GETTING READY FOR HALLOWEEN WITH THE HAUNTED HOUSEWIVES (TISH & LILY)

So who's ready for Halloween? We definitely are over here in the After Hours! 

Join me as I sit down with Tish and Lily of The Haunted Housewives as they talk about some of their favorite haunted attractions, some Halloween nostalgia, paranormal experiences and more!

Follow them on all their socials:

@hauntedhousewives (IG)
 ‎⁨@HauntedhousewiveswithTishandLi⁩  (YOUTUBE)
 @haunteshousewiveswithtishandlily (Tiktok)

#spookyseason #hauntedhousewives #spookyvibes #halloweenvibes #allreadyforhalloween

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:18

Well, hey there, and welcome to another after hours chat. Tiffany here, and I am with two very lovely ladies that I met at Surprise Surprise. Castle Blood. I mean, I seem to be meeting all kinds of spooky kids at Castle Blood. I met Hannah there. I met you guys. I mean, it's like Castle Blood's been bringing the spooky kids together since like the beginning of time.

SPEAKER_02 0:48

So it's like Bronze in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's where all the spooky kids go to hang out.

SPEAKER_03 0:57

Yes, exactly. So, but I am here with the very infamous Haunted Housewives. And yeah, you might see them at your local haunted attractions, and they do all kinds of uh cool, spooky things on their channel. So I would love for you guys to maybe introduce because I don't want to speak for you guys, so I would love to maybe for you guys to introduce yourselves and tell a little bit about what it is that you do.

SPEAKER_02 1:30

So we have personas that we developed years ago. I'm Tish. I'm Lily, and we're haunted house. Yes. What we do is we visit a wide range of haunted attractions. Uh started primarily in the Pittsburgh area, but has expanded to Ohio, West Virginia, Michigan. Um we we've gone a little bit further afield. And our goal is to first of all let people know about the amazing variety of attractions that are out there, the artistry that goes into them.

SPEAKER_03 2:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:21

And also to give people a kind of you are there experience to write reviews that try that try to convey the vibe.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

The vibe.

SPEAKER_04 2:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Our experience there and what it will feel like to be there.

SPEAKER_03 2:38

Oh, I love it. Yeah, and you guys do really, I mean, your reviews are very well done. I've uh taken a look at some of them, and yeah, and we had a chance to go through the uh Castle Blood Summer Ween uh Summer Ween event together um with like us and Hannah. And yeah, it was just such such a fun time. And you know, it's always it's always great to meet other people that enjoy Halloween and all that stuff as much as you do.

SPEAKER_02 3:10

So but um yes, yeah, that was that was such a fun night because we were all, I think, on the same wavelength. We were all playing along, we were enjoying performances, we were learning the thriller dance.

SPEAKER_03 3:25

Yeah, we yeah, I taught you guys the thriller dance. Yeah, I taught you, yeah. So but but yeah, hey, we did a hey, it was it was pretty good for just having thrown it together at the last second. So true.

SPEAKER_02 3:39

Your audience needs to know that you are an actual dancer, as well as an actual singer and performer. And then there are those of us who use, you know, the paper rolls in our bedrooms to pretend to do that stuff.

SPEAKER_03 3:58

That's fun though. Now, um, how long have you guys been doing this for? And what was the first haunted attraction that you visited and reviewed and thought, hey, you know what? We'd like to make this a regular thing.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

Well, we've been doing this since 2016. So 10 years. Yeah. Um what's the first one we went to specifically? We talked a lot about it. We we used to talk about how much we loved Fall and how much we loved Halloween, and we loved haunted houses when we were young. And she said we should go because our kids were becoming of the age where they wanted to go, yeah, they're kind of scared and they didn't know.

SPEAKER_02 4:46

They were ask us, they they wanted trusted guides to go through the haunted houses or uh so we started going because our kids were interested, and I think um I I think probably that first season we hit I want to say the Scare House. Yes, okay and 100 acres and Castle Blood. I'm trying to think where else we probably went that first year. Um maybe maybe Haunted Hills Estate, maybe Demon House.

