Horror Report

Tag: creepy

  • There’ll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago

    There’ll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago

    The title of this post is a line from a famous Christmas song that you undoubtedly have heard *(maybe too much*) yet again this year.. Andy Williams’ classic IT’S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF YEAR has a series of nostalgic verses about the season our calenders currently inhabit.. The most wonderful time of year, he concludes with his melody.. But that one line, that ‘scary ghost stories’ reference, has often been overlooked and ignored..

    Some may think Williams is talking about Charles Dickens and his CHRISTMAS CAROL, Scrooge’s ghosts of the past present and future coming to haunt in the dead of night..

    But the story goes much deeper. That one line in a song lyric has much more meaning for the season than anyone really understands.

    The HORROR REPORT often focused in on this Christmas tenet for years..   We talked a lot about Krampus, that pesky demonic figure who scares the goodness into kids this time of year.. And we also focused on those scary ghost stories..

    For those who think the paranormal takes a break after Halloween winds down, think again.. It just begins. And Christmas was the season of high strangeness, spooky occurrences, and bumps in the night that could not be attributed to elves or Santa’s quest to find a chimney..

    Roger Clarke authored a book titled A NATURAL HISTORY OF GHOSTS: 500 YEARS OF HUNTING FOR PROOF.. He detailed why the Victorian age became the prime time for paranormal tales to be woven by people around the holiday season..

    The UK GUARDIAN’s Kim Cochrane explained this in a 2013 article profiling Clarke’s book:

    The popularity of ghost stories was strongly related to economic changes. The industrial revolution had led people to migrate from rural villages into towns and cities, and created a new middle class. They moved into houses that often had servants, says Clarke, many taken on around October or November, when the nights were drawing in early – and new staff found themselves “in a completely foreign house, seeing things everywhere, jumping at every creak”. Robbins says servants were “expected to be seen and not heard – actually, probably not even seen, to be honest. If you go to a stately home like Harewood House, you see the concealed doorways and servant’s corridors. You would actually have people popping in and out without you really knowing they were there, which could be quite a freaky experience. You’ve got these ghostly figures who actually inhabit the house.”

    The fondness of telling ghost stories around warm December fires also struck another author, one from a longer time ago.. Jerome K. Jerome said this in his book TALES AFTER SUPPER in 1891:

    Whenever five or six English-speaking people meet round a fire on Christmas Eve, they start telling each other ghost stories. Nothing satisfies us on Christmas Eve but to hear each other tell authentic anecdotes about specters.

    The idea of ghost stories was common–very common as a matter of fact.. the relics of that time still haunt, to a degree. But any memory has been tamed and watered down through the ages..

    Even the religious idea of Christmas is paranormal just in itself.. Imagine the notion of a woman going about business, being told by an entity from beyond this world that she will give birth to a paranormal savior who will eventually die but rise from the dead and open the door to another realm.. Either an alien did it or an angel. Either way, if you believe in the Christian idea of Christmas, you must conclude that you wholeheartedly have faith in the paranormal and believe in it..

    The veil is thing on Christmas.. as a matter of fact, some mystics through the ages have cited Christmas, not All Souls’ Day or any other time, as the prime time moment for the thinnest of the veil. Even a 19th century nun named Saint Teresa of Avila stated just that..

    The Victorian age was in itself quite scary–the problems which manifested themselves often went unexplained. Science was beginning to explain some, but not all events.. Those shadows Clarke described were common.. The ghost tales that Jerome wrote about were frightening. Krampus would also show up from time to time, beating children with a stick for unruly behavior throughout the year..

    I wrote several thoughts on the Christmas creep factor in a 2013 article on the HORROR REPORT, and I have not changed my mind since then.. we need to keep the creepy in Christmas, we need to hold true to the roots and foundations of ghost tales during the season.. This, I believe, is not a pagan tradition or a Victorian Age secret, it’s a human condition. We are scared of the shadows, we are still scared of the dark.. Christmas is a time when, as fate and faith would hold true, something miraculous occurred.. and a light in heaven appeared to wise men traveling the darkness of night to find the savior in a manger..

    When I was a child, I fondly recall a few traditions that, at the time, seemed a bit bizarre and other-worldly. We had a Christmas eve ‘Holy Supper,’ a Ukrainian traditional dinner of seven fishes. But before dinner began, the youngest of the family–at that time me–would have to knock on the door of the house with a candle and a statue of the baby Jesus and ask if there was room in the inn.  The lights of the house would be off. Those inside would allow entrance and I’d slowly walk in a dark passage with the lit candle and statue..  After dinner, my family would attend a midnight mass. I always recall a large crowd of people.. I also recall being very short at that age, and mostly sitting in the rear of the church. That ensured I would not see a priest, but instead as a young child, I thought the voice was coming from the rafters itself. It probably did not help much that this Church, Saint Ignatius in Centralia, PA, was the location of my first paranormal moment as a young child when I heard whispers coming from an empty confessional during a very dark night.

