Behind the Scenes Minis: Haunts and Demons

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, A production of I Heart Radio, Hello and Happy Friday. I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. We talked about haunted houses this week, Tracy, Yep, we did. I said that we would mention in this episode kind of why this is almost a or at least began really as a uniquely US phenomenon. And it's something that actually came up on our um Our episodes about the Haunted Mansion, because we talked about how they expanded that idea into parks around the world and how they're just other cultures where the ghost thing is not cool as an entertainment, it's disrespectful, and so that's part of the reason why, you know, the US has this this kind of obsession with something that maybe hasn't spread globally. I should mention that Universal now does do Halloween horror nights in all of its global um parks, So that is shifting, certainly. It's not as though you know, other places haven't. It just seems like the US took the idea and ran with it at full tilt. Well, and when I was looking for artwork to put on our social media for this episode. Like, I did find pictures of mostly the exteriors of haunted houses and other parts of the world, but I did not look deeply enough to see if those were associated with like US chains or like US business entities or or not. I'm not going to out them, but I will tell you. We have a colleague who recently confided to me that they are afraid of the Haunted Mansion. What which is so sweet? I gave your If you just don't like scary things, even if they're kind of cute and pretty benign, you just only scary things, it's fine, Yeah, but it struck me as funny. Also, big out out to my Patna Mansion if everybody hasn't watched it yet, it's marvelous, um marvelous. Yeah. The last time I was at Disney, I remember a small child at the very beginning of the Haunted Mansion just absolutely losing it. And in a way that was both upsetting and funny because the child was obviously clearly scared, but it also seemed like one of those moments that will be looked back on you like, remember that time I got so scared? Remember when you lost your mind in the hount image. So when I was a kid, I grew up outside of Winston Salem, North Carolina, and there was this place that was called the Nature Science Center that has been through a whole ton of changes since the name changes and business changes and stuff since then. And it was built on the grounds of an old hospital and they had a haunted house that I remember being a fundraiser for the Science Museum. I could be wrong about that, though, and I feel like what they told us was that the haunted House was in what had been the psychiatric ward of well, of course, which I mean that's got very problematic and offensive connotations right simultaneously. It was terrifying, and I remember being so scared and in there every single year, and yet every single year I was like, when do we get to go to the Haunted House. I tried briefly to confirm whether they were being truthful with that, because it definitely was a hospital. The Science Museum was not in what had been the hospital, but the the hospital structure was still on the property, and that was where they were having the haunted house. And I remember of like the various haunted like there would be uh the elementary school would have the haunted house as a fundraiser for the p c A and like that kind of stuff. And I remember, among all of among all of the things, all of the haunted house experiences of my childhood, the one at what was at the time called the Nature Science Center was the scariest one. Yeah. Yeah, I feel like we didn't do a whole bunch growing up. I didn't really get into haunted houses until I was like probably college age. My beloved used to help build the j c's Haunted House every year. He has so many like memories that he loves to recount about working on those. And of course that was post all of the code updates, so I haven't ever really asked him, like with somebody there. Main sure everything was up to code, but usually I think at that point most of those that continued, we're trying to borrow spaces that we're already up to code themselves, right Like can we do this in the school's cafeteria for two nights, or can we you this in you know, this um office park or whatever, like they have one area that's not being used. I've seen them there as well. Of Course, I feel I didn't mention because we really didn't get into the modern ones, there are a lot of it gets very busy, Like I didn't mention that Atlanta, of course, is home to one of the biggest and most famed and successful haunted houses in the world, which is another world Haunted House Um, which I had the delight a few years back of touring it just by myself with our colleague Julie Um when she was working on another podcast and we were I was helping her capture some audio for it, and that was one of the most fun experiences ever because they kind of let us say, like, yes, let's do lights out for here, and let's do the full thing, or hey, can you turn the lights on because we want to see how this works. So that was like the most marvelous, beautiful, interactive haunted house experience you could