Category: Name That Trauma!

I was reading a post about the burnt Spider-Man, which reminded me of another movie around the same time that was very traumatic, to me at least, I was eight at the time. A man was married to a woman he believed to be a witch, or something along these lines, and he spends the movie trying to prove to others that she is, in fact a witch.

The scene that was so terrifying to my eight-year-old brain was the man walking into an upstairs room walking up on a rocking chair, in the same vein as PSYCHO, thinking he is approaching someone else, turning the chair and finding his witch/wife sitting there instead. He is startled to the point of backing himself out of a window and falling to his death.

Thirty years later and the images are fuzzy, but they gave me nightmares at the time. I thought ROBERT CONRAD played the unfortunate husband but a glance at IMDb didn't uncover anything.

— Josh D.

I think it was a made-for-T.V. movie back in the '80s. I only remember the opening and parts of the end, but not much in between.

It starts with a bunch of kids going up into an old bell tower. They form a circle around this girl with long, very straight, blonde hair, doing some sort of ceremony. The bell falls on top of the girl and I think it might have even bounced, for when it's removed, she's gone.

Disappeared.

(At least, I THINK there was a bell. It might have just been a great flash of golden light. But I'm 99.9% sure a big huge bell fell on her then maybe bounced away.)

Years pass, I forget entirely what happened in between, but eventually the kids, now adults, return to the bell tower and repeat what they did. I think, but I'm not sure, that the bell fell again. I do know that this time the missing girl's mom, now a grey haired old lady, is there, and the girl reappears, I'm pretty sure she was still the same age she was when she disappeared – or she might've grown up to her early 20s while gone, but I'm thinking the former. I remember her going to hug her mom. And – that's it. If they ever resolved how people were going to explain how she reappeared or any thing like that, I don't remember.

Heck, I don't even remember if the bell tower was supposed to be haunted or what have you. And for some reason, even though I remember a bell and a long climb up, the set reminded me more of a barn loft. Lots of room, sunlight, and unpainted wood.

UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Special thanks to Reader Robert S. for naming it with THE WATCHER IN THE WOODS!

Hi,

My sister and I have been searching for years for a movie or show we saw as kids. There were three parts to the film, each separate stories, but I really only recall one of them. It would have been on T.V. around 1990, I think on a main network.

The second story (which is the one I recall) was set in the early 1900s, I think. It begins with a boy, whose parents are circus performers. The mother is having an affair and the father catches her in bed with another man. He ends up stabbing her with a sword and the boy witnesses this.

The story then jumps to later in his life when he is an adult. He is a struggling artist. He becomes romantically involved with some woman and she tells him of a wax museum that will be opening and she offers to buy his childhood story from him to display there. They show him drawing up images of what happened while sitting at a desk with only candlelight. He cuts his hands on the blade he is using to sharpen his drawing utensil.

After they have created the wax sculptures of the death scene of his parents, the woman takes him to view the display prior to the opening. It is incredibly detailed with a statue of the child him standing mouth agape in terror. He and the woman begin to argue and he ends up accidentally stabbing her with the sword from the display. It ends with him standing by her body and the statue of himself as a child with the same terror struck expression.

Any help you can offer would be much appreciated!

Thanks,

— Susie

Hello,

Love the site. A good friend and I were reminiscing about scary movies that our teachers projected in class during the '70s & early '80s. The teacher would declare a certain day as a movie day and a student would be sent to the A/V room to return with a 16mm projector.

I remember being herded into the gym one day in the 70's and watching WINTER OF THE WITCH……not really scary but fun, and on another day seeing Disney's SKELETON DANCE on 16mm.

My friend has a memory of a short film about a family of settlers being haunted or threatened by something that lived in the woods at the edge of a field. Does that ring a bell for anyone?

Thanks for any help.

— GhostManor

I'm 90% sure my kindertrauma is from a television show. It may very well be GOOSEBUMPS or ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK?, but I've had no luck finding anything remotely close to what I'm looking for. Here's what I remember: There are two brothers (twins, I think) who turn into vampires on their 10th or 12th birthday or something, but they don't know it until the end of the day.

The day it's supposed to happen, we see the twins go about their daily lives. They wake up in their bunk beds, they eat breakfast, go to school, etc. I can't remember much except that the whole mis en scene of the show or film is very ‘50's/early ‘60s Americana. The twins' mom cooks a huge breakfast, she's wearing an apron and poofy dress, the whole 9 yards. I remember very pastel colors and the twins being creepily well behaved.

In the last scene, we see the twins get into their bunk beds, except the beds have been replaced with coffins as a birthday present. Mom and Dad stand in the doorway looking on as admiring vampire parents. Totally freaked me out!

Help! It's been bugging me for years!

—Robyn

… Apparently pediophobia means "fear of dolls," not fear of children. Although little children can be scary, too, especially when they have glowing yellow eyes, or dwell in the corn. But I digress.

This movie was probably made in the 1970s and has all but faded from my memory, except for the terrifying killer doll (pre-Chucky!) at its core. I think it was called "Lights Out: When Widows Weep," but "Lights Out" may have been a TWILIGHT ZONE-type T.V. show.

A woman somehow bought or was given a pair of old-fashioned, Victorian-style dolls, a man and a woman. Something happened to the male doll, and the female doll went on a killing spree. She somehow caused the woman's husband to die, then began haunting the woman.

