got spook?

[jjenisis]

I was in a spooky kinda mood and was doing some research on local ghostly inhabitants and thought ya'll might like some of the stories too.

Lakeshore Asylum
A local demon's curse lives on in the locally-produced horror film 'Saint Lucifer's.'
By Matthew T. Everett

MAY 29, 2000: "That damned place is a shrine in the antechamber of Hell."

That's how a 19th-century postmaster describes an East Tennessee monastery in the fictional story behind Saint Lucifer's, a grim and gruesome independent horror film being produced in Knoxville this summer. The monastery had been, according to the story, the scene of a series of brutal child-torture ceremonies in the 1850s, and had long been regarded as haunted by a ravenous ancient demon named the Hungry One.

The Hungry One's lurking malevolence had been felt before the events at Saint Lucius monastery, first by the Cherokee inhabitants of the area and then by a group of white settlers who were consumed in a nocturnal onslaught of the demon's pet giant rats. And his presence was felt after the monastery closed, when the site was home to the Saint Lucius mental asylum, where the maniacal administrator, Dr. Leviticus Hayes, enacted bloodthirsty and sadistic rituals on the patients.

And, as the movie has it, the site is still haunted by the Hungry One.

John Riggs, a local self-styled mentalist, investigator of paranormal activity, and the screenwriter for Saint Lucifer's, says the movie is a mix of local legends and facts based on an abandoned mental asylum off of Lyon's View Drive. The asylum really was once part of the Eastern State and Lakeshore mental health facilities, and Riggs says horrible stories about the area have circulated for years. While tales about the monastery and the settler-devouring rats are fictional, Riggs is convinced that there's a sinister force at work behind other stories, like the supposed reports he mentions of abuse and cruelty at the facility between the 1940s and '60s and the rumors of satanic activity at the abandoned building in the 1970s, after land around the building had been flooded, cutting it off from the rest of the Lakeshore facility.

"It's a mixture of fact and urban legend," Riggs says, sitting in the tiny west Knoxville office of Ambrosius Productions, a commercial video and film production company that is helping to produce Saint Lucifer's. It's a strange place for the birth of a horror picture, housed as it is in a manicured suburban office complex with pristine landscaping and what seems like acres of parking. Heavy and jocular, with a gleam in his eyes that's more mischievous than sinister, Riggs thumbs a heavy book titled The History of Witchcraft in his large hands as he talks about the movie. "I thought it would be a great place for a movie, that something evil lived there and got out. I know a little bit about the history of Lakeshore—my grandmother was a nurse there, and she talked about the rats and abuse, and I worked there a couple of years while I was in college. A lot of gruesome things happened out there. You have to wonder if more than human evil was involved."

Riggs joined David Roberts and Andy Anderson of Ambrosius and producers Harry Dinwiddie and Sergio Valenzuela last fall to found Otherworld Pictures. Except for Dinwiddie—"I cry at Benji movies," he says—the group shares a love of horror movies, from classics like The Exorcist and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to '50s camp like The Giant Leeches, a copy of which perches on a table in the Ambrosius office. They all drop references to H.P. Lovecraft and the Basket Case movies like other men talk about sports statistics.

None of the five had any experience in the film industry before beginning work on Saint Lucifer's. Roberts had worked as a projectionist in Texas while he did freelance video production work, and says he used to spend more time watching movies at the theater than watching television. Riggs, who performs mental tricks under the stage name Jon Saint-Germain and writes trade books for magic societies, simply focused his interest in the supernatural and the stories about Lakeshore into the screenplay, his first. Now they think they can not only sell Saint Lucifer's, but that they can establish East Tennessee as a hub of independent filmmaking.

Since the fall, Otherworld Pictures has tried to create a national underground buzz with its website (http://saintlucifers.com) and the endorsement of the white-guys-in-makeup shock-rap duo Insane Clown Posse. ICP will appear in a brief cameo and add new music to the soundtrack, along with their associates Twizted and local hard rockers Galaxie. Hundreds of ICP fans have logged on to the guest book at the Saint Lucifer's web site, though most of the messages they've left are unprintable.

None of the members of Otherworld Pictures will reveal plot details, nor will they reveal the special effects that will be used in the movie. But information about the legends around the abandoned asylum and the movie's characters has been available on the website for several months, leaving fans with plenty to speculate about. And there are several shots of the Hungry One's glowing yellow eyes.

"There will be obvious comparisons to The Blair Witch Project because of the Internet thing," Roberts says. "With the story there's no comparison, but we learned a lot from that. We learned that you can build an audience."

The story centers around four college students and, presumably, their fight against the newly-unleashed forces of the Hungry One.