    All of this said, I think there is something innate in humans to recognize Christmas as a paranormal time, a moment when we are close to the spirit world and the thin veil shreds into non existence for a time..

    Santa Claus is even paranormal–he can sweep across the globe and enter homes across the planet, sparing enough time to throw down some presents and even eat about 25 million cookies and glasses of milk.. Even the reindeer have time for carrots. We tell our children at an early age to believe in something paranormal, to put faith in something hopeful. Adults who laugh at the notion of Santa then go to church on Christmas morning and sing about another paranormal moment when an angel impregnated a women with God’s son.. Even more, the whole notion of December 25th being chosen is under the guise that it was a pagan celebration..

    It’s all connected.
    It’s all paranormal..
    This is the time of year to suspend logic and happily comply with the other realm…
    Just not Krampus.
    He’s the one to avoid during the darkest night of the year…..

  • Predictive programming, or reaching high into the sky?

    Predictive programming, or reaching high into the sky?

    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN0CMGNA3uk?feature=oembed]

    Here is some cool conspiracy for your Sunday..

    The theory behind this video: Predictive programming in BACK TO THE FUTURE.

    The YOUTUBE video is well done, it gives us in depth coverage of Marty’s “Twin Pines” mall warnings about terrorists, and constant 9/11’s appearing in the movie.. of course numbers had to be inverted for that to be true.. There’s also the all seeing Illuminati eye.

    The one part that got me a bit was the flames of the time traveling car looking like an 11 while a symbol for a fake store looked like a 9.

    But for this video to be truly predictive programming screaming to viewers that a terrorist attack would occur on September 11 almost 20 years later, a lot of other things would have to be true, too.. Not to downplay those interesting numeric idiosyncrasies..

    The filmmakers of BACK TO THE FUTURE would have had to be in the know. Robert Zemeckis, the writer and director, was apart of this conspiracy. So .. WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT. THE POLAR EXPRESS, and other BACK TO THE FUTURE films would have the same little Easter Eggs of predictive programming as well?

    While I never underestimate the chances that people are ‘in the know’ and that big groups behind the scenes are deplorable in their evil, some people see symbols and oddities in places where they may not be.

    This message board linked is a good example of the fierce debate that even exists within conspiracy circles..

    But that scene of the blazing 11 .. that one gets me. Not to say I buy into the full idea that Zemeckis wanted to warn us about something that would happen two decades later, but in hindsight lots of scenes are creepy. When pieced together..

    But why didn’t anyone warn us of the 1993 attack. Or the bombing of the USS Cole. Or did they?

    One of my favorite websites in the world is the 9/11 oddities and coincidences page on KILLTOWN. This is one of those website gems I have printed, saved, bookmarked and in a safe place in case the site ever ceases to exist.. On that page, there are years’ worth of strange occurrences in relation to 9/11, including just the strange idea that the Pentagon construction began on a 9/11 in 1941–months before another ‘day of infamy’ attack on America..  Another little point of interest is how Jim Jones wanted to fly a commercial airliner into San Francisco.. and how he didn’t care to tell the pilot how to land, only how to fly. The KILLTOWN page goes on in epic detail .. and we have the LONE GUNMAN episode.. and weird references in the SIMPSONS. And so much more.

    Included with that pop culture listing: BACK TO THE FUTURE…

    We can believe what we want to. We can see what we need to.
    Just use as much careful and concrete common sense you can muster up. Use discernment. See the forest from the trees..
    And don’t stretch it.
    Truth is weirder than fiction, of course..still don’t stretch the truth.

    But that blazing 11.. and that 9. I see it.

     

  • Another civil emergency that was not

    Kentucky residents were sent messages to their cell phones stating that an ‘extreme alert’ was being made and that there was a civil emergency.. The text sent to thousands of cell phones to people in Southern Kentucky was ominous: “Prepare for action,” it said..

    The only problem–maybe thankfully–is that there was no emergency at all. The Kentucky Emergency Management office said that human errors caused the machine to sent out the false alert message. Nothing at all to worry about. No zombies. No attacks.. No nuclear Armageddon.

    Just a human making mistakes..

    Local ABC 36 affiliate in Kentucky reports that the emergency message was sent during a period of computer testing.

