My last kindertrauma entry was in 2023. Over time, I’ve been recalling little traumas one by one. Some, I’m not sure are worthy, even considered scary by my standards, but they sure do stick out. The Greedy from Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure is a fever dream from when I was little and watching Nickelodeon’s Special Delivery. What is Special Delivery? I’m glad you asked. The Nickelodeon documentaries don’t mention it. They just skip right to the child abuse. Special Delivery was a two-hour special that Nickelodeon aired in the middle of the afternoon every… Saturday? Sunday? I can’t remember. But…
-
-
The Books I Read: May – June 2025
Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay Paul Tremblay wrote The Cabin at the End of the World (Movie: Knock at the Cabin), which I liked and this kept popping up on my Amazon feed, and it seemed like it would hit all my buttons. I’m impressed with his style. He doesn’t use any metaphors or similes like I do. The result of that, though, is that the book comes off as pretentious. It feels like a book the author wanted to be IMPORTANT. Like he wanted it to be taught in schools and have study guides written about it. And that means reading this is like deciphering a puzzle. There are…
-
The Books I Read: September – October 2020
The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal A true sequel to the first–it’s a race against time to keep humanity alive after a meteor has crashed on Earth, giving it a much closer expiration date. The only solution is to travel to space. All of this was all in the first book. Now that the space program’s been established, it’s time to put a colony on Mars. And our hero protagonist is part of the team making the year-long journey to the future with 1960’s technology. It’s not a complicated plot, but it’s still very good. Better than the first. Since the majority of the book takes place on the…
-
Sub-Worlds in Horror
Since I’m noticing trends these days (and why not, I’ve got nothing to do but stare at the ceiling while contemplating civilization and life and the meaninglessness of time), here’s another one. Is it just me or is there a thing about horror movies and thrillers hinging on some kind of subworld? Especially since the year 2000. Stranger Things has the “Upside Down”. Insidious has the “Further”. Coraline has the world of the “Other Mother”. Get Out has the “Sunken Place”. Even Us had a subworld with its secret lab maze under the carnival. I didn’t see Don’t Blink, but I guess that has some kind of Bermuda Triangle thing…
-
My Kindertrauma: Tales from the Darkside’s “Inside the Closet”
So for my final Kindertrauma, I bring you one of the most obscure, but most trauma-causing pieces of media I was much too young to see. Some people had Pennywise. Some had Chucky. I had the creature from Tales from the Darkside‘s “Inside the Closet”. Tales from the Darkside was like a cheaper, milder version of “Tales from the Crypt”. Less gore, more reliance on twist endings and psych-outs. But still, it had its share of monsters. Don’t mistake my description to think I watched the show. No, once again this lovely little memory comes courtesy of my mother, who rented it from the Hollywood Video for her class on…
-
My Kindertrauma: Tidbits
For my second-to-last entry regarding Kindertrauma, I thought I’d go over some of the moments that didn’t warrant an entire article, but were still evoke shivers when I think of them. “Recorded Live”(one of HBO’s Short Takes; also known as “Flesh Eating Film Reels”) I have no idea where or when I saw this, but I know I must have. Because when I was perusing old short horror films available on YouTube, this little gem came back, and I immediately had a Vagrant Story reaction (that’s an inside joke I don’t expect you to get). My dad must have recorded this off of HBO (he recorded everything, we had over…
-
My Kindertrauma: The Poison Cackler
The first thing I remember being scared of was the Poison Cackler from Fraggle Rock. Early in life, we all learn what death is. The raccoon laying on the road shoulder. The crushed ant doesn’t move anymore. The grandfather laying in the casket and he looks so strange, unnaturally still, kinda plasticky. And as a child, you know of only a few things that cause death–being old, an unfortunate disease, extreme bodily trauma, and poison. Poison is the scariest of these because it’s the least predictable. It works fast, and it could come from anywhere–an apple, a sword, a battle of wits with a Sicilian. But most of all, all…
-
My Kindertrauma: Wonderful Sausage from “More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark”
How about a change of pace? Let’s hit the pause button on films and go for some literature. Now, I’ve never found reading very scary. It lacks the visual punch and timing. The best you can get is a sense of dread. I know some people say that when your imagination takes over, things are scarier. But for me, I know I have nothing to fear from my imagination — it’s in my head, the monsters can’t affect me there. It’s only as scary as I can make it. Lovecraft can’t stop me from giving Cthulhu a flowery hat like Mrs. Nesbitt. But sometimes at night, when the shadows are…
-
My Kindertrauma: Large Marge
Probably the definition of true kindertrauma. I can’t think of anything more iconic than this nightmare fuel. I remember distinctly fast-forwarding through this part when I watched it on VHS. It was just too scary. It’s bad enough that stop-motion is creepy-looking as hell (see House on Haunted Hill for a great example). There’s not much I can say about it that hasn’t been said. Let’s break it down, see if that helps. The movie’s had some dark areas up to this point, but nothing ridiculous. Pee Wee hitchhikes with a criminal, but has to dress in drag to get past a roadblock. There are a few odd visual gags…
-
My Kindertrauma: Ghoulies
When I was little, there was a video store not too far from our house. I can’t remember what it was called. Mr. Movies? Video Update? I know it wasn’t a Blockbuster because the color scheme was red and white. Anyway, as those who grew up among VHS knows the place was like an art museum. It wasn’t bad enough to have enough selection to give a nine-year-old option paralysis or sucker him into picking “My Pet Monster“. But they had to make every rectangle a beautiful magical portal to another world, each more enticing than the next. And no section had more intrigue than the Horror section. I mean,…
