Terror Connection Magazine: Issue 2 - Paranormal Encounters

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Page 4: S.J. Carter Deaditors Blog Page 5: Steven Pepper Deaditors Blog Page 6: ‘The Simpsons’ Horror Mash-Ups Page 12: Zak Bagans Closes Dangerous Exhibit Page 14: Demon House Film Review Page 16: Flashback Weekend At Chicago Horror-Con Page 20: Interview With The Artist: Chris Enterline Page 26: Texas Chainsaw Auction Page 28: VHS Vault Page 32: Interview With The Artist: Nicola Jackson Page 38: Podcast Information Network Page 42: Directors Cut Page 44: The Many Incarnations of Hill House Page 52: Interview With Brooke Nelson of Boolesque (Part 1) Page 60: International Ghost Stories Page 68: JF Lemay Illustration Page 78: Fresh Look For ‘Final Nightmare’ Page 80: Robert Englund Returns Page 82: ‘Believe It Or Not’ – Bruce Is Back Page 84: Hell Hello LLC Film Review Page 86: Interview With Ryan Jennifer Jones Page 90: Hell Hell House 2: The Abbadon Hotel – Sinister Connections Page 96: Alien Covenant Sequel – The Beast Is Back Page 98: New Nightmare Set For 2021?

Page 100: The Haunting of Waverly Hills Sanitorium Page 102: Edinburgh's Bloody History - Witch trials, Burke & Hare and More Page 106: The Dorothea Puente Murder House Page 110: James Deans Little Bastard Page 112: The Most Extreme Haunted House Page 114: The Lizzie Borden House Page 116: The Winchester Mystery House Page 118: The Amityville Prequel Page 120: Ireland’s Most Haunted Locations Page 128: Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia Page 130: The Catacombs, Paris Writing Talent: Steven Pepper and S.J. Carter Contributors: Brooke Nelson, Chris Enterline, Nicola Jackson, Nicole Murphy and JF Lemay A massive thank you to all of our contributors.

"I don't know about sleep!

It's Summertime!"

That vine has definitely been my personal anthem this year.

In addition to my regular 9 to 5, or to put it more accurately 6 to 6, most of my waking hours have been devoted to all the gruesome goodness this season has to offer.

While the Fall has always been my favorite time of year, Summer has proven itself a worthy close second.

A large part of this is due to the drive-in. My local drive-in to be more specific.

Right around March I start counting down the days until opening weekend.

The closer it gets, the more my adrenaline peaks.

The fact that my regular trips there now double as both work and play is new to me and I'm loving every minute of it.

Getting to share this thing I have such an intense passion for with the world is something I never thought would go any further than a fantasy bouncing around my addled brain.

Seeing that fever dream come to fruition has been truly wonderful.

Aside from the positive response from Issue 1, the feedback from social media (especially my super awkward videos) has been fantastic.

I also had the extreme pleasure of interviewing Brooke Nelson, the mastermind behind Boolesque, a Halloween themed Burlesque show I attend every October.

Within minutes of meeting Brooke she quickly skyrocketed to the top of my list of favorite people.

I couldn't have asked for a better subject for my first face to face interview.

And what fun I've had researching international ghost stories.

I found myself cascading down quite the rabbit hole.

I may have disappeared altogether were I not blessedly distracted by the country fried ramblings of one Joe Bob Briggs.

The resurgence of the king of the drive-in mutants became an immediate obsession so it should be no surprise that Joe Bob and drive-ins will litter this issue.

But I do have plenty of other ghoulish goodies to tantalize your brain buds with.

So switch your tv's to that static channel and bust out your Ouija boards.

My fellow horror hounds….

Welcome along to our 2nd issue.

We have so many delightfully dark and mysterious items for you to check out.

This being a paranormal issue, some of the features of this issue come from personal experience, as well as researching evidence of the paranormal.

Doing the research has been an enlightening experience.

Especially the article relating to the hauntings and bloodshed in Edinburgh, Scotland.

I’ve lived in Scotland since for 26 years and honestly had no earthly idea about the amount of blood that was spilled in my capital city.

Most notably, the history of the seedy underground and the notorious body snatchers and serial killers Burke and Hare.

By happy coincidence, while researching a haunted fort in Ireland, it turned out that a clerk working for the admiralty there, would later go on to be the founder of the state of Pennsylvania, which is where my co-editor comes from. It was a happy moment getting to share that with her.

I’m a huge fan of the TV show ‘Ghost Adventures’. Prior to watching the show, I was a complete sceptic, and thought of ghosts and the like to be ridiculous.

But upon seeing scientifically gathered evidence, and a team that were honest and debunked things that couldn’t be of a paranormal nature was very refreshing.

The research I really enjoyed the most in this issue, were the cases involving convicted serial killer Dorothea Puente, The Lizzie Borden House, The Winchester mystery house, and Waverly Hills Sanitorium.

One of the main goals of this magazine, is to promote independent artists, filmmakers etc. that produce some beautiful works, and deserve recognition for their talent.

In this issue we have exhibited two independent artists, and hope you enjoy their work as much as we do.

Have a read, and most of all enjoy.

Thank you for you continued support.

The 30th anniversary of the legendary ‘Treehouse of Horror’ episodes featured in ‘The Simpsons’, will… as coincidence would have it, be the show’s 666th episode.

We’re waiting with bated breath for the episode, Which will drop in October.

As with tradition, the Treehouse episode will feature spoofs of popular horror films and programming.

What we know so far, is the material getting used in the landmark episode, will be from Guillermo del Toro’s ‘The Shape of Water’ and Netflix’s most popular sci-fi/horror show “Stranger Things.”

In anticipation of the episode and in the spirit of the Treehouse ‘Simpsons meets Horror’ mantra, a very clever artist, with a brilliant sense of humor called Peter Mahoney, has for the last few months, been creating some spectacular ‘Simpsons meets horror’ artwork.

We won’t spoil it by telling you what films have received Mahoney’s specialist treatment, read on and take a look.

And please, Follow Mahoney over on: Instagram: @pbmahoney_art And his Etsy at: www.etsy.com/shop/PBMahoneyArt and purchase some of his amazing prints.

All pictures courtesy of Peter Mahoney

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Zak Bagans Closes DANGEROUS Anyone who is into anything paranormal, will know the name Zak Bagans.

For the benefit of those who don’t, he is the host of ‘Ghost Adventures’, which is now in its 18th season and unlike every other ghost hunting show, has shown no signs of going stale. It’s a truly brilliant show, that sets the standard and leads the way.

The show, hosted on The Travel Channel, sees Zak and his cohorts go to the creepiest and most haunted places, capturing evidence of the paranormal.

And to further add to Zak’s credentials… in 2018, he released the docu-film called ‘Demon House.

The film revolves around a house that Zak bought in Gary, Indiana.

He documents the terrifying events that have occurred in the house and works through his own investigation… The results are terrifying.

What we’re here to talk about now, is what Zak’s interests are behind the cameras.

He has a collection of items he has kept from his many investigations, and he himself has curated these items in ‘The Haunted Museum’, that he owns, and runs out of Las Vegas.

When you go inside, you’ll find a collection of items that Zak has curated throughout his years as a paranormal investigator.

You can see Ed Gein’s cauldron, VW death van that Dr. Kevorkian ended the lives of terminally ill patients, as well as the “Propofol chair” from Michael Jackson’s death room.

Perhaps most unsettling, the staircase from the above mentioned ‘Demon House’.

But there is one specific piece that Zak has recently acquired that has rocked the museum and has forced him to remove it from the museum completely until further notice.

The item in question is the newest item that has been added to his museum.

It’s a rocking chair, known as ‘The Devils Rocking Chair’, that was involved in ‘The Devil Made Me Do it’ court case.

He acquired the chair from famed ghost hunter, the late Lorraine Warren. She is the worldrenowned paranormal investigator, whose work has been credited in such Hollywood films as ‘The Conjuring’, ‘Annabelle’, and ‘The Nun’. The 3rd film in ‘The Conjuring’ series is reported to be centered around the court case that involved this very chair.

In an interview as to the goings on in relation to Zak removing the chair from the museum, he said: “The chair exhibit closure in the museum is because of several people experiencing very negative paranormal activity on its opening night”. “The episodes were frightening and started 20 minutes before the first tour group visited”.

“Me and a friend noticed the door to the room where the chair was sat, started to slowly creak open all by itself”.

“Then by itself, the spotlight above the chair turned off cause its power cord was mysteriously yanked out of the wall”.

“Then, alarmingly, just 2 hours after opening my doors, a woman was observing the chair, when she collapsed and began bawling and screaming over, and over, "Why is this happening to me?"

“Shortly thereafter, she fell unconscious while directly above the exhibit.”

“Then later, 5 of my tour guides throughout the museum started crying uncontrollably.”

He further added: “The stress was too much. I had to shut it down until further notice.”

Zak Bagans is the presenter of the renowned paranormal investigation show ‘Ghost Adventurers’ which has now for an impressive 18 seasons.

On this occasion Mr. Bagans has stepped out of the world of television, to make a doc-film called ‘Demon House’ that was 3 years in the making.

Narrating at the start of the film, he tells us that he has done many investigations in his life, but this was the one that really f**ked him up the most.

We are shown a re-enactment of a dream that Zak had, about an admittedly terrifying 12-foot man with the head of a goat, that made its way down a staircase to greet him, and as he approaches, fills the room with thick black smoke. When he woke, he said he could feel his lungs burning from the black smoke.

The next morning he sees a news report on the news, about a family who were living in a small home, in the town of Gary, Indiana. They had been experiencing what was described as terrifying paranormal and demonic activity.

The activity in the property was that terrifying, that the family left the property, and would never to return.

They were so fearful of the property, that they even refused to speak about it.

Its at that point that Zak immediately bought the property.

The trailers and posters boast that the film is cursed. If you’re looking for a film that’s full of jump scares, or another ‘Amityville Horror‘ type film, then you’re in for a disappointment, because this is not that type of film.

Yes, the house in question has comparisons to the demons that reportedly haunted and possessed the Lutz family in the Amityville house, but this is a documentary about real paranormal events. It’s not a Hollywood horror film full of special effects..

In saying that, there are some scary reenactments of the supposed events that were described to have taken place in the house.

We at Terror Connection are huge fan of Ghost Adventures and have followed them from the beginning.

After watching ‘Demon House’ on four different occasions, we can honestly say that this documentary felt just like watching a feature length episode of Ghost Adventures, with the same type of hi-tech gadgets, the same visual/audio tech from Jay Wasley and other guests that have featured on the show.

This was something that initially we weren’t too impressed by…, but that changed… pretty much immediately when the realization set in… that of course Zak will have wanted to use people he’s had success with on his show and had results. They are people he knows and trusts.

That aside, I can assure you that this piece of film making is exquisite… it really is… and more… and then some more. To those of you who are non believers in the paranormal, the scientific evidence that is gathered here is irrefutable.

Demon House, like any documentary doesn’t move at a fast pace, but what you are seeing on screen is incredibly intriguing, and draws in… and draws you in.

Every time something unexplainable happens, it sends shivers down your spine.

If there is any comparison that can be made, is that it is reprehensive of the terrifying events that occurred in the documentary associated with ‘The Enfield Haunting’.

The reason behind this, are that even though there is an overwhelming amount of evidence recorded that would suggest demonic possession (this was validated by Ed and Lorraine Warren, the most respected paranormal investigators in their field) ... many will still say these events were staged for attention and is a hoax.

During the making of filming, not one of the crew involved were ever the same again.

Members of the crew became violent and had to be fired.

Dr Taff, The para-psychologist who worked with Zak on much of the film, ended up in hospital with organ failure.

Zak himself, was affected badly, and ended up suffering permanent vision impairment that will be there life and wear specially designed prism lens glasses so he can see.

What the cast and crew suffered while filming, are not things that just happen. There is no such thing as coincidence… And it’s no coincidence that these otherwise healthy men, would succumb to such ailments.

At the end of this documentary, to make sure nobody else entered the house and came to harm, Zak had the house destroyed…

Keeping only a bucket of soil from the basement, and the staircase from the basement… and locked them up in a storage container.

At the 2019 Horror Con, the ‘Flashback Weekend had some very special guest.

A man that’s no introduction…the and only Robert Englund was in attendance, and he wasn’t alone.

The Ladies of Elm Street, including some of Freddy’s biggest foes were also in attendance.

Although their characters died in brutal fashion…

Literally by the hand of Freddy… the leading ladies of the franchise put aside their fictional differences with Robert Englund and got together for a group photo.

