UNK SEZ: Eegad, we almost went through the entire Halloween season with out playing Aunt John's Jukebox! That's not right! It's a Kindertrauma tradition! Luckily Aunt John dug up the clip above just in time for All Hollow's Eve! We hope that all of our readers have a spectacular Halloween this year! Thanks for all the support and remember to eat things your dentist would not approve of and to cause random acts of mischief whenever possible! Stay safe!
Okay, this isn't your standard trauma but it's been bugging me for years. It's the major pop culture mystery memory that I've never been able to solve, so maybe someone here can help!
Anyway, this is in the early '60s (probably '65 or earlier), and I'm visiting my grandmother's house. For some reason am horribly sick and kind of delusional/hallucinating (and somewhere around 5-8 years old). In the afternoon I remember seeing a T.V. show that's remained in my brain and I can't figure out what it was or why I remember it.
What I do remember is some kids (maybe two to four boys in the 10-15 year old range) on a raft in a river or a marshy area. I have the idea that they've accidentally traveled back in time. I think (this is very tentative) that maybe they were in a natural history museum and entered an exhibit and found themselves transformed back into prehistoric time. There might be dinosaurs. One of them is blaming another for getting them into that mess. I think it was in black and white (I think my grandmother had color T.V. at the time).
I think it was a series or serial of the kind they had on MICKEY MOUSE CLUB or later on THE BANANA SPLITS. I sort of remember seeing it more than once but that one awful afternoon when I was really sick stands out. So it's related to trauma even if it didn't really cause it.
Would be really grateful for any help in tracking this thing down.
—Mike F.
UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Special thanks to reader tychoanomaly for naming it with JOURNEY TO THE BEGINNING OF TIME.
AUNT JOHN SEZ: Kids, gather around and give a big Kindertrauma welcome to Carole Lanham, author of the forthcoming must-read "The Whisper Jar." More on her new book in a minute, as Carole has kindly agreed to share with us her very own traumafession!
Take it away Carole:
It was going to be the greatest night ever. My friend Tammy and I had decided to camp in a tent in her backyard. We hammered down the stakes and shoved our pillows in through the zipper, and then we made a dangerous mistake. Instead of climbing into our sleeping bags while things were all rosy, we sat down to watch an episode of NIGHT GALLERY with Tammy's mom. The Doll, it was called. It goes without saying that dark tents and dolls with scary teeth make for terrible bedfellows. Alas, we were only about ten years old at the time (ever notice how many traumafessions feature kids who are about ten years old?) and so we had yet to learn that rather important life lesson.
"Don't worry," Tammy's mom said, after ROD SERLING and a levitating oil painting of a rag doll with a skull melting out of its head had bid us a decidedly troubling goodnight. "Dolls almost never bite." With an encouraging shove, she sent us out the backdoor, turned off the light, and left us to face the forbidding black triangle of our tent alone.
We couldn't stop thinking about it, of course. Couldn't get the mascara-smeared eyes of The Doll out of our heads to save our souls! We turned on a radio, hoping for some relief, but the DJ, swear to God, was talking about a possible Big Foot sighting. Big foot! This was distracting at least, but not in a good way. There was nothing to do but click on our flashlights and take a trip around the block. Someone had to ensure that there were no creatures with big feet and/or crazy-haired dolls prowling about the neighborhood.
When we got back in the tent, we felt safer and started saying things to each other like, "This is the life, eh?" and "That Eric Brown sure is cute!" but it's hard to enjoy a cozy sleeping bag and a good crush when you're under the spell of a creepy doll. Next thing we know, strange shadows are circling our tent and there is a weird sound not unlike the sound of the clacking teeth of The Doll. We huddled together, our brains swimming with the NIGHT GALLERY theme music and vivid images of fez hats, fireplace pokers, and doll-bitten skin dancing before our eyes in the wonderful world of color. The clacking clacked closer. After much panicked deliberation over how we might transform our supply of Doritos and tampons into a proper weapon, the clacking dissolved into the stupid girlie giggles of the stupid neighbor boys.
That was one long night.
Sad to say, I had not learned my lesson about dolls yet. Many years later, writer Richard Matheson tried to teach me once and for all, by way of KAREN BLACK.
The film was called TRILOGY OF TERROR and the first two stories were mysterious and fun, but for my money they might just as well have dropped the trilogy and the of and called it straight up singular terror since the last segment is the one that makes grown men wet their pants. It's definitely the one that sticks.
