Magic Forums

In honor of Samhain, Halloween, Autumn, and my epic love of horror, I propose we begin a thread full of scary stories; urban legends, ghost stories, real occurrences, and book/movie suggestions. Please cite your sources (at least tell us where you heard it) and I beg of you: if you are going to submit a 'real occurrence' please, please be honest. The truth is stranger than fiction most of the time, and there is no shame in living a life void of paranormal activity.

Have fun with this, and don't blame me for nightmares lol :)

For my input, first I will suggest some books and movies:

1.) Any book by Clive Barker. This guy is a horror genius, I absolutely love his style. There used to be a site online (part of Yahoo I think) where you could read his stuff for free. I'll see if I can get the link and post it here.

2.) The Strangers. A lot of people didn't like this movie, but it gives me the creeps. It scares me because it seems like a very possible situation. The movie is supposedly based on real events, but how loosely based is highly questionable.

3.) Vacancy. Another one of those "it could happen" movies. I liked this one a lot, though again it wasn't received very well by the general public.

4.) "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon", by Stephen King. This is one of his shorter books and I find it quite moving. It is about a girl lost in the woods and some paranormal activity she encounters.

5.) "Everything's Eventual", by Stephen King. This is a collection of short stories, many of them very good.

6.) 1408. This movie is based on a short story by Stephen King (in "Everything's Eventual"). I am really into psychological creepiness, and the constant twists of this movie are great. And Morgan Freeman is in it XD

7.) The Machinist. Christian Bale - 'nuff said. But seriously, it's one of his best movies in my opinion, and it's very odd/sad.

And now for a true story:

A few years ago (I have to say, 3?) I was at my friend Sarah's house. It was a girls' night in: me and Sarah, her little sister and her friend, her mom and her friend. Her mom was having some wine and her little sister was in the kitchen. We were watching TV and decided we'd go upstairs to hangout where it was quieter, so to the stairs we went. At the top of the stairs is Emma's room (Sarah's little sister). As we climbed the stairs I happened to look into the darkness in Emma's room and I saw a hunched figure. An awful chill went up my spine and I whispered to Sarah, "Someone is in there!" We ran around the corner to her room and locked the door.

It definitely could not have been anyone who was over that night; everyone was downstairs as we had seen before we went up. Sarah lives in a very tall house and the only way up to Emma's room from the outside would literally have to be a grappling hook or a very tall ladder. We were panicking, almost crying, but we had to tell someone. I did not believe it was anything paranormal at first, and I was worried that something very bad could happen (Sarah lives out in the woods on the edge of town); I wanted to get the phone and call the police but we decided we should just run downstairs and alert everyone else. We yanked open the door and flew down the stairs. We told her mother something was up and when everyone came to check out the room, no one was there. The window was closed and Emma's clothes were all over the floor. Needless to say, her mother did not believe us and after checking all the rooms we were left to clean the room. I don't think I ever been so upset in my life. Her mother is Pagan and believes deeply in spirits and the unseen, but didn't believe us. We locked ourselves in, just in case, mulling over what I had seen and what it could have been

About a year ago I learned about "shadow people" (entities that show up as shadows in the dark, which some people believe to be a separate entity from ghosts/spirits entirely), and that is what I believe the entity was. Shadow people haven't been known to harm anyone, or even pay much attention to the people who see them, and they are one of my favorite paranormal topics.

More to come :) Share your stuff!