So… which ladies are in the photo?

In the middle is Heather Langenkamp (Nancy), Amanda Wyss (Tina), Lisa Wilcox (Alice), Tuesday Knight (Replaced Patricia Arquette as Kristen), Brooke Theiss (Debbie), Toy Newkirk (Sheila) , and Lisa Zane(Maggie).

Amanda Wyss also posted a picture to her Facebook of herself and Robert Englund, plus a few more pictures having fun with cosplayers at the convention.

Heather Langenkamp is perhaps the most well-known of the group.

She played the character of Nancy… Freddy’s most formidable foe. She starred in the original Elm Street film, returned for Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, and Wes Craven’s New Nightmare. With rumors being rife that a new Elm Street film might is in the pipeline, she has said that she is open to a return to the franchise.

Wyss also appeared in the original Elm Street film as Tina, was the first on-screen victim of Freddy Kruger, and is still remembered as one of the most brutal in the franchise.

Lisa Wilcox, played the character Alice in Elm Street 4 and Elm Street 5.

She was another warrior, that just like Nancy, that stopped Freddy in his tracks.

We’ve recently seen an upswing in news about the horror franchise, too, with Crawl‘s Alexandre Aja possibly working on a reboot.

In the meantime, anyone keen to catch up on Freddy and the Elm Street women can enjoy the first six movies in the series when they arrive on Shudder this August

Thank you very much for taking the time to chat with us, it’s hugely appreciated. The second we saw your work, we knew straight away we had to showcase your talents.

What is an average day in the life of Chris Enterline?

• “I wish I could say it was exciting and full of intrigue like James Bond, but it's pretty boring. I usually spend my days working at my day job then I come home and tend to my dog, Major, then I draw all night before passing out. *Very* exciting*”.

What would you say was integral to you starting out as an artist?

• “Comic books. Specifically Jim Lee and Scott Williams and their run on X-Men. The detail they threw on the pages back in the 90’s just blew my mind. I knew I wanted to do that someday”.

Are your artistic abilities a gift or a result of hard work and determination?

• “A good friend of mine put it best… Being a talented artist isn't a gift, it's more like you’ve been given a shovel. You have to constantly dig and dig. Its hard work and you have to want to strive for it. I don’t know anyone who just picked up a pencil or a brush one day and slammed out work like Bernie Wrightson or Picasso. Everyone has to work for it. Anyone can be a good artist.

Anyone can be a great artist”.

Are you better today than when you first started?

•

Absolutely. I was arrogant when I started.

I thought I didn't need to study anatomy or proportions or any of that "nonsense".

Then one day someone just ripped my work apart and told me that all of my people looked rigid and the same.

There was no emotion to them.

So, from that day forward, I just always do my homework.

I research and study everything that I get into.

I can draw without reference, sure, but sometimes being accurate is important, so you need to use it.

Should art be used to express beauty, as well as the ugly and painful side of life?

•

I think there is beauty in the ugly, painful side of life, so yes, definitely.

If the world was a perfect place, I think creative people would long for disorder and chaos, and their art would show it.

We're a complicated bunch.

Do you intend for others to ‘see’ and ‘feel’ what you ‘see’ and ‘feel’ in your art?

• Not really. I don't really express myself through my art too often.

I just like stuff to look cool.

Sometimes people see things that I didn’t think about in my stuff, and that's awesome, but I really don't set out to bleed onto the canvas, so to speak.

What is your creative process?

•

I make a cup of coffee, regardless of the time, and I sit down and just start scribbling until I find something in that mess that makes sense. Then I build upon it and create forms and depth, and then I usually delete all of that and start over again and again and again until I end up with something I like.

Do you collaborate with other artists?

•

Not really, I tend to fly solo.

I am however, working on a comic book called ‘Sons of God’ with a very talented colorist named Bryan Valenza.

He's a phenomenal colorist, and if you've read Witchblade recently, you've probably seen his stuff.

The kickstarter for that launches in October, so keep an eye out. I think we groove well together.

Is your creative process influenced by any kind of political or social agenda?

•

Not intentionally.

I can imagine it creeps into my thoughts from time to time, but for the most part I just create to create.

If you had all the time in the world and unlimited financial means, would you create the same art you create today?

•

No doubt.

I would probably create more art.

I'm constricted by time, mostly.

If I had time and money, I'd have rooms full of art.

We have learned via star Edwin Neal that a whole host of never before seen stills, and negatives are going to be up for grabs through ‘Heritage Auctions’.

Fans of Tobe Hooper’s masterpiece will know that Neal played the part of the hitchhiker.

What he is auctioning are items from his own personal collection.

There will be two separate auctions, and they offer the following: Auction 1: 7x Color 35mm Film Negative Strips 7x Black and White 35mm Film Negative Strips, 16x Color Transparency Slides, 1x Contact Sheet made from Color Negs and Original Japanese Program.

The photos that are on offer feature pictures of the actors behind-the-scenes and the making of the film. There are also pictures of Tobe Hooper himself.

Auction 2: Original 400′ Reel of Original 16mm Work Print Outtakes.

The reel of photos up for auction features outtakes from the film that have never been seen before. There are spliced together work print outtakes from a number of sequences in the film starting with the slate at the head of the take in a number of instances. There are also photos of Pam and Kirk approaching the house, the Hitchhiker and Leatherface chasing Sally through the woods, Leatherface chasing the truck driver and several shots of Sally in captivity.

In the following pages, is a brief preview of some of the material that is up for sale to the highest bidder.

John Russell, a composer from New York City, moves to Seattle, following the deaths of his wife and daughter in a traffic accident while on a winter vacation. He rents a large and eerie Victorian mansion from an agent of the local historic society, Claire Norman, who tells him that the property has been vacant for 12 years.

Not long after moving in, John begins to experience unexplained phenomena, starting with a loud banging every morning. One night,he sees the apparition of a drowned boy in a bathtub.

Two groups of people discover evidence that suggests spirits may be trying to invade the human world through the Internet.

Yoshimi Matsubara, in the midst of a divorce mediation, rents a run-down apartment with her daughter, Ikuko.

She enrols Ikuko in a nearby kindergarten and lands a job as a proof reader, a job she held before she was married, but this time in a small publishing company with modest pay.

The ceiling of their apartment has a leak that worsens on a daily basis.

Matsubara complains to the building superintendent but he does nothing to fix the leak. When she tries to contact the apartment above,she gets no answer. However, as she leaves, she catches the glimpse of a mysterious long-haired girl peering out of the doorway, but upon returning, sees no sign of her.

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Physicist Lionel Barrett and his wife lead a team of mediums into the Belasco House, which is supposedly haunted by the victims of its late owner, a six-foot-five serial killer.

A family moves into an old, haunted house that regenerates itself by feeding off of the life forces of its injured occupants.

The Smurl family move into their new home on Chase Street only to find that it is plagued by ghostly and demonic energy.

Ghost Story 1981

Ghost Story is a 1981 American horror film directed by John Irvin and based on the 1979 book of the same name by Peter Straub.

It stars Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., John Houseman and Craig Wasson(in a dual role).

The female lead role was played by Alice Krige in a dual role as Eva Galli/Alma Mobley.

It follows a group of elderly businessmen in New England who gather to recount their involvement in a woman's death decades prior when one of them suspects her ghost has been haunting him.

PODCASTS AND SLASHER RADIO

In Aberdeenshire, Scotland, there is a talented independent makeup artist that has been putting together some incredible artwork, with a strong horror influence.

We here at Terror Connection love her work and felt that we must share with you.

The artist, ‘Nicola Jackson’ has kindly given us permission to share her work and even more exciting, the gifted and talented artist has also agreed to do an interview.

Well… Let’s not keep you waiting and get straight to it.

` Hi Nicola, thank you for taking the time to talk to us.

It’s awesome to chat with you candidly and get an insight into the woman behind art. ________________________

The work you’ve done is completely of your own creation.

What was your initial source of inspiration that got you designing your own horror themed artwork?

• “Thank-you for having me here, huge honor.

Honestly, there are literally thousands of amazing artists on Instagram that inspire me daily.

Between my love for make up and my passion for mental health awareness, I thought I could some how put them both together.

It’s a therapy to me.

I can take the dark thoughts in my own head and put it into my brush”._________________________________

What do you love about horror genre artwork?

• “The entire transformation of it.

For instance today I’ve woke up as Nicola, but then, I could be a werewolf… And In the next hour, I could be a Disney princess.

I could be someone sent from the 1950’s!

There’s so many personas and different characters!”

What is your process from start to finish?

• “Research!

Trying out different techniques and styles till I’m happy with what I’ve got.

Hopefully, it’ll be so much better quality when I update my cosmetics collection cause it’s still kind of small to me”.

There are so many makeup products out there and a huge choice of makeup pallets.

If you could pick one unique product to use, which would be your favorite, and why?

• “Oooooh!!!! This is a very tough question!

If I had to pick an item I have, it would probably have to be James Charles’ artistry palette!

It has every color you could need”.

What is the biggest challenge you have faced so far?

• “My confidence.

I’ve always been a big fan of make up but I’m not the type of person to be “look at me, I’m so cool, validate me.

But with this type of hobby, it’s my face that gets put out there, so it does come across somewhat vain.

I’m not vain at all.

I don’t want people to see me, I want people to see what I've become.

Like a mask that hides the real me”.

What if any, are the biggest mistakes you’ve made?

• “Probably not doing this sooner!

I’m 32 and I’ve only been doing this style of makeup for about a year!

I wish I stuck at it from a young age.

I’d probably be a lot further than I am now, but I still have time so it’s fine”.

What has been the most exciting experience you’ve had when designing your art?

• “People wanting to copy it.

I love that! I love helping people with their make up.

I love inspiring people.

I love cheering them on and encouraging the hell out of them.

The make up community can be rather nasty out there, and its so much better if we just unite with each other and support one another”.

What are your favorite horror films and why?

• “You will laugh so hard at this!

I don’t do scary movies (often) despite loving horror makeup and Halloween, I’m a massive scaredy cat!

The best one I’ve seen so far is probably Candyman.

I feel somewhat sorry for him as his death was pretty evil”.

What horror films, if any, scared you the most?

• “Freddy Kreuger scares the life out of me!

Hands down!

Also the film ‘The Descent’.

I’m a super jumpy person in real life so that honestly made me jump!

I’m getting better now though as I put myself through watching American Horror Story & The Walking Dead.

Both amazing series.

I’m a huge fan of Buffy The Vampire Slayer & Charmed also.

Not too scary but scary enough for me!”

What are your plans for the future with your artwork?

• “Improvement, Improvement, Improvement.

I need to learn so much more than what I already know, especially if I’m going out there doing other people’s makeup, in both categories, glamour and face painting.

Although I’ve made so much progress, I’m not where I want to be yet.

I would also adore to release my own SFX Makeup kits or make up range.

Baby steps though.

We never know what the future holds”.

Welcome to PIN, or for those of you who insist on the long version‌ The Podcast Information Network.

We endeavour to meet the needs of as many auditory consumers as we possibly can by helping them make the right listening decisions. Whether you need an idea for a new podcast to binge or are looking for more info on one you're curious about, we're here for you. Take a look at our feature PIN Picks and see if any tickle your fancy.

The Black Tapes Created By Paul Bae and Terry Miles From Pacific Northwest Stories and Minnow Beats Whale

Alex Reagan (voiced by Lori Henry) is a journalist searching for the truth behind enigmatic paranormal investigator Dr. Richard Strand (voiced by Christian Sloan).

Strand is a hardcore sceptic on a mission to debunk all claims of supernatural phenomenon.

Alex is intrigued by his collection of unsolved cases, which she starts calling his "Black Tapes".

Alex is open to at least considering the possibility that not every case can be debunked which Strand constantly objects to.

What starts as a fascinating biography escalates into a whirlwind of secrets, conspiracies, intimidation, and dangerous paranormal situations.

The Black Tapes has only three seasons and is highly addicting.

We here at PIN encourage that kind of addiction.

The tension between Alex and Strand as well as the sense of dread and creepiness that permeates the series is what makes it almost impossible to stop listening.

But be careful. You never know who's listening to you.

Welcome to Night Vale Created by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor Published by Commonplace Books and Night Vale Presents Welcome to Night Vale is a bi-monthly podcast in the style of community updates for the small dessert town of Night Vale.

