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The blog of author Dennis Cooper

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DC’s ostensibly favorite haunted house attractions of Halloween 2021 (North America edition) *

* (Halloween countdown post #13)

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Arx Mortis (Killen, AL)
‘Covington Clinic is the haunted house. It is a 40-50,000 square foot building. It is so scary they have built in 23 escape exits for those who can not complete the tour. The fright is based on darkness, claustrophobia, gore and horror. The theme is a clinic that has created zombies. The locals are tricked and experimented on while fighting a bio-hazard. The building has a funeral parlor, coffins, embalming area, morgue, experimentation labs and some of the best animatronics and movie quality sound and light experience you will find anywhere in the country. Expect long wait lines.’

 

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The Dark House (Garrison, NY)
‘In the Dark House haunted attraction You will be enveloped in darkness right from the beginning and will have to depend on your other 4 senses as well as your own horrifying imagination to get you to the end. As the story goes, you and a team of your “friends” aim to disprove emphatically that there is no such thing as ghosts by spending the night in a long rumoured haunted house. The story is told to you through your audio headset as you navigate the space by following the “umbillicals.” You will hear, taste, smell and touch the world around you as your “guides” activate tactile elements at key inflection points in the audio to make it all come to horrifying life.’

 

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The Slaughterhouse (Tuscon, AZ)
‘Are haunted houses real, or are they just meant to scare the living There’s one haunted house in Tucson that begs the question, and it’s the subject of this week’s Paranormal Pueblo — The Slaughterhouse. The Slaughterhouse is filled with murderous clowns, cannibal butchers and other creatures that go bump in the night — but they’re only actors in costumes. The real haunts begins when the lights go out. KGUN 9 went on a paranormal investigation with two members of The Tucson Ghost Company, using tools to hear and see what lurks in the dark. Becky and Will Gydesen have been to the Slaughterhouse a few times to hunt for ghosts, and they say they’ve had experiences every time. During business hours, several employees told us about their own experiences with the paranormal, including doors slamming, rotten smells and sounds of footsteps — something we experienced for ourselves. So is the Slaughterhouse the only truly haunted house in Tucson? Becky and the employees say yes.’

 

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Nightterrors Haunted House (Little Rock, AK)
‘Take a journey through the dark, twisted, and demented mind of an insane funeral home owner who murders at night to bring more and more business to his family owned funeral parlor. Barely keeping the doors open he enlists the help of his psychotic family to help him. When you start your tour into the all new 2017

‘Night Terrors 13 Haunted Attractions, you will be engulfed in special Fx and props and sets never seen before . You will start down the long dark corridor of the funeral home and be trusted into an actual funeral that will leave you wondering is this real or just my imagination.

‘We will take you from the front of the funeral home and reception area to back into the embalming room. Then the morgue. Then the Mausoleum where maddening and evil spirits of the night will Torment your every turn. Embrace your loved one, You may never see them again if you are separated from your group. EXFearience the madness and macabre of this Extreme Haunted house that will challenge your senses and your bravery and be careful because YOUR SANITY MAY NOT SURVIVE!!!!’

 

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Darkrose Manor (Aurora, CO)
‘For the fourth year in a row, Rose and her family have transformed their home for the Halloween holiday, turning their yard and house into a free haunted house for trick or treaters of any age. The Darkrose Manor is an eerie tableau that includes a meticulously constructed witch’s shack, a gallery of nightmarish creatures and a towering fence that surrounds the entire property.’

 

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Haunted Hoochie (Pataskala, OH)
‘Haunted Hoochie is one of the world’s most controversial haunts. People come far and wide to experience its unique brand of extreme scares. It truly has a cult following and some of the largest lines of any haunt you’ll tour. Flames can be seen on top of silos as a demon guards the haunt.

‘Haunted Hoochie is a sensory overload taken to the next level. It’s a horror movie that develops right in front of your eyes. Watch a lunatic stick a shotgun in his mouth and then pull the trigger. Blood runs down the wall behind him as the crowd cheers for more. Haunted Hoochie is well known for its horrific scenes that are grotesque in nature and quite original.

‘Some haunts have tried to replicate these scenes, but Haunted Hoochie does them best. They’re the innovators of these graphic skits and they’re a big part of what makes Haunted Hoochie so badass. No subject matter is off limits. One scene features a mad doctor who hits the stomach of a pregnant woman with a sledgehammer to help free a demon baby. Watch the baby go air born as the crowd reacts in horror. The cursed church is full of scantily clad nuns with their breasts hanging out and there’s an evil priest with a handful of snakes. A pentagram bursts into flames as all hell breaks loose.

