A Working Week of Spook (Day 1)

As the long month of October slowly drags to its end, there is a chill in the air, so palpable, an indication of that particular time of year surely... And we are not simply talking about Autumn.

Even it seems a Poltergeist has reshuffled our TV channels to celebrate the psychological thriller and horror genres, in muted tones or full-out gore. You see folks, in the run-up to Halloween things can get somewhat creepy and creaky for the so-inclined. Imagination being limitless, its powers can only be unleashed to trick us into believing in the less plausible.

A classic of the genre: Nosferatu (1922). Source: Photobucket

No stones will be left unturned, no Shallow Grave will lay undisturbed and no skeletons will be kept in cupboards, while we take you along for a Working Week of Spook! Under the compelling spell of Spook, La Baguette Magique will feature until Friday a daily photographic disturbance comprising clever montages captured on location (just not on the original film locations), with two rock-solid guarantees: not one pumpkin in sight, and all cobwebs featured here are real.

Our fear and loathing season kick-starts right away with the appropriately named: Paranormal Activity. Things that go bump in the night, things that are not quite what they seem, things that get animated, like a rocking chair, a crystal chandelier or a doll with rolling eyes... The departed's presence and the absence of life... How prepared are you about facing irrational truths and in the same breath your own primal fears?

Would it not be easier to pretend it's only one of those disturbingly vivid dreams? Yet after all, you've seen it all before on the silver screen and experienced unease from The Mothman Prophecies to Hide and Seek. So if life really is a film, is there any point in us spoiling the fun by telling you the end? Unless of course conspiracy rules of the untold are written to be bent... Meanwhile don't we know that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy?

Back to the subject of primal fears, we'll take a tamed approach by daring you to look at those walls closely. Between those stones, in the gaps and the holes, in the dim spaces and over the shadows lurk the Eight-Legged Freaks of your nightmares: poisonous black widows, exotic varieties of spiders, God knows. Lately one of those tarantulas, bizarely oversized, was spotted scuttling across the garden path just before dusk, not the kind you would happily pick up in a glass to release elsewhere! (to be continued)

P.S: Nosferatu is available to watch as a full-length feature film from here. Don't miss out on the chance!

All photography except Nosferatu © La Baguette Magique 2010