    The strangeness of the situation is only amplified by another incident that simultaneously occurred as the warning message was sent: The users of cell phones who got the odd alert also report hearing ‘low flying’ military helicopters during the alert period.. Alex Jones’ INFOWARS has a summation of these incidents,  including the linking of a Facebook post where people were actively laughing, mocking, and commenting about the situation.. One user comment to the post said,

    I was just walking outside the London Wal-Mart and thought I saw 9 or 10 zombies, each using a shopping cart to hold themselves up! I then went to Dairy Queen and saw 2 more that seemed to be working there. I was afraid for my life, they literally looked like characters from The Walking Dead! That’s it, it must be a zombie attack.

    Zombies abound..

    Regardless of why or how this alert generated a scary few minutes for people getting it, it’s certainly not the first time in 2014 that it happened. In October, during the TODAY SHOW segment on how to ‘take charge of your laundry,’ a weird emergency alert interrupted the program on television sets across America.. Thankfully no one really watches the TODAY SHOW, besides a few people forced to in car repair shops and doctors offices across America..

     

  • THE SILENT WEREWOLF SHOOTER

    Something new to fear: The werewolf shooter..

    You can read the full CNN report here..

    Times are getting strange.. now a man in a werewolf suit silently walked into a store and shot a 58-year-old construction worker. There is a massive manhunt on.. FROM CNN: After the shooting, the assailant took off on foot. Despite an “exhaustive search,” the gunman was nowhere to be found, Kelliher said… There is also no word on a motive. But the image is certainly creepy..

  • Truth and dating: Two creepy clips from the past to get under your skin

    Truth and dating: Two creepy clips from the past to get under your skin

    Reality is stranger than fiction..

    Two blasts from the past can prove that, courtesy of users who have uploaded certain videos to YouTube.

    Ed Edwards was a serial killer who murdered countless amounts of people around the United States. There is even a new book claiming that he may have been involved with the 1990s famed Jon Bonet Ramsey murder.. There are others who even believe that Edwards was the Zodiac Killer. But On October 17, 1972, Edward Wayne Edwards, the man we know was a mass murderer, appeared on the game show TO TELL THE TRUTH. He was a con man.. And clearly, even on this show, was telling things very far from the truth:


    x x x x

    Rodney Alcala was another murderer and rapist who made a television debut on a game show in the 1970s..  A number of sexually explicit photographs of boys were also found, some of which could have been additional victims of him.. Alcala was also known as the DATING GAME killer, because that was the 1970s show he appeared on ..

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Uf95INZmWI

    There is something obviously very grisly and creepy about serial killers.. but match them up with obscure and equally creepy 1970s pop culture, and you have the ultimate of oddity and weirdness..

    Keep in mind the brutality of these two people.. and couple that with the fact that their crimes had already been started by the point where they were able to get through background checks and be transmitted into living rooms across America..

    The other question I often ponder based off of these two incidents: Are there people today, on modern game shows, who will one day be revealed to the world as the next horrid killer among us?

  • Those eyes…

    The person in the middle of this photograph was not alive when it was taken.. she was deceased and, after death, her pupils were drawn on the photograph to make her appear more alive:

    tumblr_nehvh9PYOh1qfjo2go1_1280

    This picture is just another stunning example of the Victorian age’s fascination with morbid photographs of lifeless corpses, but bodies made to look and seem very much like they were still living.. Children propped up, or even looking like they were sleeping.. parents, looking distraught from the fact they lost a a child, holding the baby as the photographer snaps away a shot..

    The idea of the pictures was not to display the dead in some twisted game, but instead to memorialize a life that once lived.

    What gives these pictures that creepy and macabre feeling, so often though, is the amount of children in photos. Little lifeless beings who once were alive but cut down early by the time’s disease and other problems that often befell people..

    While the photos can be called ‘creepy’ by our standards, a future generation may one day raise its collective eyebrows at our modern ways of holding viewings.. Or whatever other things cultures around the world currently do.

    I am certainly not a proponent of bringing this custom or tradition back, but i have recently been seeing photographs of corpses occurring at viewings..

    We all handle death in certain ways.. different ways.. And these days we live with a camera constantly in our hands.

    I predict it won’t be too long before these seemingly strange Victorian customs come back again—just in a different Instagram-hue colored sorta way..

  • Where the psychopaths rule

    UK Government officials considered recruiting psychopaths ‘to keep order’ after nuclear attack »

    A Home Office official suggested recruiting psychopaths to help restore order in the event England is hit by a devastating nuclear attack, files released by the National Archives have revealed.

    So if law and order breaks down, you will need people who don’t contemplate human emotions or care about feelings and pain to inflict their own brand or order to the disorder? Apparently yes.. The government must think the only ones they can have confidence in during some crises would be those who are heartless, cruel, and succinct in the style of leadership.

    No moral code, no feelings for others.. and filled with logic.

    Exactly what would be necessary after horrors of nuclear attacks..

    I wonder what other types of crises the government would think psychopaths are good for? … and one must ask, obviously, if the government is simply creating a way for THEM to continue leading..

