I'm so grateful to have come across this site.
I was about 2-3 years old when I saw this scene. It is of a woman screaming and running up a staircase with a wall on one side and the railing on the other. Hands come out of the wall trying to grab her as she runs up.
That's all I remember.
Everyone tells me I'm crazy, but how can a toddler make that up?
L.O.L.
Anyway it was in 1987 or 1988, and I was in Jacksonville Florida, if that helps. I can't find it anywhere, but I'm inclined to believe it's an old school haunted mansion type movie.
UNK SEZ: Sanabellia, I wonder what movie this is! It certainly sounds familiar, an old house, a chase up the stairs, creepy hands reaching out from the banister. I can't put my finger on it though. Any Kindertrauma readers out there with any ideas? You gotta help Sanabellia!!! Leave your best guesses in the comments section or email us at Kindertrauma@gmail.com. Somebody must know this one!!!
The first thing I thought of was The Frighteners. Wasn't there some scenes of ghosts coming out of walls? It's probably before that though.
Both La Belle et la Bête (a 1946 French film of Beauty and the Beast by Jean Cocteau) and Repulsion (a 1965 film by Roman Polanski) have hands coming out of the walls imagery. The first isn't exactly a horror movie, but it's very atmospheric and set in a mansion; the hands coming out of the walls are all holding candelabras. The second is more of a psychological horror film; here the hands are coming out of apartment walls, reaching for the woman. Both are black and white. (And both are fine examples of the hands-out-of-walls sort of movie.) 🙂
UPDATE: Reader Raul emailed this tip:
The People Under the Stairs?