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The Plague of the Past (?)

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In these strange and scary pandemic times, its nice to live in a world of modern health care, science and the wide spread information about the internet. But pandemics and epidemics have always been a part of the human experience through history, and it’s really just in the last couple of centuries, we’ve really been able to combat the spread of viruses. So in that regard, we took a look at past pandemics and epidemics and how they affected the society and how they at that time, tried to combat it.

The plague of Justinian (541-542 AD)

St Sebastian pleading for the life of a gravedigger afflicted with plague during the 7th-century Plague of Justinian.
(Josse Lieferinxe, c. 1497–1499)

This plague is the first well documented occurrence of a wide spread pandemic. And according to some historians, the most deadliest. In 2013 it was confirmed that the bacteria was the Yersinia pestis, the same that caused the Black death.

“During these times, there was a pestilence, by which the whole human race came near to being annihilated” – Procopius

The name comes from the Emperor Justinian of the Byzantian empire, a peasant son that had been chosen as emperor Justin, his uncle, to rule in these times. Justinian and members of his court, physically unaffected by the previous 535–536 famine, were afflicted, with Justinian himself contracting and surviving the pestilence. He was said to have been a stern and vicious ruler in the plague times, not budging on collecting the taxes from his starving and sickly farmers.

Mosaic of Justinianus I – Basilica San Vitale (Ravenna)
Photo by: Petar Milošević 2015

Merchant ships from Egypt came into the city of Constantinople the seat of the Roman Empire, carrying infected rats in the grain ships. We have a lot of first hands accounts of the Byzantine historians, like Procopius. He recorded that at its peak, the plague killed 10 000 people in the city of Constantinople, daily. There was no room to bury the dead, the bodies had to be stacked on top of each other. In the streets, in the houses, unburied, left unattended, feared. No one was left to bury them. There was no room for funeral rites and the once so great city reeked of death.

Proocopicus, hated the Emperor Justinius, and blamed him in his “Secret History”, claiming the emperor was a demon that created the plague, or at leas, was a punishment for his malice. He told of supernatural beings in human disguise that spread the disease after appearing to people. He claimed other dies after seeing visions in dreams, or heard voices, telling them that they would be getting the plague.

1975. This patient presented with symptoms of plague that included gangrene of the right hand causing necrosis of the fingers. Author=CDC/Dr. Jack Poland

In the end, the tombs were filled, so the soldiers built trenches for the bodies to be thrown in. That too failed, as it in the end, was no where left to dig. In the end the people carried the bodies of the dead down to the sea and threw them in to rid themselves of the stench of death and piling of bodies.

In the VIth century the inhabitants of Philippi embarked on the construction of an imposing basilica on the site of the town’s palaestra; the size of the planned building clearly exceeded the needs of the town, thus indicating that Philippi attracted many pilgrims. In 547 the so-called Justinian plague devastated the countries of the Mediterranean basin and in the early VIIth century an earthquake struck the region of Philippi; these two catastrophic events could have halted the completion of the basilica, standing as a proof and evidence on how plagues can alter the history as intended.
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The Black Death (1347-1351)

Physician attire for protection from the Bubonic plague or Black death from 1656. A so called plague doctor. The purpose of the mask was to keep away bad smells, known as miasma, which were thought to be the principal cause of the disease, before it was disproved by germ theory.

It swept cross Europe in medieval times, laying towns, countries, cultures and riches in ruins. It did not start in Europe, but it remained as an imprint on it, to this today, some would even claim, a fear for it, that still rings today. And in the western world, every plague since then, has been compared to the infamous Black Death. So many myths, so many legends spun around it, who was to blame, were did it come from. It left plague pits, its own cemeteries and around 25 million dead in Europe alone.

People would die suddenly. They would be in the market, at work, at home, and the, suddenly fall dead of the illness. Doctors refused to attend the patients and priests declined administering last rites. Even worse, healthy people from families would often leave their infected loved ones to die and escaped to other places.

Contemporary sources say that the plague originated in Mongolia. It traveled all the way before it hit Europe in full force in 1347/48 along the coast. Giovanni Boccaccio, most known for his book, Decameron, was a first hand witness to the plague. In his book, he describes the harsh reality of it:

“The pestilence was so powerful that it was communicated to the healthy by contacting the sick, the way a fire close to dry or oily things will set them aflame.”

They established their camps in fields near towns and held their rituals twice a day. The ritual began with the reading of a letter, claimed to have been delivered by an angel and justifying the Flagellants’ activities. Next, the followers would fall to their knees and scourge themselves, gesturing with their free hands to indicate their sin and striking themselves rhythmically to songs, known as Geisslerlieder, until blood flowed. Sometimes the blood was soaked up in rags and treated as a holy relic. Painting by Pieter van Laer (1599–after 1641 ) from ca. 1635.

In Milan, if a person was found to be infected, they would close them inside the house, the house would be walled up, windows and doors filled with bricks, with all the people still inside.

Several people were blamed of the disease. Jews were burned throughout Germany or banished. In Esslingen, the Jews gathered in their synagogue and set it on fire. In Strasbourg the town counsel tried to protect them, but they were burned in their own cemetery.

The pestilence paved way to a scary brotherhood, The Flagellants, the Brethren of the Cross. Devout Christians looked at the plague as a punishment from God fro their sins. In Germany, this movement spread like the plague itself. They wore dark clothes with red crosses, hiding their face and walked in a line behind their leader. They would parade in a circle before throwing themselves on the ground, the leader beating them all for their sins. Then they would get up before beating themselves with a scourge, a stick with three tails with knots. They would whip their backs bloody. This they hoped, would appease God. Many died from these marches that raged in Germany and France.

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Theodor Kittelsen – Pesta i trappen, 1896 (Pesta on the Stairs).

The plague reached far, even to outskirts countries like Iceland and Greenland, The plague managed to hit Norway in 1349 when a wool-carrying ship from England halted at Bergen port. Within days, the entire ship crew were dead and then the rampage started in rest of Norway. Norwegian called the plague “pest”. Folklore thought that the plague was an old woman, “Pesta” and that she came to town with either a rake or a broom. If she used her broom, everyone would die. If she used the rake, some would live. Today, people are named after the deserted and dead farms. Ødegård (desolate farm), a common surname among Norwegians to this date.

This wasn’t the last Europe saw of the plague however. It came and went in waves during the next centuries.

The Third Plague (1855 to the 1950s)

This plague started in Yunnan, China, and eventually led to the discovery of a cure for it. It was then the connection to rats were discovered and a more planned combat against the plague could go forth.

Picture of Manchurian Plague victims in 1910 -1911 that has been historically mislabeled as “Body disposal at Unit 731” A much higher resolution photo, with Russian text stating that these were “Dead plague bodies held in storage awaiting scientific research” can be seen here.

Shi Tao-nan wrote a poem about the plague called: Death of Rats.

Dead rats in the east,
Dead rats in the west!

As if they were tigers,
Indeed are the people scared.

Few days following the death of the rats,
Men pass away like falling walls!..

The coming of the devil of the plague
Suddendly makes the lamp dim,

Then it is blown out,
Leaving man ghost and corpse in the dark room

The writer of the poem died of the plague only days after it was written.

The plague continued to rage, from Hong Kong it spread with ships to the world. To US, Latin America, India and South Africa. India was particularly hit by the plague, and over the next thiry years, over twelve million people died of it in India alone. It died out in the 1950s. In 1894 the Hong Kong doctore, Alexandre Yersin found evidence of the Yersinia Pestis as in the Justinian plague and Black Death.

Today, fewer than 200 people die of the plague worldwide each year, mainly due to lack of treatment. Plague is considered to be endemic in 26 countries around the world, with most cases found in remote areas of Africa. The three most endemic countries are Madagascar, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Peru. The latest victim to it being a couple in Mongolia after eating the raw kidney of a rodent. Commonly considered a folk remedy for good health.