I had never seen this film until recently so you'd think I'd be wiser this time around. Well, I wasn't dumb enough to plan a camp-out for that same night, that's for sure, but I did sit down to watch the movie with my kids just as a storm was moving in.
Same dif.
Come bedtime, my daughter (about ten at the time) had no better luck forgetting the doll in this movie than I did forgetting the one on NIGHT GALLERY. Throw in the fact that she's scared stiff of thunderstorms even on a Pixar night and it's probably clear why I should keep away from bad dolls at all cost. Not a wink of sleep was had by either of us, and if you've ever seen the Zuni fetish doll in this movie, you know why. Without meaning to do it, I had given my daughter her own dolly traumafession.
Don't let the cover of this movie fool you. It looks like the font is the scariest thing about it so that's probably why I ignored the thunder and turned it on. Matheson changed the name of his doll story from Prey to Amelia when he wrote the script, to go along with the fact that KAREN BLACK was playing a different woman in each of the three segments. Prey says it better. Even as an adult, I huddled up with my family, wincing and jumping as Amelia and the doll had showdowns in the bathtub and the oven and the living room. There's a missing carving knife that provides for a lot of suspense, and a horrifying bit involving a suitcase that for some reason made me squirm more than all the rest. There are no real special effects to speak of but the film holds up because the story is truly terrifying.
After all this time, you would think I'd know better than to play with dolls, but I'm afraid I still have a thing for them. I'm planning a scary doll give-away when my book comes out and this is purely due to the fact that I was damaged all those years ago by people like Algernon Blackwood, who wrote the short story that The Doll was based on, and Richard Matheson's Prey. Scary stuff!
AUNT JOHN SEZ: Thanks for sharing that Carole. I feel your trauma as my own kid sister suffers from extreme pediophobia, a condition I might have used to my advantage on numerous occasions when we were kids. But I digress… I really want to talk about Carole's new book "The Whisper Jar" (available Monday, October 31st in print or pre-order now, in electronic format via Morrigan Books).
Just in time for Halloween, "The Whisper Jar" is an anthology of seven short stories and two poems which all feature, in Kindertrauma parlance, traumatots grappling with the supernatural and the mundane. As Unkle Lancifer will be the first to attest, I have a very limited attention span and the idea of reading for pleasure is a luxury I rarely enjoy since I can't sit still long enough. I am the fidgety type who can barely make it through a movie without having to check email, smoke a cigarette, or, well, fall asleep.
Such was not the case when I embarked on "The Whisper Jar." As evidenced by her traumafession above, Carole knows how to turn a phrase, if you will, and I was sucked right into her fantastic world of slightly-off child protagonists. Some are dealing with sibling vampires; some are vying for the undivided attention of a pixie; and one has to come to the heart-breaking realization that nuns at her orphanage were less than truthful about her lineage. Honestly, Flannery O'Conner came to mind when I read the orphanage story "The Blue Word." There is a definite moment of grace, and the final path to salvation is nothing short of heart breaking.
One last thing about Carole's collection; "Maxwell Treat's Museum of Torture for Young Girls and Boys" seriously begs for a small or silver screen adaptation. There is a powerful overarching theme of parental loss and Carole places her tragically displaced protagonist with one of the quirkiest families ever, one that includes three brothers who have the gumption to erect a museum devoted to archaic torture devices and two parents who fully support them in this endeavor. I want to live there!
OK, I am done. To read more by Carole Lanham, be sure to check her out at THE HORROR HOMEMAKER , her personal site, and snag a copy of "The Whisper Jar" HERE.
I've run this one by the folks at IMDb a while back and I don't think they came up with the correct answer. This is probably the best spot to solve it because I THINK it might be a made-for-TV movie, and you guys are so good at solving those.
Back in the early '80s there was something that played on TV that I was only able to catch a small bit of. We were at my grandparents and they only had antennae TV here in Canada, so it couldn't have been too avant garde. It also played within a fairly early time bracket (late afternoon or early evening) so that's what makes me think it was possibly a replay of a made-for-TV movie movie.
Anyway, there was a scene where two men are digging up a grave with a lady in it. They were interested in taking the ring she had on her finger. As they're doing so, she wakes up, there's a REALLY awkward moment shared among them, and then one of the men slams a pic-ax (or something) into her chest. I was so young and the recollection is so foggy, but it seems to me that she was wearing a gold turban or dress. I also remember my grandmother commenting on how good she looked considering she'd been buried in a grave, so she wasn't a rotted corpse. I also don't think she had any fangs because I never once thought she was a vampire (but it sure sounds like vampire stuff).
Any help on this one?
