kindertrauma

Category: Traumafessions

Traumafessions/Name That Trauma :: Reader Kirsty D. on Time Bandits, Lord of the Flies, Full Metal Jacket and an Alien Teen on a Tractor

Posted on By aunt john

I was thinking about movies that traumatized me as a kid all night, and couldn't sleep. So, the first movie I kept thinking about was TIME BANDITS. O.K., where do I start… There was the scene where the boy and the time bandits run into the ogre on the ship with his wife. If I remember correctly, the ogre ate feet for municipal purposes. I think there were feet hanging everywhere in the ship. Then there was the scene where the giant steps on a house with some family inside, with the adults arguing, wasn't sure if it was the ogre's house or not, but I heard what I think was a baby crying.

Then, there was the scene where DAVID RAPPAPORT "The Wizard" threatens to beat one of the other time bandits with a human skull and of course JOHN CLEESE the evil sorcerer turning one of the guys' upper halves into a pig, and causing a column to fall and kill one of the guys. He also turned a stupid guard of his into a sheep dog and later zapped and disintegrated him. He was really creepy too, blowing up like a pincushion and turning into a rock and blowing up by the weird guy who was supposed to be God.

At the end there's a piece of him in the microwave after the boy wakes up with the house burning down, and if I remember correctly, the boy tells his parents not to touch it and they both reached over to touch it anyway and disappear and die? Then at the very end, the boy's looking around looking around like "mom, dad," when suddenly joyful music plays and the credits roll. The disgusting scene where one of the little guys bites off a rat's head saying eat up because that's all they would have to eat, while hanging in the cage kept running through my head and I don't like it.

Well, as I was thinking about this, for some odd reason I began thinking about the ‘89 version of LORD OF THE FLIES. The kids eating raw pig and the boy getting speared, and poor Piggie! I think that the main 'protagonist' kid tried dissociating himself from Piggie to save his own skin. The scene where Piggie gets the rock pushed on his head while trying to reason with them was really disturbing. I saw bits and pieces of it on a cable channel, and that still disturbs me.

After that my mind wandered to FULL METAL JACKET, which I saw when I was 7. So that whole scene where the VINCENT D'ONOFRIO character has the gun in the toilets shooting the drill sergeant and himself disturbed me, especially since the sergeant's treatment of him was presented as comical before the soap beating scene, since the VINCENT D'ONOFRIO character was selfish. After that it went to that "I love you long time" scene in Vietnam and I was like "Is this the same movie?" I didn't watch the rest of it.

On another subject, there's this scene that I know existed, but nobody seems to know what it was from. There were these blond children, a teenage girl and some boy, and it involved Cyborgs or androids. I think some woman figured out that they were evil androids, or something to that effect, and the girl chases her out into a parking lot or barn. The boy gets into a tractor and runs his sister over. It was in black and white.

Thanks!

Traumafessions :: Reader Lynette F. on Tubular Bells & Talky Tina

Posted on By aunt john

I was watching DEEP RED (based on one of your recommendations) and Goblin's music reminded me of one of my kindertraumas. For some reason my older brother (by four years) listened to his Tubular Bells LP almost every night for what seemed like a year. So every night as I'm trying to fall asleep I have to hear THE EXORCIST soundtrack booming from under his bedroom door. Sweet dreams 10-yr-old!! By the way, that piece of vinyl is in my possession now so he can't terrorize anyone else with it.

I also remember that he did one thing nice for me (ONE). Growing up, I'd heard my family talking about how creepy THE TWILIGHT ZONE episode with "Talky Tina" was. It finally came on T.V. one night and I made it through maybe 5 minutes before I had to run to my room and try not to think my dolls were going to kill me. My brother felt bad for me so he came down to keep me company. Or, did he come down because he was also too scared to watch it? Hmmmm.

Lynette F.

Traumafessions :: Reader Jay R. on Rawhead Rex

Posted on By aunt john

RAWHEAD REX, terrible name and even worse movie. I've gotta say this movie terrified my brother and I when we were younger I will never forget it. The whole event happened when I was around 5 or 6; it was terrible.

It was definitely a week day afternoon because for some odd reason we had a fixation for the old school ADAM WEST BATMAN T.V. show (so young and naive and without good taste in programming) which was in syndication on one of the local CBS, NBC or ABC affiliates.

Anyway this was a particularly random and horrible time to play a movie such as this it was 3:30 in the afternoon and my parents were more than likely going over finances and doing grown up things, we were completely vulnerable to what would be one of the most terrifying things in my entire childhood.

