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The Palatine Light and the Ghost Ship Behind it

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In the cold night right before the New Years, the light of a ghost ship can be seen outside the shores of Rhode Island known as The Palatine Light. The terrible fate of the wrecked ship still haunts the sea. 

Which, half in sport, in malice half,
She shows at times, with shudder or laugh,
Phantom and shadow in photograph?

For still, on many a moonless night,
From Kingston Head and from Montauk light
The spectre kindles and burns in sight.

Now low and dim, now clear and higher,
Leaps up the terrible Ghost of Fire,
Then, slowly sinking, the flames expire.
– The Palatine, John Greenleaf Whittier

The Palatine Light is something that is reported on outside of Block Island on Rhode Island in the US. It is said that on the Saturday between Christmas and New Year’s Eve you can see the lights from the ship, burning as it sails past you as a ghostly apparition. 

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The tradition of the folklore tells of a British ship with German immigrants that were on their way to Philadelphia in the 1700s. Germany at this time was ravaged by famine, war and religious persecution and many made their way towards a better future in America. Those who made it to America were known as ‘poor Palatines’. There are many variants to exactly which year this was supposed to happen, as there are many variations and different historical explanations. 

The Palatine’s Haunted Legend

The ship, known as ‘The Palatine’ came to meet its fate outside of Block Island where it wrecked. The ship had for a long time been way off course and the passengers of the ship had already, before the sinking of the ship, experienced enough hardship on the voyage to drive them mad. The crew had deserted their duties and a horrible mutiny happened onboard that left the passengers to descend into chaos. The passengers that were left were driven mad by desperation, fear and hunger. 

The people of Block Island say that the locals tried to rescue the crew and its passengers, although on mainland New England, they tell a different tale. Namely that the islanders were luring the ship towards them to steal the cargo and kill the people on board. Which is also the narrative that is told in the poem ‘The Palatine’ by John Greenleaf Whittier, which helped solidify the story to a popular legend of The Palatine Light:

Down swooped the wreckers, like birds of prey
Tearing the heart of the ship away,
And the dead had never a word to say.
And then, with ghastly shimmer and shine
Over the rocks and the seething brine,
They burned the wreck of the Palatine.
– The Palatine, John Greenleaf Whittier

Wrecking is a practice of taking the cargo from a wrecked ship, and coastal people that live in the areas where many ships go down are known as wreckers, looters of ships. In some accounts and especially in fiction, the wreckers went as far as lighting false beacons to lure the ships ashore and killing the survivors, so no tales could be told. Many people feared Block Island as they were afraid of the locals living there doing this, although there has never been any hard evidence of it.

Wreckers: Legends of islander and coastal people on purpose lured ship ashore to pillage the cargo and kill the passangers were often told and depicted in fiction. Like in Daphne du Maurier’s  Jamaica Inn, here, screenshot from the BBC adaptation of the wreckers. // photo: BBC

Both variations of the legends tell that after they had gotten the people off the ship, they set fire to the ship and it was driven out to sea. But the ship was not empty. A female passenger refused to leave the ship as it sank, and those who report seeing the Palatine Lights, claim to hear her screams from the ghost ship. 

The Wreckage of Princess Augusta

There are many ships that went down in these parts that could be the source of the legend of The Palatine Light. Many ships got off course and ended its day on the bottom of the sea this far north. One of those ships was The Princess Augusta and perhaps tells the closest story to the legend.

Like in the legend, the ship had problems onboard long before they hit the shores of Rhode Island. The water supply was contaminated and killed 200 of its passengers and half the crew, including the captain, named Captain Long. 

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It was the first mate, Andrew Brook, that took control over the ship, but a horrible storm pushed the ship of course and they ended up outside of Rhode Island. After three months of the extreme weather and no food, the state of the people on the ship was becoming desperate. Already poor, the passengers were forced to pay for the remaining rations by Brook. 

When it reached the shores of Block island it was severely damaged and leaked and finally wrecked in a snowstorm at Sandy Point in 1738. The waters around these parts are treacherous and in those times, there were at least a dozen wrecked ships every year around these parts.

Apparently Brook left all the passengers onboard and rowed to shore with the remaining crew. Although they were condemned in the public eye, they suffered no punishment for their mistreatment. 

According to the Block Islanders, they were not trying to steal the cargo at all, but help the passengers and bury the dead they could not help. It is said that they helped out all but one of the passengers in some accounts just like in the legends and a couple of the passengers actually settled down on the island, as more names of the passenger list have come to light with names. Mary Van Der Line was forgotten in all the chaos. Driven mad by her suffering and horrible voyage over the ocean, she didn’t get off the ship because she refused to leave her possessions and went down with it. 

Lights in the Sea: The islanders of Block Island have told throughout the years about ghostly lights and apparitions in the sea that are supposedly coming from the ghost ship known in the legend as The Palatine.

The fate of the ship itself is up to debate. There are some evidence suggesting that the Augusta  was repaired and sent to Philadelphia. But other accounts tell the story that sounds much closer to the legend of the ghost ship. 

The ship was seen as unsalvageable after the wreckage and pushed back into the sea to vanish. Before pushing it out, in some accounts they do actually set in on fire. There are to this day no wreck or remains of the wreck to have been found. 

The Sightings of The Palatine Light

Whether the islanders lured the ship ashore, or helped the passengers, they have countless reports about seeing the lights. One islander named  Dr. Aaron C. Willey described the light in 1811 after claiming to have seen it several times himself:

“The light looks like a blaze of fire six or seven miles from the northern part of Block Island. Sometimes it’s small, like the light from a distant window. Sometimes it’s as big as a ship and wavers like a torch.”

