Month: June 2025 (Page 3 of 3)

 

‘In 1972, on the set of his rattlesnake-revenge film “Stanley,” director William Grefe desperately wanted one of his actors to swim in a pool of live rattlesnakes. The actor protested immediately, until Grefe offered this palliative:

‘”I told him he would wrestle rubber snakes instead. He was supposed to be panicked, though, so I threw live rattlesnakes in, anyway. He jumped in and shrieked,” says Grefe with a smirk on a recent Monday morning at his home in Southwest Ranches, pausing long enough to imitate the sound of a mouse squeaking. He continues: ” ‘Grefe, you son of a – !’ he says. I guess that’s where I got the name ‘Wild Bill’ on set. I do some mean stuff to actors for the sake of a good performance.”

‘To say Grefe earned his “wild” stripes because of a few antics behind camera is perhaps an understatement coming from the 82-year-old director of grindhouse exploitation films. Over 50 years of making Florida-set movies, Grefe has put into his low-budget, B movies stories written strictly for shock and awe, and certainly not for the benefit of big-budget studios.

‘”I’m not a Hollywood shill,” says Grefe, whose film “Stanley” will be screened Wednesday at Miami’s Sweat Records. “An independent movie is all about the number of days you have to shoot. I shot in 35 mm, which was expensive, so you’ve got to get it right in three takes or less. You hope you got it right, anyway. I didn’t want them to be comparable to Fellini or Bergman because I’m a mercenary. I didn’t make these moves for critical acclaim, I did it because it was right time at the box office.”

‘Grefe, who coaches young students about the benefits of indie filmmaking, says he cut his acting teeth at Florida State University and, later, summer stock before turning screenwriter. He wrote his first movie, 1963’s “The Checkered Flag,” about a car driver who competes against an older racer, but had to replace the film’s sick director at the last minute with little experience behind a camera.

‘Grefe says he learned filmmaking “by doing it myself, getting equipment prepared, driving it around and saving money.” “Stanley,” filmed around North Miami (and not in the Everglades), is one of his favorites because of how it was financed.

‘”I told the studio I didn’t have a script, but that it came to me in a dream. They gave me $125,000 for it, because they loved my sales pitch,” Grefe says. “If the studio ever found out about all the stuff I did with rattlesnakes, they’d put me underneath a jail.”‘ — Phillip Valys

 

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Stills

 

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Further

Bill Grefe Site
Bill Grefe @ IMDb
BG @ Letterboxd
HE CAME FROM THE SWAMP | THE WILLIAM GREFÉ COLLECTION
BG interviewed @ Starburst
BG @ MUBI
Interview: William Grefe @ BRWC
Get Swamped With “Wild Bill” Grefé!
BG interviewed @ Horror Cult Films
William Grefe – His Crazy Life as an Independent Filmmaker
GALLERIES: HE CAME FROM THE SWAMP (ARROW VIDEO BLU-RAY) SCREENSHOTS

 

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Extras

Bill Grefe, interviewed by William Shatner

Bill Grefe, Legends of Film

The William Grefé Collection “Official Trailer”

 

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Interview
from Boston Hassle

 

BOSTON HASSLE: How did you get started in filmmaking?

WILLIAM GREFÉ: Well, I wanted to be an actor. I did summer stock up in Woodstock, New York. A guy that was in summer stock with me was Lee Marvin. He was nobody at that time– he went on to be pretty famous. When the Korean War came along, I think I’d seen too many John Wayne movies, so I joined the military. When I got out and got married, I said, boy, this acting is not secure! [laughs] I went on [to join] the Miami fire department, and I had a lot of time when there’s no fire, so I’d write scripts. I wrote three or four screenplays, and I have the rejection slips to prove it! [laughs]

Finally, I wrote one called The Checkered Flag, which was about automobile racing up at Sebring. The fella that bought it had never made a movie before– he’d done some commercials– so we all went to Sebring, and I took a 30-day vacation from the fire department because he wanted me to be there for rewrites. The first day we were up at the races, he had a nervous breakdown and collapsed! The investors all panicked. There were no crews down here at all, hardly, and they brought this old cameraman out of retirement. We were at the hotel room at one in the morning, and they said, “What are we gonna do? We gotta get a director here.” And the old cameraman said, “Look, first you’d have to go to New York or California and hire a director. By the time he gets here, he’d have to read the script.” And then he said, “What the hell– the writer knows all about it. Make HIM the director!” So they drafted me at one in the morning in a motel room in Sebring.

The next day I started directing the movie. You know, directing a movie is half working with the actors to get the script on screen, and the other half is technical. And I knew nothing technically, so I relied on this old cameraman to help me. So that’s how I started directing. Fortunately, the movie made money. If your movie doesn’t make money you’ll never do another one. It made money, and that got me into directing.

Then, the second one [Racing Fever, 1964] came about. This is something writers and directors should keep in mind. I was at a big boat race with big hydroplanes, and there was an Italian driver named Ezio Selva who had an Alfa Romeo engine in his hydroplane. He was 57 years old, and he made an announcement: “This is going to be my last race. I’m turning the boat over to my son, who’s going to take the boat over and race it.” So he went out and he got going so fast the hydroplane flipped and fell right on top of him and killed him. And his son jumped off the pier and tried to swim out to him. I looked around, and there was a guy with a 16mm camera on top of a truck. I ran up to him and I said, “Did you get that shot?” And he said, “Yeah, I think I did.” So I got his name, and a couple of days later I came by, and he got the shot perfect, with that boat turning over and the guy falling out. So I bought that shot from him, and that’s the way I made Racing Fever, just based on that one shot and the experience of watching that race.

