Thursday, August 27, 2015

Paranormal Spookiness: Bring it on!

Posted by: Angela Campbell
Confession time: I’m a little down in the dumps today because I’ve been so busy and mixed up that I’ve been thinking for a month that today is the day I was supposed to leave for my annual pilgrimage to Dragoncon in Atlanta, only to realize — last night actually — that Dragoncon is next weekend.

D’oh!

So as I glumly sat down to devour a cupcake in front of the TV last night, pouting and moping, I got sucked into watching “Paranormal Witness” on Syfy. It’s a creepy show. I don’t recommend watching it alone at night with only your cat to protect you. Then again, I’m weird, so of course that’s exactly what I did.

“Paranormal Witness” is one of those reality-scripted hybrid shows where actors reenact supposed real-life ghost stories while the real people narrate their stories.

You would think that someone who writes about ghosts and hauntings and paranormal spookiness wouldn’t be bothered by such things, and you’d have been right a year or so ago. I don’t really know why, but these days, I get spooked a lot easier than I used to. I was raised on horror movies because my older brothers were sadistic. My best friend growing up lived in an honest-to-God haunted house and I saw things I, to this day, still can't explain. When I put flowers on my mom’s grave, I generally go at night, er, sometimes after midnight because of my work schedule, and I’ve never been scared to be in a graveyard after dark. I will admit I’ve seen some freaky things there though. Hey, I already said I was weird, remember? 

To be frank, I guess I was pretty desensitized to spooky stuff at a young age. A friend once told me if I opened the door and a man in a mask was standing there holding a knife, I’d probably look at him, shrug, and think “Meh.” Weirdo — that would be me, remember?

Anyway. The episode of “Paranormal Witness” that was on last night was about these people who moved into an abandoned motel that was haunted. Naturally, the husbands on these shows never believe that something spooky is going on because, well, men. Basically it always goes something like this:

Woman: I saw a woman’s head floating in the bathtub!

Man: Are you on your period?

The episode went on to feature creepy shadow men, black-eyed killers, and little ghost girls — gah, I hate the ghost kids, they always creep me the eff out! — and people who had previously been murdered there. As they do.

The point of all this is, I slept with a light on last night. That never, well, rarely happens with me. But I also started thinking of possible plots to use in a future book.

Because that’s not weird either, right?

Halloween is right around the corner — rubs hands with glee — so tell me. Are you a wimp when it comes to the paranormal, or do you love all things spooky like I do?

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Angela Campbell is the author of the psychic detectives series from Harper Impulse. Learn more about her and her books at www.AngelaCampbellOnline.com.

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Who knew pet sitting could be so dangerous…or so sexy? 
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It doesn’t take long for accident-prone Spider to lose a dog, get locked out of the house, and set off the house alarm. Thankfully, her hot new neighbour is more than happy to come to her rescue.

But Noah West is a mystery to Spider—and one she intends to solve.

2 comments:

  1. When it comes to horror, I actually prefer spooky and creepy over gory, so yeah, bring it on!

    To a point, though. The movie Paranormal Activity wigged me RIGHT OUT and it did not help that my wife, bless her, thought it was funny to stand beside the bed in the dark and wait until I saw her and shrieked. ;)

    Likewise, The Ring had held the previous record for movie that creeped me right out. That was PARTICULARLY effective because the movie had bits set in Seattle, and we could tell they'd gotten it right because of the light and the weather AND our busses. And we came out of the theater and were all OH SHIT WE'RE STILL IN THE MOVIE.

    Our housemate had it worse, though. He was living in the studio apartment of our rental at the time. A room which was dominated by--wait for it--a giant TV screen. THAT was fun to look at in the dark after seeing that movie, that's for sure. Muahahaha.

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    1. lol. I saw 'Paranormal Activity' with a friend who was easy to scare. I, uh, might have been a little freaked out by that one myself. I remember waking up the night I saw it and my bedroom door was slowly opening ON ITS OWN! Not really. It turned out to be my cat, but for a second, I was convinced I was about to be attacked by a demon. And yes, 'The Ring'! That one spooked me a little. ;)

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