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Sources

Orent, Wendy. Plague: the Mysterious Past and Terrifying Future of the Worlds Most Dangerous Disease. Place of publication not identified: Free Press, 2012.

https://www.history.com/news/6-devastating-plagues

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_plague_pandemic

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_plague

Stories

The Vanishing Hitchhiker

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A Moonmausoleum original writings based on the Urban Legend – The Vanishing Hitchhiker

I was driving back home after a work seminar out of town. It was a long stretch, and I thought I would just drive through the night to get back. It was a narrow road, hardly any lights along the road. It was still a couple of hours until I would reach home, and I was listening to the weird night radio at the local radio station. It was mostly static.

Suddenly, I almost had to weer off the road. Right there, right by the side of the road, a girl was standing, her hands out, hitchhiking. I didn’t see her before my headlights shone right at her, making her appear out of nowhere.

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I floored the breaks. When the car stopped, my pulse was going off the charts, my breathing uneven, Shaken, but unharmed, I looked back to the girl. She was still standing there, unharmed as well. I exhaled, happy I hadn’t run her over. She was standing so still, just looking at me, her thumb, still held high in the air, waiting on a lift. I opened the door and stepped out.

“H-hello? Excuse me, but do you need a lift?”

Photo by Riccardo Mion on Unsplash

She turned her head and meet my eyes. She was wearing a white summer dress in the chilly night. Only a rugged denim jacket, filled with patches of bands and slogans shielded her from the unforgiving autumn wind.

“Are you ok?” I asked, now beginning to fear I had scared her with the car. She was still standing at the side of the road, not moving.

“Can you give me a ride?” she asked then, her voice was just a weak shiver. I looked around. There was nothing here. I had hours left before I reached home and was going to work tomorrow. But I couldn’t leave her here. Not when I also almost ran her over.

“S-sure. Jump in. Where to?”

She started to move, she came towards me, not making a sound as she walked over the road. She got in the backseat. I thought that was a bit weird, but didn’t say anything. Perhaps she felt safer at a distance. I got back behind the wheel and started the car.

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“Where do you live?” I asked. She didn’t answer at once. She was looking out the window, the moon hitting only half her face.

“Take me home,” she said, just a breathing. I wondered if I should call the police then. Clearly, something had happened. I had chills, and looked around. There was nothing coming out from the surrounding trees but the wind’s whisper.

“Where is home?” I asked, just driving, looking in the mirror, trying to figure out what to do. She sighed.

Photo by Michael Mouritz on Unsplash

“The blue house. The blue house at the right turn after the old bridge,” she said.

I had no idea where we were, but just continued forward, hoping to reach the bridge soon. I looked back again. She was beautiful, pretty in this sad way. Her face was pale though, and she looked out the window, staring at something in the distance.

“Did something happen? Tonight I mean?”

She turned her head and met my eyes in the reflections in the mirror. She nodded.

“Yes,” she said.

“Do you need to call someone?”

“Just drive me home.”

We continued in silence a couple of minutes. Every other time I checked in the mirror, she was staring out the window in a daze, other times, she was staring right back at me, her gaze direct.

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After driving for a while we reached a bridge.

“Hey, is this it? Is this the bridge?” I asked and turned. It was like she woke from a slumber, she sat up and got sight of the bridge.

“Yes, that is it, that is where it happened,” she said, her voice low, getting closer to me as she leaned forward to the drivers seat to get a better look. I could sense a smell, something sweet, something familiar. We were approaching the bridge.

“Where what happened?” I asked, the smell getting stronger, that familiar smell. That sweet smell. The smell of rot and decay.

“This is were I died,” she said, and I jumped. Her mouth right next to my ear, her low voice loud because of it. Again, I floored the breaks. The wheels spun, leaving a black mark on the road right by the bridge.

When I got control of the car again, I turned around. But she was gone. Only her denim jacket was left. I got out of the car, but saw nothing of her. The forest around was dark, the water under the bridge darker. The night grew colder. I got in my car and hurdled out of there, not stopping before I reached home.

Days went by, by I couldn’t get that lonely, pretty girl out of my head. I drove back and reached the bridge. In daylight I was able to find the turn she talked about and made it. When I saw the blue house, I sighed with relief. I wasn’t going crazy, she had really been there.

The garden was overgrown, the blue paint weathered and needed another coat. I rang the bell and waited with the denim jacket in hand, hoping to return it to the strange girl I had met.

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But it was an old woman that opened. She peered out at me, looking at me suspicious.

“Yes?”

“Ah, yeah, hallo, so… I met a girl a couple of nights ago, she said she lived here.”

“No girl lives here, it’s only me,” the old lady said. I was left standing there, confused and lost. The woman was about to close the door again when she stopped dead in her tracks. She opened her mouth, her eyes shocked.

“Why do you have that?” the lady asked, looking straight at the jacket I was holding in my hand.

“Oh this? It’s the girl’s, she forgot it in my car when I gave her a lift.”

The woman before me turned white. She had to support herself to stand upright. The door creaked and opened as she leaned on it. And when it did, I saw the picture. A faded picture of the pretty girl, smiling.

In a whisper the old lady said:

“No, no, that is my daughter’s. She died in a car accident on the old bridge over ten years ago.

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Cryptozoology

The Legend of the Mothman

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A haunted town, or just a townie with the biggest hoax of all time? The legend of the Mothman reached a craze in the small town of Point Pleasant in West Virginia in the 60’s. It has everything from a classic pulp science fiction movie from that time. UFO’s, monsters in the sky, an abandoned chemical plant from the war and a Black 57′ Chevy. This is the story of the Mothman that terrorized the people of the small town. And… today?

First Sightings

It was a November, five grave diggers dug a grave in a cemetery in West Virginia. One of them was Kenneth Duncan, and he was digging the grave for his father-in-law. It was 12th of November, 1966, and he was about to be the first ’official’ witness to the Mothman.

The first sightings of the Mothman at this time, was reported first in hindsight after the big reports came in.

Suddenly he saw something right above the trees. It was no bird. It looked more like a human being. But at the same time, it was not. Thus creature had wings.

— It was gliding through the trees and was in sight for about a minute, Duncan said.

The four other men together with Duncan did not see the creature before it flew away, and the men didn’t talk about this strange encounter with others than their close friends. Perhaps it would be forgotten, hadn’t other people started reporting seeing the exact same thing.

The Legend Was Born

This November sighting was not to be the last, however. Perhaps the most reported about and famous sighting was the Scarberry and Mallette sighting on November 15th in 1966 in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. This is the first sighting to be reported to the media and got any public attention.

Two couples, Linda and Roger Scarberry and Steve and Mary Mallette, were riding around north of the city. In a place used as a so called ‘lovers lane’, Joyriding around they reached the abandoned North Power Plant. It is known as the TNT area, or the TNT plant. There they saw the eyes of creature, reflected from the headlights of their Black 1957 Chevy.

The ’57 Chevy has become somewhat of a holy grail for the Mothman fans. It was reportedly scratched from the creature, but were it is now, remains a mystery.

— There was no glowing about it until the lights hit it, Linda said in her handwritten account of the incident.

They were glowing red after this, belonging to a gray figure, 6 or 7 feet man-like with wings. They said the creature wobbled, like it couldn’t keep its balance.

Terrified at the sighting, they drove off down Route 62, Linda yelling at Roger to speed up. As they went around a curve, they saw the creature on a hill by a large billboard. Spreading its wings it started to fly, flying back and forth over the car.

— We didn’t know what it was. I don’t think we’ve ever been so scared, Linda said.

Going a 100 miles an hour, they tried to speed away from the creature, but the Mothman still managed to keep up. They couldn’t get away, hearing the wings hitting the top of the car. They reported to have been scratch marks on the Chevy after the incident.

—It squeaked like a big mouse, Mary Mallette said.

