WELCOME TO THE DARKSIDE ! EST.08/30/06

We like to post anything that's spooky, haunted, abandoned or fun.


Sunday, July 27, 2008

LINKS TO DIE FOR



1) 16 Signs That Your House is Haunted
What to watch for and what to do about it.
CLICK HERE

2) DEAD MALLS.com, Your one stop shop for dead and abandoned malls
CLICK HERE

3) 20 Abandoned Cities from Around the World: Deserted Towns
and Other Derelict Places
CLICK HERE

4) KIRKBRIDE.com, Everything you ever wanted to know about the kirkbride buildings used in many sanitariums and hospitals at the end of the 19th century
One of the best sites Ive found
CLICK HERE

Saturday, July 26, 2008

PHENOMENA (1985)




This is Argento's most atmospheric and slower paced movies. But, very interesting and definatley worth viewing! Enjoy! Also known as Creepers.

In Switzerland, the teenager Jennifer Corvino (Jennifer Connelly), daughter of a famous actor, arrives in an expensive board school and shares her room with the French schoolmate Sophie (Federica Mastroianni). Jennifer is a sleepwalker, is capable of telepathically communicate with insects and has adaptation problem in the new school. While sleepwalking, she meets and becomes friend of a Scottish entomologist, Prof. John McGregor (Donald Pleasence), and his chimpanzee Tonga. Jennifer decides to help the investigation of Dr. McGregor about a serial killer that is killing young girls in that area.

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Sunday, July 13, 2008

SUSPIRIA



(Movie tip. Click on the square in the square on the youtube tool bar to view the movie full screen)

SUSPIRIA (1977)
The only thing more terrifying than the last five minutes of this film are the first 90!

A young American dancer travels to Europe to join a famous ballet school. As she arrives, the camera turns to another young woman, who appears to be fleeing from the school. She returns to her apartment where she is gruesomely murdered by a hideous creature. Meanwhile, the young American is trying to settle in at the ballet school, but hears strange noises and is troubled by bizarre occurrences. She eventually discovers that the school is merely a front for a much more sinister organization

Entertainment Weekly rated the film #18 in its top 25 scariest movies of all time and said it had "the most vicious murder scene ever filmed." Suspiria is often considered Argento's finest film and a classic of the horror genre.
In a poll of film critics conducted by the Village Voice, Suspiria was named the 100th greatest film made during the 20th century.
This movie was number 24 on the cable channel Bravo's list of the "100 Scariest Movie Moments".

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TRIVIA

A glass feather is plucked from an ornament. Director Dario Argento's feature film debut was directing Uccello dalle piume di cristallo, L' (1969).

Joan Bennett's last feature film.

The first part (with Inferno (1980) and Terza madre, La (2007)) of a trilogy of films about the "Three Mothers".

Director Dario Argento, composed the creepy music with the band Goblin and played it at full blast on set to unnerve the actors and elicit a truly scared performance.

It is often incorrectly assumed that, to achieve the rich color palette, the film was shot using the outdated 3-strip Technicolor process. This is untrue: no film after the mid-1950s was shot using this method. The film was instead shot on normal Eastman Color Kodak stock and was then printed using the 3-strip Technicolor process, utilizing one of the last remaining machines. This issue has been confused somewhat by the fact that, on the 25th anniversary documentary featured in the 3-disc DVD set, a discussion of the printing process by cinematographer Luciano Tovoli was incorrectly followed by a diagram showing a 3-strip camera.

Director Dario Argento's original idea was that the ballet school would accommodate young girls not older 12. However the studio and producer (his father) denied his request because a film this violent involving children would be surely banned. Dario Argento raised the age limit of the girls to 20 but he didn't rewrite the script, hence the naivety of the characters and the occasionally childlike dialogue. He also put all the doorknobs at about the same height as the actress' heads, so that they will have to raise their arms in order to open the doors, just like children.

Originally the film was to have starred Daria Nicolodi, who was Argento's girlfriend at the time and who also wrote the screenplay. However, Argento decided to go with a younger actress. Daria Nicolodi does appear in the film twice: she can be glimpsed in the film's opening sequence that shows Susy walking through the airport, and she also provides the gravelly voice of Helena Markos.

