The CW announced a new reality / horror TV series called “13” which will premiere in the summer of 2008.

The show’s executive producers are Jay Bienstock (“Survivor,” “The Apprentice”) and Ghost House Pictures’ Sam Raimi (the “Spider-Man” films, “The Evil Dead” films) and Robert Tapert, (“The Evil Dead” films, “The Grudge” films). Ghost House Pictures’ Joe Drake and Nathan Kahane will produce.

“This series is the first to take the horror movie into the reality world,” said Ostroff. “The action takes contestants on a journey with challenges and games designed to frighten them along the way. Similar to horror films, the challenges will play into our deepest fears and anxieties and will reveal things the contestants never knew about themselves.”

What worries me from her comments is that it sounds just like “Fear Factor” which, to me, isn’t horror movie based.  Does anyone remember that reality show where the people had to find a killer on an island?  Now THAT was spooky and if “13″ is more like that then they’ll have a winner on their hands.

On this week’s episode of Bravo’s Make Me A Supermodel, the models participate in a creepy New Orleans Haunted Mansion style photoshoot that is bound to delight any haunted television fan. 

Check out Perry in his ghostly undertaker garb.  And wait until you see the gorgeous costumes and ghastly make-up on the other models.

Don’t miss Make Me a Supermodel, this Thursday at 10:00 on Bravo!

Pictured: Perry — Bravo Photo: Virginia Sherwood

Case File: 2007.01.31F
Code Name: “Beer, Wine & Spirits”

SUMMARY OF PHENOMENA
Case involves bar, owned by Brian in Smithtown, NY. According to Brian, the bar is cursed. No bar owner in the past few decades have been able to turn a profit at the location. Brian and others have felt the presence of a negative entity in the lower level. Brian can’t keep wine glasses at the bar because something keeps breaking them. Brian is convinced that there is a good spirit and a bad spirit there at the bar. He wants the negative spirit gone and to end the curse of the bar once and for all.

NOTES FOR THE DISPATCHED FIELD RESEARCH TEAM
• Heather and Katrina have been trainees for quite a few investigations. It’s time to test what they know. Therefore, this case will be turned over to them. Read the full post at Paranormal Insider

As far as Charles Fort was concerned, he was just going to the library to do research. When he began collecting newspaper clippings, stories, and other evidence of unexplained phenomenon, he had no idea that he’d eventually become known as the father of modern paranormalism.

Fort spent much of his adult life in libraries in New York and London, taking notes and gathering clippings on anomalous occurrences around the world. He was interested in alien abductions, psychics, spontaneous combustion and anything else that science couldn’t explain. He took these findings and condensed them into four books over the course of his lifetime: Book of the Damned, New Lands, Lo! and Wild Talents. It was Fort’s opinion that scientists often formulated theories and explanations based on their own personal biases instead of looking at the facts at hand. Fort collected evidence of the paranormal in an attempt to prove that unexplained phenomena did in fact exist, despite scientists’ assertions to the contrary.

In praise of Charles Fort’s expansive paranormal research, his friend Tiffany Thayer started the Fortean Society in 1931 to promote his work. After Thayer’s death, the International Fortean Organization was established, and the Fortean Times was founded. These organizations base their work on Fort’s theory that, “The fate of all explanation is to close one door only to have another fly wide open.” Read the full post at Paranormal Insider

Laura Leuter is the co-founder and president of The Devil Hunters, an organization dedicated to uncovering the truth behind New Jersey’s infamous cryptid. I spoke with her about the legend, sightings and her own personal beliefs regarding the creature.

Emily: What is the Jersey Devil?

Leuter: The Jersey Devil is a creature that has been thought to terrorize the Pine Barrens of New Jersey for over 250 years. It is often described as having the face of a horse or deer, standing upright on two legs. It has large, bat-like wings, and makes a high pitched inhuman screeching sound. The creature was witnessed by the Lenni Lenape Native Americans, as well as original settlers of the state. It gained a large amount of notoriety in January of 1909 when it was sighted over 100 times in a week later dubbed “Phenomenal Week.” Hundreds of people throughout the Delaware Valley encountered the creature in some form.

The most popular legend surrounding the Jersey Devil is that it was the 13th child of a woman known as Mother Leeds, who cursed her child during labor by screaming, “Let this child be a devil!” The baby was born but quickly morphed into the deformed hideous creature originally known as the Leeds Devil, later to be renamed the Jersey Devil. Read the full post at Paranormal Insider

Residual spirits are active at the same place and time over and over again. Residual ghosts differ from intelligent haunts because they are unable to interact with us. The activity, whether it is a noise or an apparition, literally repeats the same behavior every time without fail — whether you’re there or not.