We sat there as this simian/human/demon hybrid with a Mohawk and glowing red eyes tore onto the screen and decimated an entire community (including a hapless trailer park), killed children, tore off limbs urinated acid onto preachers… the list goes on and then just when you thought it was over RAWHEAD REX proceeded to resurrect himself at the end.

So what did I learn from this movie as a child??

The good gets peed on and in the end evil will ultimately triumph over good?

This was a terrifying experience and now I look back and see how hilarious the movie is and it gives me solace and even has a nostalgic sort of feeling to it. But I can tell you this as a child the thought of RAWHEAD REX kept me up many of nights for years.

Funny how what scares us as children eventually makes us laugh as adults.

Traumafessions :: Gregg Holtgrewe: Writer/Director of Dawning on The Exorcist

Posted on By unkle lancifer

""If your bed starts shaking, just come and get me as quickly as you can," those were the words my mother spoke after watching THE EXORCIST for the first time. Needless to say, I shared a bed with my sister that night so I wouldn't have to be alone. It was after that when the images started to come. Night after night I would try and fall asleep and I would see the images of Regan's face coming at me in a continual loop. My parents thought about taking me in to a psychologist for it but I figured I could fight through it by continually watching the film and facing the horror which is, THE EXORCIST, the single greatest horror film ever made.

As much as I tried I couldn't get the film out of my head as a youngster…I even went so far as to tear out the picture of Regan's head which was on the inside of early Fangoria covers and put it on my wall…but I think it only made things worse. What really got to me was the randomness of the event and the fact that there really didn't seem to be any logical explanation. Watching the mother go through the torment of trying to figure out what's wrong with her daughter was terrifying enough (especially watching her be put into the machine for catscans), but the things which happen to her in her room and the way it slowly builds is filmmaking at its best, in fact, I didn't learn to sleep with the lights off until I went to college and had a freshman roommate, I was 19. My dad would always come to the top of the stairs and tell me to turn my light off before going to be because of the electric bill but I would only turn it off for a moment and just as quickly get the lights back on, it was too much lying in the dark, in the basement, thinking about being possessed and trying to justify to God why I was a good kid and shouldn't be possessed by the Devil or whatever evil spirit it was.

The last few years of high-school saw the release of 'THE EXORCIST 3 and I bought the poster and hung it above my bed…maybe I was trying to torture myself, I'm not sure, but again, I think it just added to the tension which went along with sleeping each night. As I got older and would revisit the film, I started to notice what truly separated THE EXORCIST from almost all other horror movies…the drama. No other horror film before or since, in my opinion, has done such a remarkable job at exploring the depth of each character and their own personal demons. Once the '80s hit horror movies became a consistent barrage of chase scenes where paper-thin characters run around screaming and it means nothing to me. Granted, there might be some good moments but a great horror film should stick in the audiences brain and make them think and wonder and put them in a place which isn't safe…not just a series of "look, a monster, run" and then some arbitrary moment where they figure out how to kill the creature, it's ridiculous. The simple fact that horror films place characters in a situation where, more often than not the audience wants them to die, just leaves empty movie-goers and feeds into a society which already lacks compassion.

There is really nothing "safe" about THE EXORCIST – even when we know that it's a demon of some sort and she's possessed it still feels as if we're involved in a helpless situation where not only is there something "evil" happening, there is also a deterioration within the characters themselves and that hasn't really been done since. Hell, the film was nominated for Best Picture alongside a Bergman film, that's incredible to me and at the time, it was one of the biggest box-office successes of all-time…now it's just a big marketing gimmick to get people into the theater for the first weekend and after that it doesn't matter. I have a problem with that and THE EXORCIST is where I look for inspiration as a filmmaker, especially when it came to making DAWNING. Imagine if horror films could've kept developing after the 1970's instead of being sucked into the world of Reaganomics and the need for more and more wealth…a time in which horror and action films merged…we might have more horror films up for major awards and crossing the line between horror and drama. Horror movies are so safe now-a-days that I've actually been out of the horror loop for almost a decade if not more.

To me it comes down to one thing: "Horror can be dramatic and drama can be horrific" and THE EXORCIST is a shining example of this."

UNK SEZ: Thanks Gregg for the powerful traumafession! Folks, Gregg's film DAWNING has quite the buzz surrounding it, it's won multiple awards and you can check out the official website HERE. Those who've caught it are happy to sing its praises; check out these smitten reviews from our blogging brethren:

Traumafessions :: Elisabeth Fies: Writer, Producer & Director of The Commune on The Birds

Posted on By unkle lancifer

It's so hard for me pick just one movie that traumatized me as a kid! I was sooooo frightened of horror movies. One of the earliest ones that changed me was THE BIRDS. I never even saw the whole movie, but the eyeball-pecking scene was enough when I was six to make me so afraid of crows that I would no longer walk to my best friend's house alone. She lived only four houses away, but crows used to gather on the electric poles between us. So not only did I have nightmares and fears about Mr. HITCHCOCK's masterpiece, but I actually changed my life schedule around those fears…my parents would have to watch me walk me past the birds so I could play with my friend!