So perhaps, when passing through these parts in the winter time, look out to the sea. Perhaps if you look close enough, you too can see the lights of the ghost ship. 

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The Legend of the Ghost Ship Palatine – New England Historical Society

Shedding light on the Palatine legend | Block Island Times

The Palatine. John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892). New England: Block Island (Manisees), RI Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. 1876-79. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes. America: Vols. XXV-XXIX

Passengers of the “Princess Augusta,” (1736)

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The Finnish Maiden of Olavinlinna Castle

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Buried alive inside the castle walls, the Finnish Maiden immured still haunts this medieval building of Olavinlinna Castle. 

This is the castle built in the northernmost place in the world in the 15th century. In the heart of the Finnish lake region in the south east, it used to be on the frontline of the unstable border of Sweden and Russia. The Olavinlinna castle is built on a small island overlooking the dark waters surrounding it. 

The Castle of Knights and War

Since it was built in 1475, the Olavinlinna castle was in the frontline of the territorial dispute between Sweden and Russia as Finland for many years was fought over. It was placed strategically to protect the important Savo region and saw many sieges, battles and wars over the years. It held up the defenses for a long time, all up until 1714 when the Russians took over the castle at last and held it until 1917. 

A castle designed for war, it was named after St Olaf, the Norwegian king and saint for all knights. And throughout the years, the castle saw enough bloodshed and death for eternity. 

High on a rock, whose castled shade
Darken’d the lake below,
In ancient strength majestic stood
The towers of Arlinkow.

Donica – A Ballad Poem by Robert Southey (were Olavinlinna castle was the inspiration)

The stories of the castle are plentiful with legends of Finnish water spirits Vetehinen living in the black water surrounding the castle. Although not malicious by nature, dangerous as they are said to drown people when bored. There are also tales of the ghost of a black ram that escaped being dinner at a feast roams the castle. But most famously, there is the story of the Finnish Maiden that was immured inside the Olavinlinna castle walls. 

The Finnish Maiden

The Finnish Maiden is not only a local legend from the castle. The image of the Finnish Maiden is also used as a personification of the country itself. Often a barefoot young woman in her mid twenties with braided blonde hair, blue eyes and wearing a white or blue national costume. And in paintings she is either depicted as victorious with her fist raised, or as in the painting Attack, where she is attacked by an Russian eagle. And this image is quite fitting for this local legend. 

The Finnish Maiden: In the painting, the Russian doubleheaded eagle is attacking the maiden symbolizing Finland, tearing a law book. Immediately after the painting was finalized, it became the symbol of protest against russification, spreading throughout Finland in thousands of prints. (Painted around 1899)
Photo: Edvard Isto (1856-1905)

Buried Alive Inside the Walls

The most famous story about the Olavinlinna castle is the tragic story about the Finnish maiden that is said to be buried inside the castle walls. She was, according to legend, the daughter of the Lord of the castle at a time when the threat from Russia was ever present and the castle was at the line of defense from the Russian forces. 

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Amidst all of this, she had fallen in love with a Russian soldier and trusted that he would do her no harm. But she should never have done so, as she was betrayed. When opening the castle gate for him, he brought more soldiers with him to attack the castle from the inside. They managed to beat the Russian soldiers and the treacherous lover was killed in the attack. But the tragedy didn’t end there. The maiden was also punished for her foolishness. 

She was condemned to death for treason and buried alive in a wall in the courtyard. Immurement or live entombment was a form of capital punishment, especially in legends and folklore. When used as a method of execution, the condemned dies from starvation or dehydration and it is often a slow and excruciating process.  

The Rowan Tree

Soon after, a Rowan tree sprung in the yard with white flowers blooming from the branches, a symbol of the maiden’s innocence. The tree also had red berries growing from it, red as her blood. 

There is no longer a tree in the Olavinlinna courtyard,and its existence is no way to prove. Neither is the story. What is true is the story of the maiden is not so deeply engraved in the local folklore and the Olavinlinna castle legend it has become one. 

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https://www.kansallismuseo.fi/en/olavinlinna/tarinoita

youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gB2OH3gxzRU 

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Top Japanese Horror Anime Series

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Feeling in need for some more horror in your life, but tired of the same live action series? From genuinely scary anime to fun parodies, here are some of the top Japanese Horror Anime Series out there.

One medium that makes some chilling and terrifying horror series are Anime. These are some of our favourite Japanese horror anime series, ranging from monster stories to more paranormal romance.

Attack on Titan | 進撃の巨人 (2013)

Based on Hajime Isayama’s award-winning manga, Attack on Titan or Shingeki no Kyojin, took the world by storm, anime lovers as well as those that never usually watched it.

This Japanese horror anime series follows a group of people, tasked to go outside the safe city walls. Outside of the walls, terrible giant monsters called titans lives. Humans have lived inside those very walls for centuries after almost being slaughtered and wiped out by those monsters. What makes it extra terrifying are their taste for human flesh.

The main character, Eren Yeager enlists in the Survey Corps, a military unit that dedicates their lives to battling these monster, the very monsters that killed his mother when he was very young. But when battling these monsters, the humans have to ask themselves, are there monsters among themselves as well?

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Mushi-shi | 蟲師 (2005–2006)

This anime horror story series started out as a manga from the mangaka Yuki Urushibara. This is the adaption of the award winning manga with 26 episodes based on the chapters of the manga. The episodes of the anime aired differently than what order they were published in the manga, wich says some about how episodic it all is. One episode sequel Mushishi: Hihamukage and a ten episode series called Mushishi Zoku Shou in 2014.

