Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with spooky

Lesser-known spooky and/or mysterious legends?

amyms — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 20:11:46 -0800

Tell me some scary and/or mysterious things that are local to your area, but not necessarily well-known to the rest of the world. The Himalayas have the Yeti. Marfa, Texas, has ghost lights. Eastern Kansas has Stull Cemetery (one of the supposed Seven Gates of Hell). Latin America has the chupacabra. But I'm interested in lesser-known spooky legends. What are some of your local or regional mysterious and/or scary things that the rest of the world should know about?

My reason for asking: My son is homeschooled, and I thought this would be an interesting way to incorporate some quirky things into our geography and social studies lessons since Halloween is coming up.

Looking for old 90's mac/pc game involving a green haunted house...

frankie_stubbs — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 00:38:36 -0800

Looking for old 90's mac/pc game involving a green haunted house... The cover had a greenish haunted mansion on it and the object of the game was to go through the house and find clues to escape. You open random doors, talk to random creepy people, and play "educational" puzzle games. I remember beating it only once and I think the way out was through a fire escape type thing? I know if I see the title I will recognize it...I recall it being fairly long (meaning about 4 words or more), may have had a name in it, and for some reason, the word "spooky" and "mansion" comes to mind. And, I believe it was an educational game...

However, I looked up many other games and know that it isn't any of the following:

Spooky Mansion
Haunted Hotel
7th Guest
Transylvania
11th Hour
Phantasmagoria
Haunted House Quest

The creepier the better!

Willie0248 — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:50:52 -0800

LovecraftFilter: Let's you and me talk about spooky music. A bunch of us nerds get together fairly regularly to play a board game called Arkham Horror, but our get-togethers are usually scored by adult alternative - not very conducive to creating a creepy atmosphere.

What would be some great background music for such an evening of Lovecraftian gaming? Even if you don't know anything about Arkham Horror you probably know the internet's favorite author, H.P. Lovecraft, whose hokey works the board game is based on. I know you know all about him because you really can't type very many urls without running into an adoring Cthulhu reference.

Anyone still in the dark? For you guys, I will rephrase the question - what music should be playing when a bunch of hooting thirty-somethings pretend to chase a gaggle ghosts and aliens around a town in the 1920s?

Space-Age Bachleor Pa-aaaah Oh God No!

The Whelk — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:50:46 -0800

Music Mix Filter: Long story short, next week the model at my event is coming dressed as the Alien Queen from the ALIEN movies. I have no idea what kind of music to play for the background. The film scores seem obvious but who wants to listen to clanking and increasing strings for 3 hours? I can either go scary-horror-sci-fi or campy-alien-novelty songs. Ideally I could do both. What kind of weird space music recommendations do you have? Gotta have songs about alien invaders?

I'm looking for some specific spooky Christmas music, can you help me?

mrzer0 — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 08:17:44 -0800

Some time ago either on MeFi or BoingBoing there was a link to a bunch of songs that I *swear* were Christmas songs played in the wrong key or one half-tone down or something... Does anyone have any idea what I'm talking about and where I could find this (again)? They sounded frightening, yet eerily awesome! I have been searching like crazy for this, through old chat logs, old bookmarks, through the web (both MeFi and BoingBoing archives) and so far no such luck! At least not anything that is reminding me of it. Is it possible that it was not Christmas songs?

I was just telling some friends about it and wanted to provide a link. Thanks!

Scary Websites for the Halloween Season?

interrobang — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:10:53 -0800

Please recommend some spooky, scary websites for late-night, Halloween Season reading. This question from a couple of years ago has some good stuff in it, especially the "Caver" story, which is no longer there but viewable on archive.org. Please let me know about some spooky websites to look at and read late at night. Thanks!

I Wanna Do Bad Things With You

billtron — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:31:27 -0800

MusicFilter: Mrs. Billtron would like more music like the opening song from HBO's True Blood, "Bad Things" by Jace Everett. She likes the sound of Chris Isaak and Junior Brown, which are the closest things in our mp3 collection, but misses the spooky vampire and warewolve ambience of the theme song. Any suggestions? Suggestions should err on the side of New Orleans rather than Nashville, since she just got back from Louisiana and really misses it.

PS I am really enjoying reading Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale at the moment.

