Over the years with the help of Internet, etc., I've been able to track down early memories of movies. But there are three instances that I can't figure out.
1. My earliest memory of watching a movie at the drive in was at age 5, seeing the TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE; it was a double feature with BIG BAD MAMA. Sometime around the same time, 1974, I remember seeing a movie that showed a cliff with dolls or dolls' heads being thrown over it. Also in the same movie I remember a killer lurking outside of a house that had several women inside lounging. The biggest impression was the dolls heads going over the cliff. I have yet to figure out what movie this is.
2. My other memory could be a T.V. movie, so bear with me. It had scenes of a man digging in the yard during a thunderstorm or he was making a woman dig in the yard. The other scene I remember from the same movie had the woman in an upstairs room or attic and it's dark and she runs into, or was scared of, one of those half mannequins used to tailor dresses.
3. And now the third movie I believe I saw late one night on T.V. It had to do with a girls school and the head mother was keeping her dead son in the attic and she was killing the girls or trying to make one of them her dead son's girlfriend. It wasn't set in the ‘80s or even the ‘70s; it felt older than that.
Any help on these would be greatly appreciated…
Thank you.
Curtis D.
UNK SEZ:: Curtis, the first two you mentioned have me stumped but I think I may know the third. It sounds a lot like 1969's THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED (A.K.A. LA RESIDENCIA) a great movie that used to be shown on ELVIRA's MOVIE MACABRE (You can actually watch it on HULU HERE.) Let us know if that's the one!
Could the first one be Mario Bava's 5 DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON?
The 2nd one sounds like it might be Tourist Trap.
The House That Screamed was indeed the movie that I've been looking for. Like a puzzle the scenes and my memory came together. Thank you so so much for that one.
Sorry guys Tourist Trap and 5 Dolls didn't do it.
A friend of mine said Torso may be the first one, so I plan on checking that one out soon.
If anyone else has any suggestions please post them, I welcome any clues.
Curtis D.
Hey, Curtis –
"Torso" got a very wide release on the drive-in circuit back in its day. I remember the killer referring to his victims as his "dolls," and dismembering them accordingly. Your friend might very well have it.
Five years old when you saw these — you must have had a pretty strong constitution for someone so young…
Hey Senski,
I have to say it was the only good thing my father did for me. Taking me to see these movies. I turned out pretty good. I've been an avid lover of horror movies every since. As I'm getting older, I'm trying to hang on to every memory from my childhood dealing with drive-ins and scaries. That is one of the reasons I love this site.
First thing that occurred to me reading #2 (man digging a hole during a thunderstorm) was "The Devil's Gift," which was diced up and inserted into "Merlin's Shop Of Mystical Wonders," which was subsequently riffed without mercy on MST3K and is on one of the DVD sets. Cymbal-clashing toy monkey ring any bells?
Hey Grokenstein,
I checked out The Devil's Gift, but unfortunately it wasn't the one.
Thanks for the suggestion.
CD
I think the second movie may be Hatchet for a Honeymoon, which starred Stephen Forsythe. John keeps marrying girls but he skills them on their wedding night, which keeps his business going as well – he's a wedding dress designer – but he has some sort of repressed memory about his mother that make him do this. There's a scene where the newest wife is scared by all the mannequins wearing the previous wives' dresses.
Well, hell, this movie could be Bluebeard with Richard Burton. It follows the Bluebeard story with his 8th or 9th wife stumbling into the forbidden room which is filled with the dead previous wives, all of whom have a very mannequin like appearance.Â
Well, that wasn't much help. Lots of movies out there with chicks getting scared by mannequins. Sorry about that.