kindertrauma

Month: October 2010

Name That Trauma :: Reader Jeremy S. on Sticky Stairs

Posted on By aunt john

I'm pretty much out of options here and I just found you guys. I heard you've helped people find movies in the past and are very knowledgeable about horror movies. I'm coming to you on the end of my rope.

I believe this was from the late ‘80s. In this movie there's a guy crawling up stairs, but they're like gooey, like marshmallow or something and he's sticking to them. Then his girlfriend axes him in the back thinking he's one of the monsters or whatever that's trying to kill them and their friends. He may have been wearing a leather jacket.

Possibly in the movie but not sure: There may have been a farmhouse, some kind of statue remembering people that died, and possibly a graveyard. I believe this was from the late ‘80s. Also that scene I remember may have been taking place in a basement.



UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Special thanks to reader Mincemeat for coming forward with GHOSTHOUSE!

Trauma-List :: Reader Carol McM's Creepy Lady Faces!

Posted on By unkle lancifer

O.K. – it has taken me way too long to finish this up – but finally here it is! I got the idea of compiling creepy lady faces from way back when that whole TOP TEN WILLY MOMENTS thing was going on and some of these are on the list on my blog (UNK NOTE:: Go to that swell spot HERE!) but not all of them. They probably should have been though cause I can't think of much more that kept me in a constant state of freaked-out when I was a kid than these ladies faces visiting me in the night.

As an adult I have added a few more ladies to the list…and they tend to sneak up on me in the middle of nights when I am feeling rather weak and feeble – such as Unk's addition to his top 10 willy inducing moments list of the lady in SATAN'S TRIANGLE, and the originator of the willy list idea, ANDRE of THE HORROR DIGEST's addition of the old witch lady from BLACK SABBATH. Also, I was a little disappointed that there weren't more faces to add. I really thought there would be like 10, at least. These are in no particular order of how much they scared me. Actually they aren't in any order at all – I just don't feel like moving them around. And I'm not really going into major details with some of these. You will understand what I'm saying if either you've seen them, or you are planning on seeing them, or you know exactly what I'm thinking, or all three.

THE OMEN – Mrs. Baylock

I've noticed that most people, when referring to creepy goings on in THE OMEN, usually point to the nanny who hangs herself out the window during the birthday party. While that is kinda creepy, to me that is nothing compared to Mrs. Baylock sneaking up on the mom while she is trying to put on her shirt in the hospital. Her face is so menacing and she keeps coming closer and closer to the camera, and all the while LEE REMICK is struggling is a position that would make anyone feel vulnerable.

BURNT OFFERINGS – Marian Rolf as Mrs. Allardyce

I think this is quite possibly one of the most mentioned '70s horror scary lady faces. At least it is in my head. I think the photo speaks for itself.


Honorable mention: BETTE DAVIS' face while she is writhing in pain from a broken back.

ENCOUNTER WITH THE UNKNOWN – Mrs. Davis (or the lady in the cemetery)

This movie is a horror trilogy that scared the pants off me as a young child, and this lady was the main reason. Her face haunted me for years and whenever I couldn't make out my sister's face in the dark it would morph into this face. I was on a desperate horror trilogy search for most of my 20s and when I finally found it, on TV late at night, I was thrilled but it had lost 90% of its impact. O.K. more like 99% of its impact. The movie is nice for nostalgic reasons, or if you like '70s horror just for the feel – but it's not very scary.

EAST OF EDEN – Kate Ames

This was a made-for-T.V. mini-series that came out in 1981 that was very popular with the folks (mostly ladies and young girls) who liked their epic romances. I watched it with my mom and sister and i liked it's soft focus, flowery, olden days style, but it really picked up in the second half when the lovely young Cathy turned into incredibly creepy prostitute, then brothel owner Kate Ames. I won't go into the story too much cause it's all long and complex and none of it has a point here. Basically every time we see Kate she is in all black with a big hat and veil and when she speaks she is very bitter and scary and at the very end she is suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, and some sort of crazy lady disease – maybe syphilis, since she's a prostitute. We see her in a small room with one dim lamp and she looks like a freak!

When I was trying to find images online from what I remembered of the end of this series there was absolutely no image anywhere even remotely resembling Kate in this state of madness and all in black. All the photos online are of Cathy with long lush hair and white frilly dresses and soft focus lenses. So I got the movie from Netflix and took some screen shots and watched this last part and was surprised by how creepy it still was to me. At this point she is clearly out of her mind and is saying something like "What they don't know is… I can make myself so small…that they can't even see me." She says something to that effect in a creepy whisper over and over again and the camera simultaneously pulls back up to the ceiling so that she becomes smaller and smaller in the shot. Plus she's smiling.

THIS HOUSE POSSESSED – Rag Lady

There are more reason's to watch this movie than PARKER STEVENSON. In fact the whole movie is really great and he is just the icing on the cake. I saw this movie many many times in my youth and the character of the rag lady (and she is credited on IMDb) was the part that creeped me out the most. Just her face here with the sad, scared eyes and the general old lady creepiness is creepy, but there is a part that scared me so much I couldn't watch it for years.

