kindertrauma

Name That Trauma :: Marie of Agent Lover on a Patchwork Man

Posted on By aunt john

Hello comrades!

I have always thought about writing you guys about this certain movie I saw when I was probably ten or so (I'm 29 now) that really weirded me out. I've Googled until my hands have bled and asked numerous people everywhere, even via my blog if they know what the eff I'm talking about but NO LUCK! I'm beginning to think I dreamed this up…but I know I haven't!

So here it is…

It was this movie where a man was locked up in some kind of room for observation. He skin was stitched up of all kinds of different shades, sort of like a Patchwork Man (which is what I always thought this movie might be called but my research has come up with NUTHIN'.) If I remember correctly he was supposed to be "the answer to racism." I think he was screaming or crying in this mental hospital looking environment.

That's all I remember! I hope you guys can help put my mind at ease after ALL THESE YEARS!!

— Marie

UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Unk has this one sewn up with MR. STITCH!

Stream Warriors: Cold Prey, Suspended Animation & Spellbinder

Posted on By unkle lancifer

UNK SEZ: It's time for that new feature that tells you for better or for worse the stuff your Unk finds appealing on Netflix streaming!

COLD PREY (2006)

I may have mentioned my love for 2006's COLD PREY (FRITT VILT) a couple zillion times before but I'm going do it again because now is the perfect time of year to watch it and right now it is on Netflix Streaming. All right it's the dubbed version, which is not preferable, but I doubt you will care a lick in the end. COLD PREY illustrates everything the slasher film is still capable of achieving if given half a chance; it's thrilling, provides the scares and delivers a believable human element as well. In my book, lead INGRID BOLSO BERDAL as Jannicke is worthy of walking the same horror halls as biggies WEAVER and CURTIS. Geez, just talking about it makes me want to watch it again and I've seen it at least a half dozen times. It's just one of those reliable movies that gets better the more you visit it. Seriously if you're a fan of old school slashers, it's a crime to miss this one and don't even get me started on the equally sharp COLD PREY 2. More HERE!

SUSPENDED ANIMATION (2001)

Holy crap, this movie is already ten years old, how'd that happen? I feel a smidge sorry for this one, its title must throw people off and its advertising art is a bit useless. Wait I get it, this is one of those hard to categorize films and so everybody wants to beat it up. Directed by JOHN D. HANCOCK, who was swell enough to concoct LET'S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH, this is a movie that changes major gears mid way through and perhaps that can be blamed for some viewers' frustration. The set up will have many anticipating a WRONG TURN meets MISERY flick but instead we dive into the aftermath of violent crime and the obsessive reaction of a victim trying to process what they've experienced. It's a sharp turn but I personally enjoyed not knowing where I was being led and was truly shocked by one of the film's surprises. Also it's got scary old ladies in it which always works for me and it stars that guy from the PAPA DON'T PREACH video who murdered everybody in WILLIAM FRIEDKIN's RAMPAGE. If you're the type who enjoys psychological thrillers just as much as straight-on horror, this one is unusual enough (and snowy enough) to be well worth the trip.

SPELLBINDER (1988)

I'm so happy to see this one available on Netflix Streaming because it never made it to DVD and I want all my fellow humans to see it. This movie just perfectly captures the frivolous spirit of late night eighties cable viewing to me and it brings to mind all the fine couches and remote controls I have known in my life. From what I can tell the way that cats feel about tuna is how I feel about witch-cult movies and finding a post seventies witch cult movie is a joy in and of itself. I'm enamored with the entire cast and although this is miles from a success in the serious scares department, it is always fun and dark-camp entertaining. Maybe it's trash but life without trash is garbage. I was wondering if I could get through this recommendation without mentioning AUDRA LINDLEY and I guess the answer to that is no, I can't. Read more HERE!

Now it's that time again to close out the show with a smash pop hit!

