Salem's Lot I was 9 in 1979 when Salem's Lot came out. It was a movie shown in two parts one week apart. It must have been at the theaters first, I guess I never thought about it before being so young at the time. Barlow scared the hell out of me, and there was a huge build up to the master vampire Kurt Barlow, which made it even spookier. I remember it quite well, and got a big kick out of that movie. I remember my dad laughing when Barlow came out, and mom gasping for air, exclaiming 'geez!'. The movie has lots of suspense, and I laughed as dad scared the hell out of my sister as we lay on the floor watching. There were no CGI computer graphics in 1979, however, Barlow's costume was very good and it still provides a reasonably good scare today. Many movies today fail to focus on suspense and the build up of fear, in exchange for computer graphics, and short attention spans, which of course does not always make a good movie. Horror movie producers from today could re-learn some things from Salem's Lot. I also love the scene shown below where an adulterous Larry Crocket meets the angry husband by surprise and is told to put a shotgun in his mouth. You can watch the entire movie on YouTube as well, but it's the slimmed down version. Or, if you are really ambitious, you could go and purchase the movie also. You're doing fine, Larry, just fine. DONT MOVE DONT MOVE Two versions of the shotgun scene were filmed for the TV miniseries Salem's Lot. In one version, George Dzundra tells Fred Willard to put the gun in front of his face. In this version, Willard is told to put the gun in his mouth. This was seen as too intense for television in 1979 (where the former version was shown), but was included in the two-hour version released in cinemas outside the US. The YouTube clip below shows the Barlow scenes in the Stephen King movie, which of course was based on the book that I read a few years later as a teenager. Stephen King wrote Salem's Lot in 1975. Books are always better, but I do not like the talking, humanistic vampire as was in the book. The way Barlow is portrayed in this movie as more animalistic, with no human emotion, is far scarier in my opinion. So if you have never seen this movie, you may not want to watch these clips as they will give away some of the best scenes right away. In closing, I think Mr. Barlow beats the sparkling vampires of today anytime. What do you think?

You've always got to expect the unexpected and do the unexpected. It's the chilling advice a young woman (Bree Turner) thinks about late one night on a lonely stretch of mountain road. Directed by Don Coscarelli.

The Possession of Cassie - A family hears rumors that its new house is haunted; the dogs alert them of danger.

Possible Abduction Attempt?
MUFON CMS - unedited: My experience took place in the summer of 1979. I believe it was July but it's possible that it was June or August. My sister and I were driving north on I-75 in Burton, Michigan. It was probably close to 8:00 pm. It was still light outside and we were looking at the moon in the sky and suddenly we both realized that there was something wrong with it. So I pulled off the expressway onto the shoulder of the road so I could see it without worrying about traffic. After I pulled over, the "half-moon", which had been hanging motionless in a vertical position, tilted to an horizonal position and began to descend towards us. Of course, we then realized that it wasn't the moon at all.

It was a huge metallic craft. It wasn't exactly round but it had rounded corners. It's color was a silver/gray. Large rectangular windows went around the center of the craft. Something rotated on it but I don't recall what it was. My sister said it had a dome. Again I don't recall that because my eyes were fixed on those well-lit rectangular windows. The craft was descending slowly towards us. It didn't make any noise at all (we had the windows rolled down). It also had colored lights on the ends of the body. There were at least two colored lights, maybe more. I don't recall the colors but they were normal ones like red, blue, or green. It was coming so close that I expected to see something in those windows.

About this time, a car pulled off the expressway behind my car. Some guy asking if we needed help. As soon as this guy pulled behind us, the craft switched directions and quickly flew to the left. It made a 90 degree turn without turning. It just stopped in mid-air and flew left instead of forward. The kind stranger didn't see it until I pointed to it. But he didn't see it like we did. He saw enough to know it wasn't a plane, helocoper, etc.

I believe that if that guy hadn't pulled over that we would've been abducted. No doubt in our minds that it was coming for us. Neither one of us were scared. We were excited.

I believe the reason that it was hanging in the sky in that location (above and to the right of Bishop Airport)was because Bishop Airport was having an air show that weekend. Some of the pilots of the WWII airplanes were flying around the air field and I believe this UFO was observing them. I did check the time after the craft flew away to make sure we didn't lose any time and it was probably about 10 minutes later. My car didn't stall out at any time. I've never reported this to any authority because we didn't know who to call and calling the cops didn't seem like the right thing to do since there was no crime.

**********

New Zealand Defense Force Says 'NO' to UFOs
stuff - Spotted a bird, a plane or a UFO lately? Then the New Zealand Defence Force doesn't want to know about it.

The most recent instalment of previously classified UFO files were made public yesterday – and within the documents, former chief of defence Jerry Mateparae makes it quite clear the military has no time for little green men.

"The NZDF does not have any expertise or role in respect of ... `flying saucer' matters, nor is it qualified to address questions on the existence or otherwise of extraterrestrial lifeforms," he writes in a staff guide from October 2009.

"The NZDF believes that rational explanations, just as aircraft lights or natural phenomena, could be found for [unusual aerial sightings] if resources were diverted for this purpose but ... it would be inappropriate use of defence resources."

All UFO reports should be referred to police, he said.

Meanwhile, a blue-tinted light racing across the North Island's night sky on Tuesday was definitely not a UFO. It has been identified by the Carter Observatory as an exploding meteor – one that could have been as big as a desk.

