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Essay 3: Contemporary Horror

           The oldest and strongest human emotion is fear. Fear of the unknown and mysterious phenomena, that people couldn’t explain. However with every phenomena that occurs they attributed to characteristics whether human or inhuman, they were associated with supernatural skills or powers that seem invincible. Since created these fears and the human mind and imagination has no limits, it allows us to furthermore develop our ideas and create characters such as zombies, demons, ghost, gods, and villains. With this power of no limits to our imagination it allows for legends and stories to be told and with every time a legend or story is repeated there’s always a slight twist in the story and that’s because of our imagination, and how we ourselves perceive the story. Fear and imagination together drive this genre of contemporary horror and when defining horror it differs on many accounts. The amount of anxiety coming through America and the effects of all the things going on 

           Contemporary horror is also known as realistic horror. Realistic horror is defined as: “Realistic fiction creates imaginary characters and situations that depict our world and society. It focuses on themes of growing up ad confronting personal and social problems.” (ed.gov) this genre takes the fears we have in what could happen within our own society and world, without understanding why it’s happening and how to really save ourselves from what is happening. A lot of times we tend to avoid the bad things within our society and we all like to pretend that we are safe and free but what most people don’t see are the borders and fences keeping us within because “this is what will keep us safe”. We fear the idea of a massive outbreak and this fear of sickness that isn’t cure able but maybe it’s just the idea of “death” that we fear the most. This idea behind this genre is to bring out that fear we have, and we see it in many films, that portray demons, ghost, zombies and all the unknown. Zombies is one of the biggest fears that are be stilled in most people. This fear of sickness and the dead coming back to life but only to wreak havoc that causes more fear.

“Horror frightens us by challenging the boundaries that control much of our lives, our society, and even our international relations”. This idea of being able to control our fear within a genre allows us to push boundaries and maybe it’s also a way for us to conquer our fears. In the American horror culture we focus on themes related to apocalyptic and express worry that is produced as the collapse of a society/government. However we tend to find that this genre is mainly popular within a certain age group.   We find that the younger age groups such as teenagers are more likely to attend these films, rather than the older crowd. We are so into horror because we can go into a movie for 1 to 2 hours, be terrified and walk out and everything be okay, unless there are clowns of course.

             I chose to watch the film “ReZort”. Rezort is based on the events after a global zombie war, the living dead are confined to a luxury island resort and hunted by tourist on safari. This film wasn’t exactly your typical zombie apocalypse where they are free roaming, because in this film there is a twist.  We still get the fear factor within this film but we also get a glimpse of society and the lengths people will go through in order to cover up a problem. The idea of a resort where you go to, to either seek revenge for the zombies and the war that had just occurred or you went basically just to heal your own-self from a mental illness.  In this film the characters attend the resort to help the female heal herself, but as we are arriving to the resort we see the poverty in society and different social groups. This resort itself has a range where zombies are taken hostage and out behind fences and are chained up so that regular people can hunt and shoot at during the safari. However while our main character went to heal herself in a way, the systems of the resort where essentially hacked through another character Sadie, who had no idea about what was going on. Which lead for the systems to fail and the zombies throughout the resort ended up being free and that’s when it all comes together really. In the beginning there is this program called Hope 4you and as we continue watching we start to see more of this name and as our main characters are attempting to survive they come across these rooms where orphans where locked up, an ageing room and then the clinic, where they discovered that this program was a cover up and in order to keep the resort running they were just making more zombies.

           The ideas of horror and especially contemporary horror are built on our own fears, and the fears of the unknown, the society collapsing. After significant events such as terrorist attacks such as 9/11 the society fears have grown more intense. This idea of a society collapsing is just one thing but the idea of a society shutting out people in need and covering up disasters is another story. From the film we watched in class about the night of the living dead to the film “Rezort” you can see a clear theme between the two of them. This theme is the idea of a dominant power where there is a massive outbreak and the higher people who sit back and in the end kill anything and everything because that’s what’s best. So our black male lead who survived in the “night of the living dead” was shot in the head because they were told to shoot everyone, but save the survivors. That movie made it clear that it didn’t matter who you were or if you had survived, that you would be shot. Since they all feared the unknown the team who are out to save and rescue any survivors just shoot anything living no matter if they are zombies or not.  In the film the “Rezort” we see the higher end people in power who start to cover up what they are doing by putting on a program that is made to be something helpful.

