Hello Ghouls and Ghosties,
Today I’m going to talk about the genre of horror that scares me the most.. Paranormal. Now many of these movies may seem corny and even a little bit far-fetched, but I believe in spirits and demons. I’ve complied a list of some of the scariest paranormal movies I’ve ever seen. (In no particular order)
The Exorcist (1973)
When a teenage girl is possessed by a mysterious entity, her mother seeks the help of two priests to save her daughter.
The real fear of this movie wasn’t the movie itself but the strange things that happened to the actors and crew. Actors Jack MacGowran, and Vasiliki Maliaros both died while the film was in post-production. What makes their deaths strange is that their characters died in the film as well. Other deaths that occurred during the filming of THE EXORCIST include Linda Blair’s grandfather and Max Von Sydow’s brother, who died on Max’s first day of shooting. Also while filming, the son of Jason Miller, who played Father Damien Karras, was nearly killed when a motorcycle hit him. Also there were random set fires, lots of equipment malfunctions causing harm to the actors and just creepy things.
The Conjuring (2013)
Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse.
Based off a true story of the Perron Family. The family immediately noticed odd things after moving into the farm-house. Starting simple, a broom being moved, and strange noises. Carolyn (The mother) allegedly researched the history of the home and discovered that it had been in the same family for eight generations and that many of them had died under mysterious or horrible circumstances. Several of the children had drowned in a nearby creek, one was murdered, and a few of them hanged themselves in the attic. The family experienced other spirits that smelled like rotting flesh and would cause beds to rise off the floor. There are claims that the father would enter the basement and feel a “cold, stinking presence behind him.” They often stayed away from the dirt-floored cellar, but the heating equipment would often fail mysteriously, causing Roger(father) to venture down.
Over the ten years that the family lived in the house, the Warrens made multiple trips to investigate. At one point, Lorraine conducted a seance to attempt to contact the spirits that were possessing the family. During the seance, Carolyn Perron became possessed, speaking in tongues and rising from the ground in her chair.
The Amityville Horror
Newlyweds are terrorized by demonic forces after moving into a large house that was the site of a grisly mass murder a year before.
The actual family George and Kathy Lutz were in their mid thirties when moving into the Amityville house. They only lasted one month before fleeing with only 3 changes of clothes a piece. The husband George said they did not see any human forms or things floating, but there was a true evil in the house and that they left for the safety of their lives..
Sinister (2012)
Washed-up true-crime writer Ellison Oswalt finds a box of super 8 home movies that suggest the murder he is currently researching is the work of a serial killer whose work dates back to the 1960s.
This movie wasn’t based off a true story, but in the movie the father finds an old set of super 8 home films which each show different families being horribly murdered in sick ways. As he does his research he finds it’s a demon who steals children through the films.. I wont give to many spoilers away but it’s absolutely scary and worth a watch.
A Nightmare On Elm Street
The monstrous spirit of a slain janitor seeks revenge by invading the dreams of teenagers whose parents were responsible for his untimely death.
Now this one is on this list because of the paranormal nature of Freddy.. also the fact that this movie was based on a true story..
Director Wes Craven said that he got the idea for “a nightmare that could kill” from a newspaper article he read about the mysterious deaths of several South East Asian refugees. The refugees, seventeen men and one woman, hailed from a mountainous province of Laos called Hmong. They fled to the United States in 1975 when the Pathet Lao, a communist dictatorship accused of committing genocide on its own people, took control of the country. The Hmong people were especially in danger of reprisal from the Pathet Lao since many of them served as anti-communist soldiers who helped rescue downed American pilots during the Vietnam War.
The Hmong were an isolated people forced into the modern world by war. Despite fighting on the side of the Americans, very few of those who resettled in America spoke English; their native language had only recently been written down. Their religion was based in Animism, a belief that all things posses a spirit. Settling mainly in Minnesota and California, adjusting to life in a strange land was wrought with anxiety. So overwhelming was the move from Laos to America that many Hmong refugees almost immediately sought out doctors to treat outbreaks of imaginary venereal disease and parasites they believed were living under their skin.
Eventually, all eighteen refugees were found dead in their beds with the official cause of death listed as “probable cardiac arrhythmia”. However, another cause of death, one that doctors did not want to discuss, was known by the unfortunate name of “oriental nightmare death syndrome.” Now known as “Sudden Unexpected Death Syndrome”, it is a condition that seems to affect young Hmong males as well as Filipinos, where it claims 43 out of 100,000 victims per year. They seem to literally die of fright from their own belief of what happens in their dreams.