‘This is a highly detailed haunt with high startle props everywhere you turn. Some serious money has been invested into this place. I was amazed by the amount of animatronics in some of the rooms. You’ll see a Headless Horseman, 13 foot Impaler Monster, a roaring T-Rex, killer spiders and so much more. No corner is cut when it comes to scenes.’

 

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Trail of Terror (Wallingford, CT)
‘Hiding in the woods at the end of a lonesome road is a world of fright and fantasy that will test one’s mettle, temper one’s cavalier courage, torment one’s sanity, and taint one’s soul. This vortex of dark entertainment is the Trail of Terror. The Trail resides on four appalling acres of forsaken forest. The haunt scenes take up fully half of that area. . After entering the front gate, guests walk along the outdoor trail through 30 different scenes. Unsuspecting patrons must venture through crawl spaces, squeeze walls, across a rope bridge, aboard a boat, under a spinning carousel, and through a vortex tunnel on their march of mayhem. Over the summer, the staff changes approximately 75% of the Trail’s scenes so customers are confronted with novel new frights each season.’

 

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Murder House (Tampa, FL)
‘Murder House is located in the heart of “Thrill Kill” Tampa, FL. “Thrill Kill’s” streets are populated by criminals, killers, psychopaths, and the corrupted. This area of Tampa is isolated from the rest of the city and is known to be dangerous and uninhabitable. People unfortunate enough to cross into this wasteland end up mangled in one of the various killing grounds. There are no rules in this sector; it is total anarchy. In the center of the chaos, a vacant house boarded up and condemned, spawns pure evil. This evil dwelling has become known as: “Murder House“.

‘The “Thrill Kill“ zone is lost to the influence of criminal manslaughter. All authority has lost control and the killers have enslaved this world. The corrupted leaders have torched the constitution in flames instead favoring power, money, and sex. This is a perversion of society, where taboo and criminal justice has infested into all the establishments in the area. “America’s Greatest Killers“ stalk these killing fields in personal quests of villainous behavior. They are drenched with the blood of the “Helpless Victims” that were not able to get out before this area of the city fell under the murderous hand of the “Thrill Kill.”’

 

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Paranoia (Canton, GA)
‘Quantum cryonics, or “Facility Q” as it’s employees referred to it, was a state of the art research facility which specialized in preserving human life. Under the guise of an abandoned supermarket in canton Georgia, it was a place one could have their body cryogenically frozen upon death to be reanimated in the future when technology allowed. It was also staffed with the most skilled scientists and researchers available, until it was discovered that one of their scientists, Dr. Tobias Warner was stealing medical supplies and organs from cadavers and secretly performing unspeakable experiments on them. One of his most damning creations was two human torsos sewn together inside of a makeshift incubator suspended between life and death. Dr. Warner was promptly fired and arrested. Five months later Dr. Warner supposedly died in prison; however, there was no corpse and no death certificate. It was almost as if he had just vanished. All those who dared to look further into the case either disappeared under mysterious circumstances or were found dead. As Facility Q resumed operations, more supplies, biological samples, and employees began to go missing. The company tried to cover it up as best they could, but what they couldn’t cover up was the smell. One day during some “routine maintenance” they found the truth. Deep below the building was a makeshift series of laboratories and tunnels using the facility’s vast sewer and septic systems. They found the missing employees. Some dead, some… not. The ones they found alive were highly volatile and extremely sensitive to light. They would try to bite and scratch with what little teeth and fingernails remained. Normal sedatives wouldn’t work, and only one was successfully apprehended. What they didn’t find was Dr. Warner, but they did find his notebook describing a “project Seraphim” with detailed drawings and diagrams of sewn together creatures similar to the ones found prior to his arrest, along with photographs from Evan Travers’ infamous “body farm” case from 2013. They also found stolen cryogenic pods. Some of them had human samples and some had what appeared to be extra terrestrial samples. Some of them, however, were broken as if something had escaped. The facility has been abandoned for several years now, but many claim to still hear noises coming from it. You and your team will crouch through a secret access door and descend into the bowels of the facility. Discover Dr. Warner’s handiwork as you trudge through human filth and remains. Take a shortcut through the rundown maintenance area and uncover the disgusting truth. Will you come out with your life and limbs intact? Or will the good doctor and his team of followers find better use for them? Find out this October as you descend into THE VOID.’

