Those Creepy Martin Girls

The women in my family have always attracted things from the other side. Whether it was someone we knew, a pass through, a spirit with not-so-good intentions, or just someone looking to send a message, us Martin ladies always seemed to always have someone or something hanging around us.

I don't really share these stories with a lot of people because I don't care about what the skeptics have to say or for people to ask me about spirits that are around right now because I don't know. I haven't had a real crazy experience since I was 13 and even then, it wasn't anything major. Little things still happen to me and my family here and there, but like I said, not anything too major.

All of us have stories for days and experiences that we can't explain but they do make some pretty kick ass ghost stories and today I am going to share a few of my favorites.

Theresa (Mom)

When my mom was a kid in the 70's, she would always play with a Ouija board. Back then all the hippy dippy people didn't frown upon them the way people today do because EVERYONE owned a Ouija Board and nobody really knew about the real danger those things could cause.

Personally, I have never played with a Ouija Board because of the story I am about to tell. My mom always warned me "The Devil will tell you 1,000 lies just to make you believe one truth." and I always listened to her because she had first hand experience with him....or at least something like him.

My mom used to have this poster that she described to me as a black background and the only things on it were two purple eyes and green smoke. Soon after also acquiring the ouija board, she got rid of it. But she didn't just throw it away. She destroyed it.

My mom would talk to a spirit whose name I can't remember but they came to be good friends. He would tell her things only she knew, play games with her, make things happen, and my mom enjoyed his company. That is, until he became something different. Something evil and sinister.

One night she was talking with her "friend" when she accidentally stubbed her toe.

"Did that hurt?" he asked her

"Yes." she said

"Good. I did it." he said

My mom got a little freaked out and said she had to go.

A few days later, my mom got her ouija board and started talking to her "friend" again. He told her he had been watching her for the past few days. She asked how and he said "On the wall next to your bed."

My mom looked up and saw the poster hanging up. She ignored it and started asking him questions. One of the questions she asked was

"What are you going to do tomorrow?"

"Kill Lydia at 3:00" was his answer

"How?" my mom asked

"Cliff."

Again my mom got scared and put the board away.

The next day my mom and her friend were trying to contact him but he wasn't around. At 3:01 he said

"Would you like to talk to Lydia?"

"Sure"

"Hello"

"Hi, Lydia. Are you alive?"

"No."

"Do you like where you are?"

The planchette stared to movie to No before shooting back to the center of the board

"Lydia has to go. Goodbye."

And he was gone.

After that, my mom stopped playing with the ouija board and eventually forgot about it.

A few weeks after that happened, my mom started getting bruises on her back and harms that she couldn't explain. She started feeling like someone was always watching her and she wasn't getting a lot of sleep because she felt like someone was constantly breathing down her neck.

One night, when she was trying to fall asleep, her poster with the eyes started to shake like someone was break through it from behind. My mom got out of bed and rolled it up and put it under her bed. She got her ouija board and before she could even say anything the planchette shot to "Hello"

My mom asked her "friend" to please stop and go away. Just then her "friend" got really angry and told her he isn't going to leave her alone. She was his. He also didn't appreciate that he couldn't watch her anymore.

The next day my mom burned the poster and got rid of the ouija board. But that didn't make anything stop.

My mom started seeing a man in mirrors. He was blurry and always watching her from a distance. My mom started acting strange and angry. She wasn't Theresa anymore. It started to scare my grandma so she called her sister, my great aunt Eraina who is a very very spiritual woman.

When she walked into my grandma's house, she said she sensed an energy that was after my mom. She went into my mom's room and my mom wouldn't let her near her. She acted like nothing was wrong and she was fine. My great aunt didn't buy it. She locked herself in my mom's room with her and fought the spirit for hours until he was finally gone. My grandma doesn't know the details and neither my mom nor great aunt will tell me what happened but all I know is that it wasn't pretty or easy. All I know now is that my mommy is the best person in my life and because of this story, I will never, ever, play with a Ouija Board.

Brittany (Cousin)

My cousin Brittany and I have always been super close to each other and she's been my horror buddy growing up. We always go see scary movies with each other, drive down scary roads late at night telling ghost stories, or just sitting in a room in the middle of the day scaring ourselves silly with the stupidest shit. Despite what idiots we make ourselves out to be sometimes with all of our random scary thoughts, we have had some pretty crazy stuff actually happen to us.

I could write about the time we were sleeping in my living room and I had a conversation with what I thought was my mom, and the next morning found out it wasn't...even though she and my dad were the only other people in the house.

Or the time when we were woken up at 3 am because all at once her TV, Stereo, and Radio, turned on full blast at the same time.

OR the time we both saw a little girl standing in her closet watching us.

But I'm not going to. I'm going to talk about, what I consider to be, the weirdest thing that has ever happened with us.

Every Summer my parents used to load up the trucks, and take me and all my cousins camping. This particular camping trip, we brought Brittany, our grandpa, and our aunt and uncle. Our cabin was pretty packed with all those extra people so Brittany and I decided to sleep in the back of my dad's truck. We stayed up laughing, talking, and just messing around like always. We eventually got tired and started to fall asleep. I was almost all the way asleep before Brittany woke me up to ask me what I was thinking about.

When Brittany was like 12 she moved into this creepy ass house in the middle of the country in Santa Rosa, Ca. Weird stuff was always happening around that house like invisible footsteps, things would move in front of your eyes, someone would knock on your door when you were home alone, and you never really felt like you were by yourself. That's also when Brittany met the little girl.

"Hailey."

"What?" I said half asleep

"What are you thinking about?"

"Pepsi Blue." (It was 2004, okay?)

"Okay. Goodnight."

I didn't think anything about it and started falling back to sleep when a few minutes later Brittany woke me up again.

"What are you thinking about now?"

"Caramel, why?"

"Nothing. Goodnight."

