Category: Name That Trauma!

Hi there!

Loving your site, so many memories coming back! I'm thinking this may be the perfect place to ask about a book I remember reading. It was a book of short horror stories for children, paperback, I remember an illustration on the cover of a boy in bed with the sheets pulled up over him right up to under his eyes, and I think there were monsters or something at the foot of his bed. I feel like the color yellow played a part in the illustration, maybe wall color? It's been almost 20 years though so I could be wrong. I also feel like the book may have been written by a woman, again, could be wrong.

The story I remember the most vividly was a boy who went to a pizza place after school with his friends and missed the bus he was supposed to get on, so he got on a different, later bus. He ended up being the last person on the bus, and the bus driver turned out to be a vampire and tried to attack him, but was thwarted by the garlic on the boy's breath because he had ordered garlic on his pizza!

Another story I remember was a boy from an undisclosed Romanian-type country who was the new kid in class, and he was depressive and pale and smelled funny, and he turned out to be a vampire. I'm 90% sure these stories came from the same book. If I had to guess, I'd say the book would've probably been written in the late ‘80s or early ‘90s. I checked the book out many, many times from our elementary school library somewhere between 1992-1994 I'd say.

There was another book I used to check out all the time, had to have been written sometime in the ‘70s, which showed you how to create Halloween costumes and monster faces using Cray-Pas like makeup. I think that one was hardcover.

Any leads would be so appreciated!

UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Mad props and love to senski for getting the first book "Creature Feature" by Jim Razzi.

This one has puzzled experts for decades.

When I was a kid, I saw a cartoon about a taxidermist having a nightmare. He was put on trial and sang to a jury of animals. The taxidermist sang, "I ain't gonna stuff no more, no more, ain't gonna stuff no more."

And the all-animal jury replied,"He just says so, how do WE know he ain't gonna stuff no more?"

I suspect it was a Harvey Toon, since that's the package our local after-school show ran more often than not. But for decades I've been trying to see this cartoon about stuffed animals putting the man who stuffed them on trial.

Any help would be appreciated!

The film that I have never been able to identify is an old drive in classic from the KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE / LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT era. My pal Heidi's dad used to take us to all sorts of adult (not porn but way too scary) stuff as kids. The film was about a man in prison who made a deal with the voodoo inmate. He was a black man kind of like YAPHET KOTTO. Anyhoo, the spell was cast using a human liver. I did see most of the remaining film peeking through two fingers. It was definitely a ‘60/'70s grainy film set in a prison.

Anyone?

UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Props to Kahotep for solving it with PSYCHIC KILLER.

Hello KT,

I have three movies or shorts that scared the living daylights out of me as a child. Funnily enough I saw two of them at the same childhood friends house. I have the impression his parents didn't think we'd remember any of these movies, oh how wrong they were.

The first I am fairly certain was a black and white short film involving a kid riding his tricycle in an old man's cornfield and pumpkin patch. It seemed set in the fall season. The old man who owns the land seems to think there is an animal in his patch and decides to go out and shoot it. The child is accidentally killed. My memory is hazy of what happened next. All I remember is pumpkins and corn filled with blood. ‘70s I believe.

The second, and I believe this was a movie w/color, was a ship in space somewhere. At one point in the movie a man is out on a walkway on the spaceship keeping in contact with a control room. The men in the control room are apparently trying to track down a noise. The man on the walkway turns and says something like, "There's nothing out here." All of the sudden an alien/monster pounces on the man and rips apart his rib cage. ‘80s I think.

The third is a martial arts movie where the hero wields a chain with a blade on the end of it (or at least he is by the end of the movie). When he whips that thing around, gore follows. I couldn't tell how old this movie was; it was in color and could be from the ‘70s thru the ‘90s.

Does anyone recognize these films or shorts? I would love to watch these movies again as I am a pretty big horror film fanatic now.

Thanks Kindertrauma, great site!

Eric

Do any of these sound familiar?

