Friday 27th October

Film Club Halloween Party!
A very spooky time for all in the haunted house in Melton Constable. Schedule as follows, although please note, Ghostbusters was replaced with Most Haunted....

7pm Spooky welcomes and a thorough examination of each other’s attire. There will also be an opportunity to explore the House of Horrors

7.10pm The Cornishes present their latest hairy offspring – Tamsin the witches cat. She will be encouraged to mount a broomstick but will more likely flee to the highest turret of the house


7.20pm Special flag parade will commence accompanied by, for one night only, the Monster Mash

7.30pm Food! Jacket potatoes straight from the fires of Hell with toxic punch and party pudding to follow

8.15pm While the poisonous food is being digested, guests will sit in a pow wow formation and regale each other with ghost stories. This is probably accompanied by a steaming mug of tea – every type available – even Earl Grey!

8.45pm Time for the party games! As many as we have time for, including: Monster Charades, Apple Bobbing, Create a Monster, Devilish Donut Eating, Pin the Wart on the Witch and Hide and Shriek

10pm By this time, the cloak of darkness should have well and truly fallen so spooky guests can go out amongst the vegetable patch to collect vegetation and wildlife to use in their next batch of potions
10.15pm Relax in front of one of the greatest and scariest horror films ever made. The mighty Ghostbusters! Praise bestowed on Bill Murray. And if this is not enough scary viewing we can top up our levels with some Most Haunted

Late Diaries out to plan the next FC date of a non-Halloween nature

Even later Goodbyes and Bon Voyage to the Cornishes. The Headlands can’t wait for their documentary film presentation……
Drive safely on your way home and don’t run out of gas!
























Nick's ghost story (Read by Simon)

I was walking home one night just before daybreak down through the wide tree lined avenues behind the Unthank road. Everything was still, save for a slight chilly breeze rustling and detaching the dead autumn leaves in the trees. There were certainly no people around; it was too early for the milk man. It wasn’t too far to get home, and I was already sobered up and needing my bed. I could have done with more sufficient clothing, because the cold air was making me shiver.

Some way up ahead, I saw a figure crossing the road, and it entered a drive way on the side where I was walking. It was decidedly odd, tall and terribly thin, it seemed stiff and walked in an awkward lolloping movement. It was silhouetted in the half-light, and so I couldn’t make out any distinguishing features, just its unusual form. As I approached the spot where the beech head ended, and opened to the driveway I could hear a soft crackling noise like snapping twigs. It seemed very odd, and I was immediately wary so I crossed to the opposite side of the road, and as I passed I glanced into the gateway where the figure had walked.

The figure was there, and horror struck me as I knew immediately that it wasn’t human. It was unnaturally thin, spidery, and jet black so there were no features, almost like a stick man, solid and real but not quite three-dimensional. Its arms hung down to its knees, and it was crossing towards the front door of the house, in a creepy dancing movement. It didn’t seem aware that I was there, and so I walked on as quietly as I could, then I started to gradually speed up, and get faster as the fear filled me and I hit a run towards home as fast as I could.

I turned into College road, where it is narrower, with terraced houses and endless parked cars on either side. I dared not turn around, or slow down, but I was running short of breath and energy. Through my heart-beat pounding in my ears I thought I could hear a crackling from somewhere, I could feel that it was behind me, and blind panic entered me. Self preservation took over and before I knew it I had bolted a couple of hundred yards and was outside my own house. As I fumbled for the key I glanced back down the road, I think I saw it there, I don’t know though.

I slammed the door quickly after me, and the Yale lock snapped reassuringly into place, as I entered the dark hall. I unlocked my own door, and entered my ground floor bed sit. Again I shut the door firmly but I didn’t switch the light on, I didn’t want to give myself away, I dashed over and pulled the curtains shut around the big front bay window, jumped into bed and hid underneath the duvet. I couldn’t sleep, and I couldn’t get the eerie image of the stick man out of my head.

The sun came up and dim light grew stronger in my room. Everything was still quiet, and I wanted to put on the TV, and hope that Saturday morning cartoons would help to dispel the nightmare. I prised myself from under the duvet and sat up, through the thin curtains reassuring sunlight left a shadow of the thin framework of panes. As I stood up, the shadow on the curtains moved at an odd angle, and I was frozen with fear as a black stick-like figure slipped between the curtains, and came towards me. I couldn’t scream as it bore down on me, and I felt cold smooth limbs touch me, before I lost consciousness.



Sarah's ghost story (read by Sarah)

I once knew a very lonely, unhappy man called Harry Jacobs. He had no family, no friends, no girlfriend, and he had a miserable job in a miserable little factory. He would get up, go to work, come home and go to bed. At weekends, he could sit in his cramped flat reading dull book after dull book.