SPEAKER_03 5:26

Oh, okay, yeah, those are good ones. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:30

So we we we went to a handful of places to kind of give a preview to our kids. Okay. And I think that that I think it started out with us uh trying to pay attention to the details because we knew what our kids would ask. Oh, okay. But also, um, I think one of the things that we found was we grew up in in different places in western Pennsylvania, but we both grew up as as as spooky girls and we loved haunted houses.

SPEAKER_03 6:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:06

So visiting haunted attractions really just it brought back that spark.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

Hey, yeah, I was worried that everyone there was going to be so much younger than us. I'm like, we're we're gonna look so stupid because it's been so long. We we found out that like people of all ages go oh yeah first year, or I guess before before we started doing reviews. I was like, I I don't know. I feel like there's gonna be a bunch of kids in us, and it didn't end up being that way, but I was really worried that's what was gonna happen.

SPEAKER_02 6:43

I mean, there have been a couple times where we were definitely older, and then we've had a couple of 13-year-olds holding on, I'm gonna scream and traumatize you.

SPEAKER_03 6:59

Yeah, and like what made you actually want to make this like a regular thing and like creating content out of it?

SPEAKER_02 7:07

Um part of it was we wanted to do we wanted to do narratives, we wanted to tell stories about the haunted attractions that we went to. And we wanted to do that particular kind of reviewer walkthrough where we created a story out of it. Um and part of it was it was just so much fun. It was, yeah. It was it it was it it was it was like a healthy addiction.

SPEAKER_01 7:45

You start and you just want to keep doing and we could do more, we could do this, we could make videos about it, we could write about it. Yeah, we just kept doing more and more. It was so much fun.

SPEAKER_03 7:57

Yeah, and people like kept on, you know, visiting and reading, and it just kind of took off from there.

SPEAKER_01 8:03

We were very encouraged by everyone. Yeah, yes.

SPEAKER_03 8:06

Oh, that's awesome! I love it, yeah, because I always love hearing about how like fellow spooky content creators end up getting involved and how what made them want to be like, hey, you know what? I think I'd like to actually make this a regular thing instead of just like a one-off when, you know, or just kind of privately visiting it throughout the year. It's like, hey, you know, put your put your weirdness on display.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

Yeah, and it and it can be hard too, because we both have jobs where we weren't sure how they were gonna react to what we so you know, it was it was a worry for us, and I think it is for a lot of people when they have um we're big believers in follow like do what you love to do, do your follow your hobbies, spend time and spend money on your hobbies, like yeah, you know, like it it makes life so much better.

SPEAKER_03 9:03

Yeah, yeah, I agree, I agree, yeah. I because it's unfortunate that so many people, because I um I actually had on, I did an episode with uh John Ward, who's a he's a horror author, and how uh we were talking about about how you know, because he was talking about how when he was a kid he really he wanted to be a writer. But then of course, as you grow up, like once you hit junior high in high school, it's like when it's like when you're a kid, people are encouraging your imagination, your creativity, your art. But then it just seems like as you get like older and into high school and everything, then they're like, no, you gotta be serious and forgetting about all that.

SPEAKER_02 9:48

Do something practical.

SPEAKER_03 9:52

But you see, here's the thing: if people actually are encouraged to hone their creativity from a young age and are also on top of that, given um the business strat, like the business side of it, the business strategies, and like learning how you can actually possibly do it for a living, or even just a partial living. It's like how much happier would people be?

SPEAKER_02 10:19

Exactly. I think that one of the things that we really discovered for the first couple of years we were doing this was the importance of of joy.

