After (2012)

Yesterday, I was told that the famed rodent Punxsutawney Phil announced six more weeks of winter. Today, I proclaim that Phil is #NotMyGroundhog. To help prepare for this added time, I decided to kick back with a few movies. The first was the 2012 mystery/thriller After.

Plot/ When two bus crash survivors awake to discover that they are the only people left in their small town, they must form an unlikely alliance in a race to unravel the truth behind their isolation. As strange events begin to unfold, they start to question whether the town they know so well is really what it seems.

When I picked this one up at Family Video, it was almost an afterthought. Fortunately, this is better than I expected from the synopsis. I love the mixture of genres and think that the tale, while simple, moved really well. The acting was decent, the scripting interesting, and the atmosphere matched the darkness of the storyline. Yes, there were some weird pacing issues and the love story elements seemed a bit forced at times, but overall it was an entertaining low budget story. In the end, this was a decent movie to curl up and watch on a chilly Pennsylvania night. If like me you want to stay out of the cold, this could help pass the time.

Stalking the Stalker - Flash Fiction

This was a piece that I did from a visual prompt. The picture reminded me of something that I would have seen in The Twilight Zone or Night Gallery. Any or all feedback is much appreciated.

I am not a paranoid person, but something is not right with what is happening to me. At first, I thought it was my imagination, there is no way this car is following me. After all, a car cannot have a mind of its own; it must have a driver. Yet, there was something weird about that car. Everywhere I turned, the sleek black sedan was there. It stared at me, it watched me, and it would not leave me alone. I am not sure when this began. Honestly, I have tried but cannot specifically remember the first time we crossed paths. While I could be wrong, as I usually do not pay attention to parking lots, I believe it was Sunday sitting outside my favorite antique store.

That day began as any other. I ventured inside to see if I could find something new for my cabinet of curiosities. Between the bones, fetuses, taxidermy oddities, wet specimens and Victorian era medical devices, it is quite the extensive collection. Unfortunately, it is becoming harder to find items that catch my eye. That was until I saw the shrunken head. There it sat inside a small bell jar in all its shriveled glory. The dark, manicured skin, the braided beard, hair, and mustache; the head was something out of a museum. Although the eyes were sewn shut, I felt it peer into both my mind and my soul.

When I looked at it, I could hear a deep voice cry out in pain; he wanted me to care for him. There was no doubt. I needed it, and at $250, it fit into my budget. I scurried to the counter, paid for the artifact, and headed for the door. That is when I stumbled upon the car.

Yes, that was it. The car was parked right next to me in the private lot to the right of the store. We were the only cars in the lot, yet no driver was around. This was peculiar, as there were no other customers in the store. I did not care; I did not have time, I had to find a location for my new discovery. That night, I did not notice anything strange, and I definitely did not see the car again. At least, I did not think so.

After that point, I could not rid myself of the sedan. On Monday, the car crept into my world. During lunch at Burger King, it was there. At the library picking up some research material, it was there. Everywhere I turned, it seemed to follow. The driverless vehicle would be there sitting idly almost waiting for me to depart. I would never see it on the road, yet it always appeared.

Early on, I found it somewhat laughable; there was no way someone would find me interesting enough to stalk. Could they, I was just an electronics instructor and writer. No way, this had to be my imagination playing tricks on me. It had to be. Unfortunately, the situation got worse. On Tuesday, the same thing occurred. Wednesday, check! Thursday, you bet. By Friday, it was getting old; the damn car was in front of my house all night. Incredibly, there was still no sign of a driver. I know because I started stalking the car. Yet, it was always just there. I would scurry into my house and quickly turn to the window, nothing. The car would seem to just appear in that split second where I was not paying attention. This bizarre situation had become both mentally and physically unnerving, and had to end.

When I woke on Sunday, there it sat. The sun reflecting off the blue starburst paint, the redline tires almost glistening in the brightness, but still, no one was in the car. Hell, in a week, I never witnessed anyone even approach the car. That had to change. After some thought, I decided to confront the vehicle. I know it may sound a touch extreme or insane, but I had to do it. This car was driving me crazy. I could not sleep, I could not eat, and all I could do was stare out the window hoping to see who (or what) was torturing me. It was a simple plan, step outside, and take a closer look. I had to see what was inside; hopefully find a clue to what was going on.