Cecil Gershwin Palmer (voiced by Cecil Baldwin) keeps community members up to date with local weather, news, announcements from the Sheriff's Secret Police, mysterious lights in the night sky, dark hooded figures with unknowable powers, and cultural events.

This podcast has a lot of episodes under its belt but don't let that intimidate you.

Night Vale is both creepy and oddly hysterical.

The nonchalant way in which Cecil discusses the kooky goings on in his little town is downright Lynchian.

Essentially, if David Lynch and Neil Gaiman had a love child its name would be Welcome to Night Vale.

Lore: Created, Written, Produced, and Hosted By Aaron Mahnke Sometimes the truth is more frightening than fiction.

With a tagline like that it's not really necessary to say more . . .But we will.

Lore is an award-winning, critically-acclaimed podcast that exposes the darker side of history, exploring the creatures, people, and places of our wildest nightmares.

What makes Lore so incredible is how informative it is without being dry or boring.

Its history laced with empathy and humanity.

The audience is treated to the truth behind legends, superstitions, and fears while being pulled into emotions that might not even know they have.

This podcast is beautiful and absolutely brilliant.

The Crucifixion is a 2017 horror film directed by Xavier Gens, written by Chad Hayes and Carey W. Hayes and starring Sophie Cookson, Brittany Ashworth and Corneliu Ulici.

It is based on the Tanacu exorcism that took place in Vaslui County, Romania, in 2005.

An American artist's obsession with a disturbing urban legend leads her to an investigation of the story's origins at the crumbling estate of a reclusive painter in Ireland

When Simon brings his twelve-year-old son, Finn, to rural Vermont to help flip an old farmhouse, they encounter the malicious spirit of Lydia, a previous owner.

And now with every repair they make- she's getting stronger.

7 When strange events occur in a neighbourhood in Buenos Aires, a doctor specializing in the paranormal, her colleague, and an ex police officer decide to investigate further.

There is an ancient ritual known to humankind for more than a hundred years...

According to the legend, an ominous entity known as The Queen of Spades can be summoned by drawing a door and staircase on a mirror in the darkness, and by saying her name three times. The Queen of Spades gets her energy from reflective objects; she cuts locks of hair from those asleep, and those that see her go mad or die. Four teenagers decide to call The Queen of Spades as a joke. But when one of them dies of a sudden heart attack, the group realizes they are up against something inexplicable and deadly dangerous.

A depressed and stressed film archivist finds his sanity crumbling after he is given an old 16mm film reel with footage from a horrific murder that occurred in the early 1900’s.

Drawing on the testimonies from people at the centre of each story and other witnesses, this docudrama presents true encounters with the paranormal.

In 1921, England is overwhelmed by the loss and grief of World War I. Hoax exposer Florence Cathcart visits a boarding school to explain sightings of a child ghost.

Everything she believes unravels as the 'missing' begin to show themselves.

A documentary filmmaker explores seemingly unrelated paranormal incidents connected by the legend of an ancient demon called the "kagutaba."

A group of teenagers accidentally release an evil spirit that starts to possess them one by one.

“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.” ― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

Shirley Jackson, it seems, understood the biology of a haunted house.

The complex cellular makeup of these tainted properties are in a state of never-ending mutation.

A home doesn't catch a common cold that can be cured with a blanket and a cup of soup in a week's time.

There are no simple answers or solutions; no single cause for a house to fall ill.

For some it's like a genetic condition, a defect of sorts that's always been there, biding its time. Life does the work for it.

One unfortunate circumstance building upon the next, weakening the heart or perhaps fueling the growth of the cancer within.

Perhaps the land was once peaceful and thriving until an unforeseen trauma left its ugly scar behind. The humans involved add another layer of complication.

At times they are the cause of the illness.

Sometimes they are its victims.

Locations like these seem to attract a certain set of individuals.

More sensitive than most or psychologically marred in some way.

More often than not their lives tend to already be in some state of upheaval, lending fuel to the proverbial fire.

Is it any wonder that, after years of languishing in their sickness, these dwellings overtake any attempt to provide some remedy?

Prayer circles and exorcisms are like antibiotics.

They may alleviate the symptoms but over time a resistance is built up.

How does one provide a spiritual chemotherapy or surgically correct an ethereal fracture with a blindfold on?

Jackson seemed to bear these intricacies in mind when writing The Haunting of Hill House, which is probably what made it so successful and ripe for so many adaptations.

With the release of Mike Flanagan’s retelling in 2018 breathing new life into Hill House's tired lungs‌ And I‌ (being the giant nerd that I am) thought it the perfect time to explore its darkest corners, from novel to Netflix series.

The 1963 film is considered to be the most faithful adaptation although there are some noticeable differences, including the character names and the location of the house in Massachusetts.

Mrs. Markway is now a skeptic who thinks her husband’s investigations are ridiculous; Nell's role as the outcast was emphasized; Theo was given a sharper, more cruel sense of humor; and Luke was more flippant.

The backstory was also shortened.

Gidding believed that Jackson's novel wasn’t a ghost story at all, but rather a compilation of Eleanor's insane thoughts.

In his interpretation, Eleanor was having a nervous breakdown and Hill House was the hospital in which she was being held, while Markway was her psychiatrist.

The cold, banging, and violence she experienced were a result of shock treatment, and the ghostly opening and closing of doors were skewed memories of the hospital doors.

Hill House was adapted again in 1999 with the same title as the first film.

At the helm this time around was Jan de Bont.

Lilli Taylor took on the role of Nell Vance, Catherine Zeta-Jones as Theo, Owen Wilson as Luke Sanderson, and Liam Neeson as Dr. David Marrow. The exteriors were filmed at Harlaxton Manor in Lincolnshire, England, and the billiard scene in its great hall.

The kitchen scenes were filmed at Belvoir Castle in Grantham, England.

Many of the interior scenes were filmed inside a hangar in Long Beach, California.

Watching the 1963 film was not so pleasant for me.

Though it did receive critical acclaim, I found it almost stressful to watch.

Overall, it's not a bad film, but the change in the characters' demeanour left me feeling irritated.

Eleanor's inner dialogue and constant emotional flip flopping along with Theodora's jabs and instigations grated on my nerves.

Eleanor cycles between love, jealousy, paranoia, and anger with enough rapidity to make one's head spin.

Theodora feeds off of this, using every opportunity to torture Eleanor for enjoyment.

Mrs. Montague may have made my eyes roll a bit in the book, but Mrs. Markway had me wishing she would just shut up.

That being said, I did appreciate how the film was shot.

The visual discomfort was definitely a positive and I do feel that the shortcomings of the characters were purposely accentuated to heighten the overall sense of claustrophobia.

1999's The Haunting was heavily snubbed by critics and, for the most part, I do understand why.

It was mainstream, blockbuster material that relied too heavily on special effects.

The supernatural manifestations were silly and cartoonish at times and allowing the audience to fully view them the entire time detracted from if not completely nullified the sense of dread and oppressiveness that made the novel so successful.

This is not to say that it didn't have any redeeming qualities.

I felt so much more empathy for Nell's character, which is due to both how she was written and how Lilli Taylor portrayed her.

I'm already a huge fan of Taylor, so I may be a bit biased, but there was something so sad and relatable about her that I found myself paying more attention to her than the special effects.

The sexual tension between Nell and Theo was also much appreciated. For the late 90's, that kind of representation in a PG-13 film was surprising.

It warmed my tiny gay heart.

The grandiose set design was stunning and, while by no means claustrophobic, it did have a labyrinthine, mystical quality.

Directed by Mike Flanagan, it tells a completely different story while remaining incredibly faithful to the original. Hugh and Olivia Crain spend the summer rennovating Hill House with their children Shirley, Steven, Theodora, Luke and Nell.

They hope to flip it and use the profit to build their dream home which Olivia is designing. A traumatic event in the house splits the family apart until 26 years later when a tragedy forces them to come back together.

While the story is altered quite a bit, it still harkens back to the forboding, gothic feel of the novel. It toys with the audience in much same the way Jackson did and retains many of the prominent aspects of the characters.

Nell as an adult is as tragically haunted as ever; her ghosts and demons stemming from past trauma are unyielding in their cruelty.

Theo retains her sleek, sarcastic nature, although her own struggle with her unique abilities garners her more sympathy.

The audience is more inclined to relate and empathize with her need to push people away. Shirley who is named after the author, is a maternal figure.

She wants so desperately to hold her family together, to keep the peace and perhaps find some of her own. She is skeptical, perhaps more out of necessity than anything else. Many have posed that Jackson's struggle with her sexuality and frustration with her marriage were linked to Theo's character in the book, but it's through Shirley that the audience gets to see more of that.

Steven is the oldest male child and probably the most skeptical of the lot.

While he has little to no connection to the book, he is the underlying voice that runs underneath that forces the audience to question what's really going on.

Luke has lost the flippancy of the original character, but he is a darker representation of Sanderson's extracurricular activities that were briefly mentioned in the book.

While Hugh seems like a loving, hard working father, there is always a question as to whether the tragedy surrounding the family is his own doing.

Olivia's character greatly contributes to the undercurrent of possible madness running throughout the story.

Did she pass supernatural abilities onto her children or insanity? Mrs. Dudley is explored in more detail. She's still stern and cold but there are moments where we are treated to a softer, almost lighthearted side to her.

Before I discuss the Netflix series, Stephen King's Rose Red is worth some mentioning.

King pitched the idea of a Hill House reboot to Steven Spielberg in the early 1990's.

Unfortunately, the two couldn't agree on whether the focus should be on action or horror, so they mutually agreed to shelve the project.

King bought back the rights to the script and in 2002 Rose Red was released as a made for television miniseries.

It only bears a superficial resemblance to Jackson's novel, but it does invoke some of the same sensations of panic and confusion.

The monologues that occur throughout the miniseries are a pleasant tip of the hat as well.

The 2018 Netflix series is honestly my favorite adaptation.

To me, it was the most frightening and unnerving screen version to date.

I was in awe of the sheer ambitiousness of filming an episode in long running shots.

The characters and story line were also flawlessly written and portrayed.

I was particularly struck by Olivia's deterioration from warm, loving mother to unwilling puppet, as well as Theodora's utter loneliness.

Her gifts completely alienate her from the rest of the world.

Both broke my heart. I found this version of Hill House to be the most imposing and intimidating, and the manifestations the most threatening.

The conflict between different family members was at times difficult to watch but this was a success rather than a drawback.

The underlying score and sound effects added yet another layer of chill inducing terror and the surprise twists and shocking revelations were mind blowing.

Despite the fact that I would have preferred the darker ending that Mike Flanagan originally intended, the series as a whole is one of my favorite pieces of film.

I would gladly watch it again and again.

I recently had the opportunity to sit down for a chat with Brooke Nelson, the mad scientist behind PA Burlesque Festival and it's Halloween themed sister show, Boolesque.

I first heard about Boolesque in June of 2013.

My wife and I were spending our honeymoon in Jim Thorpe, PA and we saw the flyer posted at the Mauch Chunk Opera House which was across the street from the B&B we were staying in.

We were so intrigued, we booked the same place and ordered tickets right away.

Since then we've gone every year.

With Boolesque's ten-year Rocky Horror themed anniversary upon us, I thought this the perfect time to get to know more about its founder.

We met at the Muggle's Mug, a Harry Potter themed coffee shop in Jim Thorpe.

What I learned in those two hours spent with Brooke was so much more than I had expected.

Before I even tapped the record button on my phone, she was already explaining some of the work that goes into making Boolesque happen.

Up until opening night, it's a one woman show.

She does all of the prep work on her own.

By the end of the interview I was blown away because she is so much more than the show that is so near and dear to her heart.

Often our childhood and upbringing influence the paths we take in our adult lives. Sometimes we go in the opposite direction of how we grew up and sometimes we remain in the same state.

What was your experience?

Did you grow up in a more conservative household?

• “My parents are amazing, first of all.

And they really just let me be myself.

My job was to go to school and get good grades when I was a kid and my parents raised me to honor myself and to be responsible.

So I had a tremendous amount of freedom as a teenager. Like ridiculous.

The rule was, I called when I got there.

I called when I was leaving.

My parents just allowed themselves to be entertained by me and left it at that.

They just really didn't have any expectations of me outside the academic realm.

But I'm a proud two-time college dropout.

Nobody offers a degree in theoretical lycanthropy so there was nothing in the academic world that interested me in the least”.

A lot of people within the burlesque community seem to have alternative interests.

Do you fall into that category and if so, has that always been the case?