 

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Haunted Plantation (Waipahu, HI)
‘For a couple of nights every year for Halloween, the Hawai‘i Plantation Village becomes a haunted house attraction called the Haunted Plantation. It’s not a typical haunted house. “I didn’t want to build sets to make it look scary,” says Noa Laporga, the Haunted Plantation creator. Instead, Laporga relies on the village’s creepiness at night. Throw in some fog, spooky music and at least 50 costumed actors hiding in the dark corners of the houses—BOOM—you’ve got yourself one of the scariest haunted houses in town.’

 

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A Haunting in Hollis (Hollis, NY)
‘The ONLY official In-Home Haunt with (2) 40 ft exterior double mazes & live actors. A three level in-home walk through with two 40 foot pitch black outdoor mazes Scary scary scary! Real haunted house. The other places aren’t houses they are warehouses. This one gives you the creepiest feeling while walking thru it. They have 3 mazes and u even go in their basementttt! Creepy! And it’s unbelievably cheap.’

 

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The Dent Schoolhouse (Cincinnati, OH)
‘The Dent Schoolhouse takes place in a schoolhouse that was built back in 1896 and contains a gruesome legend… The Janitor of the school, Charlie McFree is said to have killed a large number of the student body over a period of 10-20 years. Hiding their bodies within the basement, the smell became to much and alerted the town of Dent… discovery of the hellish scene has made a permanent residence in the basement.’

 

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The Basement (Pittsburgh, PA)
‘Since 2013 The Basement has featured a series of intense, intimate and R-rated horrors that challenge the limits of fear for anyone 18 years or older and willing to sign our waiver. While we encourage Pittsburgh fright fans to visit ScareHouse this year, The Basement will not return until 2022. Those of you who have experienced The Basement in previous seasons know that it is a highly tactile and intimate experience involving close physical encounters with intense performers and situations – none of which is advisable during this unprecedented and still ongoing pandemic.’

 

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Dead Man’s Farm (Philadelphia, TN)
‘Experience a haunted attraction that has it all! Do you dare try our haunted house with the murderous Bludgeon Family, the haunted corn maze where you can actually get lost, a horror escape room for you and your friends to die in, a 2-person coffin simulation to get buried alive in, or a virtual reality world to face your deepest fears in! Experience the event that THOUSANDS have been SCREAMING about for 13 YEARS!’

 

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Castle of Chaos (Midvale, UT)
‘This is the most extreme experience in Utah. Can you survive the night without chickening out or using the safe word? The Ghosts in the building will try their best to make you run away screaming. This is a very intense experience which will include portions of the haunt, “special” rooms, and is definitely an extreme horror experience. Must sign the Waiver and be 18 or older.’

 

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Cutting Edge Haunted House (Fort Worth, TX)
‘Located in a 100-year-old abandoned meat packing plant in a section of Fort Worth historically dubbed as “Hell’s Half Acre,” the Cutting Edge Haunted House is built upon a foundation of fear. The meat packing equipment from the Old West is still in use, but now it is a two-story human processing area. Realistic looking human mannequins are hoisted up to the second level and brought through the entire meat packing process until the conveyor system brings the butchered corpses back to the first level. The old meat-packing plant in downtown Fort Worth is a great home for the fantastic special effects that our loyal customers have come to expect. It takes visitors an average 55 minutes to explore Cutting Edge Haunted House. This walk-through haunted house is frighteningly realistic.’

 

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Terror Vault (San Francisco, CA)
‘A dark and stormy figure looms from the shadows — San Francisco drag queen Peaches Christ, dressed to kill with a raven-black wig tall enough to rival the Millennium Tower, but clearly built on a more solid foundation. We’re in a room full of medical mechanisms and rusty prison-cell doors, ancient and decaying, with a foreboding darkness pushing through the corroded bars. Someone’s pounding on a rear wall. What the devil did I just bump into, a body bag? OK, I’m officially creeped out, even with the house lights on, and I really want my mama.

‘This is Terror Vault, a new and delightfully haunted experience to spook the city this Halloween season, opening Wednesday and running through Nov. 3. We got a preview earlier this week, and while there are plenty of scares, spooks and startles, this is not your run-of-the-shopping-mall haunted-house maze with ghouls around every corner. No, this is a show. A 45-minute show to be exact, that gives you your 60 bucks worth. It’s immersive theater, performance art gone to the dark side, with local actors of evil, who had to pass scream tryouts to get the job.’

 

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The 13th Gate (Baton Rouge, LA)
‘The 13th Gate, located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is the Ultimate Haunted House! Journey through 13 very frightening themed indoor and outdoor areas where your worst nightmares come true and anything can happen. From crawling though a crematory oven and an old hearse to being lost in dark underground tunnels or even finding yourself standing on a rickety bridge overlooking hundreds of live snakes, this 40,000 square foot haunted house is definitely not recommended for the faint of heart (nor is it recommended for anyone who is pregnant, has a pre-existing heart condition, is very young, or has a weak bladder)!’

