The constant darkness that surrounds the main setting. The heavy anticipation of not knowing what’s going to happen next. The sudden silence that consumes the audience's mind with the feeling that something horrific is about to happen. These are just some of the emotions that might be running through your mind as you sit down to watch the 2011 film Munger Road. This movie centers on the idea of one urban myth, which is that several decades ago, a school bus full of kids was traveling down Munger Road when they attempted to cross a pair of train tracks, but the bus was struck by a train, killing every single child on board. The urban myth then goes that is you put baby powder on your back bumper, drive and stop on the train track, and then …show more content…
put your car into neutral and turn off your car, the ghosts of all of the kids that perished that one day will make handprints on the baby powder as the ghosts of the kids attempt to push the car off the tracks in order to avoid you ending in the same fate that they did. In the movie, four high school kids try to prove this old urban legend as they travel to Munger Road late at night. The only problem is that as soon as they finish proving that the legend is true, they go to leave, only to find that their car will not turn on. As this is going on, two St. Charles police officers are looking for an escaped murder suspect that the believe is heading home, which is on, of course, Munger Road.
This movie has an unbelievable plot, breathtaking action, and endless suspense, and therefore, this movie deserves to compete with big-time horror movies such as The Nightmare On Elm Street and Annabelle. Munger Road is a road in Bartlett and Wayne Illinois, and therefore, many people in the area are very aware of this legend and this road. According to a critic on IMDb, this person lives near Munger Road, and just like the rest of her high school peers, she was excited to hear that they were making a movie out of the creepiest place in the area. This is pretty true to what the intent of the movie is, because with something that no one knows all that much about, it was really unique for the movie to “shed some light” on an event that people are not all that familiar with. However, despite the fact that the movie had tenseful suspense, well-suited dialogue, and believable characters, the movie had no ending, as the movie definitely ended abruptly. This was definitely noticed by one movie critic on IMDb, who said that this superb movie that he was enjoying, was ruined as a result of a poorly written ending. I watched this movie a couple of weeks ago, and I, too, was bothered by the lack of a conclusion. Despite my ill-fated feelings toward the ending, I couldn’t help by wonder is this was done deliberately by the writers and producers of the movie. Do urban myths ever end? Is there ever a point where the audience just knows everything and is no longer left wondering? Urban myths, by definition, are horrific pieces of information that are thought to be true, and are well-known to the reader.
Indeed, The urban myth of Munger Road circulates around the myth that the road is still being haunted by the spirits of kids that perished when a train hit their bus. Although the actual story of the tragedy is true based on news source's that had documented the event, there is still the age-old question of whether or not spirits are haunting the tracks on Munger Road. There are many plausible explanations to this idea, from paranormal experts that claim that spirits have been around forever, as they are mentioned from the bible, to Shakespeare plays, to skeptics that believe that there is a barrier that divides the material world from the spiritual world. This is something that will always be debated, and will probably never come to an end. The way that some people feel when they don’t know how the answer to an urban myth, is directly related to how one might feel when they watch the ending to Munger Road. But are urban legends beneficial for us, or are they just plain nonsense? Heather Whipps is an author for livescience.com that has a Diploma of College Studies in Social Sciences, and says urban legends are an important aspect of of popular culture, offering insight into our fears and the state of our society. However, many urban legends often pass between social interaction. Moreover, when people are passing urban legends between each other, they
may also say the famous line “I heard it from a friend of a friend”. So does this diminish the credibility of urban legends? Yes, but according to a renowned American folklorist, researcher, and writer, Jan Harold Brunvand, “the lack of verification in no way diminishes the appeal that urban legends have for us... The definition of urban legends is a strong basic story-appeal, a foundation in actual belief, and a meaningful message or ‘moral”. So most urban legends often tend to offer us a moral lesson on society, and offers us insight into who we are as people, and the places in which we live. But do horror stories also offer us the same type of lessons? Why do people watch horror movies? Why would people put themselves through such an ordeal of watching such films? People who do enjoy these moves say that they are just a harmless form of entertainment. Joanne Cantor, PhD, director of the Center for Communications Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison says that if these movies attraction is is this powerful, then so is their impact. Glenn Sparks, a professor of Communications at Purdue University, studies the effects of horror films on the viewers physiology. The results were that people who watch horror films experience a heartbeat that increases 15 beats per minute, their skin temperature drops several degrees, their muscles tense, and their blood pressure spikes. When Sparks studied the effects that movies had on us, he noticed that the more scared they were, the more that they claimed to enjoy the movie. Sparks soon found that enduring a scary movie is almost like a rite of passage for young men. They feel like now they have something to brag to their friends about.