“So . . .Rocky Horror . . . and you can edit this down any way you need because it's a tale.

(I didn't edit it down at all because this was amazing.)

The end of my senior year in high school was a Wednesday.

Thursday morning my great grandmother, God bless her, gets me up at five-o-clock in the morning.

"C'mon, c'mon! We gotta go take your test!"

I'm like, "Grams school's done. What are you doing?"

She said, "No your drivers test."

• My great grandmother takes me to get my permit stamped and get my license.

The very next night was a Friday and the first place I went was the Rocky Horror Picture Show in Allentown (PA).

Because if a 17-year-old can have a bucket list, number one was spending the night in the Lizzie Borden murder bedroom and the second was Rocky Horror for me.

And I went every Friday and Saturday night.

I stopped counting when I hit three hundred shows and I'm sure at this time in my life it's probably closer to four hundred.

I had no desire to be in the cast. I was a professional audience member.

I had this massive duffle bag full of props in my trunk at all times. Just in case a Rocky Horror emergency broke out. So that was my thing. That's what I enjoyed.

I did costuming for some of the cast because I'm a seamstress, now retired.

So it was my big exposure to anything outside my pretty small upbringing.

I'm from a small town. My graduating class was only two hundred kids.

Most of them I had known since kindergarten.

So this was my first experience into alternative and people who identify outside of the binary.

What was so magical for me was that it didn't matter. None of it mattered.

In the context of Rocky Horror, we absolutely got to make fun of ourselves.

Whatever freak flag you flew, it didn't matter.

And it was so fun to make fun of ourselves because, lets face it, the secondary script is incredibly vulgar.

But because we were calling ourselves those things it made those words less of a weapon when you heard them from someone else. It dulled the edge. I have friends that, through the Rocky Horror experience, now proudly call themselves fags.

And they're like "That word doesn't bother me because I won't let you hurt me with it.

I've already taken control over what that word means to me.".

It was just so empowering to completely destroy those labels and that carried on through the rest of my life.

When I moved back here from Salem, Massachusetts I became a professional corset maker.

I ran my own business ‘Dragon Town Corsets’ from 1998 to 2013 and at any given time, on any given year, between thirty and forty percent of my clientele were Non-binary.

I clothed drag queens and transgender clients, either preop or postop.

I really gave me a chance to give them a place where they could go for a fitting for this garment that was gonna help them achieve the body shape that made them feel more like who they were on the inside without fear, without judgement.

They could tell me anything and it stayed right there.

As a straight white woman I would like to think that that was important.

That even though I didn't lead that kind of a lifestyle necessarily, it really helped me understand what was required of an ally.

So Rocky Horror absolutely helped shape my life.

It shaped my business.

And even today the things that I learned helped me in my Tarot readings.

Because we get stuff that people won't even tell their therapists.

So you have to be open.

You have to sincerely come from a place of nonjudgment.

Because people are coming for help.

And I wanted to be able to offer that.

It's just some of the most personal and spiritual satisfaction I've ever experienced.

Just knowing that somehow, I made a difference.

That person didn't have to worry about how they were going to be perceived that day when they were with me.

I mean it was only one day but still.

It was their day.

So Rocky Horror permeates everything.

Are you a fan of horror? • Oh yeah. I have a bit less of a stomach for it than I used to.

After I left high school, I really wanted to go to the Joe Blasco School of Makeup.

But of course there were no scholarships for that.

My life's desire at that time was to do monster makeup and learn how to make fake guts. But it just wasn't a viable career path for me at the time. So I absolutely love horror. I love it in all it's forms.

My favorite movie . . . Beetlejuice.

I love the junction of creepy weird and funny shit and I love the surrealism of it.

As far as the heavy hitters Evil Dead.

Bruce Campbell, I would shag him in a heartbeat.

I've lost my stomach for human on human violence, but I certainly appreciate that it's part of that craft. And human on human violence is an incredibly important part of our story telling as a collective.

Issue two of Terror Connection is all about Ghosts and Paranormal activity.

I can probably guess the answer to this question, but do you believe in ghosts?

Do they scare you?

Would you ever go on a ghost hunt? • The ones that we lost never leave us, they just move beyond our sight, that's all.

You can talk to them anytime.

There's nothing that gets left undone when they leave here.

I firmly believe that we all check out exactly when we are supposed to according our soul contract that we filled out before we incarnated here. So it's absolutely ok.

That's a beautiful way of looking at it.

I think that a lot of times people think if there's a spirit world that means there's unfinished stuff.

They're not happy and there's a lot of negative connotations.

I think that's part of reason why people shy away from that place.

I think it's sometimes too painful for them.

Oh yeah. I believe that figuring out how you feel about the afterlife, even if you don't believe in it at all, is part of your healing process.

Because it's those beliefs that comfort us in those incredibly trying times.

So when we experience that kind of loss it's an opportunity for us to walk our talk and exercise our faith.

Because our faith is meant to help us and comfort us and help us get through those things.

Figure out what you believe and decide whether it serves you because there will come a point where you're gonna need it.

So do that service to yourself.

I know there are folks on the other side with unfinished business from this realm, but we also must understand that’s also part of their progress.

That's also part of their experience.

That's how I view purgatory.

Where you stick around because it didn't turn out the way you wanted it to, or you deal with a lot of stress or addictions.

Addictions in the physical world can create a whole lot of that but they can stick around and observe this reality.

Because the veil is so thin.

By observing their loved ones who are still struggling with this loss it's still part of their experience.

So when you can forgive them and release them and give them permission to go, they hear you. They see you.

That communication doesn't stop just because you're on one side of the fence and they're on the other.

Our grief process as a culture can help spirits move through and that's one of the reasons why I think we need to have a healthier view of death.

It's not just our grief. It's the grief of the person who's just passed.

They don't wanna leave you.

They loved you, this isn't easy for them either.

Let's start off with a piece of friendly advice.

Don’t google things like… " or

If you have any hopes of showering or leaving your home for the next five days.

If you want to remember to feed yourself, I strongly suggest not adding… to the search list.

Because I'm a glutton for punishment, I of course, did not follow any of my own advice.

Some people call it twisted and sadistic.

I prefer to think of it as suffering for my art.

Either way, my research turned up a bottomless phantasmagoric smorgasbord.

(Try saying that five times real fast. I'll wait . . .)

One couldn't throw a dart at a map without hitting an area with some sort of chilling tale.

Also known as the Popobawa or "bat-wing" in Swahili, the night demon can change shape to appear in both bat or human-like form.

Indiscriminate in its targets, it is said to sexually assault men continuing to visit them night after night unless the victims spread the word to others.

This is presumably to create a type of ghostly contagion.

The story of the Popobawa is rather new, only dating back a few decades from the assassination of the country's president.

The youth of this creature makes it no less potent.

It has been blamed on a series of nighttime sexual assault sending many locals into a panic.

Some men resort to staying awake, sleeping in groups, and even smearing pig's oil on themselves to repel the creature's attacks._____________________________________

The schools in Japan harbor a terrifying secret and her name is Hanako-san.

A little girl with a red skirt and a bob haircut, she seems to like things in threes.

If you go to the third stall of the bathroom on the third floor and knock three times while calling her name, she will appear.

This seemingly innocent spirit just wants friends to play with . . . or drag to hell . . . or both.

For depending on the part of Japan, she is said to morph into a bloody hand that grabs you or a lizard that devours you.

Hanako-san has become a fixture of Japanese urban folklore over the last seventy years with the most popular origin story taking place during WWII. The poor soul was using the bathroom when a bomb fell on the school thereby causing it to trap her inside.

Who wouldn't be lonely and pissed off after that?

But Hanako isn't the only one said to haunt the john.

She was cut in half by a train and now her disfigured spirit is said float amongst the toilets asking the children who meet her where her legs are.

Woe to the poor kids who give her an unsatisfactory answer.

Kashima will take their legs along with her for her troubles. _____________________________________

A tall, skinny woman with long yellow fingernails and red eyes, La Pisadeira creeps along rooftops to watch families while they dine.

She then sneaks into the bedroom of one who has supped themselves to sleep, to sit on their chest and revel in their panic.

For those who prefer to be topped in the bedroom, you may want to be careful what you wish for. ________________________________________________________

Maria had long, dark hair and a covetous heart.

She lived in poverty, but was known for her exceptional beauty, quickly catching the attention of a wealthy nobleman passing through her village. He was so taken by her, that much to the dismay of his father, he quickly set about marrying her.

The nobleman was frequently away on business and Maria couldn’t help but notice that upon every return, he lavished their children with attention while giving her almost none.

This continued until one day, her husband returned with wifey 2.0, bidding his sons farewell without giving Maria so much as a backward glance.

In a fit of blind rage, she drowned her children in the river‌ one by one.

Upon realizing her terrible deeds, she attempted to drown herself in oblivion as well, but Heaven wouldn’t have her.

And so, La Llorona was born. Condemned to wander the world in perpetual grief, unable to pass through the pearly gates until she finds her lost children.

She often appears soaked head to toe, in white or black wearing a veil and weeping.

It is said that those who see or hear her, are marked and should run in the opposite direction. She often kidnaps children she mistakes for her own, drowning them while she begs the heavens for forgiveness.

Mary was a porcelain doll carelessly abandoned by her owner.

Porcelain dolls are already scary as shit so pissing them off, not so smart.

But some people like to live on the edge.

The clueless youngster begins getting phone calls from the doll.

"Hi it's Mary. I'm at the garbage dump now”.

The kid laughs it off thinking someone is playing a silly prank.

But then the calls continue.

"Hi it's Mary. I'm at the corner store now”.

At this point my smartass would have asked her to pick up a pack of Red Apples while she's there.

"Hi it's Mary”. “I'm in front of your house now."

And this is when I would regret my previous decision.

But the little girl opens the door and heaves a sigh of relief upon seeing nothing in her doorway.

Her calm is short lived however as her phone rings again.

"Hi it's Mary. I'm right behind you”.

Mary Worth was a very pretty young girl who spent many an hour admiring herself in the mirror.

Then on one fateful day, she suffered a terrible accident that left her face so disfigured, that no one could stand to look at her.

After experiencing the horrified reaction of others to her appearance, she simply had to see it for herself.

Upon viewing the carnage the accident had done to her beautiful features, she began to scream and cry.

The stories say, that she wished so badly for her old face that she walked into the mirror vowing to find it and was never seen again.

Now she can haunt any mirror and youngsters brazen or foolish enough can summon her.

They have but to out the lights of the bathroom of their choosing.

Turn around three times.

Say her name her name three times as well.

If they can bring themselves to take the final step and look in the mirror, the disfigured Mary Worth will appear.

But are they prepared for what may happen next?

In the eastern parts of the Ural mountains and Siberia an evil spirit dwells in the swamps and those who have seen it have not lived to tell of the experience.

The legends say it is a tall creature covered and protected by swamp water, plants, and wood.

It prefers the swampland because they are neither land nor water and doesn't hunt so much as wait for foolish folks to wander into its domain.

It can make people go deaf and blind and disorient those who get too close.

When threatened it will resort to any means necessary to ensure trespassers get lost and drown in its swamp.

Some regions believe it has no eyes and can mimic any animal sound.

I think I'll stick with Swamp Thing. ________________________________________________________________________

Baltra Island was once the site of an air force base where and American serviceman lived with his cheating girlfriend during WWII. (I'm sure you can already see where this is going.)

Upon discovering her infidelity, the soldier pushed the woman off a cliff her head tearing clean off on the way down.

She now roams about, targeting solitary men late at night to ambush or crush them while they sleep.

While this could be a cautionary tale for women to remain faithful, one could also argue that vengeful murder may not be the most effective reaction.

JF Lemay, is without any shadow of a doubt, the most talented artist, illustrator, and animator we have ever see, and those who have seen his work will know…

He loves the horror genre. We spoke in depth with the man himself, an here’s what he had to say: TC: Did you always want to be an artist?

Was it something you discovered at an early age?

JF Lemay: • “I always loved to draw, but I never thought it was possible for me to do it as a job.

I grew up in a very small town, and it seemed like an unreachable goal at the time”.____________________ TC: Being an artist has a certain amount of stigma attached to it.

Did you have a fair amount of support or did people try to talk you out of it?

JF Lemay: • I consider myself very lucky to have amazing friends and family that are close to me.

I don't think I would be able to continue doing it without their support”.__________________________ TC: Who and/or what do you take the most inspiration from?

