Devil's Gate Dam, Pasadena, California

Happy Halloween, everyone!

I'm closing out this glorious month with a location and a story I wasn't aware of until a couple of weeks ago. My friends know I'm a paranormal enthusiast so they often come to me with, "Hey, do you know about the...?" or "Have you ever heard of...?" and I always stop them mid-question with a definitive, "Yes." That is, until I was asked about Devil's Gate Dam.

"Where," my ears perked up, "is that? And what can you tell me about it?"

My friend went on to tell me about this old dam that sits across from the JPL building in Pasadena. She mentioned how it's thought to be a vortex, or gateway, to Hell. "Two boys literally vanished from the area, never to be seen or heard from again!" she went on. I started to press her for more details when she said that some friends of ours frequently go hiking up there. I literally backed those friends into a corner, begging them to take me to Devil's Gate Dam.

The hike itself was pretty eerie, traveling through underpasses of the 210 freeway that smelled like makeshift bathrooms for the homeless.

We continued further until we reached the bridge toward the dam. There's just something about old dams that creeps me out. Maybe it's the stories my parents used to tell me of the Baldwin Hills dam breaking when I was a baby, with so much water rushing down the hillside that the water actually came trickling down our street, at least three miles from the dam itself. I remember driving up that hillside with my parents throughout my childhood and finding the need to stare at the ominous wall of the abandoned dam while my mind tried to conceive of the tragic events that unfolded in 1963. I would always shudder, imagining some malevolent force behind the wall, looming and staring back at me.

But back to Devil's Gate. As you can see from the photos at the very top of the page and the one directly below, it was completely dry that day. My friends told me that when we have a rainy season in Los Angeles, those trees you see in the background are almost fully covered with water. They've promised to take me back there the next time we have a hefty rain storm.

After snapping a few photos with giggles under our breath and feigned fear on our faces, we came to the stairway that takes you to the area named Devil's Gate. Here's a photo of that stairway.

And here are a couple of photos of the caged stairwells leading down into the gorge.

It was at this point I was relieved to be with other people. Had I come here on my own I would have certainly hightailed it out of there!

Now for the backstory. In my research I found that the story of two boys disappearing wasn't entirely true. No, four children had gone missing from the area. In the summer of 1956 a 13-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl disappeared from the area. Local authorities and volunteers combed the area, including divers who also searched the reservoir itself. No children. No bodies. Only their bicycles and the little girl's jacket.

The end to that story wasn't, in fact, paranormal. Over a decade later, Mack Ray Edwards would confess to the kidnapping and murders of the two children. Seems Edwards, who had a job building the highways of the Golden State, had hidden the corpses by incorporating them into the highway and covering them with asphalt. So next time you're on one of the freeways near Pasadena, you might want to check your rear view mirror to make sure the ghosts of these restless children aren't in your back seat.

The two boys that my friend told me about had actually disappeared at different times. In the spring of 1957 an 8-year-old named Tommy was hiking near Devil's Gate with his family. He was literally a few paces ahead of his family when he went around a bend and vanished. Hundreds of people joined the search team throughout the week, but Tommy was never found.

Then in 1960, a YMCA group was hiking not far from where Tommy vanished when a 6-year-old named Bruce started to feel weak. His leader instructed him to return to camp and, under the leader's watchful eye, Bruce was seen just steps away from the campsite. Thinking Bruce was safe, the leader joined up with the rest of the group but Bruce was not to be seen again. More search teams scoured the area, but as in the case of Tommy there were no clues and no answers as to what happened to Bruce.

Visit Devil's Gate Dam, if you dare!

(Note: As always, my photos are copyrighted and are not to be used without my written permission. Thanks, guys.)

Sad to see October end. Until next time.
L

Touring the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office

Friday at the office dragged on for what seemed like weeks. I could have attributed my impatience with the fact that I would be leaving for a 5-day vacation on Monday, but that couldn't have been further from the truth. My impatience was definitely due to the fact that at 6:00 I would be one of the few, privileged people who would be touring the service area of the L.A. County Coroner's office!

Arriving early, I found myself completely unsettled by the creepiness of the parking structure at 1104 N. Mission Road. An extremely low-hanging "ceiling," the rusty and outdated steel beams, the lack of lighting within the structure all made for a nice introduction to my evening. I walked over to the Administration Building where the first part of the "festivities" would take place and waited for the doors to open.