That led to Sting of Death. The guy who produced that had never produced a movie– he was a building contractor, and he wanted to be a movie producer! But he knew nothing about movies. Crazy stuff happened on that movie. At that time, all horror movies were released as a double [feature] at the drive-ins, and the distributor of Sting of Death couldn’t find another horror movie. So he said the magic word: he said if I could get another horror movie, [he’d] finance it. So I said, “Oh, yeah, no problem!” But the big problem I had was that you had to get movies [ready for release] for April 15, because that’s when all the drive-ins up north opened up, and they wanted double features. And this was, like, December, and back then editing and final mix and all that were a nightmare compared to today, where you just tap a computer and it’s right there. We had to work on Moviolas and use the actual workprint. So when he said the magic word, I sat down and made a timetable, because I had to get that thing in the theaters by April 15. So I said, “What can I write about?” So I took the age-old [story] of the Egyptian pharaoh: “If anybody disturbs my burial I’ll come back to haunt ’em!” And I made that into an ancient Indian witch doctor in the everglades, and that’s the way Death Curse of Tartu came about. I literally wrote that script in 24 hours, and filmed it in seven days. Have you ever seen Tartu?

BH: I have, actually.

WG: Well, at the end, Tartu drowns and goes under. But Tartu will not die! He keeps coming back! He was on Turner Classic Movies a couple months ago. [laughs] He just keeps living! I can’t get rid of Tartu.

BH: The “Do the Jellyfish” scene in Sting of Death is one of my favorite scenes in any horror movie. I’ve shown that to so many people. I’m curious, how did you get Neil Sedaka involved with that?

WG: Well, he was doing a nightclub act, and we went. Actually, I didn’t go because I was filming. The associate producer went and offered him some big bucks to write the song. So I really had nothing to do with securing him, but they just gave him some big money to write that song! That’s the way that came about.

BH: Where did your career lead you in the ‘70s?

WG: Well, you always try to see when a trend starts. I can’t remember the name of the movie, but it was one of the first animal movies ever made that started the trend [probably the 1971 killer rat film Willard –ed.], so I jumped on making Stanley. If you’re the second guy out on a trend, you’ll make money. If you’re the fifth or sixth guy out, you won’t. I was the second guy out with Stanley.

The way I got Stanley is sort of a funny story. Red Jacobs– I don’t know if you ever heard of Crown International? Crown was a distributor, and Red Jacobs was the head. He was a crusty old guy, with a cigar a foot long. He had released one of my movies. I was out in Los Angeles– I don’t know what I ate for dinner, but I dreamt Stanley. And I said, “Boy, this isn’t bad! Let me go see if I can talk Red into financing this thing.” So I called him up, and he says, “Okay, okay. Bring me the script, and I’ll read it over.” I said, “Uh, Red, let me just say it.” He said, “Come on, give me the script, I’ll read it over the weekend.” And I said, “I don’t have a script!” And he said, “Well, what the hell are you bothering me for? At least give me the outline.” And I said, “I don’t have an outline.” “You son of a bitch! Get the hell out of my office. What are you bothering me for?” And I’ll never forget, he had this whole box of Cuban cigars, and I reached in and grabbed one of his cigars. “Put that back! Those damn things cost me a buck a piece!” Which was a lot of money back then.

So anyway, he copped out, and his head of distribution and his publicity guy were in there, and I told them the whole story, which was in my head. And he said, “How much can you make this movie for?” I said I could make it for $125,000. He said, “I’ll tell you what. If you can deliver it to me by April 15, we got a deal.” As I told you, April 15 was a magic date because of the drive-ins. And I wasn’t about to turn the deal down, so I said, “No problem, Red! No problem!” So he shook hands with me, and back then his handshake was as good as 10 contracts.

So anyway, I said [to myself], “What the hell did I…? How am I gonna…? I gotta start shooting immediately!” Because it was December, and as I told you it was a nightmare to edit and do the final mix and all that. So I thought, “Gary Crutcher! That’s my answer!” Gary Crutcher was a writer I knew, and he was a pill-popper. All he did was live on pills. So I says, “Gary! That’s who I gotta get to write the screenplay.” So I called him up, because I knew he would pop pills and stay up for three days and write the thing. So I called him up and said, “Meet me at the LA airport. I gotta take the red eye back to Miami.” So he met me and I sat down with a yellow pad. I wrote the scenes, and when does this happen, and these are the characters, because I had it all in my head. So I wrote the story how I wanted it. He did the screenplay, and stayed up for like three days. And back then there were no faxes or anything, so I said, “I’ve got to have this in Miami by Monday or Tuesday!” So he stayed up and he wrote the thing in two or three days and put it on a flight, which I picked up at Miami Airport.

Incidentally, Stanley opened in Los Angeles against The Godfather— the biggest, most expensive movie of the year. And in LA, The Godfather grossed $181,000 the first weekend. Stanley grossed $179,000. Only $2000 less! And Stanley cost $125,000– god knows how much The Godfather cost!

BH: I was familiar with your stuff from the ’60s, but I was surprised in a lot of ways by Impulse when I saw it for the first time. Is it safe to say that you were working with something of a higher budget than you had been before?

WG: Well, Socrates Ballis, who had worked with me as an associate, wanted to produce his own movie. He went over to Tampa and he was able to raise some money, and when he raised the money he hired me to direct the thing. The interesting thing is the way we got Shatner. Socrates and I were going to California to try to get some name actor, and we were walking through the Miami Airport, and I looked and said, “Hey, look! It’s William Shatner! There’s Shatner!” And we stopped him and gave him our pitch, and he sat down and glanced through the script, and we made a deal right in the Miami Airport. We never went to California! That’s the way we got Shatner.

