O.K., this one has been bugging me for a while. I saw this movie a long time ago, so I might not be dead on, but it was a zombie flick (I think.) All I really remember was there was some kind of bad guy killing people or something, and these two stoner kids chopped him up. The little bits and pieces came to life and started doing stuff, so they burned them. When they burned them, all the ashes landed in the graveyard and brought all the zombies up. Does anybody know what I'm talking about?
When I was really small, there was a book called "I Am A Little Pig" by Francois Crozat. It was the strangest and most surreal children's book ever and had many weird drawings. The two pictures that terrified me to tears were of the pig in overalls writing at a school desk and the pig on a unicycle in clown makeup. I would cry whenever I saw it and make my mother skip those parts. The pages still creep me out and I still have a horrible fear of animals on two legs to this day.
Although the horror of the pigs was enough, the most terrifying children's book of all time is famed photographer William Wegman's interpretation of Cinderella with pictures of dogs as the characters. The dogs would have on overwhelming costumes, but still have dog paws and heads. There was one picture that I was especially scared of, the Cinderella dog in a big dress by a window with the Fairy Godmother dog looking in through that window. I would always be scared to look out the window for fear that a freakishly tall dog in a huge dress would be staring at me. When I looked the book up on Amazon, I found out that Wegman had many other children's books out there. What kind of a twisted person is he? I still blame my fear of this book starting with "I Am A Little Pig."
Now to get off the subject of books featuring anthropomorphic animals, I will talk about the amazing Twin Peaks. I think I am the only 12-year-old Peaks freak, but the thing I found scariest about the show was not BOB. I found the scariest thing to be the friendly, Cooper-helping giant. His caved in cheekbones, his pale complexion, and especially his bow tie unnerved me to pieces. But it was more than his appearance! The scene were he appears in Hide-Out Wally's and tells Coop that Maddy is being killed saddened me and it also disturbed me that the giant knew what was happening but couldn't stop it! It was so sad! Another terrifying scene was where Leo woke from his coma and attacked Shelly after his face had fallen in the cake. He looked like a member of the Insane Clown Posse!
When I was a kid, I would always see a movie at the video store that I wanted to get but never did. I've been searching for it on the interwebs but only remember the cover and the pictures on the back. The cover was a long white mask/pale face with a dark hat, it had something similar to Wolverine claws, and the title was one word, something like "Slasher" or "Slayer."
I know it sounds cheesy but at the time it looked creepy. On the back one of the smaller pictures was from a scene with a car crash, with Mr. Pale Hat Man standing beside the car, looking at the camera, in the rain. I'm not sure when it was made exactly, but I'm thinking sometime in the late ‘90s/early ‘00s. I've searched IMDb to no end, and know you guys usually have the answers, I'd really appreciate the help, it's driving me crazy not remembering!
UNK SEZ: Kylee, based on your description and the time frame you provided, I think you are referring to George Romero's BRUISER which came out in 2000 (please correct me if I'm wrong.) BRUISER is not the best movie in the world, but since it's the only film I'm aware of that combines the flavors of both TOM ATKINS and PETER STORMARE and then drizzles a MISFITS appearance over the top, I'm willing to give it a break. Now, if you'll excuse me I'm going to sit in a corner and meditate about how incredibly old I have become (traumafessions from this decade tend to have that effect on me!)
Well this is going to be a tough one!
About 8-9 years ago I was visiting a friend's house and her mother was about to order a pay per view movie, MONKEYBONE to be exact.
The movie didn't start right away but rather a short film played before the feature presentation began. It was CGI animated and it was of a very creepy, abstract-looking girl running from a home I believe… I'm not entirely sure. Well she runs up to this tree and hands spring out of the bark.
I don't really remember a lot of the details because I was 8- and closed my eyes through most of it.
Sound familiar? It's been bugging me for years.
Greetings! My memory is of a TV show, possibly LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE or maybe THE WALTONS. I was born in ‘76, so I'm thinking this was in the early ‘80s or so.