At approximately 6:15, Chief Craig Harvey opened the doors and welcomed us to his domain. I couldn't believe we were having cocktails at the Coroner's! And while I waited for all of the guests to arrive I couldn't resist shopping at one of my favorite stores in Los Angeles: Skeletons In The Closet. It figures that the L.A. Coroner's Office is the only coroner's office in the nation to have a gift shop!

Scott Michaels and Mark Masek started the evening off and Mark gave us the history of the facility.

What is currently used as the Administration Building was formerly the Los Angeles General Hospital. The beautiful entry way says it all:

Thereafter, Erin Murphy (who used to play Tabitha on the TV series Bewitched, spoke about her experiences with the cast and crew of the show. She was charming and her stories were endearing, especially those about Elizabeth Montgomery, "the Dicks" (York and Sargent), and Agnes Moorhead.

And then it was time for the coveted tour by Chief Harvey, who told us we could take as many photos as we wanted except for two restrictions: 1) No photos of bodies (darn!) and 2) no photos of staff members without their permission. OK, so with that, we were on our way!

As we made our way to the service building, I couldn't help but feel like a kid going to Disneyland. I know... My Mom cringed when I told her that.

We started out in the area where bodies are initially brought in, weighed, identified, photographed and where the toe tags for the deceased would be created. Two toe tags (no longer paper and wire, they now look like blue credit cards) are made - one is attached to the toe of the deceased and the other stays with the paperwork. (Note the camera on the ceiling in the photo below.)

Our attention was then called to the steel door on the opposite side of the room. This door leads to the Coroner's "crypt." Chief Harvey explained that they don't refer to it as the morgue because USC handles the County Morgue. The bodies that end up at the morgue are typically of people who died of natural causes. The bodies that end up at the crypt have died of suspicious circumstances, including homicide and suicide.

As soon as the door to the crypt was opened the stench of the dead bodies overwhelmed me. I have to say I will never forget that smell. Chief Harvey explained that the smell is the combination of the plastic the bodies are wrapped-in, the fact that some people were not in the cleanest state when they arrived, and of course a bit of decomposition. It was completely surreal to me that I was viewing dead bodies. I was fascinated. I was amazed. I was hogging up the front of the line! Had it not been for the smell I probably could have stood there gawking (I know that's very insensitive) for another ten minutes.

The facilities were immaculate! Chief Harvey explained to us the various parts of the labs, the equipment used to perform autopsies, and showed us the room which was previously used for high-profile cases coming through the facility (Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson, specifically) but that has now been turned into a mens' restroom!

All in all, it was an amazing evening and I must give a huge thank you to Dearly Departed Tours for setting-up the tour. It's an experience that I will always treasure!

I hope you're enjoying this Halloween season as much as I am!

L

2-Year-Old Boy "Gives Birth" To His Twin?!

This news story was sent to me by a good friend of mine (she obviously knows me well). I'm so fascinated by scientific anomalies like this. Growing up I'd do my best to research (we didn't have the internet back then) stories I'd heard of women having cysts removed from their ovaries, and the doctors finding hair and teeth in the cysts. Blech. But I guess a good blech?

Today's story has to do with a Chinese boy who had his conjoined twin growing within his stomach. Unbeknownst to his family and his doctor, the boy had a twin whose egg didn't fully separate in vitro and those cells began to grow within him. Yikes! Take a look at this footage and be sure to check out the x-rays closely. Amazing! And blech!
http://on.aol.com/video/boy--2--gives-birth-to-conjoined-twin-517954199

Happy October, everyone!
L

Halloween, my favorite season!

Hello, my pretties! Would you believe it's already the start of the holiday season? Well, no, not that holiday season. It's my favorite holiday season: Halloween.

October's the month where my DVR is blowing up with recorded horror movies that I've seen a million times, causing me to giggle in anticipation of watching them again. And again. It's the month that I've impatiently waited for since the end of last season's The Walking Dead. It's the time when I try to convince just one of my friends to accompany me to a fright fest of some kind. My best memory of one of these jaunts was when I took my friend Isabella to Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights. When she couldn't take it anymore she stopped in her tracks and literally sat on the ground in a fetal position, begging the ghouls to leave her alone. Good times.

This year, however, may actually top my list of Halloween festivities. I will be attending the October 4th evening event hosted by Dearly Departed Tours in Hollywood. Does anyone recognize the building in the photo above? If you do, are you excited for me, jealous of me, or both? The photo is of the Los Angeles County Coroner's office on Mission Road. AND I GET TO GO ON A TOUR!