BH: What was it like working with Shatner to create this character? This seems like sort of a departure from some of his other roles.

WG: I got along really good with Shatner. I’ve heard more people say he gives directors a lot of hassle. In fact, there’s something on YouTube where some director tried to tell him how to read a line and he drives the guy crazy. [But] Shatner and I always stayed real close. I just had a big birthday party, and Shatner sent me a nice thing on Facebook– he filmed it and said happy birthday. And I got a really nice note from Quentin Tarantino. I’ve got a big poster that Quentin Tarantino sent me. He said, “To the man who put Stanley on Whiskey Mountain! Your fan, Quentin Tarantino.”

BH: That’s amazing!

WG: He knows all my films. He’s really a historian of film.

 

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13 of Bill Grefe’s 20 films

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The Checkered Flag (1963)
‘The alcoholic wife of a rich car racing champion persuades a young driver to kill her husband. To all the actors out there, The Checkered Flag also features a great demonstration of how NOT to play drunk.’ — Letterboxd

the entire film

 

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Sting Of Death (1966)
‘Released in 1966, well into the countercultural shift which would be reflected in Grefé’s later exploitation films, The Sting of Death feels out of time as a pure 1950s schlock B-movie, replete with preppy teens, a dubious monster, and a bloke who is treated as the biggest freak known to man because of a… minor eye deformity? You’d think that audiences in 1966 would be tired of this by now. Another monster movie? What is it this time? Jellyfish?… Well at least it’s in colour.’ — Planktologist

Trailer

Excerpt

Do The Jellyfish by Neil Sedaka

 

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Death Curse of Tartu (1966)
‘So, Death Curse of Tartu. Grefé needed to make a movie quick and he had the funding so he took the old story of the mummy’s curse and transplanted it to the Florida Everglades, changing Tutankhamun to a more Native American-sounding Tartu. Grefé wrote the script in 24 hours and then shot the whole thing in a week on a budget of $27,000. So the only response to complaints about how awful it looks is “What did you expect?” Or as Grefé himself puts it on the commentary track: “You know when you read some critics they’ll compare a movie like this with a fifty-million-dollar horror movie and you know my saying is let the guy who directed the fifty-million-dollar film and had six months, let him try to shoot a picture in seven days and see how good he does on $27,000.”’ — Alex on Film

Trailer

the entire film

 

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The Wild Rebels (1967)
‘Man for a movie called Wild Rebels they sure sit around and get high for a long time before doing anything Wild. I like how our hero immediately thinks the three bikers covered in Nazi regalia are trust worthy and a good place to get some extra cash. Of course any biker Nazi enthusiast is always made up of a charismatic leader, an unhinged violence craving guy, a man with brain damage and a woman who just wants to tag along for, and I quote “kicks”. Ultimately boring but the soundtrack is good at least. The final scene with the spiral staircase did have a decent shot with a dummy.’ — EdgeyBerzerker

Trailer

They Kill for Kicks: Making Wild Rebels

 

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The Hooked Generation (1968)
‘The whole world’s a freakout on one outrageous trip in this Psychoactive Time Capsule of homicide, hypodermics, and hippies-gone-bad! Three scary specimens of THE HOOKED GENERATION-Daisy, Acid, and Dum Dum-want to be big-time drug dealers, but have the collective IQ of a pack of rolling papers. Still, they decide to score a boatload of narcotics by killing Cuban smugglers, massacring members of the Coast Guard, and making hostages of two do-gooders who stumble on the scene. But when the gang learns that the drugs are too hot to unload, they scurry to the Everglades as the FBI closes in! Sick fun proving once and for all that swamps and syringes just don’t mix. THEN: Father John accidentally drinks a soda spiked with LSD and trips his brains out to become THE PSYCHEDELIC PRIEST. Setting off across America on a journey of self-discovery, he falls in love amidst hippies and heroin until hitting rock bottom on skid row. Originally titled Electric Shades of Grey, this unique dose of acid-fueled nostalgia is almost worth missing Sunday chuch for. Say amen, somebody!’ — Image Entertainment

Trailer

the entire film

 

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The Naked Zoo (1970)
‘Love and crime in Miami’s Cocoanut Grove artist’s colony. Swinging young writer Stephen Oliver has a falling-out with benefactress Rita Hayworth in the wake of a wild LSD party. Rita foolishly tries blackmail after Oliver’s reconciliation attempt leaves her crippled millionaire husband dead.’ — Letterboxd

Watch the film here

 

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Stanley (1972)
‘Unlike many grindhouse films, “Stanley” was almost devoid of humor. I was left feeling mostly sad and a little bit disgusted. Here, it was a reaction to the pathetic lives of the characters and, mostly, disappointment at the very real violence against not just the mice but the snakes. We see the baby snakes crushed with the butt of a rifle, we see a snake shot, and we see Tim swinging snakes around in a tantrum, smashing their bodies against the cabinets and floor in his kitchen, as well as onto the bodies of snakes moving around him on the floor. There is a higher snake body count than human.’ — SHAAWANO.COM

Trailer

Excerpt

 

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IMPULSE! (1974)
‘An insanely committed, really-swinging-for-it William Shatner as a serial murdering confidence trickster is the bull in this film’s china shop, completely destroying everything in his path, abetted by some of Grefé’s more inventive photography.’ — matt lynch