The Haunting in Connecticut
After a family is forced to relocate for their son’s health, they begin experiencing supernatural behavior in their new home, and uncover a sinister history.
“The Haunting in Connecticut” tells the story of the Snedeker family, who in 1986 rented an old house in Southington, Connecticut. Allen and Carmen Snedeker moved in with their daughter and three young sons. While exploring their new home, Carmen found strange items in the basement: tools used by morticians.
The family soon discovered — to their horror — that their home had once been a funeral parlor, and the eldest son began seeing ghosts and terrifying visions. The experiences spread to other family members and got worse: Both parents said they were raped and sodomized by demons; one day as Carmen mopped the kitchen floor, the water suddenly turned blood-red and smelled of decaying flesh; and so on.
Finally the family contacted a pair of self-styled “demonologists” and “ghost hunters,” Ed and Lorraine Warren, who arrived and proclaimed the Snedeker house to be infested with demons.
The Possession
A young girl buys an antique box at a yard sale, unaware that inside the collectible lives a malicious ancient spirit. The girl’s father teams with his ex-wife to find a way to end the curse upon their child.
While you cant find much on where the famous dibbuk box came from, it was in the mid 2000s when its haunting story first surfaced. It all started with a weird listing on eBay for an old wine box that had a starting bid of $1.00. In the box there were locks of hair, a couple of pennies, a wine-cup, a slab of granite that had been engraved, and a dried flower. 50 bids later, the wine box ended up selling for almost $300. Not bad for a strange box on eBay, that’s for sure. The seller bought it from another seller, who was the first modern-day buyer of the box.
The original buyer, Kevin Mannis, says that this box was purchased at the estate sale of a 103-year-old Holocaust survivor. The old woman was the only person in her entire family to survive. When she came to the United States, she only brought three things with her; a steamer trunk, a sewing box, and this wine cabinet. The granddaughter, who managed the estate, remember that her grandmother was terrified of the box and would insist that her family never, ever open it. When the buyer had offered the box to her she immediately refused it. Before the buyer could even get home with the box, Mannis received a nervous and frantic call from one of his employees at the furniture shop that he owned, claiming that someone was in the shop destroying the place. When Mannis finally arrived, he found his store covered in broken glass, but he never did find the mysterious stranger. That same day, his employee quit and never returned.
Mannis soon cleaned up the box and gave it to his mother for her birthday and within minutes of receiving the box, she had a stroke and lost the ability to speak for some time. Of course, Mannis doesn’t put two and two together and attempts to give the box to many of his friends and family members; all of which who did take the box gave it back to him shortly after. Some of them said that the doors wouldn’t stay closed and would open on themselves; others smelled a strange mixture of jasmine and cat urine while owning the box.
The reason is that Mannis was so afraid to destroy the box that he worried it would cause whatever evil spirit that he believed might be haunting it would stay with him forever. Traditionally, if something like this happens they say you are supposed to formally transfer ownership for the spirit to move on, except he could never find anyone who would keep it for more than a couple of days. So instead, he sold it on eBay for $140 to a college student, Losif Nietzke who also claims to have had similar bad luck.
Nietzke says that in the seven months that he had possession of the box, he and his roommates fell victim to many injuries like broken fingers, bronchitis, swollen red eyes, and insomnia. Also, their house became plagued with decaying dead mice and their electronics would die daily. The worst came over Nietzke when the healthy 20-year-old started losing his hair.
Paranormal Activity
After moving into a suburban home, a couple becomes increasingly disturbed by a nightly demonic presence.
Once again not a true story but still creeped me out. When it first came out and stated it was based on a true story I was so afraid to sleep. I remember being a teenager and asking my mom to stay up with me because I was afraid of ghosts. Seems silly now but when the first one came out I was so scared.
Belive what you will but I find paranormal horror to be terrifying. I feel so badly for all the people these movies were based off of. Paranormal Investigation is very interesting to me and one day I plan on doing haunted tours.
So what do you all think? Do you believe in the paranormal? Why or why not? Let me know in the comments.
Also super excited for this weekend. I’m going to see the new Halloween movie tonight, and going to multiple haunted houses this weekend. So stay tuned and look out for my reviews to come.
Stay creepy ghouls and ghosties,
Ghoulishly Yours,
Helena