JF Lemay: • “Music is by far the thing that inspires me the most, but I also get inspiration from almost everywhere: other artists, movies, locations, conversations, video games, etc. As for who inspires me the most, I would say that 3 of my main inspirations are H.P. Lovecraft, H.R. Giger and Gustave Doré”._________________

TC: Ink and paper seems to be your preferred medium.

Where does that come from and do you ever use anything different? Have you ever done any digital work?

JF Lemay: • “Five years ago, I only did digital artwork”.

At some point, I felt I was going nowhere.

There are just too many possibilities with digital art, and instead of being a blessing, it was really a curse for me. My solution for this was to go back to the basics. So I bought paper and a couple of fine-liners and here I am today.

I still love doing digital art from time to time, but I fell in love with the simplicity of black ink on white paper” TC: Did your work as a designer ever allow you to venture into the work you do now?

JF Lemay: • “Absolutely.

Working in graphic and web design helped me to learn how to communicate ideas”.

TC: Talk to me a little bit about your process.

Where does it start?

Is there something you encounter that sparks and idea or is it more spontaneous?

JF Lemay: • “I often start with a general idea of what I want to express. Usually, I will think about it for a couple of days before even starting to sketch. Sometimes it evolves to be something completely different than what I started with it if it helps communicate the idea better. The message or the meaning behind is what matters to me, not the technical proficiency of the artwork”.______

TC: The animated pieces are so fascinating to watch.

Where did the idea for those come from?

Do you care to share the added ingredients of those works or do you prefer to keep that a secret?

JF Lemay: • “I was inspired by Demographick's rip offs animations and Ben Alvis's crazy popup illustrations.

For me, it started as fun way to spend a Friday night and try something new.

I didn't even want to make a post with it.

But when I shared it as a story, the response was so positive that I decided to post it.

The next morning I woke up to thousands of new followers.

That's how it all started.

As for the secret ingredients, I usually mention them in my posts or stories.

Thread, kids' store's slime, metal wires, paint, etc.

One of the main things I want to show with these is that you don't need pricey art supplies to make cool stuff.

Just paper, ink and imagination.”._________________ TC: Do you believe anyone can become an artist through hard work and practice or is it all about whether someone has talent, or they don’t?

JF Lemay: • “Like a lot of people, I used this word as a way to comfort myself for not taking the necessary steps to make things happen.

Now I don't believe in talent.

I can see that some people are more efficient than others when they first start doing something.

But in the long run it does not matter.

It's all about passion and practice.

Hard work beats talent every time.”. _____________

TC: Do you have a job or piece thus far that has been your favorite??

JF Lemay: • “It's almost always my latest piece because it's so close to me and what I feel at the moment”._____________ TC: Do you prefer the commissioned pieces or the independent ones?

JF Lemay: • “Coming from a graphic design background, I love working with clients and make an idea evolve with them. In a perfect world, I'd prefer doing what I want when I want, but that's not really a good way to pay the bills”.

TC: What would be your dream commission? Are there any artists that you would love to work with? If you had a chance to work with any artist from the past, who would it be?

JF Lemay: • “I love working on so many different projects, it's hard to pick one. But if Maynard James Keenan called me to work on the visual of a Tool album, I think I would just go crazy”.__________________ TC: Are there any artists you would like to be compared to?

JF Lemay: • “Not really. I take a lot of inspiration from masters like Giger and Junji Ito, but in the end I want to be myself._ TC: Do you find it easy to forge a sense of camaraderie with other artists or is the community not as giving?

JF Lemay: • “The art community is one of the most awesome communities I have had the chance of been a part of”.

What has been the most gratifying response to your work?

What has been the most gratifying response to your work?

TC: Were there ever any moments you consider setbacks?

Any truly scary moments as an artist?

JF Lemay: • “I'll answer with one of my favorite quotes: If you don't fail, you're not even trying - Denzel Washington”.____ TC: Is there ever anything you dislike about your work?

Do you ever find yourself being hypercritical or self conscious about it?

JF Lemay: • “There's always one of these days where I look at my work and just hate everything I do.

I think every artist has one of those days once in a while.”________________________________________ TC: What has been the most gratifying response to your work?

JF Lemay: • “Every time someone tells me that I inspired them to work harder and keep following their dreams”._______

TC: What is the best piece of advice you have been given?

JF Lemay: • “Never compare yourself to others”._______________ TC: What advice would you give to other artists?

JF Lemay: • “Never compare yourself to others”._______________ ________________________________________________ Thank you for giving us the opportunity to interview you.

We are so grateful for your time.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lemay.jf/

Since Wes Craven’s ‘A Nightmare On Elm Street’ was released back in 1984, like the films or not, you can’t deny that the artwork for the for the posters is awesome.

Below, are the actual posters that were used for the first five films.

One of the promotional posters ‘Freddy’s Dead’ like the one above, announces his death date as ‘September 13th, 1991’. Many fans of the franchise would argue that they wish it had died long before, at the logical closure point at the end of ‘Dream Warriors’.

But what we’re here to discuss, is what was dubbed at the time by ‘New Line Cinema’ as the final Freddy movie, and would be the culmination of his seven-year reign of terror.

We all now know that this was not the case… As this was followed by the masterpiece that was ‘New Nightmare’ in 1994, and the divisive ‘Freddy vs. Jason’ in 2003.

The sixth film in the ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street series’ takes place in a world where Krueger has killed every child teenager in Springwood and sees the dream demon go head to head with a new group of vulnerable and troubled teenagers to terrify.

The film was universally panned by critics and fans alike and rightfully so.

It is the worst film in the series by quite some margin, and it feels bizarre to me that New Line Cinema, that claims it is the ‘House That Freddy Built’, would think that this film was the right way to give him his farewell.

But now at least, the fans of the film can feast their eyes on a brand-new poster that in this rare case, compliments the film, more than the film compliments it.

In recent weeks, it had been rumored that Robert Englund, in some way shape or form, would be returning to our television screens…

And after his appearance on ‘The Goldberg’s’ for the Halloween episode in full Freddy attire, one couldn’t help but get a bit over excited at the prospect of ‘Freddy’s Nightmares’ maybe making a come back.

The rumors of Robert Englund’s return to television were confirmed to be true, and it’s got us rather excited.

What we now know, is that he (Robert Englund) will be hosting a properly spooky show on ‘The Travel Channel’ called ‘Shadows of History’.

The show will follow the Elm Street star, as he investigates frightening, odd and creepy stories from America’s dark past.

In each episode, Englund will track down the story behind a strange but true account printed in an American newspaper, and will enlist the help of historians and scholars to get to the truth behind the reports.

When asked about the announcement, The Travel Channel GM Jane Latman said: “How can you make fascinating and stories even more scary? Add the genius of Robert Englund,”.

“As if tales of flying monsters, zombie cannibals and ghost ships were not enough, we are cranking up the volume for maximum impact.

And our fans are going to go nuts for this legendary actor”.

A date has yet to be confirmed as to when the show will air on TV.

Horror genre icon Bruce Campbell, who is best known for his portrayal of Ash in ‘The Evil Dead’, and ‘Ash vs. Evil Dead’, is now set to host a reboot of ‘Ripley’s Believe It or Not’ for The Travel Channel.

The show has of course been around as a TV show for quite some time. It originally made its way to our screens in 1949 with Robert Ripley hosting and was broadcast on NBC. The new series will feature 10, 1-hour long episodes filmed at the Ripley’s warehouse in Florida.

In a recent interview with Bruce Campbell, when asked what it was about the show that drew him in, he had this to say: • “I’ve always been drawn toward material that is more fantastic’ in nature, so I was eager and excited to be part of this new show”.

“Because amazing things happen all around the world, we should have no shortage of stories to share with a fresh new audience.”

• “And the warehouse is as cool as you would think”.

“It’s enormous. It’s a very Indiana Jones type of warehouse.

The treasures they have collected really are amazing”.

In a separate interview with The Travel Channel general manager Jane Latman about bringing the show back, she had this to say: • “Travel Channel fans have an insatiable curiosity about the world and sharing this wonderful and weird series with the next generation of fans is a thrill”.

“This entirely new version of Ripley’s is a fresh contemporary approach to the odd and unusual and will be packed with larger than life characters, cool facts, history and science”.

Director: Stephen Cognetti Writer: Stephen Cognetti Producer: Joe Bandelli Craig Cognetti David Cognetti Joseph Cognetti Cast: Ryan Jennifer Jones Danny Bellini Gore Abrams Jared Hacker Adam Schneider Alice Bahlke Phil Hess Lauren A. Kennedy Jeb Kreager IMDb: 6.4/10 RT: 86% Metacritic: 64% VOD Release Via Shudder Release Date: November 1st, 2016

The long since abandoned ‘Abbadon Hotel’, has been converted into the ultimate Halloween haunted attraction, called ‘Hell House’.

On the highly anticipated opening night of the attraction, there was an unexplained event that occurred, that resulted in the fatality of fifteen staff and attendees.

Five years later, a documentary team is contacted by one of the surviving staff members of the Hell House opening night.

She has come forward with real time footage of the massacre, which was never handed into the police.

With the new footage in tow, we are taken back to the scene of the tragedy, so that once and for all, the we can find out what really happened.

This found footage feature, is one of the best constructed, written, directed, and genuinely scary films I’ve seen for quite some time. After looking at the synopsis, you would be forgiven for thinking that this film is the same, tired, haunted house story, that has been done a million times, and follows the same formula that made Grave Encounters a cult favorite.

Prior to ‘Hell House LLC’, writer/director Stephen Cognetti, had only made 3 short films, that were low-budget, cop/crime comedies.

This is Cognetti’s first feature film and first step into the world of horror.

Coupled with a young, enthusiastic cast, the film gives a breath of fresh air, to a format, and sub-genre, that can often be tiresome and repetitive.

The pacing of the film really works.

It starts as a slow burn that that it eases you in, allows for you to come to grips with the characters, and to get a proper feel for, and digest all the important information being given to you, that builds towards the terror you’re about to watch unfold.

Throughout, the build up of tension and suspense is exquisite. Whatever evil is lurking, wants to drag the group of friends, kicking and literally screaming, to that point where absolute terror, turns into complete insanity. We see their reality spin clean from its axis, as the group struggle to keep their heads, in what will become a fight for their lives. You’ll be sat on the edge of your seat and driven into a nail-biting frenzy.

For the staff of Hell House, the airplane is about to crash into the mountain, with devastating effects. The main event features blood, screaming, clowns, druids with big swords, and lots of death.

They’re all uninvited, but they’re bad ass perpetrators, and make their presence known when they come to crash the party.

If you’re easily frightened or of weak stomach, you’re going to want to hide behind a pillow, or find yourself facing many sleepless nights.

We are huge fans of the two ‘Hell House’ films released on VOD via horror streaming service ‘Shudder’.

We were blessed with the opportunity to interview the star of the films ‘Ryan Jenifer Jones’ who portrayed the character ‘Sara Pavel’. Here is the interview in full.

Did you have that astronaut phase as a kid, or did you always want to work in film?

• “No interest in space — but I did have plans of becoming a vet, as I’ve always preferred dogs to humans.

I was such an animal lover growing up that I declared myself a vegetarian at the age of six; my parents laughed it off, but here I am, twenty-two years later, still going strong!

Other than that, it’s always been storytelling — though the mediums have certainly changed over the years”. ______________________________________________________

Were you more interested in acting or writing? Did one spawn from the other?

• “Writing and performing have always gone hand-in-hand for me. Growing up, I used to perform freestyle raps at the elementary school talent show, which in lily-white Bethesda, MD, is not something you see every day.

I was a weird kid, and I was always looking for new ways to express myself.

To everyone’s immense relief, I left my emcee aspirations behind and settled into acting, which I ultimately studied in college.

But along the way, I’ve always written material for myself— monologues, short films, devised theater pieces, etc.

Nowadays, it’s the writing that pulls primary focus”. _____________________

Was the process of breaking into film a difficult one?

Did you go to school or just dive in headfirst?

• “I got my BFA in Drama from Tisch, and then a number of years later, I got my Master’s in Screenwriting from UCLA. Each program was valuable in its own right, but no matter what you do to prepare, there always comes a day when the rug gets pulled out from under you.

It’s an erratic industry on both sides of the table.

The nice thing about writing is that you get to create the thing; The thing is yours to sell or perform or stuff in a drawer.

I’ve found that ownership component very empowering”______________________

How did you get involved with Hell House LLC? • “I auditioned for Steve back in New York in 2014.

I think I had my callback with Jared Hacker actually.