Ginko is a so called Mushishi, those who research the thing called Mushi. It is a mysterious entity of ‘beings’. They are removed from good and evil, but inhabits the earth by manifesting in things like plants, animals and diseases to just mention a few things they appear as. Ginko wonders about the reason behind their existence, and in doing so, perhaps finding the reason for life itself.

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Another | アナザー (2012)

This Japanese horror anime series is more of a ghost story than the other ones on the list. Another follows 15-year-old Kouichi Sakakibara transfers into class 3-3 of Yomiyama North. He is drawn to Mei, a mysterious girl in his class wearing an eyepatch no one but him seems to notice. She is in fact a ghost of a girl that died in 1972 and still haunts the school and the rest of the town that hides dark secrets.

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Vampire Knight | ヴァンパイア騎士〈ナイト〉(2008)

This gothic vampire anime is also based on a manga by the same name. It follows Yuuki Cross that guards the secret of Cross Academy: Vampires exists. She and the other member of the disciplinary committee, Zero, has to keep the students at the night class apart from the day class as well as she is struggling to uncover her memories of her past.

Vampire Knight is one of those Japanese horror anime series that leans more towards romance than straight up romance, although a bloody one.

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Mononoke | モノノ怪 (2005)

This anime horror story is a sequel to the Ayakashi: Japanese Classic Horror anthology series, were we meet Kusuriuri in the Bakano episode. He is a traveller called The Medicine Seller, a master of the occult in search of evil spirits called Mononoke to kill. But one day he encounters a spirit he cannot kill. His journey to find a way to defeat the monster, he meets Shino, a pregnant woman in an inn. There she encounters the Zashiki Warashi, the monster he is hunting down. And so the hunt begins.

For more anime horror anthology series, including Ayakashi: Japanese Classic Horror:

Anime Horror Anthology Series

If you are tired of watching the reruns and reboots of the Halloween movies, take a look at what that has been coming out from Japan the last decade. Some are considered classics, some are fairly new, they should all help you get that tingly feeling of a scare. Here are five anime horror anthology…

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Death Note | デスノート(2006)

Death Note has been adapted to what it can, be it movies, live action, musicals etc. The popularity of the manga and anime reached a global scale and is often the entrance for foreigners into the Japanese Anime medium.

The story follows the high school student, Light Yagami from the day he finds a notebook on the ground. It is a Death Note belonging to a shinigami, a god of death. Following the instructions given by the book, he figures out how he can use it to his advantage to kill any person he wants. The board shinigami that dropped it into the human realm, Ryuk wants to see what will happen and is intrigued to follow Lights quest to take over the world and rid it from what he deems evil, although well on his way to become the thing himself.

This Japanese horror anime series, although peppered with gothic and horror elements, it is more classified as a cat and mouse mystery, as the main plot follows the police force tasked to arrest Kira, Lights name he gives himself as the world ruler.

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Blood + | ブラッドプラス (2005)

This is one of those vampire series that walk the fine line of them being a sort of human or straight up monster. And two identical twins from the same mother grows up very different and gives very different answers.

The main protagonist of this Japanese horror anime series is Saya Otonashi, a seemingly ordinary girl living a mundane life with her adoptive family in Okinawa City. Except the fact that she suffers from both anemia as well as amnesia. But she is unable to escape her past and have to run away when monsters starts attacking her friends and family. Together with the organization known as Red Shield, she has to find a way to eradicate the monsters, even if it means her own blood.

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Elfen Lied | エルフェンリート (2004)

Elfen Lied is based on Lynn Okamoto’s seinen manga series of the same name and premiered while the manga was still in publication in 2004. It is especially remembered for the artistic opening inspired by Gustav Klimt’s paintings.

The Japanese horror anime series starts with Lucy, a special breed of human referred to as “Diclonius,” born with a short pair of horns and invisible telekinetic hands that lands her as a victim of inhumane scientific experimentation by the government. It begins with her escape away from the facility she has been imprisoned in. During her breakout she suffers an injury to her head, rendering her seemingly innocent and with no idea of her bloody and murderous past.

Two college students takes her in, unaware of her past. But as time passes, they realize she is not as innocent as she presented herself to be.

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Black Butler | 黒執事 (2008)

This Japanese horror anime series places itself in Victorian England to borrow some of its gothic elements perfect for a horror series. In Victorian England, the young Ciel Phantomhive is known as “the Queen’s Guard Dog,”. He works for her Majesty of taking care of the many unsettling events that occur in Victorian England. By his side he is accompanied by his always loyal butler, Sebastian Michaelis. Although young, Ciel’s past is riddled in darkness and secret tragedy. During the darkest of times he made a soul exchange with a demon for powers, that demon being his butler.

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Kiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsu/Parasyte -the maxim- | 寄生獣 セイの格率 (2015)

This story is about how alien parasites came to earth and quickly infiltrated humanity by burrowing into the brains of vulnerable targets. 16 year old high school student Shinichi Izumi is infected by these parasites, but it fails to take over his brain, ending up in his right hand instead. Unable to relocate, the parasite, now named Migi, has no choice but to rely on Shinichi in order to stay alive.

This is one of the weirder Japanese horror anime series, even for being anime. The Chinese Ministry of Culture blacklisted Kiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsu as well as 37 other works on June 9, 2015.

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Pagbag — The Filipino Way to Shake Off a Ghost

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If you have been to a wake or a funeral in The Philippines, you may not go straight home after so you don’t bring the ghost with you. 

Around the world there are all kinds of different customs to funerals and wakes, everything from what you wear, eat and behave. And in The Philippines, there is a specific custom to not draw the spirits or ghosts with you home. 