ever have. I don't think I ever actually went to that haunted house. I just saw their participation in the Dragon con parade. It's so good and I mean the people there, and that's the thing. Most of the haunt community, like I have friends that love it, love it. I have friends that got engaged at like a universal Horror Nights haunted attraction. They are so passionate about it as an art in and of itself, and like, you know, creating these places that are safe but still scary and fun. And there are certainly outliers and some controversy within that entire community about sure who does qualify as a haunt versus something a little more sinister, And but you know, once like another world. I just I'm blown away by the level and degree of just work that goes into it. Yeah, it's beautiful. I'm fun, I mean everything, oh time. One thing I did want to know is, whenever we talk about a fire, it seems like we get lots of listener requests for other fires. And for whatever reason, of all the tragedies we talked about on the show, the fires tend to be uniquely terrible to research and write about. So we don't do many of them. Because there are a lot. They are particularly a lot in a way that I don't know I can quite explain why. Yeah, I mean it, it is it's hard. There were certainly there are lots of details about that Haunting Castle fairy that I did not feel needed to be in this that are very upsetting. Um and I the other thing is that that is recent enough that those families, you know, are still around, and that people that grew up in that area still talk about how harrowing it was and the impact it had. So I did not want to focus on any of the grizzlier aspects of it, because that's just not important to the story. Um. But yes, I UM. I hope that everybody that goes out and enjoys a haunted house this year has a fun and safe time, and that you walk out more giddy and giggly than you do trouble from the whole thing, or if you're me, you just keep trying to get the haunted mansion to stop when you're in the ballroom so you can look at everything for minutes, which happened the last time I was there, and I was the happiest squealing child on the planet. So happy haunts to everybody, and we hope that your Halloween season is going delightfully. Tracy. We talked about Rolando and possession and exorcism this week, yes, and I mentioned that this is one that's been rattling around in my brain for a while, and there are a few reasons. One, I cannot tell you how much this case was discussed in my house growing up, and part of it is that, Uh, there's an interesting thing that happens here in in reading about his case more in depth and in some people's speculations, is there's a lot of speculation about it. Um is that his mother very much believed what was going on was some sort of possession, and then his father was kind of like, I don't know, I just want to help my kid. And there is even speculation that his dad was a little bit absent and that this may have been an incident of him kind of acting out because he didn't have the attention of his parents in the way that he wanted. But it makes me laugh because can I just tell you, I suspect that if I had behaved in any of these ways, my mom would have been like, you're possessed and my dad would have been like, what is your problem? Because my dad was very much not a believer in such things, and my mom loved it all and was really into all of that kind of lower and and paranormal stuff. So it made me laugh so hard as I went, and any time the parents were brought up, I was like, yeah, I know, I know this dynamic. Yeah I uh so, I've never read the book The Exorcist, and I did not see the film until I was solidly into adulthood because I was raised in a household that was strict about what we were allowed to watch on TV and movies, And like I didn't even have like a friend that sneaked it into the slumber party or anything like that. Like there were a couple of times where we did have slumber parties and we watched something scary, but like, never The Exorcist. So I was probably close to thirty by the time I saw it for the first time. And even then there were elements of it that were like firmly in my psyche just because of how present they were in discussion, Like the whole idea of the projectile pea soup. Already knew a lot about that from many years of having heard about it before I ever saw that on the screen and the television. Yeah, became a punchline in a lot of ways, right, Yeah, if someone was really angry, people would go, are you to start throwing up soup on me? Like, I rewatched it again a couple of times while I was working on this kind of to to really note the differences between it and the story as is recorded. It was more sexual than I remembered. It's probably been it has long since I watched it. It's probably only been like four years. But my brain wiped some of that and I was like, whoa, I don't remember it being as much. And that is how I found out, in mentioning that to my husband that he's never seen it. I don't know how that happened because I watch it with frequency, but I think I must be watching it in the sewing room without him, I will say again, and I tweeted about it. The sound design on that movie is spectacular. It's