"The Possession" is loosely based on a true story and is about a haunted wine cabinet, otherwise known as a dybbuk box. The wine box is supposed to be haunted by a dybbuk, a restless, usually malicious spirit.
In the movie, a young girl is drawn to an antique wooden box she finds at a yard sale but in real life, this wooden box was actually sold on eBay.
In both versions, fictional and real, strange and spooky things started happening to the new owners of the box.
The original buyer, Kevin Mannis, says that this box was purchased at the estate sale of a 103-year-old Holocaust survivor. Before the buyer could even get home with the box, Mannis received a nervous and frantic call from one of his employees at the furniture shop that he owned, claiming that someone was in the shop destroying the place.
Mannis gave the box to his mother for her birthday and within minutes of receiving the box, she had a stroke and lost the ability to speak for some time. Mannis attempts to give the box to many of his friends and family members; all of which who did take the box gave it back to him shortly after. All of the family members who had taken possession of the box suffered from the exact same nightmare.
Mannis was so afraid to destroy the box that he worried it would cause whatever evil spirit that he believed might be haunting it would stay with him forever. Traditionally, if something like this happens they say you are supposed to formally transfer ownership for the spirit to move on, except he could never find anyone who would keep it for more than a couple of days. So instead, he sold it on eBay.
Many buyer brought the box from eBay and the passed in on again with the same website.
Currently the box is in the hands of a university museum curator by the name of Jason Haxton in the Still College of Osteopathic Medicine Museum in Kirksville, MO.
The plot of this movie is not new. You buy a new place to live and you are not happily received by the ghosts.
The scary part is that this really happened to Al and Carmen Snedeker who had their home in what used to be a funeral parlor. "The Haunting in Connecticut" is based on the plight of the Snedeker family (changed to Campbell in the movie).
The Snedekers moved into a new home in the 1980s to be closer to the University of Connecticut's hospital, since their son Phillip was undergoing treatment for cancer. The family soon realised that the house they had moved into used to be a funeral home.
The Strangers is a horrific home invasion movie that will have you checking the locks on all of your doors and windows. The film follows Kristen (Liv Tyler) and James (Scott Speedman) as their vacation stay becomes less than relaxing when strangers in masks turn up and invade their home. The Strangers is inspired by a series of real life attacks, including the Manson Family murders, meaning that the movie feels a little too real at times
The Amityville Horror, and its 2005 remake, follows a young couple who move into a new home with 3 children and knew about the house's tragic past as the previous owner had murdered his entire family while living in the house. The movie is supposedly based on a true story even though there has been some criticism about the "true story" aspect of the movie.
Jay Anson interviewed the couple and the book that Anson wrote is considered more accurate than the movie version that was rewritten from the book. The movie apparently took too many liberties with its source material, but the truth remains that the couple and children were haunted throughout their month living in the house
Shahid has recently unveiled a captivating array of posters and teasers for the highly anticipated show “Safah El Giza,” which is set to be released soon. This intense thriller, based on a true story, promises to delve into the chilling depths of a serial killer’s mind, revealing the hidden facets of the villain, the victims, and the untold moments that eluded investigations and trial proceedings.
The show will unearth cruel secrets, offering viewers a profound and immersive experience. To fully appreciate this thrilling journey in the upcoming series, let us revisit the harrowing story of Egypt’s notorious serial killer, Gaddafi Farag.
Gaddafi Farag was born in 1973, seemingly an ordinary man much like those around him. A graduate of Law school, he chose to pursue a career in the business world. Despite his seemingly prosperous life, with ownership of a library chain, a toy manufacturing factory, and personal assets, he harbored a sinister secret.
Financially stable, happily married, and a father of five children, he displayed no prior history of felonies or aggressive behavior towards his family or neighbors. Yet, unbeknownst to all, the darkness within him lay dormant, waiting to be unleashed.
The Twisted Killings Of A Troubled Mind
The first murder, that of his childhood best friend and engineer, Reda, proved shockingly ruthless. Reda, trusting Gaddafi deeply, entrusted him with his savings for investments, even issuing an official authorization for him to manage his finances. However, Gaddafi’s inner craving for Reda’s money and life was insatiable. Luring Reda to one of his apartments under the pretense of a business dinner, Gaddafi’s heinous act ended the life of a man who had considered him a lifelong friend.
The second victim was none other than his second wife, Fatma. She had stolen four hundred thousand pounds from Gaddafi, fearing his intentions to betray their marriage. In a vengeful act, he strangled her and buried her with her gold to emphasize that his motive was revenge, not her money.