At four o’clock, I stepped toward the sidewalk and made my way towards my nightmare. Everything was quiet, as a dull murmur overtook my head; my eyes fixated on the car. I was captivated by its beauty, yet shook from the overwhelming sense of dread. I could hear my pulse echo through the emptiness. One more step and I was there. I hoped it would just one more step toward an answer.

“Hey, get away from my car,” a woman’s voice said, “I don’t know who you are, just get away, or I’ll call the cops!”

Startled by the person’s voice, I felt an inexplicable weight lifting from my shoulders. At that point, I realized something was amiss; that the stunning dark sedan that had been haunting me had disappeared; replaced on the street by a red sports car. That’s impossible, I thought as I looked up and down the street with no sign of the vehicle. What had happened? Where did that car go? This cannot be happening to me, I am not crazy.

Frustrated and confused by the situation, I collapsed to the ground staring with my eyes fixated on the coupe. Crack! A muffled sound came from my pocket as I hit the grass. What was that? I thought. 

“Damn, not the head! That car made me forget about the head. I’m sorry,” I said looking at the shattered bell jar. Unexpectedly, the sound of laughter erupted in my mind, and once again, those deep voices echoed through my soul, “Please, take care of me... and my caretakers car.”

Lets go One Step Beyond

One of the more interesting things that I spent time watching this week was the old ABC television show, One Step Beyond that I picked up as a 4 disk set released by Mill Creek Entertainment titled  The Very Best of One Step Beyond. This set is the perfect intro to the show, containing 50 episodes and it can be found in the $5.00 bargain bin at Wal-Mart. While I had a ton of time, I only watched a handful of episodes. The following with be a quick synopsis of the episodes I have seen already and will help as a primer for anyone interested in this unique series. In time, I look to add a few more episodes every week as I wade my way through the DVDs. So far, I have found the stories interesting with a great combination of reality and supernatural elements. While the quality of this selection isn’t the greatest, for $5.00, it is what it is.

Season 1, Episode 2: Night of April 14th

(Original Air Date—27 January 1959) The story surrounds a young Englishwoman is suddenly wracked by dreams of drowning in the ocean. She is stunned when her fiancée tells her that he has prepared a surprise honeymoon trip for them--they are sailing to New York on the passenger liner Titanic and her nightmares come true. The episode is the first one on this DVD collection and provides a great primer to the series with a interesting script and some facts that make it totally worth watching.

Season 1, Episode 4: The Dark Room

(Original Air Date—10 February 1959) A female photojournalist on assignment in France takes an apartment and begins to work with a somewhat mysterious male model. Things come to a head when she has a brush with the supernatural that could well mean her death. This episode was extremely captivating and amazingly still relevant today 50-years later.

Season 1, Episode 7: The Dream

(Original Air Date—3 March 1959) In 1940, a fearful Britain awaits invasion by Nazi forces. A husband and his wife, separated by their wartime assignments, suddenly dream that each is in danger, and both try frantically to see if their dream has come true.

Season 1, Episode 12: The Return of Mitchell Campion

(Original Air Date—7 April 1959) A man visiting a small Mediterranean island is stunned when all of the island's residents recognize him and insist that he is an island resident who has returned after many years, even though he knows he has never been there before. This is another interesting and believable episode that touches on a subject that remains controversial.

Season 1, Episode 15: The Aerialist

(Original Air Date—28 April 1959) An argument between two trapeze artists results in an accident in which one is paralyzed. The other is torn by guilt and depression, until supernatural forces began to change his world. Why are there always problems when working without a net? I don’t know, I do know it is something I won’t do.

Be Careful What You Wish For!

In many ways, the paranormal boom of recent years has been a blessing. Not only has it brought a fringe science into the forefront of the adult collective, it has opened the eyes of many skeptics that once overlooked the spirit world that surrounded them. Research in the paranormal has also opened up a new hobby - paranormal collecting. Ironically, to many people, this pastime is nothing new. Collecting items of interest is something many people do to show off their personality. Personally, I have an affinity for hats, especially older hats that I find at estate sales and such. These sales now receive a boost in business from collectors looking to find the next addition to their collection.

