kindertrauma

Traumafession:: Ben Sher of Eyes of Ben Sher on Waxwork's VHS Box

Posted on By unkle lancifer

Every horror fan of a certain age talks about it. The thrill of the VHS covers in the horror section at the video store. They were so deliciously unlike anything that existed in life that you couldn't imagine what sorts of evil magic those tapes contained. The first image that drew me to the horror section was actually a "New Release" poster on the wall for the movie Waxwork (1988, Anthony Hickox). I was enchanted by the image of a redheaded little person in a tuxedo standing in front of a huge door filled with screaming heads. The image seemed strange and yet familiar, unnerving and yet comforting, as though I had experienced it in another life.

I realize that I must have started renting horror movies before I knew how to read, because I remember pointing to the poster and asking my mother to read me the title and the movie's tagline: "Stop on by and give the afterlife a try." I wanted to, desperately. The idea of a doorway that opened to a world filled with formal wear, screaming heads, weird lighting, and hot pink credits fonts appealed to me then as much as it does now. I insisted on renting it, and miraculously, my mother obliged.

When I watched the film, I was actually disappointed. I've now seen it multiple times and I still can't remember what it's about. Something about Zach Galligan and Deborah Foreman going to a wax museum in the middle of the night and entering the exhibits. Waxwork proved to be a rite of passage that every young horror nerd must go through: I learned that the image on the cover doesn't always take place in the film. I didn't like it, but I would be forced to experience it again and again.

Ironically, even though Waxwork disappointed me because it did not feature a scene in which a redheaded little person opened a gigantic door to a wild and wonderful world of strange, sublimely beautiful faces and weird lighting, that is precisely what Waxwork's poster, and the video store, did for me. They welcomed me in to the wild and wonderful world of horror movies, a world in which you could find anything you wanted and needed.

More of Ben's video store memories HERE!

Traumafession:: Dustin in Minnesota on Escape From Alcatraz's Self Mutilation

Posted on By unkle lancifer

While scouring through IMDB during my lunch break, I recalled another film that "traumatized" me as a youngster: 1979's "Escape from Alcatraz" starring Clint Eastwood.

The part that scared (scarred?) me was when the inmate artist "Doc" chops off his fingers after his painting privileges were revoked. I could watch a murder onscreen without flinching (much, anyway), but for some reason his stone-faced self mutilation really freaked me out. The funny thing is that for years I would mentally place this scene into another Clint Eastwood film, "Bronco Billy". I was convinced that when they visited the asylum, Geoffrey Lewis chopped off his fingers. And THERE is an interesting idea for a YouTube mashup, if anyone with the video skills wants to piece it together.

Thanks again!

Dustin in Minnesota

Name That Trauma:: Reader Tristan R. on an Evil Playground and a Creepy Clock Tower

Posted on By unkle lancifer

I'm back,
After an unsuccessful attempt at uncovering my previous trauma I submit a new challenge!!! Please help, I don't know if these are imaginings from the dark recesses of my mind or just TV shows/films whose images still plague me to this day!!! Ok, both would have been televised in the eighties:

First up,
Could have been a from a series or film – I recall some kind of evil playground, no obvious horror that I can remember but more an air of menace. For some reason I think the main character which could have been a young boy was fully aware that the playground held some secret but it wasn't until dusk that this was fully realised? Could have been some kind of supernatural gang involved who frequented said 'evil playground'!!!

And secondly,
I'm edging towards what could have been a ghostly children's TV programme – all I remember is a girl and her family driving down some long and winding roads eventually passing what I remember as some kind of clock tower. I think the sighting of the clock tower triggered some kind of repressed memory in the girl like she knew she had seen it before regardless of what her parents told her? Again, another menacing secret. Did this happen to me or are these shows/films out there???

Thanks for the help with the last trauma but it still remains unearthed – It involves an architect, his female lover with red hair (a nude bath scene reminiscent of ophelia), a curse and some hallucinations of a scary individual appearing in a car windscreen or on top of car!

HELP, I'm still TRAUMATISED!!!!!

TRISTAN R.