Tina Aumont had been offered the lead role, but due to scheduling conflicts, she could not accept.

The woman that plays Helna Markos is not credited. According to Jessica Harper, the woman was a 90 year old ex-hooker Argento had found on the streets of Rome.

THE FUNHOUSE (a Tobe Hooper film)




THE FUNHOUSE
Pay to get in pray to get out

(Movie tip. Click on the square in the square on the youtube tool bar to view the movie full screen)

Two young couples on a double date go to a mysterious carnival. As a prank they decide to spend the night in the funhouse. When they witness a brutal murder, they suddenly find themselves try to get out alive.
This is a very underated horor movie from 1981. I love the funhouse or darkride, it looks just like the one at the local fair in the 70's


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THE FUN HOUSE TRIVIA

The opening sequence is an homage to both Psycho (1960) and Halloween (1978).

Steven Spielberg asked Tobe Hooper to direct E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) but he turned it down because he was busy on this movie. However Hooper and Spielberg would work together on Poltergeist (1982).

Dean R. Koontz wrote a novelization of the screenplay under the pseudonym Owen West. The book contains a lot of backstory added by Koontz. Because of this, and the fact that the book was released before the movie due to a delay in post production, it is often mistaken that the movie is based on the book, but the book is in fact based on the movie.

The film was briefly banned in the UK and labeled as a 'video nasty'. This was because the movie was mistaken for "The Fun House", one of the many alternate titles for The Last House on Dead End Street (1977).

Thursday, July 10, 2008

THE DARK RIDE




A dark ride or darkride is an indoor amusement ride where riders in guided vehicles travel through specially-lit scenes that typically contain animation, sounds, music, and other special effects. The name can be misleading, since a dark ride does not have to be dark. (Disney's It's a Small World is an example of a brightly-lit dark ride.) Nevertheless, most use special lighting to achieve theatrical effects. Selective use of darkness is advantageous because it helps hide the mechanisms of the ride and because it can increase the visual drama of the experience.



The first dark rides appeared in the late 19th century, and were called "scenic railways" and "pleasure railways". A popular type of dark ride, commonly referred to as an Old Mill or Tunnel Of Love, used small boats to carry riders through water-filled canals. Leon Cassidy of the Pretzel Amusement Ride Company patented the first single-rail electric dark ride in 1928. Historically notable dark rides include Futurama at the 1939 New York World's Fair and Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland.




Modern attractions in this genre vary widely in their use of technology. Smaller-scale rides often feature the same sorts of simple animation and sounds that have been used since the early days of the genre, while more ambitious projects can feature complex audio-animatronics, special effects, and unconventional ride vehicles.

In the United Kingdom, dark rides with a scary or ghostly theme are called ghost trains, although that term is more often applied to the simpler midway or mobile funfair type of dark ride rather than modern hi-tech dark rides. Notable UK dark rides include 5th Dimension at (Chessington World of Adventures) and the Haunted House (Alton Towers), both developed by The Tussauds Group; and the Ghost Train at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

Dark Ride Websites

TUNNEL OF LAFFS
LAFF IN THE DARK
WFMU'S BEWARE OF THE BLOG Great artical on the history of the dark ride.
MICHAEL RALEIGH Pictures from old dark rides.

Dark Ride Video's

The Haunted House at Trimper's Amusement Park in Ocean City, MD

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Phantom Fantasia at Thorpe Park



In the year 2000 a fire destroyed Phantom Fantasia.


A Video Slideshow of Industrial Nightmare in Jeffersonville Indiana, Haunted Hotel in Louisville Kentucky, Then Haunted Forrest west of Louisville.



