Halloween Night Frights

Since I'm obsessed with Halloween, I searched the Directv guide for Halloween shows and recorded a bunch of them.  I found one on the Travel Channel called Halloween Night Frights, which is about Halloween-themed roller coasters and theme park attractions and originally aired in 2013.  Since watching this show is the closest I'm going to get to going on a roller coaster (I've been talked into it a few times, and it's always turned out to be a bad idea...people with vertigo should never ride roller coasters), I decided to write about it for the blog.

-Verbolten (Busch Gardens in Williamsburg,Virginia): This roller coaster has 16-foot drop and a "monster jolt when you least expect it."  Verbolten is surrounded by woods and takes passengers through a dark tunnel with flashing lights and images.

http://seaworldparks.com/en/buschgardens-williamsburg/attractions/rides/verbolten/

-Scarywood  (Silverwood Theme Park in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho): Every October, Silverwood Theme Park turns into Scarywood and is "overrun with 185 menacing ghouls."  A train called the Zombiewood Express takes up to 270 passengers to a "zombie-killing battlefield," which looks like a lot of fun...I would definitely go if it weren't in Idaho.

http://www.scarywoodhaunt.com/

-Phantom Fright Nights (Kennywood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania): Zombies walk around the park, and The Phantom's Revenge, a 16-story high roller coaster, travels more than 80 mph and is especially scary at night when riders can't see what's around each turn.

http://phantomfrightnights.com/

-Morey's Fears (Morey's Piers in Wildwood, New Jersey): More than 100 zombies prowl the pier, and the Ghost Ship attraction allows guests to be frightened by actors in a claustrophobic maze.  The Sea Serpent is a 935-foot roller coaster whose "specialty is torturing seasick riders through two cobra-roll inversions" before taking them backwards.  

http://www.moreyspiers.com/

-The Legend and Raven (Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana): Holiday World celebrates Christmas, Thanksgiving, Fourth of July, and Halloween.  The most popular Halloween attraction is The Legend roller coaster, which is named for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and goes through four dark tunnels and has a spiral drop.  The Raven makes riders feel like they're flying and also goes through four tunnels, which is especially disorienting at night.

http://www.holidayworld.com/

-The Haunted Graveyard (Lake Compounce in Bristol, Connecticut):  The Haunted Graveyard features 24 terrifying scenes and more than 200 actors whose "sole mission is to make you pee yourself." (I think I'll skip this one...I have no desire to pee myself anywhere, let alone in public.)

http://www.hauntedgraveyard.com/

-Mamba (Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, Missouri): Mamba is a mile-long roller coaster whose peak is 200 feet high (just thinking about that makes me nauseous), and as if that weren't scary enough, a creepy monster might be sitting behind you on the ride.

https://www.worldsoffun.com/things-to-do/halloween-haunt

-LeVampire (La Ronde in Montreal, Canada): LeVampire is an inverted roller coaster that "spirals ninety feet in three seconds."  The track is above your head, and there's nothing under your feet, so I don't really know why anyone would ride this. ; )

http://www.laronde.com/larondeen/

-Nights of Horror (Luna Park in Brooklyn, New York): The Cyclone roller coaster was built in 1927 and takes riders through "five turns, nine hills, and seven heart-stopping plunges."

http://lunaparknyc.com/

-Howl-O-Scream (Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida): More than 800 scary characters roam the park, and the Alone House is a haunted house that you have to go into by yourself and face off against a "machete-wielding madman" before going through thirteen terrifying rooms. (No, thanks.)

http://seaworldparks.com/en/howloscream-tampa/

Ghost Adventures: Madame Tussauds Wax Museum

I really enjoyed visiting Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in Los Angeles, so when I saw that Ghost Adventures did a 2011 episode at the Madame Tussauds in Las Vegas, I just had to watch it!  The show stars Zak Bagans, Aaron Goodwin, Nick Groff and airs on the Travel Channel.  Zak, Aaron, and Nick start out at the David Saxe Theatre (hey, I saw the fake Beatles there!) at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino.  David Saxe tells Zak that he used to work at the Sands Casino (which is where the Ventian, where Madame Tussauds is located, now stands), and things used to wrong with his sister’s magic act…things that could hurt or kill her.  They installed security cameras because they thought someone was tampering with her props, but they never caught anyone on camera.  David says that he doesn’t believe in ghosts, but he leaves a ghost light on in his theatre anyway; Zak and David see smoke in the theatre, and David can’t explain where it’s coming from.