Nadeen, the third victim, became ensnared in Gaddafi’s web of deceit. He presented himself as a caring lover, willing to support her dreams, only to shift his interest to her sister. When Nadeen threatened to expose his true nature to her family, Gaddafi moved swiftly to silence her forever. He strangled her and concealed her lifeless body alongside his other victims.
Gaddafi’s malevolence extended beyond murder. After killing Nadeen, he fraudulently impersonated his first victim, Reda, stole all his savings and earnings, and fled to Alexandria in search of new victims or a fresh start.
Yasmeen became his last known victim, paying the ultimate price for filing a law complaint against Gaddafi (at the time, still masquerading as Reda) regarding an attempted theft of her money concerning an apartment. She was strangled and buried in a storage house.
The Arrest and the Horrific Revelations
Gaddafi’s insatiable desire for more lives and more gold eventually led to his capture. After being caught on surveillance camera robbing a gold shop owned by his fifth wife’s father, he was identified and arrested.
Simultaneously, Reda’s family grew suspicious and hired a lawyer, leading to the discovery of Gaddafi’s impersonation and the subsequent reporting of his true identity to the authorities. During the confrontation, Gaddafi confessed to his cold-blooded crimes without a hint of remorse, revealing himself as the manipulative assassin he truly was. The media swirled with gruesome details, exposing the depths of his malevolence.
Gaddafi’s Trial: A Distressing Path to Justice
The trial, lasting for a year and a half, was a grueling process following his arrest. Gathering evidence, including statements from the victims’ families, revised accounts of the killings, Gaddafi’s chilling confessions and explanations, and crucially, forensic reports verifying the victims’ identities, provided some solace and closure to the bereaved families. However, Nadeen’s family continued to struggle, unable to accept her death or properly bury her remains.
The mental health of Gaddafi was questioned, leading to a two-month evaluation at a mental institution. The diagnosis revealed his affliction with mental and psychological illness, although a comprehensive analysis of his condition was withheld from public dissemination due to the sensitive nature of the case.
As we await the release of “Safah El Giza,” this spine-chilling true tale serves as a reminder of the darkness that can reside within seemingly ordinary individuals, leaving a trail of devastation in its wake. The monstrous deeds of Gaddafi Farag shall forever remain etched in the annals of Egypt’s history, a cautionary tale of humanity’s capacity for malevolence.
A Dark Scope And Intriguing Theories
Somber reality unfolds when the case is thoroughly analyzed, and the motives and methods of a murderer are revealed. Subsequently, the backstory of the perpetrator is disclosed, ascertaining the critical reasons behind their infliction of pain and torture.
Understanding these factors becomes imperative in preventing such tragedies from recurring in the future. However, dishearteningly, the public often finds sympathy for the killer, empathizing with their heartbreaking past and arguing that they did not actively choose to become the monstrous figure they eventually became.
Even worse, some individuals shift blame onto the victims, recounting inaccurate tales of why the victims deserved their fate, characterizing them as lowlifes or mere collateral damage.
This distressing tendency within the public psyche diminishes the significance of the victims’ losses, overshadowing their suffering and the impact on their loved ones.
Consequently, the murderer is at times erroneously elevated to the status of a hero, akin to the fictional character, the Joker.
It is essential for society to maintain a balanced perspective, acknowledging the complexity of human behavior while upholding the value and dignity of victims, ensuring that justice is served and empathy is extended in the right direction.
The Awaited Execution
Gaddafi Farag has been sentenced to death by hanging. Although there is debate surrounding his mental health, it is evident that he was fully aware of his actions and had ample time to plan each crime.
The execution has not yet been carried out, pending completion of the legal process and certain governmental procedures, including approval from the Egyptian president. Multiple sources indicate that Gaddafi has exhibited remarkable composure during the recent period, with his last known statement being, “I ask for my mother’s forgiveness.”
The Upcoming Shahid Series
Regarding the Safah El Giza Series, there are questions about whether it will depict the gruesome details of the killings. There are high expectations for the series in various cinematic aspects, given the immense anticipation it has generated from billions of viewers.
Many believe that Safah El Giza will leave a distinct and dark mark of its own. However, there is also a possibility that it may provoke controversy in the opposite direction. When crime shows are presented, they often face immediate backlash from the families of the victims, as they are confronted with painful memories.
In some instances, these families have filed lawsuits against the production companies of such series. A similar situation occurred when the series “Monster: Jeffrey Dahmer Story” was released, despite its global success, it sparked significant debates.