Excerpt

Excerpt

Excerpt

 

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Mako: The Jaws of Death (1976)
‘Richard Jaeckel in a rare lead role plays Sonny Stein, an outcast with a mystical connection to sharks. After a series of betrayals by fraudulent and immoral individuals, Stein’s fin-ship with dangerous fish comes in handy to lower the human population in a seaside Florida town. William Grefe’s uniquely off-beat do-over of his own WILLARD-influenced STANLEY (1972) ups the danger meter by diving head-first into the carnivorous waters to get striking footage of the apex predators. You won’t find major studio, JAWS-level thrills, but fans of Drive-in movies and the wild and weird side of cinema will find plenty to sink their teeth into.’ — Cool Ass Cinema

the entire film

 

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Whiskey Mountain (1977)
‘Absolutely Bill Grefé’s crowning achievement, a not-infrequently nasty little bit of regional hicksplo trash. Whiplashes between comically padded and seriously harrowing, so its narrative lulls seem naive and its gnarly violence feels all the more unpleasant, and as usual he mines genuinely indelible performances from his entire cast. A real gem.’ — matt lynch

Trailer

Quentin Tarantino on Whiskey Mountain

 

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The Psychedelic Priest (1971)
‘An intimate portrait of one man’s descent into the dark underbelly of the hippie counterculture, the film touches on themes of religion, the effects of drugs, racism, police brutality, teenage pregnancy – you name it, The Psychedelic Priest has got it. John Darrell gives a commanding performance as the titular priest, giving you the impression that he really could have been a star in his own right, if not for some unfortunate dentistry. A film so daring, so boundary pushing, that, maybe in the interests of public order, they didn’t dare release it until 2001. William Grefé himself took his name off the project, perhaps afraid of the power of his own creation. It remains his finest work.’ — Planktologist

Excerpts & review

 

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Consider Us Even (2014)
‘Sisters are kidnapped at gunpoint, tortured and interrogated. What happens next will make you think twice about your own daily decisions.’ — IMDb

Trailer

 

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Thumbs (2019)
‘This is what happens when an 89-year-old man writes a film about young women, texting, the “net”, and thumbs.’ — Justin Johnson

the entire film

 

 

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p.s. Hey. ** Lucas, Hi, Lucas! Good to see you, pal! I’m good, still mostly doing film stuff. I’m reading two books that aren’t going to be published until the fall, and they’re both pretty great: Laura Vasquez ‘The Endless Week’ (Dorothy) and Charlotte Northall ‘Practicing Dying’ (Pilot Press). Feel better or hopefully you are already. I’ll look for ‘Permanent Red’. Glad to get to talk with you! Stay great. xoxo ** Misanthrope, Give it a few weeks. Oprah gave him the big stamp of approval and fame is ensuing. I liked his poetry. I had problems with his first novel. I’m pretty sure I won’t read the new one. Me too, the two smallest toes on my left foot have been fucked up and painful for almost two months, but only when I’m wearing shoes, and I fear a doctor is in my immediate future. Luck with your culprit. And with your neck especially. ** _Black_Acrylic, Yeah, I thought the whole mass outburst of happiness was really beautiful. Now real life and preternaturally reserved Parisians are returning. ** Carsten, Yes, indeed. I become ever more intolerant of conventionally built films with superficial ‘edgy’ turns that are heavily reliant on color saturation/ grading and score, and Guadagnino is way in that camp of directors. A good cannibal movie? Hm. I think a case could be made for Greenaway’s ‘The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover’. I think Pasolini’s ‘Porcile’ has some cannibalism in it unless I’m misremembering. The cannibalim exploitation movies like ‘Cannibal Holocaust’ have their charms. ** Hugo, Nice Sunday -> Monday. What’s your friend’s video game? Obviously that possible collaboration is promising. Wow, Guadaningo did a film about or employing Arto Lindsay? That’s quite a shock. I’ll look that up. I think AL is, among other things, one of the most exciting living guitarists, so that’s something. Luckily the early books of mine to which I was referring have never been sold anywhere as far as I know. They were in mini-editions, and I was nobody, and hopefully the few people who bought them never thought to preserve them. You have an excellent one. ** James Bennett, Welcome home, sir. I know Will Mountain Cox a bit. He lives here, I think, or I see him at bookstore events pretty regularly. Thanks about the Gluck interview. Yeah, it’s kind of my favorite interview with me, I think. My week: work on a new draft of our new film script, figure out the impending US trip to show ‘RT’ in SF, more film stuff no doubt, try this new deep dish pizza restaurant that just opened here, and who knows. Let me/us know when the site is up. So exciting about the impending publication date. If you’d like to do a ‘welcome to the world’ post for it I would be totally down, just let me know if you do. ** julian, Hey. Wow, about your brave parents. Oh, shit, the Emilia story was there twice? Mistake. I made that post years ago, so I don’t remember why or how I fucked up. Oops. I was too young to see VU live, but I have a strong memory of driving down the Sunset Strip with my parents and seeing ‘Velvet Underground and Nico / Exploding Plastic Inevitable’ on the marquee of this nightclub (The Trip) and feeling very left out. ** Steve, No, our only investigation into ghost-y stuff for the film was researching how ghosts have been depicted in movies so we would be sure not to replicate them. The post texts were generally credited at the bottom of the post. Happy to hear about the breakthrough with the death certificates. You’re an only child, right? I can’t remember. If so, doing all of that alone sounds so extremely daunting, although my experience working with my siblings on the estate settling was a nightmare. I know, shocked about the Arto Lindsay film too. I’m going to look it up. Everyone, Steve has some new reviews up for you to peruse, namely of Pulp’s new album MORE here, and of Matmos’ METALLIC LIFE REVIEW and Dalava’s UNDERSTORIES here. ** pancakeIan, Yeah, haunted dolls is a thing, a cult fetish or something. I can’t remember where the quote came from. I made that post, oh, seven years ago or thereabouts. Travolta came to the reading because he was shooting ‘Urban Cowboy’ at the time, and the director (James Bridges) was buddies with Isherwood. It seems possible that some gallery might show Henson’s work at the big Art Basel Miami Beach fair, but only maybe and probably not worth a trip to the totality. Yes, I’m pretty sure Disney never did anything with the ‘Arabat’ books. I was pretty surprised they were interested even back then. As was Clive. Nice dude, Clive. ** Steeqhen, Thanks. Happy to successfully provide. You probably just need the sleep, right? Zac can sleep for 18 hours at a time if left to his druthers, and it doesn’t seem to phase him. As always, ‘Dr. Who’ is an absolute mystery to me, but nice that it’s whatever enough to inspire obsession. ** Uday, Maybe on the zero budget thing. Maybe for a documentary, which we do want to make at some point. Our first film only cost 40k to make, and I don’t how we managed to make it for so little, but we did. An old woman as a pet. That’s a curious fantasy, obviously. Never heard of that before. Maybe you should go for it. Or make art about it or something. Could work wonders. As long as the moths are outdoors, that would be lovely, but I hope not to see the moths that keep magically getting into my clothes and nibbling. ** Right. Today the blog is celebrating the low budget movie maker Bill Grefé and his cultishly fun and sometimes even interesting works. See you tomorrow.

