Media Recommendations for your Inner Paranormal Investigator.
Updated: Apr 6, 2023
Hi!
It's Caleb of the Macabers!
Your resident Media Expert and Collector of Information.
During our time investigating all things spooky and peculiar I have accumulated and consumed a great deal of media on the topic and thought this would be a great time to share some of those rex (recommendations lol) with you!
Let's start off with Movies.
The obvious place to start is the Conjuring series.
Now independently these movies I think are all pretty good! The first Conjuring movie I would still stand by as top tier in this list but everything has a time and a place. Also, the incredibly talented Vera Farmiga is in them and she is just immaculate in everything she has done. Of course, these movies are part of a greater universe bringing in the Annabelle movies, The Nun, and The Curse of La Llorona.
To get what I think is the best experience out of these movies you gotta watch them in a chronological timeline. Not the theatrical release timeline. Does it really matter? No… I think it is just way more fun to know you are watching them in the order they would happen within that world.
That order would be as follows:
Up next up we’ve got some TV shows!
There are a ton of TV shows I could Include for this.
I have to start off with anything from the Mike Flanagan Universe.
Haunting of Hill House was an absolutely incredible and deep ghost story centering around a family working through their grief. It is a wonderful story with the perfect ratio of scares to tears.
The Haunting of Bly Manor is another wonderful show. It is much less intense on the scares and leans much more into the emotions of the show and the characters. It is truly a beautiful piece. I bawled my eyes out almost every episode.
More on the real-world investigative side I would highly recommend Expedition X. This is a great show that runs blindly into the strange, investigating supernatural occurrences, mythical creatures, and extraterrestrial encounters. Josh Gates, the host of the show sends Jessica Chobot and Phil Torres, a Paranormal Investigator, and Scientist respectively. These two have amazing chemistry and really dive into their investigations headfirst.
Chobot is one of my favourite hosts that has ever graced our screens. I have been following her since her Nerdist News days and she truly just has an amazing personality and such a wide knowledge of the topics they are investigating.
Let's take a look at podcasts!
I’m going to be keeping the Jessica Chobot fan wagon rolling.
Her show Bizarre States is a masterclass in paranormal research in dissemination. Jessica and her cohost, filmmaker Andrew Bowser go through weird news, spooky things and crazy crimes. They will do their own deep dives into different topics and chat about the deeper points. It is an amazing show really fun. They were originally a part of the Nerdist network but left and ran into some licensing and ownership issues with the name of the show. Once they worked all the legal things out they came back with Bizarre States: Resurrected just as strong as they had in the beginning. This show is so much fun and they often have interviews from experts and friends who are working in the supernatural industry, whether that is on the investigative side or in film and TV.
Another wonderful show if you are looking for something on the skeptical side is Oh No Ross and Carrie. They are two investigative reporters who look into everything, fringe cults, spirituality, aliens, creatures, and more. They have reported undercover from inside of Scientology, the Mormon church, 911 truther meetings, flat earth conferences, alien encounters, exorcism classes, ear candling, and so, so much more. I have always appreciated the way they handle their investigations. They come into every circumstance from a position of respect. They understand that the people they are investigating typically really believe what they say they do and they want to accurately portray them and their beliefs to the best of their abilities. Their attitude going in is, we want to believe. If someone can show us true verifiable evidence, we will convert to their mode of belief.
The interviews they have had on this show are incredible. They will talk to cult survivors, cult leaders, truthers from all different avenues of conspiracy, and experts in different avenues of science and research.
I also wanted to share some of my favourite Horror and Spooky writers to give you the full horrific experience!
Catriona Ward – The Last House on Needles Street, Sundial
Silvia Moreno Garcia – Mexican Gothic, Velvet Was the Night
Grady Hendrix – My Best Friend's Exorcism, How to Sell a Haunted House
Hailey Piper – No Gods for Drowning, Queen of Teeth
Paul Tremblay – A Head Full of Ghosts, Growing Things and Other Stories
Kiersten White - Hide
And of course, no horror author list would be complete without the queen of Horror herself:
Shirley Jackson – The Haunting of Hill House, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and The Lottery
I hope you enjoy these recommendations and who knows! Maybe they will even lead you down your own investigative journeys.
If you have created something in the supernatural landscape in any way shape or form, send it over! We would be so happy to include it in the next edition of our recommendations blog!
Just email us at themacabers@gmail.com
And make sure to follow us on socials!
We also just finished our investigation into the Barber Paper Mill! You can check our video documentation of our adventure @themacabers on Youtube.
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