Category: Name That Trauma!

Hello,

I've written to you before and you added my little archetypal childhood fear on your website. It was titled "confessions by Warren F.", in it I related the story about a large muppet on "The Ed Sullivan Show" where Jim Henson had a "Gluttonous" huge puppet that ate "it's own" smaller version of itself… you put this on your website and I thought that was really cool.

I have another memory of a movie where there is a boy who half of his face is "burned" or "mutilated" somehow. His eye on the messed up side is totally white. He is being followed or is leading a man into an area, and it starts to rain. When the rains begin the nearby "Black Boulders" start to absorb the water and to grow into huge columns that start to collapse and the man and the boy have to find safety…. I just wonder if anyone out there can help me with this obviously twisted but true memory?

Note: Today's bumper images come courtesy of PAUL VERHOEVEN's 1985 epic FLESH + BLOOD which stars BLADE RUNNER's RUTGER HAUER and BRION JAMES, the always incredible JENNIFER JAON LEIGH and legendary Kindertrauma role model SUSAN TYRRELL! Check it out if you have not already because obviously it is awesome.

Okay, I've got a hell of a poser for you: way way back in '74 or '75, there was an animated TV movie that seemed to center around nuclear terrorism; specifically a group of terrorists using a computer (named – I swear I didn't imagine this – "Tarzan"), and threatening to detonate a nuclear weapon. I remember being right freaked out by the leader of the group as he sat in their bunker, reading a list of demands, his face – heck, his whole self – covered in what I now know was a nuclear/biological/chemical warfare suit (you know, full face gas mask, hood, gloves etc.) The group and their aims were unclear to my 5-year-old self, but it seemed less political and more cult-like. The culmination was that the bomb did go off, and one of the bad guys (possibly the leader) was thrown or fell out of a helicopter as it flew over the ruined city. I've tracked down every weird sci-fi or horror movie I was exposed to back when I was a tyke except for three, and this is one of 'em. The others are a beautiful, almost sketch-art like cartoon about fairies, the other about two kids who travel time after drinking from a fountain in the courtyard of an old mansion.

Anyway, thanks for listening, I hope maybe someone there can be of help.

-Bill S.

Hi

I have a movie in need of identification. I remember seeing one of those horror anthology films from the '70s with one story being very memorable.

The story I remember is that there is this famous pianist who always plays the same piano for his concerts. The piano even has a name something like "utopi." The pianist gets married to a young ambitious woman against his mother's wishes. The mother fears that the new wife will be a distraction to her son's music career. Also when the pianist speaks about his music he seems to exhibit the belief that "utopi" is alive.

Spoiler alert The piano comes alive and kills the wife!

I would appreciate of your readers could help me again.

Robert E.

UNK SEZ: Hey, Robert! I'm thinking the killer piano you're looking for is lurking in the 1967 AMICUS horror anthology TORTURE GARDEN!
Check out this description from the wikipedia page…

"In Mr. Steinway, a possessed grand piano by the name of Euterpe becomes jealous of its owner (John Standing)'s new lover (Barbara Ewing) and takes revenge".

And I got some good news for you! TORTURE GARDEN is available on YouTube so you can check it out right now!

I post on an EC Fan-Addicts forum on Facebook, and a friend wrote the following today. I was wondering if anyone might remember this:

Was recently watching a French tv series on Netflix about people who return from the dead in the same state as they were right before they died. Its called Les Revenants. Thought of a story I read in one of the EC comics (I think) about a guy who had a significant girlfriend when he was very young, probably early teens. She disappears while swimming. When the guy is in his 20s he or someone else finds this girl's body, perfectly preserved, and he sees her as a little child and he has become a man. Anyone remember this? It's not pure horror but the whole premise struck me hard even though I was a teenager at the time.

BUDDO

Love your website…I'm trying to track down a 70's made-for-TV movie that scared the crap out of me as a kid. The one thing I remember is that it had a woman who felt guilt over her aunt's or mother's death and the relative appeared in a dream (I think) as part of tombstone – like just her head sticking out and talking to the heroine. It terrified me to no end…any ideas what that might be?

Thanks!

