Category: Name That Trauma!

Hey friends…

Time to turn to the collective hive-mind that is the Kindertrauma fanbase to see who can track down a couple more PSA's that have stayed with me over the years, and I've love to see them again. Since the Monkey From Hell was unearthed, let's see if they can make it a hat trick…

1) This PSA aired during the late '60s-early '70s, and I recall it receiving a lot of play on sleepy Sunday mornings. It was a full minute in length, unfolding almost like a short film. Four teens carjack (?) a vehicle and go out for a raucous joyride. The accident that follows is swift and savage, with the car flying through the air to collapse in a heap. I remember the screams; the teens yelling for their lives, a cut to the car in midair, then back to the screaming kids, then the awful silence after the crash, implying that all had been killed. I don't recall if it was a message for seat belts, against unlicensed driving or carjacking; heck, it might have been a drunk driving spot. But after 40+ years, I still can hear those screams.

2) The second PSA I only saw once, but it left an indelible impression. This would be late '70s-early '80s, and it aired on CBS right before the 10pm news. It was all of ten or 15 seconds in length. Sunny day, camera in the trees, beginning a slow pan down and to the right. A radio announcer is carrying on about what a gorgeous day it is, ending with something along the lines of, "…so get outside and take a dip in that pool!" By then the camera has descended upon a swimming pool, with a long shot of a body lying face down in the water, motionless, presumably dead. The Voice of Doom then warns the audience about swimming alone or unattended. It was chilling to see a PSA with an actual body. I often wonder if it aired so infrequently because of viewer calls. It was as late as late could be and still fall within prime time.

So there you have it; hope someone can unearth this pair of portentous PSA's!

Mega-love,

Steve Senski

UNK SEZ:: Thanks Senski! Here's hoping we can track these down! Kids, make sure you stop by Senski's awesome joint HEART IN A JAR and soon!

Good morning!

I was wondering if you know the title of a horror movie in the 1980s?

Description: There were a couple student classmates that were in love, but there is a problem. An evil woman that was obsessed with him, but he doesn't love her, so, the evil woman took in revenge against the girl — killing her, stabbing a knife in her back in the car in front of her boyfriend.

There are more details about that movie. The town was under a curse because the people became greenish skin. The boy cursed her before her girlfriend had died. I remember when he said, "Damn you are!! Damn you are!!" Finally, she laughed with an evil laughing like this "Hahaahhaahah-haahhaahhahaha!!!!!!!!" and then he said, "Oh God someone help me."

Do you remember that movie? Yes/No?

Please tell me the title of that horror movie.

Also I am not sure but the evil woman was so cute; Caucasian, she had a long black hair, and she dressed in black.

Thanks again,

— Rodrigo T.

Well, I'm not quite sure how I should introduce this, besides stating that I saw it as a child and it has since led to some pretty damn severe claustrophobia, and an intense distrust of disappearing acts…

I can't remember what the show was called, but I'm PRETTY sure it was one of those procedural cop shows (I wanna say BLUE HEELERS, but I've read the episode synopsis for every one, and I haven't found anything that caught my eye as being similar. So basically at the beginning of the show there's the "setup" for the investigation. In this case it was a magic show. Some man is called up and is put into a magic box, subsequently disappears and is never seen again, until the next morning where some kids throw a block of cement into a sewer drain and a waterlogged corpse is revealed to the camera. Turns out apparently the guy took a wrong turn in some sewer tunnels and got lost, got washed into the waters and drowned. That's all I know, hopefully it'll be enough to give someone a flashback and reveal what this gorram show is that's given me a lifelong fear!

— Luke McG.

My last three submissions for Name that Trauma were answered quickly and my sanity was saved but now I have found another movie I'm going slightly mad over…

Relatively recent film, last 10 years I think but could be wrong and I seem to remember I watched it with subtitles so I'm gonna have to guess it was a non-English, European import. Film opens on the exposition for the plot and is set in the last days of WWII soldiers, (German maybe?), come across an abandoned cabin and set up camp for the night. After exploring they find a dead body in the very locked basement and start screwing around with it. Turns out the dead body isn't really "dead" dead and proceeds to eat everybody except one soldier who happens to be a doctor and manages to get the undead back into a box and trapped again in the basement. He will be an important character in the rest of the movie that is set in modern day when a group of friends stumble across the same cabin. That pretty much is all I remember, I do know it is not DEAD SNOW for I am watching that right now and that is what reminded me of this.