Funeral: Philippines Funeral Procession. // Photo: moyerphotos

There is a superstition that you are not supposed to go straight home after a wake or a funeral. Pagbag is a tagalog term that means ‘to shake off dust or dirt’, and it is believed that you should not welcome ghosts and spirits into your home. It should not be confused with the term that is also used to talk about leftover food, scavenged and collected outside of supermarkets and restaurants.  

So instead of going directly home after a wake or a funeral, you are supposed to wander around after to help shake off the ghost and spirit so as not to bring them home. After an event like that, you supposedly carry too much bad energy you must get rid of. 

Perhaps today not everyone believes that they would drag a ghost with them on their way home, but still do it because of tradition. People usually go to places like a cafe, a park, a shopping mall or something before heading home, just in case. 

There are several superstitions surrounding the Filipino wake, ranging from the belief that you shouldn’t bring home food from the wake as a guest or to look into a mirror when you are in the presence of the dead.  

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http://folklore.usc.edu/pagpag/

‘Pagpag:’ Stylish superstition

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The Haunted H House

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Some hauntings are bound to be debunked as soon as there are investigations. This is the case with The Haunted H House, but the true story could have ended so much worse than a ghost haunting. 

The story of the Hauntings of H House was first published in 1921 in the American Journal of Ophthalmology by William Willmer, and was a story of one of his clients. It detailed a family that moved into a new house in 1912 and immediately started experiencing strange things. 

This ghost story quickly found its scientific culprit, but then again, the details of the supposed hauntings the family thought they were under, was scary. Perhaps even scarier than harmless ghosts, as this specific scientific haunting was deadly.

The Family H and Their Hauntings

The family moved into a large house built in the 1870s somewhere in America that was described as ‘Rambling and high-studded,’ and only lit by the flimmering gas lights. In other words, a perfect location for a haunted house. The family is known only as Family H, and it is the wife of the house that tells:

“Mr. H and I had not been in the house for more than a couple of days when we felt very depressed. The house was overpoweringly quiet.”

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The Hauntings started in the small, but got even more detailed and vivid as time went on. And the hallucinations started to get more and more terrefying. 

“One morning, I heard footsteps in the room over my head. I hurried up the stairs. To my surprise, the room was empty. I passed into the next and then into all the rooms on that floor, and then to the floor above to find that I was the only person in that part of the house. Sometimes after I’ve gone to bed, the noises from the store room are tremendous, as if furniture was being piled against the door, as if china was being moved about, and occasionally a long and fearful sigh or wail.”

The Poisonous Gas: Although electricity was around during this time, many homes still used to light the house and war it up using gas. And it was a silent killer for many years in many homes.

The whole family felt it. The kids grew pale and lost their appetite, everyone suffered from headaches and they all started hearing things that weren’t there. Then the vision also started and they all started to believe they saw ghosts:

“On one occasion, in the middle of the morning, as I passed from the drawing room into the dining room, I was surprised to see at the further end of the dining room, coming towards me, a strange woman, dark haired and dressed in black. As I walked steadily on into the dining room to meet her, she disappeared, and in her place I saw a reflection of myself in the mirror, dressed in a light silk waist … On the night of January 15 we went to the opera. That night I had vague and strange dreams, which appeared to last for hours. When the morning came, I felt too tired and ill to get up. G told me that in the middle of the night he woke up, feeling as if someone had grabbed him by the throat and was trying to strangle him. He sat up in bed and had a violent fit of coughing, which lasted about five minutes … G had always slept heavily, never hearing a sound and nothing disturbed him. Now he was continually waking, answering the telephone and the doorbell, which had never rung, and looking for burglars, who never materialized.”

It was not only Mrs. H who had these visions, but her husband, her kids and her servants as well. They happened during the day as well as in the dead of night, and it wasn’t only the mind that got clouded, but their entire body felt ill. Even the plants in the house withered mysteriously.

“Sometimes as I walk along the hall I feel as if someone was following me, going to touch me. You cannot understand it if you haven’t experienced it, but it is real. Some nights after I have been in bed for a while, I have felt as if the bed clothes were jerked off me, and I have also felt as if I had been struck on the shoulder. One night I woke up and saw sitting on the foot of my bed a man and a woman. The woman was young, dark and slight and wore a large picture hat. The man was older, smooth shaven and a little balc. I was parelyzed and couldn’t move, when suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder and I was able to sit up, and the man and the woman faded away.”

The Poisonous Gas Causing Ghost Hauntings

This torture went on for two months with vivid and detailed hallucinations. Then Mrs. H got a visit from her brother that she confided in. He urged her to seek out a doctor as the reason for the haunting could be the furnace, not ghosts. 

And sure enough, when they had the house inspected, they found that the chimney pushed the carbon monoxide into their home and not out the chimney. There was also the case of the gaslights that also contributed to the problem as that type of gas at that time exhumed as much fumes as a car exhaust today. 

The scentless and sightless gas of carbon monoxide can lead to hallucinations, and in the worst case scenario, unconsciousness and death as it is poisoning you by blocking the oxygen to get into your blood. People often report that they hear noises in their ears, bells ringing, rushing sounds after being exposed to it. 

After the leaks were fixed, so was the haunted house. The family felt healthy and when they moved back into the house the visions stopped as well. 

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https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2016/10/the_ghost_story_in_a_scientific_journal.html

Chasing Ghosts: A Tour of Our Fascination with Spirits and the Supernatural by Marc Hartzman 

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Mandy the Haunted Doll

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Known as Canada’s most haunted object, the antique doll that follows the museums visitors with her glass eyes and cries in the night.  