The Sands used to be owned by the Mafia, and the team talks to a few people in Vegas about the mob activity that went on before arriving at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum.  When they first get to the museum, they talk to Chris Mayes, the show manager at the museum.  Zac wonders if any spirits of dead celebrities are inhabiting their wax likenesses.  Chris gives them some history about Madame Tussaud, saying that during the French Revolution she was forced to find the heads of the deceased and make death masques.  Employee Kurt Mayne tells the team that he has seen ghosts in the maze where the Halloween show takes place.  Another employee, Stephanie Freitas, says that one night at closing, she heard the voice of Elvis Presley, who had performed at the Sands.  Along with another employee, she followed the sound; when they figured out which room it was coming from, they opened the door and felt “a very cold chill…and Elvis was singing louder than ever.”

The crew sets up night vision cameras in the Viva Las Vegas Room and by the staircase.  They begin walking around and hear something laugh at them; this is caught on the camera by the staircase, as well as one of the REM pods lighting up to signify electromagnetic energy.  Zak places a recorder, an EMF detector, and some casino chips on a table, and they soon hear the EMF detector go off.  They crew goes downstairs and try a new device called the Ovilus II that “contains a phonetic generator that spirits can manipulate and choose specific words by using their energy.”  Zak asks if there’s someone in the room, and the word “Noah” shows up in the Ovilus II; the device then shows the words “play,” “corner,” and “tied.” Zak asks the spirit if the Mafia tied him up, and “contract” shows up on the Ovilus II, so the guys deduce that the Mafia put a hit on Noah.  Zak asks what happened after Noah was tied up, and “cave” appears on the Olivus II, so Zak then asks what happened in the cave, and “dig” appears.  Zak asks Noah if he had to dig his own grave, and he answers “throat” through the Ovilus II; he then asks if the Mafia strangled him and Noah answers “lash.”  Zak asks if Noah died then or if the Mafia left him in the cave, and Noah answers “alive.”

The guys decide to split up: Aaron goes to the Scream Maze, Nick goes upstairs, and Zak stays downstairs.  Zak walks around the Spirit of America room with a thermal imaging camera, then heads to the Viva Las Vegas room, but he doesn’t catch anything.  In the Scream Maze, Aaron asks if there’s anyone there who enjoy scaring people and asks if they’ll show their presence…then he feels something go through his body.  Aaron asks the spirit what show it performed in and if it was in a show with three other people…a female voice answers “singing in the rain.”  They wonder if Judy Garland might be the spirit, and Kurt tells Zak that Liza Minnelli’s wax figure is standing right outside of the door to that room.  Upstairs, Nick hears a noise, then takes a picture in which a transparent figure can be seen standing at the bottom of the stairs.

This was a great episode, and watching the Ghost Adventures crew investigate in dark rooms surrounded by wax figures was pretty creepy.

My rating: 8/10

http://www.travelchannel.com/tv-shows/ghost-adventures

Watch the episode here:

And just for fun, here's my favorite photo from my visit to Madame Tussauds in L.A.:

The Dead Files: Hotel Nowhere

I watched my first episode of the Travel Channel's The Dead Files a few days ago; the episode was called "Hotel Nowhere" and aired in May 2013.  The show stars Amy Allan, a psychic medium who communicates with the dead, and Steve Dischiavi, a former homicide detective who researches the history of the haunted location.  Amy and Steve never speak to each other during an investigation, only at the end.  In this episode, Amy and Steve meet Todd, a single father who bought a California mansion that he planned on turning into a hotel. Todd says that he’s heard footsteps, and people have been touched when no one is near them.  He has turned the house into a haunted attraction eight years in a row, and over 30,000 people have come through, so he’s afraid that he’s “stirred things up.”  Laura, one of Todd’s haunted attraction employees, says she was standing in a closet and something grabbed her and pulled her farther into the closest; when she got out and shone her flashlight in there, there was no one there.  She quit that night.     

