'Uncanny USA' Ends With A Terrifying Bang At 'Arthur's House'
Photo: © Brett Sayles
Danny Robins is back with the final episode of the latest series of 'Uncanny'. Over the last nine episodes, Danny has been investigating cases across the US, and in this week's episode entitled 'Arthur's House', available now on BBC Sounds, Danny dives into a chilling account from Montecito, California. The episode kicks off with a call from his old friend, Sarah, detailing a terrifying experience she had while staying at her cousin Kerrie's house.
Sarah recounted her unsettling encounter from 2015 when she stayed at her cousin Kerrie's guest house. She described being woken in the early hours by loud footsteps. "It sounded very much like a big man who wasn't aware that there was someone else in the house," Sarah explained. Initially thinking it was another guest, she tried to announce her presence by coughing, but received no response. The footsteps continued unabated.
Despite her efforts to investigate, she found no one in the house. Sarah shared, "I circled the house, checked the doors and the windows to make sure I hadn't left it open, and there was no one around." The next day, she was shocked to find the room next to hers, where she heard the footsteps, was filled with storage boxes and clearly not habitable.
Sarah's curiosity led her to speak to Kerrie, who initially denied any guests were present. However, Kerrie's friend Rachel later revealed, "Oh, that's the ghost. Did Kerrie not tell you there's a ghost in the house?" Kerrie eventually admitted to Sarah that she deliberately withheld this information to avoid scaring her. Kerrie confessed to hearing the footsteps frequently and even seeing the ghost several times.
Danny travelled to Montecito to interview Kerrie, who described her first night in the house, hearing footsteps echoing through the hallway. "It sounds like someone is walking up and down the hallway," she said, echoing Sarah's experience. Kerrie often sees a slender, dark shadowy figure of a man, whom she believes to be Arthur Grant, the home's original builder.
Kerrie elaborated on her encounters with Arthur, detailing an especially unnerving experience where she woke to find him standing over her, uttering a menacing, "You bitch." Despite these frightening incidents, Kerrie insists that most of her experiences with Arthur are neutral.
Jameson, Kerrie's husband, shared his own encounters, despite being a skeptic. He recounted seeing shapes and feeling the presence of someone in their room. "Several times, in the bedroom that's up this hallway, I've been woken up with a sensation of someone walking in the room and looking at me," he said. Kerrie also described a disturbing event where she saw what she thought was Jameson entering their bedroom, only to find him still in bed beside her.
The episode concludes with Kerrie and Jameson showing Danny a hidden piece of history. Behind a 1960s medicine cabinet in their bathroom, they discovered a piece of paper pinned to the wall, signed "Arthur Grant 1956." Despite everything, they chose to leave it in place out of respect for Arthur.
What The Experts Think
Danny is joined by paranormal podcaster Jeff Belanger and psychologist Professor Chris French, who give their analysis. Jeff, representing the believer's perspective, highlights the significance of having multiple witnesses. "When it's multiple people, that certainly adds a lot of gravity to the situation," Jeff notes, stressing that the pristine, luxurious setting of Montecito makes it an unlikely backdrop for fear-induced hallucinations. He acknowledges the compelling nature of the witnesses' consistent experiences, especially given the upscale environment that typically wouldn't heighten one's fear levels.
Chris, a regular on 'Uncanny' and a skeptic, brings attention to the psychological phenomenon of memory conformity. He explains, "When two people think that they're having the same kind of experience, and they talk about it, one person's account can actually influence another person's memory." This suggests that shared paranormal experiences might sometimes be the result of influenced memories rather than actual occurrences.
Jeff considers the possibility that Kerrie may have unwittingly summoned Arthur Grant's spirit. Reflecting on her memories of Arthur as an annoyed neighbour during her teenage years, he speculates, "Kerrie summoned the spirit of Arthur Grant. She called to him, remembering this imposing figure next door." This idea posits that the haunting is a continuation of their past interactions, brought to the present by Kerrie's recollections.
Chris suggests that some of Kerrie's experiences could be attributed to sleep paralysis, a condition where individuals are conscious but unable to move and often hallucinate figures. He notes, "When I heard about this incident where she feels that Arthur is looming over her in bed, that immediately brought to mind sleep paralysis." This explanation offers a possible non-paranormal cause for some of the nighttime disturbances Kerrie described.
Jeff finds Sarah's experience particularly intriguing because she was fully awake when she heard the footsteps. He appreciates her logical initial assumption that another guest must have been in the house, only to find the room unoccupied and filled with storage. "That just makes this case even more compelling," Jeff remarks, as it aligns with the typical investigative approach of ruling out mundane explanations before considering paranormal ones.
Both experts weigh in on the chilling incident where Kerrie heard Arthur call her a derogatory term. Jeff believes this marks an escalation in the haunting's intensity, while Chris considers it a manifestation of Kerrie's subconscious fears. "The very fact that she finds the word so shocking means that it's a salient word for her," Chris explains, suggesting that the mind can conjure its worst fears during episodes of sleep paralysis or nightmares.
You can listen to this episode in full plus the full 'Uncanny' archive, which is available BBC Sounds now.
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