 In the end we still circulate the idea around disease and the fear of the unknown or the undead in this case. We are at a constant state of researching and preparing for natural disasters as well as massive outbreaks. I think that the idea of our fears and how realistic we can make it seem, adds into the amount of action that we take and have ready in case anything were to happen. Contemporary horror is not exactly my kind of horror because I for one am not great with scary movies. Then again my fears don’t always correlate with others, I think that we all have very different fears, however we all have the same fears, just within different realms. After learning about the realistic horror that develops these films and how our minds have no limit to the imagination it baffles me.

  References:

“ReZort” 

“Night of The Living Dead”

https://www.folio.ca/monsters-in-modern-horror-culture-reflect-social-anxieties/

http://www.ed.gov.nl.ca/edu/k12/curriculum/documents/english/biblio46/genre_definitions.pdf

https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-our-brains-love-horror-movies-fear-catharsis-a-sense-of-doom

http://www.vulture.com/2016/10/how-modern-horror-breaks-the-1980s-mold.html

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Blog Post: House on the Haunted Hill.

This film is based on this supposed “haunted” house on a hill in the middle of nowhere, where the doors can be locked from the outside only, the windows have bars on them, and there is no way out, until the door is unlocked. it focuses around a rich man and his wife who throw a party and invites 5 other people. However they are all strangers to each other and the host, and within this invite they are offered each 10,000$ to whom stays in the house until the next morning. However with how this film was going and the events that had taken place, you question if this house is even haunted. 

 The expectation of the film for myself was to be scary, and that clearly there were going to be ghosts. however  this was not the case, instead it was about the rich man and his wife and how she faked her death with the help of the doctor and planed to murder our host. We already know from the beginning that she had already attempted to murder him once and failed, so we know there is tension there, but why invite the other 5 strangers?

Well the one stranger was his wives “lover” if you may and the rest were just witnesses. I think that our host threw this party and offered those who survived until the next morning $10,000 as a pay off. I get this feeling and sense by the way the film ended which was when the doctor attempted to push our host into the acid, and then our host scares his wife into baking up into the acid with a fake skeleton he had set up. 

The idea of paying these people off to not only keep quiet about the murders taken place there, but also to lie and say that yes this house is haunted, when really the only people haunting this house where the people inside. 

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Freaks

When i think of the genre of “Horror” in films, I expect it to be scary, disturbing and something that just makes me want to crawl out of my skin. However when we watched the movie Freaks, I didn't understand why it fell in the Horror genre. instead it was this film based around individuals who where born a little differently than the norm. These people were asked to work in this Circus like atmosphere in order to show of their unusual appearances. This film was to tell the story of how a perfectly “normal” female turned into a Freak. As we are watching the film we see that the “Freaks” have different characteristics and uniqueness to them. In the film you will see two adults who where born with a disease known as Progeria which means they look young forever and can affect people at various ages. Then we have the quadruplet amputee who we see a few times throughout the film. We see Johnny who is a twin an unlike his twin being born normal, Johnny was only born with his upper body. These are just a few of the “freaks” we see throughout this film. 

This film I can see as being horror maybe due to the exploitation and the idea around “freaks”. This film takes people with birth defects, diseases and things out of the norm and shows them off in order to scare people and not only define these people as freaks but they call them monsters. They don’t see these people as human but more so creatures. The idea of this film makes me sick because all of the cast minus the bird woman where all real people, all individuals in their natural state of being, no makeup. no special effects added to create one being.

Images and anxieties played a role throughout this film and the main one being this fear of becoming a one of them. We all want to be perceived as normal and seen as beautiful. The idea that there are these diseases and birth defects out there that can literally happen to anyone, terrifies most people and that itself is the horror behind this film. The images of people with these deformities scares people, makes them feel uncomfortable and are quick to judge a person solely on their looks, and unfortunately it is still the same in today’s world. We use people with certain deformities and we tend to make a joke out of them for the way they look. 

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Magicians universe

In this segment we focus on magic and depending on how you look at magic, the idea behind it, where it comes from, and how it’s revolves then you’ll definitely find this section an interesting read. It starts of with addressing that God man man and a man can make himself god because of the inner spark inside of oneself. An interesting quote to take from the reading was “in this unified magical universe mysterious forces are at work, moving beneath the external fabrics of things like the invisible currents of the sea”. As we continue to read from this section we begin to identify this idea that we don’t see the same things as magicians and that magicians have a different perspective than others. It states that magicians see the force of violent destructive energy. As I continued to read through this I found it very interesting with this idea of a different perspective and that only magicians can see this. Is it because they are more open to different perspectives or the ability to open their minds to see more things. #ils4180BatistaSpring18

