As of this blog post, it could still be awhile before anything with the site really happens in terms of when I’ll get around to being able to get it going and set up to do things.  I would love to be able to get the site up to a point where it would work more on a submission format where you all could sign up and post your own horror stories online and share it with the horror community.  But as of the moment, I’m trying to get some help in getting the site up and going.  I’m not sure when it’ll happen, but I hope it’ll be soon.

Thanks for any support you all would give!

Black Cats

Black cats have long been believed to be a supernatural omen since the witch hunts of the middle ages when cats were thought to be connected to evil. Since then, it is considered bad luck if a black cat crosses your path.

Broken Mirrors

An ancient myth our ancestors believed was that the image in a mirror is our actual soul. A broken mirror represented the soul being astray from your body. To break the spell of misfortune, you must wait seven hours (one for each year of bad luck) before picking up the broken pieces, and bury them outside in the moonlight.

Ladders

In the days before the gallows, criminals were hung from the top rung of a ladder and their spirits were believed to linger underneath. Common folklore has it to be bad luck to walk beneath an open ladder and pass through the triangle of evil ghosts and spirits.

Owls

If an owl looks in your window or if you seeing one in the daylight bad luck and death will bestow you.

Salt

At one time salt was a rare commodity and thought to have magical powers. It was unfortunate to spill salt and said to foretell family disarray and death. To ward off bad luck, throw a pinch over your shoulder and all will be well.

Sparrows

Sparrows are thought to carry the souls of the dead and it is believed to bring bad luck if you kill one.

Unlucky Number #13

The fear of the number 13 is still common today, and avoided in many different ways. Some buildings still do not have an official 13th floor and many people avoid driving or going anywhere on Friday the 13th.

Good Luck Superstitions

Horseshoes

To bring good luck, the horseshoe must lost by a horse and be found by you, with the open end facing your way. You must hang it over the door with the open end up, so the good fortune doesn’t spill out.

Another origin of the ‘lucky horseshoe’ is the belief that they ward off witches. Witches, it was once believed, were opposed to horses, which is why they rode brooms and pitchforks instead. By placing a horseshoe over a door, the witch would be reluctant to enter. (Hat tip: Iris)

Four Leaf Clover

Clover is believed to protect humans and animals from evil spells and is thought to be good luck to find a four leaf clover, particularly for the Irish.

Rabbit’s Foot

These lucky charms are thought to ward off bad luck and bring good luck. You mush carry the rabbit’s foot on a chain around your neck, or in your left back pocket. The older it gets, the more good luck it brings.

Wishbones

Two people are to pull apart a dried breastbone of a turkey or chicken and the one who is left with the longer end will have their wish come true.

Common Myths & Folklore

If the flame of a candle flickers and then turns blue, there’s a spirit in the room.

If a bird flies through your house, it indicates important news. If it can’t get out, the news will be death.

If you feel a chill up your spine, someone is walking on your future grave.

A person born on Halloween will have the gift of communicating with the dead.

A bat in the house is a sign of death.

If a bird flies towards you, bad fortune is imminent.

If your palm itches, you will soon receive money. If you itch it, your money will never come.

Crows are viewed as a bad omen, often foretelling death. If they caw, death is very near.

Many Romans wore lucky charms and amulets to avert the “evil eye.”

If a person experiences great horror, their hair turns white.

A hat on a bed will bring bad luck.

Eat an apple on Christmas Eve for good health the next year.

The superstition of knocking on wood for good luck originates from pagan beliefs in regards to trees.

