Let’s go ghost hunting.
Do you see anything? Is there something creeping around the basement hall? Is there a shadow in the corner of the children’s room? Or is the grey lady roaming the research room?
I don’t see anything in the pictures. I don’t think there is anything there.
But I think there may be something upstairs in the house. Let me check…
The problem with the ghosts in The Woman In Black is that they are real. There is nothing left to the imagination. It was a real ghost with a real curse looking to avenge the death of her son by causing misfortune on the villagers and their children. It’s not all in the protagonist’s head, a mature Harry Potter, Daniel Radcliffe. It’s really there.
The atmosphere was decently creepy. The Eel Marsh House had the great hallmarks of a haunted house: secluded and out of the way, overgrown vegetation, dark hallways and even darker rooms, bad glass in the window panes. Yup. It’s a delightfully scary house. Would’ve been nice if the story could’ve lived up to the spookiness.
The story follows Radcliffe who come from London to close out the affairs of the last, late owner of the Eel Marsh House. The surrounding village doesn’t want him there because once Eel Marsh House is messed with children die horrible deaths. And it happens. Death comes for the kids and it’s the woman in black. Spooky. Radcliffe has to confront this ghost or else personal harm will come.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that I can stay in a house which plainly shows the ghost roaming the halls. Or with a rocking chair rocking on its own. Too creepy. I wish this movie had made me scared to sleep at night but it didn’t.
3 of 5 stars
The Thing (2011) is coming! So is @M_E_Winstead. I wonder, when viewing the trailer, you get that Ripley feeling. O, Mary Elizabeth, can you kick alien ass as great as Ms. Weaver.
I am so there. I can’t resist her big brown eyes.
In the morning before the ground shook, I was reading Micheal Chabon’s Maps And Legends and came upon his intro to Casting the Runes, an anthology of M.R. James ghost stories. Chabon celebrates the short story “Oh, Whistle and I’ll Come to You, My Lad!” as M.R. James’ greatest ghost story. He also laments that the ghost story has fallen out of favor with writers.
I concur. There’s something satisfying about a well crafted ghost stories. A well written ghost story sends shivers up your spine and is a joy to read. You’re frightened and elated and that’s a good feeling.
What I liked about Chabon’s essay was that he went touched upon a few things I noticed about ghost stories — things I felt I should write about too. Here’s where I write about them.
Chabon talked about the first person perspective of most ghosts stories. They are mostly told by a narrator describing ghastly things he has seen or has heard about from a reliable source. Chabon talked about the truthiness of the ghost story accounts. The narrator’s account from a first person perspective — can you trust ’em? Or that they seem almost true. Chabon talked about how they were told on cold winter nights around camp fires. That’s the best time for ghost stories. And they are told, spoken, enough to scare you.
I, too, love the first person perspective of the ghost story. “I don’t believe in the supernatural, but….” They always open like that and you get hooked. I don’t believe in the supernatural but I love the chills I get from reading them. I love ’em in the winter. The darkness. The cold. Under the covers. The darkness. All are conducive to being frightened.
It’s almost fall and the day’s are getting longer. It’s almost time for a good ghost story. “I don’t believe in the supernatural…”
“Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright.”
Maleva (Maria Ouspenskaya), The Wolf Man (1941)
I had a nightmare last night. I can’t remember the complete specifics. Maybe it wasn’t a true nightmare of being chased or stalked or haunted. Maybe it was just a creeped out feeling while asleep. All I know is that I woke up in the middle of the night with the chills as if something, evil, was in the room with me.
I usually keep the door to my bathroom closed. Since it’s winter, my furnace is always on. So I keep the door to my bathroom open so that it isn’t stuffy with heat in the morning. After I woke up in chills, I spied the black maw that is the open bathroom. I couldn’t get it out of my mind that something, evil, was going to come out of there.
I roll over, but that black maw of creepiness is still there.
I try to use the magic kumut, but it was too hot to get under the cover.
I have to go to bed tonight. The dark maw of the bathroom beckoning, but hopefully nothing evil in the room with me.
These are crazy freaking me out, because they don’t move and then they do. Whaaatttt!
It’s like the tombstone in front of the Haunted Mansion at Disney: the eyes are closed, then they are open.
Boo!Scared you, right?No? But that's what I was thinking about this morning: spooks, frights, and scares. It's the last week 'til Halloween, and my thoughts always turn towards the scary around this time of the year. I love the feeling of being spooked. I think that it's most likely the slight shot of adrenaline you get when things creep you out. I am reminded of this whenever I ride my bike alone into the woods. It's slightly creepy on the backroads. You have to be aware of your surroundings when riding on the road. If you aren't careful, you may be hit by a car, so your senses are heightened. Look around. You look around and when you're in the woods it gets dark and creepy. Your cadence picks up and your elevated heart rate jumps slightly. Are those shadows in the woods just shadows? Are the dark, dank areas around you empty? Of the living? What's that noise? Is it just you, alone or can you feel the presence of an paranormal entity? I'm reminded of Ichabod Crane whenever I ride alone in the woods and get creeped out by my surroundings. Will the headless horseman come after me, throwing pumpkins, to lop off my head? The only thing I can think about is "Am I faster than his horse?" Sadly, the answer would be no.But the creeped out feelings occur lots. At home, what's that creaky noise coming from upstairs? Is there something wandering downstairs? Are there zombies wandering the field out back in the night as I pull into my garage? Did I leave the light on? Why's this door ajar? Just looking at creepy old houses excites the creeped out feelings. The old Rosewood institution in Owings Mills is creepy. It can substitute for many of the deranged hospitals you see in horror movies. Even its purpose lends itself to that milieu: it was a hospice for the serious developmentally disabled kids. Yes, that is somewhat disturbingly creepy.What do you think is creepy? And have you experienced anything real?