The stars are all veterans of the Knoxville stage: Michelle Torres plays Abigail Brennen, a young woman with a lifelong interest in the occult whose aunt, a practicing witch played by Nancy Dinwiddie, uncovered the lurking evil at the asylum in the 1960s; Jack Paglen plays Rob Clifford, a young man with a tormented past who is obsessed with Abigail; Kathleen Kaplan plays Deana Montgomery, Rob's girlfriend and Abigail's roommate; and Damon Pitt plays Josh Collins, described by Torres as "the hunky nice guy." All four of the principal actors have worked together in the University of Tennessee's Clarence Brown Theatre, on productions ranging from The Seagull to The Threepenny Opera, and Torres and Paglen will travel together this summer to Slovakia for a performance of Orestia.

During rehearsals, the actors read from the script to prepare for their videotaped performances, adjusting their stage training to the different expectations of a film audience. "The specificity of action is different," says Torres, looking decidedly unhorrific in a lacy white blouse and bright red skirt. "Of course you pay attention to it on the stage, but generally, from night to night there are small shifts. On film you can't do that... On film, looking down or up is a big choice. It's a big change getting used to it."

These rehearsals, which will continue until shooting actually begins this summer, are generally low-key, but the incongruity of producing a horror movie in an innocuous office complex in Cedar Bluff has created some minor problems.

"The secretaries in some of the other offices have complained," Paglen says, grinning. "They said it sounded like someone was being murdered in here."

Murder may not be central to the plot of the movie, but it certainly plays a role in the events leading up to the actual storyline of Saint Lucifer's. A secondary character, who will appear in the prologue to the movie, is Dr. Leviticus Hayes, played by Clarence Brown actor Tony Cede-o. Hayes was the administrator of the fictional Saint Lucius asylum in the 1960s when reports of abuse first surfaced. The scion of a prominent Tennessee family and committed narcotic addict, he degenerates under the spell of the Hungry One into a debauched madman who performs unnecessary lobotomies on patients and engineers sadistic, unspeakable ritual abuse at the asylum. The abuse is eventually uncovered by Abigail's aunt and a state official, masquerading as an orderly, played by Steve Dupree. The asylum is closed, but the Hungry One's power lingers, awaiting a rebirth.

Riggs is introspective about the movie, insisting that it's not just a story about a monster living under a hill in East Tennessee who comes alive to devour a group of college students. He says it's not campy, like The Evil Dead, the one great classic of East Tennessee horror movies, and it's not a postmodern horror movie about horror movies.

"Philosophically, Saint Lucifer's is retro-horror, back to when horror had a story to tell," Riggs says, tugging at the trim salt-and-pepper beard above his ICP T-shirt. "It's got plot development, the mythic structure. There are even elements of the hero's journey in it."

But the filmmakers insist that Saint Lucifer's will be a terrifying picture. "There are two prologues, about 10 minutes each, that will have the audience either squirming or headed for the aisles," Roberts, the movie's director, says. "There's one scene where my first inclination was, 'I don't want to direct this scene.' Then I figured that if it got a response like that from me, what kind of response would it get from an audience?"

An eight-week production schedule begins in early June, with most of the shooting to be done, appropriately enough, at night at the John Williams home on Dandridge Avenue in downtown Knoxville. While it's not as creepy as the abandoned asylum building that influenced the story, Riggs says the Williams property has its own gruesome reputation.

"The lady across the street said it has a slave history," Riggs says. "There are unconfirmed rumors of dozens of bodies buried out there... There's supposed to have been a lot of spooky activity out there."

Unlike most feature films, Saint Lucifer's will be shot entirely with digital video, which Roberts says is just as good as traditional film but much cheaper and more easily adapted for computer-generated special effects. It's also a growing trend, he says, especially among independent filmmakers.

When production is complete, the members of Otherworld Pictures will try to sell the film to a major distributor for national release. With attention from the website and support from the ICP, the filmmakers expect Saint Lucifer's to draw big crowds across the country.

"It's a return to the good old supernatural horror-suspense stories," Roberts says, contrasting the movie to the recent trend of self-referential, campy Hollywood horror movies. "There's a big twist at the end, and you'll care about what happens."

It's hard to tell exactly how successful Saint Lucifer's will be. The producers won't discuss financing, and they have yet to get a distribution deal. And, though Roberts claims that the script is exceptional, no one outside the production has seen it.

The members of Otherworld Pictures, however, are committed not only to Saint Lucifer's but to several projects over the next few years. Roberts says they have other script ideas waiting for development, and that they intend to establish themselves as part of a noticeable East Tennessee film industry.