It was first when they reached the outskirts of Point pleasant they managed to get away from the creature as it disappeared, veering off into a nearby field.

The mothman was said to be like a man with wings and glowing red eyes.
credit: Moth Man FreePNGImg.com

They stopped at the local Dairyland and tried to figure out what to do about it all. Linda wanted to go to the police to report it, but both Roger and Steve didn’t want to be laughed at. They wanted to go back, to see if the thing was still there. But the group was too scared and turned back to Point Pleasant. When they did, they noticed a dead dog along the road were the creature jumped out, going across the roof of the car before it disappeared in the field again. It was gone when they went back later. They drove back to town and stopped at Tiny’s Diner. There they contacted the police.

—If I had seen it while by myself, I wouldn’t have said anything, but there were four of us who saw it, Roger later told the local papers.

Deputy Millard Halstead was the one that met them. The couples told about a large winged creature with glowing red eyes. Halstead didn’t believe them at first. He knew they weren’t trouble makers, and saw they were terrified, so he went to investigate. The couples went with the deputy to the area. Halstead heard strange static disturbances from the radio, but found no trace of the creature. The couples sat in the car and said they saw shadows circling around nearby and dust kick up from the coal yard nearby. The Mallette was too scared to go home, and they stayed awake, all night in Scarberry’s trailer, lights on, terrified.

News clip of the Scarberry and Mallette couples shortly after the incident in 1966.
from the archives of the Athens Messenger.

The next day the couples went back to the area in the daylight. They found tracks looking like “two horseshoes put together”. Steve reported seeing something fly up when a door kicked open. They left the place before they could see what is was. The same day, the Sheriff, George Johnson held a press conference. The local press attended and named the creature Mothman. Batman had just gotten a television series at that time, so they named him after the character. After this more and more sightings was reported, including Duncan’s at the cemetary. It sparked national, even internationally attention in the media. Steve said to the local paper.

— We understand people are lauging at us. But we wouldn’t make up all this to make us look like fools.

Watch the clip when History Channel’s show, TheUnXplained made a story on the mothman, and interviewing Linda, all these years after.
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After the Scarberry and Mallette Sighting

After this particular sighting, several of the previous ones came forward.

People flocked to the wildlife area where the incident took place and the volunteer fire department had to direct the traffic. Two of those also came forward with tales of seeing a large bird with red eyes, the Gettysburg Times could report.

Moth Man Transparent Image FreePNGImg.com

One famous anecdote from this time, must be Newell Partridge and his missing dog. He was a contractor, living 100 miles north, and claimed the Mothman had something to do with the disappearance of his German shepherd dog, Bandit. He sighted “a thing” in the meadow near his home only 90 minutes before the sighting of the couples in Point Pleasant. He took a flashlight, and directed it towards the shadows. Glowing red eyes looked back, and Bandit started barking and ran after the creature. The dog never returned and the next morning, there was no trace of it.

At the time of the Mothman sightings, residents also reported chilling incidents of unexplained paranormal activity, vanishing pets. Remember that dog laying dead in the road? Also there were reports of television interference.

Rumors of Men in Black, UFO’s, weird dreams and shadows in the corner of their eyes. That is just some of the reported responses around this time in Point Pleasant and the areas surrounding it. Under, is just some of the newspaper clippings from around that time.

And it the legend spun, grew, and at last, culminated in a fatal tragedy of the people in Point Pleasant.

The collapse of the Silver Bridge

On 15th of December, 1967, the Silver Bridge collapsed. It connected Point Pleasant to Ohio and was an eyebar-chain suspension bridge built in 1928. When it collapsed under the weight of rush-hour traffic, it resulted it the death of 46 people. Two of the victims were never found.

Analysis showed the bridge carried more weight than it had been designed for and had been poorly maintained. The collapse of the bridge made so several other old bridges were maintained and inspected. Historian Henry Petroski called it a “cautionary tale for engineers of every kind.”

The Silver Bridge when it was first built in 1928.
photo credit: United States Department of Transportation employee

Several reports, including John Keel in his book: The Mothman Prophecies linked the Mothman to the horrible disaster. As it was at the height of the Mothman sightings.

The bridge were full of cars, coming back from work or out Christmas shopping, and they suddenly felt the bridge shake. Then came a moaning of metal before the screeching of the collapse. Then the bridge went down into the water.

Many citizens spooked by the torrent of eerie occurrences blamed the Mothman for this unexpected disaster. It was only thirteen months since the first Mothman sighting by Duncan.

The tragedy cost the life of 46 people and injured nine. Two were never found.

The strange thing about the connection is that several reports claimed they had strange dreams and nightmares about drowning and an oncoming disaster. This was also reported by Mary Hyre. She was a reporter and wrote the column Where the Water Mingles, in the Athens Messenger. She often reported on the weird occurrences in Point Pleasant, and often about the Mothman. She became therefore a good friend of John Keel. There were also tales about Men in Black coming down to her office to try to shut her down. She told Keel On November 19th 1967, a whole month before the disaster:

— I had a terrible nightmare. There were a lot of people drowning in the river and Christmas packages were floating everywhere in the water. Its like something awful is going to happen.

The Silver Brigde collapse, was one of the biggest and worst bridge-disasters in the States at that time.
From the Point Pleasant Register’s paper after the tragedy.

Some saw the Mothman as a premonition of the oncoming disaster, some saw it as the cause of it. In any case, this spurred the legend that the Mothman was an Omen of Doom.

This has not been the last time horrible disasters have been connected to sightings of strange creatures. Both before 9/11 and before the Russian apartment bombings, several claimed to have seen huge bird-like creatures with legs near the surrounding area of where the tragedy took place.

Aftermath

So what was it all? Was it just a hoax? Was it an actual thing? Something in between?

Cryptozoologist, Mark A. Hall said it could be an undiscovered species of a giant owl, dubbing it Bighoot, as evidence or reports of it has existed in the Point Pleasant area, long before and after the legend of Mothman was born. Is that it? Was it an enormous owl or other bird that terrified the inhabitants?

The statue of Mothman sculpted by Bob Roach. It’s located in Point Pleasant, West Virginia.
photo by: Jason W (2009): Source

There has also been theories about it being a big Crane, as the description could be fitted to the big Sandhill Crane as it has a wing span for around seven feet and can stand as tall as a man. That was what Dr. Robert L. Smith, professor in wildlife biology at WVU, said at that time.

Another theory is around the abandoned TNT area — the local left over bunkers that were used for storing toxic chemicals, during the Great War. It was used as an ammunition manufacturing facility that employed a few thousand people at its peak. What really happened in there? What exactly was stored in there? Could it be that it interfered with the neighboring wildlife preserve, creating something… new?

In May of 2010, one of the igloos at TNT, containing 20,000 pounds of unstable materials suddenly exploded. Fortunately no one was injured but the place had to be shut down and cleaned out before opening again. Was it enough? Is the danger gone now?

But is this the only occurrences of the moth man? For the particular interested, the Mothman fandom wiki has made a super interesting timeline of supposed Mothman sightings, both before the 60’s and after. Check it out here.

Today the Mothman is something of a legend, still living in Point Pleasant as a memory the people keep alive. It has its own museum dedicated to it with a 24 hour web cam around the area, a diner called The Mothman Diner, and has been run for almost fifty years now. It has its own statue in the town, even its own festival every September dedicated to one and only.

The legend has spun several books, movies, art, toys and the occasional reported sighting:

Read Also

5 Supernatural Horror Movies Based on True Events

What makes a true story a good story? This is five of the supernatural horror movies claiming to be true events. Is it? How much creative liberty can movie makers do before it is merely a work of fiction?

Last big one on camera was in 2016. A man was driving down the road and suddenly saw something jumping from the nearby trees. The man had just moved to Point Pleasant and claimed he didn’t know anything about the legend and that he didn’t edit the photos he took of the thing in the sky at all. Check it out here.

