Thank god I found your website! I've always been one who knows the obscure movies people barely remember but this one stumped me.
My friend told me he has always had this memory of a scene from a movie he saw when he was a kid. It had to be early '80s, maybe '70s. He says it was live action, and that it could have been a kid's movie. The scene he remembers is that these kids are running from something, they go into a house and are hiding under the floor, possibly looking up through a grate. The door opens and a witch with a black veil covering her face enters. A man enters, possibly a father or relative of the kids, and he confronts this witch. The witch pulls out a piece of paper, then whispers something to the man about his heart. She starts to crumple the paper and the man has a heart attack.
Any idea what movie this is?
Thanks,
— Kevin
UNK SEZ: Kevin, both me and Aunt John are convinced that your friend is speaking of SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES (1983)! Although it's a bit jumbled, the grate, the crumbled paper and the veiled heart-attack inducing witch all fit! We've been wrong before so if there are any other ideas out there, please let us know. In the meantime here's the trailer in hopes it will jar your pal's memory!
I have a special place in my heart for fiction involving dark carnivals. I always found carnivals to be somewhat creepy anyway. I loved this movie as well as "Vampire Circus" for the visuals.
I'm wracking my brain trying to think the name of a book that I read in Junior High that was very similar to this movie.
Plot went something like this: Town is in a drought, carnival comes and promises rain at a price. It had a strong man that grew from a weakling to a huge fighter, a sword and suit of armor(?) that came to life and other assorted magical but sinister carnival attractions. Anybody remember this? Saw the book and another possibly in the series recently at a book sale. Said to myself "Oh I loved those as a kid"! and stupidly did not buy them and promptly forgot the titles. I would almost swear the main character's (a boy) name is in the title.
I also immediately thought of Something Wicked This Way Comes for the movie. Dust Witch Pam Grier behind that veil made a major impression on me.
Dang! That book sounds so familiar, but I don't know what it is. Sorry!
No idea what the book is either I am afraid dasklyter but if you like that genre you could do worse than to check out Escardy Gap by James Lovegrove and Peter Crowther.