Mickster Sez: Name the Rankin-Bass special, the year it originally aired, and name the specific trauma pictured. I will share my thoughts on each scene once they are all identified.
Month: December 2017
Name That Trauma:: Richard R. on a Creepy PBS Halloween Program
Hello, Kindertrauma!
This must have been the mid-to-late-70's. There was a show on PBS that I actually saw a couple of times–I believe it was broadcast for a few years around Halloween. It was a group of actors with ghoulish makeup on a plain black-box set performing a series of stories in a sort of readers' theatre/oral interp style. I don't remember most of the stories, but I believe one of them was an adaptation of the Grimms' fairy tale about the Boy Who Left Home to Learn Fear. The actors took on most of the narration duties, but there was also an unseen narrator for some parts–a guy with a creepy/soothing voice. The whole thing was accompanied by organ music, and it all ended with a song number by a group of classic monsters about how they found a home together in a haunted house. I've googled every possible descriptor I could come up with, and no dice all around. It's driving me a little crazy!
Love the website!
Best regards,
Richard R.
Kindertrauma Funhouse
In anticipation of Guillermo del Toro's THE SHAPE OF WATER, here are ten images from ten waterlogged horror flicks. How many can you identify?
Name That Trauma:: Sebastian L. on an Attic Staircase Apparition
Hey there, Kindertrauma!
I have a super obscure Name That Trauma that I'm hoping someone out there might be able to help me with. I remember seeing a commercial on TV, probably sometime in the very late 1990s or very early 2000s. It was for what I am pretty sure was a TV movie (though I suppose it may have been a series) that was most likely airing on one of the big networks (CBS, ABC, NBC, or maybe FOX), as that's primarily what I would've been watching at that time. All I can remember is one scene that showed someone (whether a man or a woman, I don't know) seeing an old woman standing a the foot of what looked like a set of stairs to an attic. I even think they may have seen her in the reflection of a mirror, though I can't be positive. I'm quite sure the commercial framed her as a ghost, because it definitely had a spooky context. It may have been the ghost of the protagonist's mother (at least that's how I remember it, but I may have just assumed that at the time). There was nothing outwardly creepy about the woman herself, it was all context. From what I recall, she had her hair pinned back in a bun or braid or something, and was wearing a dress with long-sleeves. I wish I could remember more, but that's the only image that really stuck with me, and has for almost twenty years. Any tips would be appreciated!
– Sebastian L.
The Horror of Losing My Dear Wife by Randolph M.
Dear KINDERTRAUMA brothers and sisters:
First of all, I would like to point out that my dear wife was an ardent Stephen King fan. She used to watch me browsing KINDERTRAUMA and giggle at the silliness of it all. To be able to take celluloid horror with a sense of humour like that is something she naturally had, and I didn't. I took the movies/TV shows far too seriously as a child. She could chuckle at MAGIC, IT'S ALIVE, THE SHINING, SUSPIRIA, SCHIZOID or whatever Z-grade flick was showing at the local drive-in, etc. I couldn't.
Nothing out of the wildest dreams of Dario Argento, Larry Cohen or her favourite Stephen King will ever match the horror I felt watching her die after battling breast cancer for seven years. If a director wants to make a truly horrifying movie, s/he will have cancer as the "monster in the dark," ever lurking, always waiting. It is far more truly frightening than any bloody monster, mutant or alien.
I remember watching some of the old Hammer Horror flicks with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing in her last weeks of life (including the unintentionally hilarious DRACULA: A.D. 1972), and considering how really silly they were compared to my lady warrior's real-life struggle. She made Xena The Warrior Princess or Buffy The Vampire Slayer look like Mary bloody Poppins.
To all of the KINDERTRAUMEN: The next time your loved one wants to hold your hand or grab you whilst watching a horror flick…let them. You know what you are watching on TV, celluloid, DVD or your other favourite medium is fake and temporary. The REAL horror in life is losing someone you love, which I am facing right now. I would rather go face-to-face with "the Xenomorph," the "Davis baby" or Damien Thorn.
I could binge-watch all of THE OMEN films and laugh at them compared to the real struggle of watching someone you love lose their final battle. The same goes for the silliness that was THE AMITYVILLE HORROR that was ultimately proven to be a hoax. Even the most effective horror directors can say "CUT!" and Robert Englund can go have coffee with his co-stars, or have fun playing Lou Cifer on MARRIED…WITH CHILDREN (which was a hilarious turn of form for Mr Englund!) taking the Bundys and their neighbours to Hell.
I cannot do that now. I remember watching the Director's Cut of ALIEN when she and I were the only two people in the cinema and she would grab hold of me during the more suspenseful moments of Sir Ridley Scott's very effective "what-you-don't-see-is-more-frightening-than-what-you-DO-see" direction.
We were going to rent THE CAR after I showed her the trailer on YouTube and have a good laugh at it.
All those reading: Enjoy the entertainment, frightful as it may be, with your loved ones, while you have a chance.
Traumafession:: Mary C. on Bizarro Santa from Space Ghost Coast to Coast
I recently ran into something that messed me up as a young child (6? 7?) and seeing how it was Christmas-related and it's December now, I'd like to share it to you guys.
It's Bizarro Santa from Space Ghost Coast to Coast.
See, I was a huge fan of C2C, Zorak was the best, tied with Space Ghost, but this episode I'm not even sure what happened in it except there was Santa Claus and he was "ho ho ho"ing, and suddenly everything went dark as an eye grew from him and he mutated into his "true" form, an Eldritch thing dubbed "Bizarro Santa".
Bloody hell. This was on Cartoon Network, mind you, the show had yet to move to Adult Swim. Thankfully I repressed it in time for the real Santa to deliver my presents, as I remember seeing it around the holiday season.
The episode in question's called "Girl Hair". Check it out.