Valerie Harper Blogathon:: Don't Go To Sleep!!!

Posted on By unkle lancifer

When pal Amanda by Night (of Made For TV Mayhem) invited Kindertrauma to join in on the VALERIE HARPER BLOGATHON she was orchestrating, we could not possibly refuse. Fact is, although she is better known for many other gigs, HARPER starred in what is simply the best (and most kindertraumatic!) made-for-television horror flick of the slash-happy eighties. Yes, once again I am talking about DON'T GO TO SLEEP! If you're not familiar with that title then I beg you to yank your horror-head out of the zombie sand and give it a look-see. You will not be sorry. Having covered this one before you may think I have nothing more to say, but you'd be wrong because I have yet to give this gem the "five favorite things" treatment. Here are my five favorite things about DON'T GO TO SLEEP…

THE OPENING CREDITS! Right out the starting gate DON'T GO TO SLEEP is humming it's own quirky tune. Black and white title cards flash and they're so low-tech shaky you might think you've stumbled upon a home movie of a camping trip. Lullaby music box chirpings blast and then are cut off indiscriminately by the sound of whooshing traffic. This happens again and again throughout the prelude. I'm sure that somebody missed the effect that they were going for by a couple of miles but the resulting awkwardness of the overreach must be superior to what they were aiming for anyway. It's slapdash, makeshift and yet still sets an appropriate mood. This movie is all about the treacly chimes of childhood being upset by jagged blasts of harsh, startling reality.

THE DIRECTION! Made for TV movies have their own set of advantages and disadvantages compared to their theatrical counterparts. Sometimes the unavoidable restraints can result in a static affair or the director not having as much leeway to express himself visually. This is not the case here. RICHARD LANK (who also steered 1978's effectively eerie NIGHT CRIES) has a field day playing with bizarre angles, distorted perspectives and unusual POV shots. I think he may even have invented the flying lizard cam and the rolling pizza cutter cam. Prime time doesn't allow for much gore but LANK moves ahead undaunted. Rather than show a head smashing into the driveway, he quickly cuts to a watermelon being dropped and bursting apart upon the kitchen floor. Message received loud and clear!

THE CLOSING! What better gift to leave your audience than a final image branded into their horrified brains for all eternity? DON'T GO TO SLEEP does just that in a seemingly effortless way without resorting to bells and whistles and elaborate effects. Much like SATAN'S TRIANGLE (in my mind, the greatest made for TV movie of the supernatural seventies), DON'T places its final winning card on the preternatural power of one enigmatic Cheshire smile. The maniacal faux-sweet image actually appears several times throughout the film but its final presentation is so gruesomely uncanny that it's difficult to shake or even interpret why it's so effective. I seriously believed for years that a skull was superimposed upon the image a'la Norman Bates in PSYCHO, but I guess that was my imagination! True cinematic alchemy!

THE STRAIGHTJACKET! I'm sorry but it's satisfying to see anybody who was in the movie ANNIE wind up in a straight jacket!

THE CAST! Are you kidding me? DUEL's DENNIS WEAVER, ROSEMARY'S BABY's RUTH GORDON and POLTERGEIST'S OLIVER ROBINS! It's a horror fan's dream team! Both ROBIN IGNICO as Mary and KRISTIN CUMMING as Jennifer excel where most child actors would have failed. And then there's VALARIE HARPER who we are specifically honoring today. I'm thinking DON'T GO TO SLEEP may not exactly be the highlight of her long career but yes, of course, she brings everything she's got regardless. I love her and WEAVER together tackling screaming matches like they're in WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? and ad-libbing under their breath whenever they damn well feel like it. I'm sure some folks have a hard time seeing past the campy surface but to me, that's just one layer out of zillions. They don't make ‘em like this anymore and what a shame.

