kindertrauma

Month: February 2019

Traumafession:: Mike R. On a Disturbing Hunger Project Commercial

Posted on By unkle lancifer

Aha! I finally found it! Picture yourself a kid in the 1980's. You are watching The Brady Bunch or an old horror or Sci-fi movie. Then, it goes to a commercial break. And after a Fruity Pebbles and record store commercial comes THIS.


It scared the hell out of me at first sight. And not only do you begin to see this commercial all the time; you don't know when and if it will show up in a commercial break thereafter.

I began to fear commercial breaks. They showed it on Saturday morning TV, afternoon movies, Star Trek reruns. I had nightmares about this gaunt kid coming after me.  I would turn away from the TV on commercial breaks and fear the stab of creepy music. 

Mike R.

Traumafession: Brian K. on Mister Rogers and a Dead Tree

Posted on By unkle lancifer

Okay, you ever have one of those childhood memories where you think 'That couldn't  possibly have happened, I must have misremembered it?' But then it turns out it did happen?

I recall an episode of Mr. Roger's neighborhood that must have aired in the very early 80s. The citizens of the Neighborhood of Make Believe are delighted to meet a tree that could both walk and talk. And then…SOMEONE MURDERS THE TREE! I distinctly remember one of the human characters grimly walking through the neighborhood, CARRYING THE TREE'S CORPSE, a la the father in Frankenstein carrying his dead daughter's body through the village. I assumed I'd just hallucinated this, but I did a google search and apparently, it happened just as I remembered it: HERE.

This allegedly was Rogers's response to children having to deal with a lot of high profile murders and attempted murders at the time (John Lennon, Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul). But what the hell, man? Really?


Did anyone else see this episode? Does anyone have a clip?
Love the website.
Brian K.

Name That Trauma:: A.S. on Tentacle Monster Book

Posted on By unkle lancifer

Howdy! I've got another Name That Trauma query.


I'm struggling to remember the title of a Young Adult horror novel, in the vein of Fear Street but not from that series, involving a tentacled monster (which may have lived beneath a high school) that was killing students. I remember only one of the kills specifically, but it stuck in my mind because the monster used its tentacles to pop off the victim's fingernails "like soda-can tabs." (may not be an accurate quote, but it was something like that.)

I also remember a killer leaving poems for their victims, including one that ends with the line, "Will they wire your coffin with cable?" This might be from the same novel as the tentacle-monster, or it might be a different one.

Any ideas?


Cheers,

-AS

-AS