Let us just hope that the Mothman, in fact, is not an Omen of Doom then, at that if it is, the sightings will stop entirely for the sake of the people of Point Pleasant.

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Other sources:

Source: Hall, Mark A. 1998. Bighoot – the giant owl. Wonders 5, no. 3 (September): 67-79.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tnt-area

https://themothman.fandom.com/wiki/TheMothman_Wiki

The Mystery Chronicles: More Real-Life X-Files by Joe Nickell, University Press of Kentucky. https://books.google.no/books?id=sComGoDFJZ4C&pg=PA93&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

Review, movies

5 Supernatural Horror Movies Based on True Events

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What makes a true story a good story? This is five of the supernatural horror movies claiming to be true events. Is it? How much creative liberty can movie makers do before it is merely a work of fiction?

The Rite (2011)

Cover of the book The Making of a Modern Exorcist by Matt Baglio.

The actual story: This movie is based on a Book from 2009, The Making of a Modern Exorcist by Matt Baglio. Baglio attended a seminar and saw and met Father Gary Thomas who the book is based on. He became an apprentice to an exorcist in Rome. Initially a sceptic and reluctant, he changed his mind as he saw what he believe is demonic possession. Father Gary Thomas himself was a consultant and said that the exorcisms in the movie was “very accurate.”

The movie: American seminary student Michael Kovak (Colin O’Donaghue) travels to Italy to take an exorcism course.

Director: Mikael Håfström

Starring: Colin O’Donoghue, Anthony Hopkins, Ciarán Hinds

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Veronica (2017)

A Spanish TV crew went inside the real house that inspired the movie.

The actual story: This movie is both a tragedy and very mysterious. It’s inspired by the actual Vallecas case where Estefanía Gutiérrez Lázaro died mysteriously. She suffered hallucinations and seizures after playing with an Ouija board in Madrid at her school. They were trying to contact a deceased boyfriend of one of her friends who died six months earlier. After this, things started to become– strange. Allegedly her house became haunted and she died where the cause of death is up to speculation.

The movie: Madrid, 1991. A teen girl finds herself besieged by an evil supernatural force after she played Ouija with two classmates.

Director: Paco Plaza

Starring: Sandra Escacena, Bruna González, Claudia Placer 

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The Mothman Prophecies (2002)

Signage of the Silver Bridge collapse in Point Pleasant. It was blamed on the myth of the Mothman.
Photo by Richie Diesterheft in 2010.

The actual story: This is one of the weirder ones. It is based on the book by John Keel from 1975 who in return is based on investigation of the West Virginia folklore, the Mothman. In Point Pleasant in 66-67 people reported to have seen a man-like figure flying in the sky, glowing red eyes, ten-foot wings. In 1967 the Silver Bridge collapsed and 46 people died. The incident sparked the legend even further when they blamed it on the Mothman and reported sightings of the creature to the bridge collapsing.

Read Also: The Legend of the Mothman

The movie: A reporter is drawn to a small West Virginia town to investigate a series of strange events, including psychic visions and the appearance of bizarre entities.

Director: Mark Pellington

Starring: Richard Gere, Laura Linney, David Eigenberg

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The Conjuring Series (2013-)

The Amityville house on 112 Ocean Avenue from 1973. One of the Warren’s more famous cases they worked on.

The actual story: Already somewhat of paranormal investigator celebrities before the movie came out, James Wan made them world wide famous with his Conjuring movies. Lorraine and Ed Warren worked as a team until they died in 2019 and 2006 respectively. and has been connected to some of the more famous hauntings, like Amityville and Annabelle. Ed is a self-taught and self-professed demonologist, while Lorraine says she is a clairvoyant and light trance medium.

The movie: Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse.

Director:  James Wan

Starring:  Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Ron Livingston

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Winchester (2018)

Sarah Winchester, taken in 1865 by the Taber Photographic company of San Francisco.

The actual story: The movie is based on real life Sarah Lockwood Winchester (1839-1922). She was one of the wealthiest women in the world at that time. She spent her fortune and twenty years on building the Winchester mansion in San Jose, California. Legends arose from this, as she was convinced she was cursed, and to build her home was the only way to fight the curse.

The movie: Ensconced in her sprawling San Jose, California mansion, eccentric firearm heiress Sarah Winchester (Dame Helen Mirren) believes she is haunted by the souls of people killed by the Winchester repeating rifle.

Director: Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig (as The Spierig Brothers)

Starring: Helen Mirren, Sarah Snook, Finn Scicluna-O’Prey 

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Five Romantic Ghost Movies

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Want something ghostly and supernatural to watch on Valentine? Don’t have anyone to watch a horror movie with, but want to catch some ghosts? Her are ten romantic ghost movies to watch for ghost content without jump scares and demonic possessions.

Ghost (1990)

A, yes, the glowing Swayze

Better to just start with the obvious. Ghost was such a mega hit, it it almost a cliche. The cheesy story, weird 80’s CGI. Patrick Swayze in all his hairy glory, all of the haircuts to be honest. Its worth it, give in to your cheesy-80’s-romance-flick with a ghost!

After a young man is murdered, his spirit stays behind to warn his lover of impending danger, with the help of a reluctant psychic.

Director: Jerry Zucker

Starring: Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg 

A ghost story (2017)

A bit weir, very stylized and a slow burner with beautiful cinematography. This movie pulls on your heart strings more than your thrill strings.

In this singular exploration of legacy, love, loss, and the enormity of existence, a recently deceased, white-sheeted ghost returns to his suburban home to try to reconnect with his bereft wife.

Director: David Lowery

Starring: Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara, McColm Cephas Jr. 

A Chinese ghost story – Sien lui yau wan (1987)

A Hong Kong classic, this Cantonese language movie is considered a classic. Hitting the list like on 1001 Movies to see before you die etc. It won a ton of awards in its time.

After a string of bad luck, a debt collector has no other choice than to spend the night in a haunted temple, where he encounters a ravishing female ghost and later battles to save her soul from the control of a wicked tree demon.

Director:   Siu-Tung Ching

Starring: Leslie Cheung, Joey Wang, Wu Ma 

Crimson Peak (2015)

For a true gothic romance in all its camp glory, check out Crimson Peak that had people confused. Was it suppose to be scary? Romantic? Sad? All of the above?

In the aftermath of a family tragedy, an aspiring author is torn between love for her childhood friend and the temptation of a mysterious outsider. Trying to escape the ghosts of her past, she is swept away to a house that breathes, bleeds – and remembers.

Director:  Guillermo del Toro

Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Tom Hiddleston 

Truly, Madly, Deeply (1990)

Greatly overlooked because of it being released around the same time as Ghost, this is the UK version. With the award winning director (the Talented Mr. Ripley, Cold Mountain), and starring legends like Alan Rickman. The movie follows a well known premise though.

A woman dealing with inconsolable grief over the death of her partner gets another chance when he returns to earth as a ghost.

Director: Anthony Minghella

Starring: Juliet Stevenson, Alan Rickman, Jenny Howe 

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Ghost of Tu-Po — The Hungry Ghost

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After the Chinese nobleman Tu Po was betrayed by his own king and fellow nobles, he became a vengeful ghost, or Hungry Ghost as it is known as in Buddhism. Even in his afterlife he sought revenge on those who betrayed him and fought to restore his honor.

The concept of a ghost with unfinished business is found around the globe. In the eastern part of the world they are often known as Hungry Ghosts and they are deadly.

China has such a varied an long history, diverse culture, with different regions, religions and traditions as most ancient countries has. The tales and beliefs changes according to the ebb and flow of time and the legends of the hungry ghosts are many and varied.

Read More about: Chinese Ghosts and Haunted Places

The Hungry Ghost in Chinese Mythology

Before delving into the legend about Tu Po and how he was betrayed by his own king, let us have a closer look at exactly what a Hungry Ghost is.