SPEAKER_04 10:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:34

Doing something because you love it and conveying that love to other people. Yes. You you might you might love it. You might learn something new about yourself and about you if you just try it. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 10:54

Yeah. No, I I totally, I'm, I'm totally on board with that. You know, never that's the thing. Never be afraid to try new things, never be afraid to take take risks. I'm not saying go and you know, put your entire livelihood on the line. But yeah, just big disclaimer. I'm not saying just go out willy-nilly and just put your entire livelihood on the line, right? But maybe start putting a little bit of a plan in place and just start brainstorming and thinking about, you know, what is it that really gives me joy? What is it that really makes me feel fulfilled? And just start to maybe carefully like put something together, something of a plan together, something you can pursue. And I mean chances.

SPEAKER_02 11:53

Put yourself out there. Our our unofficial motto is probably let's see what happens.

SPEAKER_03 11:59

Hey, there you go. There you go. Yeah, I mean, I understand, yeah, you have to do be practical about it, especially in uh in today's world. But at the same time, but I think as long as you have you know your ducks in a row and you're uh you're a plan, you you care, you know how to carefully plan things out, maybe take a business course or something just to learn the business, because there's always a business end of anything artistic. And I know sometimes us artistic types were allergic to things like that, but it's still important to know. And once you and I found that once I started really learning the business end of things, it's all it almost becomes fun. It's like its own art.

SPEAKER_02 12:46

So yeah, we've learned so much through doing this. You know, every every season there's something new that we learn about not just not just going through a haunted attraction and observing and writing it up, but but um interviews, videos, um publicity, just getting stuff out there. Yeah it's it's exciting to realize you can learn new stuff right about as well.

SPEAKER_03 13:22

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And do you have a favorite Halloween memory, whether it's from your childhood, your adulthood, since we're kind of in the approaching Halloween season, we're past July 4th, and now we're kind of getting into that spooky season. So, what's your favorite spooky season memory?

SPEAKER_00 13:50

Whoever wants to go first.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

I will start. So, one of the funny things that we talk often about what got us interested in it, and and hers is very obvious. And I don't know, I'm sure she'll talk about it later. Yeah, I don't know exactly where mine started, honestly. I know I I I can't remember a time when I didn't love haunted houses and spooky things, but I don't know where it began. I do know we were just talking about this. Um, when I was young, I I don't I don't know, maybe 10, 11 it started. My mom offered every Halloween season, she would take me and a friend to a bunch of different haunted houses in the area on one. And it was such an odd thing for her to offer because she was not that mom that's like, I'm gonna drive you places, I'm gonna take you. She was definitely not so. I don't know if I somehow conveyed how much I love this. What happened, but she would offer every year, and that is like a core memory for me. Um, you know, picking a friend and you know, going to like three or four haunted houses, whatever weren't too far. Not gonna drive far. Yeah, and it was just so much fun. I loved it so much. And I remember one time we went, there was one where like she dropped us off in it, wasn't Scare House, but it was another place where you took a shuttle from a parking lot to the haunts.

SPEAKER_03 15:21

Okay, kind of like Demon House, a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

It was very similar, yeah. And we um my friend and I ended up we waited in line and then we went through twice without telling because we didn't have phones back then, so we went through twice because there were some cute boys in there. My mom was so mad, like, where were you guys? But like it was just so much fun and such a like it's such a core memory of the season. Um, but until I got to like somewhere in high school, I ran out of friends who wanted to do it. Okay, yeah. They were just like, no, they didn't like scary things, or that that's for kids, they didn't really do it. That's no fun. It was sad, yeah. And I had to wait all this time to wait to find someone else to do this with.

SPEAKER_02 16:20

So I grew up in a spooky family. Oh nice. My my grandmother made Halloween costumes for me every year. So we would start in August and we would whatever I was going to be, and go to the fabric store, and she'd find a pattern and should modify it so I could be, you know, whatever it was. Um, and my mother loved loved spooky stuff. Uh, I was I was just telling her earlier today, I have this vivid memory of being in my mom's kitchen while she was baking chocolate chip cookies and reciting the Raven. Ooh, I love it. Nice. Just I I don't think she was even necessarily saying it to me.

