Author: aunt john
Name That Trauma :: Reader Kylee H.'s Pal on a Malevolent Mirror
I was discussing horror films with a friend and he remembered a movie, but no title. He said:
"I remember the main character (a woman) having flash-forward dreams of her walking out of a church pissed off with overlapping talking, a mirror that was painted over and the devil or a demon was inside, and she removes the paint and lets him out of the mirror. A guy is talking to some people on the second floor of the building – but it's not him, it's the devil/demon animating him because his head falls off and he's filled with cockroaches, and to try and kill the devil she jumps into the mirror at the end, and she's suspended in mid-air and then the flash-forward scene is the end, and it's a reporter talking."
Being a loyal fan, I told him the wonderful guys at Kindertrauma might be able to help!
UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Thanks to reader Tim Tylor for realizing that this trauma comes from JOHN CARPENTER's PRINCE OF DARKNESS!
Kindertrauma Back-to-School Funhouse :: With Kindertrauma Academy Headmistress Aunt John
AUNT JOHN SEZ: Summer's over all y'alls, so let me be the first to personally welcome you back to another school year at the hallowed halls of Kindertrauma Academy! I trust you brought your hot air balloon emblazoned Trapper Keepers and sharpened number two pencils for what promises to be an academically challenging and rewarding experience.
Below you will find a copy of your roster, however your dear old Auntie seems to have forgotten the names of the movies from whence your schedule comes. Name the flicks in the comments and you might find yourself the randomly selected winner of a highly coveted piece of back-to-school swag!
Name That Trauma :: Reader Trent on a Trio of Traumas
Hey,
I'm pretty savvy when locating little oddities from the past but here's three that I'm afraid I may never see again.
Somewhere between '83-'86 I had my first glimpse of MTV while spending the night at my grandparents house. I remember seeing this video of a neon pinkish man with a wheel in place of legs wheeling around and singing in what appeared to be the innards of of a VCR. I was transfixed by this until my deeply religious Grandmother abruptly flipped the channel.
Next, a few years later I watched a teen summer camp type movie which I could have swore stared a young MICHAEL J. FOX (IMDb says no) but there was some subplot about a disappearing kid and a weirdo/killer in the woods named Wally. I think the kid finally turned up but Wally may have actually just been a little slow but not a maniac.
Finally, in the early '90s I was ill and my mother had taken my little brother to the video store and he picked out some bargain bin-type kids fantasy flick. The film involved a kid and a likable vagrant drifter who happened to be from, or at least aware of, some fantasy realm that looked like GYMKATA meets the 'It's a Small World' ride. Extremely bizarre.
Anyhow, if any of these happen to strike a bell that would be amazing, otherwise I may have imagined them.
Thanks much,
Trent
Name That Trauma :: Reader Holly T. on an Overlooked Oscar Contender & a Decaying Damsel
I have two mysteries for the Kindertrauma crew.
The first comes from another site, I have a clip but no other info.
The second is from my childhood. The movie is about a beautiful young woman who at times looks like she is decaying. Part of the movie takes place in a harbor, I want to say Hong Kong but I am not sure. The girl is Anglo and when she transforms, her face looks like it is melting. I am pretty sure the movie is from the '60s or '70s. I thought I saw it as part of Commander USA's Groovie Movies but I looked at the Wikipedia list of the movies featured and compared them against YouTube and IMDb… I got nothing. The movie was in color and the woman was blond (I am pretty sure about the hair color.)
If anyone can help, I know my fellow kindertots can!
Name That Trauma :: Reader Tom K. on Speared Soldiers
Dear Kindertrauma,
I'm interested to see if you can help me identify a horror/sci-fi movie I saw years ago. The movie itself was probably from the 1980s and I remember seeing it on HBO. I only caught the movie from what I thought was its last scene. The scene involved men, possibly some sort of military, rappelling up out of a cave or crater (is that even possible?) while firing automatic weapons.
They appeared to be trying to escape a large crate or sarcophagus that was sitting on the floor of the room that was in the cave/crater. Tentacle-like arms burst forth from the sarcophagus/crate and shot out and impaled the rappelling commandos like they were spears. That's when it was revealed that there was some sort of fleshy blob inside the crate and it shot these tentacle things. That's all that I remember.
So far my best guess is that it may be THE TREASURE OF THE FOUR CROWNS.
.
Thanks,
Tom
Name That Trauma :: Reader Juha H. on the 'Fur Elise' Phantom
Hey guys,
I have a problem that could be right up your alley.
My girlfriend keeps telling me about a horror movie scene that she can't place and I'm stumped as well.
A guy/girl goes to a big mansion and as he or she is walking upstairs, the piano downstairs starts playing 'Fur Elise' and once they make it to the top of the stairs they see a ghost on the opposite end of the hallway who then jumps out of the window.
This scene scared my girlfriend so much she was unable to listen to 'Fur Elise' for years afterwards and now she says she would like to see if it still has the same effect on her. I would love to see it as well.
Any help, guys?
Name That Trauma :: Reader Jami J.R. on a Horrible Hand
My mom used to make me watch ELVIRA: MISTRESS OF THE DARK when I was a kid. So I often remember bits and pieces of movies but not the titles or anything, and it drives me crazy!
All I can remember of this one is it had something to do with a man's hand that had been cut off. The main scene I can remember is the heroine, a woman with long dark hair and in a beautiful old-fashioned gown, was standing in front of a portrait of the owner of the hand. As she stands there a spectral hand appears around her throat and begins to strangle her.
I also vaguely remember a scene where the hand is running along the grass on its fingers.