* (restored)

 

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Alice

‘Alice lives with its owner Marie Ford in Washington state. This very haunted doll is said to whisper in a ghostly voice if you press your ears close to her porcelain lips. Her eyes will follow you around the room and her expression will change if she does not like you . “This Doll has been in my family for years it was always kept in a locked doll case,” says Marie. “My grandmother said it was possessed by the spirit of her best friend Alice who died by committing suicide at the age of 13. I have captured many Haunted Doll EVP’s from her and the most common statement she makes is, “I want to be left alone to suffer”.’

 

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Letta

‘Kerry Walton, of Brisbane, Australia, stumbled upon Letta while searching for antiques under a dilapidated old house. The doll seemed to behave in unnatural ways as soon as he discovered it. The bag containing the doll rustled in the back of his car. Its facial expressions seemed to change from day to day, and dogs had a vicious response to it. Also, children in the family were having nightmares, and Letta’s head, arms, and legs would move on their own.

‘An Australian psychic conducted a seance and determined a man who was grief-stricken because his son drowned made the doll. The doll was to serve as a type of transference vessel for his dead son’s spirit, and today, everyone who comes into contact with Letta the Gypsy Doll says that it is alive.’

 

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Emilia

‘Emilia is a haunted doll which is at least a 100 years old and is believed to have belonging to king Umberto (king of Italy). The king was assassinated and the doll was given to his best friend Ulvado Belina. Ulvado was also assassinated and the doll was then given to his daughter Marie.

‘Marie claimed that she heard the doll crying and weeping many times and that the doll would change its facial expressions as well. She also claimed that Emilia would open and close its eyes. Marie claimed that she also heard Emilia say a sentence. According to Marie, Emilia said – “It’s not great”. While Amelia was not well known enough to be assassinated, she did die in a hail of bullets.

‘Today, Emilia remains locked in a glass case, and is on display at the Warren Occult museum. The only one of it’s kind, the museum houses haunted artifacts and objects collected from over 50 years of paranormal investigations. It is still reported that while very weak, Emilia still manages to trip, pull the hair, and temporarily blind visitors who walk by her case.’

 

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Okiku

‘Okiku the doll was purchased by a seventeen-year-old boy named Eikichi Suzuki during a visit to Sapporo for a marine exhibition in 1918. The doll was a gift from his travels for his two-year-old sister named Okiku. When she was initially purchased, the doll had a hair style called ‘okappa’ (similar to a bob cut), which is popular on Japanese dolls. Okiku loved her new doll and it served as the little girl’s companion until she died suddenly from a cold-like illness at the age of three. Devastated by their loss, Okiku’s family put her favourite doll on the household altar where they prayed in memory of Okiku. Before long, the family noticed that the hair on Okiku’s doll had begun to grow, as if the hair was on the head of a human. The family concluded that the restless spirit of Okiku, who died so young, was now inside her beloved doll. The doll remained with Okiku’s family until 1938 when they moved to Iwamizawa in Hokkaido and gave the doll to the Mennenji Temple where she remains enshrined to this day. She is now referred to as Okiku after her former owner. Some believe the hair that continues to grow from her head is the hair of the child Okiku.’

 

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Pupa

‘While real haunted doll stories are not uncommon, the case of Pupa is very unique. The original owner had it from the age of 5 or 6 (1920’s) until she died in July of 2005. The doll survived World War II, and many, many close calls to it’s destruction over the years. The owner cherished it always through out her long life. The doll traveled from Italy to the United States then back to Italy and across Europe and finally to the USA once again where it is now.

‘Pupa is said to move by herself. Often she is said to push things around in the display case where the family who owns her keep her. Since the passing of the original owner in 2005 the family reports that the haunted doll has become very active and seems to want to be released from where she is kept in a glass display case. Members of the family, guests, and workers making repairs in their house have reported discovering the the glass of the case steamed white and, inscribed on the steamy glass from the inside of the case by what appears to be a small child’s fingertip, the words ‘Pupa hate’.