The haunted doll known as Mandy was donated to the Quesnel & District Museum in British Columbia, Canada in 1991 by a woman called Lisa Sorensen. The doll was from her grandmother that she found when cleaning out the house. She had just had a baby of her own, but didn’t want her daughter near the doll as she had noticed strange things about it. 

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She told the museum when she donated the doll that it kept her up during the nights. In the night she would wake up in the night to the sound of a crying baby in the basement. But when she checked there was nothing there. The doll started to scare the owner and she decided to give it away. After she had given away Mandy to the museum, she no longer heard the cries of a baby. 

The only connection the family now has with the doll is the name, which she gave after her own daughter: Mereanda, or Mandy. 

Night at the Museum

Now Mandy the doll sits in a locked cabinet, her eyes reportedly following the visitors with her cracked porcelain face as well as the staff at the museum. 

The staff remembers well when Mandy first came to them. They left her in the lab overnight when taking her pictures to add to the collection. When they came into work the next morning, they found the lab trashed, almost like a temper tantrum to a child. And since then, strange occurrences have only kept on happening. 

Small stuff would start vanishing without a trace and even the staff’s lunches would start disappearing from the fridge and appear in random drawers. 

Electronic devices are said to malfunction in the doll’s presence, especially when trying to get her picture your camera light will go off and on. 

The museum gave Mandy a stuffed lamb to keep her company, but would the next day find the lamb tossed outside of Mandy’s locked cabinet. Although many of the practical people would dismiss these happenings as purely coincidental with a perfectly logical explanation, the legend of the haunted doll kept growing.

Haunted by the Grief of a Bereaved Mother

The doll is supposedly around a century old and even got to meet up with a medium to examine her past on a show. The medium was Silvia Brown and she meant that the doll had once belonged to twins that died of polio. And the energy that the doll gave off was that of the mother to the twins and her sorrow she somehow implanted the doll. 

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Mandy, ‘supernatural’ doll at Quesnel Museum, gets QR code to share ghostly stories | CBC News

Meet Mandy the Doll, Canada’s Most Evil Antique – Cabinet of Curiosities

https://www.quesnelmuseum.ca/node/264

Canada Is Home To One Of The World’s Most Famous Haunted Dolls | HuffPost null

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Top Found Footage and Mockumentaries Horror Movies

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Some movies were made to make fun of overly serious documentaries, some were made under the disguise as a documentary to make the story more believable. This is a list of some of the best horror movies made in a found footage or a mockumentary style.

The rise of the found footage horror movie genre or the mockumentary style of storytelling has made it so the living legend of believing a story makes it better, especially before the time of the internet were the story wouldn’t be revealed as fake the second you did a google search and found the story behind it was fake.

The mockumentary type of telling a horror story has also made it so that production value is not the main point to make a movie successful or not, as many of the best found footage movies has been very low budget. This has also made the way of producing these movies more democratic and not necessarily having to depend on a big Hollywood studio to fund the production. This has made it so that diverse moviesand foreign countries has broken into the mainstream media on a global scale they probably wouldn’t have if the audience had expected a production of Hollywood money.

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The Blair Witch Project

To begin with the one movie that rules them all, the mothership of the mockumentary, especially the horror genre one, that made it into the mainstream box office and cinemas all around the world. The Blair Witch Project from 1999 made it big, and to this day have a lingering effect on the movies that came after as well as creating a legend of its own that to this day some people still believe.

The Blair Witch Project is thought to be the first widely released film marketed primarily by the Internet. During screenings, the filmmakers made advertising efforts to promulgate the events in the film as factual, including the distribution of flyers at festivals such as Sundance, asking viewers to come forward with any information about the “missing” students. The backstory for the film is a legend fabricated by Sánchez and Myrick which is detailed in the Curse of the Blair Witch, a mockumentary broadcast on the SciFi Channel on July 12, 1999. Sánchez and Myrick also maintain a website which adds further details to the legend.

Synopsis: It is a fictional story of three student filmmakers—Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, and Joshua Leonard—who hike into the Black Hills near Burkittsville, Maryland, in 1994 to film a documentary about a local legend known as the Blair Witch. The three disappear, but their equipment and footage are discovered a year later.

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Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum

This South Korean movie took an already existing legend of a haunted asylum that were popular and well known and turned it into a box office success, both at home and abroad. Before the release of the film, the owner of the asylum filed a lawsuit against the film being shown in theaters, claiming that the film will have negative effects on the sale of the building. However, a Seoul court in late March 2018 ruled in favor of the film being shown.

Synopsis: The narrative centers around a horror web series crew looking for the paranormal that travels to an abandoned asylum for a live broadcast in order to garner views and publicity.

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Cloverfield

Many movies on these entries were made on a low budget and by people that may not had broken into the field just yet. But then came Cloverfield that showed strong muscles and Hollywood heavyweights. J.J Abrams came up with the idea for the movie when he went to Japan and saw Godzilla toys with his son in shops. And thus, the American monster was born and a crossover between Blair Witch and a Hollywood blockbuster was made with a horror spin.

Synopsis: The film follows six young New York City residents fleeing from a massive monster and various other smaller creatures that attack the city while they are having a farewell party. We follow them as they try to survive and get to safety from the attack and monsters.

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[•REC]

This Spanish movie from 2007 was later given many sequels as well as American remakes in light of the first movies success. The film was a commercial and critical success. It is now recognized as one of the early successes, and one of the best films in the found footage genre as well as various list of horror movies at all.