In this scene the rag lady gets swept into a boiling swimming pool and her face in the water was just too much for me to take – as a youngster, that is. As an adult I'm all "What ev' THIS HOUSE POSSESSED, you don't scare me anymore." In fact now this movie makes me feel all cozy inside.


Honorable mention: When the blonde lady slides down the glass shower door all covered in blood – with her mouth open and screaming and all.

SYBIL – Hattie Dorsett (the mom)

She is just plain scary. I just recently saw an episode of MISSION IMPOSSIBLE that she is in – from the first season in 1966 – and she looks almost exactly the same – with the same hair do.

DARKROOM – The Witch

This is from the DARKROOM TV series from 1981 that I watched every week. Unfortunately, it didn't last very long, and I really don't remember anything of the other stories but this one that scared the CRAP out of me. The title of the story is "Catnip" and the whole synopsis is on the site THE HAUNTED CLOSET, so I won't write it out here – but the ultra scary moment is when this kid looks under his bed, thinking he is going to see a cat that jumped in his window, and he sees this creepy-ass witch's face hissing at him. I'm telling you it added a whole new level of fear to the what's going on under the bed thing. I mean now I couldn't even check under the bed cause seeing this face under there would be worse than just laying in bed sweating and wringing my hands. Then, at the end of the episode the kids mother is calling him and he doesn't answer and his mother says "What's the matter…cat got your tongue?" I don't think you see the kid anymore – and all I could imagine was that scary witch gnawing on his tongue. Creepy.

Oh and thanks so much to THE HAUNTED CLOSET for the screen shot – I never thought I'd see this creepy old lady again!

UNK SEZ:: Thanks for the great list Carol! I'm happy to tell you that I found that THE DARKROOM episode "Catnip" on YouTube!

Traumafessions :: Rev. Wayne Austin Goodchild of They Call Me Potato on Reeves and Mortimer's 'Masterchef'

Posted on By aunt john

Hello Kindertrauma!

Whilst balancing cutlery on my fingers the other day I was reminded of something that deeply disturbed me, although it's supposed to be weird so I'm not sure if it classes as a boney fidey trauma. And despite being 15 at the time, and already lapping up hideously gory films and whatnot, it still managed to freak me out. What is this devilry of which I speak? Why, only VIC REEVES' interpretation of the mangled-accent MASTERCHEF host LOYD GROSSMAN!

I'm not sure how popular/known REEVES AND MORTIMER are on that side of the pond, so a quick spiel about them: they rose to prominence in the mid-‘90s with a variety of surreal comedy shows, the most famous being THE SMELL OF REEVES AND MORTIMER, where they occasionally worked alongside other comedians like MATT LUCAS (LITTLE BRITAIN) and CHARLIE HIGSON (THE FAST SHOW). They were known for being, quite simply, very very strange. Here's a YouTube clip of the inexplicable MASTERCHEF sketch that gave me the willies (and still does, a little bit). May it haunt your collective dreams from now on!

Regards,

Rev. Wayne Austin Goodchild

Name That Trauma :: Reader Stephanie R. on a Turtle Traumatizer

Posted on By aunt john

Hi,

Great website. I had the sudden urge to find a movie I'd seen years ago called the CHILD OF GLASS. The search led me to your site — and all I can say is HA! Love it!

O.K. so it got me thinking…one day in about 1979 on a Sunday afternoon, I'm flipping through the channels and I come across the end of a French (I think) movie in which some kind of reptile or alien or large turtle tears it's way out of a woman's back, and then the next scene is of a giant sea turtle swimming out into the blue ocean depths…

The End.

UNK SEZ:: Whenever something crawls out of a woman's back I think of THE MANITOU and whenever I hear of a giant sea turtle, I think of THE BERMUDA DEPTHS. I don't know what to think here, does anybody out there have any ideas?

Kinder-Spotlight:: Playing House Trailer!

Posted on By unkle lancifer

Does this movie look heavy? It's not heavy, it's my brother's! That's right my very own brother TOM VAUGHAN just put the finishing touches on his first feature! It's called PLAYING HOUSE and where it may fit more snugly into the psychological thriller camp, take it from me, there's some real horror in this movie. In fact, I've seen the movie twice and there's one scene that got me but good both times. AUSTIN WINTORY, the guy who did the music for GRACE, even did the fantastic score! We'll keep you up to date with where you can catch PLAYING HOUSE but in the meantime, check out its official home base HERE! And make sure you check out the trailer below!

Playing House Trailer from Playing House on Vimeo.

NOTE: Whatever you do, please don't tell my parents that my little brother made a movie because then they're going to start pressuring me to make one and I just don't have the time because I'm right in the middle of a PS3 game.

Comeuppance Funhouse

Posted on By unkle lancifer

I know everybody says Karma is a bitch but I don't think Karma is nearly bitchy enough. I will say this about Karma though…lazy, lazy, lazy. Give lameazoid Karma a helping hand by identifying these ten images from ten films where people get their just desserts crammed in their deserving faces!