[malachinski09-blog]

Magicians universe

In this segment we focus on magic and depending on how you look at magic, the idea behind it, where it comes from, and how it’s revolves then you’ll definitely find this section an interesting read. It starts of with addressing that God man man and a man can make himself god because of the inner spark inside of oneself. An interesting quote to take from the reading was “in this unified magical universe mysterious forces are at work, moving beneath the external fabrics of things like the invisible currents of the sea”. As we continue to read from this section we begin to identify this idea that we don’t see the same things as magicians and that magicians have a different perspective than others. It states that magicians see the force of violent destructive energy. As I continued to read through this I found it very interesting with this idea of a different perspective and that only magicians can see this. Is it because they are more open to different perspectives or the ability to open their minds to see more things. #ils4180BatistaSpring18

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Essay 2: Zombies

Throughout the years Zombies have changed drastically in how they are presented and the story we are told. Zombies started as this idea of the undead coming back to life avenging their death by attacking the living. It was seen as a disease that was unexplainable.  In today’s genre of the Zombie we are seeing the same idea of the undead and flesh eating individuals, however we are seeing it in an apocalypse theory as well as an unforeseen love story.

               During this segment we watched to movies focused on zombies that are early dated films. In the Night of the Living Dead film we are faced with siblings going to the cemetery to put out new flowers for their loved one. They arrived later on in the afternoon due to a late start in their travels. As we are watching this film you will notice certain objects and when people start to appear in certain scenes. At the time of this movie there was satellite that had crashed and during that storm that we think is about to appear because we see “lighting” in the background is the first time we see another person in the cemetery with them. Unfortunately this person is not alive but  zombie, that attempts to attack the girl and then her brother helps her but ends up being killed by the zombie when the zombie throws him down and he cracks his head on a grave stone. As we continue watching we see meet other characters throughout that all show fear of this unknown thing happening except the male lead. Our male lead is an African American male who chooses to protect everyone and fight the zombies. After the night dwells out and we lose characters to zombies and accidents we arrive to the morning where the only survivor is our male lead. While all of this was going down they continued to watch the news and wait to be rescued. Since they all feared the unknown the team who are out to save and rescue any survivors just shoot anything living no matter if they are zombies or not. However from the fear of the unknown and this generations takes on the zombie we see how the growth and expectations have evolved, by culture as well as age and genre.

OLD Zombie:  “The original American Zombie”

“According to Haitian belief, zombies could take many different forms. A zombie could be a soul stolen from a living person by a magician to be used to bring luck or to heal illness. A zombie could also be a dead person who had willing fully, at the time of death, given his or her body to the Vodou Gods to use as a receptacle. Finally a zombie could be reanimated, mindless, soulless corpse taken from its grave to serve the master who had awakened it.” (Pg.16). In the early 20th century there was many ideas of the Zombie and how they came about. However they represented this fear of the unknown. This idea of a dieses that was untreatable and there was no hope for saving yourself or loved ones from it. The old zombie we see as the undead are slow moving, don’t like fire, and only attack at night. When the morning light appears they retreat back avoid attacks as they make their way back.  In order to kill the zombie it took a shot to the head.

NEW Zombie: In today’s genre of the zombie we not only see movies based around the undead and this theory of the apocalypse but also we see it in videogames.  Movies we see anything from horror films to the love stories. Represents this entire idea over the apocalypse. Survival mode, how to treat people. (Massive outbreak). The new zombie we see more than one version, we see the typical slow zombie, the “crawlers”, the one that is fast, and many more versions. We’ve created so many different types of zombies that continue to expand and come up with newer versions that are consistently changing. We see anything from horror movies to romance movies. In today’s genre we took this idea of vampires and spun it into a love story Known as twilight because it’s something that people fantasize and imagine what if a human and a vampire fall in love, what happens with that and how would it play out? Which is how we got the series Twilight. Hey since we can read and watch a series on the unrealistic love story of a vampire and human, why not have a love story of a zombie and human. This idea we see in the movie called Warm Bodies. This film is based on what happens after a Zombie Apocalypse where we meet a teenage girl and a teenage boy. The story shows them meeting and the idea of Zombies becoming Human again by the power of love. Just like the old zombies the ones in this film are cold and well dead, however with the love that our two characters create the zombies body begins to warm up.  It’s known he becomes human again because when he is shot he starts to bleed from the wound which then leads up to the events to follow before the ending. In today’s world we are so fantasized with the idea of what we must do in order to survive, what that will look like and I believe it falls from this fear and idea around a mass disease that we don’t know how to cure.