Finding these collectibles is the fun part; for many of us, it is like a treasure hunt or a race, hoping to beat someone to that believed one-of-a-kind artifact that can set you apart. However, if you are a paranormal enthusiast, collecting paranormal items can be more challenging than collecting old hats; yet, it too can be a fun and rewarding experience. The biggest endeavor you must undertake if you are interested in this new arena is to understand the gravity of what you are doing.

People must look within themselves and determine whether they can properly care for an item, or if they would be a doorway for a malevolent spirit to manifest itself into. There are good points and bad points to starting a collection; every aspect must be dissected before any item is handled or purchased. Spirits can often become attached to objects through various rituals associated with witchcraft, or be attached to an object that is familiar to the spirit and may have been important to the spirit when the spirit was in human form. With that said, haunted artifacts can have negative energy attached to them, and they must be treated with the utmost care and respect.

In talking with my friend Demonologist John Zaffis, who takes care of the Museum of the Paranormal in his home state of Connecticut, it is clear that the primary goal is not to be a collector, but to help those innocent victims that have dealt with the strange world that exists outside of the normal train of thought. After 20 years in the field, John has seen everything imaginable in the hundreds of cases he has been involved with as a paranormal researcher. During those years, he has collected hundreds of artifacts from cases of violent hauntings. Inside his museum there are hundreds of supposed haunted items, many of which had to be removed from homes following many unexplained and often negative phenomenon occurring. Fortunately, he is experienced in dealing with the energies that can exist, unlike many of the new collectors that are building their own personal museums today.

In researching this new phenomenon, I was amazed at how many different avenues can exist for budding collectors. A quick eBay search for the word “haunted” brought out over 5,000 auctions for supposedly haunted items. There was everything from jewelry to dolls to everyday household items. Incredibly, an internet search for “paranormal collecting” garners an amazing 2.5 million pages of information. With that in mind, I needed to take a deeper look at this and see what the fascination is.

I rapidly discovered three areas that people focused on. Those are collecting ghosts, haunted items, or paranormal souvenirs from their different ventures. Many of these collectors are paranormal enthusiasts that have taken refuge in this as way to be closer to something they enjoy doing. I also realized when I ventured into my research that many people might be paranormal collectors without even realizing it, and I will use myself as a perfect example of this. As many may know, I have been researching the legend of the Jersey Devil for some time and recently was able to venture into the Pinelands in search of this mythological creature. While conducting my first venture into the Leeds Point area, I discovered that there were hundreds, if not thousands, of discarded bottles littering this area. At first, I was amazed because of the diverse ages in the bottles that we found. Not thinking about the paranormal aspects that could be involved, I picked up a couple of them. At the time, I thought I was doing a public service by cleaning up the salt marsh, and I actually still feel that way. However, my approach to those bottles has changed after I viewed the pictures from my latest investigation into that area. In those pictures, there were numerous strange shadows, orbs and what appeared to be small vortexes appearing in multiple pictures. Of these, one shadow figure is a bit troubling because of the smell that we encountered in the area right before discovering a tree formation that looked like something out of The Blair Witch Project. Those pictures got me thinking, did those bottles have some kind of connection to them? Are they from the generations of interested bystanders that came to Leeds Point to find Mother Leeds’s son? So far, nothing strange has happened to me in the house, but then again, they are still in the backpack because I have not had a chance to do anything with them.

The idea of these bottles potentially having an energy attachment also brought out another interesting twist. It demonstrated how close the many of the fields of unexplained research are intertwined. My search for the Jersey Devil is more of a cryptozoological hunt and not a paranormal research outing. Yet, it demonstrates how unseen paranormal entities surround us at all times. Therefore, all of these precautions should be followed, regardless of the type of investigation a person is working on.

As I mentioned earlier, antique stores, estate sales and thrift stores often become battlegrounds for collectors of all types of items. It is quite possible that items purchased in these stores could have a spirit attachment that can be energized by the buyer. These often come as impulse buys where the purchaser is drawn to an item for some unknown reason. Maybe that was the case when I had to buy that antique wooden wheelchair at the Dusty Attic last year. Did I need it? No! Nevertheless, I had to have it (although, it did work really well as I used it to scare trick or treater’s on Halloween, so it served a purpose).