After learning all these details about Gaddafi Farag, what do you expect from the series?
One of the most terrifying and strange stories is the story of a couple who adopted a child named Barbara Skarlova, who is eight years old, but the strange paradox is that this child was in fact a woman in her 30s, and the reason for her strange appearance is a disease she suffers from called "pituitary gland failure" which made her look like a little girl. She suffered from a mental disorder that made her torture two children to death. The horror film Orphan, which was produced in 2009, tells her story.
Details:
The film "Orphan" is based on the true story of a Czech woman named Barbara Skarlova, who was 33 years old and pretended to be a 13-year-old girl. What helped her was her childlike appearance and small size, as she was suffering from a rare disease that made her look like a child.
Her truth was discovered when she was living with a family in Norway, where the family noticed that she did not play with the children and abused their children and other children, then escaped later.
Barbara committed her first crimes in her native Czech Republic, where she lived with her sisters (Clara and Katarina) and Katarina's two children.
Katarina suffered from a serious mental illness, which encouraged Barbara to exploit and manipulate her and urged her to punish her children in harsh ways.
The main plot of the film revolves around a young girl named Esther, who is 9 years old and an orphan living in a care home. A couple agrees to adopt her to live with them and their children in the house, only to reveal later during a suspenseful narrative that Esther the little girl is a murderous adult woman.
Katarina's torture of her children was revealed by chance when a neighbor saw her torturing her children with the help of her sister Clara, so he reported it to the police. When the police arrived, they found a little girl crying bitterly and very scared, and she was not harmed! They found the children covered in their blood.
The police arrested Katarina and her sister Clara, and Katarina was sentenced to 9 years in prison, as she had a mental illness, and Clara was sentenced to 10 years in prison. But what about Barbara?
One of the officers took her to the shelter, believing that she was 12 years old, then she escaped from the shelter and forged her identity card and turned it into a boy's name, and joined high school when she was in her thirties and her case was not revealed.
However, in a drawing class, she drew a picture of tortured children, including Katarina's children. The teacher was scared when she saw the drawing and reported it to the police, and when they took Barbara's fingerprints, they found that they were the same fingerprints of the girl in the incident of the tortured children, and she was arrested and imprisoned for several years. This was in 2007.
Ed and Lorraine Warren are real-life paranormal investigators who claim that this case was exceptionally hard for them to deal with. Fan of possessed dolls? We have it here for you. The Perron family consult the Warrens to get rid of the evil entity that has possessed their farmhouse. Directed by James Wan, the movie is rated 7.5 on IMDb. Starring Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, and Sterling Jerins.
The cursed doll Annabelle was first introduced in The Conjuring (2013) and later the focus of a separate franchise with the films Annabelle (2014), Annabelle: Creation (2017) and Annabelle Comes Home (2019). The doll is based off a Raggedy Anne doll that was gifted to a young nurse. But after a string of mysterious events occur, including a traumatic experience with the nurse’s boyfriend, the nurse and her friend invited a medium over, who stated that the doll was inhabited by the spirit of a deceased 7-year-old named Annabelle Higgins. The doll, allegedly cursed by a demonic spirit, has been blamed for violent attacks and at least two near-death experiences. The allegedly haunted Raggedy Anne doll is kept in the Occult Museum owned by paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren with a message under her glass case reading: “Warning: Positively do not open
Count Dracula, the archetypal vampire of horror literature, was created by Irish author Bram Stoker for his 1897 novel, "Dracula."
Scholars agree that the real-life 15th-century Romanian ruler Vlad Tepes, known as Vlad the Impaler, was the model for the Transylvanian bloodsucker, but as for Dracula's character and appearance, Stoker's inspiration may have been closer to his own life.
The most likely candidate was Sir Henry Irving, the premiere actor of the British stage, for whom Stoker worked as manager for decades.
In "Bram Stoker: A Biography of the Author of Dracula," Barbara Belford convincingly connects the venerated actor to the fictional vampire, describing Irving as an egotist, a striking, mesmerizing figure, and a demanding employer.
NEWS
Bram Stoker and actor Henry Irving, the inspiration for Dracula, visited in 1884
Jeff Suessjsuess@cincinnati.com
Actor Bela Lugosi defined the iconic role of Count Dracula in the 1931 film, "Dracula."
Count Dracula, the archetypal vampire of horror literature, was created by Irish author Bram Stoker for his 1897 novel, "Dracula."
