This brings me to my main point: Animated does not necessarily mean kid-friendly. For our main example, I will talk about one of my favorite films of all time, 9. I'll try to keep it as spoiler-free as possible.
9 is an animated film directed by Shane Acker, and produced by Tim Burton. It is based off a short film that Mr. Acker made a few years before. It features an all-star cast, among those being Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, and Elijah Wood. The film is set is a post-apocalyptic setting, mankind having been wiped out by machines. A scientist made 9 creations with the intention of having humanity live on after all humans are dead. The story centers around the 9th creation, simply named 9.
For one, there are dead bodies. In the very beginning of the movie, we have 9 discovering the body of the scientist. Not even two minutes later, he comes across a car with its door open. Inside are the corpses of a mother and child. Later on, we will see skeletons being sawed up in order to create a monster. And in a flashback scene, we see a person die on-screen.
Then there are the machines. In the first 10 minutes of the movie, we are assaulted with the image of the Cat Beast, so named for the cat skull that it has for a head. Later, we have the B.R.A.I.N. with his gigantic glowing red eye, who is responsible for the deaths of more than half of the creations. I'll get to the deaths later. The B.R.A.I.N. makes the machine that was assembled with human bones mentioned earlier. This is the Winged Beast. But the biggest offender of them all has to be the Seamstress. She has a doll's head with the body shape of a snake, many spindly legs composed of needles that she uses to sew her victims up, trapping them. And attached to her tail, the dead, empty husk of one of the creations.
And yes, more than half of the creations are dead by the end of the movie. The way in which they die is particularly violent. How so? Well, try having your soul sucked out through your eye sockets and mouth while your body flails about uncontrollably. This is all shown on-screen, too.
So how could parents think that a movie like this is kid-friendly? The movie is even rated PG-13, and the advertisements are suitably dark-toned, some of which explicitly stating that the movie is't for kids. We can only assume that it is because most people are under the notion that everything animated is made for kids, which isn't true in the slightest. If you all have some free time, do check out 9. In my opinion, it is a fantastic film that is certainly deserving of a bigger audience. It has the ability to draw you in. It is full of both action and emotion, really having the ability to both keep you at the edge of your seat and pull at your heartstrings. Give it a try. I'm sure that you wont regret it. And trust me, some time in the distant future, the team of Kindertrauma will be receiving a traumafession or two for this film.
Hi there!
Thank you so much for Kindertrauma.com! I am a huge fan. I came across it randomly on my cell phone one day and proceeded to read it on that little screen for hours. My eyes were killing me but it was so fun!
I would like to recommend a Netflix streaming movie that is truly terrifying. Red, White & Blue is a psychological horror movie that filled me with a dread that stuck with me for days. The acting was also amazing, especially by Noah Taylor. I hope you like it!
Take care!
Annie
UNK SEZ: Dear Annie, thank you so much for your recommendation. I watched RED, WHITE & BLUE (2010) last night and I'd like you to pay for my therapy bills. Seriously, you were not kidding, that movie really is a harrowing ride into the pit. While watching it, I was often thinking I was a hair away from turning it off but there was no way I could. Without giving anything away to those who haven't seen it, I was really impressed by the fact that no character was presented in easy to digest black and white terms as would be the usual case in a film concerning (at least partially) revenge. It was really the sad desperation and not the violence that burrowed so deep under my skin.
Immediately after my viewing I had to look the director up on IMDb. Holy Crap, writer/director SIMON RUMLEY is the same scamp who made another Netflix streaming nightmare of mine called THE LIVING AND THE DEAD (2006)! He must be a mad man or a genius of some sort. That movie also aged me a couple years with its merciless take on both mental and physical illness. I wrote half a review for that one a couple years ago but just stopped and walked away because it was too distressing to continue thinking about and I didn't want to make myself a magnet for wicked spirits and bummer vibes.
Again, Annie, thanks for pushing me to watch this difficult movie and thank you SIMON RUMLEY for pushing me past my safety zone not once but twice. I will never watch either RED WHITE & BLUE or THE LIVING AND THE DEAD again as long as I live but I'm looking forward to seeing what you do next.
I'm sure our readers are well aware of the must-see horror TV classics (DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW, TRILOGY OF TERROR, DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK, DON'T GO TO SLEEP, GARGOYLES BAD RONALD, et al.) and I'm assuming I've already pushed more praise on SATAN'S TRIANGLE than any human can reasonably be expected to in one lifetime, so here is a grab bag of TV horrors that are often overlooked and deserve a little more love… (Really I'm just linking to old reviews and making like I've done a fresh post. Don't gripe, it's recycling and it helps the environment.)
DEADLY MESSAGES (1985)
You get a chatty Ouija board, a maniac with a huge knife, that lady from ARE YOU IN THE HOUSE ALONE? (KATHLEEN BELLER) and it's written and directed by the fine folks who brought you THE MIDNIGHT HOUR! This atmospheric gift even takes place during the Christmas holiday! Read more HERE.
SUMMER GIRL (1983)
Will DIANE FRANKLIN one day discover Kindertrauma and be rightly disturbed by my unhealthy obsession with everything she does? Who knows? In the meantime read more HERE.
BLACK NOON (1971)
Watch it for the exceptional cast and love it for sticking a stick of dynamite in your ear and blowing up your brain. More unabashed affection found HERE.
NIGHT GALLERY's "Brenda"
Hey, this isn't a movie, it's a NIGHT GALLERY segment! I can't help it. I'm putting this here anyway because it still haunts me. Read more HERE.
THE HOUSE THAT WOULD NOT DIE (1970)
This one is a legit classic but I scarcely hear it mentioned these days on account of I guess it's kinda granny-toned. Luckily all I need is some creepy whispering voices to get me going! More HERE.
