Category: Traumafessions

I love your site!

It brought back a flood of scary T.V./movie memories, particularly that my sister and I were obsessed with watching ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS on Sunday nights in the mid-‘80s, followed (or preceded) by STEVEN SPIELBERG's AMAZING STORIES which were often VERY disturbing and kept us up at night.

There was one ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS called "Final Escape" that still creeps us out to this day. It was about a rich, mean woman who gets sent to jail and where she strikes a deal with the elderly prison coroner. She promises to pay for his expensive eye surgery (I think) if he buries her with the next inmate who dies and then comes back to dig her up. They agree that the next time the death bell tolls she will climb into the casket and wait for him to come and get her after the burial.

Before long, the bell tolls, she sneaks into the morgue area and gets into the casket and gets buried in the prison graveyard. She waits and waits and waits, but the prison coroner doesn't come. After a while, she lights a match and finds herself lying next to the DEAD coroner!!!! Zoom out to hearing screams coming from the ground.

Shivers!!!

Does anyone else remember this series/episode?

Keep up the good work!!

D.

AUNT JOHN SEZ: Thanks D. for the sweet traumafession! While I don't recall that particular episode, I did manage to locate a clip from the '60s ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR on which the plot of the '80s re-hash is based:

Hi, as I'm sure you've heard before, your website is fantastic. Lots of fun for the horror lover. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone has mentioned DUMBO as a traumafession. Though I visit regularly, I'm sure I could've missed it.

For me, DUMBO (like many a Disney film) was quite upsetting. I was very little of course when I first saw it and even with its scary moments, I liked it and watched it a lot but that didn't mean I walked away psychologically unscathed. From the time poor Mrs. Jumbo had to watch all the other mother's get their babies while she stood all by herself, hopes rising and falling like the ridiculous temperature out here in Northern Cali, to those snooty, gossipy, elephant companions they were forced to bunk with, all the way to the near end, when the feather slipped out of DUMBO's grasp and he nearly died painted up as a clown, I couldn't help pondering why all of this was happening.

It was all so unjustified, especially when that horrid kid teased little baby DUMBO and got a well deserved spanking from Mrs. Jumbo, only for her to end up in jail (I guess Disney, like local law enforcement, don't sit well with spankin's ) I mean it was so sad and depressing.

Of course, no mention of the film DUMBO can go without the discussion of the 'Pink Elephant' sequence. Though it was horrifying, I thought it was pretty cool, just like Asian Horror is today! But my friends sure didn't think so. A couple had to leave the room when it came on and one's own mother forbid them to watch that part, she always fast forwarded it while telling us to close our eyes. I didn't blame them. The parts where the elephant is made up of heads and the high pitched voices are singing, is completely and understandably frightening.

As I've said, it was the emotional turmoil that got to me…that and DUMBO as a clown, I swear that image just won't go away! Oh well, I've come to realize that it's really not so bad being traumatized, slightly enjoyable even.

That's all for me, thanks for reading!

Luv,

Nita

I ran across your site after looking for info on the scary preacher Kane from POLTERGEIST 2. I am now in the midst of a full-fledged reading of everyone's confessions! Fantastic stuff!

I have some rather run-of-the-mill scary memories from childhood. Mostly ones already covered here, like Freddy, PET SEMATARY, and IT. But I also have a huge hang-up on a totally unscary movie actually made for kids.

To this day I cannot stand to listen to, or see scenes from the SCOTT BAIO/JODIE FOSTER 1976 epic musical BUGSY MALONE. The one about kid gangsters where everyone throws cream pies at each other instead of using guns. But herein lies the rub- some maniacal producer thought it would up the camp factor by making all the kids voices dubbed with disembodied adult singing voices- just for the songs. For the regular dialogue you have the pleasure of hearing JODIE and SCOTT use pseudo gangster accents. I don't like the whole sketchy 1970s feel of the movie, even hearing clips of the songs makes my stomach turn. The way the adult voices are dubbed onto kid bodies creeps me out. Disembodied voices in general are scary I think, but something about that movie just makes my skin crawl and an icky feeling go up my scalp. I am also hunching my shoulders and making a face like I sucked a lemon just recalling details of this "harmless" movie.

I have even heard that there is a children's musical theater version based on the movie, and I can't imagine why anyone would want to participate in something like that. Here is a youtube clip of the final song.

As an accompaniment to that, I also cannot listen to Shirley & Lee's version of "Let the Good Times Roll" on the STAND BY ME soundtrack. I almost wore out the tape as a kid, but I was ALWAYS fast forward through that song. The lady's voice is disturbing and scares the beejeezus out of me. Almost like a disturbed munchkin.

A final traumafession is the scene in GHOST where VINCENT SCHIAVELLI is playing a ghost who comes tearing through a subway car to scream at PATRICK SWAYZE, "GET OFF MY TRAIN!" I saw GHOST in the theater in 1990 as 12 year old and hated the movie for a long time because of that scene. The actor is, in general, a super creepy guy.

Ick.

Thank you!

Anne

Wow, your site is awesome!

It makes me think of this T.V. movie that I saw as a kid. Oh, it gave me such chills and stuck with me at night. I'm not even sure the whole thing was scary, but here are the specific scary/disturbing/traumatic details I remember.

I think DENNIS WEAVER was the father. There were two daughters and the family was driving in the car. One girl tied the other girl's shoelaces to the emergency brake or something while she was asleep, then the car crashed and caught on fire.

Because the girl was young and her shoelaces were tied tight she couldn't escape and she burned to death. I'm pretty sure the rest of the movie was creepy, too.

Have you talked about this movie on your site?

Ben

UNK SEZ: Ben, you are undoubtedly speaking of one of the best television films of all time, 1982's DON'T GO TO SLEEP! It starred VALERIE HARPER, RUTH GORDON, OLIVER ROBINS (of POLTERGEIST fame) and as you mentioned, DENNIS WEAVER. Many people seem to have been effected by this movie, particularly its over the top creepy final moments. DON'T GO TO SLEEP is not currently available on DVD but considering the recent releases of other notorious television horror flicks, it may just be a matter of time until it is (fingers crossed).

Here's another one. The movie THE CRAFT by ANDREW FLEMING (1996) is a very good one, but for me one scene in particular stands out; the one with the "lose-your-hair curse" that Sarah sends to Laura. It always gave me the creeps whenin the pool she's starting losing hair… aarghhh!

Bye,

Riccardo

I have searched for this for years, and have found nothing…but I remember in great detail a song on SESAME STREET (this would have been 1980 or before) called "Surprise!" It involved various scenes and cast members from the show doing silly things that involved an element of surprise. Then at some point in the song, someone knocks on Oscar's trashcan and Maria pops up in a red devil suit and with a deep scary voice proclaims, "Oscar isn't here!!"

This scared the piss out of me as a kid and I would like to see if it still does, but I find absolutely no reference to this scene and no one who remembers it…I know I am sane, but I would love to see this again or at least hear from someone who remembers it.

Thanks,

Stephen

UNK SEZ: No luck finding that "Maria as Satan" clip Stephen, but I did find this old clip of Oscar which reveals him to be a natural ginger! He's even singing my theme song "I love trash!"