UNK SEZ: Thanks ELISABETH for the great traumafession! All of you horror fans out there are sure to be interested in ELISABETH's award winning film THE COMMUNE, it's been dubbed "true horror" by PRETTY SCARY. You can read much more about it on the official website HERE, and watch its snappy trailer below. (Notice that the peacock in the trailer is safely behind bars!)

Traumafessions :: Reader Greg V. on Homey the Clown

Posted on By aunt john

Hey Kindertrauma team–

I came across your website in a search for the Rag Man of the NUTCRACKER FANTASY movie, and I loved your reader's treatment of it. Thought I'd contribute a snippet:

As kids growing up on the North Side of Chicago in the early ‘90s, my friends and I were enthralled (that child's mix of abject terror and insatiable fascination) by stories of a child abductor dressed as Homey the Clown, DAMON WAYANS' character from IN LIVING COLOR. This was a bona fide news story on local Chicago networks, not just a product of our own twisted imaginations.

The guy apparently drove around in a van and attracted kids to the van, upon which he would abduct them and molest them. This was in the heyday of child abduction scares, STEPHEN KING's IT, and only a few decades after John Wayne Gacy in the Chicago area.

Anyway, Homey was reportedly at large in the neighborhood of my grammar school, and so for the better part of a school year (maybe third grade), whenever we'd see a yellow van (I think that was the alleged color of Homey's ride), we would all rush to the school fence, sometimes with rocks or baseball bats in hand, and start to yell, "Homey, it's Homey." Again, who knows the veracity or the extent of the original news item, but it certainly caught our imagination!

NOTE: Last Supper clown painting courtesy of HERE.

Traumafessions :: Reader Chuckles on "All About Ghosts"

Posted on By aunt john

it's all about ghosts

Chuckles here. I previously submitted a traumafession concerning my apocalyptic childhood viewing of the film THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD. However, reader Carly's post concerning a book called "Horrible Histories" dredged up another horror that I had nearly forgotten. The culprit this time was the slim, heavily illustrated "All About Ghosts", 1977, Maynard, Usborne Publishing. It was sort of a Time-Life book for kids about ghosts and hauntings and presented the topic in a very matter-of-fact fashion, noting the various phenomena associated with ghosts and documenting many ghostly tales.

This amusing and informative kids book scared the sh*t out of me. I really can't remember what it was that freaked me out so much – it must have been some of the illustrations. I also recall a spread showing a bunch of alleged ghost photos – I think that there was one of the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall in there. Here was photographic PROOF that ghosts existed!

In order to rid myself of the accursed book, I "loaned" it to a friend down the block and conveniently forgot to ask for it back. Years later, when I was in my teens, this neighbor moves away but before she does, she comes by and returns the book! Talk about a sense of accountability! I recall that she was a Mormon – are they really good about returning stuff? Anyhow, I immediately went through the book and I simply could not figure out what it was that I had found so terrifying – it all seemed very innocuous.

Anyone else remember this book? Anyone else up all night after reading it when you were a tot?

AUNT JOHN SEZ: For more amazing imagery from "All About Ghosts" be sure to check out our brother from another mother, Brother Bill at THE HAUNTED CLOSET! Now as for books that did an elementary school number on me, I was obsessed with Seymour Simon's "Ghosts," "The Thing at the Foot of the Bed," and anything by Daniel Cohen.

Traumafessions :: From The Makers of The Black Waters of Echo's Pond…

Posted on By unkle lancifer

UNK SEZ: Look kids! We've got some special traumafessions from the makers of THE BLACK WATERS OF ECHO'S POND which opens TODAY!

SEAN CLARK (Screenwriter, THE BLACK WATERS OF ECHO'S POND):

My first memory of seeing a horror film as a child was seeing JAWS in the theater when it came out. I was terrified and it ruined going to the beach for me for the rest of my life. When Ben Gardner's head popped out of the bottom of the boat I just about pissed myself! The next one was seeing ALIEN in the theater. I remember getting a stomach ache the next day and staring at my belly afraid an Alien was going to come ripping out of it. I was freaked out. Lastly I think the worst one was TRILOGY OF TERROR. I saw it on T.V. and when the segment played where the Zuni Fetish Doll comes to life and chases KAREN BLACK around her apartment I was in tears and screaming for my mom to turn it off. They wouldn't shut it off and I had nightmares for months. I was a huge KISS fan and had the Mego 12" Gene Simmons doll and it kind of reminded me of the Zuni Doll so I had my mom lock it up in a cupboard in the kitchen. I thought it would come to life and attack me.