    The future is now..
    I would think the psychopath idea is very 20th century. Now it’s robots and heartless machines to rule us in the future. And maybe not just disaster or Armageddon, but every day order, too..

  • Turn the frown upside down: Jokers behaving badly

    Turn the frown upside down: Jokers behaving badly

    The strange streak of clown crimes continue worldwide..

    It seemingly all started when TWISTY first appeared on American Horror Story.. since that time frame, the news has been giving us clown recaps nightly. Clowns who terrify children with axes.. others who rip apart pumpkins on front porches..

    Last week we heard about France getting a fair share of freaky clown sightings and crimes..

    Tonight, more information on just how bad this clown fever is getting is being revealed.. This news from France: What began in the Northern part of the country now appears to be spreading. Clowns are showing up in different parts of France, and they are spreading fear, too.. According to media reports, the clown syndrome in that country has been easily spread by Facebook posts and other social media.  

    Also in France, another fake clown was given jail time only days ago.. His crime? Threatening people in full clown attire. And holding a stick that police said resembled a knife..

    The French clown revolution is not only marred by vigilantes searching for those in face paint, but the clowns themselves are also accused of committing crimes.. the town of Douai seems to be ground zero in France. Last week a small girl was reportedly chased .. a student said she was threatened by a clown..  

    This is how phobias are born..

    While this worldwide clown fascination has unfolded, the main brunt of the trickster oddities appear to have hit France hardest.. It is so strange and bizarre that police are saying this: “Symptomatic of the impact of the Internet, this phenomenon can lead to damaging individual acts and disturbances to public order”.”

    The police say that the ‘scary subculture’ of clowns is spreading because of the net fascination..

    This is all getting so weird.
    So weird that there is even a statement from the World Clown Association.. something I did not even know existed until this latest streak of bizarre news..

    Randy Christensen is the president elect of the World Clown Association.. he is unhappy with all of the attention media has been paying to clowns behaving badly.  Vulture interviewed him in depth. No word on whether he was in full gear ..

    Christensen seems to have a big mission: Get people to stop fearing clowns.
    Pop culture isn’t following his lead.
    Neither are violent clowns in France.
    Or scary ones everywhere else..

  • NOT A TEST. BUT NOT AN EMERGENCY.

    NOT A TEST. BUT NOT AN EMERGENCY.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg9OUlSaQxI]

    While the TODAY SHOW talked about how to ‘take charge of your laundry’ Friday morning, a weird message popped up: An emergency alert that the channel has been force tuned to receive the Emergency Alert Message.. The actual audio of the station was interrupted in various cities while the message alert broadcast noise buzzed and the text demanded people stop using their phones to free lines up for the emergency ..

    No alert message followed..
    It is presumed this was a test run.

    Apparently it was not just people scared into a few paranoid thoughts, but also news stations, as well.. <a href=”http://www.wsoctv.com/news/news/local/wsoc-tvs-statement-emergency-alert-aired-wsoc-tv-a/nhrBF/?ecmp=wsoctv_social_twitter_2014_sfp”>WSOC-TV in Charlotte put a statement on its website that read:</a>
    <blockquote><em>WSOC-TV is looking into the emergency alert that aired around 8:30 a.m. Friday morning on Channel 9 and TV64. </em>

    <em>WSOC-TV is hearing that radio stations broadcasted the message too along with our sister station in Atlanta WSB-TV. </em>

    <em>We are investigating the alert and will have more information after we look into it.</em></blockquote>
    A hijack? But who hijacked?

  • Jim Thorpe and the old jail: A haunted attraction worth a look

    Jim Thorpe and the old jail: A haunted attraction worth a look

    Jim Thorpe’s Old Jail Ghost Tours stalk spirits: The Harrisburg PATRIOT NEWS REVIEWS »

    The Old Jail museum in Jim Thorpe has an amazing piece of coal region history.. Molly Maguires were hung here.. and some say the hand print of one of the doomed Mollys never vanished from the wall, as a reminder that something very unjsut happened there..

    I do recommend Jim Thorpe PA to anyone who would want to travel to this part of Pennsylvania. And during this time of year, the Old Jail Museum is a must go..

    Last year, I actually wrote a review about the museum here.. quite frankly, I faced some consternation from the Old Jail for what I wrote, namely a section where I said “The real paranormal story is the hand print—and a couple other little tales, probably tall, of whispers and pats on the back.. ”  There was offense taken from that section.. but I refuse to take it out. The hand print may not be faked, but there are no doubt other embellished stories that provide atmosphere during the Halloween season.

    Regardless of that or the controversy about what I wrote in 2013, I still say it’s a great place to visit and a profound place for anyone who has knowledge of why the Molly Maguires mattered in American history..

    old jail - handprint.jpg