SPEAKER_03 17:08

She was just reciting it as she's kind of like this whole witchy making cookies. I'm gonna recite it for Alan Poe.

SPEAKER_02 17:19

Um, and I think you know, uh that it it was such a rich, fun part of growing up for me. Um I went to my first haunted house when I was eight years old. I was terrified.

SPEAKER_04 17:34

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:34

Um, I I ended up crying, and the guide had to carry me through the haunted. I was so scared. Um but I was so fascinated, and we did it because my mother loved that. And it's it's at this point we have an unbroken line of creepy women.

SPEAKER_03 18:01

Oh my gosh. Oh, that is awesome. Yeah, but uh, but that's so cool that you had that spooky family, so you got to so it's almost like they honed that for you.

SPEAKER_02 18:13

Yeah, I my mother really did. My father was very practical. He did not he did not like anything that was counter-pactual, unscientific, not oh.

SPEAKER_03 18:24

They were like opposite the tract, kind of they absolutely were.

SPEAKER_02 18:28

He liked all measurable stuff, but she loved gothic literature, she loved the Bronte's and Poe and uh Legend of Sleepy Hollow. So I grew up on that stuff, and I went away from it for a while, but this feels the the past decade or so feels very much like getting in touch with all of that childhood joy.

SPEAKER_03 18:59

Getting back to you, yeah, yeah, really. I love it, I love it. So now on your adventures, have you ever done anything paranormal, paranormal investigations?

SPEAKER_01 19:15

We've done some, yeah. Uh-huh. It's something we're interested in, and it's on our radar. Yeah. Um, we've gone to West Virginia Penitentiary. Um early on, we went, we did the like the North Walk, and then we did the had they have that the same night.

SPEAKER_02 19:33

Yeah. And so interesting because it's a it's a good haunted attraction, but you go into you go into that part of the prison where they had the most dangerous prisoners, and you can just oh my god, the way in the dungeon, like god, my chest feels so heavy.

SPEAKER_01 19:55

Like, uh, and I don't think anything has ever happened to us, but her daughter, yeah, my daughter came with her. Wow. She came with us once, and when they take you on the walk, they take you into Red's um cell.

unknown 20:15

Look at the food.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

That thing, yeah. I knew that wasn't right. And they're like, they're very much like, you know, you can walk into it if you want. So Red was he had killed someone, and he was in there for a long time, and he made people angry, like he he fought with people in the prison, and so he ended up getting stabbed 37 times in his cell, and he died there.

SPEAKER_03 20:46

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

So when you take the tour, they but he was protecting his 15-year-old sister. So when you take the tour, you can go into his cell, and they're like, You can lay on the cod, you can like walk in with her. And I was like, No, I'll just look from out here. We're present. And my daughter was like, she was a teenager at the time. She's like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go in. And she felt like like a person, like it was somebody grabbing, like just kind of touching her arm. Oh wow, there, like in a very protective way, like someone would like kind of guide you and touch your your elbow. And that's what we didn't even know about him protecting his teenage sister at the time. And that's when we found out, well, that makes sense that Red would do that because he is protecting his sister, and that's how he ended up being her, and she's around the same age as my daughter. Yeah, that is like a crazy experience. And the whole place is like so, but like having somebody, it's it's like in the it's in stone, it's in the bridge. Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:55

Oh wow, I love it. Yeah, and now have you guys ever in your life had paranormal experience even if it wasn't on an investigation.

