Hello Kindertrauma! I was inspired by Pete G's recent Backseat Psycho post to reach out to you with my own hazy, '70s memory of a movie I saw when I was a kid. Here's all I remember:
A teenage girl is taunted (and possibly killed?) by three older teenage/college boys. To get back at them her mother (who happens to be a witch) goes to a pit in the woods and curses each one of the men to die by way of a natural element (air, fire,and ?). I only remember one of the deaths–one of the men dies when he jumps out of an airplane and his parachute doesn't open (death by air?!?).
Does this ring any bells Kindertrauma?
Thanks so much!
— Steve Q.
Thanks Steve Q!
This sounds like a good one. I've got a good feeling that somebody knows this one. It sounds very familiar.
Meanwhile- today's framing stills are from the DARKROOM episode "Catnip" which I chose just because a witch is in it.
And now I'm watching DARKROOM and can't turn it off because it is the best and I wish it would come out on DVD already…
I think I know this one–it sounds like Encounter With the Unknown, the Rod Serling narrated anthology film showing 3 allegedly true stories of the unexplained. You've covered this on Kindertrauma before which is how I learned of it. At the funeral, the mother recites the curse to the boys she holds responsible "Listen you well to my word! One by land, two by sky!" and each boy dies in various "accidents", including one while skydiving and another in a plane crash.
…forgot to mention, the "pit in the woods" mentioned is an aspect of another story in the same film… a spooky, misty pit in which a man is lowered on ropes to investigate and returns a raving wide eyed lunatic.
Yeah, I was thinking Encounter With The Unknown as well.
The 'pit' episode is the star of that movie, really. It still creeps me out.
The Handsome Family sortakinda has a song, Bottomless Hole, which stems from the same legend/folktale.
I remember something similar, but this was a guy who was pranked by his supposed buddies to knock on a random door in the hopes of getting a date? A suspicious woman comes to the door with a gun and says oh this is for protection and WOOPS goes off killing the poor fool.
Then at the funeral the Witch mom curses the pranksters in echoey slow motion.
Thanks Brother Bill & Knobgobbler! I thought this one sounded familiar. For some reason I can't find the earlier post on EWTU. I'll keep looking.
Tomb, that one sounds interesting too!
That plot description by Tomb is also from Encounters With the Unknown….!
!!! I think we are going to have to do EWTU for Sunday Streaming this week! Obviously it is required viewing.
Btw- I did find a EWTU traumafession within Crafty Pants Carol's "It's a horror to know you" here….
https://www.kindertrauma.com/?p=28236
It's official! We got this email from Steve Q:
"Kindertrauma does it again! It was Encounter With the Unknown! That pit story freaked me out as a kid!
Thanks so much. Now I'll watch some Darkroom!"
Thanks again Brother Bill, Knob & Tomb! You saved the day.
Someone solved this for me a while back, and earned my eternal gratitude. I can remember the hot July night we watched this with the front screen door wide open like it was yesterday…
https://www.kindertrauma.com/?p=11186