As much of Chinese folklore and mythology comes from Buddhism, there are many similarities to other Buddhist countries. In any case it has been believed that every living person will become a ghost when we die known as a guǐ 鬼. It will then weaken, and fade away, dying again for a second time.

As mentioned earlier, the Hungry Ghost is not only a Chinese phenomenon, but a Buddhist as well as Asian one. Ghost stories of vengeful ghost can be found also in Japan with the Onryo or Korea with the Virgin Ghost for example.

This concept of the spirit of the deceased weakening before disappearing is seen as only natural and how it is supposed to be. The ancestors are honored, given sacrifices and held in esteem, thinking they have a part in the world as much as the living. Ancestral worship is the original basic of Chinese religions, and it is a core belief there is an existence after death. A deceased person’s soul is made up of yin and yang parts called hun and po. They are not immortal, and need offerings before going to the underworld for eternal rest.

When Revenge is more Important than Peace

The trouble with ghosts however is when that spirit is driven by anger and malice rather than a peaceful afterlife. This is called a Hungry Ghost (餓鬼 èguǐ and quỷ đói) and only happens on rare occasions as most spirits only wants to be at peace.

The Hungry Ghost: The concept of hungry ghost is found throughout Buddhist traditions. This is from the Sixth section of the Japanese Hungry Ghosts Scroll located at the Kyoto National Museum. The scroll depicts the world of the hungry ghosts, one of the six realms of Buddhism and contains tales of salvation of the hungry ghosts. This particular section shows Ananda, a disciple of Shakyamuni, teaching an incantation to achieve salvation to a hungry ghost who continuously belches flames from his mouth.

The creation of a Hungry Ghost happens when a person’s death has been exceptionally violent or unhappy. The ghosts are often given quite animalistic traits in the ghost stories and records. Although there are different categories and types of hungry ghosts, one common trait among them are that they are seeking a type of revenge of those who wronged them, or simply those who got in the way.

Although most accounts of Tu Po doesn’t give him animalistic traits like a monster, he definitely sought his revenge on those who wronged him like most vengeful ghosts are looking for, and therefore given the title of a Hungry Ghost.

Before becoming a Ghost – Tu-Po the Emperor’s Minister

Before becoming an ancient ghost, Tu Po used to be an important man in ancient China. The nobleman Tu Po 杜伯 is sometimes translated as Du Bo and he was the Duke of Tangdu. This was a Dukedom situated west of State of Yi Lin around were the Shaanxi province in northwest of China is today.

According to legend, the Tangdu people were descendants of the people living in the State of Tang, a Dukedom destroyed by Zhou Gong Dan that now ruled the empire. They were allowed to form a new State of Du, and became known as Tangdu or Du shi (杜氏).

Tu-Po was not always remembered as a hungry ghost, but was a prominent minister to King Xuan of Zhou (also known as Emperor Hsuan) who reigned from 827-783 B.C. Emperor Hsuan was the eleventh king of the Chinese Zhou Dynasty in a time were the kings words were the law and his minister Tu Po had to pay the ultimate price.

The empire: Map over the Jin (Tang) state during the late Spring and Autumn period as it was called, around the time of Tu-Po’s death and after. This is were he, and his ancestors resided and ruled.//Photo: Hugo Lopez – Wikimedia Commons user: Yug

The king is mostly remembered for fighting the ‘Western Barbarians‘, most probably Xianyun, an ancient nomadic tribe that invaded the Zhou empire on the Huai River. He also meddled in debacles of successions in States of Lu, Wey an Qi and was, according to history, not a popular one. Sima Qian, considered father of Chinese historiography, said: “From this time on, the many lords mostly rebelled against royal commands.” And the way the king ended his reign, is rumoured to be the work of the hungry ghost of Tu Po.

So Tu Po was from a stately and very powerful family and not afraid to speak up for what he believed in, even to the most powerful man in the dynasty. And this would cost him his life and make him a hungry ghost, haunting the earth and seeking revenge.

The Fall From Grace and Becoming a Vengeful Ghost

There are not very many sources detailing what happened before the haunting of Tu Po’s hauntings started. But according to one account, this is what happened.

The King: King Xuan of Zhou (827-783 B.C). Formerly known as Emperor Hsuan or King Suan.

On the ninth year as King, King Xuan of Zhou called all the lords of his empire into a meeting that would seal the fate of Tu Po to discuss an oncoming attack.

A rumor was out that a woman was about to become a danger of the town of Jiangshan for some reason, and the King ordered a mass execution of women. Exactly how this one woman could be considered a danger to an entire town is not really explained.

No matter what the reason behind this mass execution of women, it was seen as a truly horrible act that Tu Po disagreed with. Tu-Po publicly opposed to the order he was given and he spoke against his king in a time when the kings word was the law and anything else considered treason.

This final act of opposition would cost him his life as King Xuan ordered his execution for this as he saw this act of opposition as treason.

Before Tu Po was executed however, King Xuan of Zhou was warned that Tu Po’s ghost would stay in this world even in his afterlife to haunt him as Tu-Po himself said:

“If my majesty kills me without reason, the dead may not know, well that’s it. However, on the other hand, I will avenge myself on him, within three years.”

But despise the warnings, King Xuan went through the execution. Even though he was considered innocent of treason by most, Tu-Po was executed around 786 B.C. But this would not be the last time he was seen.

The Revenge of the Hungry Ghost

Weather Tu Po’s final words were taken seriously, is not mentioned. Three years after the execution however, the King brought his dukes to hunt on his own hunting grounds. There were hundreds of chariots, thousands of escorts following them as well as a ghost that promised he would return for revenge.

Ghost festival: Lotus-shaped lanterns are lit and set afloat in rivers and out onto seas to symbolically guide the lost souls to the afterlife.

At noon, Tu-Po appeared as a ghost, riding a white horse and a cart, wearing a red coat with a red bow and arrow in hand. He took up the chase of King Xuan and shot the king in the heart and broke the king’s spine. At the time, it is reported that no one saw the killing and no one heard it. No matter what the real situation was like, The king fell and Tu Po got his revenge.

If King Xuan really died of an arrow is today a bit unclear. In some accounts it is said that King Xuan died of something else after dreaming that Tu Po shot him to death with an arrow.

In both cases, the innocent and wronged minister got his revenge and King Xuan’s son, was the last of the western Zhou to lead.

The story has gone down in traditional legends, ever since. The Chinese philosopher, Mo Zi (470-391 B.C), said this about ghosts and about Tu-Po’s revenge:

“If from antiquity to the present, and since the beginning of man, there are men who have seen the bodies of ghosts and spirits and heard their voices, how can we say that they do not exist?

If none have heard them and none have seen them, then how can we say they do? But those who deny the existence of the spirits say: “Many in the world have heard and seen something of ghosts and spirits. Since they vary in testimony, who are to be accepted as really having heard and seen them?”

As we are to rely on what many have jointly seen and what many have jointly heard, the case of Tu Po is to be accepted.”

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Ghost of Tu-Po — The Hungry Ghost

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Khonsuemheb and the Ghost of Theban Necropolis

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Khonsuemheb and the Ghost is one of the oldest ghost stories we have in written form about a high priests quest to honor the dead whose tomb were disturbed in the Theban Necropolis in ancient Egypt. The question remains: did he actually complete his mission?

When did people start to tell ghost stories? It is difficult to say exactly when as the earliest ghost stories were probably older than our written language and so old that it is lost like any of the first original stories. What we do have though, are fragments of those who were carved in stone and scribbled on the walls. Perhaps human have always told ghost stories and the real question is if we will ever stop.

One of the more ancient ghost stories we have in writing is the story of Khonsuemheb and the Ghost. This ghost legend comes from Egypt, around 1200 B.C during the Ramesside period. The story was found in four pieces of pottery by  Ernesto Schiaparelli, and translated in 1915 by Egyptologist, Gaston Maspero (1846-1916).

