Side note: I say “Former” because this special aired on KCET which is no longer a PBS station. Still, I get some Pledge Stuff, Rick Steves, and BBC World News from it. Also, MI-5 and Primeval before Douglas Henshall was killed off. Spoiler!
It’s Halloween time where sitcom writers bang their heads trying to decide what to dress their characters up as. It’s also time for spooky specials like Thing That Go Bump In the Night: Tales of Haunted New England. I love these kind of shows. I went through a phase where I read a bunch of “true” ghost story books. You know, the ones with the collection of grainy “yeah, maybe that’s a torso but…” photos. And these shows are a series of grainy photos with experts talking about hauntings and wonderful, glorious re-enactments. I once mentioned in a post what my acting goals would be if I was still pursuing it and I would like to now add “Ghost Special Re-Enactor” to that list. Because really, it would be cheesy, fun and an easy gig: you dress in colonial garb and walk down a wooded path. “OK, you’re walking…keep walking… keep going… walking… cut!” Or “Walk down the stairs… stare straight ahead… walk… cut!” Or if you’re really lucky, “Just sit in the rocking chair and rock… you’re rocking… rocking… cut!”
Aside from the dramatizations of the spirits, there are also great establishing shots of spooky hallways or hand-held camera shots of walking into rooms. My favorite shot from Things That Go Bump was the one that accompanied the “Ghost knocks things to the floor” story: one lone Heinz ketchup bottle falling and hitting the ground. To allay your fears, it was a plastic bottle. This particular ghost was concerned about messes apparently.
Another thing I love about these ghost shows is the people they interview. They are so excited to talk about the paranormal. (Side note: one of the interviewees reminded me of Star Burns from Community, without the ‘burns.) To indicate the bizarre, abnormal nature of the subject, all the interviews are conducted in dark, purply lighting and shot at an angle.
I have just now decided that at my 80th birthday party, someone must make a ghost-special style documentary about my life, complete with dramatizations and shots of random items falling to the floor.
Back to Things That Go Bump. One of the interviewees has a haunted item collection that he displays as a museum. Before you ask, yes, there were a few creepy dolls in the collection. He also had an interesting theory that the reason it is so cold when a ghost is around is because it absorbs your energy. He thinks that ghosts need humans in order to manifest. So if no human is around, I guess the ghost doesn’t bother showing up? Next you’re going to tell me that fallen trees don’t make a sound when no ears are around. My whole world…
There was also a quick segment on the Lizzie Borden House which is now a B&B. OK. The segment ended with the shot of an old fashioned photo of a stern Lizzie while children sang the “40 whacks with an ax” rhyme. No need to show me any ghosts because children singing nursery rhymes coupled with old frowny photos are all I need for nightmares, thank you.
Fun tidbit: people with TB where thought to be vampires because they would wake up with blood around their mouths and they were gaunt and pale. Well, isn’t that insult to injury.
What else did I learn from Things That Go Bump In the Night? There was a ghost called the Old Coot who walked around fields. Route 44 West has a phantom hitchhiker. Creepy part of that story is people have reported that the hitchhiker’s face appears outside the car window while it is driving down the road. Conversely, someone told the story of a ghost that throws courtesy soap at lodgers while they slept. But my favorite is the woman who went into the kitchen and saw a bag of chips floating in the air. My major criticism of the show is that there was no dramatization of this moment.