 

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The Freakling Bros: The Return (Las Vegas, NV)
‘Unveiled in 2011, the Gates of Hell is one of the most provocative, boundary-pushing, adult-oriented haunted attractions in the United States. The first and only R-rated haunted attraction in Nevada, the eternally-wicked Gates of Hell is an experiment in serious, unrelenting, interactive horror. Freakling Bros. Horror Shows will be even scarier for the 2021 Halloween season, with the addition of a haunting new experience inside the award-winning Gates of Hell, Nevada’s first and only R-rated haunt. The Men’s Room, a provocative, grotesque, and immersive new experience, will make its haunting debut Friday, Oct. 1, 2021. Located in the IKEA parking lot at 6555 S. Riley St. in Southwest Las Vegas, Freakling Bros. Horror Shows’ dates of operation will be Oct. 1 – 3, Oct. 7 – 10, and Oct. 14 – 31.’

 

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Johnnie’s Car Wash: Tunnel of Terror (Long Island, NY)
‘Johnnie’s Car Wash on Oak is reprising its haunted car washes from last year, so get ready for a Nightmare on Oak Street!’

 

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The Haunting Experience (Cottage Grove, MN)
‘I am new to haunted houses and I along with my girlfriend visited this place. As beginners, we were full of anxiety and very nervous. But, staff was very friendly and told us everything and clarified all our queries. It lasted for 45 minutes and it was full of terrors and threating acts performed by actors and actress. My girlfriend never stopped screaming.’

 

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Psycho Path Dark Ride (Sperry, OK)
‘This homemade Dark Ride is a combination of elements of a theme park ride where you ride from scene to scene with the high-intensity scares of the more traditional haunted houses brought together to created a totally new outdoor haunted experience. Being outside gives us the advantage of real fog, real sounds, real smells, real moonlight, and real creatures lurking just out of range of the lights. We regularly hear coyotes and owls howling just over the fence. Knowing those sounds are real only enhances the experience and besides, who isn’t afraid of being in the woods at night? Those brave enough to venture into the Dark Ride will climb into their own Scareage, a custom vehicle, Owner, Victor Marquez designed specifically for Psycho Path. While most outdoor haunts rely on noisy tractors to pull a wagon, the Psycho Path Scareages are so quiet riders will hear leaves rustling or twigs snapping in the darkness. Some of the sounds are man-made, and some are not, but they all combine to enhance the 20 minute journey through the heavily-wooded land. Along the way, you will pass through scenes filled with custom props, buildings, and oh yeah, creatures that spring out when you least suspect it. We offer this final warning: “Once you climb aboard, there’s no turning back”. Riders are not permitted to leave the vehicle after the ride starts, so you’ve got to be up to the challenge of the Psycho Path. We like to say “it may be your only way home.”’

 

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Haunt Overload (Lee, NH)
‘Haunted Overload is simply one of the most creative and unique haunted attractions in the world. Now located on the DeMeritt Hill Farm on Route 155 in Lee NH, the show has been voted one of the top 13 haunted attractions in the country multiple times. Focusing on quality, we are committed to giving the customer the ultimate Halloween experience at an affordable price. Nowhere else can you see huge monsters looming over the crowd, some as tall as 50 feet. The authentic farm location provides the perfect backdrop for the hundreds of lighted pumpkins and movie quality sets. Most of the one of a kind props are designed and created by founder Eric Lowther. The attention to detail has led to being ranked the #1 Scariest Haunted Attraction in America in 2015 by Hauntworld.com. Additionally Haunted Overload is and has been consistently ranked as one of the top haunted attractions in the world. Haunted Overload was also voted #18 of the Top 20 Most Influential Haunted Attractions of ALL TIME by HauntWorld.com.’

 

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The Tent of Terror (Valle Vista, CA)
‘Took my son to his first haunted house here. He was terrified! Once they realized how sacred he was, they completely backed off and stood off to the side so we could walk through. The rest of our family enjoyed being sacred and walked through first. Overall, was a great haunted house with great staff. They waited at the end to high five my son for making it through. Thank you for a great night out!’