SPEAKER_02 22:06

Um so when uh when I was pregnant um my husband and I went up to uh Fort George uh in Niagara and they uh they they took us on a a a tour of the fort which has been rebuilt um everything had been destroyed and they they reconstructed everything and it it's a great tour. Yeah last stop on the tour was what had been um the arsenal it was underground and there were you know little slits up along the top wall so it's it's it's sort of horror and then you go underground. Um and the guide tells you about you know people who had died there during the War of the 12th and our guide said just so you know what this was like I'm going to turn off my flashlight okay off the flashlight and there's a group of I would say eight to ten of us standing there in the dark. Okay yeah and it's it's weighty the shadows have weight um finally he he turns on his flashlight he says I'm going to lead you out I need you to hold on to each other as you're leaving okay so my husband's ahead of me and I held on to him and I feel someone holding on to the back of my shirt someone grabs the back of my shirt okay and is holding on firmly as we walk out dark and I can't see we walk out of uh out of this little embankment and we're standing there sort of in the setting sun I am the last person out there is nothing behind me yeah oh my gosh something was holding something was holding on to you oh my goodness oh yeah wow I mean wait I went to a college that was supposed to be haunted so there were a million stories about the place but yeah the first time I think that I'd had anything that uh tangible happen.

SPEAKER_03 24:30

Yeah oh my God who was holding on to me wow yeah so uh like what about you anything else like any any experiences I don't think so nothing I can you're inviting it in right now you're inviting we're going to go out this season and the ghosts are all oh my god right right and then and then we'll have to like do another another we'll be like hey follow up hey yeah well what's your um do you have like a favorite ghost story or a favorite uh urban legend that really kind of makes you stop and go like ooh yeah that's kind of creepy or I wonder if that's true or that would be creepy if that were true.

SPEAKER_01 25:26

My favorite Pittsburgh ghost story has to do with a house on North Avenue that was supposed to be cursed over on the north side oh actually it's Ridge sorry it was supposed to be on the corner of Ridge Avenue okay and it uh it was a story that I heard uh during a ghost walk when I first moved to Pittsburgh uh there was supposedly supposedly a mansion that was built on the corner of Ridge heading down towards the rivers it was built by a carpet bagger who had he went down south after the Civil War made a ton of money off of um reconstruction and he brought back a Creole bride okay and she did not fit in in Pittsburgh in 1870 right lonely and the story went that he was amassing more and more money she's this big old house by herself um they have a couple of children yeah she is isolated her people aren't around she looks different she sounds different wealthy Pittsburghers are not exactly you know welcoming her in right yeah and he hires a nanny for the children and she begins to suspect that there's something going on with the nanny one day he comes home late from his office and he hears his wife upstairs singing he goes upstairs and he finds her in a rocking chair in the nursery and she's holding something in her arms singing and the ghost story says that what she was holding in her arms oh was the nanny's head oh my gosh and that the head was singing back to her oh my goodness wow it's it I think as far as anybody can tell the story is just pure like Pittsburgh urban legend but yeah it's so it's so atmospheric and if you go over to the north side you look at those old houses you know right yeah that could that could be right it's possible I think that could be that could be plausible up until the part where the head right body heads you know maybe not yeah oh my gosh so that's my yeah yeah oh my gosh like you've talked about the the the green man in the tunnel I we have talked about lots of things but I can't I don't remember it enough to like tell a story about it. Well you don't have to tell the whole story you can just say like there are lots of yeah lots of urban legends in Pittsburgh and when you initially started talking because there's a whole story about a house on a hill but like a bunch of people get killed in it. It's like a um it's from one of those books. Oh is that the Brownsville Road maybe the demon house at Brownsville Road maybe it's it's but I thought it was like a like somebody pretended to be a doctor but they weren't really a doctor and they were just killing people and then they ended up finding a bunch of bodies there's so many books like it it's something that that's another thing we thought of doing because we read a couple books about legends in Pittsburgh and like different things that happened and we're like we should read them and like do little videos about them or something.

SPEAKER_03 29:30

Yeah yeah I mean why not that's like extra content right there while we're eagerly awaiting haunted house season right such fertile ground for it.

SPEAKER_02 29:44

I mean if again like if you go over to the north side the the whole park yeah was part of a Civil War field hospital.

