Author: aunt john

Love the site. It's great reading about the freaky things people remember from their childhood, and I thought I would share one of my own.

There are a few traumatizing T.V. memories from my childhood, including the infamous BBC broadcast GHOSTWATCH (which is one of the main reasons for my current love of horror movies.) But one that stands out in my mind was this advert for soft drink Tango.

Now the Tango adverts had generated quite a bit of controversy here in the U.K. by that time, but when this advert popped out of nowhere, I was caught completely off guard.

A guy is at a football match when the crowd disappears and he is left all alone. Shocked, he sees a little girl skipping on the pitch, however she turns around to reveal it is actually an old woman (an apparent homage to cult classic DON'T LOOK NOW) who is brandishing a giant corkscrew. To the man's side appears a grim reaper-like figure. Both the woman and the reaper began shouting, "No" at the man in what is a very disturbing (and somewhat psychedelic moment.) The man, getting quite panicked takes a drink of his can of Tango, and is instantly 'decapitated' by a mysterious force. Suddenly, the pitch returns to normal, and the man is left traumatized and rubbing his throat in shock.

Although the advert is done in a quite humorous tone, it was quite shocking for young children and seemed to be pulled of the air quite quickly as I can only remember seeing it a few times.

-Double L-

I was wondering if there were any traumafessions yet about MAKING CONTACT (a.k.a. JOEY)?

There was just something about that dusty dummy opening its eyes that disturbed me when I saw it as a kid. I remember when I was 13, my parents had my grandparents' tapes after their house was burned down. We were watching one of the movies, I didn't know what it was, and it ended up being this movie. I forgot all about it until that scene when the dummy comes to life. At that point I jumped out of my skin.

(AUNT JOHN SEZ: The offending dummy comes in around the 5:35 mark. Also, who's JOEY's interior designer? I want those RETURN OF THE JEDI sheets!)

Then there was this ending which was freaky:

I've been having dreams about a giant head, and I think this may have something to do with it. It always disturbed me when the dummy burnt to death at the end too.

Hey Kindertrauma, haven't had anything good to report to you in awhile, but the other day during my humanities class I take at City College S.F., I remembered something horrible while we watched PINOCCHIO.

Most of the horrors I've experienced for some reason branch out from that film although I've never seen the connection ‘till now and I'll just mention one of them.

There is a square quilt blanket PINOCCHIO sleeps with that I had as a child, which reminded me of something awful. After a dinner where I had spaghetti and meatballs and a cake and a bunch of other crap I can't remember, I went to bed and had a terrible nightmare. I dreamt that I was eating the hugest strawberry chocolate chip cake (like a mountain-sized cake) and no matter what happened I couldn't finish it.

While I was half asleep all I can remember was puking all over the quilt as I slept; puke and go back to sleep; puke some more. I slept under a mountain of my own puke and for some reason didn't wake up until morning, maybe it was so heavy I couldn't move and no one could help me, even though my sister was asleep in the same room.

Christ who would want to help me?

I have successfully avoided seeing PINOCCHIO since I was 3 or 4 years old when it horrified me in the theater and all the anxieties that I felt throughout my life were harnessed into reality and I forgot how dark and sinister most of that film was.

Then I wondered if kids today would not be so sheltered from reality then possibly they could learn something, either way it's an important film. The reason we watched it during Humanities class was because my brilliant teacher saw a connection between Jesus and PINOCCHIO (both die and become resurrected, "to save one's own life you must lose it.")

Check it out again with this frame of mind and see what you get, it could also be applied to BRITNEY SPEARS puppet-like existence as well.

AUNT JOHN SEZ: Thanks for checking in Crankenstein of CRANKY TOWN. If it's any consolation, the Vicar of VHS shares a somewhat similar aversion to this cautionary tale about a piece of wood who's turned into a boy and then turned into a donkey before finally being turned back into a boy.

I love your site!

It brought back a flood of scary T.V./movie memories, particularly that my sister and I were obsessed with watching ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS on Sunday nights in the mid-‘80s, followed (or preceded) by STEVEN SPIELBERG's AMAZING STORIES which were often VERY disturbing and kept us up at night.

There was one ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS called "Final Escape" that still creeps us out to this day. It was about a rich, mean woman who gets sent to jail and where she strikes a deal with the elderly prison coroner. She promises to pay for his expensive eye surgery (I think) if he buries her with the next inmate who dies and then comes back to dig her up. They agree that the next time the death bell tolls she will climb into the casket and wait for him to come and get her after the burial.

Before long, the bell tolls, she sneaks into the morgue area and gets into the casket and gets buried in the prison graveyard. She waits and waits and waits, but the prison coroner doesn't come. After a while, she lights a match and finds herself lying next to the DEAD coroner!!!! Zoom out to hearing screams coming from the ground.

Shivers!!!

Does anyone else remember this series/episode?

Keep up the good work!!

D.

AUNT JOHN SEZ: Thanks D. for the sweet traumafession! While I don't recall that particular episode, I did manage to locate a clip from the '60s ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR on which the plot of the '80s re-hash is based:

Hi, as I'm sure you've heard before, your website is fantastic. Lots of fun for the horror lover. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone has mentioned DUMBO as a traumafession. Though I visit regularly, I'm sure I could've missed it.

For me, DUMBO (like many a Disney film) was quite upsetting. I was very little of course when I first saw it and even with its scary moments, I liked it and watched it a lot but that didn't mean I walked away psychologically unscathed. From the time poor Mrs. Jumbo had to watch all the other mother's get their babies while she stood all by herself, hopes rising and falling like the ridiculous temperature out here in Northern Cali, to those snooty, gossipy, elephant companions they were forced to bunk with, all the way to the near end, when the feather slipped out of DUMBO's grasp and he nearly died painted up as a clown, I couldn't help pondering why all of this was happening.

It was all so unjustified, especially when that horrid kid teased little baby DUMBO and got a well deserved spanking from Mrs. Jumbo, only for her to end up in jail (I guess Disney, like local law enforcement, don't sit well with spankin's ) I mean it was so sad and depressing.

Of course, no mention of the film DUMBO can go without the discussion of the 'Pink Elephant' sequence. Though it was horrifying, I thought it was pretty cool, just like Asian Horror is today! But my friends sure didn't think so. A couple had to leave the room when it came on and one's own mother forbid them to watch that part, she always fast forwarded it while telling us to close our eyes. I didn't blame them. The parts where the elephant is made up of heads and the high pitched voices are singing, is completely and understandably frightening.

As I've said, it was the emotional turmoil that got to me…that and DUMBO as a clown, I swear that image just won't go away! Oh well, I've come to realize that it's really not so bad being traumatized, slightly enjoyable even.

That's all for me, thanks for reading!

Luv,

Nita