A theory exists that claims that natural resource deposits like limestone, quartz and water sources beneath a given location increase the odds of a residual haunt. According to this theory, a traumatic or emotional event has the capability to imprint itself onto these materials. Don’t ask how — nobody knows. It’s not uncommon, however, that investigators do a bit of research and discover limestone under a place with residual activity. The Stanley Hotel is a great example. Lots and lots of limestone and quartz! Lots and lots of ghosts! Buildings made out of brick and stone are also more likely to house residual activity. Limestone itself is the most abundant of sedimentary rocks. Limestone has been a popular building material throughout history since Egypt’s pyramids. In Europe, limestone was used heavily during the Middle Ages. Here in North America, limestone architecture had its heyday in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

More often than not, cases of residual haunts seem to coincide with natural rock deposits but the science behind these occurrences remains hidden. Hopefully that will change. If residual hauntings are like recordings, then perhaps science will one day understand this kind of paranormal activity and create it under the right conditions. Maybe we’ll be able to play back parts of history. Even better than the movies. Read the full post at Paranormal Insider

Case File: 2006.12.29F
Code Name: “Man of the House”

DIRECTOR’S LOGS
The Penn State PRS team was dispatched to Tobyhanna, PA to investigate Cheryl’s case. These logs have been condensed and edited, but to the best of our ability, they remain an accurate account of the case:

BILL AND CHERYL
There are times when we enter the household of a couple who aren’t seeing eye to eye over the alleged supernatural experiences. Almost always in these circumstances, the woman will experience the activity and the man won’t. This can put some strain on the relationship, because the man (likely a non-believer) will laugh off the claims, making the female feel inferior and even embarrassed. As counselor Jamie pointed out, even if the man doesn’t experience these claims, as a partner, they should at least be supportive and listen. If the female spouse is truly having these experiences, it can often be a traumatic and jarring thing to go through. If she can’t open up to their significant other about this, that can put a lot of strain and doubt on the relationship. Read the full post at Paranormal Insider

In 1917, three shepherd children in Portugal witnessed multiple appearances of the “Blessed Mother,” and witnesses around the area saw shared visions of the sun moving across the sky in a strange way. This “miracle at Fatima” included the revelation of three prophecies to the children.

The first two prophecies were disclosed by Lucia dos Santos, one of the children, in the 1940s. The first predicted the imminent end of the current war. The apparition then said that if people did not cease offending God, a worse war would rage during the reign of Pope Pius XI. In reality, World War I ended in 1918, and the second world war erupted in 1939, during the reign of Pius XI. Did the Blessed Mother predict the future? Or did dos Santos fill in the details after the WWII began? Read the full post at Paranormal Insider

Case File: 2007.01.31F
Code Name: “Beer, Wine & Spirits”

DIRECTOR’S LOGS
The Penn State PRS team was dispatched to Smithtown, NY to investigate Brian’s case. These logs have been condensed and edited, but to the best of our ability, they remain an accurate account of the case:

HEATHER AND KATRINA: PUTTING TRAINING TO THE TEST
In PRS, trainees go through a series of rigorous tests in order to become a member of the Field Investigation & Research department. After trainees make a certain point, they must face the inevitable shock of discovering, on a case, that it will actually be led by them. The main team (myself, Eilfie, Josh, Sergey, etc.) backs off and observes.

For Heather and Katrina, they have had the luxury of being the comfortable, cute and adorable “trainees.” They did what they were told and all was right in their universe. That being said, we decided that we’d make them go through their “rite of passage” on a filmed case. It took a lot of restraint to not give it away. We even went as far as not to inform most of the film crew, so that it would be a complete shock, as it’s supposed to be. Read the full post at Paranormal Insider

They’re not your “usual” UFOs — mysterious lights moving about the sky. They’re “vampires in the sky” — killer UFOs shooting deadly beams of red light, straight out of a sci-fi B-movie. People who get hit by the red beams sicken and sometimes die, of bizarre wasting conditions.

Lethal UFO attacks have been reported for decades. In 1946, a man in Brazil was struck by a UFO beam of light while returning from a fishing trip. His flesh began to fall off his bones, and he died six hours later. His body rapidly decomposed. In 1954, UFO beams reportedly burned to death an entire village and their livestock in Nairobi, Africa one night. In 1969, a man near Anolaima, Colombia was irradiated by a UFO. He became seriously ill and blue spots appeared all over his skin. He died within a few days.

In South America, the vampire UFOs are called chupa-chupas, or “suck-sucks,” named after the goat bloodsucker entity called the chupacabra. From July 1977 to November 1978, a wave of deadly UFOs around Colares, Brazil killed people and at least one animal — a dog — and left others seriously ill. In all, about 40 people, most of them adults, received medical treatment for injuries. Read the full post at Paranormal Insider