ghosts by tony k

GHOSTS

by Tony K

The blurb said, ''HMP Gloucester has a long and chilling history with many of the executed criminals remain buried in the grounds of the prison. 

Some of the most infamous serial killers have been incarcerated within the walls of Gloucester Prison. 

The prison formally closed on 31 March 2013 but the suffering and torment is deeply etched within the fabric of this foreboding location.'' What better way to serve a six hour sentence than inside a cold dark derelict prison.

It was nearly Halloween, so I thought it was time to get into the spirit of things. I was doing my porridge with a rogues gallery of family and friends who had signed up for an organised ghost hunt. 

 We joined a 60 strong group of wanna-be ghost hunters who paid to be here. A show of hands said some were seasoned paranormal veterans, whilst others like myself were first timers. 

Old fashioned ouija boards and table tipping were the instructed methods of communication given to our digital-age group. I wondered if the dearly departed disliked modern technology, or was it simply more cost effective to use 1800's style spirit boards?

There was no internal lighting. Visibility was determined by torch light. Photos were limited by camera flash. Despite excited anticipation, the ouija board session in the Segregation Block proved mute for our group. 

I wondered if the former inmates were on lockdown, or simply wished to remain segregated in the afterlife? The spirits seemed more industrious with animated table tipping experiences. 

I didn't understand what was happening or how it happened, but I did wonder why spirits would perform the pointless task of moving a wooden table around? But as I said, I was new to the ghost hunting game and didn't know the ropes.

My buddy Jason and I wandered off. We wanted solitary confinement in separate cells on a silent balcony where no one went. I shone the torch into my chosen cell. Peeling paint fell from the musty walls. 

The bleak decor consisted of an open-plan stainless steel toilet and a wall mounted table with the remains of a peeling paper chess board. The bleached metal skeleton frame of a bunk bed dominated the small space. Shutting the cell door I lay quietly on the bottom bunk. 

I experienced no unexplained sounds or spooky whispers. There was only the wind echoing through open vents and empty pipes. I switched the camera on and started to shoot blindly into the darkness. I momentarily saw my first ghost caught by the intrusive camera flash. 

The ghosts I found took the form of hidden biro and felt-tip graffiti messages which had been scribbled on the metal bunk above me. No one else could have seen this except the inmates who looked up from this very bunk some years before.

 I checked under other bunks in other bleak cells and found more hidden messages which had been left behind when the prison was abandoned. Elsewhere, other names, initials and dates, had been carefully carved into the rusty red brickwork of the Medical Wing which had once been a harsh Victorian Debtors Prison. 

Long forgotten initials and dates spanned the years between the 1800s-2000s. Why had 'RL' carved his initials there in 1967, and why was May 28th 1859 significant to 'AG'. 

 What was their story I wondered? It was a memorial of ghostly memories engraved and ingrained into the wall of the prison, perhaps marking sadness, tragedy or badness, but then who are we to judge?

 

I think there are still ghosts there... but for me I guess it was just about how we see them. 

Tony K

midday movie: halloween at castle deathstar

Here's a little bit of homemade Moonbase fun for Halloween.

All the sweets have been already scoffed and the trick or treaters are still in their crypts.

So kick back, clean your fangs and enjoy the Moonbase madness that is....

Halloween at Castle Deathstar!

Tony's Tip Top Skeleton Hand

I've always been a fan of cheap and fearful plastic novelty toys from Hong Kong, Woodsy.

 Inspired by pics of similar pieces in your ace 'Fangs For The Memories', I'd like to extend the fiend-ship hand of friendship and reach out with my Tip Top Skeleton Hand. 

 Yep, another shocking pocket money priced piece from ol' Hong Kong :)

Tony K

LOOK INTO MY EYES, IT'S WHERE MY DAEMONS HIDE...

The classic Doctor Who story, The Daemons has always been a favourite of mine. It's popular with a lot of classic Who fans too. In it the third Doctor, played by Jon Pertwee has a run-in with The Master, who’s using black magic to bring stone statues to life, and conjure up an ancient creature that looks remarkably like the fabled ‘Horned Beast!’

The action takes place in the peaceful village of Devil’s End during the festival of Beltane, and as the local white witch, Miss Hawthorne says,” When Beltane is come, tread softly, for lo the Prince, himself is nigh… the Prince of Darkness!”

Spooky stuff, and a homage of another vintage BBC serial, Quatermass and The Pit, which  like The Daemons, put a scientific slant on the supernatural. The story also takes ideas from a number of other classic sci-fi films and books.

Anyway, I know it’s actually coming up to Halloween, and not the festival of Beltane (unless you live in the Southern Hemisphere), but as a bit of fun, I’ve dug out my Character Options set of Daemons figures for a supernatural photo shot.

