I absolutely love KINDERTRAUMA! Not only is it intelligent, a feast for the eyes and a nostalgic's dream – it is also oodles of fun! Your Sunday Streaming and review archives always turn me on to new flicks that I love! I've never followed one of your recommendations and been disappointed – thank you for that!
I'm hoping there is something else I can be thanking you for – helping me track down a trauma! I've noticed that you've helped some people locate books that left impressions on them in the past and perhaps you could do the same for me? I don't really remember what the tale I'm looking for was about, except for it involving a creepy older neighbor man who lives alone and who carves a lot of pumpkins and the story's heroine becomes convinced is the serial killer terrorizing her town (although in the end, I believe, he turned out to be quite the opposite and saved her life from the actual murderer).
It has been years and the details of the book are a little hazy so some of that may be off. But it was the book's cover that really freaked me out. This would have been in the early '90s and the artist did a bang up job for sure. It featured a dark haired girl glimpsed through a window (I think a bedroom window, she may have been peering into it) with a look of shock on her face – maybe because of what she is seeing in the bedroom or maybe because on the porch surrounding her are tons of spooky, glowing pumpkins. This one was probably meant for pre-teens and middleschoolers.
I'm still not sure why it freaked me out so much, as I love all things Halloween – perhaps some of the pumpkins had sinister faces – but I know that it gave me nightmares and I was terrified after waking from them that I'd look at my bedroom window and see an evil glowing Jack o' Lantern or a diabolical hairy handed killer looking right back at me!
Thanks for taking the time to read this, and for any help you can provide! I certainly do appreciate it!
— Jordan
I hope someone can find this one. I'd really like to see the cover.
Today's images come courtesy of "PUMPKIN" (2002) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0265591/
Wha? That movies is over 10 years old already!!!???
PUMPKIN was on MGMHD late last night and can you believe I took these snapshots with my phone??? True.
And can you believe both Melissa McCarthy and Amy Adams were in that movie? That is true too.
"I don't understand why we can't go to the beach and have a good time without all this hysteria!" I thought I was the only person who appreciated Pumpkin! It is sad that the filmmakers never followed up with anything else. I wonder what they're doing these days?
I remember the book Jordan is describing but of course I have no idea what it is called. Lottie_of_Millhaven? She usually knows the answer to these.
Kirbyreedloveshorror,
1. Great name!
2. PUMPKIN really is good! You can always count on Ricci to at least try to do interesting projects!
Oh, thank you!
I still yearn for the version of Ghost World that had Christina starring as Enid (even though I love what Thora Birch did with the role).
I think I found the book in question. Mystery on October Road by Alison Cragin Herzig and Jane Lawrence Mali. The plot definitely bears some similarities to what Jordan described although the cover is a bit different from how he remembered it if this is the same book. There actually appear to be two different covers, both involving windows and peering, with one featuring a Jack o' Lantern although not tons of spooky, glowing pumpkins. And it was published in 1993 so it fits the early 90s timeline. Perhaps I'm wrong and this is not the book at all, but it was definitely the one I was thinking of when I initially read this.
Kirbyreedloveshorror,
You solved it! We just got this email from Jordan!-
"Hi! I wrote to you about the pumpkin covered book. Kirbyreedloveshorror did get it right. Very different from how I remember it but I guess memory is a funny thing. Thank you so much for posting it and for your help, I never thought I'd find it and had been looking for so long! You guys are the best!"
Kirbyreedloveshorror, You rule!