Todd once saw a black entity in the bedroom, and it rushed at him; Todd screamed and it disappeared.  He tells Steve that the house used to be a sanitarium.  Over the past few years, Todd has had about 100 groups come in and investigate the house.  While Todd and Steve talk, Amy walks through the mansion and senses mentally ill and sick presences.  Glenda, Todd’s sister, feels uneasy in the house and “gets the shakes” every time she goes there; she says her friend got really ill, like she was having a heart attack, when she visited the house and ended up in the hospital for 3 days…and no one could ever figure out what was wrong with her. Glenda also says that something touches her every time she’s in the house; she thinks that Todd should bulldoze the house and says she would never spend the night alone there.  In the basement, Amy says the spirits hang out there, and she senses people banging on the walls, trying to get out.  The dead are telling her that they’re fed up “with the living antagonizing them.”       

Steve meets with David Hadden, the county coroner, to learn more about the sanitarium.  Hadden says it originally took in tuberculosis patients, and dead bodies were kept in the basement until the mortician could get them.  After tuberculosis died down, the sanitarium began accepting mental patients and did not treat them well; “they’d chain them to toilets and sinks, they’d have them lying nude in the hallway, some did electroshock therapy and lobotomies, or they’d over-medicate them.”  In the library, Steve finds an article saying a man named Tony Andrews bought the property, but lost it in foreclosure; Tony died of cirrhosis at age 36.  Outside Amy senses a spirit who says he “rules the roost” and was forced to get rid of the property; she says he thought it was great when he had it and is not happy about what it turned into, and Amy has a bad feeling about him. 

After Amy and Steve complete their separate investigations, Amy tells Todd that she sensed spirits of mentally ill people“ crawling on the ceiling and down the side of the stairs” and that saw someone throwing up; Todd says that people have come to the house and suddenly vomited.  Amy also tells Todd that she saw mistreatment, such as a woman “who was being held down and beaten” and “a patient having his head beat in."  Todd says that when he had the structure torn down that used to house mental patients, the paranormal activity increased.  Amy says that she saw a man and a woman who kept saying “We did a good job,” and Steve tells her that a woman used to own the sanitarium and sold it to Orrell Lamoreaux, who later died in the house.  Todd wants to advertise his future hotel as a haunted one, but Amy advises Todd to provide counseling for the spirits (using a transpersonal psychologist) and to have an exorcism to get rid of the spirits who don’t respond to counseling.  Amy says the spirits are aggressive, and Todd could be putting his guests’ lives in danger.  Todd has not contacted a transpersonal psychologist and is still planning to turn the mansion into a hotel.

The Dead Files was an interesting show, but I didn't enjoy it as much as some of the other paranormal shows I've watched, such as Ghost Bait or When Ghosts Attack.  Once Todd opens his haunted hotel, I hope no one is actually dumb enough to stay there...that sounds like a really bad idea.

