Category: Name That Trauma!

Hello from Brazil! My name is Jason and I'm a big fan of your site.

First of all, sorry for my bad English.

Well, there's this movie ( I guess I watched it around 1994) and I can't remember many details about it, but here goes the "main details". Basically, it's about an actress (I'm not sure if she's a movie star or a TV actress) and the mysterious murders/bad things that happen to her and to the ones closer to her.

By the end of the movie, we learn that one of the women from the make up/fx crew is the muderer: she's revealed as a girl from the main actress' past; she tried to ruin her birthday party (when they were kids) and was severely burned when her hair caught on fire as she got too close to the candles. So, years later, she used her skills to disguise herself and to get close to the actress and ruin her life.

I guess this is it… Maybe some of these details are off, but I've only watched it once in 20 years! LOL.

Thank you very much. I hope you can help me!

Hey guys. You are so awesome, been readin' you for years, mate. Anyways, I want to see if you can identify something that scared the living daylights outta me as a young'un. Here we go.

It was a PSA, and it aired around the early 1970s, if I believe. It opened with live-action kids looking at drugs of some sort. A thunderclap sounded, lightning crashed, and the live-action turned to cartoon. The children were sent flying through a Yellow Submarine/The Wall reject, with puppets (think Sid & Marty Krofft-style) singing (rapping?) in rhyming iambic trimeter about not using drugs, or else it would ruin their lives. A thunder and lightning crash later, it went back to live-action, and the kids knew not to do drugs. It ended with a black screen with white text along the lines of "it's about time you say no".

I lived in Cincinatti, although I think this was broadcast in other states. I remember one of the kids was a girl who looked like the one in the infamous "Cracks" Sesame Street short. The music was an eerie Moog synthesizer and lots of synth sound effects. And, of course, there was Scanimate.

Please help me with this. I'm beginning to think I made it up.

Hey, I love your site so much. So much. Only you and your readers can help.

What I remember was seen on television in 1974. It may have been a show or a movie. I don't remember color or black and white.

There was a castle with a torture chamber. A man and a woman were torturing a woman; she was chained up standing and there might have been the hint of a brand? It was all a lot of implication and creative edits.

Finally they killed her, and went to the window. There the man and the woman prayed to God to forgive them for being such jerks. I doubt they got it, as they weren't the heroes of the movie.

If any traumateers can help, I would be sorely grateful!

Derek

There was a film that's opening so terrified me as a child that I could even get past the opening credits. I have searched, googled and asked people about it for yers, but NO-ONE I talk to in my age group (45) remembers anything remotely similar.

I remember it being a B&W movie (not a Twilight Zone or Outer Limits episode), but it very well could have been a muted color on TV. A housewife comes home at night and pulls into the driveway, then it cuts to a walking wind up toy robot with that winding sound, then she gets into the garage, cut to the walking wind up toy robot, she gets out bags, walking wind up toy robot and this back and forth goes on a bit, when she finally gets into the house the screen goes black and you hear her scream and then the movie title…

That is about all I can remember, but I would love to see it again and watch it all the way through, even though I have a phobia of small inanimate objects like dolls (Zuni Dolls in particular) coming to life!

Thanks for any help!

Seen when I was a kid, and scarred me deeply:

A black and white B-grade sci-fi horror film, almost certainly 1950s. The scene that traumatized me was a young woman coming home to her apartment, where a space bat had either taken the place of her lampshade, or was hiding in the lampshade? Memories of course are fuzzy things.

Here are the two movies I keep asking about.

There is a movie I saw as part of a double feature at the Castro Theater in San Francisco. It was black and white and it may have taken place in Africa. The movie was about some rich people who lived in a walled off complex and they were always nervous about the natives. The main star was possessed or hypnotized by a witch doctor. That is all I remember.

The second movie isn't a horror film, and it was most likely from the 70s or 80s. All I remember is some young girl ran away or was kidnapped. She was forced into prostitution and doing drugs. The movie was about a cowboy or someone from the South coming to the city to rescue her. I think it was a Death Wish type movie.