• If the flame of a candle flickers and then turns blue, there’s a spirit in the room.
• If a bird flies through your house, it indicates important news. If it can’t get out, the news will be death.
• If you feel a chill up your spine, someone is walking on your future grave.
• A person born on Halloween will have the gift of communicating with the dead.
• A bat in the house is a sign of death.
• If a bird flies towards you, bad fortune is imminent.
• If your palm itches, you will soon receive money. If you itch it, your money will never come.
• Crows are viewed as a bad omen, often foretelling death. If they caw, death is very near.
• Many Romans wore lucky charms and amulets to avert the “evil eye.”
• If a person experiences great horror, their hair turns white.
• A hat on a bed will bring bad luck.
• Eat an apple on Christmas Eve for good health the next year.
• The superstition of knocking on wood for good luck originates from pagan beliefs in regards to trees.

Even more recently, I beat the game this week.  Very classic Aliens style ending if you ask me.  You’ll know more if and when you beat it for yourself.  Unless of course, you’re one of the ones who’s aleady beaten it.

Now, I like myself some horror games, and Dead Space was no exception.  Ok, before I get into it farther, I would like to think that mainly, there are at least two types of horror types in the main genre of horror.  As far as games go, there is the “jump out at the player and make them scream like little girls” horror path, and then there is the “scare the pants off of the player without actually SHOWING them anything truely scary…yet” category.  The first category, the “jump out at the player” is more of the Resident Evil type of game, generally.  An execption would be RE5.  And the “scare the pants off without showing an enemy” category would be closer to Silent Hill, the more favorite horror series of the two.  With Silent Hill, you can be walking along a hallway hearing the craziest shit, becoming paranoid, jumpy, and wanting to just turn around an leave, but knowing you can’t.  That’s what I like.

Now, in Dead Space, I think this title can have a little of both worlds here.  It’s a little Resident Evil, with a little Silent Hill.  Although I would say it has a tad more Resident Evil than Silent Hill because more often than not, it has these creatures lunging out at you before you know what’s happening.  And all this in outerspace, where no one can hear you scream like a sissy baby.

Yes, that was a reference to Aliens.  I think that’s what this game has.  A shake of Silent Hill, a dash of Resident Evil, and a smidgen of Aliens.  And maybe even a dash of Home Improvement.

WTF?  Home Improvement you ask?  Yes, it has a little Tim Tayler in it as well.  You ARE able to upgrade your rig and your weapons along the way, making them more powerful, making you tougher and less vunrable to those nasty little alien scum things.  *Insert a Tim Allen grunt here*

All in all, I thought the game wasn’t bad at all.  In fact, it was actually pretty good.  I myself would recommend picking it up yourself.

My Dead Space score is this 8.5 out of 10.

ALright you all, that is all.  I will return later with another horror tidbit, scary story or other wise!

Happy Scaring!
Daquine

Hear these words and take heed;
A warning I issue to you,
I have committed a horrible deed.
To the Light I have recently been untrue.

A great evil I have released
And I know not a way out,
For I have released a mighty Beast
Whose power is sturdy, without a doubt.

I must declare to you and all,
A depiction of such a fearsome rival.
Fear you will, for my words will appall,
But it is for your survival.

To start I must speak of his name,
In our tongue, the name of the Evil
Is Demontavio whose very soul is aflame
With the corruption of the devil.

A dragon is the form he assumes,
With a maw of fire, and teeth of spears.
From here, hellfire and death smoke fumes,
And it’s roar of tortured screams, the core of all fears.

If Demontavio’s horrible jaws
Do not forever shake your nerve,
Then the demon’s very eyes will cause
A shatter and take your only reserve.

A reflective silver gleam
In his eyes will make any soul
Turn tail with a ghastly scream.
Will such an image not take it’s toll?

I fear it will I dare say.
It’s body is that of blood and scales,
Full of the dead bodies of its prey,
Of flesh and entrails.

An untamable abomination
Is the creature Demontavio,
Who will never see salvation
Or witness Heaven’s glow.

May I be forgiven for my sin,
For I became tempted
With an evil book of human skin,
And a ritual that I alone attempted.

The thing I have released from Hell
Is something I did not anticipate.
With a jolt and a yell,
I have learned the truth too late.

This is the last thought
That I may call my own,
For this last lesson has taught
Me that my fate has been sewn.