DON'T GO TO SLEEP is a lively watch but it never shirks from the subject of death and grieving, topics that the horror genre is especially fit to explore. It's easy to forget that as modern horror continues to be corralled toward action/comic book power fantasies instead. I say don't feel bad for VALERIE HARPER; she's not going anyplace you're not going too. As she faces whatever is next (total recovery says me), I stand more impressed with her wisdom than her bravery. She knows its not how you die but how you live that matters. "We're all terminal" she says and there's nothing truer than that. I think I'll save my sorrow for someone less vividly alive, less admirably "awake".

Dash O' Trivia: Guess what VAL's last name is in DON"T GO TO SLEEP! Answer: Hogan! Wha-wha-what? This calls for some back up from Turnidoff!

Name That Trauma:: Reader Liz on a Ghostly Book Featuring a Black Dog of Death

Posted on By unkle lancifer

There is a book that I read almost 20 years ago…I think I was 8 or 9, so it was 17 or 18 years ago to be more specific. Though, I don't think the time-frame matters much because I'm pretty sure the book was not a new release and had been out for some years before I read it.

It was a collection of ghost stories and superstition, I think… I am hoping that someone can help me here.

These are the stories that I remember…

One story had a woman buying a house and one of the bedrooms was haunted by the ghost of a little girl who had died because her bed was underneath a window and she caught a draft and died of pneumonia or something like that.

Another story had someone, a family, maybe, but it might have been just an individual, staying in a hotel, and they were being disturbed at night by a child and kept complaining about it to management, but the management kept saying that there were no other kids staying in the hotel. It turns out the child was a ghost who was haunting the hotel and had died in the room the family was staying in, or something to that effect…I think I remember that they might have found a skeleton in the closet or in the wall or something at the conclusion.

Another story detailed the Black Dog of Death, the superstition that some people see a big black dog as a harbinger of death to come. This one terrified me and gave me an irrational fear of dying every time I saw a black dog around, which I would see, or imagine I was seeing, quite often, hahahah.

This might have been from a different book, but I THINK it also contained the old legend of the newlywed couple who were driving to a town and getting lost because it was dark, so they had to stop for the night and they asked an elderly couple if they could sleep in their home. The elderly couple invited them in and fed them and gave them good company. In the morning, the couple left an envelope of money on the table to thank them for their hospitality and continued on their way to the town. They mentioned the old couple to someone and the person said that the old couple was long-dead and had died in a fire, I think, and the house wasn't even standing anymore so it was impossible that they had spent the night there. The couple went back to investigate and found that there was indeed just a pile of rubble where the house had been, but among the remains of the house was the envelope they had left that morning, just sitting there among the rubble.

As far as I can tell, it was a collection of 'true' ghost stories and legends and superstitions and things like that, and I would REALLY love to read it again if someone could help me identify it!

Thanks for the help!

– Liz

Sunday Streaming:: La Malediction De Cathy!

Posted on By unkle lancifer

Zoinks! It's sunday again and I forgot to write another Sunday Streaming! That's two in a row! Last weekend the weather was so nice I just had to stay in bed and read and this weekend I have to reinforce Irish stereotypes by drinking beer! Oh well, what is writing anyway except yapping for eyeballs? I'm over it. The one thing I did view this week was CATHY's CURSE in Spanish! La malediction de Cathy! In fact I watched it right next to the English version on my laptop so that I could spot the differences! Isn't that a sad thing? The Spanish version is longer thanks to scenes of people glueing things back together and making breakfast but look at the color! I've only ever seen CATHY'S CURSE all orange and green and public domain-y! This version is so pretty it makes me want to move to Canada! For some reason I also made a CATHY'S CURSE lunchbox for my own amusement. Now it's coming in handy. My work ethic is for the birds. Don't watch this movie! Go outside! It's nice out there!

Traumafession:: Suzie A. G. on Tina's Centipiede and Nightmares about Freddy

Posted on By unkle lancifer

Hi there,

Just sending my trauma story. When I was 6 years old, I pretty much had the run of the living room. I happened to find my brother's copy of Nightmare on Elm Street – couldn't read very well yet, just popped the video in. I got to about the part where Tina is calling to Nancy from the hallway and the centipede falls out of her mouth. Nightmares for a week, and occasionally I still have nightmares about Freddy!

Suzie

P.S. Great site!