The Normalising of Ghosts in Ancient Egypt

The ancient Egyptians believed in life after death, and in the book “Book of the Dead”, they wrote down a series of spells they thought would help them reach the afterlife. The people living at the time thought of the afterlife as a sort of continuation of life were it would be paradise to end up in. So why on earth do we still have ghost stories of people that never reach this perfect afterlife?

In ancient Egypt ghosts (called akh) were somewhat similar to their former self, more a piece of the soul of the living person, the immortal and transformed part of the soul. Interactions between ghosts and living people were seen in a lesser supernatural way than in modern depictions, just as the ghost in Khonsuemheb and the Ghost was more of a task to be handled than something unnatural happening.

Anubis God of Lost Souls: is the god of funerary rites, protector of graves, and guide to the underworld, in ancient Egyptian religion, usually depicted as a canine or a man with a canine head. If the family didn’t do the funeral rites correctly or were cheap with the money, the Gods would sort of grant the part of the soul, the akh permission to go back and complain and haunt the family or its grave.

The akh was a consequence of the burial ritual not being right, the tomb being destroyed or so forth. This ritual was important as it was the way into the afterlife. An akh could harm the living, giving them nightmares, feelings of guilt, punish people or sickness. But it could also do good deeds to help their living family members, influencing for the better etc.

As well as coming on their own volition, they could be invoked by prayers or written letters left in the tomb’s offering chapel, just like what happened in Khonsuemheb and the Ghost.

Read Also: If graves or tombs are not well kept, bad things can happen. Read about The Haunted Barbie Doll in The Shrine and how they take care of that ghosts final resting place.

The Story of Khonsuemheb and the Ghost

The beginning of the story is lost forever, as it being a fragment of some pottery. So the full length of it, is nowhere to be found. But it is implied the story is set in Theban Necropolis, a burial place near the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens.

The burial city was built at the west bank of the Nile, near the ancient city of Thebes, which at the time was the capital and the perhaps even the biggest city in the world at that time. The ruins of the city lies within the modern day city, Luxor, in Upper Egypt. At this time in the New Kingdom, Thebes reached new height of prosperity. It was the time right before the decline of the great city, and it would soon fall into unrest, strikes, looting of the Necropolises.

Ruins of Medinet Habu (Arabic: مدينة هابو)  is an archaeological locality situated near the foot of the Theban Hills of the River Nile opposite the modern city of Luxor, Egypt. it is the Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III. This is where the ruins of Thebes can be found.

The Servant in the Place of Truth

But before all this, a man had to spend the night next to a tomb in the Theban Necropolis, literally meaning the city of the dead. He is unnamed in the fragment of Khonsuemheb and the Ghost. Perhaps he was just walking by, perhaps he was a looter. Perhaps he was a Servant in the Place of Truth. That was an ancient Egyptian title of the people working in the Necropolis.

The servants in the Place of Truth constructed the eternal dwelling of the kings, and isolated themselves to safeguard their secrets. They lived in the village Set-Maat (Place of truth) in the Holy Land of the Dead, today known as Deir el-Medina. The village that happens to be were the last bit of fragment of the story was found.

A Night at Thebes Necropolis: The man in the story spent the night in the desolated place of Theban Necropolis, a place outside of today’s Luxor in Egypt. //Source: wikimedia

The man was woken by the ghost residing in the tomb. Was he afraid? Perhaps not if he worked there. Perhaps he was terrified, especially if he was a looter, trying to steal the possessions in the tomb. In any case, he went to the High Priest of Amun, Khonsuemheb, and told what happened in the tomb.

The High Priest Invoking the Ghost

The High Priest of Amun, takes matters into his own hands. He stands on his rooftop, calling to the gods to summon the ghost. Invoking the gods of the sky and the gods of the earth, southern, northern, western and eastern, and (the) gods of the underworld, saying to them: “Send me that august spirit.” And it does. “I grew, and I did not see the rays of the sun. I did not breathe the air, but darkness was before me every day, and no one came to find me,” the ghost says (translation by Maspero).

Khonsuemheb asks his name. Nebusemekh, son of Ankhmen and of the lady Tamshas, the ghost answers. So how does one please an ancient egyptian ghost? Khonsuemheb at least offered to rebuild his tomb, making it better with a gildet ziziphus-wood coffin to make peace with the ghost. But the ghost doesn’t trust Khonsuemheb and his intentions. So what do they do?

The Ghost story on the pottery: Ancient Egyptian ostrakon with the beginning of the Ghost story of of Khonsuemheb and the Ghost. Terracotta from Deir el-Medina, 19-20th Dynasty, New Kingdom. Found by Schiaparelli in 1905. Turin, Museo Egizio.

Khonsuemheb sits down with the ghost, starts to cry and shares his unhappy fate. “I will remain here] without eating or drinking, without growing old or becoming young. I will not see sunlight nor will I inhale northerly breezes, but darkness shall be in my sight every day. I will not get up early to depart.”

Then the ghost proceeds to tell about his life on earth, how he was an overseer of the treasuries and a military official under pharaoh Rahotep. When the ghost, Nebusemekh died in the 14th regnal year of pharaoh Mentuhotep, the ruler gave him a canopic set, an alabaster sarcophagus and a ten-cubits shaft tomb.

But time took over the tomb, and over the centuries, the tomb partially collapsed, allowing wind to reach the burial chamber. Nebusemekh also told Khonsuemheb that others before him offered to rebuild his grave, but never did. Khonsuemheb says to the ghost that he will do it and also offers to send ten servants to make daily offerings at his grave. But the ghost says that wouldn’t be necessary or of any use.

Only Fragments of the Ending Left

Here, the text of Khonsuemheb and the Ghost on the pottery breaks, and in the next fragment three men are sent out by Khonsuemheb to search for a proper place for Nebusemekh new tomb. They find it at Deir el-Bahari, near to the causeway of the mortuary temple belonging to pharaoh Mentuhotep the second.

This is the end, the text suddenly ends here. But perhaps Khonsuemheb honored the last wish of Nebusemekh, giving peace in his afterlife the Egyptians were all so desperate at having.

The Afterlife in Ancient Egypt: Egyptian religious doctrines included three afterlife ideologies: belief in an underworld, eternal life, and rebirth of the soul. The path to the afterlife for the deceased was a difficult one with gates, doors and pylons located in Duat, the land of the underworld. Ultimately, the immortality desired by ancient Egyptians was reflected in endless lives. By doing worthy deeds in their current life, they would be granted a second life for all of eternity.

The tale of Khonsuemheb and the Ghost is a piece of fragment, written in another era of time entirely and there are of course dispute how much of it is an historical account of something that happened and a cautionary tale of what could happen if the living didn’t honor the dead. And the details of the tale are still open to interpretations. Particularly the identity of the to pharaohs in Nebusemekh’s time, and in the ghost actually got to rest in peace and finally enjoy paradise in the afterlife.

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References:

Ghosts in Ancient Egypt – World History Encyclopedia 

Theban Necropolis – Wikipedia 

Khonsuemheb and the Ghost – Wikipedia

A Ghost Story of Ancient Egypt – World History Encyclopedia 

Ghost ship, Mythology, Sea

Sailors Superstitions

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Perhaps none are more superstitious than the sailors. Or at least, what the old sailors used to be. Rolling clouds or roaring waves means little to us on land, but in the 18th century New England, it meant bad luck. Some of them are plain ridiculous, like having an umbrella on the ship means bad luck, or even saying the word horse because it can mean death.

However, maybe they are the ones who needed it the most. They were, after all, left alone to the mercy of the unruly seas and the hidden depths most never sees. Perhaps the old ways of the seafarers knew something we don’t?

Red Sunrise

There is a lot affecting the weather according to old superstitions. Clapping could cause thunder, whistling could summon a wind and throwing a stone in the water could bring swells. 