Promoted as a "bare bones" tour of the facility, the evening will begin with a bar set-up in the hospital building with the promise of spirits (see what I did there?) accompanied by revolting finger foods. Why am I imagining something like this?

One can only hope!

More nail-biting will ensue when author Mark Masek (Hollywood Remains To Be Seen: A Guide To The Movie Stars' Final Homes) tells us the history of the Coroner's facility, followed by a tour of the service floor by Chief Craig Harvey.

There are many other exciting activities during the 2013 Dearly Departed Weekend, including dinner in a mausoleum on Saturday night (I didn't feel as compelled to be a part of that since I've already dined in the crypt at St. Martins in the Field). If any of you want to partake in the fun, you can find all of the information at www.ddtweekend.com.

Hope to see you there!
L

American Horror Story is coming soon!

I have to say I'm very intrigued by the beautiful promotional campaign for season 3 of American Horror Story. Unfortunately, I don't have much faith that I will be able to endure watching the entire season. Were there others of you out there that were extremely excited about seasons 1 and 2, only to lose interest halfway through? I understand that this is typical of Ryan Murphy's projects, but I wouldn't know since I wouldn't be caught dead watching Glee.

Zombie Love

Well, kids, I finally went to see World War Z. I wasn't sure what to expect since I purposely didn't read any of the reviews and only saw one of the trailers. It didn't help that as I was leaving for the theater, one person told me it was "really good" and another person told me it wasn't. But then again, that's exactly why I don't read movie reviews nor talk to people about a movie prior to seeing it. I don't want to be biased when I arrive at the theater, not to mention that I want to come to my own conclusion. So if you're like me, and if you haven't yet seen the film, don't read any further.

For those of you who are still reading, I have to say that I really enjoyed the film. It felt like a global version of The Walking Dead with fast (fast!) zombies. I have to believe that the author of the novel, Max Brooks, has read The Walking Dead comics. Too many similarities to be coincidence. Still, I thought the plot was original enough to hold the audience's interest. I personally haven't read the book so I don't know what's different in the movie, but I really liked the cinematography and special effects. The quick cuts that the editor uses in the first chaotic sequence shows everyone running, including the zombies, so the audience has a hard time distinguishing who's human and who's not. I think this is genius because that's how the zombie apocalypse is going to be: a sea of confusion and panic. Yes, I said, "going to be." Come on. We all know that it's coming - the question is: When?

I also liked the disjointed way in which these zombies moved. Very disturbing. And to see the global scale of the apocalypse, thanks to Marc Forster (director) using a lot of aerial shots for the final addition of the computer graphics, was intense and fun. In fact, for this movie being as intense as it was, I was completely surprised that it lacked the gore that we're used to seeing in a zombie-related story. There were no shots of people's necks being torn away like taffy, there was no blood spurting from jugulars, nor did we see any zombie heads being smashed in. Yet, I was still left clutching my seat while I went along for the ride.

Okay, it's time for the jumpers. I actually counted the number of times the film made us jump out of our seats: three. I sat between two of my friends who aren't as "comfortable" watching horror films as I am and I have to say that may have been the most entertaining part of the evening. The friend to the left of me was already jumping during the trailers that played before the feature! Awesome! And there was one point during the film where the three of us jumped in unison. That made me smile from ear-to-ear.

Thank you, World War Z for a fun ride and for my newly discovered form of protection against zombies. When the apocalypse finally happens, I'll be sure to wrap Vogue magazines around my arms with duct tape. Genius. Pure genius.

Until next time,
L

Cremation Canisters as photographed by David Maisel

Beautiful and unique. That's all I can say about David Maisel's photography of these abandoned canisters from the Oregon State Insane Asylum. No, wait. There is one more word I can say in reference to this exquisite collection of photos: Jealous. As a photographer myself, I'm always looking to capture vivid images of extraordinary subject matter (and the creepier the better!). So for Maisel to have the opportunity to photograph these unclaimed canisters, holding the cremated remains of the deceased, well...yes, "jealous" may be the most appropriate word I could use.

I love the way that the minerals, contained in the copper canisters over the decades, have created phosphorous on many of the cans. That, in combination with the oxidation of the copper itself, has turned something tragic (imagine no one claiming your remains) into something captivating - so much so that I'm willing to bet many people would pay good money to have several of these pieces in their homes. I know I would.