Help me Kindertrauma, you're my only hope and thanks in advance.

— M.Nelson

Evansville, IN

I have a vague memory of a movie I saw as a child that has stuck with me all my life. Someone was taking a shower when the water suddenly turned red. This person jumped out of the shower, unscrewed the shower head and found a note inside. The note stated something like, "This is dye, next time it will be acid."

That's literally all I remember and I can't be sure how accurate my recollection is. I saw many films as a child that I was probably too young to see, I think my parents preferred to sneak me into the drive-in rather than pay a babysitter. If this was a film I saw during that time period it would have been somewhere in the mid to late '70s. This has been bugging me for years, so any help would be appreciated. Love the site.

Hey Kindertrauma,
I remember seeing a trailer in the late 90s, perhaps 1999, or early 2000s, in a Pay-Per-View channel back in the day. It used to play constantly, almost every 5 minutes or so. The trailer showed shots of a house, a woman screaming, perhaps a shot of a knife. All I can remember is that it ended with a house darkening its lights and then the title. Somehow I thought it was the Psycho remake, but it's only because the word "psycho" was somehow engrained into my memory of this trailer. I know it's not much to go on, but it's something that's been bugging me, cause it's one of the only things in my childhood that scared me a bit.

I have a memory of a movie that, I have to admit, I'm not even sure if it is a scary movie or not, because I didn't see the actual movie. But it was striking and has stuck with me. I figured some of your readers who have seen so many horror movies can help me out on this one, if it exists. It was either the beginning or end of the movie, when they show "starring" etc., but I do believe it was the beginning.

Probably an '80s or '90s movie. They showed a close up/ pan of a painting/art work that was rather "folksy" in nature, I remember a lot of haystacks and perhaps Halloween themed houses/children. And then there was the music, I think it was "I'm Your Boogie Man" by Kc and the Sunshine Band. Or maybe some other song by them. Then the movie started and I had to go. The art work creeped me, especially with the disco song with it, I thought what is coming next? I have looked up the obvious Boogie Man movies on YouTube that I could find, but no luck with that. Can anyone end this mystery for me? Was it all a dream brought on by copious amounts of candy, bringing back memories of Fall, Halloween, and my brother's hatred of Disco… Disco Sucks!

— Janet H.

UNK SEZ: Janet, I'm happy to tell you that the fates have sent you to the correct place! I know that movie well, it's a pet fave that I've seen several times. That is the opening credit sequence to THE LAST SUPPER, a black comedy from 1995 about a group of liberals who decide murder might not be so bad provided you select the right victim. I too was very struck by those paintings, I think they're beautiful and unlike your brother, I even like the disco music! Check out the beginning of the YouTube clip below and thanks for the spot on description!

I am trying to find the title to a fire safety film that was filmed in the late 1960s, and I saw it in 1976. It shows an entire family of four being killed in a house fire, with only the dog surviving.

Do you know the name of this film? I think it is a good film to really drive home the importance of smoke detectors.

Best Regards,

Tom P.

UNK SEZ: Thanks Tom! I could not find your fire safety film myself but I did stumble across this PSA starring the great VINCENT PRICE! I'm surprised we've never gotten a traumafession for this one so I'm posting it here while we search for your NTT!

Hello,

Thank you so much for your awesome website. It is such a brilliant idea and endlessly entertaining. I helped name a trauma (Celia: Child of Terror) and someone else's submission helped me find one of my own traumas that I've been searching for (the Living Dolls short from USA Saturday Nightmares). I've also found out about so many great movies from the kindertrauma community that not even my endless perusals of the Psychotronic Video guides could help me come up with.