My rating: 7/10

http://www.travelchannel.com/tv-shows/the-dead-files

Book Review: Chasing Spirits by Nick Groff

I’ve only watched one episode of Ghost Adventures (which stars paranormal investigators Nick Groff, Zak Bagans, and Aaron Goodwin), but when I saw that the library had a book written by Nick Groff (with Jeff Belanger), I decided to read Chasing Spirits: The Building of the Ghost Adventures Crew to find out more about how the show came into existence.  Nick has had paranormal experiences since childhood; he had a near-death experience when he was eight years old and saw his first ghost at age ten, so it’s not too surprising that he made a documentary about ghost hunting years later and that it led to Nick, Zak, and Aaron getting a show on the Travel Channel.  The book was very interesting, and I enjoyed reading about Nick's life.  My favorite chapters were "Possession in Savannah," where Nick talks about an entity attaching itself to him (causing him to have thoughts that weren't his own about killing Zak and Aaron) when the Ghost Adventures crew was investigating the Moon River Brewery in Savannah, Georgia, and "Linda Vista Hospital: The Game Changer," in which Nick recounts the scariest moment of his life...locking eyes with a woman in a hospital gown, who, of course, was a spirit.  Near the end of the book, Nick said something that I really agree with: "It's always bothered me that when you think the paranormal exists, it's called belief and subject to ridicule and mockery.  But when you buy into religion unabashedly, it's called faith, and that's perfectly acceptable" (page 219).  This has always bothered me too...more people have seen paranormal entities than God, so I've never understood why it's seen as normal to believe in God, but people will act like someone's crazy if they say they've seen a ghost or an alien.

I really enjoyed Chasing Ghosts, and it made me want to watch more episodes of Ghost Adventures.  I'm excited to watch the two that are on my DVR (especially the one that takes place at the old jail in my hometown of Charleston, SC) and I'll definitely watch even more of them!

My rating: 8/10

UFOs Crashed My Vacation

The 2013 Travel Channel show UFOs Crashed My Vacation tells the stories of "six vacations that didn't go as planned."  The first vacation-gone-wrong is the trip Chuck Rak, Charlie Foltz, and Jack and John Weiner took in Allagash, Maine in 1976.  The Boston art students were planning on a few relaxing days of camping and fishing, but that all changed once Charlie spotted something red glowing in the sky.  A few nights later, the men went fishing in a canoe and saw the object hovering above them, so Charlie signaled the UFO with a light; it started moving toward them, then a beam of light came out of the bottom onto the water.  The men found themselves on the shore with no recollection of how they got there.  Jack had nightmares for the next twelve years, so he underwent hypnosis to try to remember what happened; the other three also did it, and Jack, Jim, and Charlie all recalled being painfully examined by aliens.  Charlie doesn't believe that they were abducted and thinks the UFO left them alone.

In July 1994 in San Francisco Bay, Ruben Uriante was meditating when he heard a voice say "You're going to England."  He went to Wiltshire County to see crop circles with a tour group, and later that night, they heard that a new crop circle had appeared, so they went to check it out.  Ruben attempted to communicate telepathically with whoever told him he was going to England, saying he would be thankful if it appeared to him; a few minutes later, a ball of light appeared and began descending, followed by two more.  They disappeared as soon as someone took out a video camera.

In Denver, Colorado in August 1982, Denise and Ed Stoner were on the road when they spotted two bright red lights moving toward them; she asked Ed to slow down, but he was in a trance.  The next thing they knew, it was three hours later and they had traveled forty miles with no recollection of doing it.  A few years later, Denise underwent hypnosis to remember that night; while under hypnosis, she drew a UFO and remembered two "entities" taking her out of the car and implanting a tracking device in her foot when she was on the UFO.

In July 1975 in Mount Rainer, Washington, newlyweds Bob and Laurel Gilge were looking for a campsite when they saw a sign for a UFO convention.  They decided to go, and when they tried to leave, the conference leader said they couldn't go because the group was about to do a ceremony just for them. Someone began speaking in tongues, and the leader drew crosses on Bob and Laurel's foreheads with oil. Back at their campsite, Bob and Laurel heard a hum that kept getting louder, then saw a UFO and started screaming at it that they wouldn't get on it.  The UFO disappeared.

In southern California in July 1990, supernatural enthusiasts Melinda Leslie and her friends Steve and Mike decided to take a trip to a place in the San Bernadino Mountains that was known for UFO sightings.  On the two-hour drive, Steve stuck his search light out of the window to attract a UFO, and a few minutes later, strange lights appeared in the sky.  The search light died, their police scanner began malfunctioning, their walkie-talkies started making noise, and they saw three flashes of light in the car.  Their next memory was of driving on the road and being extremely thirsty; they looked at the clock and realized that it was three hours later than they thought it would be.  Three days later, Melinda started remembering things, such as the car stopping and being approached by extraterrestrials, walking up a ramp into a UFO, and having needles stuck in her; she thinks that the aliens may have taken eggs from her as well.

In December 2000, Juan Cardenas and his family (wife Patricia and sons Jesus and Jonathan) were on a road trip from Pasco, Washington to Mexico when they spotted a bright light moving in the sky over southwest Texas.  Patricia began filming it, and the kids eventually convinced Juan to pull over so they could get out and look at the object.  The light started changing color, and Juan decided it was time to leave; the light followed them for awhile, then it disappeared.  Juan did not believe in UFOs before that night, but he's convinced that's what his family encountered.

I'm not sure if UFOs Crashed My Vacation is going to be a regular show or if it was just a special, but I hope they do some more of these.  It was a different take on the UFO show since it only focused on people who were on vacation, and I'm sure there are plenty more stories they could share.

My rating: 8.5/10 

http://www.travelchannel.com/tv-shows/ufos-crashed-my-vacation

Paranormal Paparazzi: Family UFO Abduction

A few days ago I watched Paranormal Paparazzi (which airs on the Travel Channel) for the first time, and it reminded me of TMZ, but with ghosts and aliens instead of celebrities.  The show is hosted by professor/journalist Aaron Sagers, and the Paranormal Paparazzi reporters travel around the country and report on paranormal stories.  This episode was entitled "Family UFO Abduction," and in the show's first segment, reporter Branden Wellington travels to Knoxville, Tennessee to interview Tom Reed, a man who claims that he was abducted by aliens, as well as his brother, mother, and grandmother.  Tom tells Branden that his family had a farm in Massachusetts in the early 1960s and that, along with his brother, he saw and boarded a UFO while living there.  Branden talks to Jimmy Morris, who had given Tom a polygraph test years ago; he said that he remembers that Tom passed the test and was telling the truth about what happened in the 1960s.  Back at Paranormal Paparazzi headquarters, Branden says that after talking to Jimmy and looking at the evidence (medical tests, etc.), he believes that Tom is telling the truth.

Scott Gruenwald travels to the Mogollan Rim, Arizona in search of the Mogollon Monster, which is described as a "Bigfoot-like creature."  Bigfoot Hunters Jerry Waite, Mitchell Waite, and Alex Hearn take Scott into the woods, and they find a giant footprint.  Could it belong to the Mogollan Monster? Later in the show, Scott goes to the Moonlight Bunny Ranch in Las Vegas, where owner Dennis Hof says there are two haunted rooms, one of which belonged to a woman who was murdered while she was away on vacation.  This room was also where Andy Kaufmann spent most of his time whenever he visited the ranch.  Residents/employees Candy and Kim go into the room with Scott and are startled when a door moves by itself; they also note that the room has gotten very cold, but that could just be because they're only wearing lingerie. ; )

Rachel Fine goes to Torrington, Connecticut to spend the night at the haunted Yankee Peddler Inn, which has been around since 1890 and was the inspiration for the 2011 movie The Innkeepers.  Robert Persachino, who owns the hotel's restaurant, tells Rachel about a guest who said a rocking chair in his room would start rocking every time he went to bed; he had to put the chair out in the hall so he could get some sleep.  Rachel stays in room 353, where the inn's former owner allegedly died; current owner Sanjay Patel says that the maids refuse to clean that room by themselves because they're afraid.  Rachel is hoping to detect some paranormal activity, but she tries an E.V.P. session and a K-II meter, and nothing happens.  