One of the reasons I had for writing about my love of ghost stories was to explore feelings I had for other types of stories in the horror genre. In fact, I had started that post with ghost stories but intended to touch upon vampires, werewolves, monsters, and the undead. This post is to begin adding to the other post.First things first, these rambling posts were inspired by watching the summer anime series, High School of the Dead. The first episode is standard zombie fare: the dreaded zombie outbreak with no explanation as to its cause. A school in Japan is where the mayhem takes place with students being attacked and attacking alike. The zombie hoard of recently killed students eating the remaining living students. Lots of blood flying in this one. I watched the episode with pleasure. Its fanservice was stupid fun, but it kept me wondering about zombie attacks and our reactions and responses to them.Zombies (the monsters, the stories, and the movies) don't do too much for me. The George A. Romero, slow zombies aren't too frightening. The fast twitch, neu zombies do, but they are not what I'll be discussing today. I can't believe in fast zombies. The dead, because of rigor mortis, shouldn't move very fast. Plus, fast zombies are even more scarier. I just don't want to deal with them.Why is it that in dealing with zombies the major problem arises from stupid mistakes of the survivors? "Don't open the door!" "Don't go out and save her!" "Don't let him in! He's infected!" Your chance of survival is directly proportional to doing common sense stuff and keeping away from them. I guess that's why the Zombie survival book was a big hit. It made explicit the common sense things to do in order to avoid death when the dead rise.In the anime, the kids did the stupid things to die. If you do the stupid things, you'll die. The only way to live is to not do the stupid things.And that's my problem with zombies. Through proper, rational thought, you should survive. Keep your wits about you, and you should live. By being sentient, you should live. Avoid being stupid. You'll be dead. Smart equals living. Dumb equals dead. Your intelligence will get you through the zombie infestation. It's that easy.That said, if it's fast zombies, all bets are off.
Saturday night and I get home, plop on the couch in front of the TV, watch an hour, and then fall asleep. Television is still on. Earlier, I happened to run across AMC showing The Shining and made a mental note to avoid as the night got old. As I tossed and turned through the night on my uncomfortable couch I catch glimpses of what show is playing on the TV. In the quiet of the early morning, I see that the television is back to AMC. Jack Nicholson's frozen, grim visage greets my sleepy eyes as I try to focus on the television. How did I get back to AMC or did I not change the channel the last time to avoid this creep show? I don't think I did it, but I can't be too sure. I'm hoping for a better explanation, but there are goose bumps on my arms.I like all things creepy by which I mean mainly ghostly. A spectre haunts my imagination. Ghosts, to me, are a million times cooler than any vampire, werewolf, or zombie. It's because I can't really know if they aren't real or not. It's because the shades and spirits spring from my own imagination.I wonder why I like ghost stories so much. In my own library, I have several compilations of ghost stories. Plenty of old Victorian frights, some smattering of modern spooks, and plenty of early twentieth century ghosts. Authors as great as HG Wells, Mark Twain, and Ambrose Bierce have creepy stories. They fill several books with some scary things. These books' spines are well worn and plenty of pages are dog-eared. One of my favorites is from the Twilight Zone television show. In this book, there's the favorite "House on the Square" story. We tell this story all the time. I think it has to be a favorite just because of how it was introduced to me. The Twilight Zone book isn't mine. It's my older brother's. One night a long time ago in the house on Cedarhurst, the story kept him from sleeping, so naturally, he comes into my room to read it aloud. It's about ghost hunters debunking haunted places. One ghost hunter is a believer. The other is a skeptic. My brother then focuses on the central detail of the story — the Penang lawyer. It was one of the ghost hunters weapons, but was used in the house on the square to signal the arrival of danger. *KNOCK* went the Penang lawyer. *KNOCK* *KNOCK* again. After finishing the story, my brother went back to his room. *KNOCK* across the wall separating us. Ha-ha very funny, but very creepy as well. From that moment, I had to read the book, and since it is a favorite to look for some creepy stories.There are plenty other ghost stories I love — "The Shadow in the Corner," "The Judge's House," "The Red Room." All are frightening enough to have me leave the lights on before I close my eyes to sleep. I like the goose bumps I get from reading them. I like the hair on my neck to raise as I flip the page. I like that cold chill down the spine wondering if that creaking out in the hall is the house settling. I like ghost stories.
