S2 E20: Spooky Season special: The Truth Behind Horror Movies

I just love playing games, they're my favorite!

There are many I love, tag, hide and seek, stuck in the mud, they're all up there on my favourites list!

But, there's one I love more than any other, and it's called "The Cellar".

It isn't too tough, really! All you need is five people, and a cellar.

The people shouldn't be to difficult to "persuade" but if you need to "encourage" them a blunt weapon should be fine!

Now for the game itself, make sure all the the people are awake before starting, tell them they will remain locked in there until one remains and give them enough food to survive for exactly one week!

That way, when the food disappears, they will be desperate.

Now they will fight to survive, there will be so much blood and tears that it will be difficult to not burst out into laughter!

And then, when there's only one left, they will be THRILLED to find out the door was NEVER LOCKED TO BEGIN WITH! THEY SLAUGHTERED THE others  FOR NOTHING!

Overall, this game is fantastic for boring days when there's nothing better to do, so go ahead and try! I promise I it will be fun.

 

 

Hi everyone and welcome back to the dark history podcast where we explore the darkest parts of human history. hope everyone is well I’m Rob your host as always. Welcome to the new episode, again I hope you enjoy our short little ghost story to start, This is the last instalment of our spooky season special before our Halloween episode on Tuesday and I guarantee its one not to be missed. Today's episode if you hadn't already guessed is about horror movies, these films are something of a favourite of mine and I can watch any type, even the really shite b roll one none of them are off limits. Sometimes these movies are incredibly grotesque and gore-filled, some are more supernatural in nature and some are just downright messed up, I'm talking about the terrifier series there, but one thing we tell ourselves before we got to sleep is “they are just films and they are not really” well unfortunately that isn't always the case. 

            So without further ado please turn off those lights sit back and relax under the blanker for more dark history.

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Transcript

I just love playing games, they're my favorite!

There are many I love, tag, hide and seek, stuck in the mud, they're all up there on my favourites list!

But, there's one I love more than any other, and it's called "The Cellar".

It isn't too tough, really! All you need is five people, and a cellar.

The people shouldn't be to difficult to "persuade" but if you need to "encourage" them a blunt weapon should be fine!

Now for the game itself, make sure all the the people are awake before starting, tell them they will remain locked in there until one remains and give them enough food to survive for exactly one week!

That way, when the food disappears, they will be desperate.

Now they will fight to survive, there will be so much blood and tears that it will be difficult to not burst out into laughter!

And then, when there's only one left, they will be THRILLED to find out the door was NEVER LOCKED TO BEGIN WITH! THEY SLAUGHTERED THE others  FOR NOTHING!

Overall, this game is fantastic for boring days when there's nothing better to do, so go ahead and try! I promise I it will be fun.

Hi everyone and welcome back to the dark history podcast where we explore the darkest parts of human history. hope everyone is well I’m Rob your host as always. Welcome to the new episode, again I hope you enjoy our short little ghost story to start, This is the last instalment of our spooky season special before our Halloween episode on Tuesday and I guarantee its one not to be missed. Today's episode if you hadn't already guessed is about horror movies, these films are something of a favourite of mine and I can watch any type, even the really shite b roll one none of them are off limits. Sometimes these movies are incredibly grotesque and gore-filled, some are more supernatural in nature and some are just downright messed up, I'm talking about the terrifier series there, but one thing we tell ourselves before we got to sleep is “they are just films and they are not really” well unfortunately that isn't always the case. 

            So without further ado please turn off those lights sit back and relax under the blanker for more dark history.

Three recent Texas graduates, Ed, Henry, and Phil, head down to Mexico for a week of loose fun, but things take a sinister turn when one of them goes missing. It’s revealed that Phil has been kidnapped by a serial killer/cult leader who’s preparing a human sacrifice to bless their drug-smuggling racket. The 2007 American Mexican horror film called borderland which is written and directed by Zev Berman is loosely based on the true story of Adolfo de Jesús Constanzo, a drug lord and the leader of a religious cult that practiced human sacrifice.  

          Adolfo Constanzo was born in Miami in 1962. His mother, a widowed immigrant from Cuba, moved to Puerto Rico with her infant son to marry her second husband before the family moved back to Miami in 1972. Voodoo and Catholicism have always had an interesting relationship and although Adolfo Constanzo was baptized in Roman Catholic tradition, like most other immigrants in the Little Havana neighbourhood where he lived, strange rumours started swirling about the young boy and his family.                                                                                                                                Local legend claims his mother and grandmother were both priestesses in the Santeria religion, a blend of Afro-Cuban religion and certain elements of Catholicism popular throughout the Caribbean. When Constanzo was 14, he became the apprentice of a local sorcerer who had made himself rich through his dealings with superstitious local drug dealers. It was supposedly this sorcerer who introduced Constanzo to Palo Mayombe, the darker side of Santeria. Shortly after that, his neighbours began finding small dead animals on their doorsteps.

