Russian Sleep Experiment

THIS IS AN URBAN LEGEND and is a creepypasta entry, it seems that like the slenderman creation the lines have become blurred for some. I have entered this on the blog because I find the story a good piece of fiction but I don’t want anyone fooled that it is anything more than that.

S the tale goes roughly – in 2010 the story emerged that the Soviet Sleep Experiment began in the 1940’s and that Russian researchers explored five political prisoners to an experimental stimulant to keep them awake and then watched what happened.

At first the men seemed fine, but the sleep deprivation slowly changed them until they were into states of paranoia. As the days with no sleep continued the paranoia escalated and it became frighteningly desperate as they screamed and yelled, this hysteria became contagious between them all and one screamed so loud it tore his vocal chords, after this they all went silent.

Three days after the scientists then went on to check their prisoners only to find a gruesome event had unfolded. Four of the prisoners had turned on the other, beaten him to death and then eaten him. The madness also led them into biting off their own fingers, tearing chunks out of their own skin and have even gone so far as to attempt to disembowel themselves. They had not touched the food rations left for them, the gas that was gone was causing more concern as the prisoners yelled that they wanted to be put back on it, they would NOT fall asleep again! The story carries on more horrifically and the link Www.creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/The-Russian-Sleep-Experiment gives you more of it.

However remember that this really is just a work of fiction. If you are tired go to sleep, if you are awake don’t try and gas yourself into staying that way. Stay safe my friends!

I have updated this with the youtube reading, it’s well done and gives you a good narrative if you are interested. This one is a good creepypasta because of the way it is written and the fact that it takes the idea that some of the scientific community would not consider human experimentation unethical.

Outlast – Game

Outlast and it’s DLC were developed by Red Barrels and for survival horror fans like me, this is on the top of the list. It is a first person game and in both the main game and DLC you play unfortunate chaps trying to escape a bizarre psychiatric horror. Available on PC, via Steam if you should so choose, or Xbox and Playstation. 

I’m going to attempt to review this without spoilers, except to say that if you thought the first one had crazy scenes you won’t be surprised to find out there are more in the DLC and some pretty gross moments. Neither protagonist uses combat, you’re weapon is a camera used I that sort of found footage Blair Witch-type and you get to occasionally shove someone or orchestrate movements so they end up deceased or fatally injured as you run the hell away.

In the first, main part, you play Miles Upsher, he’s the guy that heads inside to expose the atrocities. He’s been tipped off and ends up trapped inside. The DLC is Waylon Parker’s story and he risks it all to send out the e-mail that ultimately leads to Miles into the asylum.

The game has plenty of places you can explore, lots of grizzly sights and in sections some fast paces gameplay. You use your camera as a light source and so you have to watch out that you don’t blow your chances by running low on batteries.

The ‘patients’ are often unhelpful, talk gibberish are are down right psychotic/violent. It’s a best guess scenario when you meet them but that just adds to the fun factor. Put the headphones on and turn off the lights, then have a great time immersing yourself in a game to keep your heart racing.

A Machine For Pigs – Game

10th September 2013, saw the Frictional Games release of the second Amnesia instalment, following the initial success of the older Amnesia, The Dark Descent. Without going into the plot this writer will tell you that the Machine really is about Pigs, it’s not misleading there!

Essentially for the horror enthusiasts this game is a survival horror, you play the part of a rather wealthy British Gent who is trying to rescue his two children. The story takes the player through a series of underground chambers, creepy parts of the house, into the streets overrun with monsters and predominantly an exploration into the character’s sanity (or lack thereof).

A mixed reception has come from the players, original fans of the series have been said to feel that it was not as scary as the original, perhaps also that it did not have the same interactive level. Others felt that this was a wonderfully constructed exploration into fear.

So why did I pick this for a blog?

What the games hold, that many others perhaps have missed out on, is that unknown fear and the glimpses of the creatures in the dark. One of the things that keeps me as a gamer engaged with survival horror is the unknown fear. H P Lovecraft’s stories have engaged me for many years, and with this instalment of the game it seems well placed amongst that type of genre. The scientific horror seems well placed for fans of H G Wells or Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The game has monsters that are freakish and grotesque, their lumbering half man and half beast nature captures the essence of freak pretty well.

So for me, yes Machine For Pigs was a good game. Not the scariest thing I have ever played but again that’s something personal to each player. If you pick it up I hope you enjoy it, if you have already played it feel free to leave your comments.

Images taken from my playthrough on Steam.

The Devil School

Jacksonville, Florida, is home to an odd brown, brick school infamously known as the ‘Devil’s School’. It’s original and official name is/was Duval Country’s public school No 4. The hauntings allegedly began when a furnace exploded back in the 1960’s, it killed half the students, some faculty members and the janitor.

It was said it’s victims were very active in their haunts, teachers refused to work there and it was forced to shut for a brief time. A priest was called in to exorcise demonic presences but that wasn’t enough, and it seems to have secured it’s grizzly place in history.

The principal was a cannibal, if students fell asleep in class they were sent to him and never seen again.  He had a closet in the office he had converted into meat lockers.

Let’s not forget the janitor, a janitor supposedly went on a rampage and slaughtered a number of children.

In reality what can be found out is that it has had more than one name, it was a vacant building that could be used by local transients and kids would hold “initiation” rights there for their various clubs.

A fire did occur, in 1995, most likely due to it’s homeless visitors and not due to anything paranormal. There seem to be no documents to support the deaths, or strange occurrences, just a lost of hearsay. It’s been marked for destruction as part of a local development plan. I put this one down as a series of local tales and urban legends.

Skeleton Park

An old burial ground was used up until 1896 in Kingston, Ohio. It was known as the Garrison Burial Ground and used for the fort St Frontenac, by French traders. Today it’s known as the McBurney Park.

There are French and English soldiers buried here from 1819 onwards, originally it was used for the townsfolk during a cholera epidemic. Since 1654 it’s believed there are around 10,000 souls from varying church denominations buried there.

It was derelict when it was abandoned in 1896, the houses nearby were full of unhappy residents who complained to the city. The city officials made it into a park and they began to dig up the bodies. The smell was too horrific and there were concerns about it’s buried residents being disturbed and so in the end they left them. The land was ploughed over and the headstones removed.

When they do work on an area they have to stop regularly as bones and headstones surface. If it happens they also have to get in an archaeologist. So there’s some reason to list the reports given to the dead being unhappy at being disturbed.

There have been reports of apparitions, shadowy figures, light anomalies and disembodied voices.  It is said the local houses also report activity, with objects moving on their own, alongside apparitions and lights switching on and off.

There’s a nice tale attached that if you go to the park on the night of a full moon, the park is replaced by the vision of the old graveyard where you can see spirits full of cuts and wounds.