"Saint Lucifer's is going to be some pretty horrible stuff, and it's homegrown, made right here," Riggs says. "It'll be scary."

Historic Rugby
This utopian community was founded in 1880 by the English social reformer Thomas Hughes. The ghostly presence of its former residents has been detected many times by employees and tourists here. Room 13 of the old Chaucer's Tabard Inn was haunted by the ghosts of the married couple that managed it. The husband slit the throat of his wife as she lay sleeping in their bed, then took his own life with a gun. Years later, when the inn caught fire and burned down, his suffering spirit cried out from the room, which was the last to be consumed by the flames. Some of the furniture from Room 13 was saved and moved into the new inn, called Newbury House. Guests there have reported being awakened by the figure of a man leaning over their beds. In the 1960s, another ghost started to make itself felt at Roslyn, one of the private residences in the compound. The apparition of a hawk-nosed woman in an old-fashioned dress walks the halls and sobs. The glowing ghost of a tall man wearing a shroud has been reported in an upstairs bedroom. A phantom carriage with four black horses and a ghostly driver is sometimes seen rolling along overgrown High Street, which runs in front of Roslyn. A snoring ghost who pulls the covers off freshly made beds has been detected in the Kingstone Lisle House. The ghost of Eduard Bertz, a perfectionist German librarian, is sensed during the twilight hours in the Thomas Hughes Free Public Library. The original seven thousand volumes of the Victorian Collection, which he organized from 1881 to 1883, are still housed at the library.

Historic Rugby is in northeastern Tennessee. Take U.S. Highway 27 north from I-40 at Harriman. Follow U.S. Highway 27 to Elgin and go west seven miles on Highway 52 to Rugby. The town is near the Big South Fork National River Recreation Area. The library is on Central Avenue in Rugby. The mailing address is Historic Rugby Incorporated., P.O. Box 8, Rugby, TN 37733. Phone: 423-628-2441

Old Gray Cemetery

http://www.korrnet.org/oldgray/
Old Gray Cemetery, 13 acres of beauty and history, is over 150 years old. Although the land was purchased in 1850 the cemetery was not dedicated until 1852 when the first 40 lots were sold at public auction. Today Old Gray clearly depicts Knoxville's history as well as the Victorian era and provides an important example of cemetery planning and design during the rural-cemetery or garden movement. Old Gray Cemetery is on the National Register of Historic Places. Said to be haunted by a shadowy figure that can be seen moving through the tombstones at night

Old Mental Asylum
Thanks to Sarah who submits, "The old mental asylum off of Tool's Bend road. It can be seen on the left, on the lakefront, from Pellissippi if you are traveling towards the airport. The large, empty mansion with many windows has always been said to be haunted by not only the non-living but also the living. An obsession for many high school students has become actually entering the asylum. First, you must park, crawl under a fence, and trudge through a quarter-mile cow field of a driveway. Bloody walls, chains, and freakish figures are seen by the fortunate few who actually go in to the old illegal mental hospital, known for abusing their paitients. I have indeed gone, but have never been able to enter. The challenging entrance is due to the guard who lives in the trailor next to the house. He is just as crazy as those who used to occupy the asylum, as he will approach anyone with his shotgun and cursing. But he only adds to the thrill, drawing more and more inquiry."

06.08.03: Virginia writes, "I can attest to the Old Mental Asylum in Knoxville tales!! My friends and I, more than once, in the summer of 2002, ventured out to "the crazy house." We even captured a video in which you can see what looks like a match lighting, then moving through the house. To explain this and other sightings, we invented a kind-hearted hobo, but some people went in to see for themselves. There was no hobo there. All they saw were decapitated baby dolls and frightening scrawling in what appeared to be blood on the walls. There is a basement, but no one was bold enough to go down there. As for the guard, we've seen him, too. I'll never forget the first time we all walked down the driveway. Adam, one of our friends, tried to calm us by saying that the lights in the windows were only reflections from the nearby streetlight. It's not until one reaches the old building that it is obvious there is no glass in those windows!! There was, in fact, a light inside the crazy house. I have never known such fear!

Rocky Top Village Inn

Gatlinburg.
311 Airport Road, Gatlinburg, TN 37738

A multiple murder occurred in the old office located in back of the building here. Some say you can still hear the spirits screaming and apparitions have been seen in the parking lot and around the fountain.

Bijou Theater, Knoxville.
803 South Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902-1711

Once said to be an army hospital many years ago, the Bijou is haunted by an unknown man. Voices and sightings have been reported.

