Not Every Ghost Story Begins With A Ghost
Halloween brings out a plethora of seasonal happenings, that mainly of course being the celebration of all things scary. Although the day of witching has now come and gone, we’ve still got some spookiness on the brain. In the spirit of keeping with tradition, as well as letting out some of our own excitement, We thought this would be a fine time to share some info about our upcoming short horror film that, for now, we'll call “Banshees”...
What is a banshee? In short, it’s a ghost. What is a ghost, really? That’s the question that “Banshees” explores. Some people are believers in the supernatural, while others trust their own sense of logic and treat spirits as an impossibility. In the eyes of children especially, the supernatural can not only seem convincingly real, but terrifying. As we’ve all been lead to believe by stories and superstition, old abandoned houses can be hubs for ghouls. Real or imaginary, there shapes can often be associated with a derelict dwelling, beaten down by time and tragedy but still standing defiantly. It is a house like this that draws the attention of a group of children toward the events occurring in “Banshees”.
In Irish mythology, Banshees are believed to be spirits who scream and whail at the scene of someone's death. Acting as a sort of warning bell for someone's departance. In American myth, they're seen as common ghouls who lurk with no purpose other than to haunt and frighten. As it tends to go with legends and old stories, things get mixed up. The facts get changed and exaggerated. And sometimes made up stories, given enough time, become real after all.
Your imagination might lead you to “on a dark and stormy night…” but in this story we first find ourselves on a summer day, in the middle of the street. Huddled together is a group of kids, eagerly watching as one of their friends approaches the door of the menacing old house that resided on the outskirts of the neighborhood. Curiosity and the fear of the unknown have an oddly equal amount of pull on the human spirit. A story of an old woman who supposedly murdered her own grand son in the house made the kids curious; curious enough go to the threshold and peek into their own fears.
Stories about the house were always buzzing around in the ears and in the back of the minds of those residing in the neighborhood. There were so many stories and variations, it never seemed likely that they coiuld be true. Although not many liked to talk about it, it was known that there had been several murders in the house in years past. A number of people had also gone missing before, some believed to be kidnapped, their cases closed and there chance of being found forgotten.
There was one person who lived up the street, at the time of our story he's a man over fifty. The few people in the neighborhood who had ever spoken to him had heard him recount an incident where someone he knew had gone missing. He swore to anyone he told that while walking up to the house to peek in one night, he saw his friend pulled in through a window they thought was closed. But before he was pulled in, this man said he could hear a horrible maddening ringing sound; like all the ears in hell ringing in unison.
Not every ghost story begins with a ghost.
Well, we’ve got some work to do, and we'd like to dig a little deeper until we tell you anymore. Our vision for “Banshees” is a nostalgic short horror film in the vein of “The Goonies” but with a darker edge. We'll be posting updates along the way.
Stay spooky.
-The Flow Motion Team
