When I lived in Europe as a kid they had this TV program on German television that was like 'America's Most Wanted'. It was called 'XY'. All the kids that went to my school watched it because they did these wicked re-enactments of crimes that didn't skimp on the violence or the blood. The 'man with the hook hands' was one such episode that sticks with me to this day.
The short film started with a prisoner being transported by train to what I assumed was the sight of his last crime, that site being the city of Lahr which we lived just outside of. Since he had been handcuffed in the front, he was able to subdue the cop escorting him. He made for the last car on the train hoping that he could jump off. The train slowed down on a bridge crossing and that was his perfect opportunity to escape.
However, things didn't go well for him and the handcuff chain got caught on a part of the railing and when he feel of the train he left both his hands behind.
The next thing they showed was him robbing a bank with some associated while wearing a wig. His two prosthetic hooks were clearly visible as he gave orders to his men. It was the scariest thing I had ever seen up to that point in my life (age 10).
Of course this was all we talked about at school for the next week. Those who didn't watch the show thought that this guy was a figment of our imaginations. They only believed us when one of my friends brought in an actual wanted poster that showed this guy face. His father was a military MP and came across that poster in his work.
Underneath his picture was a mannequin they had dressed up to show the cloths he was wearing at the time of the crime, the blond wig and the two hook hands. The mannequin had no face however and it's that vision of the faceless killer with hook hands that stayed with me all these years later.
I am sure that because the mini-movie was in German and the wanted poster was in German that it just fueled our imaginations to fill in the blanks for the parts of the story we didn't know. It made everything more scary and sinister.
For months I didn't ride my bike by myself or leave the apartment after dark.
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10 comments:
At ten years old that would very likely have scared the piss out of me. I would have had nightmares for weeks and run screaming from any man whose hands I couldn't see.
Sounds about the way I felt too.
German hook man. The new boogie man for kids.
Yep I'm with you. The scariest dude I ever met was missing both his hands. In the first movie I ever wrote (Stickmen) I gave the badguy (Daddy) no hands you can briefly glimpse him in this poor-quality trailer: http://www.trailerfan.com/movie/stickmen/trailer
That's interesting cause I know I've seen a scene in a movie like that where the guy gets his hands cut off while dangling from a train bridge. Now it's going to bother me as I try to remember what it was.
OMG. I wonder when that movie was made. I wonder if it's based on that hook guy. K, now I am creeped out even more.
That trailer was cool. I can't believe we are both scared by the same things. Always safety in numbers.
I think I heard of this guy. I heard that he has been spotted in Canada. They say he is in your province. Perhaps, I've heard, the hook-handed fiend is visiting your town. What is that, that scraping sound, of metal on metal? Do you hear it, just outside your door?
Well, goodnight.
Not cute Glenn. Don't I have enough to be scared of already?
Don't worry Kal. No one, not hook-handed, cephalopod, or evil robot, can breach the defenses of the Cave of Cool.
Well that is true. Since we upgraded our security and hired those judgemental polar bears to work the doors.
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