Name That Trauma by Proxy :: Frank via John Kenneth Muir on a Tar Beast

Posted on By unkle lancifer

UNK SEZ:: In Kindertrauma's mail bag we discovered a letter from one of our favorite people, JOHN KENNETH MUIR of the excellent REFLECTIONS ON FILM/TV, check it out:

Dear Unk,

I recently received this intriguing reader e-mail at my blog, and frankly I'm stumped. It's from Frank and reads:

"I wonder if you could solve one of the great mysteries of my life. About 1978, I saw the scariest show I've ever seen. I was 14, and the next day I asked if anyone had seen it.

No one had, although one guy had said that his brother had seen it and that he had told him his hands had been shaking the whole time. So had mine. It was on CBS at 10:00 Eastern time on a Friday night and I never heard of another episode being shown here in Miami.

I'm pretty sure the name was THE NEXT STEP BEYOND. I read your interview with JOHN NEWLAND. He didn't seem to have much good to say about this series. It begins with a man telling how he had died and been brought back, but now had a connection with the dead who sometimes sent him to help their survivors. He finds his way to an isolated cabin (on an island?) and, I believe with the help of a diary, figures out how the scientist who lived there came to a violent end from a man he had created out of tar. It then comes after him. Does this ring a bell for you? I've looked up synopses and never come across this one, although it's been a while since I really gave it a good shot and certainly more and more information is come out on the net. That's how I found your site. I've only seen two of the original ONE STEP BEYOND's. They were on a video CD. One was with CHARLES BRONSON as a boxer. They were great.

I'd sure love to know if what I saw was indeed The Next Step Beyond, and if there was any way to see it again. I've even thought about making a pilgrimage to NY to check out the Museum of Television and Radio to see if I could find it, or at a least reference to it.

Thanks for any help you can give.

— Frank…"

Anyway, does that sound familiar to you, Unkle Lancifer? There is a NEXT STEP BEYOND episode entitled "The Return of Cary De Witt" (September 13, 1978) set on an island, involving a man coming back from the dead following surgery…and astral projecting. But nothing about a Tar man, or helping other survivors. And the show aired in syndication, I believe, not on CBS.

So if you can, please help Frank and me figure out what the heck this was. I've ruled out, I think, QUINN MARTIN's TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED (1977) and GHOST STORY/CIRCLE OF FEAR (1972) and THE EVIL TOUCH (1973) as well. All too early for Frank's remembrance; and no synopses appear to fit on first blush.

Thank you,

John Kenneth Muir

UNK SEZ: Thank you JKM! I'm happy to say that I actually do know this one on account of we've gotten a Traumafession on it BEFORE. It's gotta be the THE WORLD BEYOND/ THE MUD MONSTER from 1978 starring GRANVILLE VAN DUSEN and POLTERGEIST's JO BETH WILLIAMS. As soon as I learned about this frequent traumatizer I had to track it down and you can find my full review of it HERE!

I found it pretty darn effective and had no problem understanding why it left such an impression on folks. Thanks for sending Frank's inquiry to us JKM and all you other folks out there make sure you drop by REFLECTIONS ON FILM/TV!

Screams of a Winter Night

Posted on By unkle lancifer

Crudely directed, under written, poorly acted… say what you will, SCREAMS OF A WINTER NIGHT casts a long shadow in my psyche regardless. Slinking out of Louisiana circa 1979, this micro-budgeted, PG-rated horror anthology may be amateurish in its execution but I think it exudes a strange dark aura as well. My slant may be stained by sentimentality but even as I chuckle during a re-watch at its dated hokeyness and ragged edges, behind my condescension lays a bubbling feeling of unease. This oldster caught SCREAMS in the theater at a young age and it did something more exotic than yank-scare me with the grotesque, it quietly contaminated me with the serious creeps. I've said it before and I'll say it again, the rules of horror echo the rules of real estate… location, location, location.