Scholars agree that the real-life 15th-century Romanian ruler Vlad Tepes, known as Vlad the Impaler, was the model for the Transylvanian bloodsucker, but as for Dracula's character and appearance, Stoker's inspiration may have been closer to his own life.
The most likely candidate was Sir Henry Irving, the premiere actor of the British stage, for whom Stoker worked as manager for decades.
In "Bram Stoker: A Biography of the Author of Dracula," Barbara Belford convincingly connects the venerated actor to the fictional vampire, describing Irving as an egotist, a striking, mesmerizing figure, and a demanding employer.
Stoker was Irving's business manager at the Lyceum Theatre in London for 28 years, even after publishing his classic novel. He was devoted to Irving, regularly choosing the job over his wife and son.
The two met in 1877 when Irving performed in Dublin, where Stoker was a civil service worker and wrote theater reviews on the side. Irving had been pleased by Stoker's insightful review of his performance as Hamlet and invited him to a dinner party.
That night, Stoker was mesmerized by the actor's recitation of a poem. "I sat spellbound…" Stoker wrote in "Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving." "The whole thing was new, re-created by a force of passion which was like a new power." Afterwards, Stoker "burst out into something like a violent fit of hysterics."
Stoker began writing "Dracula" in 1890 while working for Irving. With a force as dynamic as Irving in his life, it's only natural that he would draw upon his own experiences.
Contemporaries noted the physical similarities to Irving in the novel's description of Dracula:
"His face was a strong – a very strong – aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils; with lofty domed forehead, and hair growing scantily round the temples but profusely elsewhere. His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over the nose, and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion."
Belford notes, "Somewhere in the creative process, Dracula became a sinister caricature of Irving as mesmerist and depleter, an artist draining those about him to feed his ego. It was a stunning but avenging tribute."
To protect the novel's theatrical rights, a read-through of "Dracula" was performed at the Lyceum in May 1897, the week before it was published. Stoker also hoped to convince Irving to star in the future stage production in the title role.
After the reading, Stoker met the actor in his dressing room and asked, "How did you like it?"
"Dreadful," Irving replied.
He refused to play Dracula, perhaps finding the character too familiar, and missed the chance to define one of the century's greatest roles.
Though their relationship cooled, after Irving's death in 1905 Stoker wrote an admiring biography of him, with no mention of Dracula.
Irving's impressions of Cincinnati
Stoker accompanied Irving as his manager on several tours of America, including a stop in Cincinnati early in 1884.
Irving and his frequent co-star Ellen Terry had a one-week engagement at the Grand Opera House, on Vine Street between Fifth and Sixth streets, opposite the current Fountain Square, starting Jan. 28, 1884, highlighted by "The Merchant of Venice."
Following his final performance, a dinner was held in Irving's honor at the exclusive Queen City Club, then on the southwest corner of Seventh and Elm streets, attended by 30 guests including Stoker, Ohio Gov. Edward Noyes, Charles P. Taft and Cincinnati Commercial Gazette editor Murat Halstead.
Upon his visit that winter, the man who would be Dracula had kind words for the Queen City, as recorded by Joseph Hatton in "Henry Irving's Impressions of America."
Cincinnati has a noble ambition: it aims at becoming a great centre of culture, more particularly in art and science," Irving said, singling out Music Hall, the Art Museum and the University of Cincinnati for praise.
Irving commented on the "German quarter," Over-the-Rhine, that "has all the characteristics of the Fatherland in its beer-gardens, concert-rooms, theatres, and general mode of life," and the inclines, in which "the streetcars are hauled up on elevators … it is something like going up in a balloon."
His visit was on the eve of a tumultuous period in the city's history. Days after Irving left Cincinnati, the Ohio River flooded to 71.1 feet, the second highest level recorded. A month later, a mob outraged over a murder trial verdict burned down the courthouse. The riot resulted in nearly 50 deaths.
Irving also relayed the story of a previous tragedy, when the Times-Star newspaper offices burned in a deadly fire at Sixth and Walnut streets on Sept. 3, 1883.
"The fire took place while the paper was at press," Irving recounted. "Seeing that it was impossible to save the machinery they put on the highest speed and worked off the sheets until the place was too hot to hold them; and the men stepped out with the printed sheets almost as the ceiling fell in upon the machinery.
"By the aid of a neighbor, and the presses of a rival who had failed, they came out the next day with a full report of the calamity, in which, I believe, some lives were lost.
"An example of American enterprise that, eh?"
Hear Irving speak
Hear a recording of Sir Henry Irving performing a speech from William Shakespeare's "Richard III" made in 1898.
Contact us
Comments