SPEAKER_03 29:54

That was it was a place where they brought um confederate soldiers and just spread them out where the park is now so yeah it's something yeah and bad vibes everywhere yeah and the thing is it's like well even in like the North Hills Allison Park and that general area North Park Irwin Road or Blue Mist Road I've done a few videos on that yeah and there's there's so much there and it's almost like even though Irwin Road is just this little sliver there's there's so much that is supposedly on that road you can't possibly get it all in one trip.

SPEAKER_02 30:38

Yeah you know and you start to think about places that draw that kind of energy yeah how it perpetuates.

SPEAKER_03 30:48

Yeah and uh and I and I ask this of a lot of my guests on here um on what your theories or and you know opinions are on the paranormal like do you think it's like residual energy or actual human spirits or demonic entities I mean I tend to think it's all of the above depending on the situation. What do you guys think?

SPEAKER_01 31:17

I know it's so funny because I was just like yeah like I'm such an air sign like yes all of it I for sure I I I try to make myself feel better by like I don't know about the demons because like I I also you know have anxiety about stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 31:36

Yeah yeah after watching poltergeist and exorcist as a child it you know shaped a lot of things for me it was very scary and and honestly being forced to go to Catholic churches at a very young age they scare you they're like hell you're if you lie to your mother you're going to hell and I'd be like oh my gosh oh my gosh I better just sit here and do nothing and that's delight about having gum today and now I'm going to be Reagan like I go back and forth a little bit with like is it like the person's spirit is it residual energy right it maybe I tend to think it is a combination like I mean we're both we're both theater moms our our our our our our daughters are theater people and every theater has a ghost story.

SPEAKER_03 32:38

Oh gosh yeah every theater has a ghost story yeah I tend to think that that's because you know you're you're feeling these strong emotions you're performing these strong emotions and you you leave an imprint it stays there yeah but then there then there are stories that seem to go beyond just imprints yeah yeah I agree because as a theater person myself I also tend to think too that a lot of theaters have their ghosts and yeah you're feeling all of those emotions but a lot of theaters number one are super old and number two a lot of the time you're performing pieces written by somebody who has long passed on and I think that that can also draw in that that person's energy that right that playwright's energy if they you know if they have passed on and I also think that that you that's a thing too and and even sometimes though if you look into some of the histories of those theaters a lot of crazy stuff happens.

SPEAKER_02 33:59

Isn't um I think it's the Chicago theater where there was a catastrophic fire and if you go there they still warn you about ghosts that will try to push you down the stairs rather than they're trying they're still trying to escape.