               In the end from old to new, we still circulate the idea around disease and the fear of the unknown or the undead in this case. We are at a constant state of researching and preparing for natural disasters as well as massive outbreaks. Hospitals go through a trail run throughout the year by putting on an event where people come get there makeup down as zombies and are given a specific title in order for the nurses and doctors to know where to take specific zombies. I actually took part in one if these trial with the Volleyball team my freshman year. The purpose is to prepare for outbreaks, attacks, accidents, etc. We as a country fear the unknown, because we think that we know everything and that is something is unknown we automatically assume it’s bad and try to now talk about it. I think the growth of zombies have evolved greatly and are one of the most popular in today’s genre. 

CItations:

  Batista. “New South, New Immigrants, New Women, New Zombies.” www.ulearn.com. Things that Go Bump in The Night

Romero, George A., et al. Night of the Living Dead.

Levine, Jonathan, director. Warm Bodies.  

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Blog Post: Witches

There is a distinct correlation connecting witches and paganism. In the readings this week we look at the article “Witches I” and within this article we look at two different philosophers who describe what the paganism is the history behind it. We see the difference in what each persons and their perspective takes. The idea of a cult is spread throughout all of these three philosophers. To start we look at Murrayite Controversy. Murray make the argument that “witchcraft could be traced to “ pre-Christian times and appears to be the ancient religion of Western Europe” centered on a deity which was incarnate in a man, a woman or an animal.”(P.45). As we continue on we start to see how she then goes on to state that this idea of witchcraft is also a type of religion and then names the religion Diana’s Cult. She also relates to this ad “organized religion”, and goes on to say that “it was a cult of god who dies and is reborn, and whose birth and death are reflected in the cycle of the seasons and the cycle of crops” but as we continue we learn that she is more focused on the idea of having to do with more fertility of animals than crops. Unfortunately due to the fact that she was 60 years old at the time of her thesis and couldn’t give examples or accurate information to her ideas she was discredited by many. “While she gave good evidence for Pagan survivals in Britain, she did not give evidence that organized Pagan Religion survived, or that this religion was universal, or that covens or sabbats existed before they appeared in trial reports”.

Norman Cohn was one of the philosophers who had discredited Murray. Cohn argued a specific stereotype which was of where the witch comes from. He states “the witch comes from a specific fantasy that originated in antiquity. This fantasy—that there exists in the midst of the larger society a small clandestine society engaged in antihuman practices, including infanticide, incest, cannibalism, bestiality, and orgiastic sex—was an age old tradition.” He doesn’t believe that witched existed let alone this religion and that is why he continues to relate the two as a “fantasy”. As he continues to argue with most other theories he did however take on this idea of witchcraft as the survival of a fertility cult. His main point and idea in his theory was “no story with “impossible elements” should ever be accepted as evidence. “Nobody has ever come across a real society of witches”. One thing he lacked and was discredited for was the problem with his limited conception of the “possible”.

Witches are known to practice rituals, creating “potions” that are against everything Christianity the power religion stands for. People are scared of the unknown, the idea of magic, the intellectual person. We fear this unknown idea this new practice and since it doesn’t fall within the norm we don’t agree with it and therefore it is branded as bad and something that is an evil.

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Blog: Zombies!!

In the late 60’s century there was a lot going on at the time including the Civil Rights movements, protests that came with this as well as the assassination of both John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, and the Cuban Missile crisis. So what exactly does the living dead represent to the American culture within the late 60’s?  The amount of anxiety coming through America and the effects of all the things going on during this time period and the fear that came with the idea of the cold war and what that will mean for everyone everywhere.

               Race is represented throughout this film and shows problematic with the idea of the black man being not only a lead character but the “hero”.  I put hero in quotes because even after all he did he didn’t exactly save anyone or let alone save himself. I only say this because when we think of a hero we think of the person or people that are going to save us, protect us and in the end being rewarded or being known for what they did to save us, someone who can tell their story. In this time the male black lead was one of the only Black Movie Stars of that time and successful. Throughout the film we see how the idea of two male dominant roles counteract with the white male and black male. We come into contact with the second dominant male who just wants to protect his family and believes that he knows exactly how to protect everyone and that they should all take a spot in the cellar whereas our black male believes it is safer to stay in the house and just board up all the windows and doors. As the movie goes we see how our white male tries to convince people that he is right and that he deserves to take the lead on this stakeout. We see how the white male doesn’t trust the black male and that is clear. In the end they all made decisions and everyone died under their own decisions except our black male he had survived, but however his death was more questionable. He survived and attempted to save everyone but he couldn’t due to their decisions they had made. However he was still killed because the idea of the government and everything saving people from this mass murder scenario they just end up killing everyone instead of “saving people”.  So then when we start reading into the living dead from the lens of our historical present I feel like it can take very different terms depending on your perception and what happened to you or around you that you see.