Brittany always used to tell me stories about these nightmares she had and this little girl was always in them. Brittany never saw her face but she seemed sad but on edge like someone was looking for her and she always had to protect Brittany. It started out as nightmares but then Brittany started seeing her in her real life. The girl started following Brittany and talking to her. She was always around but nobody could see her except Brittany and it started to scare Brittany because the little girl had started messing with the people in Brittany's life. And on this night, she chose me.

"Are you thinking of Good Charlotte?"

"Is this Good Charlotte? *sings Good Charlotte song*"

"Yeah."

At this point I was annoyed that Brittany kept waking me up so I finally asked

"Why do you keep asking me what I'm thinking about? And how did you know I was thinking of Good Charlotte?"

"Okay, if I tell you, you can't freak out, okay?"

"Okay."
"I was falling asleep and I started having a dream that I was in the hot tub up on top of the hill and all of a sudden the little girl I always see showed up in the hot tub. But she was sitting across from me with her back to me roasting marshmallows. She asked me to play a game and I said no because I was tired so she told me she was going to play a game with you if I didn't play one with her."
Um. Ew. I was not okay with that. "Okay...so...?"
"She said that she was going to tell me what you were thinking and if she was right, I had to keep playing but if she was wrong, she would let me go to sleep."

So I guess the rest of the conversation went something like
"She's thinking of something blue." Pepsi Blue
"Now she's thinking of something good." Caramel
"She's still thinking of something good."
"I know, she said caramel."
"No something, like in music."
"Good Charlotte?"
"Maybe"
And yep. It was Good Charlotte.

We didn't sleep that night because Brittany said every time she closed her eyes she saw the girl somewhere outside the car and we were already pretty freaked out. Things still continue to happen with us to this day but that was definitely one of the most memorable and weirdest thing to happen.

Lizz (Aunt)

When my aunt was seventeen years old, she and a few of her friends were driving home from a friend's house down this road called Old Redwood Highway. Old Redwood Highway ran parallel to a freeway and on the other side of it was a bunch of businesses but seeing as it was very late at night, all the businesses were closed and there were no lights besides the lights coming from the 1981 GM van (she described as a rape van). They were totally high and Lizz and their friend Chris were just talking about nonsense when John, Lizz's boyfriend, all of a sudden stopped. It wasn't an abrupt stop, but it was a very uncomfortable stop. Lizz and Chris turned around and looked at the road when they saw what John had stopped for.
At the very edge of the light beam, straight ahead of them, there was a person, and as she was coming towards them they realized it was a girl. They looked at her for a second before everyone was realized there wasn't something right about the girl. But because they were so high and the girl wasn't running or looked like she was in danger, they all just took a moment to be confused. As they were watching the girl, Chris started talking about how she was walking
"Look at her, look at how she's walking. Is she trying to scare us?"
The first thing my aunt noticed was her eyes. Her eyes weren't hollow...but there was nothing in them. No pupils, no color, they just looked like they were rolled in the back of her head. Due to the fact that everyone was stoned and there was so much wrong with what was happening, nobody noticed that she wasn't actually moving her legs. But then in the blink of an eye, the girl cleared about 10 feet. Once she got closer that's when everyone realized she was broken. Her arms and legs, fingers and ankles, nothing about her looked right. Everything was twisted and mangled and-
"HOLY SHIT. SHE'S FUCKING FLOATING."
That's when my aunt jumped into the back of the van and John started it back up and took off swerving around her. About a minute later they got to a Target parking lot where they just screamed about everything they had just seen. Her arms, her eyes, her feet weren't touching the ground, nobody knew what to think of it or what to say. They just screamed until they decided just to go home.
They never looked up what happened, if there was an accident, or someone died on the road, nothing. They just decided to not bring it up again but it is a story that has haunted my aunt all these years, and it is one I am happy she shared with me.

Me..Hailey

My cousin Eleanora has always had spirits with her since the day she was born. They are not mean, scary, malicious, or anything of the sort, they're just around. Before moving in with her and my aunt, my aunt would always tell me these crazy stories of seeing and hearing spirits, things moving, Eleanora cooing and playing with things that weren't there and I always thought it was really cool and fun and I was excited to live with them.

I moved in on Thanksgiving of 2012 when Eleanora was a year and a half old. The first day I was here, I walked around and introduced myself to the house and the spirits here. I know, it sounds crazy, but I just wanted them to know who I was and what I was doing in Eleanora's house. That first night, I had my first experience.

We had just come back from dinner at my aunt's parent's house and I went to go lay down while everyone else was hanging out in the living room. I had my eyes shut but all of a sudden I saw my room, I was just staring at the door when I saw a woman peak in, then I started to physically feel like someone had walked into my room. She was an older woman and I didn't see much detail but I could feel her watching me. She wasn't mean or scary, she just felt like another person. When I saw her walk out of my room, I opened my eyes and everyone was still in the living room. I walked out and didn't say anything about it until a few months later when my aunt was talking about the older woman she has seen that hangs out with Eleanora.

The next thing that happened a few weeks later when I was home alone.

I was sitting on the recliner in the living room talking on the phone to my aunt. I had just done all the dishes and they were sitting on the counter drying in the dish rack. There was one bowl that didn't fit so I set it on a towel on the back of the counter. I was spinning around in the chair and talking to my aunt when something caught my eye. I stopped spinning and I watched the bowl scoot from the back of the counter to the front. All of a sudden it dropped to the ground. But it didn't just fall and shatter like it should have, it looked like it was being set down by something that wasn't there. I got super freaked out and hung up with my aunt.

"Okay, I know I am new in this house, but I will be here for a while. I will respect you and stay out of your way if you do the same for me. Please do not keep trying to scare me because I really love my cousin and aunt and want to be here with them. I do not think I will be able to do that though, if you keep doing this. I am going into my room now, so please don't come in right now."

I decided to try and explain early on so that they would stop messing with me. They didn't.

Everything settled down for a few months and they didn't really bother me until one night when I was home alone. Of course.

I was sitting in my room folding my laundry and I had my back to a DVD shelf but there was still enough space for someone to stand there, if someone had been home. I was listening to music when all of a sudden all the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I felt like someone was standing right behind me, breathing on the back of my neck.

