Freaky Flicks: Paranormal Activity: Evidence of a Haunting

Hello readers! As you may know, on the TAGO blog I started a new blog series called "Freaky Flicks" where I will inform you of some new scary movies that are coming out or are just rumors at this point. Today I come to you with a movie that has no official release date yet, but has already spooked the crap out of many film fest fans. It is called Paranormal Activity: Evidence of a Haunting.

The premise is fairly simple:

"A young couple suspects that their house is haunted by a malevolent entity. They set up video surveillance to capture evidence of what happens at night as they sleep. Their surveillance and home videos have been edited into the 99 minute feature film "Paranormal Activity".

This is a film, much like The Poughkeepsie Tapes, that has been tossed around, seen by few, and doesn't have a clear release date. This film was shown at a film festival called Slamdance a few years back (2007) and was a huge success. So big in fact that Dreamworks Pictures loved it and bought the rights to the film. Initially their plan was to remake the film and "Hollywood-ize" it which many fans on message boards really hated. The original film was receiving rave reviews out of the festival, especially remarks for being incredibly daring and original, not to mention scary as hell. So fans could not fathom why Dreamworks would want to fix something that was clearly never broken.

My thoughts were that maybe Dreamworks doesn't think a film like this, that is very low budget would hack it in the box office. But honestly, most horror films don't. I picture them casting some fairly big names, and doing away with the hand held camera effect. Now I haven't seen the original film, but to me the no name actors and the hand held effect are the things that would make the movie great. Recently someone announced Dreamworks has decided to pull the plug on the remake and just release the original film (which again is just a rumor I saw online, and have NO proof of this statement) and still there is no release date for any version of this movie.

Yes, the whole movie is hand held camera. I know it's been done a lot lately, especially since the success of The Blair Witch Project and more recently, Cloverfield. But to me, this is the type of film where this style of film making would work the absolute best. It makes for a more realistic and gritty horror film. The effect practically would put the audience in the shoes of the characters in the film. We would essentially be experiencing the ghostly happenings just as they do, which for me makes a very, very creepy and bone chilling movie.

I would like to share with you some of the reviews the film did receive from the film festival. People have gone as far to say that Paranormal Activity may very well be the single most terrifying film ever made. Yikes! Here are some review snipets:

"Paranormal Activity is great: calculated, subtle, authentically scary
without being overtly manipulative. Better than Blair Witch."
--Eric Kohn, New York Press"Possibly the Scariest Movie Ever Made and the Best Reason
to Wear Diapers at the Cinema... Paranormal Activity
is not for the weak hearted and is one of the few films that stays with you
after you’ve left the theater to the point that you wished it wouldn’t.
Paranormal Activity is our generation’s The Exorcist" -
BlueBomber

"The entire auditorium was freaked out of their minds...people were actually physically shaking..." - Dread Central podcast (Minute 18)

"Scary as hell" - In This Week

"Paranormal Activity managed to do something that almost no other haunted house movie in the past 25 years has managed to do: actually be scary." - Bloody-Disgusting

"I was so freaked out after watching this film, I did not want to step foot into my house thinking there might be something I can't see waiting for me." - Jorge Ameer, Hollywood Independents

"I hate to use cliches like ‘spine tingling’, but that's what my spine appeared to be doing numerous times. Really scary stuff.”
- Carl Ellsworth (writer, Disturbia)

So as you can see, this movie scared the heck out of a LOT of people. There are more review snipets on the movies website (which is a pretty generic looking site for now). You can view the site by clicking this link: Paranormal Activity.

Also, check out the pretty creepy trailer of the film right down below! There is another even more scary trailer on the film's website which I linked up above! Enjoy!

--Mike--

"Paranormal Activity" trailer - Watch more Free Videos

The Phoenix Lights

I'm not going to write much about the "Lights over Phoenix" because I attached a couple of videos showing this phenomena. On March 13, 1997, around 8:30 pm many Phoenicians and others all over Arizona, stepped out of their homes to catch a glimpse of the Hail-Bob or sometimes referred to as Hale-Bopp comet. What they saw moving in the night skies was something much more, a series of strange lights. In the distance the lights appeared to be independent of each other but as they got closer to the observer, it looked like an upside down V shape with lights on it. This wedge like object was reported to be moving South, slowly through the state of Arizona. People have stated seeing it in Tucson around 8:45 pm, giving the same description as was reported in Phoenix. There is no logical explanation for the lights but some evidence explains the lights as airplanes. Video evidence shows the lights as separate entities moving individually and not as a single object. The explanation is that some of the witnesses may have had their eyes play tricks on them forming the illusion of one object.