There was an old man who was a traveling escape artist. From what I remember, the community gathered to watch him handcuffed or tied and put into a coffin (maybe just a wooden box) and then the box was topped with a pile of straw and set on fire. He was supposed to escape unharmed but something went wrong. I don't remember if he got out somehow or not, but I remember the townspeople frantically trying to put out the fire and the camera shot of the man inside trying to get his hands untied as the box filled with smoke.
Can anyone help me out with this?
Thanks!
UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! It's looks like Aunt John's favorite repeat offender LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE was responsible for yet another trauma. Special thanks to Reader Senski for extinguishing this nightmare!
Well, this was going to be a Name-That-Trauma but I got good and lucky using IMDB's keyword search. And if you've ever seen this movie you'll already know the one I mean when I say that the keywords were "dead bird."
This was one of those films that would run late, late, LATE at night when I was a kid and 24-hour news and informercials hadn't yet been invented. I'm talking about programming geared for insomniacs and swing-shift workers. Or kids who were awake way past bedtime. I think back and realize I either stayed up that late a LOT or else my melatonin-deprived brain turned anything I witnessed at 3:15 a.m. into a trauma, because I sure seem to recall a bunch of chilling scenes.
This one, though, probably tops the list. It's not scary, really, but it sure is horrible. Moral horror, my favorite kind. Here's the setup:
There are these three teenagers on summer vacation, palling around on the beach for days on end and getting a little too friendly at night for a trio. In the end, this arrangement leads to trouble, but I didn't stay tuned that long. I was too shocked by a scene in which the boys find the girl with a seagull that they'd found on the beach, wounded. They'd nursed it back to health and were going to let it go that day. It was all very heartwarming as the guys made their way up the beach to meet the girl at their little bird sanctuary.
And when they got there, they found she'd crushed the bird with a stone. The reason? She couldn't bear to let it go, she loved it too much and knew it would just fly away and never come back. I didn't know what foreshadowing was at the time, but nowadays that sends up a red flag. I may be a bit fuzzy on the details. I also seem to recall that they DID let the bird go and it got injured again, and THEN she killed it.
The point is, she had a rationalization for her heinous act and explained it without a hint of remorse. And the guys knew she was crazy right then but stayed with her because…well, it wasn't the healthiest relationship in the first place. And that just messed up my young mind in the worst way. Ever since, folks who find themselves doing the wrong thing for the right reason have creeped me out far more than zombies or homicidal maniacs.
The movie's title, BTW, is LAST SUMMER. Not an easy title to research, thanks to those I KNOW WHAT YOU DID movies. And the girl with the borderline personality? BARBARA HERSHEY, who was evidently as disturbed by the aviacidal scene as I was.
And yes, it's on YouTube, so I finally got to see the whole thing. Turns out I was a bit off on the motivation, but it was foreshadowing all right. It's quite a film that manages to scar you twice, in viewings decades apart.
AUNT JOHN SEZ: Dead bird alert at the 8:09 mark:
"He was just a stupid bird":
Greetings! Love the site. Visit just about every day. Love taking a trip down memory lane with all the horror and suspense movies of my youth. I can't even begin to tell you also how many great flicks I've been turned onto. Was wondering about your help with a movie that has plagued me for many years.
Was never bothered by most horror movies (or the monsters/killers) but there was this one film that has always bothered me. Not sure if it was an actual theatre movie or made-for-T.V. Saw it maybe when I was between 10-13 (am 36 now). It involved several people (possible kids) digging up a glass bottle/mason jar out of the ground. After opening it (or having it break) a vengeful spirit/demon thing caused all sorts of mayhem until they managed to trap it back in another bottle at the end of the movie.
I remember it was really creepy and had an evil edge to it and it always bothered me that you could release something so evil on accident. Any ideas folks?