01.10.03: Thanks to Laura who wrote, "There's already a sentence or two on here about the Bijou Theatre, but it doesn't near get into what's there. First off, I'm an actress, and I was on my second show at this theatre when I started to learn about all of this. 1. During rehearsals for a play I was in, I often saw figures out of the corners of my eyes in the balconies at the theatre. One always seemed to be standing at the front of the first balcony, all the way to the right; more in the center seats in the same balcony; and the third, all the way to the left and at the very back of the second balcony, which is only used for lighting purposes nowadays. The Bijou Theatre was a hotel turned Civil War hospital turned hotel turned...well, you name it. But one day, it is said that a young couple checked in on their wedding night...and never checked out. They were both found dead and mutilated the next day, assailant unknown. They are said to be seen sometimes in the first balcony, sitting right in the center, holding hands. Many people also claim to see figures in the two other places that I often thought I saw people standing. 2. A ghost of a little girl haunts the theatre. Nobody knows who she is or why she's there, but she is nonetheless. She's been heard singing on the stage when only one or two people were around. Once, a box office worker was locking up at the end of the day and found a girl standing inside the theatre. She asked the girl who she was and why she was there, not getting an answer, and told her to come with her out into the lobby. She walked out, but turned around to find the girl -- or not. She was gone, and no matter how long the box office worker looked, she never saw her again. 3. A former director was standing in the lobby when he heard someone walking down the stairs to the right that come down from the balcony. He looked up to see who it was, but just as the footsteps reached the point where he should have been able to see the person, the steps continued -- but no person appeared. This same fellow has seen\heard various other little things around the building as well. 4. I was sitting with a friend of mine in the lobby after a rehearsal of the first show I was in at the theatre, waiting for my ride, when suddenly I realized I'd left my watch on the counter in my dressing room. I ran back into the theatre to get it, and as I laid my hands on it, I heard footsteps on the stairs that I had just come up. Not having turned on the lights in the dressing room (and being a confirmed coward), I cowered back in the corner and peeked out the door -- only to see my friend coming up to check on me. Just shows you how much being lilly-livered can get you in trouble. There are plenty of other tales about this theatre, and several people died there while it was a hospital. Frankly, I have to screw up my courage and turn on every possible light just to have the courage to step into the place alone anymore."

[karmakaze]

Old Mental Asylum ... just a tip, you can enter it from the shore side. granted, you have to have a boat first...

[Lost Traveler]

hehe I know several people who have gone out there and got chased of by guards.

[jjenisis]

I read on a messege board that all you have to do is call and get permission and they will walk you in

[Illearia]

Several years ago, me and my friend Jonathan went looking for the Asylam and we had concluded that we would need a boat. We even had a boat, we just couldn't get to K-town. That was the year we were on a spook high. Other places to check out. There is an old haunted school out in Mascot and the story is that a little girl fell down one of the mine caps that wasn't properly closed and her ghost wanders in the basement. You can hear her giggling. I personally do not like the place because I get a feeling that something else is there. Some say that I'm sensitive. Another place is an old school off 139 going to Sevierville. It kind of looks like a church, but I'm not going to tell you that story. It's better if you use your imagination. The last one is an old Mason's Lodge with an attached cemetary out in the boonies of K-town. The cemetary is full of only women and children. The inside of the Lodge I couldn't stand in for more that 20 min. because I kept getting a feeling I needed to get out of there. I've learned to listen to my gut instincts....they're normally right.

If any need more info about these places just PM me or write me an e-mail and I can give better desc. and directions.

[Lost Traveler]

usually this subject dosnt come up till fall around here but since itis there are several books on the local spooks but like everything on knoxville a little hard to find.

[Codeine Coma]

Cool stuff...I think i've smoked a joint (Back in 90) around the lakeshore area. Didn't see much strange. I have always had a personal love with old grey cemetery and have spent many of nights alone and with other's in it., nothing ever happened there either. I do get spooked by a couple of house's in Knoxville, the Bijou, and some of the more popular cemetery's around here.


Thanks for the read though! Good stuff.

[Mother Mo]

Yes, very interesting.

[RavenLunatic]

Cool stuff...I think i've smoked a joint (Back in 90) around the lakeshore area. Didn't see much strange. I have always had a personal love with old grey cemetery and have spent many of nights alone and with other's in it., nothing ever happened there either. I do get spooked by a couple of house's in Knoxville, the Bijou, and some of the more popular cemetery's around here.


Thanks for the read though! Good stuff.

Yes, I too love Old Gray. I get such a great vibe from that place. Me & the kids go walking there sometimes. I've heard about the Lakeshore demon. Soon as I'm a certified "Ghost Hunter" I would love to do some documenting on a few places around here. That is some very interesting stuff.