I’m told there’s footage of the audition process on the DVD, but I’m too terrified to watch”._________________

How did you prepare for the role of Sara?

Was there a place you went in your mind or were there people who inspired how you portrayed her?

• “I don’t think anyone specifically inspired my performance, but I will say that I’ve listened to enough true-crime podcasts that I now live in a semi-perpetual state of paranoid fear and delusion.

I’m sure I tapped into that somewhere along the way”_________________________

I have to say, the way you played her was so brilliant.

Her transformation was so subtle and creepy.

I felt a sense of dread watching her slip away.

Was that evolution difficult to achieve or did it come naturally?

• “Hey, thanks! I like to think it came, naturally.

Sara feels in many ways like an extension of myself .

We’re both pragmatic and skeptical, often to a fault.

It’s her devotion to the team and to the project that keeps her around after things go south.

Once I could wrap my head around that, the journey sort of fell into place”.________

Having an actual haunted attraction as the main set piece seems like a killer advantage.

Having been there myself, I imagine it would be creepy to film in.

How was that experience?

• “You know, you’d think so, but the whole environment was very warm.

And I don’t mean physically warm, because let me tell you, that house is freezing.

But the owner of the Waldorf, Angie Moyer, is an incredibly sweet and welcoming presence, as was the entire cast and crew.

It’s almost hard to believe such a jovial group of people created such a sinister film”.___________________________

As a writer, is there anyone you take inspiration from?

• “As an insufferable, self-serious New York actor, I fell in love with playwrights first, especially Tennessee Williams.

I love a good piece of loaded subtext; it’s fun to write and funner to perform.

Current scribe-heroes include Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Lena Waithe and Martin McDonagh. Give me a spring-loaded dinner party scene any day of the week”._

Is there a genre you would love to write or a story you would love to tell?

• “I’m pretty genre-agnostic, though I (predictably) tend to write things that are driven by character.

I get hooked on a character first, then the story takes shape around them.

I’m going through a real Miss Cleo moment, right now.

I think she deserves a biopic”._________________

Is there a chance of horror work for you in the near future?

• “I’m certainly open to it.

There’s a MeToo-inspired horror idea I’ve been tinkering with as a writer.

And of course, there’s always room for a comeback in Hell House LLC IV”.

I think we need a prequel that centers around the Queens haunt.

What’s the deal with Lucifer’s Cabin, am I right”? _____________________________

Is there anything you can tell us about what you’re working on right now?

• “I just finished writing a Euro-thriller for CBS Films, and I’m currently developing a half-hour comedy series with Alcon TV. Besides that, I’m working on my tan.

I’ve been in LA for four years now, but still no luck”.__________________

Sometimes there is a serendipitous order to how things take place.

The first time I watched Hell House LLC on Shudder.com, I had no idea I was about to embark on an epic journey. One that took me outside the confines of my living-room.

It wasn't until the release of the second film that I realized it was filmed about an hour away from where I live, at a running haunted attraction called ‘The Waldorf Estate of Fear’ (not sure of how I want to order this sentence).

My brain immediately made several connections that sent me into a literal frenzy.

Hell House was filmed in a haunt in Lehighton, PA which is also the home of the drivein I'm obsessed with. About a twenty-minute drive from both is the town of Jim Thorpe where I go every year to attend a Halloween themed burlesque show.

After this revelation, I set about devising a plan.

I was already booked for Jim Thorpe. I told my brother and his wife that under no circumstances were they to make plans for that weekend, which was a month away and then set up a movie night to take place before then.

I refused to tell them what movies we would watch only revealing that I had a surprise they would learn of at the end of the second film.

Movie night arrived and after gleefully reveling at their jumps, cries and frights.

I sprung the news I had been holding in for weeks.

(This was no easy feat as I am well known for being terrible at surprises.)

We were going to the haunt where the films were shot.

Everyone was excited. Suffice it to say it shouldn’t surprise readers that several of the articles in this issue are connected.

It began with reviewing the first two movies.

That led to a review of The Waldorf Estate of Fear, which in turn led to an article about the Mahoning Drive-In Theater and my interview with Brooke Nelson the creator of Boolesque.

Even the order of the articles was planned.

It didn't stop there.

There are loose connections to other pieces in this issue as well as those we have slated for issue three.

The title and idea behind our magazine was a very conscious decision after all. So let's venture into Hell House LLC 2 and see if we can survive long enough to give it a critique.

The second film in the franchise (I use this term loosely given its occasional negative connotations.) was released in September 2018, two years after the original.

With Stephen Cognetti returning as both writer and director, it boasted a set of new faces and locations though some of our old pals do make an appearance.

Also shot in Lehighton PA, The Abaddon Hotel takes place eight years after of Hell House that left 15 staff and tour-goers dead.

We are informed that the footage we are about to watch is courtesy of a mysterious Mr. Russell Wynn of Wynn Media Group that he has compiled over a period of two years. The effects of the Abaddon have stretched beyond the boundaries of those originally involved.

The media sensation has sparked the curiosity of internet thrill seekers and urban explorers looking for those likes and subscribes. It also takes the liberty of sinking its teeth into some innocent souls who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. A sinister plague is spreading, and it's been evolving longer than anyone realizes.

Several people have a personal stake in The Abaddon. Arnold Tasselman is a bureaucrat who wants to put the Hell House hullabaloo to rest and return his town to some semblance of normalcy. Brock Davies, a TV ghost hunter of Bagans proportions, hoped to hit paranormal pay dirt by weaseling his cameras and equipment inside.

After receiving an anonymous tip, investigative journalist Jessica Fox, is convinced that key evidence is hidden at the hotel that could solve its mysteries.

Along with her partners Molly and David, she enlists the aid of Mitchell Cavanaugh. who knows the Abaddon better than anyone.

Cavanaugh knows venturing inside is a death sentence but ultimately agrees out of his desperate need to find out the fate of his friend and colleague Diane Graves, who disappeared during their own initial investigation.

Brock Davies shows up unexpectedly with his tech guru and the two wander off to antagonize the ghosts while the others poke around looking for clues.

Honestly, I feel like this film is unjustly overrated and undeserving of some of its low ratings and criticisms.

The pacing wasn't really a problem for me.

Some of the performances were a little heavy it made sense given the personalities of those characters.

The scares were a nice balance of blatant and subtle.

In addition, the reveal and set up for a possible (now confirmed) third film was awesome!!!.

What I loved most of all was the role part 2 played in making my movie night such a raging success.

My brother and his wife were springing from their couch and grabbing onto each other.

My wife was periodically slapping my leg.

Groans, shouts, and expletives filled the room.

Exposing my friends and loved ones to that kind of experience leaves me in a state of psychotic bliss.

I can't wait to see what the final entry has in store.

In 2012, Ridley Scott returned to the franchise he created in 1979, to give us a set of prequels, with the end game being… Learning how the derelict ship that the crew of the Nostromo found, ended up on the planetoid of LV-246.

After the 2017 sequel to ‘Prometheus… the very impressive ‘Alien: Covenant’, and the Disney acquisition of Alien franchise owner ‘20th Century Fox’, fans were left wondering if the franchise would be shelved, or if it could have a breath of new life.

Well the answer is finally here.

“They sent me a script and I loved it” – Ridley Scott.

He loved it so much in fact, that 32 hours after receiving the script, he was in Los Angeles with the big wigs, to start talks on making the new film which has the working title ‘Alien: Awakening’, but this may change as time goes on.

He also had this to say: “I think what we have to do is gradually drift away from the alien stuff…

People say, "you need more aliens”, “you need more face pulling” and “you need more chest bursting," so I put a lot of that in Covenant and it fitted nicely.

But I think if you go again you need to start finding another solution that’s more interesting.

I think A.I. is becoming much more dangerous and therefore more interesting”. - Ridley Scott “Big things have small beginnings” – David

At this present moment in time, apart from the comments made by Ridley Scott regarding his appetite to go in the direction of AI, instead of the Alien creatures, is the only details we have.

This would indeed suggest that we will see Michael Fassbender reprise his role as David… the self aware, rogue, creationist android.

So far, David’s thirst for creation has led him in a rather terrifying direction regarding the creatures he has so far created in both Prometheus and Covenant.

After the release of the polarizing Prometheus in 2012, where we were introduced to the engineers and the black goop… David saw first hand, the mutations it causes in living organisms… and is desperate to study it further…

He and Dr. Shaw then flew to the engineer home planet, where David went completely rogue, and put his thirst for creation into full effect, when he created the means for the ‘Neomorph’ or back buster to ‘burst’ into life, and developed the eggs that allow for the traditional Xenomorph to be born.

After impersonating Walter and making his way onto the Covenant colony ship, what does David have in store next?

It is not known yet whether Kathrine Waterston or Danny McBride will feature in the next film, but having been key to Alien: Covenant, their performances should have earned them a call up.

So rumors of a new ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ reboot have been around since the terrible 2010 reboot.

David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, who was the screen writer for the very brilliant ‘Orphan’ and ‘The Conjuring’ films, has supposedly been given the task of writing the script for the long-awaited, brand new Elm Street film.

The latest ‘Halloween’ film was incredibly successful at the box office, and we now know that there is going to be two more Halloween films and also a new Conjuring film.

We know that at the at this present moment, ‘James Wan’ is currently working on ‘The Conjuring 3’ but has said that he would be extremely keen on doing the reboot.

Another director who's name has been thrown into the hat, is Alexandre Aja, who recently worked on the blockbuster creature feature ‘Crawl’.

Both directors have pedigree in the horror genre, and we believe that either director would be capable of giving us the kind of Elm Street film that we are craving.

We know as well that Wes Craven was not involved in the creative process in any way for the 2010 film on a reboot of a film, with characters he created.

Sadly, Wes ‘The Horror Master’ Craven passed away in 2015, so obviously, once again, he won't be part of any kind of creative process.

I only hope and pray that the new writer(s), who will want to put their own stamp on the film, review in detail the script for the first film, and the original script for Dream Warriors, and somehow invoke his spirit and apply it to the reboot.

Every Elm Street fan out thee, is hoping to God that Robert Englund comes back to play Freddy one last time.

He did it for the episode of The Goldberg's, so obviously the temptation is there if he were to be made the right offer or incentive.

So… if Englund weren’t to be chosen for the role…

The new director needs to make that the new Freddy is up to the job.

Forget the Netflix TV show ‘The Haunting of Hill House’.

The real-life hauntings at Waverly Hills Sanitorium, are, among the paranormal investigation community, classed as the real deal and is one of the scariest locations that can be investigated.

The sanitorium building itself is in the city of Louisville. In 1910 when it opened, it operated as a fully functioning hospital, that specialized in the treatment of tuberculosis.

The patients admitted to the hospital had horrific surgical procedures performed on them to try and cure them but of course, in 1910, there was no cure for Tuberculosis, and it’s believed that there were up to 63,000 deaths and multiple suicides that occurred in the hospital before 1943, when a cure for Tuberculosis… A type of medication known as streptomycin was provided to patients.

It’s estimated that around 5% of patients that went into the hospital survived.

When people died in the sanatorium, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was the tuberculosis or that took the lives of the patients. You wouldn’t expect to be reading about the deaths of the staff. Tragically, a nurse was found dead by hanging in Room 502 in 1928.

Then again, in 1932, and in very tragic circumstances…a nurse in Room 502, jumped off the roof patio to her death. Paranormal investigators like to speculate that she may have been pushed by an aggressive, disturbed ghostly or demonic entity.

One of the most disturbing practices of the hospital, occurred in what is known as the death tunnel.

All the patients that died from Tuberculosis or other circumstances, were transported through the 525 feet of the tunnel and just simply left there at the end of it‌

The bodies would then be taken away and either burned, buried or transported to another location.

That location is unknown.

Unfortunately, the bodies that went into the tunnel were never seen again.

The hospital closed in 1961 and these days is visited ghost hunters and paranormal investigators.

It’s now a tourist attraction.

After mainstream TV shows that specialize in paranormal investigations, the sanitorium is now known worldwide.

Those who have done investigations in the hospital, have said to have evidence of seeing manifestations of children.

Some of the most compelling evidence is the investigation performed by the TV show Ghost Adventures.

Greyfriars Kirkyard in the center of the city, is said to be home to at least half a million people. And not all its residents received fancy stone mausoleums. Throughout the mass of graves that make up the kirkyard, again‌ its rumored that there is nothing more than just a thin layer of dirt covering the caskets, and occasionally the bones of the deceased will poke up through the earth.

