1980s or Early 90s Film About A Young Girl

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Hi I watched this movie at the library as a kid, would have been late 80s, early 90s. I think the movie is called mustag or something like that. It's about a young girl with blond hair that has a mustang horse but can't say mustang so the movie is misspelled, I think. Anyway, one scene that stands out is she is traveling through the country side and comes upon a log cabin and some old woman and her husband live there, the old woman is cooking squirrel in a pot and the husband eventually tries to kill the little girl, but she escapes. The old woman reminded me of a witch and the husband was a big dumb guy. She and her friends meet other people along their journey but this one stands out the most. Hope this helps.



freedom~empathy~peace
nozone> Was the film you saw an animated thing, or live action? Can you remember any other details?



Registered User
Hi, it was live action. I can recall that at one point two girls were trapped by the husband and wife in the cabin and they were going to cook and eat them but they switched the bonnets on their daughters and they killed the daughters instead.

I know it was filmed in KY by a KY director, the little girl that played the main character had emphysema or something and died shortly after the film was released. I know this because I found it again a few years ago and researched it hoping it would stay permanent in my mind, but I guess not. Hope this helps.



Registered User
Thank you, I checked the entire list but unfortunately this director must not be too well-known as he was not on the list.



freedom~empathy~peace
Can't I.D. this yet, but I found a description which sounds like the same film but with new details. Somebody was looking for this on another forum about five years ago, but there were no helpful responses sadly.

[quote]
I'm trying to figure out a movie, which I've been looking for for a couple of years now. I think it's from the 80's, and I remember two kids being in the woods, I think brother and sister. They get taken in by a "giant" (I think), who wants to eat them. The giant has twin girls with blonde, curly hair, and they wear bonnets to sleep in. The sister overhears the giant saying he's going to kill them, so she takes the bonnets of the sleeping twins and puts them on herself and her brother, so when the giant reaches up, he feels the bonnets on the brother and sister, and breaks his own daughters' necks. After that, he threatens to beat the siblings, and she says they'll howl like dogs if he does. They end up catching his two dogs in a burlap bag that they were supposed to be in, and he beats the dogs to death instead of them.
[end quote]

nozone > Does any of that sound right?



Registered User
Yes! I think that was me asking that! Thank you, I searched for that post but couldn't find it. I know it was answered correctly there. What was the link?

EDIT: Then again, I don't think that was me. But that does sound very similar.



freedom~empathy~peace
.........What was the link?
To find that post, you have to dig down through the comments (over 1600 of them!). I wouldn't bother, because there was only a single response, and it was a 'jokey' one. But,....

....the page is here:
moviefanfare.com/?p=13828

nozone > Would you say this is a drama, or a 'horror' film we're looking for? (surely not for kids?), and was it a feature length thing? Also, could it actually have been foreign - something dubbed into english perhaps?



Registered User
No, it was a drama, I'd say. It could have been based on a book, possibly a short film even. It was in English, the movie title was a misspelled version of Mustang because the character was young (9-12ish) and pronounce Mustang incorrectly -which is a poor title because it makes the movie very hard to remember and re-find. It;s like Moostang or Mustaag, something like that. I remember in my post back when I found it, I specifically mentioned the old woman being like a witch and cooking squirrel and some lady remembered it by that and said she use to rent the movie from the library for her kids and the library was also where my middle school class went to watch it, I guess in the early 90s, but the movie could have been maybe mid to late 80s.



Registered User
What is the period the movie was set? Is it modern? Wild west times? Like a fantasy novel? What?



Registered User
I'd say the movie was depicting maybe the 1800s. People were using cast iron pots for cooking over a chimney fire, no electricity as far as I could remember. People rode horses to get around, that sort of thing. The description that person added in the quote above is definitely from the same movie, so that's a pretty fair amount of information. I am really surprised noting comes up on Google from any of it. Just not a very popular movie, I guess. Which is sad, because it wasn't a bad movie actually.



Registered User
This is getting frustrating, because it really seems like we now have enough information to find this movie! But the fact that we still cannot leads me to suspect that you have merged together two or more movies in your head, or else you have misremembered some key details.

Okay, so it is set in the nineteenth century. Is it set in Kentucky, or just filmed there? Is it set in the United States? The film is in English, right? But it has a giant in it? Is this a genuine fantasy/legendary giant, or just a human being who is very tall? (My question is "what would a giant be doing in a movie set in the USA in the 19th century?")

Is there some reason why it wouldn't be on the internet? Like maybe it was never actually released, or something? It seems like this is something everybody borrowed from the library or watched in the library, could it have been direct to video?

(Hmm. Paul Bunyan is a giant from 19th century US folklore, but he was a good guy, he wouldn't be trying to kill children. I don't think that there are any evil giants in 19th century US folklore)



Registered User
Okay, here is my guess for today. This is a movie I have never seen:
"Neverending Story 2".

