A-Z Blogging Challenge: A is for Amityville

The Amityville Horror

"In December 1975, George and Kathy Lutz and Kathy's three children moved into 112 Ocean Avenue, a large Dutch Colonial house in Amityville, a suburban neighborhood located on the south shore of Long Island, New York. Thirteen months before the Lutzes moved in, Ronald DeFeo, Jr. had shot and killed six members of his family at the house. After 28 days, the Lutzes left the house, claiming to have been terrorized by paranormal phenomena while living there." (Wikipedia)

Article about the documentary by The Daily Mail's Tom Leonard

My Amityville Horror

After nearly 40 years of refusing to talk to the media about his experiences in The Amityville Horror house,  Daniel Lutz, the real-life son / step-son of Kathy & George Lutz, features in a new documentary My Amityville Horror. In the documentary, Lutz discusses the family's time in in the house, his step-father's occult dabbling and exorcisms performed by priests, among other things.

Whether or not Lutz is telling the truth (or at least believes that he is) is still up for debate, but he states that he "didn't want to be the Amityville Horror kid" and has tried to avoid it all these years. He also says that he wanted someone to believe him, which is understandable, but I can't help feeling that the dramatic music and shot styles used in the documentary just play on the horror movie aspects of the story and do little to further his credibility. Perhaps it's just done for the trailer, in order to lure in fans of the genre though.

This post is part of the A-Z Blogging Challenge, 2013.

Full list of A-Z blogs after the cut below!

Book Review: To Evil Comes a Daughter by Allen Carraway

Released in 2012, To Evil Comes a Daughter is a paranormal mystery novel by Allen Caraway.

"English magazine journalist, Sam Munro, is in Montana interviewing classic car collector, Doug Bamber, for an article when, to his horror, he discovers that his hotel is haunted, the paranormal activity terrifying him, and the disruptive and restless ghost pursuing Sam wherever he goes.  

To Sam’s astonishment, he also learns through Doug that a murder committed seven years earlier is directly linked to his tormented youth, catapulting him into a maelstrom of terror and vengeance when retired Chicago homicide detective turned PI, Gunther Parkinson, asks Sam to assist with his investigation. As he uncovers a horrific trail of violence and deception, Sam discovers that he has trusted the wrong person, and he could be the killer’s next victim..."

The plot of the book is quite standard for the paranormal mystery / detective genre; an unassuming, skeptical main character is pulled into a dangerous situation by visits from an unnerving spectre. However, the identity of the paranormal presence is unexpected, mainly because it is a character who is not previously introduced. This is also true of the name of the killer as well, with double identities and coincidences being vital to the plot. 

Unfortunately, some of the coincidences seem somewhat forced and far-fetched, serving only to create a twist at the end. The title of the book, too, is taken from one line in the book that seems thrown in specifically to create a catchy title rather than any other reason. 

Having said that, Caraway's writing style is wonderfully descriptive; he creates the beauty of the landscape in Montana just as vividly as the horror of gory murder scenes. However, the details don't become tedious and are punctuated by character developing dialogue and internal monologues. This is especially well done with the conversations between Sam and Doug, as they not only help to flesh-out the two friends, but also the other people they meet / know and discuss. It also ensures that all the characters introduced are more than just one dimensional husks and helps to keep the plot moving.

As well as great descriptions, the use of humour to break up the dramatic and traumatic scenes is effective and makes the book a little lighter than it would have been otherwise. Some of the jovial dialogue does seem a little inappropriate for the moment it's used in, but in general, it's well-timed.

To Evil Comes a Daughter moves at a good pace, has characters with whom it is easy to sympathise and reading it is enjoyable throughout. Even though there are some plot holes and predictable storylines, overall, the novel is a solid, well-written paranormal thriller. 

To find out more about To Evil Comes a Daughter, or its author Allen Caraway, visit the links below:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Kobo

Smashwords

Allen Caraway on Twitter

Allen Caraway on Facebook

Haunted Places: Berry Pomeroy Castle

Berry Pomeroy Castle during my visit in Summer 2010

One of the few things I like about the town I live in, is its close proximity to several interesting, spooky, unusual and beautiful places. The ruins of Berry Pomeroy Castle certainly fit all four of those categories very well. Situated near Totnes in Devon, the castle itself was built in the late 15th Century by the Pomeroys, followed by later buildings erected within the caslte walls by the Seymours during the 16th and 17th Centuries. It's also said to be one of the most haunted places in the UK, so naturally, I had to visit!

Even on a sunny day the exterior of the castle looks quite gloomy and foreboding. The inside is also very dark and claustrophobic, so I can see why some people might feel uneasy - with or without any paranormal happenings! However, there are many of tales of spooky happenings and two ghost stories in particular have been associated with Berry Pomeroy Castle since the early 1900's.

