Horror Within Horror By: Aleksi Anseth

The Real Nightmares On Elm Street In the early 1970’s, a 15 year old boy told his parents he was having nightmares, and that someone was going to kill him in his dreams, Literally. He said if he dreamed he wouldn’t wake. His parent didn’t think it was possible, and assumed it was just an ordinary nightmare. The boy was so traumatized from this nightmare that he got an extension cord, and a coffee pot and stayed all night for 3 days straight. After that, his parents found the extension cord and took the coffee away, and the boy fell asleep. Guess what happened that night? He didn’t wake up. Several years later, something similar happened to a young girl. She told her parent’s someone was trying to kill her in her dreams. In this situation, her parents believed her and gave her pills to prevent her from sleeping. But, she had to fall asleep sometime, because if you don’t sleep you can die. So the night she did fall asleep, she also died.

Here is Wes Craven, the creator of the popular Nightmare On Elm Street franchise. The series based upon the newspaper articles about the boy and girl I told you about. Do you see the grey figure in the bottom right corner?

The Poltergeist Curse Have you ever heard of The Poltergeist Curse? In between the span of the three Poltergeist films, four of the cast members died from different causes, and then another four died after the last installment of the trilogy. The star of the films, Heather O’Rourke, died at the young age of twelve. Some people believe this is some sort of curse. I guess if you make a movie about ghosts, you might not make them too happy.

Here is the star of the film Heather O’Rourke, with a translucent figure in the background, could this be a fellow deceased cast member? I’ve circled the figure so it’s easier for you to find it.

The Exorcist Curse During the filming of 1973’s classic psychological horror film The Exorcist, death on and around the set wasn’t an uncommon thing. On the set eight members of the crew died in a fire that destroyed the set of the whole McNeil house except for Reagan’s Room. A priest that came to bless the set died a couple weeks after from a severe case of the flu. In the area where the film was shooting, the death toll increased quite a bit at the time. After watching the movie, some people became noxious, some fainted, and some even needed to be hospitalized. One man was fine after watching the movie, but two months later he was hospitalized. He was severely paranoid, and thought his five year old daughter was possessed. Like The Poltergeist, many people believe this is some sort of curse.

If you look carefully, you can see a ghost in the middle window of The Exorcist House.