After spending his teenage years being schooled in sorcery and arrested several times for shoplifting, Constanzo’s good looks brought him to Mexico City for modelling work. It was there he recruited his first occult “disciples.”

Jorge Montes and Martin Quintana were both his first followers and his lovers, having been lured in by Constanzo’s powerful charisma and a curiosity about the occult. Constanzo would play upon these dual traits and seduce many of his other disciples in Mexico City’s gay neighbourhood the “zona rosa,” where he read tarot cards. Constanzo set up shop in Mexico City permanently in 1984 and worked on establishing his reputation as a powerful padrino in the city. Mexican drug dealers presented the perfect combination of superstition and bloodlust upon which Constanzo could ply his trade, for the sum of up to $4,500 he would perform ceremonies that involved the sacrifices of animals that he guaranteed would protect the dealers during their illicit activities. As the sorcerer lured in more and more impressive clientele including not just powerful cartel leaders, but fashion models, nightclub performers, and a few federal policemen, he needed to put on more impressive spectacles to satisfy them. Constanzo and his followers had been raiding cemeteries for actual human bones for some time, but in time even they would not be enough. Adolfo Constanzo’s most important client was the Calzada family, leaders one of the county’s biggest cartels. The relationship between the padrino and the dealers started out as it usually did, with the Constanzo providing protection spells for large sums of money.

As time went on and the Calzadas became more and more powerful, Constanzo became convinced that their good fortunes were the results of his black magic and insisted upon being given a position of power with the cartel. When the cartel leader refused Constanzo’s demand, he and six other family members suddenly disappeared. The nganga, or blood cauldron, is an important part of palo mayombe: worshipers believe that by placing bones and blood in an iron cauldron, they can summon spirits to do their bidding. When Mexican police found the bodies of the missing members of the Calzada family, the mutilated corpses were missing more than a few parts. Constanzo had taken the fingers, toes, hearts, testicles, spines, and brains from his former partners and added them all to his own nganga in hopes of strengthening his dark powers. Up until then, Constanzo and his cult had ritually killed at least twenty people, and maybe as many as 100. He had escaped detection because his victims were almost exclusively prostitutes, homeless people and drug dealers. But when Mark Kilroy disappeared, it became an international incident that focused attention on Mexican law enforcement efforts.

Cult leader Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo sacrifices another human victim at his remote Mexican desert compound Rancho Santa Elena. When the victim didn’t beg for mercy before dying, Constanzo sent his people out to find another subject for torture and death. When they abducted American college student Mark Kilroy outside a bar in Matamoros, Mexico, Constanzo inadvertently set in motion the downfall of his cult. On March 13, 1989, Constanzo's henchmen abducted a pre-med student, Mark Kilroy, from outside a Mexican bar and took him back to the ranch. Kilroy was a US citizen who had been in Mexico on spring break. When Kilroy was brought to the ranch, Constanzo murdered him. Authorities in Mexico were pressured to step up their campaign against drug smuggling across the Texas border. On April 1, Serafin Hernandez, a cult member and the nephew of the leader of the Hernandez family drug-smuggling network, which had hired Costanzo to use black magic to bring them profit and protection, drove right through a police roadblock. Apparently, he believed that the magic potions Constanzo sold to drug dealers worked. Hernandez thought that he was invisible to the police and led the police directly to Rancho Santa Elena where officials found a large stash of drugs and guns. Cult disciples who were arrested began to tell police about the human sacrifices at Rancho Santa Elena. Within a week, authorities had found 27 mutilated bodies, including Mark Kilroy, at or near the cult headquarters. It was said that Constanzo sought a "good"/superior brain" for one of his ritual spells that is why he murdered kilroy. Officials said Kilroy was killed by Constanzo with a machete chop to the back of the neck when Kilroy tried to escape about 12 hours after being taken to the ranch. They also discovered Constanzo's cauldron, which contained various items such as a dead black cat and a human brain.

                                                                                      The cult leader didn’t turn up until the 6th of May 1989, when he panicked and opened fire on police who were going door-to-door in search of a missing child. An intense gun battle ensued, and as the police closed in, Constanzo insisted that one of his assistants, El Duby, shoot him. Constanzo was dead when police finally stormed in. El Duby and Constanzo’s other surviving cohorts were tried and convicted for the murders at Rancho Santa Elena.

If you previously thought that a nightmare like The Hills Have Eyes could never happen in real life, think again. Director Wes Craven once revealed that the terrifying movie was actually inspired by a real cannibal family in Scotland led by a person called Sawney Bean. 