Plowing ahead of many a future horror film to an isolated cabin locale, SCREAMS also paves the roadway in anticipation for the type of open canvas, paint-your -own nightmare horror of THE BLAIR WITCH. Perhaps budgetary restrictions are to thank but this is a movie that shows you very little and lets your imagination do the maniacal math. The opening credits establish the schema; we are shown a black screen and hear terrors unfold with howling winds badgering in the background. Much of what we witness throughout the rest of the film is almost equally vague, elusive or inconclusive. Fittingly the tales in this anthology are not preoccupied with physical violence but spiral around the dread of insanity. Death takes a back seat to losing your mind.

Five couples hit the woods for a weekend. Gas station loitering locals (including a young WILLIAM "FRIGHT NIGHT" RAGSDALE ) do their best to shoo them off with scorn and warnings. Once snug in their crusty cabin abode the couples entertain themselves swapping stories of the uncanny. The stories get the best of them and some elemental Indian wind demon comes to pay a visit. I know it's very slight and to be honest the stories exchanged are pretty weak but they're just weird enough to bite. The first is a hoary urban legend crossed with a Bigfoot tale, the second a standard haunted house bit with an unnerving payoff involving a green light bulb (?!) and the third is an antiquated, sexual repression makes ladies bonkers riff. Still, as presented, with the cabin dwellers playing double duty performing in the vignettes, an accelerated tone of dread is subtly established. The wrap around story's conclusion, complete with whipping leaves and screams weaving into howling winds, makes for a chaotic lingering close.

Horror tends to be a lot like humor. You can claim your tastes and try to sophisticate your palate but there's a knee jerk response that bypasses the intellectual. What I really think it comes down to is identification. Why do I find BLAIR WITCH hypnotic and PARANORMAL ACTIVITY a snore? If I take a step back my best guess is that I recognize the people occupying BLAIR and the characters in P.A. may as well be holograms from another planet to me. When I went to go see SCREAMS OF A WINTER NIGHT back in the day, I did so with a group of my older cousins and with their large glasses, plaid shirts and wonky seventies hairdos; they resembled the characters that I saw on screen to a tee. No, I did not want an iron chandelier to fall on my cousin Audrey's head like what happened to the Audrey avatar in the movie.

Another element of SCREAMS that I appreciate is the anecdotal aspect and the way it understands how a well-spun tale can alter the air in the room. My father was (and is) a great storyteller who could leave you hanging on his every word and he took some joy in freaking me and my brothers and cousins out with his nutzo ghost yarns. Even as an adult I am hyper aware of the way a group of people can whip themselves into a paranoid froth exchanging ghost, U.F.O. or local mugging and crime stories. You get to the point where you are afraid to walk home or if you are home, you might find yourself having to watch a sitcom to settle down to Earth before you hit the sack. Oh, I love that feeling. As I've gotten older I've become more likely to change the subject and whistle past the graveyard thinking, "If we keep talking this way, it'll happen to us! We're attracting disaster! We're next!" That's what I think this movie captures that I love, frumpily tacked together though it may be, it ensnarls that weird feeling you get when you've freaked yourself out over nothing…

SCREAMS OF A WINTER NIGHT has sadly never materialized on DVD and I'm thinking most VHS copies have probably found permanent homes. Luckily it is available on the YouTubes as we speak but for who knows how long. Stand warned though, this bargain basement production is a gritty watch and its PG-scares are more implied than all up in your grill. On the other hand if you have an inclination towards seventies era drive-in fare and can look past the cracks in the plaster, it warrants a dipping. I can't guarantee you'll feel the same unease that I did way back when (not to mention two days ago) but maybe it will bring back to your mind a scary story of your own.

Name That Trauma :: Reader Chris on Tots Terrorized in a Disturbing Dreamworld

Posted on By unkle lancifer

Dear Kindertrauma,

While I saw the film I'm inquiring about around the ripe old age of 23 (I'm 31 now – sigh), it does involve kids getting terrorized and therefore I believe it qualifies for a KT Name That Trauma. I caught the film on the IFC channel one lonely evening in the dead of winter, and for the life of me I cannot remember the name even though it returns to my thoughts at least once a year and gnaws at my brain like a rat gobbling rotting cheese.

