Haunting of Hill House

Wow...we finished watching it a couple of days ago and my goodness it was good. A gripping, believable horror that completely enchanted us. I'm not a fan of the blood and guts type horror films, I don't want to see people suspended on hooks or having their fingernails pulled out, I like to exercise my mind, and this programme certainly did that! Each episode left me wanting more...hence the almost binge-watching that followed.

Everything from the writing that transformed a classic novel into a modern day setting, together with the scene settings, atmosphere, sound and lighting made this an absolute winner...I may need to watch it again if only to spot all the ghosts I missed (which add to the almost subliminal 'did I just see that' feeling) first time round.

Watch it, I recommend it!

Poveglia Island.

Poveglia Island - it is a place you can’t visit, it isn’t open to tourists or the public, nobody local wants take you, in the rare event that people have been to the island, most have come away wishing they hadn’t tried except for some paranormal investigators.  It is considered one of the most haunted places on the planet, and its history explains why. 

Situated between Venice and the Lido area in northern Italy, Poveglia Island looks like an innocuous place, green, wooded, with a large building to one side and a generally tidy, peaceful place, but it has a past that makes one shudder.  It started out well enough, in the year 421, people from the surrounding Padua and Este fled to the island to escape barbaric invasions that were occurring in Italy, these people were the first inhabitants of Poveglia and by the 9th century the island became fully populated and stayed that way for many years, until Venice came under attack from the Genoan fleet in 1379 and the people were moved off the island leaving it abandoned. It remained uninhabited for centuries and it began to promote an ominous feeling in local people. It is said that in 1527 the Chief Magistrate of Venice and Genoa offered the island to the Camaldolese monks, but they turned down the offer, then in 1661 the descendants of the original inhabitants of Poveglia were given the chance to rebuild their village on the island, but they also flatly refused. 

This however, isn’t the only history of the Island; there is a much more disturbing series of events related to the plague or ‘black death’. Dating right back from Roman times Poveglia Island was used to contain thousands of plague victims, and then again during the times when the disease spread through Europe - it was considered an efficient way of keeping the infected people physically separated from the healthy.  At first it was just the dead bodies that were taken there for burning, but as the plague spread, living people infected with the disease were taken, dumped and left to die mixed in with the bodies of the dead.  

In the 1700s when the island was under the control of the public health office and became a useful checkpoint for ships, goods and people visiting Venice, until two ships arrived with the crew infected with the plague. At this point, the large, imposing buildings seen today were built and the island was again used to confine those with the plague. Those who have visited the island say that it is still possible to read the writing scratches onto the walls of the building by people who were confined there. Over 160,000 people have died on Poveglia Island during its history. 

The disturbing legacy of Poveglia Island doesn’t stop there; more horrific records exist from much nearer today. In 1922, the island and it’s buildings were used as a mental hospital, people give accounts that the doctor in charge supposedly tortured and killed many of his patients there, eventually becoming mad himself, legend has it that he either jumped or was thrown to his death from the bell tower, and according to that same legend, he survived the fall, but was 'strangled by a mist that came up from the ground'. 

There are plans that the Italian government may open up Poveglia Island to the public, but it will be interesting how many people will actually visit, and what the opinion of the local people will be. A place with as much evil history and recorded haunting will certainly attract many people, but how many will leave wishing they hadn’t gone in the first place?