I enjoyed Paranormal Paparazzi and will definitely try to catch more episodes.  I have one on my DVR that is about Will Ferrell's haunted trailer, and he's one of my favorite people, so I'm excited to watch that episode.  : )

My rating: 8/10

http://www.travelchannel.com/tv-shows/paranormal-paparazzi

Halloween Craziest

I recently watched a 2013 special on the Travel Channel called Halloween Craziest, and it showcased some of the scariest Halloween attractions in North America.  Here's a list of the attractions and a little information about each one:

-McKamey Manor (San Diego): Owner Russ McKamey has spent about $500,000 converting his home into a terrifying haunted house using animatronics, cgi, and special effects.  He also handcuffs people and covers their heads with hoods and says that some people have gotten so scared they’ve passed out.  Russ does 8 shows every weekend in September and October and uses neighborhood kids as some of his 15 actors.

http://www.mckameymanor.com/

-Zombie Crawl (Denver, Colorado): This event hosts 15,000 "zombies" every October and includes something called the Organ Trail scavenger hunt, which founder Danny Newman describes as “clue-solving scavenger hunt all around downtown Denver.”  Some of the challenges include crime scene investigation and eating live worms.  There is also a sack race in which zombies have to hop to a drinking station, drink some “zombie juice,” and hop back to their starting point.

http://eyeheartbrains.com

-Fearshire Farms (Angelton, Texas): Owners Rodney and Cindy Davis transform their farm into the haunted Fearshire Farm (which includes a haunted corn maze) at night; it is believed that the farmhouse is haunted by a family who lived and died there in the 1800s.  It is not uncommon for visitors to Fearshire Farm to soil themselves out of fear.

http://fearshirefarms.com/

-Delusion: The Blood Rite (Los Angeles): This is an “interactive horror play” where the audience members have to act as former patients of a dead psychiatrist who they want to resurrect.  Writer/director Jon Braver is a stuntman who has made sure that his play has “movie-quality stunt work.”

http://www.hauntedplay.com/

-Skin City Body Painting (Las Vegas): People go here to have their costumes painted on; the work is very impressive, but the customers are basically naked, and the body painting costs way more than an actual costume does.

http://www.skincitybodypainting.com/

-Zombie Paintball Hayride (Fenton, Missouri): This attraction debuted in 2012; Creepyworld creator Larry Kirchner says the hayride “takes people through an Old West town, and then everywhere you turn, there’s a creepy zombie ready to eat you.”

http://www.scarefest.com/haunted_house.cfm

-Lemp Brewery (St. Louis, MO): The brewery was shut down by prohibition in 1919, and 5 members of the Lemp family died in the mansion that was connected to the brewery over the next 30 years; at least 3 of these deaths were suicides.   For $20, you can go into the caves and caverns underneath the brewery and walk through 10 scary scenes; some of the actors believe that the brewery really is haunted.

http://www.scarefest.com/haunted_house.cfm

-Statesville Haunted Prison (Crest Hill, Illinois): Mastermind John LaFlamboy says the idea of the prison is that these prisoners were too evil for regular jail and ended up taking over the prison.  This attraction has 150 inmates, 23 rooms, live roaches, spiders, and snakes (including an 8-foot boa constrictor), and a “Clown Room.”

http://www.statesvillehauntedprison.com/index.php

-Hell’s Gate Pumpkin Drop (Hope, British Columbia): People drop pumpkins from airtrams that are 500 feet in the air.

-Zip of Terror (Boyne Falls, Michigan): This is a haunted zipline that people have to do in the dark; when they walk through the woods to get from one zipline to another, scary things jump out at them.

http://www.boyne.com/BoyneMountain/AnnualEvents/ZipOfTerror.html

-Blackout Haunted House (New York, NY): Visitors to the “twelve scenarios of psychological torment” must be over 18 and go by themselves with only a flashlight and a protective mask.  Don’t go if you’re not willing to be groped.

http://www.blackouthh.com/home

-Coffin Race (Manitou Springs, Colorado): This race honors Emma Crawford, who was buried on top of Red Mountain and whose casket sped down the mountain after a storm.  Each homemade coffin has 1 person inside and 4 pushers (or pallbearers); the race is 195 yards with 50 teams running 2 by 2.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Manitou-Springs-Emma-Crawford-Coffin-Races/383956185007