The kirk boasts that its most famous ghost is called George Mackenzie.

In the 17th century, Mackenzie, by order of the King, oversaw the rounding up, capture and torture of woman believed to be Witches in Scotland.

When he died in 1691, he was buried in the now notorious Black Mausoleum.

In 1999, a homeless man, seeking shelter broke into the tomb, and is believed to have released Mackenzie's ghost, to haunt Greyfriars Kirkyard.

The Black Dinner occurred at Edinburgh Castle in 1440, when Chancellor of Scotland invited two young aristocrats to the castle for dinner.

The Earl of Douglas and his brother David, aged 16, and 10 respectively, had the chancellor worried that the Douglas clan presented a challenge to his position.

During the Black Dinner, the chancellor's men seized Douglas boys and removed their heads.

The Black Dinner served as inspiration for ‘The Red Wedding’ in Game of Thrones.

Despite what many may think, Burke and Hare were not actually grave-robbers.

Grave-robbers would dig up the bodies of the recently deceased and sell them to medical schools for research by anatomy students. Instead of waiting for people to die, Burke and Hare quite simply created their own supply of corpses.

Making the money of the back of dead bodies, set the two men on murderous rampage that saw them kill 16 people. Their preferred method of execution was strangulation, so that when they sold the bodies to it didn’t look like the deceased had perished under suspicious circumstances. In 1827, the first body they sold, was the body of an older man, who died in Hare's boarding house from natural causes.

After that, Burke and Hare would prey on the old, the poor and the homeless…

People that could vanish without a trace, and nobody would care. They would lure people back to Hare’s boarding house, where they would suffocate them.

When the two were caught, Hare turned on Burke.

He blamed Burke and made out it was all his doing.

Hare was released, and Burke received the death penalty. He was hanged in front of a crowd of 25,000.

People were charged 5 to 20 shillings to watch Burke’s execution. His corpse was publicly dissected at the University Anatomy Theatre. Blood taken from Burkes head, was used to write notes on the dissection in a medical journal. This journal was then bound in Burkes skin. His skeleton was given to the Anatomical Museum of the Edinburgh where it remains to this day. The book can be seen at the Edinburgh Surgeons’ Hall Museum. It is said that Burkes ghost haunts the Edinburgh’s South bridge vaults… the place where they would store the bodies of their victims before they sold them.

Edinburgh’s biggest secret is the underground old city… And in particular…

The South Bridge Vaults.

The vaults were built in the 1700s as a series of chambers in the South Bridge.

The chambers became an underground city for crooks and smugglers and provided sanctuary to the worst that society had to offer. Brothels and prostitution were rife within the vaults, and bloodshed between rival factions was common.

Body snatchers Burke and Hare were known to hide bodies of those the had murdered in the vaults.

In 2008, in the first season of the paranormal investigation TV show ‘Ghost Adventures’, visited the vaults, and was one of the most successful investigations the team have encountered in their 18 seasons.

In 2003, a BBC reporter interviewed one of the men responsible for excavating of the vaults; however, she was shocked to learn the audio was unusable thanks to what sounded like voice speaking in Gaelic.

Today, the vaults are used by used as Coven Temples for Witches, paranormal Investigators and ghost tours bring visitors to the vaults to learn more about its dark history.

In 1645, there was an outbreak of the plague in Edinburgh. Thousands of people had died, and because of people living in overcrowded conditions, in slums and in very close proximity to each other, the plague spread like wildfire round the city. The slums were rife with rats transmitting the disease.

Mary King's Close is classed as the one of the most haunted areas in the world and has a reputation for hauntings. The street was situated next to where ‘The Nor Loch’ was once located.

Princes Gardens in Edinburgh, is right below the castle, and is one of the most beautiful and scenic places to visit in Edinburgh.

That said, things used to be very different.

In the late 1590’s, the gardens were flooded.

The idea being that this would serve as a barrier of defense to the castle.

King James VI, writer of the book on demonology, was responsible for the witch hunts in Scotland. One of the way that they determined whether a woman was a witch or not, was ducking. This involved a woman being strapped or nailed to a piece of wood and plunged into the nor’ loch.

The women who sadly drowned were just left in the loch. As well as the bodies of the women in the loch, it was often a place where criminals would dispose of bodies. The residents of Mary Kings Close, being so close to the loch, would see eerie lights come through the close at night. This is said to be due to biogas escaping from the very polluted loch...

But it’s believed by many to be the spirits of the witch's haunting the cobbled streets, and causing people to have terrible nightmares and hallucinations.

Dorothea Puente is a convicted serial killer, who in the 1980s, ran a boarding house in California.

She murdered her elderly and mentally disabled boarders.

The total confirmed murder count was 9 victims.

The lead detective on the case named Cabrera, spoke in an interview about what he called the ‘Death Room’. He said: “That is where Dorothea would leave her unconscious victims to slowly die after being drugged”.

After recovering the buried bodies from the garden, an investigation was done on the inside of the house.

He spoke of this investigation and said: “When entering the house, I was overcome with a foul smell”.

“I found out quickly, it was because of putrefied body fluid that had seeped into the wooden floors”.

“For that to happen, the bodies in the ‘Death Room’ must have been left on the floor for at least 3 weeks before being buried in the garden”.

With all the deaths that occurred at this house, the souls of those who were murdered might not be ready to pass over until their story can be told.

The best paranormal investigation of the house was done ‘Ghost Adventures’.

The evidence they uncover is beyond description.

Before showing you the evidence of their investigation, it would worthwhile telling you that although Dorothea Puente was convicted of murder for the 9 bodies that were dug up in the garden…

Its thought that she was responsible for the disappearance and murder of 6 more people…

Before we get into what the team found…

Throughout episodes of ‘Ghost ‘Adventures’, they use the most cutting-edge technology to obtain undeniable scientific evidence of the paranormal.

So what tools do the team use? To help you understand the evidence the team get, here is a complete guide…

The PSB-7 Spirit Box is a tool for communication with paranormal entities.

It uses radio frequency sweeps to generate white noise which gives entities the energy they need to be heard.

When this occurs you will hear voices or sounds coming through the static.

These devices are for communication with paranormal entities.

This is made possible by changing anomalies in electromagnetic energy into real words.

It can choose a response from a preset database of over 2,000 words.

The words are presented as phonetic responses to questions.

The idea behind this, is that an intelligent entity can alter its environment in such a way, that forces the devices to give a response.

In Zaks 1st EVP Session, a female voice came forward and said: "To die“ and "You're dead“ His 2nd EVP session, also had a female voice that said: "I don't care“ and "Get out!”.

In his SP-7 Spirit Box Session, Zak made contact was with a male entity. The voice that came through said: "Hear me?", "Peter", "Jenny“

Jay did a session with the Ovilus device.

The entity that came through said: “Bury", “Fifteen (Said Twice)", "Earth", "Dirt", "Killed", "Night", "East“.

Jay then conducted a second session.

The entity was very responsive and said: "Ronda", "Count", "Below", "Paul", "Under", "Trap“,"Multiple", "Business", "Hell", "Spirits", "Digging“, "Cement", "Pine", "Within", "Anthony", "Mandy", "East“, "Person", "Foliage"

The SLS camera maps in a figure.

The figure begins using extreme movements as if agitated.

Since James Dean’s death in 1955…

The Porsche 550 Spyder has become as infamous as the car that killed him.

Along Came A Spyder, Picked Up A Rider,

Took Him Down The Road, To Eternity

While making the film ‘Rebel Without A Cause’, James Dean, upgraded his Porsche 356 to the stunning Porsche 550 Spyder.

He wanted to make the car his own, so he put in tartan seats, painted red stripes on the wings, painted ‘130’ on the doors and hood.

On the back … He painted the name he chose for the car… ‘Little Bastard’…

One evening, Dean met the famous actor Alec Guinness(Obi-Wan Kenobi) outside of a restaurant. Wanting to show off his prized possession, asked him to see the car.

Guinness told Dean the car had a “sinister” appearance.

From here, things become very creepy…

Chillingly…Guinness then told Dean…

“If you get in that car, you will be found dead in it by this time next week.”

Exactly one week later, James Dean was killed In a horrific car accident In his beloved “Little Bastard.”

McKamey Manor is a haunted house attraction.

We use the term ‘attraction’ very loosely…

Cause for lack of a better term…

This place is off the f**king chain!!!

It runs out of San Diego and is extreme to the point that to enter...

You must be 21 or over… And you must sign a liability waiver.

It is renowned for its portrayal of violence and cruelty, but it must be stated though…

That this is all done by actors, and patrons do not suffer any actual physical harm.

The thrill of the experience, is that you’re being put in a situation where you’re experiencing being in your own horror film.

Experiences in the house all differ, as they cater to your wants and needs so that your horror film experience can be fulfilled to the full extent.

The tour can last anywhere from four to eight hours and no guest has made it all the way through. A woman named Sarah P. held the record time by enduring six hours.

The house operates year-round…

In 1892, Andrew and Abby Borden were murdered in their home in Fall River, Massachusetts with an axe.

Their daughter Lizzie was the prime suspect and put on trial for the gruesome murders. In what was the most famous trial of the era, Lizzie was acquitted of all charges. The 127-year-old case remains unsolved.

There was never enough evidence to convict Lizzie of the murders, but many think it was her, because she would benefit financially from the death of her father.

The Borden family house is now a bed and breakfast where guests can spend the night.

Many guests who have stayed in the house have said with certainty that there are things that go bump in the night.

The Borden house is full of spirits, entities. People have even reported that manifestations have been seen in the house.

So what exactly have people seen? Let’s find out‌

We have searched for all the evidence we can find on hauntings in the house. Here is a few examples: The entity of Mr. Borden is an angry presence, that can be felt all round the house his life was so horrifically taken from him.

It has been noted by paranormal investigators that Mr. Borden’s voice answers EVP questions.

The entity of Mrs.Borden still roams the bedroom where she was murdered.

An indentation of a body on the bed is often seen.

Just as if someone had laid down on the bed.

There are reports of cold spots regularly occurring, and woman’s cries are also audible in this room.

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The entity of Lizzie Borden has been seen.

A shadow of a woman, and an actual apparition that looks like Lizzie has been seen down in the basement by Every owner of the house, the staff that work there and some of their guests..

An EVP recording captured by D’Agostino heard a Horrified scream, followed by the words… “Come quick”.

Is Lizzie’s spirit trapped in the moment she found her parents?

The lights had a mind of their own, turning on and off.

There are reports of visitors being be in a room and in front of them, the wall switch would flick and turn on the lights.

Ghostly apparitions of shadow people have been seen at the top of the staircase, that move down to the main hallway.

Entities of two young children have been seen in various parts of the house and heard to be playing marbles. Sadly, at some point in the history of this house, two children drowned in the water cistern.

The house from the outside is a stunning piece of Victorian style architecture...

But inside the house, it’s built like a labyrinth and is a massive 24,000-square-foot in size.

Construction on the house began in 1884 and ended in 1922 and the history attached to the house is one of tragedy...

There was a blockbuster horror movie that was released in 2018, that featured Helen Mirren.

It revolved around the stories about the hauntings said to have taken place in the house.

They are said to be by the souls, of people who were killed by Winchester Rifles.

Sarah Winchester was the wife of gun manufacturer William Winchester, who is the man that created the Winchester rifle.

She only had one daughter. Very sadly she died at only 6 weeks old. Soon after that, she lost her husband to tuberculosis.

Grieving, she went to a spiritualist who claimed she could speak with the dead.

The spiritualist gave Sarah a message from beyond the grave‌ Her husband William told her that their family was suffering because of the blood money the family had made from selling Winchester rifles.

He warned her that there were vengeful ghosts that wanted to do her harm.

So to protect herself, she needed to build a house for herself and for the spirits who have fallen from this terrible weapon."

The spiritualist also told Sarah that she needed to build a mansion house for her and the spirits.

But she was given a dark and dangerous warning…

Once she started building the house, she must never stop… Because if she did, she would die.

Straight away, she moved out to California and started building her house.

Construction carried on day and night, 7 days a week and 52 weeks a year.

The builders, plumbers, carpenters and engineers worked in split shifts to make sure that work on the house never stopped.

This went on for 38 years, until the time of her death. It is rumored, that on the day of her death, everyone that was working on the house simply put down their tools and walked away from the house…

Sarah never employed the same builders for long periods of time and for the building staff that did do work on the house, were asked to build things that were rather unusual...