Cordially,

David H.L.

I've never been able to meet up with one of my first memories, delivered by television between 1962 and '66?

Memories being the nebulous things they are, as I recall it involved a group of teens that enter an old dark house, where they are picked off one-by-one by a bulky mummy-type thing that lurks behind secret panels in the walls. In the end, the hero makes it out alive…only to be paused at the sight of some gollum perched on the top of the gate archway, gnawing on…something.

Hello everyone at KT,

I've been searching on and off for years, looking for a film that traumatized me as a child.

I remember a kid, maybe around 8-12 years old. He either gets lost or escapes into a forest. Exhausted, the kid falls asleep. He wakes up, covered in bumpy bites. Upon inspecting them, maggots start to come out of the sores!

This was extra disturbing to me, as my dad would spend much of his free time tanning outside. I would witness flies landing on him, and I thought for sure what happened in this film would happen to him!

I was probably around 12 when I saw it, so late 80s or early 90s is when I most likely watched it. I thought it might be The Emerald Forest 1985, but I just watched it and it was a no go.

Thanks for any help, and long live KINDERTRUAMA!

~ Darkko

Hey, KT

I've been trying to remember what this one was for ages, and it terrified me when I was young. From what I can remember, this may not have been a movie, but more likely an episode of some series.

The scene I remember has a black teenager tied down to an operating table and he is surrounded by a horde of tormentors, one of which has very subtle clown makeup and is about to cut open his chest with a scalpel. I think he had a fear of surgery or something, and so it was likely something to do with nightmares coming to life. I think the kid may have had a yellow and black jumpsuit on, but that's not so clear.

Perhaps your readers can help!

Hello there once again Kindertrauma,

I am looking for 2 movies of which I forgot the name.

Movie 1: Don't know much about this movie except the ending: a crane with a wrecking ball is demolishing houses while people are still inside. The crane is being operated by what I believe a girl with telekinetic powers. I think it's a movie from the 80s or 90s.

Movie 2: A movie about a psychopath that puts bombs in buildings. A cop who is a skilled bomb dismantler goes after the bad guy and disables more than 1 bomb in the movie. In the beginning he is dismantling a bomb in a small claustrophobic space, sort of a tunnel in the building. I believe that this bomb is being protected by laser-beams. The ending of the movie sees our good guy dismantling a huge bomb on the highest floor of a skyscraper. The bomb is as big as the top of the skyscraper. The bomb gets dismantled and it's a happy ending. I think it's a movie from the 90s or begin 2000s. Or maybe from the 80s.

Someone know what the names of these movies are? I watched both movies on television (I'm from Belgium btw). I'm pretty sure that they are both American movies.

Friendly greetings,

Goorlap

Ok, these two may be from the late '70s – early '80s, and may have been television shows or movies.

My memory is quite limited, but I will share what I can recall, and hopefully you can help so I can revisit my kindertrauma!

The first show had a little girl, about 10-years-old, and she had burnt up ashy skin. Can't recall the background… Wicker Man? Village of the Damned???

The second (again with limited memories) had something to do with hiding the body of a girl in a heating duct or something….possibly in a large mill or factory… For some reason I feel that the name "Eleanor" was connected to this, somehow.

I know it isn't very much to go off, but it scared me enough to have created a block about any further details!!!

Please help if you can!!!

Thanks!

-T Vester

UNK SEZ: Thanks for writing in T. Vester! I've only got guesses for you today but I guess that's O.K. 'cuz guesses are movie titles and movie titles are what we eat for breakfast around here. Even if they are wrong, they might give somebody an idea of what to watch next or maybe just joggle a memory or two. The first one instantly made me think of EYES OF FIRE (1983) because that has a kid with a charred face in it (see image above) but maybe that one has just been on my mind a lot lately because of that scary trailer for THE WITCH…

The second I have no clue about but it did make me think of FRIENDSHIPS, SECRETS AND LIES (1979) the notorious TV movie in which a baby skeleton is found in a demolished sorority house and the suspects include folks like LORETTA SWITT and TINA LOUISE. Hopefully one of our learned readers will have a better guess. Anybody got any ideas?