spectacular, um. And I don't just mean like, oh it really sounds gross like in terms of how it transitions from scene to scene. It's just handled beautifully. They deserved that Oscar, no question about it. I also wanted to mention two other things that came up. And this is a thing that gets bandied about, and I will say, if you go looking for information on this story online, you will find a lot of um. I don't know if banter is the right word, but there is a lot of Well I did research and it contradicts this other writer that everybody thinks is the expert, and like, no, I did my research. There's a lot of that involved. It's fine, um, But one of the things that kept coming up, and I just found it kind of funny and charming to think about, is the moving of the bed and a lot of people pointing out but like in the late nineteen forties, a lot of beds still had wheels, and like maybe that was adding to perhaps a precocious kids ability to make the bed move without it. But then there are all of these accounts that go, no, no, no, he wasn't moving at all. He was lying perfectly. Still, I don't know. Maybe maybe listen, clever children can set up all kinds of mechanisms. I don't. I mean, I'm very skeptical, so that's my my stance. But the other thing that is very funny to me, and this is like the ten year old boy who lives inside of my soul coming out in the priest diary, there are a couple of mentions of during his possession episodes flatulence and I'm like, wait, is gas demonic now? Because it is. We have a problem, right, I think we all have a little problem to deal with At that point, it just made me laugh and was a funny element in this story. Yeah, oh the Exorcists, Roland Doe. It's very ripe for people to interpret however they wish because of the lack of documentation. So I am not a believer, but if people love it and want to believe in it, I guess that's fine. Yeah, it's one of those things where I am not a believer either. And the one thing that like troubles me about these kinds of stories is how often it seems like, Okay, this is harming someone, right, but then you get into fabulous movie depictions that are right. And that's another thing is that there are definitely some essays you will find where people will talk about like if you actually believe that something like demonic possession is possible that movie it does a terrible disservice and making it this sensationalized thing and not a real problem to deal with. But also, I mean we mentioned it. There were definitely priests along the way who were like, hey, I think doing an exorcism on a kid that maybe needs a doctor is going to make stuff a lot worse. Um, I mean there there was definitely a reluctance within the church. There were a lot of people who were like I don't. I don't think we're looking at this the right way. This isn't the Middle Ages. We need to get this kid like real help um from from trained professionals. Uh, And that you know goes on. I couldn't rEFInd it when I was first doing my pre LIMB research. You know, you and I will both often like just search a topic and look for kind of what's out there. There was one account that I read that talked about one of the priests either involved or like secondhand involved. He had been a friend in one of them. I don't remember because I could not find it again having seen the exorcystem, being very very angry at how it sensationalized things in a way that he thought would be damaging, because his take was like, oh, this could be very instructional for the general public. I don't know why anyone would think a fictional movie would be that, but and that being an element of its reception. But like I said, I couldn't rEFInd that article, and so hey, when that happens, oh it makes me crazy, and I like, I'll be like, I'm looking at my history and my browser and I can't find it in here either. And I hate it. I mean, I don't think you're as bad as me, but that is what happens when I do that thing where I have like a hundred and thirty tabs open, and then I'm like, well, damn it, or my computer will crash and I'm like it's gone forever. I know I'm never gonna find it again. I hope nobody feels like they are possessed by anything other than joy this weekend, and that you have obligations that they go smooth as silk, and that if you don't, that you get some rest and some fun. Since this is Halloween weekend, everybody be very very careful out there if you're celebrating, and if you're not, I hope you find peace and that you're not in any way terrorized by people who want candy or to play tricks. I am gonna have pumpkin waffles because that's what the Muppets planted, the idea of a Halloween brunch where everybody has um pancakes together, and I'm gonna have waffles and have a cup of friends over. I think I think we're planning to hand out candy to trick or traders. If all goes well, I might just be hanging out on the couch from getting a booster shot whoa fingers crossed. So happy Halloween everybody. We hope you have a great time. If you're you're celebrating, and we will see you right back here tomorrow with a classic and then next tweek on Monday, there will be new shows. Stuff you missed in History Class is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.