Name That Trauma:: Werewoof of London on a Twilight Zone Magazine Story
Back in the mid-80's my parents would bring us kids along when they would hang out at their friend's house. This friend had an EXTENSIVE horror and science fiction library, and I spent every hour over there reading all the Stephen King, Clive Barker, Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Magazines that I could get my hands on. It was in one of those Twilight Zone Magazines that I recall reading a story that I have wanted to re-read for years, as it freaked me out so much as a kid.
But, of course, I cannot find anything on this short story anywhere online…
The few details I do remember is that it was about a man who was staying in a stone cottage by the sea (maybe at the top of a cliff?) and for whatever reason, he ignores warnings to not do something or other, and winds up awakening some large stones that are sticking out from the sea, and during the night, he can hear them making their way up the path to his house, and they end up (I think) melting into the house, and engulfing him as well. I think the stones may have been referred to as The 3 Sisters?Â
I know it's not a movie or TV horror, but I'm hoping someone can help!
-Werewoof_of_London
Kindertrauma Rewind:: Avalanche of Christmas Horror!
UNK SEZ: It's that time of year again- time to watch Christmas horror movies! Check out our Avalanche of Christmas Horror movies way back HERE! But hey, that list is ten years old! Make sure you help us update it by adding the titles of your favorite Christmas horror movies of the last decade in the comments of this rewind post! Thanks, pals!
Name That Trauma:: KRLH on a Christmas Window Death
UNK SEZ: Our old pal kirbyreedloveshorror found a short clip online of a woman being thrown out a window next to a prominent Santa Clause Christmas decoration. Kirby wanted to know if I could identify the film but sadly I could not! We're both big Christmas horror fans so now we're both going crazy with curiosity. Does anybody know the answer? Help!
Name That Trauma:: Drew P. on a Sherlock Holmes Robot
Aloha!
Last time I submitted A Name That Trauma, it was identified within 24-hours. Let's see if folks can beat that!
Okay – so there was this TV show on daytime PBS during the early 90s. Probably between 1990 and 1994. I watched this on either Vermont Public Television or New Hampshire Public Television. I don't think this was a regionally-produced show because the local stations were always pretty strapped for cash. The show was all about mathematics. We're talking weapons-grade math: geometry and algebra. Stuff that was way too complex for my puny child mind to comprehend. (Stuff that's way too complex for my puny adult mind too, but I digress…) The bulk of each episode consisted of a bland, polo-shirt-and-moustache, middle-aged-dad sorta guy interviewing teachers and mathematicians.Â
Here's where the trauma comes in: each episode also featured prologue and epilogue segments with robotic versions of Sherlock Holmes and Watson attempting to thwart Professor Moriarty. These segments were rendered in very primitive, early 90s computer animation, and Holmes and Watson looked like blocks on wheels with spindly ball-and-socket limbs. The Holmes robot had a pipe and a deerstalker cap. The Watson robot had a moustache. Moriarty had a black fedora, a dracula-esque cape, and sharp claws. I found the claws to be a particularly frightening detail.
Every episode had a pattern. Moriarty would lure Holmes and Watson into a math-inspired trap and Holmes would apply the concepts taught in the episode's mathematics lesson towards a solution. Piece of cake. Done in one. But then, during the epilogue, Moriarty would spring a SECOND trap, leaving Holmes and Watson in LETHAL DANGER. And then the show would end. It would just END.
I can't emphasize this enough. Every. Single. Episode. Ended with Holmes and Watson utterly trapped and about to die. One episode ended with Holmes and Watson at the mercy of snarling sphinxes with glowing red eyes. Another episode ended with Holmes and Watson getting chased by howling yetis. They were trapped in claustrophobic mazes, collapsing tombs, avalanches, and rising floods. It was nightmarish. The whiplash between middle-aged-math-dad boredom and the inevitability of death was extremely upsetting. The fact that Holmes and Watson would reappear in the next episode didn't give me any comfort. It was as if they were reborn just to die all over again. Cruel, infinite deaths.
Hope some fellow PBS kid is able to identify this!Â
Mahalo!
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