Monday, August 31, 2009

Blast from the Past: That Super Scary Fiddler Movie We Watched in Elementary School



I actually got the chills while I was watching this video clip. This was shown to us for fun on Fridays at Talbott Springs Elementary, which a the time seemed like cruel and unusual punishment.


This is based on a folk tale from East Texas. In this video, a demon fiddler steals a little boy and the mother, Hannah, must try and save him. I don't remember much of what happened on this show since I was hiding behind the lunch cart and only peeked out periodically. I do remember the end. Some dog attacks the fiddler and rips out his fucking eye!


On the educational web site where this is featured, there is a grade level for this video. They have it down as 7 to Adult. We were in the second or third grade when we saw this. It was scary as shit.


In my adult life, friends from elementary school revealed to me that they were also terrified of this video. Thank God. I thought I was the only one.


I can't believe I found this. Tell me that fiddler isn't super-creepy!


UPDATE: This movie apparently won a lot of film festival awards when it made the rounds in 1982. That's great but it doesn't give me back my carefree childhood. I still don't trust people that play violins. I can't imagine I'll be getting much sleep tonight.

3 comments:

  1. I don't believe I remember that one. I do however remember the one where the girl is at a carousel and there is an old scary woman with a creepy puppet. A balloon may have been involved too. They used to show us some fucked up shit in elementary school. No wonder you thought an old skinny man was going to rip your toenails out while you slept.

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  2. HOLY SHIT! I can' believe you found that shit! What the HELL were they thinking showing that to us?! Can you imagine showing something like that to kids nowadays? We were tougher than kids today are.... but I guess our parents actually had to fight the devil fiddlers at recess while we only had to watch a movie about it. Are there any more clips online?

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  3. Based on your description I have decided this video is too scary for me to watch-- I'd have nightmares for weeks.

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