               Zombies represent a variety of ideas that over the year has relatively stayed the same but also evolves. Zombies represent the unknown, the fear that Americans have and this idea of a disease that is incurable. I think that the representation of the Zombie depends on the era and what is happening in the world at that time that can help is define it more. Personally I think that the zombie represents this idea of the society around us as a whole collapsing, and what it will look like for others who are less fortunate verse the ones who are more stable and fortunate.  When I say this I think of everything that is going on in today’s world, form politics to the continuation of the war, and our economy as a whole. It’s about survival, how we survive and how we get through all of this especially those of us that are effected the worse by everything going on. There’s been a lot of change some for the better and some that I don’t quit agree with but I don’t want to get into that.

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Ghost Adventures

Ghost Adventures is just another reality t.v. show where we have the main host and his crew who go into theses condoned “Haunted” places and try to provoke the ghost to show themselves. There are either the people who don’t believe in ghost or the ones who truly believe there are. For the people who don’t believe in  ghost this show can really make you question this idea even more. The show tries and by tries I mean attempts to share thee history of the place but its all in spurt moments and the pictures that correlate are these creepy drawings/paintings or horrific photos in there attempt to help you see the “demons” behind the haunting. I’ve seen so many episodes of Ghost Adventures and Ghost Hunters because that was my something my family did on family night. Watching these shows I’ve noticed in every episode that they are always saying that there is a demon here and it possess people and Zack always gets possessed or goes through something extreme and crazy. So you get to thinking about why is every ghost a demon and why is it only the one guy who gets possessed each time? these types of shows don’t help with believing in Ghost let alone portray the idea behind haunting’s accurately. There’s so many things that i would change for shows like this, just because they are so phony and aren’t realistic in may ways. For myself i have never had any type of paranormal things happen to me or witness, I’m also not the biggest believer in ghost because of all the “phony” tours and shows that just make everything sound absolutely ridiculous.  There are a few things that have happened and that happen in my parents house and one of them has to do with my Grandmas clock we were given after she passes which doesn’t have batteries in it but every so often it will go off and chime. I have ever been home when it goes off so I have never first hand witnessed it. The only thing that i personally can say is that both my Dad and I get the same dream in different contexts where his mom, my grandmother, his dad, and both my grandpas appear in our dreams, and then I have my two best friends that passed away both in tragic accidents my freshman year of high school appear, however its one of those dreams where you are aware its a dream but you’re awake. its very weird and it’s kinda terrifying, because you cant exactly wake up from this dream and you are just laying there and can’t move. However its only my dad and I that get these dreams and they either occur on the same night or a week apart but never sooner or later than that. My dad I always find it strange because I never met my Dads, Dad due to a work accident he was in before I was born, so i only recall him from pictures I’ve seen and in this dream I am always at a point were I don’t know the one man but when i described him to my dad he was shocked and told me it was his dad.  This is the only thing I have been apart of and whats happened to me. I don’s see it as paranormal or haunting’s but I guess I can see how it relates. 

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Essay 1: The Uncanniness of Bachelors Grove

    Located in Bremen Township, Cook County Illinois a cemetery known by its unearthly reputation, ghost sightings and being named one of the most Hunted places in America we come across Bachelors Grove.  When coming to Chicago Bachelors Grove is typically the first place mentioned when it comes to ghost hunting. The Grove was reported to have been the dumping grounds for victims of Chicago’s organized crime families from the 1920’s into the 30’s, however they hasn’t been proven fully. As we are digging through history we can find that the name comes from a group of single men who moved down here in the 60’s, but then we also have another none as the “Bachelders Grove” named after a family that settled in the 1800’s. Depending on where you research this cemetery you will get both arguments as well as a few other people mentioned. These legends that come with this cemetery all coordinate with the hauntings and vandalism of the property and throughout the year they haven’t changed drastically.  Due to the location of this place and the secluded areas within it became a place to cause havoc. Gravestones were destroyed, graffiti, some stolen. Graves where opened and caskets were also removed. Sometimes bones were found and to be strewn about the property. This all started to take place in 1960, and is to be believed is the main cause of the hauntings.  

               “Uncanny is what one calls everything that was meant to remain secret and hidden, and has come into the open”. This entire place itself is uncanny from the vandalism to the tie it was closed down from the public to hide these secrets about what happened here and the people that lay at rest.  The Grove had roads closed to it in hopes that it would just become a memory like the ones who laid at rest.  However that wasn’t the case, people would still find themselves venturing out there and today it is one of the most popular spots to visit. With the disturbance of the grave sites as we know it’s said to be the main cause of the hauntings. The began seeing numerical objects that they couldn’t quite figure out. However it’s not just the cemetery that’s haunted but also the roads near the grove is known for hauntings.

               There are multiple legends and hauntings around Bachelors Grove.  The Disappearing cars where multiple reports of late night drivers seeing a car pull over near the Turnpike and as they’d pass the car and look in the review mirror it would appear there wasn’t a car there. Then multiple accounts say there’s a car that would come up from behind them only to pass them and pull over in the same area. Then there’s the accounts of accidents that involve this “phantom car” driving straight at them and people veering off.  Then there’s the Phantom Farmhouse and the idea that if you enter this house you will never be seen again.  Then there’s the Unseen footsteps that are heard approaching you from the sides of the paths and make you feel “Like a bouncer right behind you, time to go” and “being escorted out”. The stories with these unseen footsteps are crazy and I definitely am out when it comes to that.  The legend of Al Capone, Mobsters ad The Pond is another legend told about the grove. Which we correspond with the idea of the dumping grounds.

               In conclusion there’s a lot of history and depth behind Bachelors Grove, and so much more research to do in order to tie in these claims. Although I am not the biggest fan of scary stories or going into cemeteries I think that I would be willing to take the risk with this place. Freud defines uncanny as “uncomfortable, uneasy, gloomy, dismal, uncanny, ghastly…”(pg125) There’s so much going on at this location and even the road coming to and from the Grove which adds into the Uncanniness of the entire place.

https://www.thepathtobachelorsgrove.com/legends-and-lore.html

https://www.prairieghosts.com/bachgrov.html

Video Links:

https://youtu.be/nwa3ZWwCCGE

https://youtu.be/bizSc6AjA-Y

https://youtu.be/T6C4mQqf93Q

            The lower left I.R. original, un-cropped  photo was taken on 2-18-12.

Kindly give it a close full review.   LOOK GOOD !

           Take a look at the above "family"photo, and look at the others again. Who - what is "peeking" around from BEHIND THE TREE?

Below and to the right are cropped and tonal curved versions to "highlight ", what is there

   original shot below 

​1.       original shot above

​

2-18-12 seemed to be a very active day if these photo's say anything of the day. This "shadow figure" was not seen when taking the photo. But fall 2013 and winter 2014 has had a number of first hand accounts of sightings of "a tall man in a brown suit " the shadow man".  We got our own official first sighting on 1-19-14 , a quick glimpse from a distance. After seeing it ourselves and showing this photo to the others we know that had a sighting,well it seems to be him making a return. We know of one other person that has, had a photo like this taken in 2012  also.

The three groups of photos above, middle & below were all taken on 5-13-12 with the I.R. - Bell & Howell camera.

As previously mentioned on the Legends and Lore page, it is often spoke of the feeling of "being watched' when at Bachelors Grove. Be it on the path,in the cemetery or in the woods. It doesn't matter where you are.

Well are we being watched??

These three I.R. shots were taken on 8-8-12 near the west fence line. This is possible Pareidolia for many say this "figure" is nothing more than the tree trunks. Follow them up and down. It is possible, but one thing. Why is the top rail of the fence seen going left to right. As the "figure" looks to be inside of fence line and tops of the trees look outside of the fence line. Bachelors Grove has a way of tricking , confusing the eye, mind. one person sees it as one thing and another person seeing something totally different. It's not just perception. The Grove has a little to do with it. But what does make this worthy of mention is that i did photograph a similar "figure"  with the "pointed shoulders" along the South fence line near the entrance on a different date.

This photo is up there on the ' oh wow " list. It was taken on 9-3-12 with the Bell & Howell I.R.  Standing on the main path, shooting to the immediate right (East)as soon as you enter the cemetery. Wheeler  marker in photo.Upper left is the original shot.

I was down low shooting about knee high for a different perspective. To the middle right of the photo, you will clearly see what looks to be two people in the grass.After reviewing this photo we returned the next week to "recreate" the shot. I know for fact, there were no "real people" in this shot when taken.  "These people" appear to be about 5 to 7 feet behind the Wheeler stone just off to the right.  When we did return , and stood in the close proximity of the area, and took the shot, "the person" was seen from the waist down.