I believe that I caught it from about halfway through, and am not positive about whether it was a standalone film or part of an anthology or original T.V. series, but it seemed long enough to be a movie. I really can't even describe the plot fully, so I just have some images/scenes that I remember, but they were powerful and indelible enough to encourage me to write to you guys for help.

Hopefully this jogs someone's memory: I remember two kids in a hospital, a little girl and boy aged 8-10, and the girl had the paranormal psychic ability to pull the little boy into her dreams. It was within this dream realm that much of the disturbing imagery I remember resided. Within the dream world there was a solitary house on a grassy hill near cliffs bordering an ocean. The kids were being terrorized by an evil man (possibly the little girl's stepfather or something) who had a very deep, sinister voice and I believe his eyes were gouged out and he was chasing the kids with a hammer. He was one of the creepier villains I've seen.

The atmosphere in the dream was bright and sunny until this man approached and the sky turned black and the house appeared broken down and barren. The girl at one point runs outside and the ground begins to shake and break apart, almost as if there was a volcano underneath or something. The final thing I remember was that the little boy was killed in the dream, and when the little girl woke up in the hospital, he had died in reality too.

It might sound ridiculous and I know I haven't given much to go on, but even the crude recollections I have of this film creep me out to this day and I would cherish the opportunity to find it and see it again.

Thanks in advance for you and your readers' help.

— Chris

UNK SEZ: Great description Chris! We actually have gotten a traumafession on that one BEFORE. That has got to be and I'm NOT wrong this time I swear, 1988's PAPERHOUSE! That kindertraumatic classic was directed by the same kind fellow who brought us all CANDYMAN, BERNARD ROSE! Mr. ROSE, we at Kindertrauma love you big time, please make some more movies!

Traumafessions :: Reader Tim on Bionic Bigfoot

Posted on By aunt john

I just discovered your website and I can't stop reading it! I'm reliving a lot of childhood horrors seeing THE EVIL HULK, MAGIC movie trailer, TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE opening, and so many others. But the thing that scared me the most as a kid (and I was quite the scaredy-cat) was Bigfoot!

Although I grew up in New England, I believed Bigfoot would come cross-country from the Pacific Northwest to get me in my sleep. The blurry black and white film clip of him trudging along in the woods was my first introduction, followed by what seemed like a never ending series of movies, T.V. shows and commercials throughout the mid ‘70s that would keep me up all night. The IN SEARCH OF episode featuring Bigfoot certainly didn't help. But I didn't know true terror until I saw the ultimate monster: Bionic Bigfoot!

There were two versions. The first was played by ANDRE THE GIANT, the second by TED CASSIDY. Both were slightly different but equally terrifying. I was a huge SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN fan and had all of the action figures, except for the hard to find Bigfoot. Despite my utter fear, I had to have him. My parents went all over Massachusetts and Rhode Island trying to find him in time for Christmas and had him under the tree Christmas morning. However, I was not only terrified of the T.V. version, but the action figure also scared the hell out of me too! My parents went to all this trouble to find the damned beast and I couldn't even look at it!

In the end, Bionic Bigfoot became friends with Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers. They may have grown to love him, but I never could. He will always be my childhood nightmare.

— Tim

Unk's Favorite Horror Towns

Posted on By unkle lancifer

In the not so distant past your Unk, along with his fellow Pennsylvania pal CHRISTINE HADDEN of FASCINATION WITH FEAR, created a couple of conjoined twin posts together. The first concerned our FAVORITE HORROR HOMES and the second explored our LEAST FAVORITE HORROR HOMES. Both were Internet sensations that resulted in mass suicides across the globe and heavily censored high-profile films. Now we're back with our 3-D third installment, duel listings of our FAVORITE HORROR TOWNS because YOU did not specifically ask us not to!

So below are my TOP TEN FAVORITE HORROR TOWNS. If you don't see your favorite town there then that means I either don't feel the same as you, do feel the same as you but totally forgot that I do or CHRISTINE has it listed over at her place. See, we went out of our way not to have duplicate towns for the sake of your entertainment and now don't you feel like a heel? Check out Christine's list HERE. If you still feel your favorite town has been neglected then by all means leave a comment. Let me warn you though, I did not include ELM STREET's SPRINGWOOD on purpose just because I'm still mad about that last movie stinking like a crab dip litter box.