Synopsis: The film follows a reporter and her cameraman as they accompany a group of firefighters on an emergency call to an apartment building. The situation quickly escalates after an infection begins spreading inside, with the building being sealed up and all occupants ordered to follow a strict quarantine.

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Willow Creek

On a fresh, but still a classic take on the lingering Bigfoot legend of America, the movie from 2013 has enough of flannel, pilot sunglasses and forest as far as eye can see, just like a classic American horror movie should have. The movie also came out in a time when the found footage movies was a more well established genre and showed that the audience were still up for a shaky camera angle, even though there was no rumours about the actors being dead or anything.

Synopsis: Set in Humboldt County, California, Jim (Bryce Johnson), a stout believer in Bigfoot, and his girlfriend Kelly (Alexie Gilmore) are traveling to Six Rivers National Forest in Northern California, where Jim plans to shoot his own Bigfoot footage at the site of the Patterson–Gimlin film.

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Paranormal Activity

Paranormal Activity used the hype of mockumentaries and took it all the way. And after a number of sequels, prequels and spinoffs, bot official and unofficial, we can safely conclude that this was a very successful franchise if nothing else. The producers used a home camera and relied heavily on improvisation from the actors to make it as believable as possible.

Synopsis: It centers on a young couple (Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat) who are haunted by a supernatural presence in their home. They then set up a camera to document what is haunting them. And through it, they find more than they ever could dream of as a demonic presence is getting to them.

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Troll Hunter

The Norwegian found footage movie has turned into a cult classic of working well as a huge dose of dry nordic comedy as well as a horror adventure movie. Combining modern bureaucratic Norway with its whimsical superstitious roots, the movie captured something about the old and past and how we as humans are still not over old folklore of the Trolls.

Synopsis: A group of students from Volda University College, Thomas, Johanna and their cameraman Kalle, set out to make a documentary about a suspected bear poacher, Hans. But they soon find out that it is not a bear at all he is hunting, but something far more dangerous and supernatural.

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What We Do In The Shadows

On a lighter note, this mockumentary by the New Zealanders Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi is more of a comedy than horror flick that breathed new life into the vampire genre as well as giving old vampire tropes and lore a comeback in mainstream media.

Synopsis: Viago, Deacon, and Vladislav are vampires who are struggling with the mundane aspects of modern life in Wellington, New Zealand, like paying rent, keeping up with the chore wheel, trying to get into nightclubs, and overcoming flatmate conflicts as well as battling with immortality, the sun and the local werewolfs.

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Cannibal Holocaust

If we can call The Blair Witch Project the found footage horror movie’s parent, this movie can be called its ancestor.

It is considered by many to be one of the goriest movies that have been made. Ten days after its premiere in Milan in 1979, the film was seized by the Italian courts and director Ruggero Deodato was arrested and charged with obscenity and the murder of the actors, a rumour that would last for a long time.

In reality, the cast had signed contracts requiring them to disappear for a year after shooting to maintain the illusion that they had died. However, when he was arrested, Deodato contacted the actor Luca Barbareschi and told him to contact the three other actors who played the missing film team. When the actors appeared in court, alive and well, the murder charges were dropped.

Synopsis: During a rescue mission into the Amazon rainforest, a professor stumbles across lost film shot by a missing documentary crew that met an unfortunate and gory end.

PS! Although the deaths of the actors were revealed to have been a lie, the animal deaths in the film were real by the way.

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The Possession of Letta the Doll

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Described as the ‘doll from hell’, Letta the Doll in Australia is the cause of strange things. But although a scary one, the owner will never part with the possessed doll and has today a very strong social media profile and is travelling the country. 

Haunted dolls have long been the subject of fascination and fear throughout time across the globe. These eerie objects made in our image are believed to be inhabited by restless spirits or possess supernatural powers. What is it with dolls, originally made for children to play with that taps into something so scary? With their lifeless eyes and unsettling presence, haunted dolls have captured the imagination of many and have become the stuff of nightmares.

Read also: Check our stories about other haunted dolls like Okiku — The Haunted Doll of Hokkaido, The Haunted Barbie Doll in The Shrine on Pulau Ubin Island or Mandy the Haunted Doll.

Stories of dolls moving on their own, whispering, or causing inexplicable occurrences have been passed down through generations, fueling the belief in their paranormal existence. Whether these accounts are true or merely urban legends, one thing is certain: haunted dolls continue to both terrify and intrigue those who dare to encounter them.

This is the case with the curious Letta the Doll in Australia that have captivated the country on the account of being creepy and allegedly haunted.

The Haunted Story of Letta the Doll

The owner of Letta the Doll, Kerry Walton claims he found the doll under the floor of the porch in an abandoned house in Wagga Wagga in New South Wales, Australia. He was going there for his grandmother’s funeral, and decided to go exploring the neighboring house that always had haunted him when he visited.

The doll is of wood and is child sized with a peculiar face, dressed in green with a long braid. When Walton first saw the doll, he was as terrified as we are when seeing the doll. 

Read also: Check out all of our ghost stories from Australia

That was back in 1972 and Letta the Doll came back to live with Walton and his family in Brisbane were the doll has lived ever since.

The origin of the name Letta the Doll came about when he was transporting it to its new home. When he put the doll in the trunk of his car to drive home, he heard movement and a scream:

“Letta me out,” he heard from the back of his trunk where only the doll was. And ever since then, the doll was called Letta the Doll. And since then, the doll has apparently been the cause of many strange things happening in the home in Queensland. 

Letta The Doll: The doll is a peculiar one, with a grin that will stay with you for a long time. According to the person that found her and so called carer, the doll is haunted by the spirit of a drowned boy. //Photo: Facebook.