"Don't turn around...do not turn around" I started telling myself. I just sat there for about 30 seconds before the feeling went away, I turned to look and there was nothing there, when I turned back around, I caught a glimpse of someone, it looked like a girl about my age, turning the corner to walk out of my room. I jumped up and slammed my door shut and didn't come out until my aunt came home. That was probably the worst because it was the first and only time I had ever felt scared of something in the house.

Although little things still happen here and there, the spirits don't mess with me too much. They don't like when Eleanora is gone for too long because they get bored so they resort to me, but I don't really see people. They more just move or drop things. I think the spirits here are very nice and protective and I don't mind living with them. I actually forget about them most of the time because they mostly just stay in the baby's room or don't make themselves known. I really hope that they stay around my aunt and cousin forever because they really are awesome spirits. Even if they do like messing with poor Hailey.

Subgenres

When I suggest a movie to someone, people generally assume it's a horror movie, and it usually is. Sometimes, right off that bat, I get a "No" (the people I am around most the time hate horror movies, because they're crazy) but other times I get "what kind of horror?" and that is my favorite response. There are so many subgenres in everything be it music, books, movies, etc. and all you need to know is what kind you like.

Personally, I get down with Supernatural, Psychological Horror, Splatterpunk, and Religious Horror where are someone else might only be into Gothic Horror. It all depends on what you like. Part of the reason I think non Horror Junkies are so reluctant to try horror movies is because they think it's all scary when in reality, not all horror movies are.

Supernatural: supernatural generally consists of ghosts, goblins, zombies, monsters, and basically anything that doesn't exist in the real world.

(Don't get me wrong. I believe in all of ghosts 100%, I'm just giving my watered down version of the genre)

Sci-fi Horror: Sci-fi Horror is just sci-fi and horror mashed as one. The movie Alien, is probably the most well known Sci-fi Horror movie every created. It's pretty much anything that consists of a scary story line that follows aliens, robots, time travel, space, etc. 

Splatterpunk: Splatterpunk definitely isn't for people with a weak stomach. What is really narrows down to is just the goriest, gnarliest, bloodiest types of movies out there and they also consist of lots and lots of sex. Hostel is the perfect example of a Splatterpunk movie.

Suspense & Thrillers: My 64 year old grandma loves these. These movies don't really involve a lot of ghosts or things jumping out at you. It's more real life depictions of things like serial killers, psychopaths, natural disasters, and things that can't really be stopped by a hero stepping in. They usually don't have happy endings. When A Stranger Calls and Cape Fear are two examples of suspense/thrillers.

Satanic/Religious: Movies that have to do with Satan, possession, demons, exorcisms, etc. I could write an entire post about these types of movies because they are my FAVORITE. They are by far the scariest to me because just like suspense/thrillers, you're usually dealing with something that can't be stopped very easily. The Exorcist, The Last Exorcism, and The Omen are perfect examples.

Gothic: These movies take place usually in historical settings inside castles with ghosts, mysteries, vampires, and above all, romance. There's more than likely going to be some type of love story involved in these types of movies. The most famous Gothic movie/story of all time is Dracula and Nosferatu.


I could go on for days about all the different subgenres in Horror because there are so many more but I'll just leave you with a few. I hope that I have opened up the eyes of some readers and hopefully some non horror fans will be willing to test a few of these out and maybe fall in love with them!

High Tension

I have been waiting for write about this movie and have been having a difficult time trying to fit it into any of my posts so now I am at the point of Fuck It. I'm just going to write an entire post dedicated to this movie.

I love love love this movie. I love showing it to people for the first time and watching their reactions or recommending it to people and hearing what they have to say afterwards because without fail, their reactions are all exactly the same and they are so good every time. This is one of the biggest plot twist, WTF, screwed up, gory movies I've seen and I recommend it to anyone and everyone just for those reasons. Even if you don't like gore, you will walk away from this movie feeling uneasy but satisfied. It's a goodie for people who aren't into typical horror movies because it's easy enough that you won't be waiting for something to jump out at you the whole time, but messed up enough to leave a lasting affect.


This movie follows two girls, Marie and Alex, who are spending the weekend at Alex's parent's house. The first night at the house, a serial killer shows up and kills Alex's entire family in just the most effed up ways imaginable. Marie witnesses the first initial murder and goes and hides in her room. The killer ends up not finding her so she makes her way to the kitchen and sees him abducting Alex. He throws Alex into the back of his van and Marie jumps in without him noticing. He locks them in and drives off with the both of them inside.

I don't want to give away too much because I want YOU to watch it. I have been watching this movie for ten years and it still leaves me with white knuckles and sitting at the edge of my seat the entire time. I haven't met one person who wasn't relieved by the time this movie was over and didn't walk away a different person. Oh, and one little piece I forgot to add, this movie is in French, but that doesn't take away any of the tension you feel while watching it.

Here is the link to the trailer. You can also rent or purchase it on youtube or watch it in parts (ie. part 1, 2, 3, etc)

The Void

1. Void:
2. completely empty.

   "void spaces surround the tanks"

   synonyms:

   empty, vacant, blank, bare, clear, free, unfilled, unoccupied,uninhabited More

noun

1. 1.

   a completely empty space.

   "the black void of space"

   synonyms:

   vacuum, emptiness, nothingness, nullity, blankness, vacuity; More
2. 
   

   The beauty of a completely empty space is that it can be filled with anything....even a nightmare. There isn't anything scarier than your own fear. Every scary movie, spooky story and old wives tale is rooted in the vulnerability of the listener. It is one thing to serve your audience a gory, bloody,  creepy or even violent scenario to lose themselves in at your whim.. It takes a truly gifted story teller to take their audience with them on a venture in to the realm of undefined terror.

