Page 35 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - June 2015 Edition
P. 35
Nightmare Reveals Horror in Your Mind 35
Unsettling Doc The
Nightmare Reveals the
Horror in Your Mind
Alan scherstuhl
Phoenix New Times
Twenty years back, at the height of the UFO me a mistake, but his subjects themselves Waring also claimed that he spotted an
boom, the truest believers in alien abduction continually link their experiences to movies L-shaped UFO in a photo taken by Apollo 13, a
scenarios would argue that their most they've seen, especially Communion and A manned mission taken up in 1970 to land on
compelling evidence was the commonalities Nightmare on Elm Street. Two of Ascher's moon but had to return due to a technical snatch.
between regular people's stories of nighttime interviewees recount how seeing those movies "I was going through NASA photos and found
visitations. Even under hypnosis, "abductees" helped them to understand that the nightmares the UFO that Buzz Aldrin said that he saw...an
testified to remarkably consistent waking- they had already been suffering were not unique L-shaped UFO. When I looked at the photos
dream terrors: an alert immobility, shadowed to their own minds. Elsewhere, it's clear that before and after this one, the UFO was gone. In
and mostly featureless figures right out of Close movies have shaped how those afflicted with a few photos I saw the Earth and it had a ring of
Encounters, being lifted and flown elsewhere sleep paralysis interpret whatever it is their light around it just like the UFO did. This is
without anyone else — even someone sharing brains are cooking up — that the powerful 100% proof the UFO was a solid object and that
the same bed — being the wiser. Sure, there was formal techniques of horror filmmaking have, it was outside the spacecraft, not a reflection off
never any physical proof, but the reports came for better or worse, forced order upon the chaos the window," he wrote in another post.
from everywhere, so they must have have been of the subconscious. It's a messy loop: Horror
true, right? reflects what's always lurked in the mind, but It may be mentioned that Waring has
then the mind reflects back the specifics it's written a series of stories off late on the UFO
Every onetime UFOlogist should brave picked up from horror. Of course Ascher's doc site about strange objects in photos of the moon
Rodney Ascher's illuminating, unsettling doc should look like an elliptical arthouse fright taken by NASA. He claimed a couple of days
The Nightmare, a film that reveals the probes- flick — that's true to how we dream. [] ago that hundreds of alien ships in the shape of
and-saucers narrative as an of-its-era re- cross have been spotted in the pictures of the
skinning of an even more pervasive Stealth Fighter-Like moon taken by Soviet Russia in 1950s and in
phenomenon, one all mental: sleep paralysis. Its Object Found on Moon? the later years.
sufferers share lucid and persuasive dreams that L-Shaped Bright Light
they are awake, that they cannot move, that Spotted in Apollo 13 Photo Reports of NASA being baffled by
creatures wait in the shadows. These may be bright spots seen on dwarf planet Ceres seems
demons, or shadow men, or curiously A series of claims have been made by editor of to have instigated Waring to have a closer look
individualized folks who have been knocking a UFO (Unidentified Flying Object) website at the photos of the moon off late. NASA's
about the subconscious — a newscaster, your claiming that several strange and mysterious spacecraft Dawn has sent closer images of the
mother, some hulking ginger dude you might objects have seen in the photos of the moon. 598 miles diameter dwarf planet in the orbit of
have seen once and forgotten. Could those The latest claim is of an alien raft that resembles Neptune with bright spots being seen and some
black-eyed gray aliens be the brain's imposition a stealth fighter aircraft and an L-shaped UFO people have taken to social media claiming that
of sense upon its own mysterious stimuli? in an Apollo 13 photo. it's a proof of aliens' existence. []
" This alien craft was found on the moon
Ascher's film is an interviews-and-re- and does resemble the stealth fighter and the INNOVATIVE MOTION PICTURE
creations job, one that stages a host of sleep legendary TR3B," posted UFO Sightings Daily PRODUCTION FOR
paralysis nightmares for our contemplation and editor Scott C. Waring along with the photo.
comparison. His eight subjects tell what is "There are many ships dumped on the surface of MOVIES - TV - INTERNET
essentially one story, over and over. They the moon, abandoned because they were
describe the terror of being unable to move — replaced by newer models or they took too AIRPLAY MEDIA.CA
one likens this to feeling dead — and then their much damage and were a danger to the crew. I PRODUCTION STUDIOS
helplessness as the shadows shape up into have seen hundreds of them."
malevolent forms. There's always some 1332 Osprey Drive
looming, some panic, an effort to wake up. The Ancaster, Ontario
divergences in the stories come to feel vital, the
mind working jazz changes on a simple melody: L9G 4V5
Pity the guy whose dream stalkers chew him out
for once having masturbated on his mother's Email: info@airplaymedia.ca
linens. Tel: 905-865- 8983
There's shivery pleasure to be had from AirPlayMedia.ca
Ascher's reenactments of these dreams. His
shadow men are elusive, as if they're forever
about to resolve themselves into more specific
monsters, and his variations keep the circular
narratives mostly fresh. His best-crafted bit
involves a red-eyed demon and a red-eyed cat
— it's also the craziest moment of his
interviewees' storytelling. His subjects seem
relaxed, and they talk to viewers the way they
might tell all this to friends; as in Ascher's
Room 237, he lets his people's voices carry the
film. The Nightmare is about them dishing what
they've lived through, not about scientists
making sense of it for us.
Ascher sometimes indulges in jump
scares, and there's one unconvincing burst of
gore. At first, these horror techniques seemed to