I've watched all the documentaries on this phenomena and found it interesting. The videos are stronge evidence showing the lights from different angles, forming a V shape traveling over the skies of Phoenix. Since it happened in my backyard, I am sorry that I missed the whole event. I was probably doing something much more exciting like watching TV.

--Julie--

Ouija Board: Spirit Board or Just a Game

Most of us have checked out Ouija boards at one time in our lives. For me, it was when I was in middle school. My friends and I would spend the night at one of our homes on the weekends. There were usually six of us and we loved getting scared. Our night would usually consist of cheesy scary movies, junk food and playing games. The games weren’t your typical board games but anything that might give us a scare. We might start out with: light as a feather, stiff as a board; or a séance; or we would pull out the Ouija board, which someone conveniently had. We would all put a finger on the triangle pointer and ask questions. The excitement would build when the pointer started moving. Of course we all swore that we didn’t move it. Nothing major happened, just a group of silly adolescent girls having fun.

Even though we had nothing happen afterwards, the same can’t be said for a friend of my daughters and her two roommates. They decided to check out the Ouija board one night that April had purchased. They asked all the questions and got movement from the pointer. After having fun, the board was put away and they went to bed. The next morning several of the kitchen cabinet doors were opened. They blamed each other for playing a prank but no one would fess up. The doors were shut and the two roommates went to work while April took a shower. When she returned to the kitchen, some of the cabinet doors where opened. She called her roommates to see if one of them returned and opened the cabinets, but they were already at work. Creepy feelings came over her at this point. This was only the beginning of many unexplained phenomenon to happen in that apartment. All April’s life strange paranormal activity kept happening to her or around her. This seemed to another chapter in the spooky life that was April’s. (I hope to write some blogs about some of these chapters). After a month or so of the paranormal activity in the apartment, they all moved out! Did some type of spirit, good or bad, get released when they used to Ouija board? I don’t know but the paranormal activity was real.

Ouija board (pronounced “weejah”) has been known as a spirit board or talking board. The board is made up of letters, numbers, and symbols all to help communicate with spirits. The triangle pointer (as I call it) is called a planchette and aides in spelling out the messages from the questions asked. Although “Ouija” is a trademark name, the term “Ouija Board” is abandoned as a registered trademark. The Ouija board goes as far back as 1200 B. C. and used by the Chinese as a method called “planchette writing”. On February 10, 1891, the Ouija board was patented, looking much like the board we use today.

The scientific explanation for the Quija board is that we are using our subconscious mind in directing our thought process. Some people believe that the Ouija board is so powerful that they a not aware that they are moving the planchette. They are so caught up in the moment and believe that some kind of spiritual force is answering their questions. Experiments were conducted to try and prove this theory right and concluded with different results.

A spiritualist explains the Quija board as vessel for spiritual contact. Some say that the contacted spirits may use the talents of a medium to get their messages across. The medium’s eyes are a vessel for a spirit to use and be able to point at the letters in order to form the message it needs to convey. Some don’t believe that the board has any mythical powers but used as a tool for a medium to communicate with spirits.

Of course, where would we be without the skeptic’s view? They feel that it is used to fool people, a prank, and that one person is indeed moving the planchette. Maybe, more than one person is in on the joke, with all moving the planchette slowly, having the unaware person thinking that it is moving on its own. Also, they may keep a straight face or show shock, keeping up with the prank. The skeptics believe that the planchette can only move by human power and not spiritual power.

Although many think of Ouija board as a simple game and harmless, some revere it as evil and dangerous. What may seem like a friendly spirit could be a demon spirit instead playing tricks on an unsuspecting victim. People have reported being haunted by ghosts, hearing voices and other unknown phenomenon after using the Ouija board. This is what happened to April and her roommates. There are many other stories similar to these that can be found on the Internet. What do you think? Is the Quija board evil or just a game?

--Julie--