Facade of Ghost Hole Dark Ride - Coney Island



The Jersey Junkyard on Adventure pier at Morey's Piers



Spooky Boat Ride in Wildwood New Jersey 3D



Scooby Doo's Haunted Mansion

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

RARE PHANTASM VIDEOS

Phantasm Trailer



Don And Angus Plug Phantasm In Miami- 1979
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Part 2



Part 3



Making Of "Phantasm"
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Scene from Phantasm (1979)

PHANTASM GAME MOD FOR DOOM 3

This is a DOOM 3 Mod, Based on the movie Phantasm. You Need DOOM 3 To play it.
If this mod doesn't scare you, your already dead


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Mod Made By BLADEGHOST

DOWN LOAD IT HERE
BLADEGHOST HOMEPAGE

MORE MODS BY BLADEGHOST
Event Horizon XV
AVP2 'UNDER THE HUNTERS MOON'
17 GHOST

Monday, July 07, 2008

SESSIONS 9 Filmed at Danvers State Hospital

An asbestos abatement crew wins the bid for an abandoned insane asylum. What should be a straightforward, if rather rushed, job, is complicated by the personal histories of the crew. In particular, Hank is dating Phil's old girlfriend, and Gordon's new baby seems to be unnerving him more than should be expected. Things get more complicated as would-be lawyer Mike plays the tapes from a former patient with multiple personalities, including the mysterious Simon who does not appear until Session 9, and as Hank disappears after finding some old coins.

Sessions 9 was filmed at Danvers State Hospital - 450 Maple Street, Danvers, Massachusetts, USA


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SESSIONS 9 TRIVIA

This was one of the first feature films shot using Sony's 24P HD video, which shoots at 24 frames per second, like film, as opposed to the 30 frames per second of conventional NTSC video. Using this technology, Brad Anderson and director of photography Uta Briesewitz were able to produce the uniquely effective, deep-focus images using mostly natural light.

Actor David Caruso reports in the official Production Notes that he saw "something pass my window" when shooting inside the Bonner Medical Building of Danvers State Hospital. "I didn't want to tell anybody, because people would start looking at me strangely..."

Brad Anderson was inspired to use the Danvers Mental Hospital as he drove past it every day.

The film unit only ever used a very small percentage of the building as most of it was off limits as it was unsafe.

SPOILER: A subplot was filmed involving a homeless woman who lives in the asylum. In the original ending, she witnesses all the murders and then kills Gordon. According to the DVD commentary, this subplot was removed because test audiences became confused, thinking she was actually Mary (the voice on the tape).

SPOILER: The shot in which you see Mike (Stephen Gevedon) walking through the gym from the balcony before his demise, was originally a long shot from the point of view from the homeless woman that was in the original subplot of the film that was cut. The full version of the scene is featured on the DVD's deleted scenes.

SPOILER: The only CG in the film is the lobotomy tool which is pulled out of Josh Lucas's eye. Lucas raised his head to signify the tool being extracted from his skull.


DANVERS STATE HOSPITAL TRIVIA

Most of the buildings on campus were connected by a labyrinth of underground tunnels. There was a tunnel that ran from a steam/power generating plant (which still exists to provide service to the Hogan Regional Center) located at the bottom of the hill running up to the hospital, along with tunnels that connected the Male and Female Nurses Homes, "Gray Gables", Bonner Medical Building, Machine Shops, Pump House, and a few others. A system of tunnels also branched off like spokes from a central hub behind the Kirbride building (in the vicinity of the old gymnasium) leading to different wards of the hospital. They emerged up into the basement in different areas. This hub was also an underground maintenance area of sorts- some urban explorers nicknamed it "The Wagon Wheel".

Danvers State Hospital was almost located in Winthrop, Massachusetts under the name "Massachusetts State Hospital", however it was decided that the Danvers location was better suited for the needs of the state.

The glacial drumlin the asylum sat on once was the site of the home of John Hathorne, one of the judges in the Salem witch trials. (Danvers was known as Salem Village at the time, and it was the site of the trials.) Today the part of Danvers where the hospital was located is called Hathorne.

Apparently much of the witch trial incidents occurred in vicinity of the hill. It is widely believed that ergot poisoning caused by fungus contaminated bread may have caused hallucinations that led to the witch phenomena, and it is quite possible that said contaminated crops were grown around this hill as well.

Danvers is not the only Massachusetts state mental hospital to be struck by fire. The Taunton State Hospital also caught fire on March 19, 2006, damaging many of the long-vacant buildings. Worcester State Hospital, a Kirkbride Plan asylum in Worcester, MA, suffered a catastrophic fire in 1991 that obliterated significant portions of the historic main building.

A COOL DANVERS VIDEO
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