   The story of the treacherous and cannibalistic Sawney Bean has gone on to reach legendary status in his native Scotland. The man known as Alexander Sawney Bean was supposedly born in the late 1600s near Edinburgh, Scotland, though very little is actually known about his early life. According to Scottish historians, Bean’s story might begin at the turn of the 17th century, though he does not appear in the historical record until nearly a century later in 1755. Bean might also have originally been a tanner by trade, others say that he was first a hedger and a ditcher. Nevertheless, most accounts agree that Bean eventually left these trades behind and took up with a woman, sometimes called Black Agnes Douglas, in Ayrshire. The legend goes that the Beans retreated from society and confined themselves in a cave over the sea. Now called Bennane Cave, the hideaway was said to become hidden when the tide rose high enough. This giant rock formation was allegedly equipped with various tunnels that spanned over a mile in depth and allowed ample space for the young couple to start and raise a hideous family. The Bean clan grew quickly, with Sawney Bean’s wife eventually giving birth to 14 kids. With ever-increasing mouths to feed and no real trade to fall back on, Bean turned to robbery and murder to make ends meet. And it didn’t take long for his family to help him with his crimes.

                                                                                                                The Beans worked together to ambush lone travellers and local passersby and were consequently left with a mountain of bodies to dispose of. As the legend goes, this is how the Beans ultimately turned to cannibalism. The criminal clan was said to hack up the bodies of their victims, quarter them, and pickle them in their cave.  As time went on, the family continued to grow. The cave eventually became home to 18 grandsons, and 14 granddaughters — all born out of incest. The Bean clan eventually numbered 45 — and all of them had a hankering for human flesh. With what was essentially a small army to help him, Sawney Bean went on to orchestrate ambushes with military precision, tracking and pouncing upon their victims before dragging their lifeless bodies back to the cave to be consumed. A list of missing persons grew by the day and occasionally limbs would wash ashore, but the Beans, hidden from society, went undetected. Instead, local innkeepers became suspects as they were usually the last people to have seen the missing person in question. Many innkeepers grew fearful of being wrongly accused and several of them abandoned their inns for other occupations entirely.

                   One night, the Bean clan ambushed a married couple riding from a fayre on one horse. The man was skilled in combat, so he deftly held off the clan with sword and pistol. However, the Bean clan unhorsed the wife, and she fell to the ground. The women in Bean’s group that night killed the wife, cutting her throat and sucking her blood; they also pulled out her intestines. Before they could take the resilient husband, a large group of fayre-goers appeared on the trail and the Beans fled. The fayre-goers took the survivor to the local magistrate, whom they informed of this experience.

With the Beans' existence finally revealed, it was not long before the King, perhaps James VI of Scotland in tales linked to the 16th century, though it is less clear who this could be in other tales from the 15th century, heard of the atrocities and decided to lead a search with a team of 400 men and several bloodhounds. They soon found the Bean clan's previously overlooked cave in Bennane Head thanks to the bloodhounds. By torchlight the troops entered Bennane cave and with swords drawn, they proceeded down the mile-long twisting passage to the inner depths of the Sawney Bean family lair. Nothing could have prepared them for the sight they witnessed that day. The damp walls of the cave were strewn with row upon row of human limbs and body parts, like meat hanging in a butcher’s shop. Other areas of the cave stored bundles of clothing, piles of watches and rings and heaps of discarded bones from previous feasts.

There are two versions of the events following the Bean clan’s discovery. The most common of the two is that the Bean clan was captured alive where they gave up without a fight. They were taken in chains to the Tolbooth Jail in Edinburgh, then transferred to Leith or Glasgow where they were promptly executed without trial as people saw them as subhuman and unfit for one. Sawney and his fellow men had their genitalia cut off and thrown into the fires, their hands and feet severed, and were allowed to bleed to death, with Sawney shouting his dying words: "It isn't over, it will never be over". After watching the men die, Agnes, her fellow women, and the children were tied to stakes and burned alive. These execution practices recall, in essence if not in detail, the punishments of hanging, drawing and quartering decreed for men convicted of treason. In contrast, women convicted of the same were burned. There is also another claim that the search party placed gunpowder at the entrance of their cave, where the Sawney Bean clan faced the fate of suffocation.

The town of Girvan, located near the macabre scene of murder and debauchery, has another legend about the Bean clan. There are claims that one of Bean's daughters eventually left the clan and settled in Girvan where she planted a tree that became known as "The Hairy Tree". After her family's capture and exposure, the daughter's identity was revealed by angry locals who hanged her from the bough of the Hairy Tree.

Thank you for taking the time out of your day to listen to this dark episode. Surprisingly there are quite a few horror movies that have a story behind them. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece psycho are based off Ed Geins but I didn't include these two because the sick and twisted mind of Ed Geins deserves an episode of its own. 

        Also, you have the exorcism of Emile Rose or other exorcism films but I didn't want to include them as the first episode of this little mini-series what about demonic possession I'm not a massive believer in them, to be honest, I'll sit and watch them for the scare factor but other than that I think they're all fake.

        Then you move onto things like the conjuring and the Ed and Lorraine Warren stories and  they are absolute bollocks, those two really where just opportunistic chancers, who made money out of whatever kind of allegedly supernatural mess they could.

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