Tag Archives: horror

Between Stephen King and M. Knight Shyamalan, I can’t help but feel a bit wary each time I visit a small village. You know how it is with the townsfolk. They stare at you and you stare back at them with a smile. You’d be lucky if they greet you back.

So there was this one time I had to visit a small Australian town on a hill as part of a press familiarization trip. I didn’t go alone. There were three journalists with me: One other guy and two girls. And just like in the movies, we were invited to stay at a small manor. I know. The building was more than 150 years old and the interior was covered with large paintings, some of noblemen in century clothing with their eyes following you wherever you go.

Each one of us had a room to ourselves. The wood-paneled interior, with antique bed and cupboards and tall French windows looking out into the darkness, added to the eeriness. Imagine the castle bedroom that Professor Abronsius stayed in The Fearless Vampire Killers. But I didn’t care. I was tired so sleep was more important than whatever.

Around 2 a.m., I was startled by the shrill of the old telephone on the beside table. The panic-stricken voice at the end turned out to be the male journalist. He claimed to have seen a presence near the window. I tried to convince him otherwise. I told him he was seeing wind shadows. But he insisted it was a ghost and begged me to let him come over. After some hesitation, I allowed him to bunk in with me.

At about six in the morning I was awoken by the sound of whispering. The journalist was already awake and he was pointing to the window. I got out of bed and crept towards the window. The whispers grew louder with every step I took.

I opened the window to find two women sitting in the balcony. They were chatting to each other over coffee. Now I understand…

All rooms have a shared balcony, and when the journalist thought he saw something, he may not have been imagining things. He may have seen a guest from the next room. Possibly the person stepped out into the balcony around 2 a.m. through the connecting balcony doors. Sounds logical right? The only problem was the chambermaid said the room next to the journalist’s was unoccupied.

I should put more trust in my thoughts and ideas. Story ideas that I had in mine but doubted them were eventually made into books and movies by others. And when I watched these movies, I would scream in my head, “Hey, I had the same idea!”

One example was “Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight” with Billy Zane. I had a similar concept but instead of portraying demons, I thought of vampires.

My version: Some people were trapped in a castle, and one of them had this special gadget that created a temporary force field (20 minutes each time) that protected them from vampires.

In Demon Knight, someone had a mystical bottle of blood that when poured on the ground would create a temporary force field to prevent the ghouls from crossing over.

There were other stories that I lost opportunity too. But you get the idea. Confidence is key.