Witnesses were treated to a dramatic light shower after the meteor exploded 80km above Auckland. Some described the light as "several times brighter than daylight with a definite blue tint", and "like a firework", while a Raglan resident reported a sonic boom that "awoke the dog and nearby birds".

This was not an unusual occurrence, the observatory said, estimating it happened once every three years.

More than 2000 pages of Defence Force files, containing every UFO report since the early 1950s – including the 1978 Kaikoura lights mystery – were made public in December. The most recent files, dating from 2009, contain news articles and Official Information Act requests from the public and media.

There is one reported sighting, of a wingless object appearing to have "magnetic media emitting from the ends", spotted flying over the Kapiti Coast last May. The Otaki witness informed the Defence Force he had submitted the photo to an expert analyst in the United States, and would keep it in the loop.

The files also show repeated requests by citizen investigators group UFOCUS for access to the Defence Force documents. In a 2009 letter, director Suzanne Hansen expresses her concern at the "marked increase" in UFO sightings around New Zealand.

Her organisation was receiving credible reports from farmers, hunters, logging contractors and scientists, which continued to "defy logical explanations"and fit with worldwide trends showing sightings were on the rise, she said.

Ms Hansen offered to meet the Defence Force to discuss UFO phenomena.

This offer went unacknowledged by Lieutenant General Mateparae when he replied to Ms Hansen a year later, assuring her the files were being declassified.

Before their release last year, he wrote to alert many of the agencies that had dealt with UFO sightings over the years – such as Internal Affairs, the Civil Aviation Authority, Metservice and Carter Observatory. "While most correspondents were remarkably restrained in their comments (given a degree of skepticism about the subject)", he warned that some material could still "give rise to minor

**********


Stunning Photos Capture Great White Shark Lurking As Children Play On Australian Beach
myfoxdc - HAWKS NEST, Australia - Shocking photos emerged Thursday of a great white shark lurking in the shallow waters of an Australian beach as two little boys play happily on the sand.

The photographs, published by The (Sydney) Daily Telegraph, show how frighteningly close the juvenile maneater came to the shoreline at Bennetts beach in Hawks Nest, a popular tourist destination about 130 miles (210 km) north of Sydney.

The images were taken a few weeks ago on the same stretch of beach where wakeboarder Lisa Mondy was mauled by a great white on March 16.

Locals said that while shark sightings were not uncommon, to see them so close to the beach was rare and alarming.

David and Tracey Lowe were at the beach the day these photos were taken and saw a 6.5 ft (2m) great white, less than 32ft (10m) from the beach.

"We thought this was a good spot to go swimming and at first it looked like a shadow or something in the water," Tracey Lowe said.

"Then this wave came up and you could see the shark swimming through it. Once you got over the fear it was quite fascinating.

"There were two sharks at one point but the other one just came in close for a short while and then moved out again."

Hawks Nest Surf Life Saving Club president Stephen Howell said sightings were common at this time of year because of the schools of bait fish and salmon in the area, adding, "That's what the sharks are after."

**********

More Wisconsin Strangeness
MUFON CMS - Firth Lake, Wisconsin - unedited: In the following statement I will include two separate UFO sightings. One of them was sighted by My grandfather,grandmother, and uncle. The other sighting was sighted by myself.

It was the 09' deer gun season. My grandfather, grandmother, and Uncle were deer hunting in Cornell, WI near Firth Lake and were camping off a road called Moses Lake Road. Approximately 1 am my grandfather spotted what looked to be about 30 lanterns outside hovering above Firth Lake. He stepped out of the camper and to his amazement this was a craft...a disk shaped craft hovering over Firth Lake approximately 20 feet above the lake and the craft was approximately 40-50 feet wide. My uncle stepped out of the camper and was also amazed at the sighting. He grabbed a flashlight and flashed it at the UFO. My grandfather yelled at him to not do that. My grandmother did see it from inside the camper, however, she didn't go outside. She pulled the covers over her head and hid. My grandfather immediately knew what it was as now he states when he was in the air force "they" had a hangar were they kept a "captured" UFO. He called it NFO for the longest time, but he meant UFO. Approximately 10 minutes when by and the craft as they say shot what seemed to be 100,000 mph into space and didn't even make a sound.

The second sighting was sighted by myself, however, I was bow hunting with my uncle. Approximately late October 2010 at around 4pm. I was in my tree stand and I could see Firth Lake through the trees pretty clearly. All of a sudden a white orb comes out of nowhere and is circling the lake. It was moving up and down as well. This lasted for about 5 minutes and then the white orb disappeared into the woods. I had such a clear sight of it, it was just unreal. I knew there was no explanation for whatever this was. I was pretty shook up and I went to my truck early. My uncle came out and asked me why I was out of the woods already. I told him, he said "hmmm maybe it was a duck boat?" This is the same Uncle who tells the story of the first UFO incident by the way. Anyways I told him no, absolutely not, I saw this thing very clearly literally going in FAST circles around the lake and moving up and down.

I haven't been back to that hunting area since then. They still hunt there.

In the near future when nuclear war has turned much of our world into wasteland, the youth of America have become drug-crazed sociopaths who lawlessly prowl what's left. But for pretty teenage Peggy (Jessica Lowndes), her sheltered life is far removed from the underground club The Doom Room where a depraved MC (Robert Englund of NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET) provides immoral entertainment for the murderous masses. Jonathan Tucker (HOSTAGE, TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE) co-stars in this extreme shocker adapted by Richard Christian Matheson from the celebrated short story by his father Richard Matheson (writer of I AM LEGEND, STIR OF ECHOES) and featuring music by Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins.