kindertrauma

Name That Trauma :: Reader M. Nelson on Miniature Monsters

Posted on By aunt john

Cannot remember the title and it is driving me crazy. Film is from the late '70s or early '80s.

Mad scientist figures out a way to bring the monsters of classic literature to life. He turns on the machine and out of the books come Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolfman and The Mummy, but they are only 3 feet tall. I recall this done as a serious horror movie with a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor thrown in. Help save my sanity please.

— M. Nelson

UNK SEZ:: The year doesn't match up but this sounds very much like the 1997 CHARLES BAND film THE CREEPS! Check out the trailer below M. Nelson and let us know! Meanwhile, does anybody out there in kindertraumaville know of any other movies that feature pint-sized classic monsters?

Burn, Witch, Burn!

Posted on By unkle lancifer

One of my favorite supernatural horror films is 1962's BURN, WITCH, BURN! (aka NIGHT OF THE EAGLE.) It's been a notoriously difficult film to track down for years but lo and behold it's currently available on Netflix streaming. (Can I just say that Netflix streaming may be the best thing to happen to horror fans since Karo Syrup?) Based on the novel CONJURE WIFE by FRITZ LIEBER and adapted by folks like RICHARD MATHESON and CHARLES BEAUMONT, BURN, WITCH, BURN! possesses the artistry and psychological depth to stand proudly next to the best of the genre. Like so many of the most enduring movies dealing with the occult and the unknown, it can be said to pulse with its own magical power. If putting a movie together is anything like casting a spell, this lone film of interest by director SIDNEY HAYERS measures the ingredients in its witch's brew adeptly and ends up hitting its mark square on the nose.

Norman Taylor (PETER WYNGARDE) lives the life of Riley as a big fish psychology professor in a small college university pond. He's got all the answers to life's mysteries and believes neurosis is caused by a cowardly avoidance of the concrete facts. Faith and superstition are his personal pet peeves; if something can't be proven (or perceived by him) then it simply doesn't exist. Little does he know that the high horse he perches on is crafted from juju charms and that his dutiful wife Tansy (JANET BLAIR) has been messing with mojo to keep envious backstabbers and life's little pitfalls at bay.

According to Tansy, what Norman doesn't know could fill a spell book. His friendly colleagues are sharks itching for the sent of blood to go in for the kill and the only thing that separates him from the chum is her knowledge of the way things really work. His ego in the balance, Norman pulls a Darrin Stephens and insists that Tansy scrap her witchery and convert to his approved logic. Tansy reluctantly agrees but without the wifely back up, Norman goes from stud to dud overnight. A once smitten student accuses him of rape and her enraged boyfriend threatens him with a gun. There's more to worry about than his occupation/identity falling to shambles though, there seems to be an ominous force unleashed and rustling about that won't be satisfied until Norman is fitted for a pine box.

BURN, WITCH, BURN! is often compared to JAQUES TOURNER'S CURSE (or NIGHT) OF THE DEMON (1957) and it's not difficult to see why with its tug of war between the scientific and the magical. Both rack up the chills by exploiting the meat of superstition, the idea that once you're on the universe's shit list your days are numbered. Their visual tones compliment each other as well, both sharing a ravenous appetite for inky, amorphous shadows and a proud debt to all things VAL LEWTON.

BURN, WITCH, BURN! may fall just short of CURSE OF THE DEMON's more majestic feel but in some areas, like special effects, BURN stands superior. The climax of the film, which relies heavily on miniatures and forced perspectives may look quaint to the youngins but all things considered, it's still an impressive, nearly seamless, spectacle today (and if you ask me, it's also saluted heavily in sister-witch movie SUSPIRIA.)

The implication that men are manipulated like marionettes by deceitful, sorceress women may smack some as misogynistic but there may be a bigger truth here to explore. Who could argue the fact that those who appear to glide through life may have someone who toils in the trenches unseen to thank? Removing gender from the equation, BURN, WITCH, BURN! presents, with married couple Tansy and Norman, two distinct personality types, one grounded and analytical and the other connected to the spiritual and unseen. The film may spotlight dark forces at play, but Tansy's magic is protective by nature. She sacrifices her very life for her husband and can't really be associated with the malevolent force that seeks to destroy them. In any case, I think it's possible to read the concept of "woman's intuition" presented here as less to do with the female of the species ability to practice covert magic and more to do with the male's limiting literal mindedness.

I'm especially fond of BURN's cast (although the general style tends toward the melodramatic.) JANET BLAIR as Tansy brings the needed worried agitation and is exceptionally sympathetic, MARGARET JOHNSTON as the not-giving-too-much-away baddie, Flora, does twisted freaky creepy like nobody's business and PETER WYNGARDE is phenomenal.

I love this guy PETER WYNGARDE!