Hey Lance and John…
How about a Name That Trauma about a one hour special (could be based on a book) about a boy and girl locked in a library and all I can remember is the first story was about a traveling salesman (maybe the name Mr. Pym) and he ends up dead and buried behind a barn or house of a family he encounters?
Maybe a book salesman…Bibles, etc…not sure, but it seemed like the mid ‘80s (could be older)…and kinda creepy.
Any help will be appreciated!
By the way…keep up the Funhouse, I love trying to guess my favorite horror movie scenes.
Take care,
— Thunderknight!
Just discovered your website and I love it! I've been devouring the "Name That Trauma!" entries, and of course, I have one. I remember seeing this movie as a teen in the late '70s/early '80s on a Sunday morning horror T.V. movie showcase, although the movie must have come from the '60s or late '50s.
It was an anthology movie with several segments. The one segment I remember concerned a police captain and his sergeant investigating a strange series of murders seemingly committed by a supernatural being such as a vampire or werewolf. They key in on one suspect and congratulate themselves when he is arrested or killed near the segment's end, just before it's revealed to the audience, but not the police, the supernatural being actually committing the murders is the police captain's somewhat mousy, eyeglasses-wearing female secretary.
I hope this sounds familiar to someone at your website. I've scoured books on horror film to no avail.
Thanks again for the opportunity to write in, and I'll be reading more of the website!
— Robert S.
Hi Kindertrauma,
I am trying to find the name of a movie or short from about 1989-1990 sometime (give or take.)
It had a guy always professing his love for a co-worker. This female co-worker always shoots him down. Turns out the guy actually can't say he hates anyone or they turn in to a puppet. These two are off somewhere together, not sure why, but It turns out the woman can't say she loves anyone or they turn into a puppet as well. So of course she loved him all along, but could not tell him.
It wasn't long, so I am guessing it was a short film.
Please help me remember what this was from!!!
— Jai
UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Special thanks to reader Rhiannon Joy for naming it with the REALLY WEIRD TALES (1987) segment "I'll Die Loving."
Hi,
I have been searching for a long time, but I only have a small fragment to go on. I am hoping it rings a bell for somebody!
This is a movie that has been broadcasted on T.V. in the late ‘70s. I think this must have been in 1976 and 1977. I think it was broadcasted on Channel 56 (WLVI Boston). I am sure it was not part of the CREATURE DOUBLE FEATURE that WLVI always had on in the weekends (anybody remember that?) But I do know that this movie came on immediately after THE SHUTTERED ROOM. And this was two years in a row. First came THE SHUTTERED ROOM and then this other movie.
Now, I was 6 at the time and my dad let me watch THE SHUTTERED ROOM with him. Then this other movie came on. I clearly remember the beginning and then my dad quickly switched to another channel. THE SHUTTERED ROOM was apparently OK, but this other movie went too far, even for him. A year later, they both came on again. This time I saw more of the beginning of this second movie, and I got to see a little bit more, before dad got up to switch to a different channel (no remotes way back then.)
Now the beginning, which I remember:
A kid comes home from school, the school bus lets this kid off. I can't remember if it's a girl or boy. I am thinking a little girl but not sure on that part. It is either summer or a very nice spring or early fall day. It is sunny; the grass is green, leaves on the trees. The house is a ranch-style house, I think somewhere in the suburbs.
The kid walks up to the house and enters the house. It's quiet in the house. The kid calls out, "Mom????" No answer. Kid walks to the kitchen. The kitchen looks horrible. Blood everywhere. On the counter, on the floor, and blood-smears on the cabinets. Meanwhile the kid keeps calling, "Mom????"
That's all.
This has been bugging me big time. What movie is this, and what happened to the mother? Nothing good, I think, it was a lot of blood in there.
The fact that twice it was broadcasted immediately after THE SHUTTERED ROOM made me thought it was some kind of double feature.
Well…. is there anybody out there who can help me out?
— Ina
Here's one for your readers.
I remember watching some movie on TV, anywhere from about 1981 to 1986. It was on a cable channel and it might have been made for that particular channel. Here's the thing. It wasn't exactly scary or traumatizing but it was bizarre. Years later I've always wondered just what the heck that movie was. I want to think it was sort of a lighthearted comedy. Here's what I remember:
An older guy, maybe in his 60's wants to become a tree, so he regularly stands outside with his bare feet in a dirt hole. His friends think he's just being loony. I can't remember if he waters himself or not, but I want to think it ends with him turning into a tree.
Does this ring any bells?
— Tom S.