This happens because the spirit attached to an item may feel a kinship to the buyer, needing that relationship to stay alive. Items can sit for decades before coming to life if the right relationship is not present. People say that not all of these relationships are bad, and that items can actually lead to luck. Energies manifest in many ways, often providing feedback, guidance, wisdom, companionship, powers and even assistance to owners. However, people should be very careful when strange occurrences begin after bringing something into their house.

One of the most readily item available to people and one of the most collected haunted items are dolls. Sure, the appeal is easy to understand, as dolls take people back to their childhood. To me, I still remember the scene with the clown in Poltergeist and cannot fathom purchasing a haunted doll on purpose, but to many, they view these echoes from their childhood as families and children. Many of the dolls available come from owners who are frightened by the doll. Many people panic when paranormal phenomena is experienced near an item and just want to rid themselves of the burden. Ironically, many collectors search for active items, hoping that it was just a spirit trying to communicate with them. Their view is that the doll is a child, acting up or throwing a tantrum to gain attention.

Haunted jewelry may be even more popular than haunted dolls, as many people claim that one can experience everything from love to financial gain just by purchasing and wearing an item. These items supposedly contain energies, djinns, genies or demons and are powerful tools that can help in any facet the imagination can conceive. More importantly for collectors, both males and females can find these items just for them with warlock rings and or goddess pendants all available for the right price.

These are just some of the more popular items available on the internet, and realistically many of them are not haunted by any means. People collect the items during their hunts and those are the ones that can be the most troublesome and require the most care. There are over 5 million pages on the internet referencing some paranormal research organization. People form many of these organizations have limited or no experience in the field, or are just diving into a curiosity spawned by something they saw on television. These are also the ones who are in danger when they collect an item from a haunted area without understanding what can happen in some instances. For many investigators, the idea of gathering or collecting an item from a location is the furthest thing from their mind. They are focused on the scientific aspect of what they are doing and the only collecting that is taken place comes in the form of pictures and EVPs collected as evidence. However, this is not always the case. Items such as furniture, paintings, dolls, soil and even books are discovered at the center of a haunting or strange occurrence and gathered form the foundation of their new collection. Examples of this can be seen in movies such as The Exorcist, where the idol found during the excavation opened the door for the demon to walk in. Television shows have also shown the dark possibilities that exist with energy attachment with popular shows like The Twilight Zone or Friday the 13th the Series, raising the possibility of items possessing the ability to alter reality. Amazingly, many of the people who swear off items such as Ouija Board are the same ones who open their hands for a chance to own that strange painting of a castle.

Collecting items such as photographs and EVPs are a perfect way to be a paranormal collector. After all, the best collection a person can have is one that they made themselves. To do this, become a member of a paranormal research team and, after some training, go out and investigate. The evidence that you collect can make for some interesting conversation pieces and create a great atmosphere as decorations. There is nothing better to impress your friends than explaining your evening and then breaking out the evidence to back up your claims. Not only is this a fun way to collect the stuff you enjoy, it is also much safer than purchasing a haunted item that may introduce you to something more dangerous than you were looking for.

Many of the famed locations offer souvenirs that can let you remember the investigation and location. In these cases, go out and investigate, then pick-up a piece of history about the location. Places such as Gettysburg have extensive collections of items available that may hold a larger appreciation than a vial of dirt or a rock from a battlefield. Most importantly, they would be a great addition to any collection.

Paranormal memorabilia is also another great way of collecting paranormal related items. Many of today’s television shows or movies have items available such as pictures, hats, and other interesting finds that can become nice centerpieces to a collection. In addition, with the rise of investigation teams, many items can be found that are made available to help fund research. Purchasing this merchandise is a great way to build a collection while helping other people who are interested in discovering the truth that exists in the shadows.

These options provide great alternatives for creating a remarkable paranormal-related collection. In addition, with our economy in turmoil, they may also offer cheaper options as well. However, as history has shown, not everyone is willing to look at an alternative and many would rather push the limits with the spirit world. In these cases, these collectors need to realize the dangers involved. Like the old adage says, “be careful what you wish for, it may actually come true!”