Napoleon Dynamite is one of the best movies portraying loneliness and nerds. It is the story of Napoleon in high school and his lonely adventures. All the main characters feel separated, misunderstood, and have nobody to relate to. Napoleon has no friends and lives in his own fantasy land. He is avoided by everybody. His brother seems to be mislead, wanting to be a cage fighter but staying home all the time hopelessly trying to find love and attention on the internet. Their grandmother is never there for them, though she lives her own life right beside them. They live next to a huge field, reinforcing their isolation. Practically every home in the film is
Brunvand collected many short stories that revolved around a deceased grandmother, but each story varied in location, origin, timing, and purpose. People manipulated the context of the story to completely change the moral of the story to either amuse, frighten, or inform their audience. He talks about how a rumor can equally be manipulated as an urban legend would. I would use this source to explain what rumors say about the general public. I would also explain how some rumors can be traced and how people tend to believe them even though the evidence suggest
In April I sat down with a friend at my house and asked about any urban legends or ghost stories he had encountered. After a couple legends he had seen in movies, he mentioned a haunted bridge about ten minutes away from downtown. He is a twenty-one year-old White male; his father owns an appliance store and his mother helps out with the books. He first heard this story in the ninth grade from a couple of friends. Supposedly, they had heard from kids who had actually been to the bridge and heard strange things at night. The bridge is located off of Uniontown road, between a couple old farms. He has not encountered the bridge first hand but still remembers the story surrounding it:
The legend of the Ghost Children of San Antonio dates back to the first half of the 20th century, with the majority of accounts placing its origins within a period extending from the 1930’s to the 1950’s. The story is based on a supposed freak accident involving a school bus full of children. As the story goes, the school bus stalled over a set of train tracks and was subsequently hit by an oncoming freight train, killing everyone on board the bus. (Weiser) Not soon after this grisly event, it was said that, should anyone park their car on the very same train tracks and place the gears in neutral, the car will roll uphill (seemingly defying gravity) off of the train tracks to a safe distance away. According to legend, the ghosts of the dead children from the bus accident push one’s car to safety (seemingly uphill) so they may avoid a similar fate. (Mikkelson)
Dangers on roadways is an issue that describes the discrepancy between perception and reality of road rage. The media, for some odd reason, tends to make road rage a huge controversial issue. As seen on talk shows from Oprah Winfrey to CNN, they reveal to people that road rage could happen at any time and to always be looking over your shoulder. These talk shows and news programs also put fear into our minds by explaining that most roadragers often use guns to kill or injure their victims. Glassner contradicts the media's speculations by stating that out of approximately 250,000 people killed on roadways between 1990-1997, AAA attributed that one in one thousand was an act of road rage (pg.5).
The following ghost story involving a ghost named “Anna” was first told to me by a person who lives near the ghost site. A New Jersey native, this girl was an eighteen-year-old college student. She came from a middle-class, predominantly white, suburban neighborhood. This story about Anna’s ghost was told to a group of other college students and me while eating dinner at the campus diner. The storyteller, I, and our group of friends began to discuss the things we teenagers do to occupy ourselves on weekend nights when we’re bored. Another friend of ours mentioned that she and her friends would trespass into an old, abandoned house in her neighborhood just for thrills. The storyteller then announced that she knew of this road in her hometown of Totowa, New Jersey that is haunted by a teenage ghost named Anna who is dressed in a white gown and was killed by a car while on the road. The storyteller did not know the exact name of this road; she claims that it is now only referred to as Anna’s road. She also did not know when the accident occurred and had not been there herself, but she asserted that a friend of hers had seen the ghost and verified the story for her. She then proceeded to enlighten her audience:
After experiencing a traumatic car crash, Michelle, the protagonist of director Dan Trachtenberg’s film 10 Cloverfield Lane, wakes up in an underground bunker owned by a man named Howard. Howard claims to have saved her from a widespread chemical attack that has contaminated the air, with his bunker being the only place to take refuge for the next couple of years. Yet as the film progresses, Howard’s controlling and threatening demeanor eventually brings Michelle to escape, allowing her to come across the actuality of the situation outside the isolated bunker. Throughout the production, Trachtenberg arranges close frames, manipulates the camera’s focus, and chooses specific lighting to create an ominous tone that mystifies and disturbs viewers.
