There's no shortage of horror films in the
world, but they all have one problem: they
aren't real.
You know Freddy Krueger won't really get you
because he's just Robert Englund in a mask.
Werewolves don't wreak havoc in London, and
there are no sexy vampires who just want to
play sexy baseball.
"It's the American pastime."
No, what you need in your horror is that taste
of real-life terror.
Here are some creepy documentaries about the
paranormal that are guaranteed to get under
your skin.
Invasion on Chestnut Ridge
If you didn't know that southwest Pennsylvania
is basically Spooktown Central, USA, you will
after watching Invasion on Chestnut Ridge,
the latest installment in the Small Town Monsters
paranormal documentary series.
Following a high-profile UFO sighting and
alleged military cover-up in Kecksburg, Pennsylvania,
in the 1960s, the area also experienced a
huge upsurge in Bigfoot sightings in the 1970s.
"The woman who lived across from me, heard
a noise at the back of her trailer.
And she opened the door and bigfoot was standing
there."
People living around Chestnut Ridge reported
seeing UFOs and bizarre creatures for years,
and the reports continue to this day.
This film traces the history of these sightings
across the decades through first-hand accounts
and chilling reenactments.
The Mothman of Point Pleasant
Also part of the Small Town Monsters series,
The Mothman of Point Pleasant investigates
one of the strangest events of the 20th century.
Over the course of 13 months in the 1960s,
the small West Virginia town of Point Pleasant
was home to numerous sightings of a strange,
winged creature, which culminated in the deadly
collapse of the Silver Bridge.
The events of this story have been dramatized
in various films, including perhaps most famously
2002's The Mothman Prophecies.
But the 2017 documentary The Mothman of Point
Pleasant takes a personal look at the events
through eyewitness interviews and reports.
The movie is a deep dive into the phenomenon
that has become a point of pride for the people
of Point Pleasant, inspiring a statue, a museum,
and an annual festival.
Other monsters wish they had it so good.
The Nightmare
This 2015 documentary looks into the phenomenon
of sleep paralysis.
But as you watch it, you'll quickly realize
that you aren't going to get any dry, boring
facts.
In fact, not a single doctor or scientist
is interviewed throughout the film's 90-minute
runtime.
Instead, The Nightmare sees eight different
individuals who have experienced sleep paralysis
describe their experiences, which are then
reenacted to horrifying effect.
While they're all bizarre, the one that will
really stick with you is the shadow people.
Looming silhouettes who stand over your bed
while you lie helpless is enough to inspire
a few nightmares of your own, whether you
experience sleep paralysis or not.
My Amityville Horror
Chances are, you're at least kind of familiar
with The Amityville Horror.
You might have read the 1977 book by Jay Anson
or seen the 1979 film or its 2005 remake.
But there's always room for one more interpretation,
right?
My Amityville Horror came out in 2012 and
is an account of the Amityville haunting from
the perspective of the now-adult Daniel Lutz,
who was only a child at the time of the alleged
haunting.
While the movie does look at the haunting
from his point of view, it's also a look at
the way being associated with a famous paranormal
story since childhood has affected Daniel
psychologically.
A Haunting in Connecticut and Georgia
In 2002, the Discovery Channel released two
feature-length specials, A Haunting in Connecticut
and A Haunting in Georgia, which went on to
inspire the fictionalized theatrical release
The Haunting in Connecticut and its sequel,
the improbably titled The Haunting in Connecticut
2: Ghosts of Georgia.
The original TV documentaries recount the
alleged experiences from the perspectives
of the victims, mixing reenactments with narration
and interviews.
Connecticut deals with a family moving into
a house that was formerly a funeral parlor.
There, the children begin seeing ghosts, including
a demon they refer to as "the Man in the Suit."
"This demon would tell him, go upstairs and
do something bad."
Meanwhile, Georgia deals with a family who
moves into an abandoned home only for their
4-year-old daughter to begin communicating
with a series of imaginary friends.
In short, if creepy kids and their spooky
imaginary friends give you the heebie-jeebies,
the two pilot episodes of the now-ongoing
A Haunting series are probably just what you're
looking for.
The Pantry Ghost Documentary
The "pantry ghost" phenomenon began with a
series of YouTube videos in 2007 in which
a man claimed there was a ghost opening his
pantry door every night at the same time,
12:34 a.m.
The authenticity of these videos has been
hotly debated in the decade since they first
appeared, and 2013's The Pantry Ghost Documentary
expands on the alleged phenomenon, adding
interviews with the man's family and giving
the background of how the original videos
came to be made.
It'll definitely have you questioning how
it was done, whether by human or inhuman means.
Ghosts on the Underground
This eerie 2005 documentary doesn't rely on
the usual reenactments or jump scares.
It's mostly a series of interviews with workers
from London's subway system, the oldest in
the world, in which the workers explain the
strange things they've seen and experienced.
There's no composited footage of what a ghost
might have looked like and no actors — just
real people with real stories.
The closest the film comes to offering visual
evidence of a ghost is a man in an electric
chair that appeared in the background of a
photo of a little boy.
Even so, Ghosts on the Underground covers
some seriously creepy stories, and the film
regularly inserts title cards to remind you
just how many people have actually died down
there, which is spooky enough on its own.
Out of the Blue
Are there aliens among us?
That's the question posed by the 2002 TV documentary
Out of the Blue, a feature-length film that
calls itself "the definitive investigation
of the UFO phenomenon."
This film is packed with interviews with experts,
from scientists to eyewitnesses to high-ranking
military officials, in an attempt to prove
that some unidentified flying objects actually
may have alien origins.
It also looks into alleged government attempts
to smother public belief in extraterrestrials.
If alien encounters and government conspiracies
are more your cup of tea than ghosts in the
pantry, then Out of the Blue and its sequel,
I Know What I Saw, are probably for you.
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