There are 10 things different in image "B". Can you find them all?
Month: March 2014
Traumafession:: Elizabeth M. on Red, White & Blue
First, let me open by saying I'm a huge fan of horror, and have been since I was 13. Some of my favourite films are ones some people regard as too disturbing to watch more than once – Martyrs, Inside, etc – so you know I'm no wuss.
About a month ago I watched Simon Rumley's 'Red, White & Blue'. The director had previously made 'The Living and the Dead' starring (the now, sadly, late) Roger Lloyd Pack, who readers might know from UK TV's 'Only Fools & Horses'. He delivers a sterling performance too. Now, if I'd have KNOWN the same director was responsible for 'Red, White & Blue', I probably wouldn't have bought it; not to say 'The Living and the Dead' isn't a good film – it's bloody great, but very disturbing, unsettling and ultimately extremely sad. You can watch the trailer here:
So, unknowingly, I settled down to watch what looked to be a straight revenge flick – think 'The Horseman' (and any of you who have yet to see THAT Aussie classic, I advise you to get onto your favourite site right now!). Red, White & Blue turned out to be something much more disturbing.
For starters there are no good guys and bad guys here, the lines are extremely blurred, and you find yourself sympathising with everyone. The small cast are excellent, but Noah Taylor ('Shine') steals the entire show. His brutal revenge is explained in the final – absolutely devastating – closing shot. You can watch the trailer here:
It took me three weeks to exorcise this film from my mind; I carried it around with me as it bludgeoned my brain with images day after day after day. Now I've typed this, it's come back, and I know I'm going to have to put up with those images again! You have been warned.
Elizabeth (I am from England so my spelling is English) M.
UNK SEZ: Elizabeth, you truly are a kindred spirit! Here is my reaction to RED, WHITE & BLUE over HERE, THE HORSEMAN (2008) around HERE and MARTYRS smack-dab HERE. I never wrote a review for THE LIVING AND THE DEAD because I was bound and determined to forget it as soon as possible in order to protect my well-being. Thanks for writing in!
Streaming Alert:: What Are Friends For? (1980)
Sorry, I gotta make myself scarce for a bit! We have a guest coming to the Kindertrauma Kastle and that means I have to clean (remove bodies), do the wash (scrub out the blood stains) and hunt down my copy of THE ABC AFTER SCHOOL SPECIAL: WHAT ARE FRIENDS FOR? Everybody who stays in this dwelling must watch this masterpiece as it is the unofficial training film for dealing with yours truly. If you can't handle the friendship stylings of Michelle Mudd (DANA HILL), then I don't think you're ready for this jelly. Oh, cool! It looks like WHAT ARE FRIENDS FOR? is available on the portal to hell known as YouTube! Yay. Read my old review HERE and watch the lamentable happenings below, otherwise you're not a very good friend!
The Medusa Touch (1978)
Wowsy. I was at the local thrift shop and I found this VHS tape called THE MEDUSA TOUCH (1978) and when I picked it up, its weight felt like a brick in my hand. It cost 45 cents because the thrift shop is crazy. It looked kind of boring because it had RICHARD BURTON's face on the cover but it just felt so at home in my mitt that I had to make it mine. Hey, it turns out I really liked this movie. It wasn't boring in the least and I'm even going to apply an "unsung classic" scratch-and-stiff sticker upon it! Why, this movie is a thriller that thrills and it's also witty and thought provoking and all that classy stuff! If you dig the more somber, headier side of horror like say, THE WICKER MAN, THE CHANGELING or THE NINTH CONFIGURATION, this is going to float your boat. You should watch it in your library with a brown-colored alcoholic beverage of your choice. If you have a fireplace, light it with your mind.
Our story begins on a wonderful note with RICHARD BURTON getting his head bashed in by an unseen assailant. A French detective (LINO VENTURA) stops by to inspect the aftermath and is astonished to find BURTON is still alive! He is rushed to the hospital and the investigators are left to wonder whom on Earth would ever want to bash RICHARD BURTON's skull in and how on Earth is he still alive after having his head smashed in so brutally? While BURTON chills out in a PATRICK (1978) style coma, the detective snoops around and pieces together his life story, which means we get a full RICHARD BURTON movie even though he is in a coma all thanks to the glorious power of flashback-flavored storytelling. The biggest blabbermouth at the clothesline is THE OMEN's LEE REMICK who portrays BURTON's long-suffering psychiatrist. She tells the detective how BURTON would go on and on about how he could make terrible accidents occur just by thinking about them and how she assumed he was a fruit cake until the evidence that he wasn't a fruit cake was too in her face to ignore.