10. SILENT HILL

I guess nobody would want to actually spend too much time in SILENT HILL due to all the triangle head monsters, faceless killer health care professionals and worst of all, swarming cucarachas but hey, at least you get a warning alarm before they appear. I know the place is run down and falling apart, but I'm all about the shabby chic and let's hear it for snow considerate enough to look pretty but not stick around. It's like the whole town is a giant haunted house with streets for hallways. Hey, except for that considerate snow thing, it sounds kinda like Philly!

9. GREEN TOWN (SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES)

If I had my way it would be autumn all year round and what better place to spend a crisp fall day then in the town featured in this RAY BRADBURY classic. Maybe the 1983 movie directed by JACK CLAYTON (THE INNOCENTS) pales in comparison to the novel but can the novel boast an appearance by PAM GRIER? I think not. Perhaps your Unkle Lancifer was born in the wrong time, I'd rather deal with armies of tarantulas in my bedroom than people yacking on cell phones any day of the week. Yeah, I know it looks boring but that's what tall dark transient carnies are for. By the by, Green Town, Illinois is featured in two other BRADBURY works, "Dandelion Wine" and "Farewell Summer." I admit it, I never read those two but doesn't that just give me something to look forward to in my twilight years?

8. HOBB'S END (IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS)

Fictional fiction author Sutter Cane's fictional New England town can be said to be located at the crossroads between STEPHEN KING's Castle Rock and H.P. LOVECRAFT's Dunwich. Named after a fictional London underground transport station featured in 1967's QUARTERMASS AND THE PIT (which altered the moniker from "Hobb's Lane" a fictional street prominent in the 1958 television serial of the same name) Hobb's owes just as much of its existence to frequent CARPENTER inspiration NIGEL KNEALE. It's interesting to note that "Hob" was once one of the Devil's many call signs. Fictional or not, I dig any town with a covered bridge dimensional doorway.

7. SALEM'S LOT

Speaking of our old pal STEPHEN KING, one of his many great creations is the town of Jerusalem's Lot, Salem's lot for short. (If you prefer "Salem" to "Jerusalem" thank the publisher's marketing concerns.) You can visit this unfortunate town via KING's novel (or through 2 short stories featured in NIGHT SHIFT), TOBE HOOPER's 1979 mini-series, the RUTGUER HAUER featuring 2004 miniseries or even the 1995 radio play found HERE. I don't care how you go there, just go there. KING himself, at one point, admitted that it was his favorite of his works and if I thought about it for a while I'd probably agree with him. Also, if you like vampires, there is at least one vampire in this town.

6. BODEGA BAY (THE BIRDS)

DAPHNE (REBECCA, DON'T LOOK NOW) du MAURIER's original short story took place in a British coastal town but ALFRED HITCHCOCK placed his telling smack in the muddle of the non-fictional Bodega Bay in California. In fact the only element HITCH retained from du MAURIER's story is those kooky ornery birds. HITCH's choice is what lands the classic here as what a scenic spot he chose, even if many of the scenes in THE BIRDS are in fact shot on UNIVERSAL sets. The famous (and rumored haunted) schoolhouse shown in the film to be within running distance of the bay actually exists miles away. Bodega Bay has also made in appearance in THE GOONIES, PUPPET MASTER and a little something called THE FOG but more squawking on that film later.

5. KINGSTON FALLS (GREMLINS)

I love this little compact town even though it has the fakest looking snow I've ever seen and is merely a Universal back lot fated to appear soon after in BACK TO THE FUTURE. (There sure is a preference for small towns in this compilation; I must be trying to tell myself something.) Kingston Falls seems like a place where everybody knows everybody and the jewel in its crown has got to be Dorry's Tavern (which was included in our "Best Horror Watering holes" found HERE!) I think the only minus to this burg is the witchy asshole known as Mrs. Deagle (POLLY "FLO" HOLIDAY) but a faulty stair elevator seems to have cleared up that miserable problem.