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** David, Hi. You travel heavy. You win the secret crying boy painting anecdote contest. Your prize is secret too. I don’t know who Jon Venables is unless he’s that guy in ‘Game of Thrones’ (?), but I laughed at what I imagined anyway. Your week ahead sounds like mine except without the dieting part. ** Dominik, Hi, D!!! I feel like I should see what Budapest is at least once. Hungary and that area of Europe is a total blank to me as I’ve never been that far east, which is weird really. Thanks, yeah, I’m pretty much a stress bunny and will be until Wednesday is history. Particular worries? That the haunt game will either (1) crash, (2) bewilder/bore the audience, (3) all that public speaking we have to do, (4) that some film people who might invest in Zac’s and my new film will be there judging us presumably, … I could go on and on. The mosquito was a nasty, evasive little monster of a thing whose death was warranted, I hate today it. I’m totally down with your sneaky, crying boy installing love. I can feel it. Love looking at himself in a mirror and thinking, ‘Seriously?’, G. ** Misanthrope, Do people still say, to people who are funny, ‘You’re a card.’? And why did they ever say that in the first place? I am definitely not the world expert on knowing the line between tough love and enabling. It’s one of those situations where you can’t even trust your gut. It’s tough. Oh, so, I guess you saw ‘Dune’? Verdict? ** Rafe, Hi, Rafe. Welcome! Thanks, and also for the cool words about my work. What’s going with you? Who are you? Please come back if you feel like it. ** Bernard, Hi, Bernard. You didn’t say hi to me, but I’ll say hi to you anyway. Hi. ** _Black_Acrylic, I really, really don’t think the curse is real, so no worries, but then … what do I know? Nah, your stuff is fine. ** David Ehrenstein, The new Wes Anderson opens here on Wednesday. Very psyched. ** Steve Erickson, I’m so sorry, Steve. That’s very shocking. Warmest hugs from me. ** T, I know, right? Awesome that you caught that. Totally understood about not being able to be there. Unless the project/event is a fiasco, we’ll do it again. My week is unfortunately stress central no matter what, but I hope that means I have successfully sucked out all the stress in Paris leaving your week dreamy. xo. ** Jeff J, Hey, Jeff. Thanks, man. Cool about the Zoom link. I forget the exact time, but you’ll tell me in the email. Zac and I will doing the Zoom from our respective pads, so he’ll need an invite too. If you don’t have his email, I’ll jet it back to you when I hear from you. No, I haven’t finished the Williams. Life is too Haunt-centric and frantic at the moment. The Wes Anderson opens here on Wednesday. Very excited. I saw ‘Memoria’ last night. I found it very disappointing. I appreciated that he was trying to do something slightly different, but I don’t think works, and Tilda Swinton is just an affect-enacting bore in it, and it feels endless. The VU doc is on my agenda. Pretty into everything I hear. Take care, pal. ** It’s Halloween week. It’s going to get very Halloween-y around here, starting with this survey of US haunted attractions. If anyone reading this is in proximity to any of the featured haunts, I strongly urge you to visit it both for your personal delectation and because I would love a review. See you tomorrow.

Bernard Welt presents … The Crying Boy *

* (Halloween countdown post #12)

 

The Crying Boy is a mass-produced print of a painting by Spanish painter Bruno Amadio, also known as Bragolin, that was popular in the United Kingdom in the 1980s.

On September 4, 1985, the British tabloid newspaper The Sun reported that a fireman from Yorkshire was claiming that undamaged copies of the painting were frequently found amidst the ruins of burned houses. He stated that no firefighter would allow a copy of the painting into his own house. Over the next few months, The Sun and other tabloids ran several articles on house fires suffered by people who had owned the painting.

By the end of November, belief in the painting’s curse was widespread enough that The Sun was organising mass bonfires of the paintings, sent in by readers.

-The Crying Boy at Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crying_Boy

 

 

The legend around this painting is as grim as it gets. The stories began around 1985, when several mysterious fires occurred all around England. When the debris was sifted through the only item that remained un-charred was a painting of a little boy with a tear rolling his cheek in every fire. Could this all be coincidence?
Whether real or not a Yorkshire fireman was so upset that he talked with the “Sun” newspaper in England. They ran his story about how everything in the home was consumed by fire except for a painting of a crying boy. There were at that time more than one of these paintings around and each seemed to have the same effect. The home and all contents would be totally destroyed but the painting of the little crying boy would not show any sign at all of going through a fire. The newspaper began receiving telephone calls from people all over the area that had similar stories to tell about the crying boy painting.

One person that called the “Sun” was Dora Mann of Mitcham and she has been quoted as saying “Only six months after I had bought the picture, my house was completely gutted by fire. All my paintings were destroyed, except the one of the crying boy.” After one month of hearing all the tales, the “Sun” gave their readers the chance to bring their crying boy paintings and agreed to have a very large bon fire to rid everyone of this cursed or jinxed painting. All paintings that were brought to the newspaper were in fact burned and everyone rejoiced. 