And for a person to look that small in the grass, even standing all the way along the East fence,all you saw was from  waist and above.If you look closely you can see "they" are within the grass, some of it even obstructing them.Some describe these "people" as a possible Fur trapper or civil war soldier,by the looks of the 'mans hat". The woman as a 'possible Indian - guide "  As you can see the detail in his 'beard and facial features". There are many photos  of what seem to be "tiny people' taken within the cemetery area.  Are these two of them ?

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[malachinski09-blog]

Blog #6 Cemetery Visit

Over this weekend I debated with myself back and forth whether I really wanted to walk through a cemetery or go to somewhere that’s supposedly haunted. I finally made the decision to walk through a cemetery that was down the road from my place. Keep in mind that I definitely went while it was still light outside because nobody has time to go to a cemetery at night alone. When it comes to cemeteries I can never stay too long. They just have this uncanniness about them. It was definitely an interesting uncomfortable moment. As I walked around I saw many people in and out visiting their loved ones graves, some people having conversations and others placing flowers and leaving. I have never been a fan of cemeteries and not just from the scary movies I was forced to watch at a young age by my brother and older cousins, but because I have been to way too many while growing up, continuing into my freshman year of high school. Within 2 months of each other two of my close friends were in two different accidents and after attending their funerals, I haven’t been able to go back for a long time. There’s this feeling of anger I get around cemeteries that later turns into sadness because it’s this place where people are laid to rest and are meant to be at peace with everything, but the energy in places like this makes me almost sick to my stomach. Cemeteries definitely give me goose bumps for sure and I don’t think it’s much of the spooky feeling but more so of the idea that I am walking around this area where people are either buried or there’s just a head stone with their name. I didn’t stay long because I felt uncomfortable and sad and just had a rush of all these emotions. I’ve been trying to come up with the right words to use for this and I can’t really seem to find them.  

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[malachinski09-blog]

Relationship between“The Birth of the Asylum” and “The Stain”

We are often faced with the hauntings around asylums and how we find them all so interesting. However there is a lot going on within the walls of an asylum. Today’s world there is just something about them and when we watch shows like ghost hunters or ghost adventures for the most part they are consistently going in with the idea that all the spirits are demons and taunting them/ yelling at them. When we think about asylums, I think can all agree its and eerie place which automatically we think “ghost” “Has to be Haunted”. “Fear appears as an essential presence in the asylum” (245).  As we read through the birth of the asylum, we find out that they were built for the rich people who could pay to have the family members who were crazy hidden from society and they didn’t have to take care of them. As we continue reading we learn what defines “madness” and being labeled “crazy”, however we also learn that even those who aren’t necessarily crazy or anything they still end up in these asylums.  “Madness belonged to social failure, which appeared I thought distinction as its cause, model, and limit.”(258). It also states that “Childhood is madness” (P.252). The aspect of all this is to reinforce punishment that falls into a broke society. It’s the view of how things should be and if you’re different and color outside the lines you might as well be crazy and for that reason you’d be put into one of these asylums.  We also have the role of the religious segregation which means “it does not attempt to preserve the sufferers from the profane presence of non- Quakers, but to place the insane individual with a moral element where he will be in debate with himself and his surroundings: to constitute for him a milieu where, far from being protected, he will be kept in a perpetual anxiety, ceaselessly threatened by Law and Transgression” (244-245). However when we read “The Stain” we also get the idea behind a broken society which plays a massive roles in asylums.  “For centuries the mad belonged to the same group of society as the blind, the poor, the sick, and the elderly; all who could not work or rather wise easily contribute to society were more or less treated equally, regardless of the specificity of their situations.” (174). Here we can see that clear relationship between the idea around of fitting into a society and the sense of the broken society.  When we really get down to it we can start correlating these ideas with the coloring outside the lines is bad, having too much creativity is bad, not being able to help your community is bad. Only way you weren’t put into one of these places was to hide your “crazy” and follow rules, and be proactive member within the society.