4. SANTA MIRA (INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS/HALLOWEEN 3: SEASON OF THE WITCH)

Everything is perfect in the fictional town of Santa Mira, California and you can thank mind controlling aliens and clockwork replicants for that. Whether it's the landing pad for pod people or the home to a Stonehenge tripped booby trap Halloween mask novelty company, Santa Mira is a town like no other. So what if you have to give up your personal identity, think of the peace and quiet!

3. VALENTINE'S BLUFF/ HARMONY (MY BLOODY VALENTINE)

Maybe FOOTLOOSE's KEVIN BACON would have a hard time in the dance forbidding mining town of Valentine's Bluff found in the 1980 slasher MY BLOODY VALENTINE but as I'm loath to do a jig and chuck confetti anyway, I'm thinking I'd fit right in. How could I say no to a town with such a hospitable and accommodating laundromat like Mabel's? The town was renamed and relocated into the dance neutral Pennsylvanian mining town of "Harmony" for the 2009 remake and truth be told, I like it just about the same. Harmony may not be quit as charming as Valentine's Bluff but it makes up for that by being home to that crapilly built bridge that THE MOTHMAN is always trying to warn everybody about.

2. POTTER'S BLUFF (DEAD AND BURIED)

This place covers all of my bases. It's small, it's coastal, it's lost in time and it's inhabited by zombified weirdoes. It's the perfect storm of all of my wants and desires in regards to cinematic towns. Also FLASH GORDON's MELODY ANDERSON lives there. I'm packing my bags as we speak. DEAD AND BURIED was filmed in Mendocino, California; other notable films filmed there include CUJO, THE HOWLING and HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP.

1. ANTONIO BAY (THE FOG)

Let's face it, Antonio Bay is the coolest fictional town on Earth. Sure the town's ancestors murdered lepers in the name of prosperity, stole their gold and then strangely just hid the gold in a church wall anyway. If you want omelets in your future, you better be ready to trick some eggs into smashing their boats into some rocks. Many towns were actually used within the course of the film to represent ANTONIO BAY but I'm most interested in Point Reyes, California, the home of Stevie Wayne's radio station lighthouse. I want to have my ashes dumped from the top of that lighthouse! Not the ashes of my cremated body but the ashes of my set-on-fire copy of the 2005 remake of THE FOG.

EXTRA BONUS TOWN! SUNNYDALE (BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER)

I did my whole list concentrating on movies and books and forgot that I could include television shows as well. I don't want to bump Antonio Bay out of the spotlight, but I'm thinking perhaps I should for the fictional town of Sunnydale from BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. After all, over seven seasons Sunnydale exists in 144 episodes and that's not even counting novelizations and comic books. Quite an achievement if ya think about it, Sunnydale was destroyed in the last episode of BUFFY but remember it exists on in all those earlier installments. If you've never visited, you should.

So that wraps it up. Don't forget to let CHRISTINE take you on a tour of her favorite towns HERE and let us know if there are any other horror towns you'd like to visit!

Stream Warriors! #1

Posted on By unkle lancifer

Now it's time for a brand new show called STREAM WARRIORS! Will it have legs? Will it get canceled? It's up to the horrifically random and meaningless nature of the universe I suspect. I don't care. There are stray cats freezing to death in the snow as we speak.

But that's stinkin' thinkin' and we're here to have fun, fun, fun. STREAM WARRIORS is a magazine that shows up on the doorstep of your computer every Sunday. It was invented by a tenure-denied Professor to help you get the most of your Netflix streaming experience!

Balk and awe as three films currently available on Netflix streaming are yanked out of the crowd and recommended for your consumption. Don't be afraid, it's here to help you and if you don't have Netflix streaming then well, you can still find some other way to check out the movies highlighted! Here you go with the first three, maybe you won't like them but hey, at least you are not freezing to death trapped under a car!