Together, Letta the Doll and Kerry Walton have appeared on numerous television shows where he claims there is something paranormal over the doll. He says more than one person has seen the doll move right in front of them. There are also signs of the dolls moving on its own as it left visible marks around the house as well as under the shoes of the doll. 

The children living with the doll were also understandably terrified of the strange new addition to the household, and said they could hear the doll move around. 

The Doll With a Strong Media Profile

You can get the opportunity to meet with the doll, however, there are reports of having nightmares as well as feeling nauseous after an encounter with Letta the Doll. The owner of the doll is traveling around with it when not in their home in Warwick and charges money to get a picture taken. The doll is so famous now, it even has its own facebook account. 

Walton himself has vowed to never get rid of the doll, although he has tried. Once, to get his family out of a financial situation, he tried to sell the doll for 400$. But when it got to him taking the doll out of the car, he physically couldn’t do it, as if a force of some sort was stopping him. 

As well as the Facebook account as a true influencer, Letta the Doll also has gotten an Instagram profile where they post family like pictures like this:

Letta the Doll Possessed by the Restless Spirit of a Drowned Boy

Another claim that Walton has is about the origin of the doll and why this particular object is haunted. He apparently had the doll examined by a professional and found that the doll itself was around 200 years old. And the hair of the doll was made with real human hair allegedly, specifically from Eastern European gypsies. 

On further examination in some way or another, he found that the doll was haunted by a restless spirit of a drowned boy. The doll is supposedly possessed with the spirit of this boy, and in some variation of the origin of the doll, it was the gypsies that placed the soul of the boy inside the doll. And according to Walton, he thinks the drowning is the reason why it always rains when they go traveling for their shows. 

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https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/annabelle-real-life-haunted-dolls/

World’s most haunted doll lives in Warwick | The Courier Mail

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The Ghost Bride – The Book and the Real Ghost Marriage Behind it

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Ghost Marriage is not something we only read about in fictional books and watch in horror movies. Sometimes the fiction is inspired by the truth, like with the Malaysian book, The Ghost Bride from 2013.

Malaysian author Yangsze Choo (朱洋熹) heard many types of lore, legends and myths when she was growing up in Malaysia. Being a fourth generation Chinese Malaysian, many of the stories she heard were rooted in Chinese tradition. “As a kid, you’d sometimes hear, ‘So-and-so got married to a ghost or to a dead man.’ And that always really sparked my interest,” she told InsideEdition.com once.

And when she wrote her book, The Ghost Bride, she wrote a fictionalized version of a real thing based on the stories she heard about Ghost Marriages. The book was published in 2013, but painted a story from a very different time. 

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Malaysia

The book The Ghost Bride is set in 1890s Colonial Malacca, a Malaysian Chinese woman accepts a marriage proposal from a wealthy family to be the “ghost bride” to their deceased son who died a mysterious death to save her family from going bankrupt. Desperate to escape the situation, she needs to battle both the dangers of real life as well as the dangers of the afterlife and the hauntings of the dead. 

Her book was a great success and even got its own Netflix TV-series adaptation. Although The Ghost Bride is a fictional story, the concept of Ghost Marriage is anything but.

Ghost Marriage or Mínghūn in Chinese Culture

The tradition of Ghost Marriage or Mínghūn 冥婚 is an ancient Chinese custom in China and among Chinese communities abroad, representing deep cultural beliefs surrounding death and the afterlife. In this unique ritual, the family of the deceased takes on the responsibility of arranging a marriage for their loved one who has passed away, ensuring that the bond continues even beyond the grave. This practice is believed to provide comfort and peace to the deceased, allowing them companionship in the afterlife, as it is thought that they will not be lonely without a spouse.

In more extreme cases, there is a living person that are to be married to a dead one. This happened more when parents had this choice or to send their children to brothels or servants. “In many ways, it is a choice between two evils. Never an easy choice,” Choo said.

Although Ghost Marriage is fairly uncommon, but these poignant ceremonies are still very much alive today, with families sometimes going to great lengths to conduct elaborate rituals and find suitable partners for their deceased relatives, demonstrating the enduring significance of family ties and filial piety even after death.

Read Also: Ghost Marriage — The Chinese Way to Marry the Dead

The Ghost Bride took three years to write and a lot of things inspired what would eventually be her book. When she researched for it she remembered all of these stories she had heard about and read in the papers. She also learned that her friend’s family had been involved with a Ghost Marriage many years ago in the 90s or early 00s. 

The Wedding of the Dead that Inspired the Ghost Bride Book

The Ghost Bride: The cover of the book that Yangsze Choo was inspired to write after the old tradition.// Photo

One night, Yangsze Choo’s friend’s grandmother woke up from a dream. She said to the family the next day that it was her son who had visited and told her that he had met a girl in the underworld and wished to marry. 

Her son gave his mother the girl’s name and address to her family so that the grandmother could go see for herself. So the grandmother went to the address she had gotten in her dream and according to the story, actually found the family. 

Read More: Check out the book The Ghost Bride

When she talked to the mother of the girl who had died, it turned out that she had the same dreams as the grandmother had. She had been visited by her dead daughter in the dream and said that she too wished to get married. 

The two families got together and held a wedding for their belated children. Just like they would have if they were alive they had a ceremony with Chinese bridal sedan chairs as well as a feast after they had taken their vows and they got their soul tablets. 

After the wedding the two families were joined and worked as any extended family would, joining them for large family happenings. 