A far off view of the Castle, Summer 2010

The first apparition, known as 'The Blue Lady', is said to be that of the daughter of a Norman lord. After she gave birth to her own father's child, she strangled the baby in one of the tower rooms because she hated it so much. That seems an unlikely source for the ghost, as archeological research has shown that the castle did, in all likelyhood, not exist during Norman times. That said, 'The Blue Lady', whoever she may be, has been seen on numerous occasions, wearing a blue hooded cape, wringing her hands in despair and the cries of a baby are often said to be heard in the tower.

The second famous ghost associated with the castle is 'The White Lady', who is said to be that of Lady Margaret Pomeroy. The story goes that Lady Margaret was imprisioned by her sister, Lady Elanor, because they fell in love with the same man and she was jealous of Lady Margaret's beauty. After being locked in the tower for approximately 20 years, Lady Margaret was finally allowed to die slowly of starvation and now resides in the dungeons, ascending in order to lure people to the more dangerous parts of the castle. Strong feelings of malevolence, fear and hopelessness are also said to accompany her appearances.



A gloomy stairway through
a hole in the wall. Summer 2010 

There are also stories about people who have wanted to take a small rock or shard of brick home as a memento of their visit. They often feel a strong negativity afterwards and feel compelled to return the taken item. After doing so, they report that this negativity disappears completely. (Don't steal, kiddies!)

I have been to Berry Pomeroy Castle twice; once about twelve years ago and once last year. However, I didn't experience anything paranormal, nor did I feel anything particularly unwelcoming about any part of the grounds. In fact, I found it to be a very beautiful area and quite a relaxing location in which to spend time! Of course, that doesn't mean that there's nothing supernatural there; it just means that I didn't experience it personally. Then again, I do like "creepy" places, so it's possible I just didn't notice!

I don't know whether Berry Pomeroy Castle is haunted or not, but it's still a gorgeous place to visit with an interesting history and, if you do decide to visit, who knows what you'll find there...

For more information, visit the English Heritage page:

Berry Pomeroy Castle

Movies: Paranormal Activity 2: Tokyo Night

We've all become used to movies from Asia being remade or reworked in the US, but this time, the tables have been turned! Well, sort of. It's not a remake, but distributor Presidio Corporation are working on a Japanese language sequel to 'Paranormal Activity' -  'Paranormal Activity 2: Tokyo Night'. Starring Aoi Nakamura and Noriko Aoyama as siblings, the sequel picks up right where the first movie left off:  

"The project is a direct continuation of the events of Oren Peli and Jason Blum’s original and takes place in Japan as a girl who visited San Diego as an exchange student unwittingly brings the evil that haunted Katie Featherston into her family’s house. The film chronicles the young woman’s videotape recordings in their house and the shocking realization of the supernatural force that her family must defeat."

The acting in the trailer looks a little weak, but it's pretty interesting to have an additional sequel to the same movie, and hopefully 'Tokyo Night' will do the series justice. With the release date cautiously set for December, it won't be long before we can find out!

News via: Dread Central and Tokyo Hive

Unexplained Mysteries: The Dyatlov Pass Incident

Hello there little monsters~!

Today's post is about a story I researched about a year ago and found quite interesting.

If you like mysteries and supernatural stuff, keep on reading!

Ok, so... Russia, 1959, 9 students go on a trip to The Urals.

Apparently, the students pitched their tent on a Urals slope, the Dyatlov Pass, at night to take some rest and sleep. Days after, they were found dead and naked by the authorities. The bodies were spread all over the place, and some of them presented some weird and severe internal injuries and rests of radiation (also found on the clothes). The tents had been ripped from the inside. For unknown reasons, they panicked and run away naked at -30º at night. There were no fingerprints, no signs of struggle.

At first it was thought they had died of hypothermia, it seemed to fit since they had the typical bruises and the bodies were at -30º. But when they found the last bodies, this theory was rejected.

Not all the bodies were found at the same time. After the families reported them missing, the police found 5 of the bodies, with the features I already mentioned above. It took almost 2 months to find the other 4 bodies. They were buried under the snow, 5 metres deeps, close to a little precipice.

And here comes the weird and creepy stuff.

Contrary to their friends, they were dressed. But, surprisingly, they were dressed with their friends' clothes. One of the skulls was totally destroyed on the inside. also, two of the bodies had some broken ribs. And the worst of all, the other one had her tongue cut. The cut was totally clean, it was impossible to think she had bitten herself or that an animal had done it. Another common feature they had was that their hair had turned grey and their bodies had turned orange, despite the frostbite, though this is said to be misinformation to scare people.