Maisel calls this collection of work "Library of Dust." As he explains on his website (www.davidmaisel.com), "On my first visit to the hospital, I am escorted to a decaying outbuilding, where a dusty room lined with simple pine shelves is lined three-deep with thousands of copper canisters. Prisoners from the local penitentiary are brought in to clean the adjacent hallway, crematorium, and autopsy room. A young male prisoner in a blue uniform, with his feet planted firmly outside the doorway, leans his upper body into the room, scans the cremated remains, and whispers in a low tone, "The library of dust." The title and thematic structure of the project result from this encounter."

There were, at one time, thousands of these copper canisters contained in the "Library of Dust." Each lid is stamped with a number - the lowest being 01 and the highest being 5,118. How tragic. And yet how fortunate we are to have discovered what happened to these remains as they deteriorated over the years thanks to the talents of David Maisel. Please check out the entire story and the entire collection of Maisel's photos at his website: www.davidmaisel.com

Until next time,
L

Feather Emerges from Baby's Neck

I'll let the following link say it all. Enjoy!

http://news.yahoo.com/two-inch-feather-emerges-babys-neck-212722115--abc-news-topstories.html?fb_action_ids=10151591025129593&fb_action_types=news.reads&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%2210151591025129593%22%3A117606135071336%7D&action_type_map=%7B%2210151591025129593%22%3A%22news.reads%22%7D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D

Shadow People: A True Story

According to Wikipedia, a shadow person is a type of hallucination seen out of one's peripheral vision making it seem as if it were a living, humanoid figure.

Bullshit.

I've seen shadow people and they weren't hallucinations out of the corner of my eye. When I was a child I would often see shadow people walking across my bedroom - passing right in front of my eyes. Other times I would lay in bed and see a black mist in the corner of my bedroom ceiling (I'm still not sure what this was). These occurrences never frightened me because they were such a normal part of my childhood. As the years passed I saw them less and less, possibly due to my mind being less open and less childlike or perhaps simply because I was moved into a different bedroom of our home.

Some people believe that shadow people, whether greyish-white and seen in the dark, or blackish and seen in broad daylight (as was my case), are inter-dimensional beings that have found a way into our world. Others think that they are ghosts who cannot fully manifest themselves into a full-bodied apparition. If so, I find it interesting that I've never seen, read, nor heard stories of shadow people interacting with the living; I've always heard stories recounted as these beings "passing through." My experience was the same: the soft, black entities walking from one bedroom wall to the other and disappearing. Never a nod, never a glance, as the four or five of them would cross my path.

There's also speculation that shadow people are demonic since folklore tells us that the devil is a dark force that will appear in a black form. Again, though, I don't remember hearing accounts of people feeling threatened in any way by shadow people, so I can't say I believe the correlation to the devil.

I also don't agree with those who believe shadow people are alien creatures. This theory actually makes me laugh since I don't believe in alien lifeforms. What? Little Miss Paranormal doesn't believe in aliens? Nope. 'Nuff said.

I'm sure there will be more theories on shadow people in the future (I think there's a shadow people movie being released soon?), but for now I don't know how to explain what I saw during my early childhood. All I know is that all these years later I can still vividly recall their appearance and my experience with them.

If you have any experiences with shadow people, I would appreciate you leaving a comment.

Until next time,
L

It's my birthday (again?!)

Hi everyone! I can't believe it's already been a year since I spent my birthday in haunted Edinburgh! So much has happened during the past twelve months: missing Scotland (of course), going to Japan and getting lost in the largest cemetery in the country, getting back to my singing, taking more photos and improving my photography skills, working out with a personal trainer, having to take a pay cut at work... Ha! All in all it has been a great year and I hope to be better with my blog entries.

Hope everyone has a good weekend and stays safe from those scary fires that are burning around the city!

Until next time,
L

Netflix recommendations can't be trusted!

I had put two movies at the top of my DVD queue due to my Netflix recommendations. Unfortunately, both films fell flat.

