Category: Name That Trauma!

Hello!

LOVE your site. I've got a NTT I'm hoping someone can help me with…

I remember seeing this on television when I was just a little kid. I was born in 1972, so this would probably have been in the late seventies, early eighties. If memory serves (no guarantee!) this felt more like a TV show than a film. Possibly even something from the U.K., since my parents watched a lot of PBS – particularly Masterpiece Theatre…

The setting, I think, is Victorian England. The bit I remember took place at night and I'm pretty sure I remember fog and gas lighting. There's this young man wearing a black cloak. He's going to visit someone.

Young man in the black cloak enters a house. He addresses an old man lying in bed (his father?) Clearly, the old man is in the last stages of sickness. He barely moves and his voice is weak… There may or may not be a third man in the room..

Suddenly, for some reason, the young man becomes alarmed. He reaches out and grabs the blanket covering the old man. Young man yanks off the blanket-

– and reveals that the old man's body has already decayed, leaving nothing but a skeleton covered in cobwebs!

Horrified, the young man bolts out of the house and into the night – pursued only by maniacal laughter…

Not too surprisingly, this memory scarred me for life. If anyone can offer me any clues as to what the hell this was, I'll be forever grateful.

Thanks!

— Kieran W.

Hello there. It's Josh K. here again. First off I wanted to thank Kindertrauma for posting my Freddy's Nightmares trauma a while back. It was great to hear what all of you had to say!

However, this time I am going to FINALLY put this "Name that Trauma" out there. I have debated doing this for a very long time now, thinking that no one out there would possibly get it if I couldn't through the Internet, but I'm really hoping you guys can help me figure this one out, so here goes:

This time I was at my other Grandparents' house (what is it with Grandparents and traumas? Lol). It was either the very late '80s or early '90s. My Dad and my Grandpa were watching some movie. As far as I can remember, there was this Japanese or Chinese emperor looking guy who apparently was evil. My mind wants to say that this took place during some grand ceremony like a wedding. Anyway, the good guy comes in with some sort of weapon and either hacks off the evil guy's finger or one of his huge nails ( I can't remember which). However, then the good guy does it a couple more times and the emperor keeps looking at his fingers/nails each time and screams. My Dad and Grandpa thought this was hysterical, and I do remember it being more funny than traumatic now that I think about it.. But the mysteriousness of it has haunted me throughout the years and I would love to finally put the mystery to rest.

I am REALLY hoping someone can help me shed some light on this for me.

Thanks.

— Josh K.

Dear Kindertrauma,

I have been searching far and wide (meaning the Internet) for this scary movie that I watched at a sleepover a long time ago. I must have been in fourth grade so it must have been around 2005. It's hard to explain it but I'll do my best.

Okay, so there are these three (or four?) girls, all friends, all with different fears. I know one of the girls has a fear of bugs and another has some fear of her skin peeling or something because there is this one scene where she's feeling her back and she turns around to look in the mirror and her skin is just peeling off. The other girl with the fear of bugs is in the bathroom and when she turns on the shower, bugs come crawling up from every drain (bathtub, sink, toilet). I feel like maybe these girls did something bitchy to have this happen to them but I'm not quite sure. I really really want to see this movie again but I can't find it anywhere, please help!!

Hi Kindertrauma!!

I'm writing you this email to ask your help. I've been looking for a movie for years now, and even if I can't erase some pictures from my head, its name is still unfoundable. I'll try to describe my memories for you. God knows.

I live in Belgium, and the movie – or feuilleton – had been broadcast when I was something like 7 or 8. (It means 20-25 years ago.) I may have seen it in a show like Disney Parade, on Sunday evening.

The story was really scary. It was about a little girl, whose mother was dead. Her uncle was very mad, maybe a wizard, and wanted something from her, but she didn't know exactly what. She always had a sort of teddy bear or blanket with her, she couldn't be separated from it.Once in her dreams, she saw her mother who told her what her uncle was looking for was hidden in the teddy bear. It was like a treasure.

Well, that's everything I remember.

Do you have an idea?

Thanks a lot for having read this.

My best regards,

— Marie-Pierre

In the early 1980s (need more specific? Let's say 1983-1987), my mom wanted to a see a movie for her birthday in November. She picked out what she thought was an indie film with a non-scary plot; I was 5-6 and would be tagging along. About half-way through the movie, the main character wakes up in the middle of having open-heart surgery. There's a curtain hanging between his head and chest, and there's no one in the stark white operating room. He pulls the curtain apart to see his chest cavity is split open. All of a sudden, millions of cockroaches come pouring out of his chest, spilling all over the floor. At that point, my dad swooped me up and quickly removed me from the theater. I think I remember seeing SNOW WHITE posters in the lobby and I see that it was re-released in 1983 and 1987.

I know that's not a lot to go on, but won't someone please help me out?

— Allison

Hello all!

First of all, a big shout-out to the readers for helping me solve my last Name That Trauma about artist Laurie Lipton that I posted back in October.

My next query is also art-related. When I was around 9 years old (circa 1981), my family and I visited my 'hipster' uncle's house. He was always very avant-garde and into all sorts of art, music, and film. During our visit there, I came across a coffee-table book he had that was about a group of humanoid characters that were like colors personified. There was a yellow man, a red man, but the one that stuck out in my mind was an indigo man, mainly because I had never heard that word before. I don't remember much about the theme or the story of the book, but the paintings/drawings had such a surreal quality that they stick in my mind to this day.

I'd love to find out what the book was and the name of the artist, anybody? Bueller? Beuller?

—MD2112

Hi hi! I first wrote to the Kindertrauma site in 2010 about "Night of the Lepus" and other films. (HERE)

I am writing again now for I recall someone, around that same time, trying to find out the name of a children's monster book that featured tons of worried monsters who all lived on the same street and were suspicious of their new neighbors who had just moved in…At the time I remembered having the book but it was on the other side of the country in storage at my parent's house so I couldn't remember the name of it or anything specific!

I am not sure if it has since been identified by others on the site, but…In case it hasn't I have just posted about it on my blog for I finally went back home and found it. The book is called 'Guess Who's Just Moved in Next Door?' It's by Colin McNaughton and it features tons of great monster drawings.

I devoted two blog posts to it HERE and HERE!

I hope this helps!

-CAP

UNK SEZ: Thanks very much Charles! That Name That Trauma from reader Kathryn (HERE) was never solved! Nice of you to remember!

UNK SEZ: Nathan W. was kind enough to solve a Name That Trauma and now he has one of his own!

I remembered seeing it on the ABC Afterschool Special (I think…). All I remember is a boy is running down a boat dock being chased by an animated weird bat. The boy trips and tries to fight it off. I'm sorry if it is too vague but that is all I remember…