Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Footsteps on the floorboards, creaks in the walls

Stuff that's hidden and murky and ambiguous is scary because you don't know what it does.
 
~ Jerry Garcia


Happy Halloween Everyone! Tonight I plan to help the shadowy thoughts out of the darkness of your mind. Like last year's Halloween post, this one is filled with some spooky things I've been saving up. All of these spooky things are shrouded in mystery. You won't see the ghosts in the first video, and you'll only find the songs scary because of your own imagination. Sometimes it's the things you don't see that are the scariest. You only see them in your mind, but you know they're lurking under the surface of reality.


I just became familiar with the psychic medium, Lisa Williams. Whether or not you believe in her abilities, I think you'll find this video plenty freaky. I chose the spookiest video of hers I could find. Here Lisa visits the Glen Tavern Inn and runs across some unpleasant spirits and their grisly history:



While watching this, I kept yelling at the screen "Don't lie on the closet floor Lisa!" You sure wouldn't see me doing that if I knew the history of that space.


Now you need to turn out the lights and turn up your speakers. Listen closely and get some goosebumps from Jack Kittel's Psycho. Thank you Bob, from It Came From the Man Cave for introducing this song to me!



Some interesting background on this song: It was viewed as too controversial to play on the radio when it was first recorded. Once a DJ dared to play the song on a radio station's underground segment, it became an instant hit.

In keeping with the same general theme, Wendy sent me a song titled Janie's Tomb, by Peter Gabriel. I couldn't find his version on YouTube, but I did find the song being sung by The Superfine Dandelion. Don't let their band name and looks deceive you, this is scary stuff!



Speaking of homebodies...


"She might have fooled me, but she didn't fool my mother."
 

As I said earlier, sometimes it's those things you don't see that are the worst. In this case, the problem is in front of our faces through most of the movie, but we aren't aware of it. The first time we see Psycho, Norman Bates seems like a nice enough guy. How scary is that?

Back to songs that leave an eerie feeling in your mind, I have to include this one.

Ode to Billy Joe by Bobbie Gentry:



I had thought about writing a blog post entirely around this song, but it was difficult to decide on a direction to go with it. It seems that everyone has a different theory about the song's meaning. I am shocked at what some people think she was tossing off that bridge. Still, we all know something's wrong in this story. Maybe the mystery is a good thing, because Ode to Billy Joe wouldn't be so awesome without it.

Bobbie Gentry strolling across the Tallahatchie Bridge

This last video always leaves me with chills. It definitely has something subtle that sneaks up on you.



Hopefully this post doesn't leave you with too many nightmares!


I hope you all have a fun Halloween celebrating in whatever way you choose. I'll be attending a play tonight, titled The Alchemist Eye, and it promises to be scary. The play is at The Alchemist Theatre which is rumored to be haunted. There are quite a few videos of the theater online, but this one really spooked me!



Well, at least I know which seat not to take...

Happy Halloween Everybody!

17 comments:

  1. Superfine Dandelion is the right version :) The Peter Gabriel tune was "Intruder" :)

    Man, that Jack Kittel song is a creep-fest!!!

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  2. Happy Halloween! Loved your spooky post!

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  3. Haha. This was definitely another coffee post, so I went and grabbed a cup before settling in for some "footsteps on the floorboards, creaks in the walls".

    I loved that Lisa Williams clip. I've never heard of her. Boy did that woman from the Glen Tavern Inn look disturbed and freaked-out through the whole session. Visiting the place is one thing, but imagine sleeping under that roof!!!

    I find Anthony Perkins so utterly creepy. He was really typecast by that role. I love 'Psycho', but I haven't seen it in ages. We've been working our way through a bunch of classic horrors over the last year, so that James gets a thorough indoctrination... ahem... education in the genre. ;) We still have 'Psycho', 'The Exorcist', and 'Rosemary's Baby' to go.

    A fabulously spooky post, Justine! Hope you had a great time at 'The Alchemist Eye'. Happy Halloween! :)

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  4. Wendy ~ Well, that explains why I couldn't find the Peter Gabriel version of the song - it doesn't exist! Both of those songs are marked as being Peter Gabriel's on the song list. It must have been a typo. Here I was thinking Peter Gabriel was really versatile. ;)

    Oh yeah. The Psycho song is majorly creepy. I hadn't heard it before listening to the track on Bob's mix CD. I was listening to every line, wondering what the guy would do next! By the time he gets to the little girl, I was just dreading the outcome. The ending is the worst! It's enough to give you goosebumps.

    Pumpkin Cottage ~ Happy Halloween to you too! :) Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed this one!

    Little Gothic Horrors ~ Haha! Yeah, I haven't done a long coffee post for a while. There were probably enough videos here to keep you busy for a half hour!

    I hadn't heard of Lisa Williams until recently, myself. I've watched a few of her videos and they were all entertaining. The others aren't as creepy as this one, though. I agree about the lady at the Glen Tavern Inn. She was clearly disturbed by the information she was being told, and I felt sorry for her having to stay there. It makes me wonder if she continued staying in that place after learning some of the building's history.

    Oh, Anthony Perkins was perfect in Psycho. I haven't seen that movie in its entirety for years. Oh? Which classic horror movies has James gotten to see lately? I've never seen 'Rosemary's Baby', but I have read the book. If the movie is half as scary as the book, it should be good! 'The Exorcist' is hands down the scariest movie ever in my opinion. The tension is built up so well.