SPEAKER_03 34:17

Because they're trying to escape they're trying to be like hey come on let's go this place is on fire. But yeah yeah it's I love old buildings I'm such a history person and I've spent a good portion of my time since I'm also into living history and reenactment as well I spent a good portion of my time at history sites and I I've experienced stuff uh especially if you go to Gettysburg oh yeah yeah yeah yeah I I love Gettysburg because you go there to visit and even the most practical person there is like yeah there was a ghost in my apartment yeah yeah um yeah we were there my husband and I went there a couple years ago um and we were talking to a woman who's she's a realtor she's you know the most practical sunny outgoing person and she talked about uh renting a haunted apartment to to a guy who ended up being unable to stay there because the ghosts were so active but every yeah yeah soldiers civilians yeah there's ghosts yeah yeah yeah well I've even heard uh that to the locals it's just every day like if you go like like at you know the schools in Gettysburg it's not uncommon to see an apparition walk right through your classroom in the middle of class and it almost doesn't really phase anybody just because it's like hey we live in a haunted town we're used to it and it's the tourists that are like oh my gosh this is so exciting you know or so spooky and like the locals are just kind of like yeah it's kind of everyday life for us we see a soldier walk through the room a civilian kind of sitting in the corner over there it's yeah you know every day. Did you ever do a reenactment that awakened anything that got a response from oh I see I don't know if I ever did that however uh there's this one house in uh Bridgeville uh Pennsylvania the John Nebble House and I've mentioned it in passing uh before but there's a lot of activity in that house because I've I've spent a lot of time in that house a lot of time by myself in that house uh doing historical like reenactment and tours and all of that and I've heard all kinds of things in there I've felt all kinds of things in there um from the basic hearing somebody cough to actually hearing somebody having a conversation with me when I was by myself and there was nobody else in you know it there was nobody else in in the house and it was actually um it actually happened during Christmas time not Halloween time Christmas time and we were decorating for Christmas tours and uh one of the ladies on the board was helping me but she left and I stayed behind just to finish up a couple of things and then I was going to uh leave and you know go home and so she so she leaves and I'm just putting the finishing touches on and I hear from the door the entrance somebody yell into me and and I go and I and I and I go I was like oh like did you forget something and so I went to the door there was nobody there and I and I stuck my head out into the you know to look into the parking lot my car was the only one there I was like oh yeah yeah and it was yeah and well because that that house has been around since the American Revolution it's it it had its first building in the Americ during the American Revolution and then it's been added on through the years uh but there were like four or five generations of family living in there so there there's a lot of activity and yeah like there's I I've I've had experiences there and um and then there's another uh one up in Allison Park that I also work with the Depreciation Lands Museum they have a resident ghost called the Deacon but he's not yeah he's not malevolent or anything he's just appeared um he's just appeared around that area throughout the years and uh especially in the church that's up the road from the museum hence his name the deacon so uh but but yeah but there's there's definitely a few places that I like I said I I I'm not sure if my reenactment actually pulled on their their spirit but I've definitely had experiences at those places myself so yeah yeah yes so as far as um because we you know you mentioned movies the exorcist poltergeist uh do you have a favorite uh horror movie um and I'm actually gonna add to this what is your favorite horror movie of all time and your favorite horror movie that was released this year oh god oh oh what did what did we watch this year I do keep a list of list of all the stuff that needs to be um all right I love prepared I I will see uh some stuff outside of well while you're doing your research yes gosh it's so hard to to say favorite horror movie but um it is I'm going to say my favorite underrated horror movie is session nine okay I've not seen that what's that about I um it it hits on a bunch of my favorite topics it's a haunted asylum the story is about a man who runs a disaster remediation company and he is hired to strip all of the asbestos out of this old asylum.

SPEAKER_02 41:25

Okay and he drastically underbids the job drastically underbids it and finds himself trying to put together a crew of people who can just work around the clock for four or five days to get all of the asbestos out of this massive like Victorian heap of of stone so he's he's overworked he's sleep deprived and one of the workers finds a series of audio tapes that comes with a patient there to have been possessed who um killed his family while he was in the the grip of possession. And as this group of men are struggling with you know lack of sleep and hard physical labor they start to wonder if maybe there is something there. Okay. And it's it's the kind of movie that just it walks that line between psychological thriller and supernatural horror and does it really really well so you're never quite sure um it does kind of tip its hand at the end but you're never quite sure are they just tired and angry and stressed or is there hunting them as they're trying to do this impossible job. Just terrific atmospheric movie um if you've ever been to like Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum of this thing.

SPEAKER_03 43:27

Yeah I I should check that out yeah it's really good. Awesome yeah yeah now you've been doing your research so what's your favorite movie?

SPEAKER_01 43:39

It's funny because I was prepared like I have a favorite my favorite Halloween movie from like when I was young like the the first one that I remember like kind of coming back to was like Nightmare on Elm Street. Ooh like I loved it so much I just wanted to watch it over and over again. I was I was enthralled. And it was, it was, yeah, it was after because when I watched The Exorcist, I was like 10 and I was sleeping over at someone else's house. Oh. He had like stairs to go up to the bedroom that was just like in the house. It was very traumatizing. And then I was very excited. But um, so a movie that we watched this year that honestly it's a 2024 movie. Okay, yeah. Um, The Beldham, B-L-D-H-A-M.

SPEAKER_04 44:36

That was surprising.