Hello,
I do not watch horror movies as a rule, because I like to sleep, however, there is one film in particular, that I know I saw as a child, that has stuck with me…. There is an old woman who sits in a chair in an upper room of the large house where the film takes place…there is also a swimming pool in the house that is possessed, and when people get in, it changes temperature or something and kills them. Sound familiar? Pretty sure I saw it on television in or around the early 1980s.
UNK SEZ: Hmmmm, I'm open to other suggestions but it sounds to me like you are talking about frequent trauma offender BURNT OFFERINGS. That one got me good as a kid too. Check out the trailer below and tell us if it looks familiar. Better yet, you can watch the full movie HERE.
Hiya, great to see the site still going strong. I sent in one of my memories a few years back regarding a freaky TV commercial for soft drink Tango, and a few nights ago, I was trawling through Youtube for old TV shows I remember, when I stumbled across a show that really used to freak me out as a child and thought some of you might enjoy it.
Back in 1990, a late night TV magic show called The Secret Cabaret started on UK Channel 4, however, unlike all the family friendly magic shows on at the time, this was decidedly more adult. Combining gothic/heavy metal style, horror, and surreal imagery with violent illusions, stunts and footage from old freak shows and carnival attractions, this was really edgy stuff, especially in the UK at that time (Which was still quite conservative, with many horror films being banned or heavily edited).
The star was a magician called Simon Drake, a cross between Chris Angel and Penn & Teller, whose illusions were often incredibly bloody, such as being gutted on an operating table by a nurse with a chainsaw, all the while screaming and coughing up blood. Or punching his fist through a woman's chest, ripping out her bloody heart. Fun stuff!
But all the gory illusions aside, the part that freaked me out the most was the intro. This was the bit that gave me the chills…
1. Crowhaven Farm (1970)
2. Simon, King of the Witches (1971)
2. Crawlspace (1972)
3. Stanley (1972)
5. Leptirica (1973)
Thanks,
Ozne
Have you ever had that thing where you're desperate to watch something and so you peruse the Netflix Streaming, the choices available ON DEMAND, the boxes of VHS tapes that litter your floor and the towering shelves of DVDs that align your walls and still, you are unable to find anything that fits your persnickety mood? How is that possible? Possible or not it happened to me the other night. I was in danger of spending the entire evening loitering in a movie title K-hole. Then I remembered that I had recently been waxing nostalgic over the short-lived supernatural cozy-fest called THE OTHERS. Yes! I made a fort out of quilts and built a campfire out of safe LED tea lights that could never cause harm to my pets and I dug in once again into the pilot episode. And it was perfect. So now I'm going to use this space here to try to convince at least one other fellow human to check it out. I love this spooky character driven show! If I recall correctly, nobody could convince me to leave the house on the Saturday nights that it aired. At this point, I've fully given up hope that it will ever be made available on DVD but the pilot episode is below and the rest of the series is only a Google away. Make sure you stick around to see the episode directed by TOBE HOOPER ("Souls on Board"), and the one with the evil wallpaper, that's a good one too! I'm off to watch some more myself….
Children's films in general but Disney movies in particular have a long history of terrifying children. They love to lull a child into a sense of security and then scare the crap out of them. Who was not traumatized by "Dumbo," "Pinocchio," and the unspeakable horror of "Bambi"? I know we all have our own Disney traumafession. Mine would be "Darby O'Gill And The Little People." That scene gave me nightmares for weeks. It's not just Disney though, what about the Child Catcher in "Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang"? "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" is consistently unsettling, but God knows what they were thinking with that boat sequence. Not to mention those damn flying monkeys that sent me running out of the room like the Cowardly Lion.
As kids we aren't prepared for some of the stuff we might run into. I once shared "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" with a little kid I was babysitting, I had forgotten about Large Marge. He loved the movie up until that point, but that really scared him. I recently watched "Frankenweenie." (I know, I'm late to the party, sorry.) While "Ed Wood" is one of my favorite films, I haven't had much interest in Tim Burton lately. This is a delightful homage to the old horror movies that many of us enjoyed as a child. (When I saw "Bride of Frankenstein" as a little boy I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wanted to live in an isolated castle and fly kites off the roof during a thunderstorm, and when folks would drop by I would cower behind the door and implore them to go away.)
The animation is beautiful. There are many references to old horror films and repeated viewings would undoubtedly reveal more. Mr. Whiskers transformation sequence cracked me up. The science teacher is a great caricature of Vincent Price with Martin Landau voice acting. The girl next door is named Elsa, thank you. Watching this movie I could not help but wonder how it might seem to a child. Without the affectionate back-story I live in, what does this look like to a kid? I can see some parents looking at this movie and deciding it is not appropriate for their children. I can see far more parents seeing that Disney logo and tossing it to the hapless kid without a second thought. I think every parent should watch this before showing it to their children, but I doubt that will be the case.
Kids have pets. Pets die. It's a part of life children have to learn to accept. When my pet turtle died I was very sad. (This movie does give a generous nod to Gamera, but does any little kid know who Gamera is anymore?) When your pets die you can't bring them back. My favorite scene was when Sparky ran away and found his headstone in the pet cemetery. He circled a few times, and sadly laid down. That was his place. Even the dog knew it was where he belonged. That's the only thing that bugged me about this movie, the ending. (SPOILER ALERT!) Sparky should have stayed dead at the end. I could have gone with Sparky trying to come back, but being unable to do so. My favorite line in the movie is when Victor tells Sparky it's OK, he doesn't have to come back. That should have been the end. In 10 or 15 years, this movie will be a recurring Traumafession.