GABRIEL BOLOGNA (Director, THE BLACK WATERS OF ECHO'S POND)

Hands down, the scariest film I saw as a kid, that still haunts me to this day, is THE EXORCIST. The total fright-experience in WILLIAM FRIEDKIN's chilling masterpiece still holds today, because he so brilliantly blurred the lines between make-believe and reality. Because of that film, I can't tell you how many times at bed time as a child, I had to check underneath the bed, under the furniture, check the closets, etc. Looking back, it seems almost comical that, out of all the places in the world, the devil would choose to lurk in my very bedroom — by the way, THE EXORCIST was on cable again a couple of months ago, and afterwards — I checked under my bed.

UNK SEZ:: Thanks guys for the stellar trauma-testimonials! All you traumatots out there, GO see this movie and support not only independent cinema but guys who are nice enough to supply traumafessions! THE BLACK WATERS OF ECHO'S POND stars the legendary Michael Myers foil DANIELLE HARRIS and JAMES DUVAL of DONNIE DARKO and (my favorite) MAY fame! Heck, you'll even get a nice dose of ROBERT PATRICK! So whatcha' waiting for? Go, check your local listings for a theater near you!

Traumafessions :: Reader Carly on Dr. Suess & Horrible Histories

Posted on By aunt john

I was quite a bookworm as a kid, so it's no surprise that a lot of my Kindertrauma came from books. There are three that come immediately to mind – Two of them were from Dr. Seuss books; one was a short story – I think it was in the same book as "The Sneetches" – that involved this pair of sentient green pants with nobody inside them that followed the narrator around, basically stalking him! I read that book in the dentist's office and it scared me for weeks afterward.

The other Dr. Seuss culprit was a single page in the middle of "There's a Wocket in My Pocket," which is basically a book that existed so Dr. Seuss could draw a bunch of fun creatures and name them, I think. Anyway, the page in question was a double-page spread that had this picture of just a giant lump under a rug in a darkened room, with the narrator peeking in very nervously. This was the Vug under the rug, and the worst part of this was that at that age, the usual response to being scared at night was to hide under the covers – but I wasn't safe there! The Vug hid under rugs; what if it was hiding under the blanket WITH ME?

As for the other thing that jumps immediately to mind – when I was in the first grade, my family lived in Wales for a couple of months. In the U.K. they have this series of kids' history books called "Horrible Histories" that basically give a bunch of weird and gruesome facts about different periods in history. I loved those books and devoured them; nothing in them fazed me in the least, except for this one ghost story.

It was a story about a guy who was staying as a guest in some palace, and he's told he's going to be put in the Brown Room. People apparently expect him to react to this, and he doesn't understand what all the fuss is about, until he sees a ghost. You know the drill. It was a really formulaic ghost story but supposedly true, and the illustration was really creepy to me at the time. (I can't find it anywhere online, but I still have the book.) I remember that night not being able to sleep, and not even being able to MOVE for fear the ghost would get me.

I foresee several more of these submissions in my future!

Carly

Traumafessions :: Kris of Coal Black Filly on "Where the Woodbine Twineth"

Posted on By aunt john

Obsessed with Kindertrauma – thank you for cataloging so many memories. Once upon a time I was starting to think I actually imagined that poltergeist episode of THE WALTONS!

Anyway, thought you might enjoy this one if you haven't posted about it already:

"Where the Woodbine Twineth" by Davis Grubb is one of my favorite stories of all time (originally titled "You Never Believe Me"). The HITCHCOCK episode haunted me for years since childhood and I could never locate a copy, until I eventually found a bootleg… but now it can be easily watched in full here.

Classic creepy doll story, complete with imaginary friends living like Mr. Peppercorn who live under the davenport.

-Kris

P.S.: I originally posted about this on my blog a while back, along with the text to the short story HERE.

UNK SEZ:: Kris, I have to thank you so much for bringing this episode of THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR to my attention, I watched it last night and was floored by it. It's really very creepy and the ending is a real haunting jaw-dropper. Thanks too for mentioning the DAVIS GRUBB short story "You Never Believe Me" on which it is based. It makes perfect sense to me that this tale came from the same mind who brought us the excellent THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER. I recommend that every one who has the time take a gander at "Where The Woodbine Twineth" on HULU below, as for me I got some reading to catch up on!