Oren Peli made his supernatural thriller, Paranormal Activity, with no budget, no time and a crew of three. The 99-minute film became a standout feature at this year’s Screamfest, lauded by horror veterans, such as Andrew Kasch of Dread Central.

A young couple suspects that their house is haunted by a malevolent entity so they set up video surveillance to capture evidence of what happens at night as they sleep. Their surveillance and home videos have been edited into the 99 minute feature film “Paranormal Activity.

DreamWorks has since made a deal with Peli to remake his original film, which will be included with the remake when it comes out on DVD, after the theatrical release. As of this date, there is no planned schedule or script. But you can get a taste of what the film is about by watching the trailer below. Based on that, I found Paranormal Activity very reminiscent of The Blair Witch Project.

Paranormal Activity Trailer

Every now and then Craigslist gets a whopper of an ad. This ad was discovered by a woman who was researching the Southwest Florida region.

“HAUNTED TV - Toshiba TW40 40″ HDTV television

I am selling my 5 year old Toshiba HDTV because I am a college student who is unable to transport it to another school. It is rather large because its a projection and weighs about 100 pounds. It works fine, has a nice glossy screen and is in good condition.

There is one caveat that I must bring to the buyer’s attention: This TV is almost certainly haunted by the spirit of a 1970’s-era baptist pastor named Klent Kloom. He is harmless, but the buyer should be comfortable with cries of “HALLELUJIA”" (sic) at unearthly hours of night. I am unfamiliar with exorcism and cannot find a good reference on the internet. … Original URL: http://fortmyers.craigslist.org/ele/532991654.html

I had to admit that I was curious about Kent Kloom and why he would pick a TV, of all things, to haunt. Then I remembered those stupid TV evangelists and moved on to investigate Kloom. The Craigslist ad has since been flagged for removal. A quick check in Google revealed this thread in the Something Awful forum. A grin spread across my face, which is a hard thing for me to do in the morning.

This entire thing was a hoax.

Dreadite says:

I checked my Gmail about 3 hours later to see if there were any inquiries. One caught my eye: the local newspaper wanted to do a report on my “haunted” tv. I couldn’t pass this up, so I called the number the reporter left me and went through with the phone interview. I basically made up all the details on the phone, and that was that.

Here is the resulting article from the unsuspecting reporter, which caught my attention in the first place. Dreadite has since sold his TV, and the news article was syndicated on a score of blogs. It even received 3 Diggs.

I was pleased when I received this book for Christmas because I had put it on my wish list for a writing project I have started working on. Occult Investigator is a collection of true stories by NYC-based investigator Bob Johnson, who owns X-Investigations. The first chapter is an interesting narrative about how he started his paranormal/private investigation business and how he landed his first case.

You’ll find a good variety of stories between the covers of this book. There are ghosts, Santeria demon possession, vampires, werewolves, satanists, etc. I’m not sure which story made me do a double-take: the vampire or the satanist story. I can’t imagine how I would feel if I were to search my teenager’s room to find an ornate silver box filled with dirt and bone fragments hidden inside his closet.

Many of these stories read like bite-sized fiction novels, only without the drama and suspense. Highly recommended.

Pleasanton, California is a peaceful city that is nestled between rolling foothills of Northern California. I drove through this town everyday for two years, on my way to work in neighboring Dublin. Sometimes, I would get to venture out of the office to eat lunch or go shopping. In all appearances, Pleasanton seemed to be quite ordinary and suburban. I wasn’t aware of its rich history until I read an article about Gloria Young, a Northern California ghost hunter who founded Ghost Trackers in 1992.

“It’s very unusual,” Young said. “Urban legends are usually just that — urban legends.” After an early visit to Gay 90’s, Young was looking through still photographs and found a picture taken of an old mirror. It reflected an image of herself, a male team member and Ghost Walk coordinator Rebecca Bruner. What was surprising, however, was the image of a woman with camel-colored hair, also reflected back from the mirror. There was no one else with them that day who looked like that additional image.

Young’s five-week investigation of Pleasanton will be released in early 2008 as a documentary, entitled Ghosts of Pleasanton.

Source: Inside Bay Area and Orange Moon Films