Hey guys, I got a trauma that falls on the humorous side that I've been trying to locate for a few years now without any luck. Back in the 1980s HBO used to play quick funny shorts in between movies (Bambi vs Godzilla, etc…) and one of these was a spoof of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (my scariest movie as a kid). I can only recall a few bits but I'm hoping someone will recognize it.
1st Bit: In the original all the appliances in the house go crazy turning on and off when the aliens arrive. In the spoof the vacuum cleaner follows the little boy around and gobbles him up. The next scene he's thrashing around in the vacuum bag yelling, 'Let me outta here!'
2nd Bit: The famous scene in the original that was parodied was when RICHARD DREYFUSS is parked on the highway looking at his map, the mail boxes shake and his truck goes crazy. In the spoof his radio deck turns to a polka station and suddenly bubbles and streamers shoot out of the dashboard. When he looks at the mailboxes, instead of shaking they begin to bob around and sing a Motown tune (from what I recall) and if I'm not mistaken Darth Vader pulls up on a motorcycle and yells, 'You have to use the force!' then drives off.
Now I did have a vivid imagination as a kid, so I might not be specific on all this, yet if anyone knows that would be swell.
Thanks!
Mike A.
AUNT JOHN SEZ: Mike, I got some good news and I got some bad news for you. The good news is I remember this exact short, and it is called CLOSET CASES OF THE NERD KIND. The bad news is that it is long out-of-print, and although it looks like someone did try to sneak a copy of it up on the YouTubes, it was yanked for copyright violations. If it's any consolation, here's the other short you mentioned:
In the mid '70s there was a movie, which was presented like a documentary, called BEYOND AND BACK. It dealt with accounts of real people who had "near death experiences," and acted out their narrated testimonies of walking down a hall to a bright light, with actors and special effects. I was young and my mother took me along. Since I was in a movie theatre, and I never saw anything but pure fiction on the big screen, watching this documentary was so out of its place that I held onto it as cold hard fact for a long time. I'm not sure what degree of factuality was behind it, and I've never seen it since.
Anyway, I don't remember most of it, which I think were numerous similar accounts of people walking to heaven, only to be turned around since it wasn't their time yet. Doctor's debated the actual weight of the human soul…that was another tangent they explored. All seemed rather mundane to little me.
That is, except for the last part…the shocker. This depicted the woman who attempted suicide, and didn't get the bright light treatment.
Instead, she experiences a hellish vision, which scared the jujubes out of me.
What I remember is she's in some dark bleak place, and is accosted by some "demons" or other, which had human faces with silly putty over their eyes. In my mind now, they appear almost as evil blind mimes. They made no sound. They held her down to the ground and forced her to view her living relatives and friends mourning her, from in the reflection of a mud puddle. After the shock and awe, she repents in horror, and is alive again.
I doubt there was much to it, and it probably was incredibly tame, but it rocked my boat enough for my mom to shuttle me off for ice cream afterwards, as she saw me looking pale. Thereafter came many a soul searching night for me, coupled with nightmares, wondering what I had to do to get the bright light walk….which, although easily the better of the two, still seemed awfully (and eternally) lonely to a nine-year-old….and that was the best you could hope for!
Anybody remember this one?
AUNT JOHN SEZ: Brace yourself Bigwig, and get your pint of Ben & Jerry's ready. The clip of which you speak features a muscle car driving bride-to-be from Gary, Indiana and no expense was apparently spared in recreating her after-life ordeal:
It's me again, the same one who told you about my fear of FRAGGLE ROCK and the THX logo! Now, I have a trauma that I don't remember much about. Here's what I remember:
Two kids were running out of a house and into some kind of van, or something like it, yelling, "We're going to the water slide! We're going to the water slide," in a sing-song kind of way. Then they look in the seats next to them and, from what I remember, they saw a bunch of school supplies next to them. That instant, they yelled, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!"
That's all I remember, since it has been a very long time since I saw it. It would be a pleasure if anyone could track this down for me.
Love,
Jeffrey P.