‘Still dressed in her blue felt suit, she has also reportedly pulled pranks aplenty on those who care for her. Often, Pupa was placed differently than when the family last saw her. More than once, the family have reported hearing a sound like someone tapping on glass as they pass Pupa’s display case. When they turn to look, they have seen Pupa’s hand pressed against the glass. One member of the family managed to catch on video the doll rising to its feet and walking within the case, but on the three occasions he tried to upload the video onto Youtube, the video was obscured with a mysterious thick white film and the words “Pupa No!” scribbled on the film in a childish handwriting.’

 

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Barbie

‘At the shrine known as Lady Na Tuk Kong Shrine in Pulau Ubin, you will find a barbie doll occupying the place on the altar usually reserved for the statue of a deity. Even some of the offerings left on the shrines altar by worshippers are different from the norm. There are creams, lotions, rouges, powders, small mirrors and combs.

‘According to Literature and History researcher Han Shanyuan, the story behind the shrine begins with a German couple and their daughter. One day in August 1914, the British army came for the German couple and their daughter. The army caught the couple but the girl managed to escape to the mountain behind her family’s plantation. Unfortunately, she fell from a cliff and died.

‘Locals then built the temple in order to pacify the girl’s spirit. According to the temple’s keeper, at first people worshipped a porcelain altar instead of the Barbie doll. The porcelain altar is believed to contain a lock of the girl’s blond hair and a crucifix that is said to be the one the girl was wearing when she died.

‘Three years ago, a local emigrant to Australia had the same weird dream for three nights. In his dream, a western girl led him to a shop. She then asked him to buy a Barbie doll and bring it to the”Lady Na Tuk Gong Shrine”. The man followed the directions given.

‘To his surprise, he found the shop and also the doll the girl described in his dream. He bought the doll and brought it back to Pulau Ubin. Today, a lot of people come to the temple to worship the Barbie doll and it is said their prayers for safety and health are answered.’

 

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The Voodoo Doll

‘A woman in Galveston, Texas bought a real haunted New Orleans Zombie Voodoo doll on ebay October of 2004, It arrived as described Bound and tied in a metal box. Believing it just to be a strange curio she decided to take it out it’s small coffin and display it. “A Real Big Mistake” she says with great fear… the haunted doll attacked her, repeatedly. Afraid for her life she put it back in it;s decorated box casket but it haunted her in her dreams. Afraid to the point of mental exhaustion she tried to destroy it by burning it first, it would not burn. Then cutting it up the Knife and scissors broke and finally burying it at a cemetery. But as she tells the dolls grave was just to shallow and it appeared lying dirty on her front door step once more. She said she even resold it on ebay and the buyer wrote her that the doll had just disappeared from her home, so she sent it back to her when she found it on her door step again. The third time the buyer told her the box arrived empty. Again the evil doll was found at her door once more. The above photo was taken in 2004, right when she had first received the doll through the mail.’

 

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Joliet

‘Anna G. Says this cursed doll has been passed down from mother to daughter in her family for four generations. And each daughter was cursed to have two children a son and a daughter and each son died at 3 days old. The family believes that each spirit of the boy children is cursed to inhabit the doll until Judgment Day. Joliet is said to be heard crying in the night with the voices of several infants at once. Often is heard a piercing scream that sends chills down the spine of any mother.

‘”It can be heard quite clearly”, says Anna. “I lost my only son at three days old from mysterious circumstance in the hospital. My Mother lost a Son the same way as did my Grandmother and Great Grandmother. As I have been told by my mother the cursed Doll was given to my Great Grand mother by a jealous friend for my Grandmother as a toy when she was pregnant with her second child a son who also died at three days old. Each of us in my family have loved the doll and cared for our lost children to this day. My only daughter will do the same one day when she is older. We have not tried to get rid of it because we know the souls of our lost sons or trapped inside and do not want them to come to any harm. It is a haunted curse that my family bears”.’

 

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Emilia

‘This over 100 year old Haunted Doll came originally from one of the royal guards to King Umberto I. Umberto I, King of Italy or Humbert I of Italy (Umberto Ranieri Carlo Emanuele Giovanni Maria Ferdinando Eugenio di Savoy), (14 March 1844 – 29 July 1900) was the King of Italy from 9 January 1878 until his death. He was deeply loathed in left-wing circles, especially among anarchists, because of his hard-line conservatism and support of the Bava Beccaris massacre in Milan. He was killed by anarchist Gaetano Bresci one year after the incident. He was the only King of Italy to be assassinated. This doll was said to be given to Ulvado Bellina one of his most trusted and respected friends and personal Captain of the Royal Guard who was also assassinated. Emilia was gift to Ulvado’s daughter Marie from Humbert I.

‘The doll survived WW I and WW II only losing both her arms and scalp in the second war to a bomb on a train to Udine, Italy. Because she was a prized gift To Marie Bellina from the king no matter what condition she was in the doll was rescued from the rubble. And from that day on she was haunted by the soul of the woman who died trying to rescue her self and the doll for Marie as they fled the explosion. Emilia the Haunted Doll is said to open and close her eyes, and her sound box is still heard at times in the darkness of the night crying for it’s mama. Though her original voice box no longer works.’

