You probably noticed something a little odd about today's picture. This is not an error, or some strange malfunction on Blogspot's part which caused them to upload a corrupted image file. No, the image is supposed to be blank and for good reason.
The subject of today's Monster A-Go-Go is the ghost. That eerie phantom specter that haunts the darkest rooms of our homes, mansions, ruined hospitals, apartment complexes, and wherever else we feel compelled to spend prolonged periods of our lives sheltered in. However, I'm not interested in talking about the lame white linen bed sheet ghosts that you might see in a Charlie Brown Halloween special, I'm talking about the invisible predators that stalk the living in their ever increasing quest to snatch away our sanity.
Similar to the Werewolf segment about a week ago, I'm not going to focus on any single noteworthy monster because they are all good in their own way. This doesn't mean I won't be writing about any of these shady characters though (in fact the next entry happens to fall neatly into this category), but for the moment I just want to celebrate all the scary figures that manage to evade ocular detection.
Ghosts are an impressive monster because they tear away at one of our most primal fears, our own imagination. Whenever a person is sitting alone in a quite place, surrounded by the creeping shadows of a room that draw longer and longer upon each corner and wall, that is when this monster makes itself known. The sudden creek of a settling house, the rustling of leaves and branches against our windows, the howl of a creature somewhere in the distance, these all evoke tense dread from a person trapped in this situation.
The very mythology that surrounds these phantom fiends suggests that they feed off our paranoia as part of their hunt. A ghost will torment their victim slowly by starting small; moving objects and making noises in the night. Targets of the ghosts' attacks will be dismissed by their peers and told that it is all in their head, thus isolating them from any sort of external help. As the nights go by the hauntings become more and more intense until finally the supernatural spirit strikes with a violent force of aggression, and then its too late. An ethereal ghast that gains pleasure or sustenance from the misery of others is a delightfully scary concept and the sadistic pleasure they derive from toying with their hapless human hosts just amplifies their already spooky presence.
Without a doubt, ghosts and apparitions are some of the oldest monsters in existence because they encapsulate the very common things that we all experience and fear. The most frightening thing in this world is that which we don't see and the power of our own imagination can sometimes work much better than any computer or make-ups specialty team.
To leave you with the timeless words of Alfred Hitchcock, "There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it".
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