However, the story goes on. There have been reports of the crying boy painting being found in charred homes untouched since 1985 and as recent as 1988. 

No one knows for sure who the artists might be and where he got the idea to paint a portrait of a crying boy, the rumors are many and the tale is still around. The fact is beware if you find a beautiful painting of a sad, little crying boy.

-At a website I can’t be bothered to type the name of
http://thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com/haunted12.html

 

 

Something very bizarre surfaced in London in 1985. The “Sun” newspaper-which has a fondness for the absurd-ran a story about Peter Hall, a Yorkshire fireman who was disturbed by the fact that his brigade had been called to a number of domestic blazes in which the entire contents of a series of houses had been destroyed; everything, that is, except a single painting which hung undamaged on a wall. It was not necessarily the same painting, but of a kind always depicting a tearful child-one of a series which portray a boy. Somewhere between two and five years of age, with tears welling up in his unnaturally large and limpid eyes. The kids are not in any obvious pain, but are wistfully, sadly, attractively unhappy in ways calculated to make you either melt or vomit, depending on your taste. They are available in any colour or complexion and have become very successful commercial icons throughout Europe; but there is not a fireman in Yorkshire who will allow one into his home.

With good reason it seems. The newspaper was besieged with calls in response to the story. Dora Mann of Mitcham said: “Only six months after I had bought the picture, my house was completely gutted by fire. All my paintings were destroyed, except the one of the crying boy.” Sandra Craske of Kilburn reported that she, her sister-in-law and a friend had all suffered from fires since buying the picture. And Linda Fleming of Leeds and Jane McCutcheon of Nottingham had similar tales to tell. This was on 4 Spetember 1985. Five days later Brian Parks of Boughton destroyed his undamaged copy of “The Crying Boy” after fire put his wife and two children in Hospital. And on 9 October, Grace Murray was admitted to Stoke Mandeville hospital with severe burns after a fire in her Oxford home which left her painting “almost undamaged”. On 21 October the Pavillo Palace in Great Yarmouth was consumed by fire, all, of course, except for its copy of the tear-jerking child. Three days later Kevin Godber of Herringthorpe watched his home go up in flames. The painted boy survived, but pictures on either side of it on the same wall were destroyed.And the day after that, the Amos home on Merseyside was destroyed by an explosion which left two “crying boys” intact, one in the living room, one in the dining room. Mr Amos took pleasure in destroying these himself. At the end of that eventful month The “Sun” announced that it was inviting readers to send in their copies of the pyromaniacal painting for mass burning. Thousands did and the supervising fire officer observed that they all burned beautifully: “We listened for muffled cries, but all we heard was the crackle of burning paint.”

But that was not the end of the story. Soon after the Suns big bonfire the newspaper found itself embroiled in strike, production turmoil and violent mass picketing at its new plant. William Armitage of Weston-super-Mare was burned to death in his home, where a copy of “The Crying Boy” was found intact, lying on the floor beside his body. One fireman at the scene said: “We have all heard of this jinx, but when you actually come across the picture in a gutted room, it is most odd.”

It certainly is. To me the most interesting feature of the story is that it involves paintings which happen to be portraits. Human likenesses. You never hear of jinxed landscapes or haunted copies of Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers”. The stories, the folkloric elements, are always firmly atached to representations of people. Oscar Wilde mirrored such concerns in “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, which did it’s owners aging for him, safe in the seclusion of the attic. There are reports of painted images which have actually changed, including a Greek orthodox icon of the Madonna which suddenly grew a third arm. It accomplished this in full view of the congregation in Madaba, Jordan in 1978. The whole thing is absurd until you know that in Orthodox iconography, such portrayal has symbolism which is clearly understood. It means “something out of the ordinary, something universal”.

I do not believe such thing are coincidental. They are incidents with an axe to grind. They tend, if one looks carefully enough, to be deeply rooted in culture and belief. I am certain it is no accident that all the children in the “Crying Boy” have preternaturally large eyes. These send the sort of signals ethologists classify as ‘supernormal stimuli’, playing on the fact that our first responses as infants are directed to the eyes of adults around us. Eyes remain vital social signals for us all, and we share the comon experience of having been at some time in a room with a portrait whose eyes “seem to follow you wherever you go”…….