I have been afraid of the dark my whole life. I always felt like someone or something was in my room with me, watching me, standing in the shadows, waiting for me to finally discover it. Although I know that that probably isn't true, just the thought still gets me. Even now, at 20 years old, I can't fall asleep without some form of light or noise in my room to take my mind off of whatever void I'm trying to fill

 Now, I want you to think about what really scares you. Is it the feeling of being watched? That at any moment something can reach out and touch you and when you turn around, nothing will be there? Or maybe the feeling of knowing that you can never run faster than what you're afraid of?

To me, the mind is one of the scariest things out there because it has the ability to come up with an infinite amount of ideas and possibilities in the best and worst way. So tonight when you're walking to the kitchen for a glass of water, or turning off the light to walk to bed, if you feel someone walking behind you or hovering above you while you're falling asleep, just remember it's only your mind trying to fill a void and it's not real. It's not there. You hope.

  

My Bucket List

Bucket List

a number of experiences or achievements that a person hopes to have or accomplish during their lifetime.

Usually when you think of what people might put on a bucket list, you think of the typical "I want to travel the world" "I want to have my own family" "I want to own a house" and so on. When I was younger I would write a bucket list every year and save them so that when I was older, I could look back and see how much I have/haven't accomplished. I am a real go-getter, so I have actually accomplished almost everything on most of my bucket lists and that is something I am very proud of. This year however, I didn't write a bucket list because I couldn't think of anything I want to do besides graduate culinary school and move to LA, which I know is going to happen. I recently heard about this event that Hollywood puts on in LA called "LA's Great Horror Camp Out" and I instantly thought "THAT'S IT! That is where I will start my Bucket List!" So, here it is. My Bucket List for 2014 and everything I hope to do in my lifetime.

1: LA's Great Horror Camp Out

So for the past couple years, Hollywood has been putting on this camp at all these abandoned/haunted places in LA. This year, it is at the haunted zoo up in Griffith Park. Basically you pay $50 to get the shit scared out of you for 12 hours. The actors are dressed as everything nightmares are made of, they are allowed to touch you, they kidnap you, they can roll your tents down hills, stalk you, and just everything my dreams/nightmares are made of. Just reading about it and watching videos makes me cry just from the excitement. This is THE #1 thing I hope to do.

2: Work for LA's Great Horror Camp Out

I have always loved to scare people. Tapping their shoulders then jumping around the corner, sneaking up to people and grabbing them or yelling "Boo!", pretending to be possessed (good times), and even just staring at my friends without blinking or saying anything scared the shit out of them. So naturally, I feel like getting to spend 7 hours in a make up chair, just to rip my face off for one person, or to chase them with an axe while screaming my head off would be the best time of my life.

3: Spend the night at The Myrtles Plantation

I learned about The Myrtles Plantation when I was still in elementary school after seeing it on Unsolved Mysteries. Ever since then, I have dreamed of going there. It is a plantation in Louisiana where apparently ten murders happened there are believed to be 12 ghosts. There are so many legends about this house but the most famous one and the most seen spirit around the plantation is Chloe, the slave of Mark and Sara Woodruff (you can read more about it in the link above). They offer you a chance to stay the night at the B&B where you are almost guaranteed to experience something.

4: Travel to Australia's most haunted locations

For as huge as Australia is, there are only 4 states that you can actually visit because of how crazy dangerous "The Outback" itself is. I'm sure there are far more places in Australia that are haunted but there are only EIGHT world known haunted locations and apparently they're haunted as shit. Plus I have always wanted to go to Australia so why not kill two birds with one stone?

5: Meet One Direction

Because I'm the fangirliest fangirl in the whole world and love One Direction more than anything. Including Horror Movies.

I Had A Dream

Well, a nightmare.

So, as I said in my first post, Halloween is my favorite horror movie. Michael Myers is my favorite horror movie character but he scares me more than anything else in this whole world. (Besides dead snakes, but that's another story). Even through a television, you can feel his evil. You can see it in the way he looks at his victims and how he is just this malicious, emotionless monster. Michael is literally the LAST person I would ever want to encounter in real life so having a nightmare about him was no doubt the scariest thing to happen to me in a long long time.


I was standing in a room with no furniture or lights. There were pictures of butterflies hanging up everywhere and a lamp in the middle of the room. That lamp was about as tall as me and it was standing on a long gold pole. It had a pink frilly shade on it and a long gold string hanging down from under it. I walked over to the lamp and pulled the string to turn it on. Instantly the room got so bright I had to cover my eyes and turn it off. When my eyes finally adjusted to the darkness again, I wasn't in the butterfly room anymore. I was in a little kid's room.

I saw a door and started to walk towards it before I stopped. I felt like someone was watching me but I knew I was alone in the room. I turned around and there was a figure standing in the corner of the room. I told myself it was a jacket hanging on a hook even though I knew it was a person. I opened the door and walked into the hallway. Shit. I was in the hallway of Michael Myers's house in Rob Zombie's remake of Halloween. That's when it dawned on me...Michael was in the house.

I walked downstairs and I peaked around the corner. It was the same room I had been in earlier but there were lights and furniture. I saw Michael. His back was turned to me and he was looking at the pictures of the butterflies. I saw the door and decided to run to it. When I turned back to look at Michael he was walking towards me.

I ran down the hallway that was next to me and out a sliding glass door. I started running up a hill and I could just feel Michael getting closer and closer to me. When I got to the top of the hill I started screaming for my aunt for some reason. "LIZZ!!! LIZZ!" All of a sudden, Michael stopped. I looked back at him and he was just standing there watching me. I realized that calling my aunt was a bad idea. He was waiting for her..not me.

I ran to the side then back down the hill towards the house with the butterfly pictures. I ran through the sliding glass door and locked it. I saw Michael walking down the hill and this time he had a knife which he didn't have before. I ran into the butterfly room and my aunt was standing in there. I ran to her and started screaming saying we needed to get out and that Michael was coming. She smiled and said "I know." but it wasn't her smile. She looked...different.

I heard the sliding glass door open-I thought I locked it-and Michael walked into the room. He stopped and stared at me and my aunt. I looked at Lizz and she was smiling at him. When I turned back to see Michael, he was gone. Just then my aunt grabbed me. I behind me to try and stop her and grabbed her head. I pulled accidentally it off but when I focused on what I was holding, it wasn't her head. It was Michael's mask.


I woke up from this dream and started crying. I don't know what the significance or message behind it was, all I know is that I never want to have it again.

Coming Home

Seeing as it is the 10 year anniversary, I was inspired to write a horror story (which will be updated weekly) about a girl named Sadie and her new life after moving back from boarding school.

Sadie slowly walked up to her house. It had been so long since she's been there, it didn't even feel like home. The front door opened as she started up the steps, everything felt like it was moving in slow motion. Her mom and dad stood at the door smiling, her mother was crying.

Her mom went running towards her with her arms wide open. She grabbed Sadie and hugged her so tight Sadie instantly lost feeling in her arms.

"Oh, baby. My baby, Sadie. I missed you so much. How was your flight? Are you tired? Hungry? I made your bed with your favorite pillow. Are you we-"

"Sweetie, slow down. She just got here. Give her some time to uh...to adjust. This is all just as new for her as it is for you."

Sadie smiled at her parents. "Hey guys. I missed you."

Her mom hugged her again. "Oh sweetie, we missed you too."

Sadie sat at the dinner table. She looked at the butterfly shaped clock on the wall.

"You guys, still have that? I thought you got rid of that in the move."

Sadie's parents looked at each other.

"Well," her mom started "we decided to keep some stuff of yours. Just in case you wanted it when you got here. We can take it down if you want."

"Oh, no. You can keep it up. I don't mind. By the way, dad, this is amazing. What do you call it?"

"Honey, you don't remem-"

"It's beef stroganoff, Sadie. Thought I'd try something new for you to welcome you home." her dad said

"Oh...nice."

Sadie looked at her mom who was sitting at the end of the table. She looked back at Sadie and quickly wiped away a tear.

"So, everyone ready for dessert? I made your favorite, Sadie. Home made chocolate ice cream!" her mom said as she started to gather dishes before darting into the kitchen.

It was dark in her room. Much darker than the room at her old boarding school. Sadie looked around at the porcelain dolls lined up along the shelves on her walls.

"Ew," she thought "those are coming down tomorrow."

She looked at the clock

11:37 pm

"Shit. I am not ready for school tomorrow." she said to herself.

Just then a glass broke downstairs. Sadie got out of bed and opened her door. She walked downstairs but stopped when she heard her parents fighting. She peaked around the corner and saw her mom in tears and her dad was holding her in his arms

"I know, baby. I know. This isn't easy for anybody. We just need to take it one day at a time."

"I just want my baby back. What happened? What did we do?"

"Nothing, we did nothing, and neither did Sadie. It's going to be fine. Everything is going to be okay. Let's just get to bed, okay? Tomorrow is a big day for Sadie...it's a big day for everyone."

Next Week: The First Day

Local Ghost Stories

Gravity Hill: Rohnert Park, CA

Growing up in Rohnert Park, you always heard about the infamous "Gravity Hill" off of Petaluma Hill Road. This hill is about a twenty minute drive into the mountains. When you get to the bottom of the hill, you put your car into neutral, and wait.

Back in the 80's there was a nature reserve at the top of the hills which is still there and is now referred to as "The Dark Place." It has since been closed off to the public but it used to be a real hot spot for field trips before the tragedy that took place on Gravity Hill.

I've been going up to Gravity Hill since I was a child. Since I've always been into the supernatural and ghost and shit, my mom would drive me up there and we would park at the bottom of the hill and wait for our car to get pulled to the top.

One beautiful day, a school bus full of children were driving down the hill coming back from a field trip when all of a sudden the breaks locked up and the driver lost control. He drove off the road and down the hill killing everyone in the bus.

So, when you get to the bottom of the hill, you put your car in neutral and all of a sudden your car starts to get pushed...uphill. You usually reach speeds of about 15 MPH which is pretty fast considering you're rolling uphill without using any gas.

They say that if you put baby powder on the back of your car, once you get to the top of the hill, there will be little hand prints in the baby powder from all the little children pushing your car uphill and trying to save you from an untimely death just like theirs.

My friend Sam moved to California when we were in 8th grade. She had never been to gravity hill so one night my aunt drove us up there. She put baby powder on her back bumper to show Sam but she was a bit skeptical. When we got to the top of the hill, my aunt shined a light on the back of the bumper. Not only was there child hand prints, but as soon as we started getting back into the car, we all heard a little kid laugh behind us.

Some people say it's an optical illusion and you are actually going downhill, some people who are too scared to try it, and some people choose to believe the ghost story. But no matter what you choose to believe about it, whenever you go up to Gravity Hill, something gets you to the top every single time.

Haystack Landing: Petaluma, CA

In the late 1800's, a settler named Freeman Parker landed in Petaluma. He built a house on the river bank and it was soon turned into a landing dock for new settlers and served as such and much more until it was finally abandoned in the 1970's. There have always been stories and legends about what really went on there and what legends and stories were actually true. However, there is one story in particular, that even 19 years later, is still being investigated.

In 1995 a group of parapsychology students went to investigate the "hauntings" at haystack landing before its demolition. Upon arrival, Professor Rick Williams, realized he had left some equipment behind and sent one of the students back to get it. When he returned more than an hour later, he walked into the house and everyone had been brutally murdered. Nobody knows what happened that evening and it is still an open case. Read more about it here.

Ten years after the Incident at Haystack Landing, it burned down. The weird thing about it though, is that nobody knows how. Around 1 am on July 1st, 2005, someone had called the fire department to report the building was in flames, but by the time the fire fighters got there, it was already burned to the ground and the fire was completely out as if it had been put out hours earlier.

I never went to Haystack Landing when it was still around because I was 11 when it burned down, so when I was 18, I drove to the property it once stood on with one of my friends. This friend in particular wasn't afraid of anything and he didn't believe in the paranormal so when we showed up and he immediately got freaked out and just kept asking to leave, that's when I started to get even more scared than I already was. Maybe it was the fact that all my adrenaline was already pumping at warp speed, but as soon as we stepped onto the property, I just got filled with a feeling that something didn't want us there. Like there was a huge wall made of bad energy pushing me the other way. We immediately left and I haven't gone back since. But I will say, if it was still around today, I would go back. Hell, maybe I would even go inside just to see what I would find. Or maybe, what would find me.

My Top 7 Favorite Classic Horror Films

WARNING: HELLA SPOILERS

So, these are my favorite classic horror films. I have many many more but I decided to just narrow it down to these ones. This post is completely opinion based so if you don't like it, deal with it. If you click on the titles of each movie, it will take you to the trailer. Enjoy!

7-The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 1974 

What Happens:

The movie starts out with five friends driving in an old van to the house that the main characters Sally and Franklin's grandfather lived in before he died. On the way they pick up some crazy hitch hiker who starts talking a bunch of nonsense and you instantly realize, this guy is no good. He starts taking pictures of everyone and gets angry when they won't pay him for the pictures. Soon after that he pulls out a switch blade and cuts his hand open then attempts to attack Franklin before everyone forces him out of the van. They eventually make it to Grandpa's house and one by one they start splitting up, eventually getting caught by Leatherface, tortured, and then killed. As it turns out a little later, the crazy hitch hiker is Leatherface's brother and that comes to light during a family dinner where Sally is pretty much auctioned off around the family as to who should kill her. In a very dramatic climax, Sally ends up getting away and runs into a road, jumps into the back of a pick up truck, and escapes while Leatherface chases her down. It kind of trails off from there and the credits start rolling which causes the viewer to make their own decision as to what happened.

Why I love it:

So, the first time I saw this movie I was seven years old. My grandma had put it on for me and then fell asleep (thanks, grandma), and all I remember about my first time seeing it was that I peed my pants and I'm pretty sure I didn't blink once. Needless to say, my mom was LIVID that my grandma let me watch it even though I swore up and down in my Uh-Oh Undies that I wasn't scared. That was the last time I watched it until I was 19. Again, I didn't blink once and this time I only almost peed my pants.

This movie definitely isn't for someone with a light stomach. It's loosely based on the serial killer Ed Gein but I am very reluctant to believe most of the stuff that happened in this movie, actually happened in real life.
There is a lot of blood and gore and it's not easy to watch if you aren't into these types of movies. I think for me, I love the shock value I get from it. This movie has almost zero boundaries and I feel like Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel used this opportunity to just go off and write the most fucked up shit they could think of. And if the blood and tortured screams aren't enough to get your skin crawling, then Leatherface himself will do the trick. Especially when he is dressed up as a woman.

6-When A Stranger Calls 1979

What Happens:

Jill Johnson is just your typical teenager spending her weekend night babysitting for some extra cash. She starts getting these bizarre phone calls from someone asking "Have you checked the children?" She passes it off as a prank call until the phone calls keep getting more and more frequent and more and more hostile. She calls the police and they tell her they will track the call and not to worry. Once again, the man calls, asking her "Why haven't you checked the children?" Jill hangs up and the police call back. They tell her the calls are coming from inside the house and to get out. Jill runs out of the house looking for help. The police arrive and find the children have been murdered. The killer is still in the house and he is arrested and taken to an insane asylum. Fast Forward a few years, Jill is now an adult, married with children, and it seems like she is finally starting to get back on track. That is, until the killer Curt Duncan escapes from the asylum. The doctor whose children were killed that night hires an investigator to find him. Duncan has made it his mission to find Jill and kill her. So yada yada yada the movie goes on, Jill and her husband are out to dinner when the host walks up to her and tells her she has a phone call. "Have you checked the children?" asks Curt. Jill and her husband race home and everything is fine. Later that night Jill wakes up and Curt is in her house. Just in the nick of time, Detective Clifford shows up and shoots and kills Curt leaving Jill and her whole family unharmed.

Why I love it:

So, although this movie is more of a Psychological Thriller than it is an actual Horror movie, I put it here because I still can't babysit alone without constantly checking on the kids and making sure there is nobody in the closets. I feel like the movie is a bit slow and I had to watch it couple times before really getting into it. I love the story line compared to the 2006 remake, even though that one was a lot more fast paced and entertaining. This movie just left an effect on me, so that's why it has always been one of my go to movies whenever I'm looking for a little horror high but don't want to be scared shitless.

5-A Nightmare on Elm St. 1984

What Happens: 

Teenagers are dying (shocker). But they aren't dying in car crashes or while having sex in the woods. They're being brutally murdered in their dreams and it is up to Nancy Thompson to make it all stop.

First we meet Tina, the assumed hero of the movie. She's walking through a boiler room and is soon being chased down by a man with razors for fingers. When he finally catches her she wakes up hysterical. The next day she goes to school where we meet Nancy, her boyfriend Glen, and Tina's boyfriend Rod. Tina tells Nancy about the dream so Nancy and Glen offer to go to her house that night and keep her company. Rod ends up crashing the party and after some rough lovin in Tina's room, she and Rod fall asleep. Everyone wakes up to the sound of Tina's screams and Rod watches in horror as Tina is being flailed around the room and sliced up by an invisible force. Tina dies and Rod is arrested and charged with her murder. While Rod is in jail, he too gets killed by the invisible dream force. Soon, Nancy starts having dreams of a man with a burnt face in a red and green sweater, with razor fingers. Her alcoholic mother tells her the story of Freddy Krueger, a child murderer whose house was set on fire by a mob of angry parents after he was released from jail. Nancy realizes he's back for revenge and she and Glen must stop him. However, Glen dies so Nancy is on her own. Seeing as there's like 5 more of these movies, and she lives to make it to the last one, it's safe to assume she did the best she could but Freddy, like most horror movie villains, can't be stopped.

Why I love it:

Well first off, this is one of the most classic 80's horror films ever made. It has everything a good teenage horror movie needs. Sex, blood, parties (sleep overs count, yeah?), and a villain who stands out and never stands down.

I love Freddy, I really do. He isn't like other horror movie villains who silently stalk the victim and then kills them and moves on. Freddy is very sick and twisted and seems to have a sense of humor. He screws with the kids' heads, talks with them, makes jokes, and everything he does is so...heartfelt if you will? He has more of a personality which in a way makes him more likeable which makes the movie that much more fun to watch. Also, I applaud Johnny Depp for everything he ever does in life, but especially in this movie. He did awesome in his debut role and his death scene is one of my favorites in all of horror history.

4-The Last House On The Left 1972

What Happens: 

It's Mari's 17th birthday and she and her best friend Phyllis are getting ready to go to a concert. Mari's parents are very reluctant to let her go seeing at they don't trust Phyllis and don't want them roaming around the city by themselves but they let Mari and Phyllis go anyway as an excuse to set up a surprise party for Mari.

After making it to the city, Phyllis and Mari are walking around looking for pot when they run into Junior who takes them back to his place. There, they meet Sadie, Weasel, and Krug. It is then that they learn that the Sadie, Weasle, and Krug are a group of psychopaths who recently escaped from jail. They beat and gang-rape Phyllis while Mari watches. Then they take the girls into the woods where they are both raped and tortured. Phyllis gets away and tries to distract the three psychos so Mari can get away but Junior is left behind to guard Mari. Mari then tries to win Junior's trust by giving him a necklace her parents gave to her. Junior lets her go but she is soon caught, raped, and killed by Krug and her body is left in a lake.

The four criminals need a place to stay so they go to a nearby house which actually ends up being Mari's. Mari's mom sees Junior wearing Mari's necklace and finds all their bloody clothes. Then she over hears them talking about Mari's murder. Mari's parents find her body in the lake and then take it upon themselves to torture and kill the group of criminals just as they did to Mari.

Why I love it:

Y'know. I don't love this movie. I don't even really like this movie. The only reason this movie is on this list is because it was so good, I almost passed out and I couldn't function normally for a few days after watching it. Have you ever seen or heard something that just made you feel...dirty afterwards? That's what this movie did to me.  It got to me because shit like this actually happens to people all the time. The acting and directing were so good it almost felt real. It was such a brutal and disgusting movie it made me feel numb and disturbed after watching it. And might I add, it is nothing like the remake. Comparing the remake to the original is like comparing a butterfly to a murderous, possessed, rabid bear. If you are into true, down to the core, almost sickening, real life, makes you want to pass out, horror, watch this. If you said No to any of those, don't even bother.

3-The Lost Boys 1987

What Happens: 

Michael and his brother Sam are forced to move with their recently divorced mother, Lucy, to Santa Clara, California. They start spending all their time down at the boardwalk where Sam meets "Vampire Hunters" Edgar and Alan Frog who warn him about all the "blood suckers" in Santa Clara, which Sam doesn't take too seriously. Later on Michael meets Star who he is immediately attracted to and does everything he can to get close to her. As it turns out, she is with David, who is the leader of some motorcycle gang. Soon you realize that David and his crew aren't just crazy, rebellious teenagers. They're vampires. They peer pressure Michael into drinking a "special drink" (blood) which ends up turning him into a vampire as well. While all this is happening, Lucy, gets a job at a video store working for a man named Max. As Sam starts to notice how Michael is changing he eventually calls upon the help of the Frog Brothers who were actually right about the vampires all along. So as the story progresses, good vs. evil blah blah blah, they have to kill the "Head Vampire" in order to stop all the chaos. After killing all he vampires, including David, they realize that David isn't the "Head Vampire". It's Max, the video store owner and Lucy's love interest (awkward). So yeah, he is eventually killed by Michael and all is well.

Why I love it:

Okay, there are so many places I can start when it comes to this movie. It is one of my all time favorite movies and the theme song "Cry Little Sister" is so badass I can't help but close my eyes and sing it with all the passion my little valley girl voice will allow every time I hear it. Not to mention, this was made when vampires were still sexy AND scary. I mean, look at them! Marko? Die. Paul? SHUT UP PAUL. PUT ON A SHIRT. Unf <3

Anyway, it has a bit of a comedic flow to it mainly because it was aimed towards teenagers when it came out. The bon fire scene is one that gets to me every time *shivers* but it's probably one of the best scenes in the movie aside from "Death by Stereo". I very highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it, anyone who is still experimenting in the horror genre, and especially to Twilight fans. This movie is just so good from beginning to end. And after watching it, you will never look at Chinese Food the same way again. "They're only noodles, Michael."

2-Bad Seed 1956

What Happens:

Rhoda Penmark lives with her mother, Christine, while her father is out on military duty. She seems to be your typical, sweet, well behaved little girl. However, there is something different, something off about Rhoda. First of all, she goes through these crazy bipolar anger spells which it turn her into a completely different person until she snaps out of it. Second, she is a master manipulator and only a few people see who she really is because her third and biggest flaw is, she's a murderer.

In the beginning of the movie, Rhoda explains to her landlord Monica that she is jealous of a boy named Claude for getting the penmanship medal she thought she deserved. During a school trip a few days later, Claude ends up drowning in a lake and oddly enough, the last person he was seen talking to was Rhoda. Rhoda also somehow acquired the penmanship medal which she said Claude gave to her before he drowned. Rhoda then starts acting a bit weird and secretive and more and more people start dying before Christine realizes it is Rhoda who is killing everyone. It turns out that Rhoda's grandfather was also a murderous psychopath and Rhoda inherited his crazy antics. Christine then decides to try and kill Rhoda by making her overdose on sleeping pills before she attempts to shoot herself in the head. She and Rhoda are both saved and upon returning home, Rhoda goes down to the lake in the middle of a thunder storm and it struck by lightening and killed.

Why I love it:

I first saw this movie when I was in third grade. My mom rented it for me and I haven't forgotten it since. It was one of the first "forgotten classics" I had ever seen and it is definitely one of my favorites. I love the story, I love Patty McCormack and her pig tails and her face when she's having one of her spells is terrifying! The fact that it is a child creating all this mess and chaos is really what I think makes it a great movie. You always hear of big, strong, adults being the crazy ones but never about the sweet, blonde, beautiful sociopath who commits all her murders in braids and pink dresses all while taking on (or taking out, I should say) the entire fourth grade.

1-Freaks 1932

And now, my number one, all time favorite, can't be topped, Favorite Classic Horror Movie:

FREAKS 

This 1932 classic is about a group of circus sideshow performers who want nothing but to be love and accepted by the "normal" people of the outside world.

Midgets, Hans and his fiance Frieda, run the sideshow portion of the circus. They are loved and respected by everyone and they love and respect all their fellow freaks. Cleopatra is a beautiful trapeze artist who is a bit arrogant and stuck up. She does not want anything to do with the Freaks of the circus because she above and beyond them, in her own mind. One night, she hears Hans talking about his inheritance and she decides to seduce him. Cleopatra tells her boyfriend Hercules about the inheritance and they decide that Cleopatra will marry Hans and then kill him so that she and Hans can run off together and live as millionaires.

After seducing Hans, he breaks off his engagement to Frieda and quickly marries Cleopatra. At their wedding reception, all the Freaks tell Cleopatra they love and accept her. She poisons Hans' wedding wine and for a few days afterwards keeps feeding him poison. One night, while in Hercules' carriage, Venus, another circus performer, hears Cleopatra and Hercules talking about their plan and how they are going to kill Hans. Venus runs away and when Cleopatra comes out of the carriage, all the Freaks are waiting for her. They end up killing Hercules and then mutilating Cleopatra leaving her as a Freak for the rest of her life.

Eventually Hans gets better and marries Frieda and they live happily ever after with the rest of their Freaks.

Why I LOVE this movie:

Well first off, nothing in this movie is computer generated (obviously). All the people with no arms or legs, the lady with the beard, everything was completely legit and real. MGM actually had to cut out a good chunk of the movie because they were getting sued left and right for the disturbing scenes in it. In 1933, the movie actually was banned until its re-release in the 40's.

By the way, that is what they made Cleopatra into and I LOVE IT ^^^

You don't see what happened to Cleopatra until the very end of the movie and it's a very quick glimpse. Trust me, when you are not expecting to see THAT it is very scary. She doesn't even talk anymore, either. She gobbles and clucks like a chicken. I love old movies like this simply because they didn't have the technology back then that we do now so all the acting, effects, and even some of the stories had to be SO over the top good, to keep people interested. Now, just put some blonde girl with big boobs in front of a camera and tell her to scream and you have a masterpiece. It's a bit sad.

So anyway, there you go. My Top 7 Favorite Classic Horror Movies. Whether you haven't seen these, haven't heard of them, or have seen them so many times you can recite every line from memory, I suggest giving them all a chance and try to think "What makes this movie so great?" or y'know, what makes them bad. Because sometimes, the bad ones are just as good as the great ones.

Who I am. What this is.

hor·ror

an overwhelming and painful feeling caused by something frightfully shocking, terrifying, or revolting

I have been obsessed with horror since I can remember. "Are You Afraid of the Dark" was my favorite show when I was still in diapers and the first book series I ever read was "Scary Stories to Tell In The Dark." It's hard to pinpoint how or when I started loving every aspect of this genre but I do remember the day that I realized Horror Movies were my one true passion that nothing could beat.

On October 25, 1978, fifteen years before I was born, the movie that changed my entire life was released. To many horror junkies, like myself, that date marks one of the most influential days in our lives. Halloween by John Carpenter is one of the most well known, if not the best known movie in the entire horror genre. From the iconic, painted white Captain Kirk mask to the eerie, spine tingling score, it's a movie that never fails to scare whether it is your first time or 500th time watching it. My mom forbid me to see that movie, so of course the first chance I got when I was nine years old, I watched it.

91 minutes after seeing Michael Myers wreak havoc on Haddonfield for the first time, I was petrified. I was horrified. I was hooked. From then on my love for horror movies has consumed a huge chunk of my life.\

What was it about Halloween?

I think the first thing that turned me on about Halloween was the fact that I wasn't supposed to be watching it. I already had a sense of fear that my mom would come downstairs or my dad would flick on the light and they would see that I was watching the one movie that I wasn't allowed to see. Before Halloween, I had seen Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Exorcist, Friday the 13th, so I didn't understand what was so bad about this one specific movie.

As soon as the movie starts, you are greeted with the melodic, yet horrifying, original score and you are watching Judith Myers through the eyes of an unknown person. A few moments later you are walking up the stairs, and then a blur. Judith falls to the floor and you walk outside as your parents pull up. They rip off you mask and ask "Michael?" and then you see six year old Michael Myers, holding a knife, with a lost, emotionless face. The face of evil.

As the movie progresses you meet good girl Laurie, and her two best friends. The loveable slut, Linda, and the sarcastic, angsty, Annie. There is stalking, screaming, violence, death, and genuine terror. Watching it at nine years old and even now at twenty, it feels like a roller coaster. A rush of adrenaline whenever someone is left alone, or the shape of Michael watching Laurie from across the street. Knowing that even though you are in no real danger, he is always around, lurking, waiting, watching.

The feeling of fear is really just a very intense form of excitement, which is why people love to be scared. Whenever you hear of a new horror movie being released, what is your first thought? Probably something along the lines of "Oh, I'm so excited to see that!" and then when you're sitting in the theater waiting for it to start or getting it at Redbox the anticipation and your excitement rises. For me, I wonder "how much will this scare me?" I just love to be scared. I love to feel like at any moment, I can look up and see a hooded figure standing in my hallway. It's the adrenaline and the rush that nothing else can give to me. Horror is my love, my passion, pretty much my life. And I can not wait to share it with you.