MovieChat Forums > FreakyLinks (2000) Discussion > 'Supernatural' connection.

'Supernatural' connection.


I always felt like the "Supernatural" episode 'Hell House' was a straight-up homage to Freakylinks.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0763064/

In a nutshell, a guy who worked at a record store & dressed in great retro clothes-- reminiscent of Derek Barnes-- made up his own urban legend about a farmer who supposedly killed his daughters and now haunts his abandoned farmhouse. The guy even went so far as to paint phony 'Satanic' symbols all over the walls, and would take people to the "haunted farmhouse" to prank them. The ghost story got mnentioned online on a ghost-hunting website-- uh, huh-- which caused the farmer's "ghost" to be generated into actual existence, by widespread belief in the story.

This episode introduced the characters known as the 'Ghostfacers', a couple of guys who ran a paranormal website... very similar in tone to the Freakylinks idea. But I also think the whole plot of the episode-- a 'fake' ghost story on the internet, that becomes real due to people's belief in it--- seems like a strong homage to Haxan Films' use of mock-reality in projects like 'Freakylinks' and 'The Blair Witch Project', and how the character 'Derek' seemed real to so many of us thru our interactions on the Freakylinks site.

There's even a scene in the basement, where Dean picks up an old jar full of what are probably rotten preserves, and asks Sam, "Do you dare me to taste this?" which reminded ME, at least, of the scene in the FL episode "Sunrise at Sunset Streams" where Derek Barnes tastes a jar filled with putrid liquid and briefly turns partially 'skunk ape'.

Also.. in the 'Hell House' episode, the "Ghostfacers" had a poster on their wall for the film 'Coven'-- 'Coven' is an independent horror film made by Mark Borchardt-- who was also the star of the documentary 'American Movie'.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0225434/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181288/?ref_=nm_knf_t1

Lemme tell ya, tho..... 'American Movie' has been called a "reverse Blair Witch Project" -- on the basis that the 'Blair Witch Project' was a fictional "mockumentary" but a lot of people believed it was 'real'.... whereas "American Movie" is real but a lot of people believed it was a mockumentary.

This always seemed like some kind of meta joke.

Anyway... the Ghostfacers became breakout characters, made a couple more appearances in 'Supernatural' and had their own webisodes; which I think at the very least, proves that Freakylinks could have had popularity on the web even without the Fox/television portion.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1647865/?ref_=nv_sr_1


Sometimes fires don't go out when you're done playin' with them.

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