Of course I have seen the first one, but the sequel is supposed to be pretty bad.
However, it seems to have giants, a horse, a journey, and a blond girl.



Registered User
Haha, no, the "giant" is just a guy that's probably 6'6" or so, so as a kid you'd think of him as a giant, I guess. I wish I could add more details, I can't even remember why the little girl and her sister I think it was even left their house. I just recall them meeting some man who lived in a mansion but they didn't stay long there, then they came across this old woman and her really tall husband and those people lived in a cabin and were very nasty people both in appearance and attitude, in fact the couple tried killing the kids but they kept out-smarting them and they would instead kill their own kids and dogs.

It was online when I last watched it, I think someone probably ripped it from vhs and uploaded it. And, once you guess the name it should come up and you could research it and find it was directed by a KY film director and taped in KY, KY actors, etc. Even the main character I found out died shortly after filming. So sad, because she would have been maybe 12 or so and she was a pretty good actress for her age, considering it was her first film and all.

It was not a horror or fantasy but more like an old English tale, you know circumstances that have consequences and a lesson, type story. Not a horror in anyway, though it sounds like one.

Definitely not Never Ending Story 1 or 2. Didn't see 2, but could never forget 1.

I hope this helps



Registered User
Okay, so it sounds like there were no explicitly magic or supernatural elements. There was no giant, just a really tall guy,
So it was "like" an old English tale. Now, it was shot in Kentucky, but did it actually take place in Kentucky? (For example, I recently saw an episode of Doctor Who that took place in India, but they didn't shoot it in India, they shot it in Spain. The actors just acted like they were in India)
So these bad people want to kill the main characters, but accidentally kill their dogs and their own children. But this is a children's movie, with all this killing?
But the basic structure seems to be one or more children, including a blonde girl, and at least one horse (is there more than one horse? Do the children all ride the one horse? Does the horse maybe pull a wagon or something?) have to go on a journey during the nineteenth century, and meet various people and have various adventures.



Registered User
Hansel and Gretel had a witch that tried to cook them in an oven. Beloved by children everywhere.

The killings were implied and nothing a child would be traumatized about, maybe today's kids would, I don't know.

Yes, I think it was KY, but I don't think it was specified where they were exactly. The characters had southern accents. I believe it was just one horse, a Mustang. The main character couldn't pronounce Mustang so the movie was titled after weird pronunciation, like Moostag, Mustagg, Mustaag, something like that.

Yeah, they were just on an adventure looking for something, can't remember what. Maybe they were trying to find a buyer for the horse. That might be it, because I recall she tried to sell it to the rich man in the mansion who didn't want it, I think. Or maybe he did and they walked home and found the cabin. Something like that.

Sorry.



freedom~empathy~peace
I don't think you should feel compelled to apologize - however, this sure is proving to be a slippery one

As time permits I, for one, will keep up the search, however, it's puzzling that this film is being so elusive, especially with all the detail you've been able to provide. It'd be great if somebody tracks it down (and very satisfying for that person too - a bit like finding lost treasure, I would imagine).



I'm not 100% certain this is a children's movie filmed in the US. Of course, it could be an indie film - not following the Disney style of children's movies - but the breaking of the necks of the giants children and the beating to death of the dogs just seems a little too violent. I don't see how that was marketed to kids in the US.

Did the kids speak English or was it possible their voices were dubbed?

If it followed the original Grimm style, I could see the violent deaths. I'm guessing it's an eastern European style movie. I even searched for movies from the country of Georgia in case you mixed the country up with a southern state.

Sorry, but that's all I have.



Registered User
@scallywag - I just feel bad this I can't offer more information. I searched everywhere for this film. Library catalogs, IMDB, multiple-search engines, this forum, and more. I think the older this film gets the harder it becomes to find. Plus the details I remember make places like Google think I am searching for either a Horror film, some foreign film, or the unthinkable (I don't even want to mention the results). If someone comes by and answers this they would of seen it, I think. Searching for it is going to be very difficult, it seems.
@OHForums - No, it was a kids film.The good guys win in the end, if that helps. I personally didn't remember the dogs or the "giants" daughters getting killed until the quote was found above and then I recalled it, but only slightly. What stood out to me mainly was what I call the "witch" ("giants" wife) cooking squirrel in a cast iron pot over a chimney fire and then the details about the actress and what little else I have already mentioned. In no way is it a foreign film, 100% United States, played by American actors, filmed by an American Director.

I promise this movie exists, I just can't figure out what the heck it was called. Really frustrating.. lol.



freedom~empathy~peace
Hey nozone, are you still out there? -- I found it!

I was searching for something else and stumbled upon your film quite by chance. The title is 'Mutzmag' (1993).

Here's a trailer clip: