M is for Movies (In Alphabetical Order)

Wow! This was hard selecting the Top Ten supernatural and paranormal movies. Ask me again tomorrow and I might have a whole new list. 

1408: Adapted from Stephen King’s short story, a man (John Cusack) who specializes in debunking paranormal occurrences checks into the fabled room 1408 in the Dolphin Hotel. Soon after settling in, he confronts genuine terror. 

This is a must see for all horror/supernatural/paranormal buffs!

Fun Fact: In its standard edition, the DVD runtime is exactly 104 min and 8 sec, referring directly to the movie title. This also makes the DVD stop playing at precisely 1:44:08, again referring to the title. 

American Horror Story: Coven: Coven (Jessica Lange, Emma Roberts) is the third season of the FX horror anthology television series American Horror Story and follows a Coven of Salem witches as they fight for survival in New Orleans. 

Fun Fact: Kathy Bates plays historical personage Madame LaLurie, a real life Louisiana-born socialite and serial killer who kept slaves bound in her home. Bates' great grandfather was the personal physician to Andrew Jackson, who lived next door to LaLurie. How freaky is that???

Ghostbusters: Three odd-ball scientists get kicked out of their cushy positions at a university in New York City where they studied the occult. They decide to set up shop in an old firehouse and become Ghostbusters, trapping pesky ghosts, spirits, haunts, and poltergeists for money. 

Fun Fact: Dan Akroyd received much of the inspiration for this movie from a haunted house he lived in. 

Harry Potter: All Eight Movies. Need I say more? 

  

Fun Fact: Only Alan Rickman, the actor who played Professor Snape, knew his character’s fate before the release of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” because Rowling told him. 

Inception: Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a thief with the rare ability to enter people's dreams and steal their secrets from their subconscious. His skill has made him a hot commodity in the world of corporate espionage but has also cost him everything he loves. Cobb gets a chance at redemption when he is offered a seemingly impossible task: Plant an idea in someone's mind. If he succeeds, it will be the perfect crime, but a dangerous enemy anticipates Cobb's every move. 

Fun Fact: The creator of Inception, Chris Nolan, had long wanted to make this movie based on his own experiences of lucid dreams. 

Poltergeist: A young family are visited by ghosts in their home. At first the ghosts appear friendly, moving objects around the house to the amusement of everyone, then they turn nasty and start to terrorize the family before they "kidnap" the youngest daughter.

Fun Fact: This movie is being remade and released May 22nd. The original is a hard act to follow as Poltergeist is a cult classic. 

Ringu (Japanese Version of The Ring): A reporter must investigate a mysterious video tape which seems to cause the death of anyone watching it within a week.  

Fun Fact: In total there have been nine official films (6 Japanese and 3 remakes/spinoffs) 2 television series, 2 video games, and one short film in the Ringu series.

The Conjuring: Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse. 

Fun Fact: The Conjuring was based on the true case files of a real-life couple, Ed and Lorraine (played in the film by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson), who were American paranormal investigators that founded the New England Society for Psychic Research in 1952. 

The Orphanage: A woman brings her family back to her childhood home, which used to be an orphanage for handicapped children. Before long, her son starts to communicate with an invisible new friend. 

Fun Fact: Although uncredited, the exec producer Guillermo del Toro plays the doctor at the Emergency Ward who tends to Laura after she injures her leg. 

The Shining: Jack Torrance becomes winter caretaker at the isolated Overlook Hotel in Colorado, hoping to cure his writer's block. He settles in with his wife and son, Danny, who is plagued by psychic premonitions. As Jack's writing goes nowhere and his sons visions become more disturbing, Jack discovers the hotel's dark secrets and begins to unravel into a homicidal maniac hell-bent on terrorizing his family.

Fun Fact: Stephen King was originally unhappy about the way Jack Nicholson portrayed the main character. 

Editor's Cut: Pet Sematary (yes, I spelled that correctly), Insidious, The Woman in Black, The Sixth Sense, and Salem’s Daughters (Okay, I’m biased as this is my latest and greatest). 

The Exorcist: It didn’t scare me. And that’s the reason why I went to the movie. Cheesy and boring. Yawn.

Honorable Mention: Mythology, Metaphysics, Magic, and Mediums. 

Tomorrow: Numerology. You won't want to miss this one!  

Question: Have you seen any of these movies? Did I miss some real good ones? What are some of your favorite supernatural or paranormal movies?

Who Am I? My name is Stephen Tremp, and I'm a Speculative Fiction Writer. My theme for the 2015 Blogging A to Z Challenge is The Supernatural and Paranormal. My latest work, Salem’s Daughters, is due for release Labor Day Weekend 2015.

L is for Lucid Dream

Lucid Dreams: A lucid dream is any dream in which one is aware that one is dreaming. It usually happens while you are dreaming the dream. 

But let’s take this a step deeper. In this type of dream you have the ability, at least to an extent, to control your thoughts and actions as well as your surroundings. It’s like being awake and conscious inside your dream. Freaky. 

Great Movie on Lucid Dreaming

I’ve had a handful of dreams like this, although it’s been a while. I remember one vividly. A very good friend (ahem) was working behind the scenes to take me down and out in real life. I had a dream I was in combat with this person on a regulation mat and we were using martial arts against each other. 

I’ve had some martial arts training but nothing to brag about. But in the dream I was very much awake and had to act, react, defend myself, and take the offensive. I made conscious and awesome decisions to not only protect myself from the onslaught, but to let this person know there was a price to be paid for messing with me. 

True story. I'll take this willingly to my personal Judgment Day and give an account for it.

Question: Have you had any dreams like this. Dreams that you not just dreaming of some really strange $h!+, but that you are aware and can consciously effect and even control the dream?

Tomorrow: M is for Movies. Stop by and tell us your favorite supernatural and paranormal movies!

Honorable Mention: Levitation, Lycanthropy

K is for Key Cards

Key Cards: Cards that are used in a card-guessing experiment. Participants of this experiment try to guess of five symbols from a deck of cards that are shuffled and presented randomly. 

If you saw the movie Ghostbusters, at the beginning Bill Murray is conducting just such an experiment with hilarious consequences. 

Wednesday: M is for Movies is my favorite post. Stop by and let us know what your favorite supernatural or paranormal movies are. 

K is for Karma: I'm also posting over at the A to Z main blog. Simply click Einstein's smiling face toward the top of my left side bar.

Honorable Mention: Knocks and Taps, K2 Meter, Kirlian Photography 

Tuesday: L is for Lucid Dreaming 

Key Card scene from Ghostbusters:

 

J is for Judgment

Do You Believe In A Final Judgment? One where you will have to give an account for what you say and do in this life? Just about every civilization has believed in an ultimate judgment in the afterlife that will determine where and how they spend eternity. 

Charon ferrying newly deceased across River Styx to Underworld

Greek Mythology: You went to the underworld ruled by Hades and were judged by three judges, Rhadamanthus, Minos, and Aeacus. They passed sentence based on an individual’s deeds during their life on Earth. The good went to the Elysian Fields, others were singled out for special treatment. 

Reincarnation: Hindus believe the soul is immortal and people are reincarnated back on Earth. Others think that when we die, that’s all she wrote. Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die and there is no afterlife. 

Bema Seat: I’m of the Christian faith and believe I’ve been atoned for, although I will still be judged at the Bema Seat of Christ. People who are saved during the period from the Day of Pentecost to the Rapture will go to heaven, but that’s were all their works (good and bad) will be tried by fire. Whatever survives, if anything, they will be rewarded for. 

Great White Judgment: This is where all of the saved that have died before the Day of Pentecost, as well as all of the unsaved regardless when they lived, are judged. Those whose names are found written in the Book of Life will inherit eternal life with God. Those whose names are not found will be cast into the Lake of Fire forever. 

Question: Do you believe in a final ultimate judgment for the afterlife? 

Recommended Reading: I love Dante’s Inferno. You have to find a good translator to understand and appreciate the Divine Comedy. Much like Edgar Allen Poe. Don’t try to read it on your own. 

Honorable Mention: Jamais Vu

Monday: K is for Key Cards

I is for Illuminism

Need a Path to Enlightenment? How about Illuminism, the belief that you or a movement of a particular group has superior knowledge not accessible to humankind in general. Of course, the name Illuminati comes to mind. If the group(s) does exist, most imagine that they conspire to control world affairs by controlling governments, corporations and global events. 

According to conspiracy theories, the Illuminati want to attain political power establish a New World Order. At least, this is how Hollywood portrays secret societies that also include Free Masonry and the Bilderberg Group. 

Signs and symbols (please visit my S is for Signs and Symbols post) run rampant through our society and many such as what you see on the front and back of our currency are attributed to secret societies. Enlightened groups who are far superior intellectually and spiritually than the common folk like you and me. 

Question: Do you believe groups exist like the Iluminati, Free Masonry, and the Bilderberg Group that try to control world events and want to usher in a New World Order?

Honorable Mention: Immortals, I Ching 

Tomorrow: J is for Judgment

H is for Haunted House

Love That Selfie!!!

Have you ever been in a haunted house? How does a house become haunted? I’m convinced it comes down to a matter of authority. A presence has a legal right to remain there. Sometimes it’s possible to take authority and kick that presence out. Other times, it simply doesn’t work that way and the presence remains. 

I mentioned in my post F is for Footsteps there was a house my wife worked at as private duty home health care for an elderly woman. I would visit often and we would hear and sense footsteps. True story. We tried to take authority and kick it out but could not. Whatever it was maintained a legal right to be there. All we could do is keep it at bay. It could only approach the door of the room we were in but could not come any further. 

Who You Gonna Call?

There was a second client wifey had a couple years ago with a similar situation, although this presence was mean and violent and did not like men. So my wife, her client, and our daughters were okay. Me, well, that’s another story. I literally got wholloped by this thing. We would bring our small dog as the client loved the little guy, and he would bark madly moments before this thing would attack me. The dog, also a male, was not welcomed in this house. Whatever was going on, this presence yielded far more authority than the previous house. 

So there it is. What allows a house to be haunted? A certain level of authority. Most likely, there was a previous event that occurred, perhaps occultic in nature, that allows the presence to set up shop and remain there. 

Question: Ever been in a haunted house? Do you think a presence can physically attack people? Can animals like a dog can detect a presence in a haunted house? 

Honorable Mention: Horoscope, Hydromancy, Hypnosis 

Tomorrow: I is for Illuminism

G is for Ghost

Come Play With Us - The Shining

A ghost (phantom, specter, apparition, or spook) is generally accepted as the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can manifest itself to the living. 

There is a real fascination with ghosts these days as there are no shortages of ghost hunter and paranormal reality shows and Websites. TV shows like Unsolved Mysteries, Sightings, Ghost Hunters, Paranormal State, and The Haunted to name a few take the viewer to locations that are notoriously haunted and the paranormal teams attempt to capture images and sounds and even attempt to make contact with whatever is causing the paranormal activity. 

Awesome Ghost Lloyd the Bartender - The Shining

In my latest work Salem’s Daughters, there’s a team of paranormal specialists with an extremely popular cable TV show who decide to stay at Murcat Manor and have a live three hour show for their fans. 

Big mistake. 

The paranormal team got far more than they bargained for. But then, so did the witches who inhabit the feline bodies of thirteen cats and lounge around the popular bed and breakfast, hiding in plain sight while carrying out the murders of the guests. 

Never underestimate an opponent regardless of the side you are on.

Question: Do you believe in ghosts? Ever seen or feel their presence?

Honorable Mention: Gnome, Gematria, Gemstones

Tomorrow: H is for Haunted House (You'll want to check out this one!!!)