How did I never realize that one year earlier he played Peter frickin' Quint in THE INNOCENTS? He teeters toward overboard but it's sensational seeing such a go-for-broke turn. In addition, his handsome gargoyle mug seems sculpted for this type of film, as it tends to attract and capture every shadow slinking by. Years later he would play a T.V. character, so flamboyant (JASON KING) that he inspired AUSTIN POWERS, but in BURN he's just so photogenic and wildly intense that he ends up delivering something truly memorable. As stuffy as his character is made to appear upon introduction, this ends up being a rare supernatural spook show with a manic male rather than female lead. (Adding further to my fascination with WYNGARDE is the fact that he had a ten year relationship with ALAN BATES and played Ming's right hand man, Klytus in 1980's FLASH GORDON!)

Black and white film adds something unique to the movie viewing experience overall but it adds something super unique to horror films and something super special gonzo incredible unique to the supernatural horror film. How can anyone wonder if witchcraft exists? Black and white film IS witchcraft! You just can't get this effect with color film (unless your name happens to be MARIO BAVA.)

Like THE HAUNTING (if you think I'm referring to the 1999 version, punch yourself in the face for me) and THE INNOCENTS, this is a Rorschach flick that you can catch different fish in every time you visit the pond. With my last viewing I encountered a figure in a lightening flash that never materialized for me before. I don't know what it means or if it's a mistake but to me that's like getting three ravens in a row playing slot machines.

BURN, WITCH, BURN! opens with Norman scrawling, "I do not believe" upon a classroom black board. It closes with him backing up against that same board in horror and smudging out the word "not" leaving only "I do believe." It's a clever, classic moment that illustrates just how far he has traveled without moving an inch, as if belief and skepticism are separated by little more than a light switch. Like everything magical, the revelation isn't forced on you but it's there if you want it. Like Norman, all you have to do is open your eyes.

Name That Trauma :: Reader Terek P. on a Space Suicide & Spiders (Book)

Posted on By aunt john

Kindertrauma crew,

I need help identifying a horror short story collection I read in the late 1970s.

The most memorable story was about a crew stationed on another planet (Mars, I think) that becomes infected and turned into murderous zombie-like beings.

The story features someone being killed with a scalpel in a medical lab. At the end of the story, the lone, uninfected crew member escapes onto the planet's surface in a moon buggy-type vehicle.

The vehicle crashes. As his now inhuman pursuers close in, the uninfected crew member opts to kill himself by removing his helmet.

I found this grim story very disturbing at the time.

The only other story I recall any details about featured someone investigating a neighbor's house and finding the occupant to be some kind of spider creature.

The book had several black & white illustrations in it, one of which was for this story, featuring a victim bound in spider webs.

This is a very tough one, I know. Anything you or your readers can come up with would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks very much,

— Terek P.

UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Special thanks to longtime lurker & first time poster shargraves who knew this was Sydney J. Bounds' short story "The Animators."

Name That Trauma :: Reader David B. on Subterranean, Senior Serial Killer

Posted on By aunt john

I have a Name That Trauma for you… I hope I can provide enough details for you or a reader to recognize it. I must have been about 5 or 6, which would make it roughly 1970-71.

I was up late one night watching television, it would probably have been BBC1 or BBC2, when a film from the silent era came on. The abiding memory I have is of an old hag-like woman who lived underground, perhaps in the subway system, who would climb out from the manhole covers in the street and drag her victims below to her cavernous lair.

I have a suspicion it may have been a French movie, but I could be wrong. All I know is it frightened the life out of me, and I had nightmares about it for a long time after. I know this is very little to go on, but I do hope someone out there can help identify my personal trauma.

Thank you.

Traumafessions :: Reader Jen on the Eyes of Winnie the Pooh & Patrick Stewart

Posted on By aunt john

Let me preface this by saying that I was probably the most easily frightened little girl on the face of the Earth.

It sounds so stupid now, but back when I was four and still in love with the NEW ADVENTURES OF WINNIE THE POOH, the song about Heffalumps and Woozles scared me shitless. I'm not sure if it was the bad-LSD-trip imagery, the unsettling music, or merely the idea that such creatures could exist in a realm as happy and friendly as Pooh's, but either way, I HATED that song and would cry and hide and beg my mother to fast-forward that section of the tape. Twenty years later, I still can't watch the whole thing.

I dug up an example on YouTube to share the pain:

Another thing that really bent me was one particular scene in an episode of STAR TREK–the series that had PATRICK STEWART in it. He'd been taken captive by some kind of enemies and they were going to turn him into some kind of cyborg thing. To do so it was apparently needful to drill through his eye. The spinning drill bit stopped just short of plunging into/piercing his cornea, before the scene cut away, but that image horrified me on some subconscious level. I to this day have an intense phobia of anything being near my eyes. ANYTHING, even soft things make me squirm, and metallic/sharp objects are right out.

