80’s horror movie/crime show/child abduction scene, I only saw the kid taken. My mom came in and turned off the TV so I never found out what happened. This could be a movie or a show, I do not know. There was some kind of serial killer/child molester that was taking kids. A young boy and a girl were riding their bikes. There was a Y in the path, and they were racing each other. They took separate paths at the Y. Suddenly there was a very loud whooshing sound and the boy was sucked up in the air by a huge “vaccuum-like” suction and flies through the air into these open metal jaws hidden in a bush. Then the jaws closed up and all you could see was just the bush again. All that was left was his bike on the ground with the back tire spinning. The killer had some kind of powerful “machinery” hidden in the bush that had the power to open up and suck kids off the path into a long hole underground into a small chamber. I think there were trash, toys, old junk, or clothing around on the floor of the chamber but it was dark, nothing else visible. The next scene was with the police and the girl, discussing what happened. The scene panned closer so you could just barely see some of the metal in the nearby bush under the leaves, and no one noticed it was there. That was all I remember seeing. No one has ever known what this was…terrified me for years as a kid. This is the only movie I have never found and never resolved out of anything that bothered me back then…
The Appointment (1981)?
On further investigation, it probably isn’t The Appointment as the scene you describe does not appear in the movie from what I know. But there is an opening scene on YouTube that is sonewhat similar where a girl is sucked off her feet in the woods by an unseen force.
I almost fell out of my chair just now when I watched that opening scene, I may have had nightmares as a kid and thought they were on bikes, or there are other scenes in the movie, but that’s definitely it. Nobody has ever been able to tell me what that was, and I mean no one has ever had any idea except you. It’s the thing on the ground that makes me 100% sure this is exactly what I saw and scared the crap out of me as a kid. Thanks a lot! …now I must relive it and find out what happens. Maybe it’s not so bad as I am older…
Wow! Glad to be of help. I was curious as to what this could be so I put a description in google and it lead me to a reddit post where someone else had asked a similar question and the answer was given. I was skeptical though as the reviews I have looked at make no mention of any other kids being taken. I also realised that what looked like metal jaws closing is actually just her violin case being crushed. So for those reasons I was skeptical that it was the correct film. Though I did take into account it was years ago that you saw it.
It may have released in 1981 or 1982 depending on where it was released. IMDB says 1982, but I also see articles in the UK saying 1981. It was probably first released in the UK, then the US the next year.
Solved!