Name That Trauma:: Derek B. on a Slow Motion Bully Stabbing

Hola, you are brilliant. I love your site.

Here's one that hit me pretty hard as a kid. It was on network television after Saturday Morning Cartoons had run their course. Time period was early eighties. It was live-action, a kind of after-school-special feel to it. It was about bullying, or about bad kids. I remember a warning about "This program contains content that may upset younger viewers." Ha! I can take it!

The music is hyper-dramatic, almost like the theme to "The Black Hole." One smaller boy is attacked by a larger one. The attack is very slow. The smaller boy, in glasses, is backed against a brick wall. The bigger one pulls a knife on him.

The knife goes into the smaller boy's belly. The mean kid cuts neatly from one side to the other, and we see blood. He leaves. The younger boy, again with slow, slow reactions (he didn't defend himself) slowly collapses against the wall. The camera zooms on his agonized face. The end.

None of this looked real, of course. But when has that ever made a difference? When I was a kid, this made me feel like I was going to vomit. I was small and wore glasses. Sucks.

UNK SEZ: Thanks Derek! I so wish I knew the answer to this one ! That way I could repay you for bringing up the theme to THE BLACK HOLE! It's so swirly and hypnotic and frequently stuck in my head!