My death is nigh,
And upon my demise
My will to him I can’t deny
For it is now his to prize.

Long time no see to all you horror fans out there.  As any visitors to my site may have realized over the last several months, is the lack of updates to Panic Hotel.  I’ve had many things I’ve had to do with my life, but I hope to get Panic Hotel up and running again soon.

My hosting is almost up in a few weeks, and I’ve had to decide weither to keep the site up and running or not.  I would like to try to keep it running if I can.   In this situation, I would like to rekindle everything and rework the site to make it more effectient and make it run smoother.  after making the current version of the site, I quickly found that adding new pages to the site was damn near impossible to do without ruining things.  I didn’t have any room to place things I wanted to add, so I will have to remedy that in the new design.

Also, I would love to have you all send me your horror stories so that they can be viewed by all!

Anyway, that’s about all I have for you all, hope to hear from you with your story ideas!

Daquine
www.panichotel.com

 There are two things I’d like to cover in this blog post.  They both relate to Saw.

The first thing I’d like to mention is that I just watched the fourth iteration of the series a few nights ago on dvd.  I never had a chance to see IV, or any of the other versions of Saw in theaters, so I was able to get the dvd versions for fairly cheap considering several of them are getting a bit older.

I thought the fourth movie in the series wasn’t too bad.  It does bring to life more information on John Kramer, a.k.a Jigsaw’s background, and some of his motivations for becoming the sick dude we all know and love.

Boy, it sure gets more complicated with each  new movie.  Not like other movie series that never really dive much into the main plot.  I think we all know some series that follow that lead.

But anyway, the other Saw related thing that I found just now was the possibility of a new Saw video game.

Um….weird?  But cool?  That’s pretty much my thought on it.  I wonder how they would pull it off and make it feel like it’s supposed to be part of the Saw universe.

It can’t be like other horror video games like Resident Evil or Silent Hill, because those games seems…different than how horror works in games like RE or SH.  I feel that in these two game examples, they were made to be games.  Saw, well, it was made to be a horror *movie*.

It would be hard to convey the exact type of horror that Saw does.  Sure, horror and gore can be pulled off in most games and movies, but I feel that the way they do it in Saw really makes you cringe.

Is that guy really gotta saw off his own foot?

Will that chick really kill that dude just so she can live?

That I felt is better served up on the screen, at least, this far.  Silent Hill came close, with that feeling that could make you feel all, “ugh” inside.  Granted, I’m a bit biased….Silent Hill is my favorite horror game series.  RE never really hit it off with me quite the way Silent Hill did.

So that’s basically all I needed to say!  Thanks for readin’ with me!

Happy Scaring!

Daquine
www.panichotel.com

 I apologize for the lack of updates to this blog, although I’m glad to see traffic trickeling in anyway.  Today, we have a new link for you all to be able to visit.  It is centered around the dark gothic theme.

To visit it, click here:
http://www.panichotel.com/links.htm

The newest links are on the top, as is this one.

Happy Scaring!

Daquine
www.panichotel.com

Today, I’d like to share with you a new page that I’m making.  It features some ideas, recipes and sites for special effects and recipes for your horror/scary movies.  These are all cheap and easy was to make blood and a way to be able to shoot somebody with a gun and have blood spill out.  Naturally, it could increase in size as I find more info, but for now, it’s in an infant stage.

The link for the mage is located here.

Also, I’ve also been thinking about making a total site redesign.  In general, with the additions of several of the pages and themes of the site, such as Haunted Places pages, I haven’t been able to add them to the site where they are easily assessable from every page.  With every new page and theme I create and am forced to link them only from the main page, I get increasingly fustrated.  I know it gets very confusing for those people who could potentially visit those pages, but don’t know where to look exactly for those places within the site.

Until then, please keep it up and please bear with me until I get the site redesign underway!  Thanks!

Daquine
www.panichotel.com