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Featured Image: Netflix ‘The Ghost Bride’ (2020)

What Is a Ghost Marriage? The Real Story Behind the Unusual Practice in New Netflix Show ‘The Ghost ‘ | Inside Edition

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Fighting The Widow Ghost With Cross Dressing and Erect Penises

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When unexplained deaths of seemingly healthy and young men occur around the same time and same place there are many Thai people who believe it is the Widow Ghost who is after their men, and they have their own way of holding the seemingly paranormal death at bay. 

In some parts of rural Thailand, especially in the northeastern parts, men are afraid of falling asleep in fear of dying because a ghost sought them out as a mate. There are sometimes waves of panic where a fear of the widow ghost trying to take them during the night, are keeping them awake. 

But whether it is a paranormal explanation or a scientific one still has the local villagers and medical personnel divided. 

Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome or Lai-Tai

From time to time, there will be cases where more than one man in a geographic area will die during the same time, perhaps under mysterious circumstances at first glance. Like in the 1990s there were many unexplained deaths of a group of Thai workers in their sleep in the northeastern parts of Thailand. It was referred to as ‘Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome’ by Thai doctors. 

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This particular syndrome (SUNDS), is a disorder found in southeast Asia, particularly Thailand, Japan, Philippines and Cambodia, which causes sudden cardiac death, mostly during sleep. In Thailand it also goes under the name lai-tai Lai (dreaming, screaming) Tai (death). It is however not the name of the Widow Ghost as it is cited as in many articles. But what is this ghost?

The Widow Ghost

The unexplained deaths got a more paranormal explanation to it and the legend of the vengeful spirit or the widow ghost fitted the narrative. She is an evil spirit that hunts men at night and steals the men from their bed. 

Protection from the Widow Ghost: A scarecrow dressed in red with an erect penis was considered the remedy when the fear of her reached Nakhon Phanom in 2018 // Photo: AsiaWire/thairath

The story about the widow ghost is not a particularly new one, but it definitely is one of the more persistent ones. Around the same time as this was happening in northeastern parts of Thailand, more of the same mysterious deaths occurred among Thai workers both in Malaysia and Singapore. What was this thing that took the lives of so many of their men? Over the years before there was anyone trying to explain this in a scientific way, they had figured out ways to protect themselves from the sudden deaths.  

To protect themselves from this, the men themselves as well as their mothers or wives took measures according to superstition to defend themselves and their men. Some put on lipstick or nail polish, or even dress up in womens clothing before going to bed. By doing this, they hoped to fool the widow ghost into thinking they were in fact women and would leave them alone. 

There was also a very traditional Thai way of protecting their home where they hung phallic symbols around their necks, over the doors and at the village gates for protection. Many Thai people believe that phallic symbols bring good luck and good business. The bigger the penis, the better the business. There is also the habit of putting scarecrows with erect penises to distract or even hunt the Widow Ghost. 

This is the case in Thung Nang Oak, a rural village in Thailand where they have a very phallic symbol for their commune, more than 3 feet long and weighing 22 pounds. One of the reasons for putting that on display was because of the terrible nightmares to the local men that was an indication that the Widow ghost was on her way. 

Deadly Health and Diets

However, even with this protection, there would still be death, and a man died in his sleep, even though he wore red nail polish. The Thai public Health Ministry concluded the deaths were not caused by a spirit, but a bad diet of carbohydrate and sugar worsened by both physical and mental strain. This was after the Thai health authorities investigated over 700 of these mysterious deaths from Thai  workers in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei since 1983 to the 90s, and many more back in Thailand. 

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This seems extreme, but the fact is that at least back in the day, the Thai workers from the northeastern provinces lived on just white rice with a sweet syrup, overproducing insulin and lacking both potassium and vitamin B-1. 

Since then, the Public Health Ministry launched campaigns where they tried to advocate for the value of a more balanced diet with more nutrients to stop the panic. But did it work?

Fighting Ghosts with Phallic Symbols

Seems like this is not a problem that only existed, ‘back in the day’. In 2018, there was another wave of panic after five young men died in a few weeks. This was also in northeast Thailand in the remote Nakhon Phanom province. In a small village of 90 people, they resorted to old ways when five of their healthy and young men died suddenly in their sleep. 

They were otherwise seemingly healthy and went to bed after taking a bath as per usual. They were all found dead by their families the next morning. 

There are no man here: Red shirts are hung up in the fences, trees and doors. They are all trying to tell the widow ghost that there are no men in the house and urging her to pass on over to the next. //Photo: Sanook

The legend of the Widow Ghost came back and so did the old remedies to fight her and protect the men. Huge scarecrows with an impressive 80 cm erect penises were placed on the gates. They hung signs saying ‘There is no man here’ ( “บ้านนี้ไม่มีผู้ชาย”)  to confuse the ghost. Often they also hang out red t-shirts as it is a color for women and alludes to the fact that there are only women at home, in the hope the ghost will ignore the house and move on to the next. The men were dressed in dresses and painted with makeup to protect them from being stolen by the ghost in their sleep. 

As not a single man died the following week since the scarecrows were put up and the nails painted, they thought that it must have worked. 

However, in neighbouringing villages and other cities there were similar cases and panic about the widow ghost. Most of these deaths most likely didn’t have an official autopsy, as it often is. But authorities claim that there is a more logical explanation to it all. In many cases where they have done autopsies, there is the case of malnutrition as well as heart diseases, respiratory failure and other illnesses or accidents. 

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Thai villagers fears evil widow ghost will kill their men | Daily Mail Online

`SPIRIT` WON`T LET THAI MEN SLEEP – Chicago Tribune

Men Die Mysteriously In Thai Village, Locals Blame It On Ghost

Lai Tai, the Mysterious Death of Young Thai Men | SpringerLink