You may be thinking to yourself, "I wouldn't watch that movie even if it meant saving the lives of thousands of strangers." If so, then this movie is even more perfect for you. It starts out being about this narcissistic dude with a God complex but then as we travel forward we go through the same conversion as the characters as they come to believe and fear his claims. Ultimately, we realize that this guy isn't simply representing unhinged folks with freaky telekinetic powers but mankind itself and its douche-y attraction to destruction and evil. I mean I'm a fairly nice person but if I could blow up stuff with my mind, let's face it, the entire world would be charred to a crisp by now.
There's a satisfying twist that you may see coming but not so early on that it will piss you off, a hearty dose of pitch black humor and finally you're left with a disturbing chill. In fact, this movie is probably more disturbing in our post 9/11 world than it was back in 1978. Or maybe that's just me. Watching a plane crash into a building is not what it used to be. Don't worry, you won't have to wait around for a used copy to knock on your door like I did; it looks like THE MEDUSA TOUCH was recently released on DVD and Blu-ray! It's so good I may have to shove out a little more than 45 cents for an upgrade!
Sunday Viewing:: Quiet Cool Presented By Darkko
Hi! This is "Darkko."
I searched your site and did not see anything for Quiet Cool. It's a fairly violent revenge-with-a-buddy type of deal. It's so bad it's actually entertaining. Basically, some psychotic pot farming guys think it's best they slaughter anyone who lays eyes on their precious marijuana. The main guy and his buddy exchange many long, questionable looks with each other! Hahaha…
It's available to watch on youtube…
UNK SEZ: Thanks a zillion Darrko! I was just wondering the other day why I keep the KT fires burning when I only get paid negative 10 cents an hour and after nearly seven years of diligent service I have yet to win a Pulitzer (I know!). But then I remembered it's because I love movies so much that it is not even remotely funny. Point is, I would have never seen this one without your kind help and that would have been a real shame and I'm so glad that KT provides me with a place to share titles with fine folks like yourself. QUIET COOL is so awesome that I do believe the ghost of PATRICK SWAYZE watched it with me.
Now, if any of you other peeps know of a good movie that's viewable online in full, please do feel free to write in to kindertrauma@gmail.com and if it's not too inappropriate we'll share your recommendation with the rest of the class on a future Sunday! How QUIET COOL is that?
Kinder-Battle:: The Facts of Life vs. Ghoulies
Who would win? Place your bets!
Traumafession & NTT:: Dustin in Minnesota on Dusty's Treehouse & HBO's Short Takes
Dustin in Minnesota again, with a two-fer.
My "Name That Trauma" was more freaky than scary, and was actually somewhat amusing. It was a film short I recall seeing at a movie theater before the movie. I also saw it as one of HBO's Short Takes. This was sometime around 1981.
It started with a young boy riding his bike and singing a song. He then arrives at home, where his older brother is mixing up a concoction of kitchen ingredients, which he then makes his younger brother drink. The younger brother turns into a chicken, but still has a human voice, begging his brother to return him to normal. The older brother mixes the correct ingredients and changes his brother back.
Does anyone remember this, and if so, do you have a title? I have searched several times on the Internet for this with no results.
My Traumafession was the ONE episode of Dusty's Treehouse that I watched in the early 1970s. If you aren't familiar with that show, as best as I recall it was puppets of squirrels and other treefolk, similar to when Mr. Rogers had his neighborhood of make-believe — except the whole show was puppets. On one episode, one of the squirrels had taken someone else's medication and was very sick. The lesson was to not take medicine unless your parents gave it to you.
The reason this episode might have freaked me out so much was because when I was about 2 or 3 I took an entire bottle of iron pills and was rushed to the hospital to have my stomach pumped.
This ties in with my first Traumafession here, the Mr. Yuk commercial that terrified me so much. Maybe the iron pills made the idea of poisoning all the more terrifying to me.
Love the site, keep it coming!
Dustin in Minnesota
Name That Trauma:: R.H. on a One-Eyed Baby in a Box
Hi Kindertrauma!
I have been looking for this one for years and could use your expert help.
One day, in the early 90s, I turned on my black and white TV to the only channel it got, which was a UHF PBS channel in Washington State, and there was a very strange film being shown. (I believe it was British, like most things on the channel.) What I saw began with two people in a car diving up to a forested hill in the country and getting out. (My memories are super rusty…) I think they may have been cops. They walked into the forest and explored until they came upon an old house/shack. They went inside and found an old box…. they opened the box and… there was a baby with one eye inside the box – alive. Just then, they saw someone running off in the woods and one of the men chased after them. I don't know why, but it gave my child mind the creep chills and I shut it off.
I vaguely remember looking it up in a TV guide later and finding something called "The boy in the box", but again, my memories are likely rotten and I'm getting it mixed up with the classic Corey Hart song.
Any ideas would be appreciated – thanks!