The first was Eyes Front starring Michael Madsen and Christopher Stapleton. Written and directed by Darren Doane, and apparently going straight to DVD, this social commentary on serial killers was distributed in 2008. Doane stepped outside of his usual punk music videos to make this full-length film but, in my opinion, he didn't step far enough. The editing, the cinematography, the music all made me feel like I was watching an hour-long music video. The storyline is extremely weak as we follow the separate lives of two killers. Madsen plays a family man seeking redemption after killing his wife, while Stapleton plays a cunning and maniacal serial killer. I understand that Doane was trying to present a controversial perspective on what might lead someone to kill, but neither the plot nor the character development ever went deep enough to make things interesting.

The movie trailer teases us: "Look inside the mind of a killer." I'm glad they cleared that up, because I thought I was simply looking at a really, really bad film.

The second movie was a remake of Brian DePalma's 1973 Sisters, this time with Chloe Sevigny and Stephen Rea. The first few minutes were quite promising with an eerie soundtrack playing behind a beautiful montage of twin fetuses in the womb. But that's where the good stuff ended and this droning, unimaginative remake lost my interest (the acting was pretty awful, too). Also released straight to DVD, this version cannot compare to DePalma's genius in bringing us scares, suspense, and scenes that make us turn away in terror. Do yourself a favor and skip this one, but watch DePalma's original.

Not wasting any jumpers on either of these movies and you shouldn't waste your time.

Until next time,
L

The Walking Dead Season 3 Limited Edition Blue-Ray Box Set

Thanks to the guys at The Nerdist (and to my pal G who happens to be the biggest nerd of all) for the info on this limited edition box set of season 3 of AMC's The Walking Dead. Seems that the packaging was designed by McFarlane Toys while the crew was building the actual "aquarium wall" on-set. Although pricey (Amazon currently has it at a reduced price of $104) this is sure to be a collector's item especially due to its interactive nature. Interactive?! Yes, Todd McFarlane is allowing the consumer to fill the "tanks" with water and, thanks to the hooks on each of the heads, to arrange the heads however desired. Hmm... I wonder if they'd continuously bob up and down if you filled it with carbonated water? Or beer!

Until next time,
L

Hannibal (NBC)

I can't believe it's already April. Perhaps more so because there is still no official word from the Coroner's office about the autopsy of Elisa Lam (see previous Dark Water post). After repeated searches of the internet there is no available update, although I did find some photos of her family and friends attending her funeral - which leads me to believe that the Coroner released her body to the family. So sad.

If you've found any information that I may have overlooked, please post it in the comments section. Thanks and may Elisa rest in peace.

Someone commented to me the other day on how distressed they were that today's society seems to be so obsessed with horror: movies such as Evil Dead and television shows such as The Walking Dead seem to permeate the airwaves and our conversations. He truly seemed disturbed by this so I did my best to hide my delight. I really love this stuff.

So why wasn't I more excited to discover that NBC was bringing one of the best horror characters to television via Hannibal? Could it be because shows like The Following or American Horror Story start out with such promise only to fizzle toward the middle of the very first season? I wasn't going to add another disappointing item into my DVR's to-do list (Lord knows my DVR has been working overtime) until my son urged me to watch.

Hannibal introduces us to the legendary Dr. Lecter (he's not yet legendary in the show, I'm only speaking from my perspective), a psychiatrist with an appetite for human organs. (Kudos to NBC for making cooked lungs look like a delectable dish from Barefoot Contessa.) What I found interesting about the pilot episode is that we get to view the serial killer's mind through another profiler, not through Dr. Lecter. That profiler, special agent Will Graham (played by Hugh Dancy), is infintely more interesting than Lecter at this point. He's young, he's gifted, he's squeamish, he's vulnerable. I like this character so much that I'm already dreading his predicted demise at the hands of Lecter. Dancy is the best part of this cast, possibly because I'm not familiar with his previous work so I don't see any typecasting with him. The other cast members, however (yawn*), aren't really holding my interest. Laurence Fishburne is the main FBI agent. Someone needs to tell him that he isn't playing the CSI character anymore. Bo-ring! Mads Mikkelsen as Dr. Lecter is also underwhelming so far. He and James Purefoy of The Following could be interchanged and I wouldn't even notice. Same voice, same delivery, same... Bo-ring! And can I mention the annoying Asian female medical examiner? I honestly can't wait for her to get killed in the crossfire.

Nonetheless, I did find the first episode of this 13-episode season interesting enough to throw it into my DVR's season pass list, albeit only for Dancy's portrayal of Will Graham.

You can watch the entire episode here: http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi2950997529?ref_=tt_pv_vi_1

Not scary yet, so I'm only giving the pilot episode one jumper. Hopefully I'll return at some point during the season to insert more.