    I'm glad that you enjoyed this post! I actually just returned from the play, and it was a good time. There were surprisingly a lot of humorous parts. The humor was intentional, so I wasn't the only one laughing this time. :) There were a few kind of gory bits too. The special effects were great! Luckily, no seats popped up or down around me. I skipped visiting the basement...

    Happy Halloween to you too!

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  5. Thanks for sharing Justine. Happy Halloween!

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  6. LOL! That was fun! :0)
    Hope your evening was filled with thrills and chills!

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  7. Mantan ~ Happy (belated) Halloween to you too! :) I hope you had a nice time celebrating yesterday.

    Jeanne ~ LOL? Hahaha! Really? Here I thought I was being all spine-tingling with this stuff. :) Glad you had fun watching these videos. It can be fun getting a little scared sometimes!

    My evening had a few thrills and chills, when props seemingly moved on their own on stage. The set design for this play was majorly creepy. Stuff was dripping out of the set's walls and the lights were flickering. It was a nice amount of spooky! I hope you had a fun Halloween as well. :)

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  8. Well . . . not TOO many nightmares! ;O) Glad your Halloween was a happy one.

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  9. Haha! That's good. :) I know this is an awful lot of dark material at once! Thanks, I did have a happy Halloween. I hope you did too!

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  10. The slashers don't scare me as much as the suspense. Not knowing what is about to happen and that element of surprise scares the crap out of me (sometimes literally, lol).

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  11. Adsila ~ Yeah! I'm more likely to be scared by something psychological like a Norman Bates character than something jumping out at me. Not that Norman didn't get slashy at a few points in the film... but those moments where there's silence and anticipation are far scarier.

    Yikes! Watch these videos near a bathroom then. ;)

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  12. We've watched 'The Haunting', 'The Omen' trilogy, 'An American Werewolf in London', and 'The Thing'. We also showed him quite a few Hammer Horrors way back after Christmas. I remember you and I were both having a bit of a Hammer-Fest then. :)

    Oh, I just remembered, we haven't watched 'The Amityville Horror' yet either. That's another one I haven't seen in years. I read 'The Amityville Horror' book years ago too.

    At some stage, I'd also like to watch some of the Universal monster movies with James, but they never get shown on TV here anymore. The DVDs are quite expensive too.

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  13. Little Gothic Horrors ~ I just watched 'An American Werewolf in London' last week! That was a good one. People have been recommending 'The Omen' to me for years, but I still haven't seen it. I saw 'The Haunting' a few years back and I remember that one as kind of depressing. I'd never even heard of 'The Thing' until now! Is that a good one?

    Oh yeah, the Hammer Fest. :) That was a lot of fun. I was meaning to watch 'Dracula A.D. 1972' over Halloween, but it didn't happen. That's such a funny one!

    I loved 'The Amityville Horror' book. That one really scared me. I was probably around 14 or 15 when I read that, so I should pick it up again and see if it still scares me. I remember enjoying the movie, but not as much as the book. The later Amityville movies got downright silly and laughable! I remember one with a haunted lamp someone brings home from a garage sale and it starts collecting flies. I think about that when shopping at estate sales!

    Hmm... Maybe some of those old monster movies are online somewhere? OK, I just googled 'Dracula' and a bunch of full length videos showed up. So just search for videos of some of those old movies, and I think you'll find what you're looking for! Good luck. :)

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  14. I forgot to add 'The Birds' to the list of "Must Watch with James". I was discussing this topic with James over dinner and he reminded me that we also watched 'Poltergeist' and 'Jaws' with him too. We've got 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' for him to watch as well, but that's not horror... just a classic.

    I don't remember either the movie or book of 'The Amityville Horror' too well because I saw them so long ago, but I remember they spooked me. A red room and demon eyes have stuck in brain. My dad had all those classic horror books and I worked my way through them as a teen. I haven't seen the sequels. It's unfortunate when crappy sequels sully the reputation of the original film in a series.

    Yeah, 'The Haunting' was depressing. It was creepy but also very stylized and psychological. It was hard-going for a kid of James' age and generation, but he was learning about Gothic Horror at school at the time and it was a useful example of themes like isolation and descent into madness.

    I will look up the monster movies online. I'd love to own this:

    http://www.amazon.com/Universal-Monsters-Coffin-Collection-Blu-ray/dp/B008R8E8VY/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=2FR0Q1DQIJZ2T&coliid=I3DT9DL87CQ4RH

    But it's a tad pricey! Haha.

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  15. Little Gothic Horrors ~ Oh, 'Poltergeist' is a classic! Did he like that one? I'm curious to know which of these movies James liked and didn't like. I agree that 'Close Encounters' isn't a horror movie, although those events would be plenty scary in person.

    Are you remembering the demon eyes that were on the pig? That whole pig element was funny at first and then just really creepy. "Jodie the pig" - that's so weird it has to be true! Or made up by a really twisted mind.
    There is so much controversy over whether those events really happened. I heard about some new witness accounts coming out recently!

    Wow! Would you look at that DVD set! I love the packaging. Hmm... that is quite the high price, but it's a great looking set!

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  16. Halloween is the best time of year!
    Love this post!
    Sandra

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  17. Sandra ~ I agree! I'm always happy around this time of year. Thanks! Glad you enjoyed this one. :)

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