Well it's time I submitted my trauma and hope somebody knows what the heck I'm talking about. I so hope to finally find this movie that has been gnawing at the edge of my subconscious for almost 20 years now. I saw probably the first half at a slumber party when I was about 9 or 10. This would have been the early '90s but the movie looked older, possibly late seventies/early '80s. It was in color and I believe it was rated R. I used the rating as my excuse for why I ran out of the room when I got scared. I told the other girls I wasn't allowed to watch R-rated movies and I didn't want to get in trouble.

As far as the plot goes, I believe it was about a family of four (mom, dad, two boys) and one of the children was evil. I only remember two scenes. One was a car driving down a dusty road. I know that is not very descriptive but it sticks out in my mind for some reason. I want to say that scene was followed by a crash but I can't be sure. The other scene I remember was of the family eating dinner. The evil brother somehow made it so the family's food was covered in maggots or mold or something else gross. The non-evil brother was telling the evil one to stop and the parents seemed to be less freaked out than they should have been. That's it. Thats all I remember. I hope someone can help. Also, I know it sounds a lot like Cathy's Curse, with the car crash and the kid making the food gross but it definitely wasn't. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. I hope it makes it to the site.

Thank you,

— Elizabeth M.

UNK SEZ: Thanks Elizabeth! I'm afraid I don't know the answer to this but I bet one of our savvy readers does! It's funny that you should send this Name That Trauma in now as I have been recently semi-obsessed with the rotting food trope! It started when I was watching GRAVE ENCOUNTERS in which there is a scene that involves a container of food supplies which is suddenly found rotting and filled with worms. It instantly reminded me of CATHY'S CURSE and I thought maybe I should compile a list of horror movies that involve rotting food. I did not get very far, so I'm going to put this out to Kindertrauma readers; even if you don't know the answer to Elizabeth's query can you name some more movies that have a rotting food scene in them?

Here's what I got so far…

CATHY'S CURSE (1977)

POLTERGEIST (1982)

THE CURSE (1987)

THE LOST BOYS

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 5: THE DREAM CHILD

GRAVE ENCOUNTERS (2011)

Greetings fellow Traumatized Tots!

I'm going to start this off in pretty much the same way others have, by gushing over this amazing, informative, and truely entertaining site. It really helps to know that I'm not the only one who suffered through childhood (misery loves company and all that Jazz). While browsing through the numerous Name That Trauma!s I was reminded of a particularly nasty memory of what I'm pretty sure was some kind of freaky short film on TV. It was the 80's. Of this I am positive.

The plot involved a guy who intended on creating a girlfriend for himself with some kind of weird chemical (I think it was pink colored, but that's not important). Anyway, he was flipping through some swimsuit magazines and picked a girl he liked and then dropped the weird goo on the girl's image. Poof! She comes to life! Only there was one problem… her lower half was still stuck in the magazine. I could actually feel the color drain from my face as this creepy half-girl started reaching for the guy and begging him to kiss her. Then she melted or something. The guy made a second attempt and poured the girlfriend formula over another sexy chick and Poof! Another horrible disaster. This second girlfriend was GIGANTIC and took up the entire room! Once again she begged him to kiss her and in my little child brain I just knew that if he tried she would suck him into her jumbo lips like a piece of gum and start chewing. Then she melted too.

Thank God! But this guy clearly didn't learn his lesson and tries a third time. Poof! Experimental Girlfriend #3 arrives. She was beautiful with a perfect body and long, lucious hair. I wanted to look like her when I grew up… until she moved the hair out of face… which looked like chewed up roadkill. I was rooted to the chair with terror! This reject from a Tales From the Crypt comic didn't beg to be kissed like the others but demanded it and even started choking the poor guy! But mercifully she melts away, too. I just knew that this would be his last attempt to make a girlfriend. I was wrong. A fourth attempt was made. This one… turned out just fine. The only problem was she kissed a different guy and left the building with him instead of the poor mad (stupid) scientist. Oh well. At least he didn't get eaten.

What happened toward the end is kinda fuzzy but I seem to remember the girl-making goo falling on a picture of some weird… cartoon vegetable creature… I have no idea. By that time I started to wander off to check under the beds for giants, mutilated half-torsos, and hideous faced monsters that would kill you if you didn't kiss their slimy, dripping lips.

Please help me find this weird little TV nightmare so that I can finally face my demons!

– The Youngest Hewitt