However one of the more likely and poetic sailors weather forecast was this:

“Red sky at night, sailors delight. Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning. “

This poetic warning told about the day ahead and that it would take a dangerous turn. In fact, it does have some sort of scientific background, although not a hundred percent accurate. A red sky can actually warn about bad weather ahead. 

Bananas on board

This is seemingly one of the weirder ones. But it actually makes sense, even just a bit. It is a superstition from the 1700 and the banana trade. A big amount of the ships went missing carrying a load of bananas, trying to cross the sea. The bananas turned bad pretty quickly, and the ships had to hurry to deliver the goods before it rotted away and no one would profit or get their bananas. So how does it make sense? People make bad decisions, taking a wrong course, pushing the ship too much. It also is said rotten bananas let off lethal gasses and deadly spiders living in the bananas took some out on board. So, do you crave a banana now?

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The Dies Infaustus

Not only the weather was something they were afraid of. There were even some days more frightening than others. Like the day Friday, which considered to be an unlucky day in some cultures or the Dies Infaustus as it’s called in fancy Latin. This is perhaps one of the most enduring superstitions, at least in the days since we started calling the day Friday. It was unlucky to begin a voyage or set sail on this day. It is also the root of the well-known urban legend of HMS Friday.  In more Viking and Norse oriented ships, Thursday was the day to avoid since it’s Thor, God of thunders day. 

The Albatross

At length did cross an Albatross,
Thorough the fog it came;
As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hailed it in God’s name.
‘God save thee, ancient Mariner!
From the fiends, that plague thee thus!
— Why look’st thou so?’—
With my cross-bow I shot the ALBATROSS.

From: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner By: Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Birds have a massive influence on superstition. Seeing a swallow means you are close to land, spotting an albatross can bring good fortune. But as the Mariner and the crew in the famous poem experience, killing it will bring bad luck. The crew thought to kill the albatross only brought them more misfortune:

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.

In the end, they blamed in all on the Mariner and made him wear the dead albatross around his neck. Birds are also believed to be or carry the souls of dead sailors, making their significance even greater. They are one of the crew.

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The Jonah

Jonah will for many be remembered from as the biblical figure from the Book of Jonah. A guy who was trying to flee from the presence of God by sailing away. A huge storm came over the ship and it was no ordinary storm. The crew discovers that Jonah is the one to blame and they throw him overboard. The storm calms by the sacrifice and Jonah is saved by being swallowed by a large fish where he spends three days and three nights, repenting for his sins.

Jonah is now a well-established expression of a sailor or a passenger bringing bad luck to the ship. Often clergymen and women would be considered a Jonah. Also, redheads would be sometimes accused of being a Jonah.  

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The Lodgers

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The Lodgers from 2017 is an Irish Gothic horror film by David Turpin and Brian O’Malley. It stars Charlotte Vega, Bill Milner and Eugene Simon.

If you like eerily dark and hauntingly beautiful movies like The Others or newer one like Crimson Peak, The Lodgers will be an obvious next escape to a haunted house through the television.

With it’s aesthetic like a classical Victoria Frances illustration the movie perfectly capture the dreamy and seductive pull gothic romance that made Jane Eyre and The Phantom of the Opera such iconic in all their formats. However it doesn’t quite capture the horror aspect of it as it seems to try like The Woman in Black and The Orphanage did.

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Plot

1920, rural Ireland. Anglo-Irish twins Rachel (Charlotte Vega) and Edward (Bill Milner) share an isolated existence in their crumbling family estate. Each nighttime, the property becomes the domain of sinister watery presences (“the lodgers”) which enforce three rules upon the twins: they must be in bed by midnight; they may not permit an outsider past the threshold; if one attempts to escape, the life of the other is placed in jeopardy. They are reminded of these rules by way of a nursery rhyme: “Girl child, boy child, listen well. Be in bed by midnight’s bell. Never let a stranger through your door. Never leave each other all alone. Good sister, good brother be, follow well these cautions three. Long as your blood be ours alone, we’ll see you ever from below.”[6] A curse lies upon their family. A “stain” that is passed on from one generation to the next. Each generation bears incestuous twins, breeding the next generation before taking their lives by drowning. When Rachel and Edward’s eighteenth birthday comes, Rachel wishes to leave with Edward, and in doing so hopefully leave the family curse behind. Edward, due to the trauma of his parents’ suicide and the legacy they left him and his sister, has become a recluse and refuses to leave. Tensions rise when troubled war veteran Sean (Eugene Simon) returns to the nearby village. He is immediately drawn to the mysterious Rachel, who in turn sees in Sean a chance for freedom and so begins to break the rules set out by the lodgers. The consequences pull Rachel into a deadly confrontation with her brother — and with the curse that haunts them.

From Wikipedia

Opinion

Spoiler alert!

So this is one of those movies that will not be everybody’s cup of tea. And if you like your movies straightforward and well explained, look away! This is a movie you will want to ponder and google extensively after it’s final scene.

The basic storyline can remind a lot of the classic “the Fall of the House of Usher” from Edgar Allan Poe in it’s depicting of family, madness, incest and a big crumbling house. So much likeness in fact, that I have a feeling true Poe fans are able to guess a lot of the movie and it’s intention.

There is also the twins with a fate to be together as they are the only members of the family and an ominous looking lake outside the house that connect these two stories.

Twin incest has often been a metaphor of a sickly family. And as the movie follows the gothic rules so to speak, it would be wrong to look past it. As with a lot of twincest (Game of Thrones being only a modern example of a millennial old trope), it speaks greatly of a family and minds crumbling from within. It is a generation trait, of abuse, lack of love and affection, shame and secrets.

The family curse as Edward and Rachel puts it, is them being destined to do as their ancestors has done, bring forth a new pair of twins and drown themselves in the lake as the shame takes over them.

Why would you ask? Well, Edward gives a hint in the big confrontation when he tells Rachel that she will “learn to see it their way soon”. He speaks about immortality and how they have to do this to fullfill this part of the curse.

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It can be a metaphor of what people are capable of doing to stay above normal people. A grasp for power and something more than just an average life. Even if that will have a horrible effect on the generations to come, that both have the shame of their ancestors and pressure to withhold the family name as the ones that came before. A ripple effect as the imagery hints at throughout the movie. Do as they did before sort of thing.

So the next generation do as they are told, follows the rules and uphold the appearance, not letting anybody else see their weakness. Meanwhile the house is croumbling from withing. From mould, from hauntings, deacaying like the minds of the remains of the family.

I also have a feeling that the Irish War of Independence has a bigger meaning than the movie lets on with. Several times it is stated that the twins are in fact, not Irish, but English at heart. They just live there. They also speak in a British accent, differing them from the village people. It must also have this deeper meaning speaking of the Irish heart that Sean just came back from the war, and that Rachel basically just sacrifices him to get her free pass into the Irish countryside as a free woman. It is not unheard of gothic romance speaking to this matter in a small whisper. With some laying claims that the novella Carmilla also have some Irish versus British undertones.

I wouldn’t exactly call it a rip-off as the Lodgers takes these well established tropes and formula to it’s own. They try mid way to do a full on horror flick of the story, where it fell short for a lot of people. It’s strength is in the strong imagery as a homage to the genre it’s born out of.

The ending is far less tragic. Rachel breaks free from the family curse, escaping from her destiny on her own. Only a black crow follows her, like the last stain from the family she comes from. It’s there, but not defining. But also it will always be a shadow, lurking just behind her footsteps.

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The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall

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The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall is probably one of the most iconic ghost pictures out there. But what is the story behind it? And who is that ghostly figure?

Is it real? Was it just a double exposure? The picture of The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall has been viral since 1936. A photographer that year took the infamous picture, forever putting it in the mystery box for people to wonder about ever since.

It was just another day in the upper class England, with their old and haunted mansions and stories. Up in Norfolk lays the old Raynham Hall, that were about to become one of the most famous hauntings in Great Britain.