 

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‘Robert, the lifelong companion of painter Robert Eugene (called Gene) Otto. Within months after the arrival of the doll in the Otto household, strange things began to occur. Objects would go missing and turn up broken, Gene took to the unhealthy habit of sneaking out of his window and wandering the grounds at night, and his parents began to suspect him of all kinds of mischief. If he was caught in the act, Gene would always hold out Robert and say, “Robert did it!” Soon the doll apparently became bolder. It no longer seemed to require Gene’s company to move about the house. In the still hours of the night, the servants would often wake to the sound of hollow, pattering footsteps. Too frightened to inspect the cause, they would usually cower in their beds until dawn. Weird humming and singing was heard to come from the nursery if Gene inadvertently left Robert there alone.

‘It was widely believed that the death of Gene Otto in 1972 would put an end to the ghostly activity of the haunted doll. It was quickly learned, however, that true evil never dies, and while the house stood empty reports of the awful doll still continued. Many people would hear the sound of singing coming from the house at night and on more than one occasion the gruesome doll is said to have frightened school children by peering out the window in the attic turret and making faces at them. The home was eventually converted into the Artist’s House historic location as it stands today, Robert was donated to The East Martello Museum not far away. It quickly became evident, however, that Robert was still up to his old tricks. Museum workers began to report strange activity after the arrival of the doll, including one volunteer who was terrorized when the doll apparently spent most of a day following her around. Eventually, the doll was encased in a plastic display case in which it remains to this day. Still, there are those who claim that even this cannot contain the evil doll.’

 

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Amanda

‘Amanda the real haunted doll now lives unhappily in Atlanta, Georgia. She has moved around quite a lot since originally being a haunted doll sold on eBay over 3 years ago. Amanda’s recent life can originally be traced back to Ebay but no further then that. Since she was sold 3 years ago she has been bought sold traded and given away more times then can be counted on two hands. The ghost that is said to possess her is very active if she does not like you. Amanda has been known to move on her own and often heard scratching on the glass class she is now housed in. If she is happy then she just sits there staring into space. But when she is ready to move on she begins to wreck havoc in the home she resides in until she is once again sent on her way.’

 

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The Devil’s Baby Doll

‘Originally purchased as a haunted curio gift from a Leather maker this haunted doll with red leather skin and intense blue hot glass eyes is said to have moved on it’s own and is often heard to make strange growling and gurgling noises and worse. The artist Rafael who made it explains that the doll was made for a close friend who had died. The devil baby even went to this persons funeral. The intention was to place it into the coffin to be cremated with the deceased but his family objected. And after that the doll started to take on a haunted life of it’s own. The artist believes that it is inhabited by his friends soul. He heard it speak to him in his friends voice, and he had witnessed it turning it’s head. Since being sold, it literally drove its two different owners insane before the doll was ultimately locked in a lead box by Rafael and sunk in a river so it would never harm any soul again.

‘This is an excerpt from the first owner Tyler Durbane’s diary, kept while he was institutionalized after this average school teacher was diagnosed with psychosis three months after purchasing the doll: ‘My doll is quite honestly deadly, my doll is absolutely mean. My doll is the mighty Devil embodied, the evil red skinned Satan hiding unseen! He was a shadow of a whisper, a ghost in the night that came to me… calling my name and begging me to hold it, rescue it…take it … make it real and very much alive. Each night it crept cat-like hidden into my deep slumbers… asking me to rescue it from it’s eternal black prison of a hell!’

 

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Elsa

‘The Madonia family from Houston found out that “Frozen” is truly inescapable. An Elsa doll Emily Madonia first gave her daughter in 2013 kept finding its way back home after they twice tried to throw the creepy toy in the garbage. The doll, which sings the inescapable “Frozen” song “Let It Go” when a button on her collar is pushed, began only singing and speaking in Spanish instead of English even when it was turned off.

‘”Mat threw it away weeks ago and then we found it inside a wooden bench,” Madonia wrote. “Okay….so we were weirded out and tightly wrapped it in its own garbage bag and put that garbage bag INSIDE another garbage bag filled with other garbage and put it in the bottom of our garbage can underneath a bunch of other bags of garbage and wheeled it to the curb and it was collected on garbage day. We went out of town, forgot about it. Today Aurélia says ‘Mom, I saw the Elsa doll again in the backyard.’ The doll laughed for 30 seconds straight as soon as it saw her. HELP US GET RID OF THIS HAUNTED DOLL.”

 