-Commentary from The Unexplained Mysteries Discussion Forum on the Crying Boy
http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t2093.html

 

 

Apparently the Crying Boy painting gets pissed off if you’re not nice to it:

THE CRYING BOY CURSE HOAX

The Crying Boy (TCB) is a mass-produced painting and exists in several forms. The subject is a boy ranging in age from 4 to 10 years old. His clothing and the painting style differ depending on what period the artist has set him in. The jinx story seems to have been started by “The Sun” (a British tabloid i.e. cheap newspaper) in 1985 and went from strength to strength with all sorts of reasons (the boy was a Romany whose family placed the curse, the boy was an orphan, the boy himself had died in a fire etc). One version of the myth is that the original TCB picture was a portrait painted by a Spanish artist and that the subject was an orphan. The artist’s studio burnt down and the boy himself was later killed in a car crash. Psychics claimed the boy’s spirit was trapped in the painting and that the curse extends to all the many different versions of the painting! The curse apparently only affects those who are aware that the painting is cursed – hardly surprising since any subsequent misfortune will get blamed on the painting.

On 4 September 1985 “The Sun” ran a story reporting that TCBs were jinxed. Yorkshire fireman Peter Hall was quoted as saying that unscathed copies of TCB were frequently found at the scenes of fires. He and his colleagues were serious enough about this to vow never to allow the painting into their own homes. Peter’s own brother, Ron Hall (Swallownest, South Yorkshire), had ignored this warning: fire damaged his kitchen and living-room, but the TCB in the living-room wall unscathed. The jinxed painting was destroyed by his family.

“The Sun”, 26th October 1985 carried a follow-up report on collection of TCBs for burning, thus fuelling (pardon the pun) TCB curse stories. By this time, its jinx story was building up quite a following. Also a summary of improbable incidents. A male stripper’s fire-eating act went wrong after he taunted his wife’s TCB. A woman blamed the death of her husband and 3 sons on TCB. Dr Peter Baldry of City University, London, cited saying there was no reason why TCB pictures shouldn’t burn. Roy Vickery, secretary of the Folklore Society, speculated whether the artist had mistreated his model resulting a vengeful curse (no mention of whether all artists had mistreated the models for all versions of TCB though!).

“The Sun”, 31st October 1985 carried yet another follow-up report, keeping the story going. “Thousands” of TCBs were burned under supervision of the fire brigade. This ritual burning was later transformed (by the process of urban legend, faulty memory or a reporter giving the story a new lease of life) into the story that the warehouse where the paintings were being kept had suffered a fire which destroyed the paintings. The Sun also carried further reports of TCB jinx. Sandra Jane Moore’s home had been flooded after she’d drawn punk hair on her friend’s TCB. Mrs Woodward (Forest Hill) blamed TCB for death of her son, daughter, husband and mother.

“The Guardian”, 1st November 1985: The Guardian, one of Britain’s broadsheet (quality) newspapers, carried an entertaining account of The Sun’s TCB bonfire. It wrote that Sun editor Kelvin McKenzie was a believer in the TCB curse and that he “went bananas” when a prankster hung a TCB in his office. The Guardian’s account notes the refusal of several fire brigades to join in the burning.

After 6 months, it was reported that TCB would reward those who were kind to the painting. “The Sun”, 20 March 1986, wrote how Bob Cherry (Glasgow) claimed his rescued TCB brought him nothing but good luck. One day when his old car broke-down in a lay-by, he noticed a TCB propped up by a dustbin. He put the picture in his car and the vehicle started first time and had given him no problems ever since (give it time, Bob!) Within a week of rescuing TCB from the dustbin, he had won £20 at bingo, £4 on the football pools and £11 on a fruit machine.

-From the Dragonqueen’s homepage
http://www.messybeast.com/dragonqueen/cryingboy.htm

 

 

I’m not sure what this is about except that apparently when you turn the picture sideways, it looks kinda like a fish is eating Crying Boy’s head. Isn’t this true of any picture of anyone wearing a shirt with a collar?

 

 

In the 80s the hugely popular Crying Boy paintings became a tabloid sensation when they seemed to repeatedly emerge from house fires completely unscathed. This led to widespread speculation that the painting was jinxed and actually causing the fires. In Radio 4’s Punt PI, Steve Punt investigates the supposed curse of the Crying Boy. With the aid of Martin Shipp of the Building Research Establishment, he sets fire to one of the paintings in order to see whether it really won’t burn…

 

 

An idea that’s floated around at some internet forums is that if you hang a crying girl painting across from your crying boy painting, the curse is “nullified.”

 

 

There’s a page on The Crying Boy at Kindertrauma, a website “about the movies, books, and toys that scared you when you were a kid. It’s also about kids in scary movies, both as heroes and villains. And everything else that’s traumatic to a tyke!”

 

 

Quasimondo thinks the Crying Boy image becomes more interesting if you animate the tears.
http://www.quasimondo.com/archives/000104.php

 

 

WARNING: DO NOT WATCH THIS VIDEO CLIP unless you are willing to test the Curse of the Crying Boy—by looking at an image while some “spooky” music plays.

