For years I suffered with the same recurring nightmare. I couldn't figure it out, didn't understand what it could have meant. Years later, as an adult, I told one of my sisters about it.
It was dusk and I was running, someone was chasing me and I was so scared. I could see it even as I explained it. The man chasing me had one arm and he was chasing me through an amusement park.
My sister laughed and told me that was from the show THE FUGITIVE.
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I was so scared of this movie because of commercials that I never saw it….the commercials scared the heck out of me as a kid where my brother would tease me undyingly about it even though we'd never seen the movie!
Now, I watched it today.
Yawn.
To me it's SO SO STRANGE how things can be SO SCARY to you one time of your life and a joke another. Clearly the whole "Tall Man" thing was spooky…but that metal ball that chases people, that one was what got me in my youth. Of course, the final scene is a good shocker….reminiscent of FREDDY KRUEGER's moves which of course CAME AFTER…..all in all it's a '70s classic with tempera paint for blood in two colors, yellow and red.
UNK SEZ: Funny you should mention "The Tall Man", it's his 30th Birthday!
Thanks to Kindertrauma, I've managed to name nearly all my childhood T.V./film traumas. I only had two more to solve, but I just found out that one was the ultra-tasteless THE AURORA ENCOUNTER (yeah, great use of a prematurely aging child as an 'alien'), which leaves just one I need to name – it was a movie I saw late night at a family get-together in which a man was left wheelchair-bound after a car accident and had some kind of computer or robot looking after him. I think the computer played up, causing him some considerable troubles. I also remember a severed head of a woman in what I think was a washing machine. It screened in the U.K. circa 1990, but seemed to be from the '80s. I recall it being a DEMON SEED style affair. All help would be very welcome. Cheers!
Good to see the old MOOMINS show mentioned with regards to The Groke, but as a youngster, I think The Hobgoblin was even scarier. Around 40 seconds into this episode, as he flies through space, the sights and sounds gave me nightmares for weeks…
I love horror movies! That's why when I went to the movies this past Friday I skipped past the theater marquee that read THE STEPFATHER and planted my Sour Patch Kid chompin' ass down to see WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE in the theater next door! I might have given THE STEPFATHER a chance except for the fact that I accidentally brought a gun with me and I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to resist blowing my brains out as soon as the movie started. Also, I'm sure everyone is familiar with my motto, "Never judge a movie until you've seen it…unless the director of that movie is the guy responsible for the remake of PROM NIGHT." Besides WILD THINGS looked like tons of fuzzy fun and, at least once a year, I like to feel happiness.
Did I get my fun? Yep, but I also got this super moving experience I won't soon forget. How's come this movie that stars a bunch of monsters seems to deliver more human emotion than most non-monster starring movies I know? I sure hope my fellow moviegoers saw me blowing my nose into my hoodie sleeve when the credits were rolling because that is my new way of saying giant thumbs up!
You can probably tell from the trailer that, thankfully, WILD THINGS was not turned into a homogenized hand holder that teaches you to be all in love with yourself and that winning is about believing and that dreaming is about winning and hooray for you because you win! Strangely it's not even all, "Hey, you're really ugly, but that makes you different and the world would be really boring if everyone was good looking, so thanks for not boring us ugly"!
WILD THINGS is not only unafraid to accurately depict the troubling and confusing loneliness that sometimes invades childhood, but also the complicated idiosyncratic nature of human (and monster) relationships that causes that loneliness. Really, doesn't it just suck that needing somebody is exactly the type of thing that will make you act up (go wild) and scare that somebody away? WILD THINGS also had me asking myself the most important life question of all: "Why can't CATHERINE O'HARA star in everything?"
Whoever's idea it was to hire SPIKE JONZE to direct this movie needs to wear a gold crown on their head. Here is a place we have never gone before and the creatures, a combination of practical effects with a light gloss of CGI, come off as superbly convincing. The voice work is nearly too good be true with the likes of my hero LAUREN AMBROSE, super stud FOREST WHITAKER and snuggle bunny JAMES GANDOLFINI lending tonsil. MAX RECORDS, as Max, gets a "You're not annoying" sticker and don't get me started on the mom I'd never run away from…CATHERINE KEENER.
Some folks might be off put by the movie's mellow drifty attitude, but I found it kind of relief not to be yanked around from scene to scene by the lapels. There is so much texture and detail here that future visits are unavoidable. If you are too poor to afford a down comforter, go see this movie instead. It's basically the same thing.
Q: Will kids be entertained?
A: Only the ones worth keeping.
Parents, heed my word, take all your children to see this and the ones that don't like it or fall asleep, just leave in the theater; you don't want those ones. I'm so keen on this flick I'm even going to throw out a Bloody Disgusting inspired blurb! "It's the hairiest movie of all time!"
I gotta go now, MUMMY 3 (TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR) is on HBO and they just called forth the Yeti!
Hi guys,
When I was young I remember watching an animated educational film which always disturbed me because of this one character (a bad guy) who didn't have a face. I remember it started and ended live action, and that the main character's dog could talk in the animated world.
He was also given some gifts on the way which included a magic pencil, which I think he used to kill a dragon, and a bag which was filled with either words or numbers, probably words.
If you could help me recognize what this is it would be really helpful as I've been thinking about it for years!