Movie was in color. Had to have been filmed late '60s/early 7'0s. I think it was English – or at least set in England.
Maybe not.
It could've taken place just after the American Civil War.
Name That Trauma :: Reader Amber H. on a Wintry Earwig
Well, I think I was about 7 or 8 and I was watching a Saturday afternoon movie (this would have been '87 or '88) and there was a movie about some kind of big, white worm that was crawling around a house… it would crawl into the people's ears and take over their bodies somehow.
Seems like they were stuck there- because they were snowed in or something?
I just remember seeing the lady sitting in front of a fire, and watching that worm "sneaking" up on her…. totally FREAKED me out, but to this day I can't remember anything else about the movie or who was in it.
On a side note, it reminds me of the STAR TREK movie where the bad guys put the little creatures in the good guys ears and it made them their slaves…..
YUCK!
Can't stand it any more!
HELP!
Traumafessions :: Bjarke"Eshbaal" J. of Horrible Horror on the Hell Train from Grim Fandango
Hello once more, Unk, Aunt and fellow Traumatots – have you missed me? Since my last two entries on the Groke and Freaky Fred, I have for once NOT been pondering about what else I could think of from my childhood that freaked me out. In fact, I believed I had pretty much covered it all. That is, until a little while ago when a friend of mine, whom I have known for a very long time, told me with a tone of joy in his voice that he had gotten his hands on an old favorite PC game of ours, one we had completed I think maybe six or seven times when we were younger, and one that is probably my favorite of all Adventure games I have ever played. That game is Grim Fandango.
For those who don't know of this awesome game, it is a LucasArts Adventure Game – yes, the same people who made the hilarious Monkey Island series. However, this time, they had the highly imaginative Tim Schaefer with them, who definitely was the one that made the game as unique as it is. Mixing Aztec concepts of the afterlife by having the underworld populated by Calaca-styled skeleton dolls with the crime noir style of detective films, this game had such an enthralling world to explore.
To tell you a little of what it's about, in the game, it is established that when a person dies, he or she must go on a four year journey through the afterlife in order to finally get to The Ninth Underworld, the TRUE afterlife. However, some, like the main character Manny, have done so many bad things in their life that they cannot go before they've worked it off. Therefore, Manny, in the guise of a Grim Reaper, sells "travel packages" to the recently dead, giving them either a car to travel in if they've been good, or a bike… or maybe even just a walking stick and a coffee mug. However, if you have been a great person, you get a train ticket, shortening the 4-year trip to something among the lines of four hours.
However, Manny is distressed – he never seems to get a proper client, and at this pace, he'll never work off his (to us, unknown) deeds. That is, until he finds a woman to whom he can sell a train ticket… only to discover that somehow, despite her perfect life, she seems to not be qualified for one. Someone is stealing the train tickets to the Ninth Underworld and selling them to the rich who don't deserve them – and Manny, in his attempt to figure out the truth, sets out on his own journey to find the one responsible.
Have I mentioned this game is great? Not only is the world so vivid and imaginative, it is also darkly humorous, with many characters whose company you WILL enjoy. Manny himself is a wonderful wisecracker, and like everyone else, he is voiced perfectly. The game was composed of four discs, each of which representing one year of his journey to uncover the truth.
This game, however, also manages to be the only one outside the typical Silent Hill, Resident Evil and other survival horror games that have thoroughly freaked me right the hell out despite its usually amusing tone.
On I think maybe the third year or the beginning of the fourth of Manny's journey, he arrives at the station and the gates to the Ninth Underworld, seeing that the people who got the tickets are simply waiting there, unable to get in thanks to the fraud. When he confronts the Gatekeeper about this, he is told there is nothing they can do, and informs the keeper that the tickets were stolen and sold to others who don't deserve them. At that moment, the train comes, and the Aztec, in an uncaring monotone, simply remarks that now they'll "see what they truly deserve."
And at that moment, I was scared out of my mind.
The train does indeed arrive, and we see one quick shot of the bastard who put you through all this having a little sip of champagne… until the waving sign begins to spin, spin, spin ferociously, turning more and more red before it reveals a devil's face and grows a devil's whipping tail, soon pointing straight down to the abyss far above which the tracks are placed. But oh no, just having the train crash and seeing them fall to their judgment was not horrifying enough. At that very moment, the train grows spikes along what at this point can be described as its spine, and with a horrible sound of screeching metal, it's outsides are scraped off in flames to reveal the face of a menacing, red, mechanically powered dragon – and I swear at that moment, you can still see the horrified skeletal faces of its passengers peeking out from holes in its side – before it leaps off the tracks and straight into a fiery pit.
My God, even if I knew that at some point in the game, Hector LeMans and the ones he sold the tickets to would get their punishment, I was in NO way prepared for the sudden harshness of the judgment, blocky ‘90-ies 3D graphics or not… and it is all topped off by the Aztec-looking gatekeeper sadly shaking his head like he just scolded a few unruly children.
If I remember correctly, this is also what truly sets Manny over the edge, and gets him desperate to settle things once and for all and prevent his client, Mercedes, from suffering the same horrible fate. But I may be wrong – it is so long since I've played it. All I truly remember are the funny sidekick Glottis, the amusing Fire Beaver scene, the giant track running cats… and THIS piece of indescribable horror.
Perhaps I'm weak, but I have yet to see or hear others speak of this scene with as much fear as me. However, I have heard MANY praise the game as one of the best ever, and I shall do the same – you owe it to yourself to play this. You will not regret it.
Just… don't take the train to the neighboring town's game shop. For the love of God, don't take the train.