After several months, investigators said the cause was “a compelling unknown force” and the case was closed and filed as top secret.

Friends and family never gave up on this case and they created an organization called the Dyatlov Foundation, dedicated to investigating more about this creepy event which, even now, is a total mystery. During one of their investigations, they talked to some witnesses - military men and meteorologists. These men claimed to have seen some "glowing orange spheres" flying over the mountains where these students had their tent.

There are all kind of theories about this event; some say the studends may have seen and followed these spheres for some reason. But, why would they go blindly after these spheres, naked, in such a cold weather, and what caused the injuries that lead them to death?

Others say they were victims of some military experiment, but no-one heard or saw any explosion or visible attack on the area. And of course, there's the spookiest theory of them all, about the spheres being some kind of spirit or ghost and these supernatural entities being the cause of the death and the strange behaviour and panic attack.

51 years after this event, what happened that night is still unknown and remains as a mystery and a spooky story for the inhabitants next to these mountains.

Maybe it will remain unsolved forever... or maybe one of these theories is the right one.

What do you think? ;P

Haunted Houses: Cortijo Jurado

Hey there little monsters!
My name's Erinia and I'm new here~ hope you find my posts interesting or at least, entertaining!

Today I'm going to write about the most famous haunted house in my town (Málaga, Spain). It's called "Cortijo Jurado" and the legends about it started around 1850. Mysterious figures walking around, lights in rooms that appear and disappear, objects moving for apparently no reason, strange noises...Many stories surround this creepy house, in which terrible crimes and tortures were supossed to have happened a long time ago.

This house belonged to one of the richest, most famous families in the city, and because of that and their big influence, even now, lots of stuff has been covered, and even corridors in the house and rooms have been locked. Even so, lots of people and experts from all over the world have come to investigate and many curious people have gone through what they call "supernatural experiences" there.

Mainly, the legends about this house are about terrible tortures and murders of little girls through some "satanic rituals" and very cruel and bloody methods. At the time the house was inhabited by this very rich family, lots of young girls disappeared and some neighbours talked about screams and strange noises at night.

Probably, nowadays, the most famous story is that of a group of 5 young people who entered the house and conducted a ouija board session there. According to this story, they contacted a little girl called "Elena" -so were the letters indicated on the ouija table. The girl was said to be 12 years old and she had been murdered there. The next words who followed "murder" were "lots of pain" "kidnap" and when the young people there asked if she was alone and where she was buried, she replied "not alone" "girls" "patio" "4(metres)". The story goes on with the young people running away totally scared and, on the way, witnessing a light that was pointing to a place on the patio.

In addition to that, in my personal experience, some friends of mine went into the house a few years ago, knowing very little about it, and they all said that they had heard an inner voice telling them to "come". The one who waited in the car asked them where the torch was when they came back. Then one of them replied that they had left it in the car. Indeed, they hadn't taken it, but the guy in the car saw a light moving on the second floor, where they were at that very time.

Scary, isn't it? I know lots of stories about this house and frankly, they're all quite spooky!

Here you have some of the most famous pictures of the house. I can't verify their authenticity but well, you can see a strange figure on a couple of them and a weird glow on another picture, and just adding a bigger and clearer shot of the house so you can see it better.

Maybe one day I will dare to go inside and tell my own story but until then, that's all!

Halloween: Oxford Castle Ghostfest

With only 50 days left until Halloween, we've decided to post Halloween-related events and places, from all over the world, so that all of you little horrors have something to do on the spookiest of special nights!

1 - Oxford Castle Ghostfest (UK)

Photo: Henrique Godoy

Set in a Medieval castle, built in 1071 and run by Haunted Happenings, Halloween is the second night of the Oxford Castle Ghostfest (the first night is October 29th and runs from 9pm - 4am). Oxford Castle Unlocked describes night two of the event as:

Our second night hosted by the Haunted Happenings Paranormal Team and Psychics at the very haunted Oxford Castle for our Halloween special. The medieval crypt and its foreboding atmosphere will really test your nerve as you carry out some amazing experiments in an attempt to make contact with the dead.

Photo: Joe Dunckley

With access to Oxford Castle and prison, Haunted Happenings promise to take you on a ghost hunt, complete with a tour (the castle's horrible history included), seances, a workshop on using dowsing rods, crystals, EMF dectors, temperature thermometers etc., a walk around the castle with a professional medium, time working with the Haunted Happenings team, plus time alone to explore the castle for yourself.

The event runs from 7pm - 1am and costs £59.00 per person.

Haunted Happenings Ghostfest page