He was very unhappy, but he had no idea how to make his life any better.

Then, one day, while he was at work in his miserable little factory, doing his miserable little job, he noticed a new worker at the machine next to him. He looked up - and saw that she was a very pretty woman. He caught her eye, but looked away again very quickly. He was very embarrassed.

He saw the woman every day, but Harry could never pluck up the courage to talk to her. She would look at him and smile, but as soon as their eyes met, he would look away.

One day, Harry went to get a cup of tea from the canteen. The strange woman was there too, and Harry accidentally brushed her hand when he reached for some sugar. He was very embarrassed, but the woman smiled at him, and said hello. He relaxed and allowed himself to smile back. Very soon, the pair were chatting, and they chatted for so long that they were late back from their break.

Every day, they would go for lunch together, and they soon found they had lots in common and became firm friends.

Harry was over the moon - it was the first time a woman had ever taken an interest in him. Suddenly his miserable little life wasn’t so miserable after all.

Harry and Rachel, for that was her name, soon started spending their weekends together. It turned out that Rachel didn’t have any family either, so they kept each other company and had some great times together. They went bowling, to the cinema, out for meals, and even to the local discotheque. With Rachel at his side, Harry began to enjoy his life, and lived it to the full, something he had never done before. He was always smiling.

Rachel and Harry grew closer and closer, and as time went on, they realised they were madly in love with each other. When Harry proposed, Rachel cried tears of joy, and the two of them vowed they would never spend another minute apart for as long as they lived.

When the big day finally came, Rachel and Harry were the happiest people in the world. They both beamed from ear to ear as Rachel made her way down the aisle in her beautiful wedding dress. And while neither of them had any family or friends to share their joy, they didn’t mind - they had each other, and that was all that mattered.

After they said their vows, they made their way to the canal, where they had hired a boat for their honeymoon. Harry carried his new wife across the wooden plank to board the boat, and her eyes lit up when she saw that he had set up a romantic candlelit dinner for two. They toasted each other, called each Mr and Mrs Jacobs, and spent a very romantic wedding night together before heading off to the bedroom together, giddy on champagne. Harry and Rachel had never been happier.

That night a storm blew up. Rachel, still intoxicated with champagne and happiness and too happy to sleep, got up, and went outside to sit on the bow. The wind whipped up violently round the boat, while the thunder roared and the lightning lit up the night sky. Suddenly, a strong gust caught Rachel off guard, and she lost her balance. She toppled over the edge into the black water below. Screaming, she tried to grab a hold of the boat, but the strong wind and currents pulled her further away.

Harry woke up, hearing the storm raging outside the cabin. Reaching out, he realised Rachel was missing and got up to find her. He heard faint screams coming from outside, and raced to the door. Outside, he could just see Rachel’s arms reaching for him out of the darkness. He couldn’t get to her, he couldn’t reach far enough to pull her to safety and she was being swept further and further away.

There was nothing for it. He dived into the freezing cold water. Battling the wind and the lashing rain, he tried to reach his wife. He managed to grab her, and his fingers gripped her tiny wrist. He used all his strength to pull her towards him, and reach safety, but just then lighting struck a nearby tree, and it came crashing down into the water. It hit Harry on the head, and he plunged unconscious into the black water. Still clinging onto Rachel’s arm, he dragged her with him.

In the morning, the locals discovered their battered boat, but could get no answer when they knocked on the door. A few miles down the river, a policeman was called when their two bodies were pulled from the water. They were still clinging onto each other, even in death.

But while their bodies were pulled out of the river, their spirits remained, tormented by the happiness they had recently discovered, that was cruelly snatched away so soon.

Every year, on their wedding anniversary, that stretch of canal is haunted by an eerie flickering boat filled with candlelit and the sound of champagne glasses chinking. The happy couple in their wedding finery enjoy a pleasant evening in each other’s company as the boat sails quietly by. A storm blows up, and an eerie but beautiful woman in a fading wedding dress comes outside, where she is suddenly blown overboard to her death. Her husband follows her out and re-enacts his brave attempts to save her, but he too ends up plunging deep into the water, no chance to escape.

You will never see any other boats on that stretch of river on that night of the year. Only the very brave or very stupid will ever sail on July 15th. One foolhardy man who did was also caught up in a violent storm, and after trying to repair a hole in his boat, also met with a watery grave. Nobody knows whether it was just a very strange coincidence, or whether Rachel and Harry had exacted their revenge for an unwelcome disturbance. But nobody has disturbed them since, and no-one would be silly enough to venture out in a boat on that day, and watch as the eerie boats sails quietly by in the pouring rain, its two ghostly companions clinging to each other, battling for their lives.