Vampires, Ghosts, and Witches...

Last week I went to the Hallwyl Museum to see their exhibition about Skräck och Skrock (Fear and Superstition) during the turn of the 19th/20th century. The corridors leading me into the house were dark and filled with frightening sounds that turned this beautiful, palace-like, apartment into a house of horror! I've always been interested in old beliefs and the occult, so going through all the rooms, looking at all the cool stuff on display was very exiting! I took some pics of a few of the items, but since it was dark, and many items were placed behind reflecting glass, please excuse the quality of my photos.

The first thing that caught my eye was a Spirit phone/Necrophone, something it was rumored Thomas Alva Edison was trying to create to be able to communicate with the dead. No one knows if he actually created one, but this is a private collector's idea of what one of those might have looked like.

Ouija Board!

This is a reproduction of the first issue of Bram Stoker's Dracula...

A framed taxidermy bat had it's natural place beneath a painting of the original Dracula - Vlad Tepes.

Although I don't believe in killing friendly vampires, I still want one of these - a vampire hunter kit! This one is believed to be from the 1800s, and kits like these were often created by weapon smiths at the request of vampire fans.

They also served blood! I have no idea why it was behind glass though. By the time I had gotten this far through the exhibition I was really thirsty.

Electric shock devise from the early 1900s.

A witch's familiar. Yep, that's the remains of a cat...

Sculptures of Baphomet and Cthulhu.

A few stairs down in this Downton Abbey-like apartment, there was another exhibition with collections of different kinds. Behind a door was a tiny chamber, and inside I found vintage pornography! I guess that shows that you never know what you'll find behind closed doors. Not even in old, very fine homes... Haha!

Empty Rooms...

As long as a house is inhabited, it feels normal, and often cozy. But as soon as a home gets abandoned, especially if it still has furniture and personal belongings left behind in it, it becomes a spooky, eery place full of ghosts. A place you wouldn't want to spend time in alone... Urban explorer Andre Govia found one of these abandoned homes - the Round Mansion in Belgium - and decided to document it with his camera. No one knows why the family left this big mansion, with nine large bedrooms, but it has been empty since the early 1990s, with only the inhabitant's belongings - shoes, books, clothes, toys etc - still there to tell the stories of what happened... I would love to walk around in this house for a while. But even I feel it would feel safer to have a friend or two with me if I did... Andre Govia said about his time shooting in the mansion that "This particular building made me feel on edge and so there was no time to relax when I was inside...It was very cold and creepy, heavy damp air and noises from the wind made it seem so chilling."

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Children's Worst Nightmares

Remember when you were really young, and monsters lived both underneath your bed and in the closet? Photographer Joshua Hoffine has made a series of photographies that depict all the things that exist in children's scary imagination. The series is called Children's Worst Nightmares, and I strongly suggest you don't look at these pictures just before going to bed! You never know, those nightmares might come back...

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Vintage Halloween Costumes

It's Halloween time!!!! And I'm going to miss out on all the fun creepy parties, because I'm going to Rome to perform in Caput Mundi Burlesque Awards. But I think I'll survive... For the rest of you who will spend the weekend celebrating the darkness, here comes a few costume tips - from the good old days!

Bibendums, Montmartre, 1922.

Germany, 1920.

New York City, 1951.

Since I'm flying to Rome today, you will gave to wait for my next post until Tuesday next week. The people I live with are going to have a Halloween party at our apartment, so I'm a bit bummed out about the fact I'm going to miss that one, and get to dress up in something creepy... What costume plans do YOU have for the scariest of holidays?

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