Help me Halloweenify my house!

catfood — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 11:07:40 -0800

I need suggestions on inexpensive, not-too-tacky, fun Halloween decorations for the outside of my house. Right now, I am definitely making a fake cemetery (yes, tombstones with dorky/funny epitaphs) and carving a few pumpkins, but I want ideas for ways to Halloween-up certain parts of my house.

These are:
- The large living room window that everyone can see from the road.
- The front door and/or the glass panel next to the front door.
- Our mailbox.
- The two small trees in our front yard.
- Something to hang from the arm/bracket thingy next to our front door that we usually hang a plant from (I know they must have a name, but I can't think of it right now.)

Cheapness is a must, and I don't really like store-bought Halloween props (most are either too tacky trying to look realistic or too sloppy), so I'm willing to put some elbow grease into the mix.

I want our house to pretty much look appealing to trick-or-treaters but also give adults/teenagers a chuckle if they stop to look.

Like something out of Scooby Doo...

cowbellemoo — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 07:11:46 -0800

Help me find a detailed spooky graveyard silhouette! I'm looking for a large-ish (~600px wide) silhouette of a spooky graveyard which I will be backlighting and modifying for a website title banner. Special points for extra-jagged and upended tombstones, and grassy mounds of dirt. I'd prefer the transparency be built into the image, but if not I can cut it out myself.

I've tried every keyword I can think of on google images, but nothing really impressive has come up. I could sally forth with what I have, but this is by far the weakest element in my design concept so I'd love to get it right.

Someone is phishing my mind.

oddman — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 12:19:45 -0800

How does the game on www.milaadesign.com work? It asks you to pick a two-digit number then subtract the sum of the digits from the original number. It then guesses the new number. Full URL: http://www.milaadesign.com/wizardy.html

Some things I noticed:
1) It works best when you do indeed concentrate on one number.

2) The position of the mouse does not seem to affect the outcome.

3) The symbols repeat but not often enough for random selection of a symbol to be the correct 'guess.'

"I don't know, Scoob, I don't think we should explore that quicklime-filled elevator shaft."

user92371 — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 18:50:47 -0800

A question about a spooky musical composition. There is an oft-used musical sequence that (usually) accompanies someone walking on tip-toe or cautiously advancing through a theoretically haunted household, or is used to "sweeten" an animation during which the main characters take long pauses in action to deepen the suspense/meet budgetary constraints. You will find more about this, and a sample "mp3" file, here.

I'm not sure that it actually has a name, but I figure it's been used enough that some name may have been slapped on it by now for easy identification.

Where the heck did my hot water go

felix — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 08:36:38 -0800

I've painstakingly and scientifically ruled out all of the other possibilities. My hot water heater is inhabited by the Virgin Mary. Mysteriously, when I turned on the hot water tap yesterday, only cold water came out. The hot water heater's pilot light was lit; it was making reassuring noises; we had not been using any hot water during the day; and the temperature in California was not cold enough to affect the pipes. There had been a mild earthquake in the morning. The hot water heater is 1 year old; the pipes, 25 years old. Broken pipes, right? So I resolve to call the plumber in the morning. The only thing is, I turn on the hot water this morning, and it works just fine! Does anyone have any rational scientific explanation for what the heck happened to approximately 30 gallons of hot water yesterday?

Parenting a Visionary Child

putzface_dickman — Thu, 23 Sep 2004 06:45:14 -0800

My 6-year-old daughter sees things other people don't. "Skitter scatters," ghosts, auras. She just started school and there's something in the lunchroom only she can see, and this one makes her nervous. [mi] First, I'm asking for someone who's had them to tell me how he or she dealt with these experiences, and how that turned out.
Second, I want to know what myth/story/magic/cinema might yield to identify this mysterious object.
From my girl:
It's on the ceiling of the cafeteria. It's the size of two adult fists. It's black and white and swirls. It's shiny but not sparkly. It is magical and not mechanical. The one picture she has drawn of it shows an uneven black band swirling around a mostly white center. (I imagine it's motion and appearance are like Jupiter's red spot.) It seems to float against the corrugated metal of the ceiling.

Believe me, I would be no less skeptical than some of you surely are, but I have chosen to respect her experiences and I'm asking for people to respect this query. There are familial precedents that have been that have been used to reassure, but not encourage her. Please don't advise meds, or counseling.