Well , ya know what they say: " No pain , no reign - OF TERROR that is! Got home from my shitjob the other day and I wanted to watch something in the spirit of Halloween and boy did I find it! PARANORMAL WITNESS. I have been reviewing old 70's horror/monster movies and while they couldn't be further apart they do have some things in common. If you still haven't seen PARANORMAL WITNESS it's a show on the Sci Fi network and chronicles the true life stories of people who have had encounters with the supernatural , paranormal , and downright creepy! The folks will recount their experience while they show re enactments with actors and , for the most part , digital efx . There are other shows like this on other channels , I'm sure you've seen 'em but PARANORMAL WITNESS put a scare into me! The majority of them seem to be about ghost stories but two that I saw that I really liked had to deal with a alien abduction and a family being stalked by a werewolf!
The alien abduction episode actually tells the tale of the almost unbelievable story of the logger Travis Walton who was taken by extraterrestrials , and this story was previously made into the feature film FIRE IN THE SKY. I saw FIRE IN THE SKY so I knew the basics of the Hollywood version but the PARANORMAL WITNESS episode had interviews with the people that were really there and you get to hear in their own words how the harrowing ordeal went down. Hearing their testimonials , especially that of the older , wiser , Travis is still emotional and chilling.
The "The Cabin/Ghost In The Garden" episode is really good too , because instead of a malevolent spirit it has a shaggy bipedal nocturnal anthropomorphic peeping tom! In London , Ohio a family ,by their account , were being stalked by some mysterious creature! This episode was frightening as well! Maybe these people were exaggerating , perhaps the whole story is a fabrication but these people believe and I choose to believe them as well. But at this point I don't care if the show is real or fake it is a entertaining program and sent a chill through me! The re enactments are well done and the parts where you see the creature are scary! Like I mentioned before I think the majority of the efx are cg but they look decent and are put to effective use. it's funny that this show is way better than the movies sy fy has been producing and generates some real scares and the sy fy original movies SUCK! No kidding , I do enjoy alot of the original sy fy movies but for the past 2 years or so these movies bite the big one! Including the CHILLER channel , I mean , really , did you see Steve Nile REMAINS or Brian Keenes GHOUL? They sucked and I really liked the GHOUL book!
PARANORMAL WITNESS gave me some of the same feelings that IN SEARCH OF... would give me or LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK and some of the better Bigfoot docs of the late 70's and early 80's. Anyone remember IN SEARCH OF....?And reminds me of the better parts of the old cheezy 70's horror I love. Each episode of PARANORMAL WITNESS creates a atmosphere , the re enactments carry weight , they hold water for me and even though they are interspersed between the people re telling what they experienced they seem to let some of these scenes breathe and linger. And the really good use of cheap cgi , some of the ghosts look pretty damn wicked!
PARANORMAL WITNESS has immediately become one of my new favorite shows , new episodes come out Wednesdays at 9:00 in whatever timezone your in I guess , and I guess this is a ad for sy fy channel and I want some $ , or poon , or at least all the PARANORMAL WITNESS seasons on dvd and the sy fy originals MANSQUITO , HAMMERHEAD , YETI , ABOMINABLE , YETI , FRANKENFISH , SHARKTOPUS......that's all I can think of. Oh wait cancel HOT SET! Arty
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