On the Road is a story about countless elements of life that are relative to almost everyone today. Understanding of time, spirituality, wisdom, reality, poverty, friendship, dissatisfaction, and admiration are all key components to the
On October 22 at 7:30pm in Williams Hall, I watched a film by Marta Cunningham called “Valenetine Road”. The film was about a murder that occurred on February 12, 2008 in Oxnard, California, were either-grader Brandon Mclnerney shot an openly gay classmate Larry King. Although what seemed like an open and shut case, the trial took over three years before the judge and jury was able to deliberate a decision. Coupled with the abnormality of a juvenile murderer and extenuating trail time, the case garnered countless media appearances that choose to depict the case one sided. However, through the film, the background information proved to be vital because the film choose to present both sides of the story persuasively and effectively. This allows
which Oscar lost his life. The media portrays the story from the officer’s perspective which often
Railroads can be referred to as the first big business, and the first industry to develop management bureaucracy (Ogburn 39). Railroads were a vital part of early American history during the 1800s-1860. The development of Railroads was one of the most important phenomena of the Industrial Revolution. Railroads brought social, economic, and political change to the country (Stover 26). In the United States a turnpike era and then a canal era had immediately preceded the coming of the railroads, which proved to be fast, direct, and reliable in all weather. After 1830 the railroads grew so quickly that within a decade their mileage surpassed that of the canals (Hollingsworth 28).
The author uses a very melodramatic tone which exaggerates the way it interprets the way roadkill was seen as a kid. The author emphasizes" We saw birds on the wires and combines in the fields. We were fascinated with roadkill"(Richard Louv). The way the author interprets the road kill at the side of the road as a kid is a way of exaggerating the way that kids would entertain themselves. This meaning that the use of being melodramatic is very present in the quote. The author's message is that with the advancements of technology kids have become less in touch with nature as well as family. This because of how parents want to keep their children
Railroads have made better the lives of most citizens in the US. By the 1890s, the United States was becoming an urban nation , railroads were a great way of transport between towns. They were used for the shipping of food, building materials and fuel. The presence of them could bring a territory a lot of opportunities as well as it could change its economy in many ways. Railroads also helped to shape physically the growth of towns and also a lot business grew around focal points in the railroad industry. Later on, the United States transport system was composed by 320,000 kilometers of railroads that prolonged from the Pacific to the Atlantic and vice versa and also connecting with the frontier countries, Mexico and Canada.
Executive Summary Every 60 seconds, an animal is abused. Dogs, cats, horses, and many other types of animals are being neglected and tortured everyday, yet resulting in few and minor consequences for the perpetrators. Animal abuse is prevalent in the United States and has been an ongoing issue since the 1970's, and prior to. Society as a whole has chosen to avoid the facts and arguments about animal cruelty, because to some it is seen as acceptable and typical. It becomes much more frowned upon when people actually see the results of the cruelty, especially in the media.
There are various influences on everyone’s lives while growing up. I believe the greatest of these influences is the neighborhood you grew up in. I grew up in a quite large, welcoming neighborhood. While living in this neighborhood, I was outgoing and remarkably talkative. Making friends became second nature to me. Playing outdoors from sunrise to sundown playing sports or exploring the outdoors with my friends became a daily routine for me. I was outgoing, talkative, and active. I believe this is the result of the neighborhood I grew up in.