Day 20: Scary Sci-Fi...

The Sci-Fi Channel is doing their part to bring some scare into Halloween. This year Sci-Fi has scheduled their 13 Days of Halloween, and will feature a wide-variety of films from Psycho to Final Destination 2. In reality, their lineup looks pretty good! Maybe not QUITE as good as Monsterfest, but definitely better than the ABC Family junk.

Of all of the films and specials that they will be airing for Halloween, there are four of them that really stand out to me. The Ghost Hunters Live (which I already covered), The Wraiths of Roanoke, the Headless Horseman, and Ghost Adventures all look pretty damn good.

Wraiths of Roanoke

This movie is a Sci-Fi original, and if you’ve never seen one of their films, you should. It’s usually hit and miss, but the funding they get for their films is pretty impressive. They’re not your normal “made-for-tv” productions…not by a long shot.

Based on the lost Virginia colony of Roanoke Island, colonists are attacked by three wraiths (ghosts). Crops won't grow in the island's soil, and there are no animals in the forest. Settlers begin dying, and it soon becomes apparent that there is a supernatural presence on the island. The acting governor tries to understand what is happening while the people are being killed off. Finally piecing together half remembered Norse legends and local Native American tales he realizes these are the spirits of 3 Viking witches, trapped on the island with the colonists. The settlers look to find a way to end the siege and survive the winter against these unwelcome ghosts.

The scenery looks pretty impressive, and the setting is something that doesn’t get tapped into that much, which adds to the novelty.


The Headless Horseman

We all know the story of the Headless Horseman….

The man who became the Headless Horseman was a Hessian mercenary hired by the British Army in 1776 in order to assist British soldiers in the Revolutionary War. Among the 548 Hessian mercenaries who lost their lives in that war, he was killed in battle near Sleepy Hollow, New York when his head was blown off by a cannonball. According to later local legend, the Horseman returned in spirit form to take the heads of the living. Ichabod Crane ignores the warnings of danger from the legendary Horseman and later meets an unknown fate at the hands of the horseman. Although Crane's rival Brom Bones may have been masquerading as the Horseman, it is not explicitly determined whether Crane encounters the actual Horseman or Brom Bones.

Since the Horseman's introduction into popular culture he has become a horror staple, and has had appearances or been parodied in dozens of television shows, comic books, and movies. The Horseman was played by Christopher Walken and Ray Park in Tim Burton's 1999 film adaptation. In Burton's movie, the horseman meets his end at the hands of the American forces who ambush him, killing his horse, and then overtake the Horseman and decapitate him.

But Sci-Fi has set out to change it a little bit. They will air a new, slasher movie take on the legend titled Headless Horseman which takes the tack that the Washington Irving story was the "white-washed" version and the events in this horror film is the real story.

So basically, it’s a bloody, good time with the feared Headless Horseman packing a punch like he never has before. This could be good! This could be very, very good!


Ghost Adventures

On Wednesday, July 25th millions tuned into the Sci-Fi Channel for the TV premiere of "Ghost Adventures," a raw documentary' in which Zak Bagans, Nick Groff, and Aaron Goodwin go to Virginia City, NV and Goldfield, NV on a ghost-hunting expedition.

Zak and his crew venture into places where others fear to tread. "Ghost Adventures" is probably one of the most convincing paranormal documentaries that viewers have seen, or will ever see. Along with the usual orbs there are noises, EVP (electronic voice phenomena), mysterious shadows, flying objects, and the coup de gracea…a full-bodied apparition.

This film and the Zak's techniques have been described as "extreme ghost-hunting" due in part to the taunts Zak slews at potential spirits in a highly controversial way, to the areas that they visited, and partly due to the evidence that they captured. A friend of mine, who has seen the documentary said, “it is the most convincing evidence of a haunting that I have ever seen.” Coming from him…it meant a lot.

The Sci-Fi channel has this scheduled on Halloween, so be sure to catch it. I know I will