Month: October 2011

This unknown film left me weak with horror and unable to look at the chimpanzee issue from my Zoobooks subscription for years!!! I had to have been in grade school, so this movie would have been around during the late ‘70s to mid ‘80s. Here's the story:

I was waiting in the entryway of my friend's house while she was getting ready to come and play outside. Her two older brothers (teenagers) were watching a movie in the living room and I could see it from where I was waiting. It was about some crazy lady and her sister who watched after her. They had a grown chimp they kept as a pet.

At one point the crazy lady locks herself in the cage with the chimp and proceeds to beat it to a bloody death with a long chain. The chimp is trying to helplessly defend itself and doesn't attack the nutjob. The whole time the other sister is locked outside the chimp's cage screaming and crying for her sister to stop.

I remember being so disturbed I ran out of there and went straight home. It depressed and horrified me for weeks! I have had no luck in finding out the name or details of this movie, Google and YouTube have no answers, so maybe you can track this film down.

I really want to know if the crazy lady ever got her comeuppance!

Thanks!

— Shannon H.

UNK SEZ: Shannon, you have sent in my favorite type of NTT because I think know the answer and the movie in question is so unusual that I almost have to be right. You my friend, must be speaking of 1978's THE MAFU CAGE (aka DEVIATION & DON'T RING THE DOORBELL) which stars CAROL KANE (WHEN A STRANGER CALLS) as one sister, LEE GRANT (DAMIEN OMEN II) as the other and BUDAR the ape as Mafu! Once upon a time this oddity was difficult to track down but these days it's available on DVD and you can even rent it to watch on your computer via Amazon HERE! In the meantime let us all take a moment to enjoy CAROL KANE boogying down with the priest from AMITYVILLE 2!

Hello,

Your site is my newest daily addiction; I can't tell you how many repressed memories have been unearthed by reading the recollections of other readers…great work! Anyway, my personal trauma is a bit obscure, as it doesn't come from a movie, TV show, or book, but hopefully somebody can help.

When I was in my teens, somewhere around 1989-1990, I saw some sort of "underground" art magazine at a friend's house. In the magazine, there was a profile of a female artist whose name I can't remember, but her work was the stuff of pure nightmares, and has stayed with me ever since. The pictures were black & white illustrations (though that may have just been due to the B&W format of the magazine) of nursery rhymes and other images done in a horrific, yet realistic style. The one that sticks in my mind the most was a piece called "Rock a Bye Baby", that depicted a baby's crib perched high up in a treetop. It was a top-down, close-up view that showed the terrified child stuck in a tree screaming at the top of his lungs, just like the nursery rhyme says.

Another piece was a picture of a normal, everyday suburban kitchen. Everything looked perfectly normal, but if you looked really close, there was a small pool of blood oozing eerily onto the floor just at the edge of the frame; it was a brilliant picture that took a mundane setting and injected a horrifying yet subtle hint of the macabre.

The only other one I remember in any detail was a piece depicting a topless pregnant woman cradling her baby bump, but the baby bump had a face, as if she was carrying a Siamese mutant to term.

I believe there were a few other nursery rhyme-themed ones, but I can't remember what they were. In any case, I have been looking for these images online, or at least the artist's name FOREVER, and have come up with nothing. If this rings a bell with anyone, I would be eternally grateful for any leads.

Thanks & keep up the great work!

— MD2112

UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Special thanks to reader zombiefreak for positively identifying Laurie Lipton as the artist in question!

Hello there,

I am trying to find a classic horror movie which I watched with my family when I was little (about 20 years ago) which the movie at the time may not be a new release. Can you see if you can help me find out what it is based on the short description below? Here is what I remember …

This movie talks about an old house which is rented to a family, and there have been many strange things happened after they moved in including people/visitors to the house being killed. Every time there are people killed around this house, the house gets more beautiful and more colorful. The family somehow sensed there must be wrong with the house and found out the landlord (husband and wife) were dead and were buried in the back of the house, they tried to escape. At the end, the house would not let them escape and killed all family members (don't remember how many, could be 3 or 4 people in this family).

After they are all killed, the house again became more beautiful and colorful and the family pictures end up being placed onto the fireplace in the house and join the pictures of the original house owner (the landlord).

This is about all I remember, and please see what you can do to help as this is a movie that all of my family members remember the old days and for me it's quite important for us talk about when we reunion coming up.

Thanks in advance!!!

— Ian

AUNT JOHN SEZ: Ian, based on your recollection, I am going to say that you are remembering the 1976 classic BURNT OFFERINGS. A family is hired to look after a creepy house, which eventually does them in, and their photos end up on the wall after the house undergoes an extreme supernatural makeover. Many other fine folks have been traumatized by this all-star chestnut, especially by the scene with the creepy chauffeur.

PS: Last but not least, a tip of the Name That Trauma hat to Nate Yapp of Classic-Horror for sending you our way.

I'm looking for something I saw a long time ago on T.V. It was quite late at night and my brother had his friends round, I was pretty young then but I couldn't tell you how young, my memory's not that great.

It's possible I dreamed this but I have no idea and it's bugged me for years so, here goes:

I can remember a giant white rabbit with red eyes guarding a cave or something. I think there were some people who tried to attack it.

I can also remember three or more mens faces in the sky, during the day time…

They may be from different movies or programmes but that's all I can remember. Sounds silly but they really terrified me as a child and I've tried so hard to find out where these memories are from. Hope someone can help!

Thanks,

— Mason

UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Unk gets it with MONTY PYTHON & THE HOLY GRAIL!