kindertrauma

Author: aunt john

Name That Trauma :: Reader Moises C. on a Bow-Legged, Killer Beast

Posted on By aunt john

Hello there! I just discovered your site today while spending a good deal of time trying to identify a movie that I only remember a few parts of, and it seriously spooked me at the time!

I hoped maybe someone would be able to help me pin a name to it. It may have been a made-for-television movie along the lines of DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK, but I'm really not sure. It would have been on either Superhost or one of the other mid-day movie shows in the early eighties. The movie MAY have been about monsters or aliens that were monsters. I thought there were three of them and they all had different attributes, though I recall that one of them was dark and hairy, possibly with those backward-kneed, bandy legs a satyr might have.

At one point there is a scene where a man hears noises in his basement and goes to investigate. He flips on the light and this hairy thing is standing right there and proceeds to kill him! (This, I don't mind telling you, still crosses my mind whenever I go to flip on the light in my parents basement!!!)

Really creepy.

Then there is another scene where a man is standing outside in the snow and there is a shot of these hairy monster legs and feet walking up behind him and crunching the snow. This creature is killed I think, but not before strangling the man. And I'm afraid that's all I remember. As I said these monsters may have been aliens.

WHAT IS THIS MOVIE??!!! It's driving me NUTS!!!

I appreciate any help anyone can give me on this one.

Many thanks!

UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Huge thanks to Reader ElderMarsh for getting a leg up on THE ALIEN FACTOR!

Name That Trauma :: Reader Richard L. on the Terrors of Two Heads

Posted on By aunt john

I vividly remember a movie from my youth that scared me so much I had to call mom to help me watch the rest of it.

I just tried to find the title and info about it but failed.

I thought it was THE THING WITH TWO HEADS with RAY MILLAND but the synopsis says that a doctor transplanted a head onto a guy.

The movie I saw has a guy growing a second head. It started as an eye growing in his shoulder and grew into a complete second head! (I thing the guy splits in two later in the movie.)

The scary part, for me, was the "monster" behind the door! He shook the door so violently in the evil doctor's laboratory that it scared me.

Thanks,

Richard


UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Big ups to Name That Trauma champ Senski who knew that this was from THE MANSTER.

Name That Trauma :: Reader Kiddofunk on Still-Moving Severed Limbs

Posted on By aunt john

Hi,

First of all, I would like to tell you that I LOVE your site!!! I visit on a daily basis and rejoice in reading what scared the shit out of other people when they were little. I have, thankfully, been able to nail down all the stuff that affected me at a tender age except for the one I'm about to describe. I'm curious to know if you or your readers can help me discover the name of this movie.

This was in the mid ‘70s, so I was about 6 or 7 years old. It was Halloween night, my favorite holiday, but I had the flu so I couldn't go out trick or treating. Instead, I lay on the couch at home watching horror movies that were airing on our local station. This one film I watched terrified me, but I don't know the name of it. Here's what I remember:

It was a Frankenstein's monster film. I'm pretty certain it was a HAMMER HORROR film from the ‘60s or early ‘70s. I think PETER CUSHING was in it, but I can't be sure. Anyway, some mad scientist has an aquarium filled with water in his lab. In that tank is a man's severed arm. For some reason, he takes the arm out of the tank and shows it to another man. The scientist instructs that man to touch the arm, but the other man is afraid to. After a bit of prodding, the man finally touches the arm and suddenly the hand of the arm comes alive, grabs the man's wrist, and won't let go!

I have always been creeped out by still-moving severed limbs, or elongated limbs (ala Freddy Krueger's arms stretching across the alley in A.N.O.E.S.), and this movie scared the crap out of me. My mom made me turn it off so I never got to finish watching, and I've never seen this film again. Please help if you can.

Thank you,

Kiddofunk

UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Special thanks to Reader highacorns for realizing it was Frankenstein: The True Story (1973).

Trauma-Scene :: THE BEST LITTLE GIRL IN THE WORLD Gets a Check-Up

Posted on By aunt john

the best little girl in the world

In the hazy, gimlet-soaked recesses of your Aunt John's mind, the year 1983 holds two distinct memories:

  1. ‘70s pop superstar KAREN CARPENTER succumbed to anorexia nervosa
  2. My middle school health class teacher, in an attempt to educate her students about the death of Ms. CARPENTER, traumatized a room of sixth graders by making us watch her taped-from-the-T.V. VHS copy of the 1981 telepicture THE BEST LITTLE GIRL IN THE WORLD

The movie, despite its stellar cast of JENNIFER JASON LEIGH, CHARLES DURNING, and JASON MILLER, did little to hold the attention of our rambunctious class. Collectively, we groaned at the JONI MITCHELL title track ("Songs to Aging Children Come") and I remember we were more interested in watching the commercial breaks than the movie itself.

Fearing a mutiny, our teacher stopped the film and struck a deal with us along the lines of if we still hated it after the doctor's office scene, she would gladly put the film away and we could go back to reading about hygiene, acne, or whatever the usual lesson plan entailed. Foolishly, we called her bluff, agreed to keep watching and this is what we saw:

With the simple drop of a medical gown, a pre-teen chorus of thirty or so horrified gasps reverberated around the room. Needless to say, we watched the rest of the movie in disturbed silence waiting for another peek at JENNIFER JASON LEIGH's emaciated ribcage. Instead we only got the death of a spunky, pre-THIRTYSOMETHING MELANIE MAYRON.

the best little girl in the world

Long out of print, THE BEST LITTLE GIRL IN THE WORLD is currently available on YouTube starting HERE. Did anyone else have to watch this in junior high health class?

Traumafessions :: Reader Maxson M. on Goldfrapp's "Number 1"

Posted on By aunt john

I know have written in about anthropomorphic dogs and music videos before, but this video I recently saw combines both of those fears. This, like the Manson video, is a current traumafession and it is for the extremely disturbing video for Goldfrapp's "Number 1."

I am a huge Goldfrapp fan, and I love the whole "Supernature" album, especially the tracks "Ooh La La" and "Number 1." One day, I decided to go on Goldfrapp's website and watch both of these videos. "Ooh La La" was harmless, but then came the video for "Number 1."

I clicked on the video and a dog in a green nurses dress popped up on screen. The video was of a plastic surgery clinic were all the nurses and patients have dog heads and human bodies. I cannot even begin to describe the horror, so everyone will just have to watch the video themselves.

Name That Trauma :: Reader Rose J. on a Repressed Rape

Posted on By aunt john

Oh, I hope someone knows the name of this movie from the sparse details I remember … caught this flick on T.V. in the late ‘80s. Most likely it is from the ‘70s or early ‘80s and it's about a child or children being raped/sexually assaulted in a play house in the backyard.

The images that stood out in my memory are that of a swing in the child's bedroom or nursery, the presence of Raggedy Ann dolls and I think a moment of repressed memories resurfacing years later when returning to the play house.

I think the title had the word "house" or "home" in it. There may have been some woods behind the house too.

I have racked my brain trying to remember the title or the name of a character and I have been combing through a list of over 3,000 movies at IMDb that fit into this criteria, but half of the titles don't even have a plot description. Any clue what movie this is? It's killing me!

Thanks,

Rose J.

UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Special thanks to Reader saladbar for solving it with the made-for-T.V. flick A TASTE OF EVIL.