Dan D.

UNK SEZ: Thanks Dan! I've got a hunch that the first flick you are looking for is 1943's I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (check out the trailer below). As for the second one…it's killing me! I feel like I have seen it before. Maybe I'm just mixing together WINGS HAUSER's western garb in VICE SQUAD (1982) with the brother/sister team that appears in STREETWALKIN' (1985) though. We're going to have to leave that one up to our knowledgable readers and I have a sinking feeling I'm going to be kicking myself when I hear the answer.

Hi,

My name is Becky and I was recommended to reach out to you folks with my search on an 80's horror film I can't track down info for. I must have been five or six at the time, and remember the trailer popping up on TV. It shows a woman lying on a bed, I think there are whispering voices in the dark, and a huge, hairy spider is very slowing coming down from the ceiling into her mouth!!! I was horrified and tried to cover my eyes, but I couldn't stop myself from watching. I never saw the film, still have no idea what it is, but the image of the woman's red lips opening and the spider about to go inside her mouth still creeps me out to this day!

Any info on this horror film would be greatly appreciated!

Thank again,

Becky M.

UNK SEZ: I'm pretty sure I've got your answer Becky! In fact, we've gotten a "Name That Trauma" on that very scene BEFORE. That's almost certainly WES CRAVEN's DEADLY BLESSING from 1981. Check out the trailer below….

Howdy! I'm trying to help out a friend here, who's desperate to track down the source of many a nightmare. It was seen on Canadian TV in the late 90s, so it could either be a movie or a TV show.

It involves a pair of twins, both dressed identical, who board an alien spaceship. Afterwards, the ship's door opens again and their eyes have been gouged out. She seems to recall they were being filmed by a TV crew, and perhaps they won the chance to go on the ship. She says that looking back, it may have been comedic in nature, but she's not entirely sure.

If anybody has any hints or leads, that would be amazing.

Thanks a bunch!

Kevin B

UNK SEZ: This NTT should come with a trigger warning because even though I do not know the answer to it, the mere mention of twins and a spaceship has unearthed a memory of a movie I have longed to forget. That movie is SLAPSTICK OF ANOTHER KIND and now because I am evil and because it is on YouTube, I shall subject you to it as well as I'm not one to suffer alone…. Forgive me….

I remember watching this film as a kid about 20 years ago. I was really into zombie films at the time so I went to Blockbuster with my mother and rented this movie.

I don't remember the title at all and what I remember of the movie may be slightly inaccurate. The movie was about a group of European girls (British or Irish) who were either zombies, vampires, or cannibals. They lived in an apartment where they kept dead bodies. I remember that they didn't start out as zombies or whatever but they slowly transformed over what seemed to be weeks/months. I clearly remember a scene where one of the females went into a bathroom and looked into a mirror and then started cutting her arms and wrists. The scene was very graphic and lasted awhile. I also remember a male detective trying to find where these girls are and he eventually stumbles across where they live.

Unfortunately that is all I remember. I have spent many hours trying to find the name of this movie. If you could help me that would be awesome.

I need confirmation of a little kid memory. There was a show I remember as "Monster Story" from the early '70s. The title is probably wrong because I have researched it and found nothing. Then again, it could have been a show that was cancelled quickly and I just happened to see it. I'm pretty sure it was an anthology show and probably not on NBC, since I remember it as another network's answer to "Night Gallery". That leaves CBS or ABC in prime time, around 1972 or 73, if I am at all correct.

I don't remember any details of episodes or even if there was more than one, but for some reason, a TV horror anthology called "Monster Story" sticks with me. Anyone?

— Raul F.

UNK SEZ: Thanks for writing in, Raul! If you switch out the word "Monster" with "Ghost" you'll end up with the excellent anthology show GHOST STORY which premiered in exactly 1972! After 13 episodes GHOST STORY changed its name to CIRCLE OF FEAR and lasted nine more episodes. I am happy to tell you that currently all of the episodes are available on YouTube and you can read about a few of my favorite episodes HERE. I hope I'm right, if not, the show is still very much worth checking out!