Such as trap doors and secret passages…

A skylight in the floor…

Staircases that lead to nowhere…

There are also doors that open to blank walls, and a dangerous door on the second floor that opens out into nothing but a near fatal drop to the garden below.

It's said that the ever-changing construction plans would occur after she had visited her purpose-built séance room, to speak with spirits who helped guide her with designing the unusual features of the house.

She was the sole architect and no master building plan has ever been found.

Having passed away in 1922, she’s the only person who’ll have truly known if there is anymore secrets that have yet to be uncovered.

So yet again, it looks like we’re going to be getting another Amityville Horror movie.

But this time, it’s going to be some5thing a little different…

And its something I think you’re going to be excited about.

‘Wonderfilm Media Corporation’ have announced that a new prequel film, that will be written and directed by Casey La Scala was now in the works and deals with the real-life murders committed by Ronald Defeo Jr. in 1974, in the house at 112 Ocean Avenue.

In cold blood, Defeo murdered both his parents and his four siblings while they were sleeping.

When asked about the upcoming project, La Scala said: “This is a story that takes its jumping-off point from the true facts surrounding the Defeo tragedy, but also focuses on the human drama that took place inside a family as they were relentlessly stalked by a terrifying evil”.

The original film in 1979 was a massive hit.

Even by todays standards, I still class it as one of the scariest films I’ve ever seen and refuse to watch it alone. Sadly, it was followed by a whole host of terrible sequels… the latest being 2017’s ‘Amityville: The Awakening’ that starred Bella Thorne.

In 2005, in what has become a trend with horror films as of late… a remake of the original film was made that starred Ryan Reynolds and Melissa George, but it also was a massive flop, and failed to deliver on every level.

Fans of the original film have been clamoring for a film that centers around the Defeo murders, that doesn’t go down the route of the supernatural.

Good for them then, that filming will start on the new film in November and will be called ‘Amityville 1974’. Founding partner of WonferFilm Jeff Bowler, says horror fans will get the movie they deserve.

He spoke of the upcoming film and said: • “We are beyond thrilled to introduce Amityville 1974. Casey has a truly unique and terrifying vision for the fright franchise and audiences will experience horror like never before with this film.”

South east of Shanagolden is the remains of a medieval abbey with a very dark and unsettling history.

The abbey was called home to the FitzGeralds and it is said that the family practiced satanic rituals, and were heavily involved in the occult and the dark arts.

It is also said that the rituals regularly involved sordid sexual acts.

Lady Fitzgerald died in a part of the abbey that is now known as ‘The Black Hag’s Cell’.

Countess Desmond (below), was buried alive here.

A fact that was discovered when the appearance of a ghostly figure prompted a closer inspection of her grave.

They found her finger bones and nails had been worn out from clawing at the lid of her coffin.

Today her screams can still be heard long into the night.

She got her name, because people who have seen her ghost have commented on the blackness of her face.

Built in 1798, it is the longest building In Ireland.

The asylum was under the stewardship of a psychiatrist by the name of William Saunders Hallaran.

The now-abandoned asylum was not a happy place. The treatment administered to patients at the asylum by Hallaran was by todays standards brutal and barbaric.

He is recognized within the psychiatric community as creating a device that he called ‘Hallaran’s Chair’.

This device rotated patients at up to 100 revolutions per minute.

The only effect of this treatment was that it made patients hysterical, and did not produce any positive results.

Inmates largely lived out their days in a state of utter despair.

Today, when paranormal investigators have been investigating the treatment rooms, they claim to have seen manifestations and the screams of the tormented souls trapped within the walls of the asylum.

This seemingly idyllic country house is also home to a legend steeped in mystery.

The house is said to have a guest with a cloven foot.

The story goes that a young girl by the name of Anne Tottenham was left traumatized while minding the property, because one night while minding the house, she encountered a house guest that she claimed to be the devil.

According to legend, the man mysteriously died after flying through the roof of the house.

In the wake of his death, Anne locked herself in her bedroom, and remained there until the day she died in 1775.

Today, the hole in the roof is still there, and it is said that the soul of Annie Tottenham still wanders the halls.

l Originally called Montpelier Lodge when it was built in 1725 for politician William Speaker Connolly.

When he died, the lease passed into the hands of the dashing, and rather disreputable Richard Parsons.

Parsons, also known as the Earl of Rosse, was the founder of what became known as the Hellfire Club.

Drunken debauchery was the calling card of the Club.

While there isn’t written evidence about what happened there‌ It is assumed that due to its isolated location, that their wild behavior went unchecked.

Urban legends associated with property include visits from the devil, diabolical violence and abuse towards servants, and there is also a story of a young woman that was rolled down the hill in an oak barrel that was set on fire.

The roof of the building that sits proud of the hilltop, is now cobbled, but was originally wooden.

The wooden roof was burned down.

It is said it was burned down by the devil in a fit of rage.

The fort has a rich history that dates to as early as King Edward III. One example of its history, is that at one point in time, there was a man who was clerk to the Admiralty Court of Kinsale.

His name was William Penn. He is the man that would go on to become the founder of the state of Pennsylvania.

It is not surprising then, that with a history dating back this far, that ghost stories from the town are plentiful.

The most infamous, being one of sadness and tragedy, that relates to one‌ Lady In White.

The lady in question was the daughter to the Commander at the Fort.

She met a young aspiring officer; they fell in love and got married.

A short time after their nuptials, the young officer was placed on sentry duty, and one night, while on active duty, he dozed off.

A short time later that night, the lady’s father being the Commander of the Fort, went on his tour of inspection and as it would happen, found a man sleeping at his post.

Without realizing that the sleeping man was his own son-in-law, in dutiful execution of the military code of the day, he shot the sleeping man.

Only when it was too late, did the commander see that the man he had executed for dereliction of duty, was the young officer whom his daughter had married.

Overcome with guilt, regret and remorse, he committed suicide.

After being informed of the demise of her husband and father, her idyllic happiness had turned to stark tragedy.

Grief-stricken, just like her father, she committed suicide.

The lady in white may be seen in the half light of dusk.

A figure of a woman in white, she is doomed forever to walks the walls of the Fort.

Built in 1702, Wicklow Gaol has been described by many as … ‘The gates of hell’ …

And with good reason.

Thousands upon thousands of prisoners died within its walls during the Great Famine.

The gaol’s inhospitable conditions creating a haven for disease and death.

Eventually closed in 1924, the legacy of this palace of torture lives on…

The stench of death is still rife within its walls…

With cell reverberating a different story of suffering.

Legend has it that those who died there still roam within the gaol’s walls.

In the first instance, the prison was at most populated after the Irish rebellion against the British in 1798.

Almost a century after Wicklow Gaol first opened, the Irish Rebellion ended in defeat.

The gaol was used to imprison rebels, with many being executed.

Their corpses disposed of by throwing them into waters offshore from fishing boats.

The second instance, was during the famine.

It was period of mass starvation and disease in Ireland between 1845 and 1849.

The shortage of food led to a very desperate situation.

A starving population resorted to extreme measures in order to survive.

The highest number of prisoners held in the Gaol in a year was in 1848, at the height of the famine. It is recorded that there were 780 prisoners.

At this point the gaol had only 77 cells.

The overcrowding and chaos within each cell must have been unimaginable.

Typhus was rife and deaths among inmates happened regularly.

When an inmate perished, and they were sharing a cell, their body was just left to rot amongst the other cellmates.

Being that they were infected with the extremely contagious Typhus, the infected corpse would be left among the living cellmates until they were all infected and died.

When it came to punishing prisoners, this place was savage.

The most common form of punishment was whipping.

This would by order of the Governor in response to misconduct or as part of the sentencing for criminal activity.

It was usually juveniles who were given this punishment and the whipping itself was carried out by other prisoners.

Now to escalate the brutality of the punishments dished out to prisoners.

The treadwheel was a torture device introduced to Wicklow Gaol in 1820.

It was also called ‘The Everlasting Staircase’.

It was a wide, hollow cylinder, usually composed of wooden steps built around a cylindrical iron frame.

As the treadwheel began to rotate, each prisoner was forced to continue stepping along the series of planks.

It was partitioned with stalls so the prisoners couldn’t talk to each other and were expected to work the wheel for three hours daily in winter, and four in summer.

The device was purpose built for torture and could be used on as many as 40 inmates at a time.

The Eastern State Penitentiary, is a former American prison in Philadelphia and was operational from 1829 until 1971, with more than 70,000 prisoners passed through its doors.

Originally it consisted only of solitary cells and prisoners spent 24 hours a day alone, driving most to insanity.

By the early 20th century, however, two to three men would be crowded into these cells, but that was only the beginning of their suffering.

The warden encouraged such torture as dunking prisoners into freezing water in the winter and would also resort to hanging them against a wall and tying them up for days at a time so they couldn't move their limbs.

As bad as this was, this is nothing compared to the other disgusting acts performed on the prisoners.

Human experiments at the prison, were beyond the point of abuse and exploitation.

Between 1951 and 1971, thousands of prisoners had inhumane experiments performed on them.

Some types of experiments were dermatological, involving the benign use of cosmetics and toiletries.

However, others entailed hair transplants, implantation of foreign bodies, burns and radiation of the skin, exposure to dioxin, application and ingestion of toxic, near lethal doses of retinoin A, inoculation of Staphylococcus aureus, and the yanking out of fingernails.

Eastern State Penitentiary cont’d With its looming, gloomy high stone walls, crumbling corridors, from the outside looking in, it certainly looks haunted.

Its 142-year history is full of suicide, madness, disease, murder and torture, making it easy to imagine the spirits of troubled souls left behind to roam its abandoned halls.

The prison is considered by many different sources to be one of the most haunted places in the world.

It has been featured on several popular paranormal TV shows like Ghost Adventures, Most Haunted, and Ghost Hunters.

Dozens of paranormal researchers visit every year and report that it's a hub of otherworldly activity.

Perhaps most convincingly, there are the stories of eerie experiences by visitors, staff, guards and inmates that have corroborated each others' stories.

Some of the stories come from various cellblocks around the prison.

In cellblock 12 there are many reports of echoing voices and cackling.

Cellblock 6 is known for people seeing manifestations of shadowy figures darting along the walls. And in Cellblock 4, it is reported that you will be left terrified by visions of ghostly faces. There have been reports from people who have seen a silhouette of a guard in one of the towers.

There are also reports of people hearing footsteps, wailing and whispers.

One of the most legendary tales comes from Gary Johnson, who helps maintain the crumbling old locks at the prison.

In the early 1990s, he had just opened an old lock in Cellblock 4 when he says a force gripped him so tightly that he was unable to move.

He described a negative, horrible energy that exploded out of the cell.

He said tormented faces appeared on the cell walls and that one form beckoned to him.

In the 18th century, the cemeteries in Paris were overflowing and in a horrendous state.

So bad in fact, that corpses were just left out in the open to decompose.

The smell of rotting flesh filled the Parisian air and the people in the city were getting sick.

It is said that the state of affairs was so bad, that it was causing wine to turn bad and was making milk curdle.

King Louis the 15th made a proclamation in 1763, that placed a ban on any and all burials within the city limits.

The order from the king was all well and good, but the corpses in the cemeteries were still there.

Nothing was done to fix the problem, and everything carried on just as it had before.

A solution to this horrible situation was put in place, when King Louis the 16th did away with the proclamation of the previous king.

He then had his architect, Charles-Axel Guillaumot build a system of underground catacombs.

The Catacombs are a series of underground tunnels that are well over 200 miles long and run underneath the city streets of Paris.

This house the bones of more than six million former city residents.

Explorers enter the catacombs through the official entrance, will find it is known as the ‘Barrière d'Enfer’ or in English…’The Gate of Hell’. There are those who dare enter through several clandestine entrances throughout the city.

Those who have been brave enough to go into the catacombs under the cover of darkness…

And managed to find their way out of the labyrinth of tunnels…

And survived to tell the tale…

Have unsurprisingly had tales to tell of their terrifying experiences…

Many people are reported to have said they heard the walls talking to them.

What’s more disturbing and spine chilling than that, is the reports of people hearing disembodied voices trying to lure them deeper into the tunnels…

Encouraging them to go further and further, until they lose their way…

Lost and with no way out, suffer a slow and agonizing death…

And if that doesn’t terrify you enough, it is known, that cultists steal bodies from morgues and bring them into the catacombs to perform evil rituals.

The remains of sacrificial murder victims are also said to litter the dark corridors already embedded with human bones.

It is said that not all of these would be explorers come back out.