Adding on to the eye thing, there's another Pooh episode that involved Rabbit being lost in some foggy forest, tormented by shadows and the croaking of frogs and crickets. It's implied that this is wearing on his sanity, as at one point his pupils spin and he screams and goes running blindly. Those fucking spinning eyes, combined with the raw terror in that scream, it frightened me to tears. I still haven't the nerve to look it up on YouTube and finally face it. Just remembering it makes me cold.

Also as another poster mentioned, that goddamned Judge from WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT. I was SO not expecting the freaky face, the screams or the melting. Nightmare city.

Anyhow, I love the site and keep up the great work!

— Jen

The Night Child (1975)

Posted on By unkle lancifer

THE NIGHT CHILD, 1975's possession/cursed medallion flick, can't fill THE EXORCIST's shoes but hey, at least it's not as boring as AUDREY ROSE. The story is a bit flimsy, Michael Williams' (RICHARD JOHNSON) daughter has been acting super spooky since her mom threw herself out a window while engulfed in flames and it appears that the necklace the girl inherited from the aforementioned deceased has something to do with it. Underage smoking simply can't provide the same horrific highs as levitation and head spinning, but little Emily's onslaught of persecution hallucinations have their own disturbing, albeit quiet strength. The film's concentration on the medallion in question tends to frustrate as a cursed GOYA-looking painting is also involved and is a far more compelling point of interest. Ultimately though, the film does come together nicely enough; it's final Freudian revelations have a butterfly effect which makes all that came before it gel into something more substantial.

THE NIGHT CHILD's story may lack the type of demonic punch horror fans crave but its visuals are stunning and then some. It's so damn gorgeous that you may, like myself, happily forgive the film its wishy-washy ways. Putting aside some severely out of date blue screen falling effects, director MASSIMO DALLAMANO (WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO SOLANGE?) delivers an autumnal smorgasbord of non-stop eye candy that must be seen to be believed. No image I can share with you can do the film justice because so much of what DALLAMANO delivers here has to do with movement and brilliantly orchestrated timing.

Two visual themes collide to great effect, there's a muddy cavernous feel to much of the film's night scenes and the daytime scenes bring flashing sun blasts and stark seventies flavored rusts and orange hues. It's all very crisp and exquisitely staged and it's all so classy and artsy you kind of forget that you might rather be on the edge of your seat for different reasons. The soundtrack composed by STELVIO CIPRIANI (TENTACLES(!), BAY OF BLOOD) compliments without overpowering.

Another great selling point for the film is its cast. In addition to ZOMBIE and BEYOND THE DOOR's JOHNSON, DEMONS and DEEP RED's pixie pale NICOLETTA ELMI makes a superb supernaturally tormented child and she really knows how to wail and appear haunted. Even more exciting for me is the fact that THE NIGHT CHILD has bragging rights to an early performance by the queen of everything, JOANNA CASSIDY (BLADE RUNNER, GHOSTS OF MARS, SIX FEET UNDER, et al.) Big haired and stunning, CASSIDY is hard to take your eyes off of and I swear she delivers the same sly, sexy expression seen in her infamous Kindertraumatic SMOKEY THE BEAR commercial; who can't appreciate that?

I suppose EXORCIST comparisons really are unfair and unnecessary, obviously something else was intended here from the get go. In the end, THE NIGHT CHILD offers something more akin to a stroll through a graveyard on a brisk, bright day than a peek through a keyhole into hell. If you have a sweet tooth for seventies cinema and particularly seventies Italian cinema, do your peepers a solid and allow them to picnic on this. The plot might leave you hungry for more but on a visual level, you'll be stuffed.

NOTE: I saw the subtitled version all cleaned up and sparkly in widescreen. This trailer is dubbed and obviously damaged beyond belief. Don't think I'm insane, the version I saw really was a visual stunner even though this trailer seems to suggest otherwise…

Traumafessions :: Reader bdwilcox on Ring of Bright Water

Posted on By aunt john

When the guy kills the poor little otter with a shovel in RING OF BRIGHT WATER. I was about 3 when I saw this and never got over it. I suppressed the memory and one day picked the movie up from RedBox not knowing the emotional hand grenade I was holding. As the movie unfolded, something was gnawing at the back of my mind and a dreadful familiarity started to settle in. The deja vu was tangible and I knew I had been there before but couldn't, for the life of me, remember when. It was like being in a cemetery where you suddenly recognize all the tombstones but can't find the exit. As soon as I saw the guy raise the shovel my heart dropped and decades of suppressed horror screamed out from that dark corner of my mind where murky childhood memories lurk. Even thinking about it now I'm traumatized, sad and, most of all, angry that they would put something like that in a children's movie. It's like putting a razor in a cupcake.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! -sniff- -sniff- -snorfle-

—bdwilcox

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