 

 

Appendix 1:

 

Just Above the Mantelpiece by Wayne Hemingway is a book on “mass-market masterpieces,” with a chapter on the Crying Boy, and lots of other big-eyed kids.
http://www.amazon.com/Just-Above-Mantelpiece-Mass-Market-Masterpieces/dp/1861541945/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208098307&sr=1-1

 

 

BIGEYEDMASTERS really wants to spread the word about the putative greatness of artists such as Margaret Keane, Majo, Franca, Gig, Lee, and Eve.

 

 

Megan at besmirched is “totally obsessed with big, poor, pitiful, weepy, sad eyes”—so much so that she gloms on to images of puppies, kitties, and dear little birdies. No mention of E.T., though.

 

Appendix 2:

 

“The Hands Resist Him”

“The painting appeared on eBay in February of 2000. According to the seller, the aforementioned couple, the painting carried some form of curse. Their eBay description claimed that the characters in the painting moved during the night, and that they would sometimes leave the painting and enter the room in which it was being displayed. Included with the listing were a series of photographs that were said to be evidence of an incident in which the female doll character threatened the male character with a gun that she was holding, causing him to attempt to leave the painting. A disclaimer was included with the listing absolving the seller from all liability if the painting was purchased.” (Wikipedia)

Bill Stoneham, the artist, has a page on the painting
http://www.stonehamstudios.com/haunted.html

When I painted the Hands Resist Him in 1972, I used an old photo of myself at age five in a Chicago apartment. The hands are the ‘other lives.’ The glass door, that thin veil between waking and dreaming. The girl/doll is the imagined companion, or guide through this realm.

As I recall, both the owner of the Gallery where ‘Hands’ was displayed and the Los Angeles Times art critic who reviewed my show were dead within a year of the show.

I’m sure it was coincidence, but some of what I paint resonates in other people, opening the inner door, or basement. By the way, I still have no idea what happened to the character actor who bought the painting at the show (editor note: it was John Marley, who died in 1984), or how it ended up abandoned in a building, though I could speculate. – Bill

 

Appendix 3 (marginally related):

Sam Taylor-Wood makes pictures of famous actors crying. Some people seem to like them; I sure don’t.

 

http://www.whitecube.com/exhibitions/newwork/

 

Appendix 4: More evil crybabies

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** David, Hi. Enjoy Liverpool’s mysterious charms. ** Ian, Hi, Ian! Are you liking your part in the construction biz? Is winter’s imminent arrival daunting in that regard? I’m happy to have occasioned you finding a book you like. Stuff’s good here, a bit crazed finishing the Haunt game project and sweating the event hosting part, but good. Take it easy, man. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Oh, cool, score on the post. The big P has its arms eternally open when it comes to you if I have anything to  say about that. I am curious as to what Budapest is exactly. One of these days. Yeah, the event is getting scarily close and anxiety is starting to become its main if not only effect. Eek. I totally understand that love’s loneliness. Spiders are underrated roommates, for sure. However … love’s shoulders unhunching because the mosquito he was sharing his bedroom with has finally realised that it’s cold outside which mean it’s time for it to die like a good mosquito, G. ** Misanthrope, Happy you dug it, pal. They say that having a brain that picks things apart is one of the big preventatives re: Alzheimers. Identifying what constitutes enabling and stopping doing what you’ve identified could help matters, it’s true. I hope ‘Dune’ does for you what its enraptured viewers are saying it does. Although your liking it might be an Alzheimers invitation, so be careful. ** Bill, Yeah, back when that post originally ran, which is well over 10 years ago now, buying those books was a cake walk. Sad. Me too: Dodie’s book. I might go check today, although I’m virtually positive it’s too soon. Are you still working on your gig? How’s that going, if so? ** David Ehrenstein, I’d love to meet Wes Anderson, but I think he moves in much tonier circles than I do. My eyes are peeled though. ** Steve Erickson, Ah, I look forward to reading that, natch. Everyone, Steve has reviewed Nobuhiko Obayashi’s undoubtedly great film LABYRINTH OF CINEMA here. (The page is pretty crowded, but it’s around the halfway point if you scroll down.) And he has just released his longish-in-the-works EP IN SEARCH OF, which you can improve your weekend by listening to here. Yes, the Baldwin gun thing is an awful head scratcher. ** Okay. I thought restoring this old post made by Bernard Welt would make a fine Halloween-relative experience for you, and of course I hope you’ll agree. See you on Monday.

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