BLACK WATER (2007)

There certainly is a plethora of pissed-off animal films out there so I think it's important to distinguish this one from the riley pack. BLACK WATER is not a cheesy monster movie but a harrowing reality-based endurance film along the lines of OPEN WATER or this past year's FROZEN. You'll find believable, likable characters and a few genuinely sharp scares and the backdrop of the mangrove swamps of northern Australia brought to my mind both THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and ALGERNON BLACKWOOD's classic tale "The Willows." Explore more HERE.

AFTER MIDNIGHT (1989)

Horror anthologies are difficult to pull off and no matter how successful the result, it always seems to pale when held up against CREEPSHOW. AFTER MIDNIGHT, when taken on its own terms, is spooky albeit light fun and it's absolutely soaked in delicious eighties goodness. The middle tale involving a pack of teens (Including MR. BELVEDERE's adorable TRACY WELLS and ELM STREET 3's PENELOPE SUDROW ) facing off against a pack of dogs is a highly memorable must-see that would have made a fine feature length movie of its own. The last tale starring a young MARG HELGENBERGER may wear out its welcome a tad but AFTER MIDNIGHT is a rare anthology film whose wrap-around story (thanks in large part to the cast) satisfies as much as the segments it surrounds. Read more HERE.

LEMORA: A CHILD'S TALE OF TERROR (1973)

The gritty cropped presentation of LEMORA on Netflix streaming leaves a lot to be desired but I'm compelled to recommend a watch anyway. (Ssssh, there's a nicer looking version that you can view on YouTube starting HERE!) I've got acres in my heart marked off for any Southern Gothic and even more territory reserved for any that is stuffed with fuzzy monsters, singing witches and tricky vampires. Buoyed by an ethereal performance by the late CHERYL "RAINBEAUX" SMITH, LEMORA is a beauteous nightmare journey somehow simultaneously silly and astonishing. This makeshift mini-masterpiece mash up of horror and fairy tale elements should be seen by anyone with a taste for the darkly poetic. For more on LEMORA visit HERE.

There you go. That's three movies that I think deserve your love or at least passing interest. Check them out soon 'cuz you never know when they might disappear! Thanks for dropping by and now it's time to close out the show with a rousing musical number….

Name That Trauma :: Reader Doug on a Scorched Spider-Man

Posted on By unkle lancifer

Love your site!,

Here is a movie that haunted my childhood. I'm actually not even sure if it was a horror movie, but one scene scared the pants off of a younger me.

I want to say it was a made-for-T.V. movie in the mid-to-late 1970s as I remember seeing it on more than a few times and always during primetime. It involved two brothers. Both around 8 to11 years old. One was a mute, or maybe retarded? I know something was wrong with him mentally. The other brother, the normal one, loved Spider-Man. Their room was decorated with Spider-Man posters and toys. In particular a Mego Spider-Man. The mentally challenged brother was frightened of Spider-man. So much so he took his brother's Mego Spider-Man and cooked it in the oven.

The smoke alarms went off and the mother ran to the stove. When they pulled out the horribly charred Spider-Man figure from the oven, the normal brother freaked out screaming. And the Mego Spider-Man, it was so disgusting and burnt, that image scared the webbing out of me as a kid.

Does anyone know this movie? It's been driving me nuts for over 30 years.

Thanks Kindertrauma,

— Doug from Ohio

UNK SEZ: I went a' Google-sluethin' and I found your burnt Spider-Man movie! It's called …AND YOUR NAME IS JONAH (1979), a T.V.- movie starring SALLY STRUTHERS and JAMES WOODS. Don't feel bad about not remembering what Jonah's issue was, his parents had a hard time figuring it out as well. Although diagnosed as mentally challenged, we find out through the course of the movie that Jonah is in actuality deaf. I also noticed in the IMDb message board that you are not alone in having a strong memory of the Spider-Man burning incident!

…AND YOUR NAME IS JONAH is not on DVD but you can watch it over at Amazon, Hulu or Netflix streaming. Thanks for coming to us with your Name That Trauma Doug!