Bok is a stone gargoyle who normally resides in the cavern under the church.  He comes alive when The Master summons up the powerful, Azal, the last of The Daemons.  In the story he’s played by Stanley Mason, and the costume was inspired by a rooftop Gargoyle on the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, the difference being the costume’s wings are dragon wings, rather than angels’ wings. 

The Master, in the story played by the wonderful Roger Delgado, here dressed in his ceremonial robes.  Using the superstitious locals he creates a black magic coven to channel their psychic energies to summon The Daemon, and inherit his power. The producers had concerns about using a supernatural story line for Doctor Who’s family audience, however, as long as the black magic elements had plausible scientific explanations it was deemed acceptable.

The Brigadier, in the story played with military precision by Nicholas Courtney, who is totally unfazed by the sight of supernatural happenings at Devil’s End, and seeing Bok, the stone gargoyle guarding the entrance to the church, utters that famous line to one of his men, “Jenkins, chap with wings there, five rounds rapid!”  

For added scariness, I’ve included the Eaglemoss figure of the Daemon, Azal, played in the story by the booming Stephen Thorne. The amoral, Azal is an ancient alien from the planet, Daemos, sixty thousand light years away on the other side of the galaxy.  His kind arrived on Earth one hundred thousand years ago to steer humanity throughout history.

For those who celebrate it, Happy Halloween, and for those in the southern hemisphere, Happy Beltane for the 1^st November.

double double toil and trouble

HAPPY HALLOWEEN READERS!

Don't let YOUR costume drop down this Samhain!

but DO send me snaps of them!

the woman in black: the 1989 original: one of the most frightening films ever made

For further chills to take you into Halloween here's the ONLY Woman in Black film worth watching, the superb 1989 original courtesy of You Tube.

Prepare for the hairs on the back of your neck to stand up!

the stone tape: watch it in full here

Scare yourself witless this pre-Ween with the superbly sinister The Stone Tape.

This TV play is full of excellent acting, very little music but lots of ambient noise and a storyline meshing high-tech electronics with a hair-raising haunting.

Shown in UK TV in 1972 and written by the immensely talented Nigel Kneale, it contains arguably the most spine-tingling scene in TV horror, known to fans affectionately as 'the scream'.

So, put your feet up, grab a beer, turn off the lights and play, courtesy of You Tube...

The Stone Tape.

scream test: taping the supernatural

Last year I listened to the Stone Tape online on Radio 4 playback. It is a modern radio remake of the famous Seventies TV play. The version I listened to was described as being recorded in binaural sound as opposed to stereo, but with my basic headphones I couldn't really tell the difference.

That said, I really enjoyed the radio remake, especially the final half hour when it all goes to hell. The director, who made the Berberian Sound Studio, is like me, a fan of horror soundtracks and this remake is another of his homages to them. 

For techies among you the play contains many references to weird and wonderful recording gear. Its nested format, the fact that it was a radio recording about recording a recording on an ancient wall, in a Victorian house called Taskerlands, was not lost on me. 

Recording the supernatural is a common theme in horror and the original Stone Tape, which aired Christmas 1972, written by Quatermass author Nigel Kneale, contained perhaps the scariest moment ever on British television - involving a prolonged and singularly blood-freezing female scream [altogether more chilling than normal stock TV screams like the Wilhelm and the Howie]. 

Before the onset of the World Wide Web I wrote to TV Heaven in Bradford and asked if I could watch it there. I could but I never did and now you can watch it whenever you want due to the power of recordings on the World Wide Web!

Although the theory of the Stone Tape had been around since the early Sixties, it was particularly amplified in popular consciousness during 1972-73, firstly with the Stone Tape on television and then with the film The Legend of Hell House in 1973. 

Written by the prolific American Richard Matheson in 1971, his book, "Hell House" concerned investigations into supernatural sound and activity at the haunted Belasco House in Maine. 

The film had a memorable turn from Roddy McDowell as a medium, who along with Pamela Franklin, picked up the creepy aura better than any microphone. In fact the machine set up in the house was meant to destroy the evil forces through electromagnetism.

The concept of a past physically recorded on everyday objects - archeoacoustics - continued in books like Time Shards [1979] about pottery and Koji Suzuki's Ringu [1991] about video tape. This was eventually filmed and probably contained the single most frightening screen image since the Stone Tape, that of Sadako climbing out of a TV.

Other films include Prince of Darkness, The Woman in Black and Poltergeist. A strand which dealt specifically with the power of the sarsen stones at Stonehenge included the films The Night of the Demon and Halloween III: Season of the Witch.

The recording media used have changed over time as well, just as technology has changed and in some films it is the toxicity of these media - books, phonograph, tape, video, internet - which is explored e.g. Evil Dead, Brainstorm, Videodrome, Ring, V/H/S, REC and Unfriended to name just a few.

In the real world the establishment's own long-standing fear of the effects these new media may have [and had] on the masses i.e. lawlessness, is also reflected in part in these films and something I'll return to at a later date.

Remember, the ghost IS the machine!