Brown Lady of Raynham Hall: This is the picture taken in the staircase that is now perhaps one of the most famous ghost photos.

Captain Hubert C. Provand, was a working in London as an photographer for the Country Life magazine. On September 19th, 1936, he and his assistant, Indre Shira were taking photographs of the Raynham Hall for an article.

Inside the 300 year old mansion, they were setting up the cameras to take another of the old Hall’s main staircase. Suddenly, Shira saw a ” vapoury form gradually assuming the appearance of a woman” The figure was “moving down the stairs towards them.” Shira directed Provand to take the cap of the lens while Shira pressed the trigger to take the picture.

After the negative was developed for the article, they saw more clear what they had gotten on camera that day. And the famous legendary photo of the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall was born. And after the photo, so was the legend.

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Who was the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall

So who was this lady? According to legend, the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall is the lost ghost of Dorothy Walpole. She was born in 1686 and according to gossip, the prettiest sister of Robert Walpole, seen as the first prime minister of Great Britain.

Walpole was neighbour with Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townsend in Norfolk. And it just so happened that his sister Dorothy married Townshend in 1713. Although they were good neighbours, and even brother-in-laws, there was bad blood between the men. Especially in politics and when Walpole built his own mansion, Houghton Hall. Did this affect poor Dorothy at all?

What we know is that it wasn’t a particularly happy marriage. Dorothy was Charles second wife. He looked upon the Hall as his pride, as a Lord Hervey said: “Lord Townshend looked upon his own seat at Raynham as the metropolis of Norfolk, and considered every stone that augmented the splendor of Houghton, as a diminution of the grandeur of Raynham.”

Lady Dorothy Walpole: The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall is believed to be the ghost of Lady Dorothy Walpole who died in 1726.

Charles was also well known for his violent temper. Dorothy Walpole was rumored to have been a mistress of a Lord Wharton, a well known womanizer, and that no woman could be twenty four hours under his roof and walk out with her reputation intact.

When Charles discovered his wife and her affair with Lord Wharton, the story says he punished her by locking her in her rooms in the family, Raynham Hall. To make matters worse, there are still rumours that she was in fact entrapped by the Countess of Warton, inviting Dorothy to stay a few days, knowing full well, her husband wouldn’t let her walk out with her reputation intact.

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After this, Dorothy Walpole remained at Raynham Hall until her death in 1726. She died of smallpox. But did she really leave the Halls? Is she still roaming the place, still locked up, still trying to get out and are forever trapped as The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall?

Sightings of the Brown Lady at Raynham Hall

Raynham Hall was thought to have been haunted long before the picture was taken. People that stayed in the mansion, experienced visitation and paranormal activity that most believed to be the ghost of The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall.

1835

Whatever the truth is, the legend was there to stay. And the first recorded sighting of the The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall was in 1835. One Christmas the new Lord Charles Townshend invited some guest to the Hall for celebrations. Among the guest were Colonel Loftus and another guest named Hawkins. One night night as they approached their bedrooms, they saw the Brown Lady, noticing the dated and brown dress she wore.

The following night, Loftus claimed he saw The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall again. he said he was drawn to the spectre’s empty eye-sockets, dark in the glowing face, the once so pretty Dorothy Walpole. After Loftus reported what he saw it ended with some of the staff permanently left Raynham Hall. It was all recorded by another guest, Lucia C. Stone.

Read More: Ghost Stories of Christmas Hauntings

1863

Just a year after, the The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall was seen again. This time it was Captain Frederick Marryat, a friend of Charles Dickens. He originally wanted to prove a theory of his that the hauntings was caused by local smugglers. According to him, the smugglers spread the story to keep people away from the area. That night hi requested that he spent the night in the haunted room at Raynham Hall.

Marryat’s daughter, Florence wrote about her father’s experience in 1891:

…he took possession of the room in which the portrait of the apparition hung, and in which she had been often seen, and slept each night with a loaded revolver under his pillow. For two days, however, he saw nothing, and the third was to be the limit of his stay. On the third night, however, two young men (nephews of the baronet), knocked at his door as he was undressing to go to bed, and asked him to step over to their room (which was at the other end of the corridor), and give them his opinion on a new gun just arrived from London. My father was in his shirt and trousers, but as the hour was late, and everybody had retired to rest except themselves, he prepared to accompany them as he was. As they were leaving the room, he caught up his revolver, “in case you meet the Brown Lady,” he said, laughing. When the inspection of the gun was over, the young men in the same spirit declared they would accompany my father back again, “in case you meet the Brown Lady,” they repeated, laughing also. The three gentlemen therefore returned in company.

The corridor was long and dark, for the lights had been extinguished, but as they reached the middle of it, they saw the glimmer of a lamp coming towards them from the other end. “One of the ladies going to visit the nurseries,” whispered the young Townshends to my father. Now the bedroom doors in that corridor faced each other, and each room had a double door with a space between, as is the case in many old-fashioned houses. My father, as I have said, was in shirt and trousers only, and his native modesty made him feel uncomfortable, so he slipped within one of the outer doors (his friends following his example), in order to conceal himself until the lady should have passed by.

I have heard him describe how he watched her approaching nearer and nearer, through the chink of the door, until, as she was close enough for him to distinguish the colors and style of her costume, he recognised the figure as the facsimile of the portrait of “The Brown Lady”. He had his finger on the trigger of his revolver, and was about to demand it to stop and give the reason for its presence there, when the figure halted of its own accord before the door behind which he stood, and holding the lighted lamp she carried to her features, grinned in a malicious and diabolical manner at him. This act so infuriated my father, who was anything but lamb-like in disposition, that he sprang into the corridor with a bound, and discharged the revolver right in her face. The figure instantly disappeared – the figure at which for several minutes three men had been looking together – and the bullet passed through the outer door of the room on the opposite side of the corridor, and lodged in the panel of the inner one. My father never attempted again to interfere with “The Brown Lady of Raynham”.

1926

When the son of Lady Townshend and his friend saw the ghost next, they knew who The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall was. They saw her on the staircase, and identified the ghost with the portrait, hanging on the wall in the haunted room. Of course, the portrait of Lady Dorothy Walpole.

Raynham Hall: The haunted hall is a country house in Norfolk and was for 400 years the seat of the Townshend family. The hall is reported to be haunted, providing the scene for possibly the most famous ghost photo of all time, The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall descending the staircase.//Source: Wikimedia

What is the truth?

After Provand and Shira took the picture of The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall, they published their experience in Country life magazine, December 26th, 1936. They were published again in Life magazine on January 4th, 1937. So all in all, they did profit on this. But could it be that they just took a picture?

After the picture was taken, a paranormal investigator, Harry Price interviewed both Provand and Shira. He said: “I will say at once I was impressed. I was told a perfectly simple story: Mr. Indre Shira saw the apparition descending the stairs at the precise moment when Captain Provand’s head was under the black cloth. A shout – and the cap was off and the flashbulb fired, with the results which we now see. I could not shake their story, and I had no right to disbelieve them. Only collusion between the two men would account for the ghost if it is a fake. The negative is entirely innocent of any faking.”

But there have been numerous attempts of debunking the picture of The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall and its status of “proof”. Some claim Shira faked the image by putting grease or something in the lense in shape of a lady, maybe moved down the stairs himself during an exposure? Or maybe it is as simple as an accidental double exposure or light somehow got in the camera. Some even claim that the figure looks eerily like the Virgin Mary statue, and that the image is of her in the staircase, the statue that is, not the Virgin Mary.

Among the examiners trying to debunk the validity of the picture of The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall is Joe Nickell’s detailed writings that the photograph is nothing more than double exposure. And the magician John Booth wrote that the photograph could be easily made. Booth had the magician Ron Wilson cover himself in a bed sheet and walk down the staircase at the Magic Castle in Hollywood. It apparently turned out very similar to the photograph.

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