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— Texts borrowed and/or collaged from Hauntedamericantours.com, Sharon Stajda, Angelghosts.com, wetellstories,com, and Boing Boing.
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p.s. Hey. ** Alistair, Hi. I generally think/say my all time favorite novel is ‘Death Sentence’ by Maurice Blanchot. ‘White Fang’, I read that, I think in college? Huh, I’ll take a look back at it. Thanks! Ouch: sunburn. Twice when I was younger I got so sunburned I had to go the hospital. My face swelled up and looked like a pumpkin. I don’t think I’ve seen a goldfinch IRL, no. Pretty mental picture. Bon day! ** Steeqhen, I do think that people who grew with the internet and social media and those apps heavily romanticise what social interaction and friendship, etc. was like when it was incumbent on telephones and postal mail and so on. I think people have always had the same impulses, but they had to live out their neediness and voyeurism in person. Which isn’t to say those things are exacerbated by immediate international contact and the ability to easily hide and fake everyone out and protect yourself from the consequences, of course. I don’t know. Food for thought. Glad a couple of the books spoke to you. ** Sypha, Hi. I think if I had to pick a favorite Swans it might be ‘Public Castration is a Good Idea’. Or maybe ‘Greed’. **  Dev, Hi, Dev! Inconsistent commenting is A-okay. Great to see you! Big congrats on getting the exams in your past. I’ve never had vegan soul food. I didn’t know it existed. They don’t even have regular soul food over here. I’ll try it when I’m in LA next. Surely it’s available there. Yes, it’s deeply heartbreaking about Michael. There are people caring for him, and I think he’s as okay as he can be. I hope to see you again soon. ** Hugo, Hey. I have my issues with ‘Safe’, for sure, although I’m still proud of the ‘My Mark’ section, but I meant earlier stuff. I published a couple of little books before then that I would vacuum out of wherever they are in the world if wishes could be granted. I still haven’t cracked the new Swans, but it’s staring at me. ‘I Remember’, so great. Brainard was favorite writer of Leve’s, no huge surprise. I do read books in a day, yeah. I like really short books. When I think of my top ten novels or whatever, the vast majority are quite skinny. It’s nice to gulp something down. ‘Naked Lunch’ in one day is pretty impressive. Trusting that your Sunday was ultra-decent, I hope for a beautiful segue into your Monday. ** Steve, Ah, that’s shame about the restaurant. New show! Everyone, The latest episode of Steve’s “Radio Not Radio” is now out. ‘Follow the dream fish into K-hole trip-hop, minute-long DIY songs, film noir samples, Brazilian and South African party music, and much more.’ How can you resist that? Surrender. No, I missed that Arte broadcast. I didn’t know about it. I don’t watch TV unless I’m pre-clued in to something. The ‘RT’ theater release is in France. ** julian, Will do re: the new Swans. I haven’t been the right mood for it quite yet. They played at the Lodge, nice. I’m sure they’ll tour/play over here in Paris. I think they always pay Paris a visit. Amazing about that music redefining moment. For me it was when I was about 13, and I was at school helping set up for a school dance event, and one of the seniors put ‘The Velvet Underground and Nico’ on the record player, and I was like, ‘what the fuck is this?!’ I’d never heard anything remotely like it. Standing there, confused and mind boggled listening to that record forever opened music and kind of art in general for me. ** _Black_Acrylic, It’s good. And after ‘Gravity’s Rainbow’ it’ll be like breathing easily again. Yes, people went completely wild here. The shouting and fireworks and honking horns, etc. kept me up most of the night. The violence was nearby-ish, but not in my actual hood. ** Carsten, No, the violence mostly happened on and near the Champs Elysee. I can easily walk to the Champs Elysee from where I live, but it’s not at my doorstep. I just got the fun, exhilarated partying around me. I can’t stand Guadagnino’s films. I think they’re really bourgie and perfumey, so I’m going to skip ‘Queer’. I feel 100% certain it would just piss me off. Thanks for the warning. I’m not really worried about the maybe smoking ban, no. Heck, I survived being in Tokyo where you can’t even smoke outside unless it’s in designated random smoking areas. ** pancakeIan, Thank you of your attention to the books. Well, assuming at least some of those slaves are real and using actual photos of themselves, which I think is highly debatable in many cases. It was cool to host the Isherwood reading. And it was quite the event. John Travolta came, and I talked to him a bit and he was actually very nice, and other big celebs too. I’m happy you found and like Bill Henson’s work. See them in person if you ever get the chance. They even much more amazing in person. The black backgrounds in his photos are really rich and extraordinary. ** Bill, Yes, they’re real, David swears. I do like Vollman, yes. And I didn’t know about that doc. And I’ll definitely to find it. Thank you, pal. ** HaRpEr //, Trinidad is a lovely poet. Really singular and focused. Walser’s pretty great, yeah, I agree. His really early work is kind of didactic and clunky, I think, but he really grew into his style. Job hunting, especially now, must be so exhausting and painful. The years Zac and I spent trying to raise money to make our film were miserable, but that must pale by comparison. ** maggie, Hi again. I’d be curious to see my notes too. I agree about that particular allure of that which is wildly popular and which you can’t quite analyse into making total sense. I was pretty interested in the Taylor Swift thing for a while until I got bored thinking about it. And I’m trying to figure out a way to write something that gets at the Timothee Chalamet phenom because that vexes me. But, like, the Paris football/soccer team just won this huge tournament, and Parisians are mad with excitement about it, and yesterday there was this parade on the Champs Elysee starring the team, and I was outside yesterday, and there were just endless amounts of Parisians walking over to it all dressed up in their team gear and looking so thrilled, and it was beautiful to see for some reason — all that happiness, and so many people of every age happy for the same reason and feeling all connected to each other and so on. It was fascinating and very touching too. Thanks about the way I portray or study that in my work. I don’t know why I keep wanting to get to the bottom of it. I’ve never even heard Duster as far as I know. But now I will. You’ve made me ultra-curious. Oh, Sarah, yes. She’s a treasure. Say hi for me. What do you do with your guitar, or I guess what kind of music do you make/play when you play? I have a good friend with Crohn’s. Wow, I hope your case isn’t too bad. My friend has a hard time, although he’s and writer and very productive. but he has it pretty bad. Definitely stay passionate, curious, hungry, confident, etc. There are so many reasons to. That’s how I’ve survived. It’s good starting to get to know you. I’m happy you’re here. Best, me. ** Uday, I’ll look for ‘Petals of Blood’ or ‘The Perfect Nine’, thank you. Yes, I like Gombrowicz, his novels and also his diaries, which get very catty and angry. Enjoy your friend, and no doubt you did and/or will do. ** Okay. I decided to restore this old post about haunted dolls for your possible delectation today. See you tomorrow.