I don't think we ever SAW the doll killing people. There would be a scene with someone putting the doll in the car and driving away, and next we would see twisted, smoking wreckage–but the doll would be there, mysteriously intact. Possibly even smiling.

The woman kept trying to get rid of the doll by throwing it in the river, etc., but it ALWAYS returned to her. At the end it killed her–perhaps in that car wreck.

I was REALLY young when I saw this, so I don't remember much of it beyond the killer doll element and the creepy way the doll kept coming back no matter how the woman tried to destroy it. What I do remember, vividly, is that shortly after I watched this movie (no doubt without parental supervision), a family friend sent me a package for Christmas … an old-fashioned, Victorian-style DOLL. I became terrified of this doll and insisted that my mom hide it in the closet. Then I'd be afraid to walk past that closet, lest it jump out at me. She offered to take it to work with her and give it away, but I refused, of course, knowing that if she drove off with it in her car, the car would immediately burst into flames. I'm not sure what eventually became of the Doll of Doom, but I've found dolls creepy and frightening ever since.

Does anyone remember this movie (or T.V. show) or know anything about it? I know I never saw it again (though once was clearly enough to traumatize me for life). It was NOT the KAREN BLACK movie about the African totem doll, but it may have been from around the same time.

Thanks,

— Kathryn K.

UNK SEZ:: Thanks Kathryn! I do not know the answer to this Name That Trauma! but if it involves killer dolls I'm dying to find out too. Hopefully your description will ring a bell with one of our readers. In the meantime allow me to cruelly leave you with a scene featuring a scary doll from VACACIONES DE TERROR (1989)…

OK, here's a kindertrauma that's a bit different than most. In the ‘80s there was a poster that I saw in a couple of Deck the Walls shops that freaked me the hell out. I believe the artwork was also showcased in Omni magazine (RIP) as well.

The painting was of a horned, green, lizard-like creature wearing a human mask and (if memory serves me right) reading a storybook to some unsuspecting children. It was painted in a hyper-real, neo-surrealistic style very close to Michael Parkes' style. In fact, it may be a Michael Parkes since many of his paintings were being sold as posters at that time. Unfortunately, after weeks of searching I've been unable to locate this masterpiece of lurking terror.

Anyone remember this painting/poster?

Thanks,

— bdwilcox

There's a movie I have been trying to find out what it is for probably 10 years now at least. I only remember one scene, as I was only 4 at the time so that would've been 1991/1992. It was in colour and I'm sure it was a movie and was on TV or video, so I believe it would've been from the '80s (I know, doesn't help.)

The scene I remember was I believe the beginning of the movie, a big mechanical device was in the middle of the floor in a large room, the device was a huge metal pillar leading up to the ceiling, at the top it had 'branches' (metal poles coming out toward the walls) which had humans hanging from the end of them on hooks, and if I remember correctly, the device was spinning the branches around the room.

A person fell from one of them and I remember it was a black guy; then the camera zoomed into him, and he was facing away from it. He turned his head to the camera and had a face with what you would imagine a demon looks like.

I have seen some gifs which I believe are from the movie, but cannot find them now, they are of demon-like creatures.

All I know is that a lot of people thought it was HELLRAISER, as the demons did look rather like cenobites to be honest, but I know for certain it wasn't any HELLRAISER as I am a big fan of HELLRAISER.

Please if anybody gets reminded of the intro or even just a random scene like this, help me out. I've been dying to know for years.

Thank you,

— Adie S.

I have been plucking interesting ideas for film nights from this sight for a while now, and I am pleased and frustrated to now seek its help. I'm dredging my memory to pluck more details about a movie from (I think) the '90s of which I only caught the beginning. In it, a man who looked slightly "off" goes to work in something like an old Fotomat kiosk in a parking lot. Later he comes home and takes off his hair (which had been a wig) to reveal that he is bald.

The only other thing I remember is he and a woman falling gleefully through a canopy over a four-poster bed. This opening hit me in a weird place years ago, and I was pulled away before I could find out any more about it, or see more of it. I've tried search engines and video sites, using every applicable keyword I can conjure, and have had no success in harvesting something that would put my mind at rest.

The memory is incredibly vivid, but I don't have enough of it to place it. Can you help?!

— Ploppa Smerph

UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Special thanks to Rockwater for naming it with WILDER NAPALM (1993).

Hi folks.

As with many "Name That Traumas," I don't remember a whole lot of the film that traumatized me but here it goes.

I would have seen this on U.K TV around 1987/88, and it definitely had a grainy, ‘70s look to it.

The scene that ran me out of the room was of a boy of around 13 going into a service station restroom. He enters the stall and a filthy hand reaches under the wall accompanied by a rough sounding voice (think, TOM WAITS at his gruffest) asking for some toilet paper. The boy is understandably reluctant but after a couple of requests he goes to hand some toilet paper to the filthy hand and is immediately grabbed and pulled under the wall.

I have been trying to figure out what this could've been for so long now and countless Internet searches have yielded nothing.

Hope somebody out there has some idea.

I would appreciate any suggestions as my memory is quite hazy and things may not have played out exactly like the scene described.

Thanks,

— Stevil 1981