1. Horror film from the ‘80s or possibly early ‘90s. Throughout the movie people are terrorized by a man with a huge drill on his head. I remember the last scene vividly. The main character thinks he has woken from the nightmare and it's all over, but he's still dreaming. He might wake again two more times? The room is full of neon blues and greens and all the walls are at odd angles, like in a fun house. The drill man rips through the floor at the end, laughing maniacally. That high-pitched drill sound! Yeeeaugh. The fright it still gives me!

2. This must have been an episode of TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE / OUTERLIMITS / CREEPSHOW or something from the late '80s/early '90s. Children are secretly communicating with aliens, plotting a parenticide. The adults are completely oblivious, because their plans look like play. Parents are murdered in the end. This chills my bones just thinking about it.

Your site is spectacular! I hope someone knows these…

Thanks a million,

Jamie

Dear Kindertrauma,

First of all, let me tell you guys you rock! Love the site! As an artist and designer I get a lot of inspiration from obscure movies and T.V. such as the ones you write about and your site always rocks some cool shit.

Second , I have kind of a kinder-trauma that I would love to hear if you could shed some light on. I'm Danish, so I have no idea whether this thing has been on American T.V. I'm sure it's not a Danish production, but maybe European.

I only remember it vaguely, but I believe it's a claymation short about an artist who paints the devil (maybe as part of a mural in a church), and then the devil comes to life and chases the artist!

I don't remember the ending, but it made quite an impression me – maybe, because as I said, I'm an artist myself.

All the best,

Lars K.

Hi there,

This may be a long shot but can anyone help me track down this film? I remember watching it when I still lived at home with the parents so it is definitely pre-1976. I can't remember how old I was, probably around 12 or 13 so could be about 1969 or ‘70.

Anyway, the one bit that I remember vividly is an oldish lady lying in a bed and this person goes into her room. They speak for a while then the lady says she will turn the light off or on, not really sure, but her arm just stretches out towards the light switch on the other side of the room and just keeps on going and going until her hand reaches the switch.

Now it doesn't sound so bad but when I watched it, I remember covering my eyes because it looked so creepy. Tame by today's standards but scared the hell out of me at my tender years.

Can anyone help?

Thanks,

Jeanette

I know there's only a slim chance that someone can help me with this one, but it's bugged me for years. When I was a kid I absolutely loved Halloween (still do). Because we lived in an apartment my parents would take my brother and I over to my grandparents' house to trick or treat. My uncle has also always loved Halloween, and all things morbid and creepy, so one year he brought home this book from the library to read to everyone. It was full of poems and stories that scared the crap out of me. Mostly they were about monsters eating children. I think one might have been about a Cyclops; one about a troll.

I remember the impact the book had on me, but I never found out what the name of it was, and I've asked my uncle, but it's been like 20 years and he can't remember. Like I said, I know there's an absolutely slim chance of finding out what book this was, but I'm fairly certain it was published in the ‘80s (or late ‘70s).

If anyone has any faint ideas I'd appreciate them. It'd be so awesome to find a copy of it, and see it again after all these years.

I have 3 that I'm trying to figure out the names of:

1. I think it was an episode of RAY BRADBURY THEATER. There was a man and a woman trying to scare each other. The man was lying on the bed, and nothing overtly scary happened, but the sounds were terrifying (fan, clock, etc.) It was all about the suspense

2. There was another T.V. episode (probably on USA SATURDAY NIGHTMARES as well) with a killer puppet. At one point it made a high pitched "whizz" noise like those little round noisemakers with the fans in them that you blow through

3. There was some (possibly British) movie with a creature living in the sewers that fed on spinal fluid.

Any of these ringing a bell with anyone?

I remember seeing a promo for what seemed to be a made-for-TV movie from the mid ‘70s. It was probably CBS or NBC. The plot involved an older couple who were caring for a grandchild or adopted child.

One of them (probably the man) was secretly poisoning the child, and the other one began to suspect. There was a particularly shocking shot of a woman, in an apartment at night, with her hair on fire. She was screaming, not trying to put it out, just screaming and burning. I remember scrambling to the T.V. to shut it off immediately. I was haunted for months. I never knew what movie or show it was.