               Then we think about why these places are haunted and what lies within it. Yes asylums give off an eerie feeling but what’s the one thing you see first? You see the building itself, so it must lay within the architecture itself then. We all know the horrifying things that went on within an asylum: “The asylums became host to the worst kind of neglect and abuse that had typified their precursors-precisely what they had been designed to address.” (177). the book tells us of a women who disappeared one night and how she died on the floor in an empty wing. It states that “a waxy residue on the floor that had been significant altered the chemistry of the concrete itself, leaving it lighter than the surrounding area.” (181). Her body itself is engraved in the architecture now, and it’s crazy! The book has an excellent section that explains architecture and hauntings. “Asylums became haunted by what happened inside their walls and also by the walls themselves: an architecture that was purposefully boastful but which spoke of previous generation with different ideals, economic motives, and attitudes toward the sick [...]”  “We design buildings not only for their utilitarian values but to project specific ideals and reflect our shared values. But these ideals and values are prone to change faster than the building.” (183).  

 Dickey, C. (2016) Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places. New York: Penguin books.

Foucault, M. (1988). Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. Vintage.

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[malachinski09-blog]

“Baby”

                For this section I chose to read the story “Baby”. This story is based on the history of the Brothels in Nevada. The story starts with Timber Kate and Bella Rawhide who are two prostitutes who worked the brothels of Reno, Nevada. The two performed shows together, claiming they were sisters in order to hide their romantic relationship. We continue reading about these to prostitutes and then are introduces to Tug Daniels who was this deadbeat gifter. After getting both women to fall in love with him, he ran away with Bella to the next town over in order to use her for everything she had. They went to the next city over and Daniel had pimped her out in a Brothel called the beehive. Soon enough Daniel stole everything from Bella and left town. As this was happening Timber showed up in Carson City and her and Bella became reacquainted. Sure enough Daniel had once again shown up and as soon as both girls had paid their dues to the Beehive in hopes to leave Daniel gut Timber savagely, and Daniel Fled. Then Bella ended up killing herself by drinking a cleaning fluid.

               Historical events had to do with Brothels and when they weren’t necessary legal but they need the taxes from the business. It was almost like they turned a blind eye in order to make sure they were making their tax dollars. Brothels were not a place of happiness or even anything that ever really had a positive vide. The one Brothel known as The Mustang Ranch was where a man of Oscar was shot in the parking lot of the original location however it is said that people see him even at the new location. The Mustang Ranch moved from its original location in a narrow valley by helicopter where it would be by the Wild Horse. As you continue n there are multiple ghosts that are said to be seen and the one that no one is aware of, known as “Baby”.

I don’t think shows like Ghost Hunters or Ghost Adventures do stories like this much justice. They are both reality television, where they have film, edit, and cut things in as well as out. IF you’ve ever made a short film you know that you can add sound into the background whether its music, someone talking, or even footsteps. Out of all the episodes I’ve seen they all base the story around the ghost and how they aren’t ready to leave or that it is a demon. I do think the one thing they do well is having some of the history around the place they are going to, they don’t try to make it sound like it’s a great place, in fact they usually say that dependent on the place that it was never really the best place to be at in that time. Other than that I think that there is definitely ways they can go about the stories.

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[malachinski09-blog]

THe Amityville Horror. Blog 3

This film both reinforces and challenges the traditional roles within an American Nuclear Family. Throughout the film we see the strong male role that has more authority than the female roles. We notice that in the beginning of the film the time period we are set in and the events that were going on around the 70’s in New York had an influence. During the 70’s in New York there many events going on and some major events happening around this time the Hard Hat Riot, The LaGuardia Airport Bombing, Vietnam War was still taking place, Terror at the Olympics Summer Games, sex, drugs and rock and roll where also events that were all taking place during this time. Nuclear Families often were families where a women once was married and had children and either the husband left or passed away and we are still in the time where women needed a man in order to survive. In the film we are introduced to George and Kathrine. Kathrine is a widow with three kids 2 sons and a daughter. George comes in and acts as the “step father” although they have not married. In the beginning of this film when we are introduced to these characters we watch as the drive to view a house that is for sale. As they view the house Kathrine falls in love with it and begs George to buy it. After learning about the house and what happened there, they still decide they can make it work because of that “American Dream” Kathrine was searching for. While we continue throughout the film we start to see the ghost appear during private moments such as when Kathrine and George are having sex, when the youngest boy is in the restroom, during the bath scene with George.

Then we have the experience that happens when the Baby Sitter exposes the past to the house, where she gets locked in “Jodi’s” Chelsea’s now closet. The house itself is strange because of the look and feel of it. The house is on a lake front with a boat house and seems to have a gloomy aspect to it. In this film we here George say things such as “You can’t run away from your problems “, “Friends having fun, right?”, and the one line that captures it all “We have the American Dream”.  George shows his masculinity through the film by his aggression, constantly chopping wood, and then setting rules/punishment for the older boy.

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