Until then,
L

Dark Water in Downtown L.A.: Life Imitating Art?

*Spoiler alert: You may want to see Dark Water (the Japanese version is better) before reading this post.

Today there was a gruesome discovery at a hotel in downtown Los Angeles. A woman's naked body was found in a water tank on the rooftop of the Hotel Cecil on 6th & Main. Upon hearing the news story I immediately told my friend, "It's just like that movie Dark Water!" Yup. Life can certainly be stranger than fiction.

21-year-old Elisa Lam was a student from Canada on her way to Santa Cruz, California. Seems she decided to make a stop to see The City of Angels. Unfortunately, it would be the decision that would cost her her life.

She was staying at the Hotel Cecil, alone, until she vanished nearly three weeks ago. The police have released video footage from the hotel's elevator surveillance camera and I'm posting it here: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/02/14/elisa-lam-missing-video-la-vancouver_n_2688168.html

As you can see, Elisa acts in an extremely odd manner throughout the footage. Why was she pressing ALL of the elevator buttons? Who was she looking at/for? Why did she appear to be hiding at one point? If she was in danger, why didn't she run? And was she carrying on a conversation with someone who was off-camera or was she completely disoriented? The Hotel Cecil is said to be haunted and, knowing this, if you watch the video from the perspective that she may have witnessed something paranormal... Well, the video gets a little creepier.

The Hotel Cecil is one of the oldest continually-run hotels in the Los Angeles area. They recently went through a renovation hoping to capture some of the crowd now coming into downtown for sporting events, concerts, and an improving restaurant & bar scene. Still, the hotel is located in a seedy part of town - near Skid Row - which is overrun with homeless people and a high crime rate. The hotel itself has quite a macabre history. Aside from its ghost stories, it was where Richard Ramirez (aka The Night Stalker) stayed during his killing spree in the '80's. (A piece of trivia for all you numerology buffs: Ramirez killed 14 people, stayed on the 14th floor of the Hotel Cecil, and paid $14 per night for his room.) It was also where the Austrian journalist-turned-serial-killer, Jack Unterweger, lived. Stories go back further to Goldie Osgood being raped and strangled in the hotel, and Pauline Otten jumping out of a window in 1962 - not only killing herself, but a pedestrian who was walking on the sidewalk below.

Residents of the hotel recently complained about the low water pressure on the third and fourth floors, so a maintenance worker went up on the roof today to check the water tanks. Surprise, Mr. Maintenance Worker! You're now f***ed up for life!

One of the residents said he heard a loud bang from the fourth floor the night before Elisa went missing. He also told reporters that there was flooding on the fourth floor the day of Elisa's disappearance and mentioned that plumbers had determined there was "some kind of blockage in the pipes between the third and fourth floors." Ick. I'm telling you, this is Dark Water in real life!

Now, keep in mind, these water tanks hold the water supply for the hotel. Yes, people were DRINKING this water. Yes, people were brushing their teeth with this water. Yes, people were using this water to cook. Oh my God... Needless to say, residents are completely grossed out.

I'm giving this story four jumpers because it's just too damn creepy and almost unbelievable.

Until next time,

L

Mama

While we all await the return of The Walking Dead (February cannot come soon enough!) I want to talk about Guillermo Del Toro's new film: Mama. Have you seen it? Everyone I've spoken to who has seen it has said that it's super scary. I, myself, can't even bring myself to watch the commercials! I know that has some of you laughing because I pride myself in my love of horror films (I recently scored a 92/100 on a "How Many of These Horror Films Have You Seen?" quiz), but it doesn't mean I'm always brave enough to see a particular movie. I still remember when my friend and I went to see The Grudge and I hid under a blanket the whole time. I think that was a first for me -- hearing a movie, rather than seeing it. Ha ha!

Well, Mama seems to have such an intense eeriness to it that I'm not sure I want to subject myself to it. I'd probably come home and envision good ol' Mama popping up all over my house.

My nephew said it's one of the scariest films he's seen (although he wished for a different ending). A co-worker said she laughed through the whole thing. Puzzled, I asked her if she laughed because she thought it was silly or if she thought it was so freakin' scary that she forced herself to laugh just so she could get through it. She said it was the latter. Boy, that sure sounds intriguing!

What to do? What to do? Maybe I'll just skip this one...? Let me know what you think.

Until next time,
L