SPEAKER_01 44:39

Surprising. It ended up like it's what like we we were confused through much of the movie. Um understand why things were happening the way they were. We were we very much were like, is this like supernatural? Is there a witch here trying to the whole story is about this this young mother who has been in some kind of unspecified accident.

SPEAKER_02 45:06

Okay, yeah, has to go live with her mom, the mom's boyfriend in this house that the mom is renovating. And the young mother is she's clearly traumatized, she's scattered, she's a mess. Yeah, her mother is mean, yeah, yeah. Kind of like that way. Just not not kind at all, and you wonder what's happening here. Is it is it that the young woman is kind of losing her mind? Is it that the older woman is part of some larger supernatural influence? And it's one of those movies where you get to the end. And if the reading completely shifts your perspective. We were we both had like full-body channels watching this thing. Oh, it just it does some really interesting things with your expectations, and part of it is because it's counting on you to be watching this as a as a conventional movie, and you're wondering, you know, why why is why is the mother being so why is she dressed like that? Why are these people reacting so badly to the way she's behaving? A lot of whys. Yeah, what's happening? It all makes sense in the end, yeah. But not in a way you necessarily anticipate.

SPEAKER_03 46:42

What is would expect, yeah. Yeah, I would have to say uh one of my favorite movies that I saw this year was Hokum. Did you guys get to see that? Yeah, that's such a good movie. I it's just well, it takes place in Ireland, number one, so that's like Brownie Points with me right there. So, but it takes place in Ireland, and then there's just the old inn, the atmosphere, Irish witches. I mean, the whole, just the whole premise of this writer going to this um very remote location to, you know, supposedly to to write, you know, I'm not gonna give away any spoilers. However, um, and and that's the thing, like it's such a basic premise, but the way it was done, it was done in a way that made me just keep watching on the edge of my seat, and just the twists in that movie for me, it was just kind of like, oh my gosh, wow. This was cool. Well done. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:53

We saw um Damien McCarthy, the the director of Hogum, we saw um Oddity together. Oh okay. Um we saw we saw that when it first came out, and that had some of the most inventive jump scares, and it's just the way that he used angles to make like you can't see what's coming around the corner. Uh love that yeah, that was that was definitely a haunted house.

SPEAKER_03 48:26

Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'd say one of my all-time favorite movies is Psycho. I love that that movie for me never gets old just because the way just the way it's written, the characters, Anthony Perkins is absolutely brilliant as Norman Bates and Janet Lee and uh and everybody. I mean, everybody in that movie is really good. And just the storyline and the fact that back when it was released, it was so ahead of its time in many ways. And and it's just, yeah, and and it, and it just has that cool uh atmosphere, and and I liked what they did with um Janet Lee because they apparently billed her as the top star because she was a big star at that time, but you know, they kind of do away with the your top star, which was kind of unheard of for that time too. And they they do that in the Scream movies as well, with like Drew Barrymore, and uh you know, so it that they they kind of did that little homage to Psycho in that way, so yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:52

You're you're right. That's the kind of movie that even even if you know what's happening, it still holds up. The atmosphere holds up, the the scares. So beautifully done.

SPEAKER_01 50:04

Yeah, yeah, I like that too. I because I watched it this this year or last year for the first time since I was 10. And it held up way better than I thought. Yeah, was like this is from like 71, like what 72? And I'm like, you you really can't tell almost, like and even though you know what's gonna happen, it's still a really creepy movie, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 50:34

Yeah, and that's what I I think about Psycho, like in many ways it it holds up even today, and even a lot of episodes of like the Twilight Zone mean, you know, some of those episodes are a little dated, but a lot of them, if if they were aired today, I wouldn't think twice about it. So there were a lot of, and that's what's so cool. Like when you look back on some of these filmmakers of yesteryear and you see how forward-thinking a lot of them actually were, it's uh it's kind of mind-blowing because it's just like, wow, like you guys, you know, thought about that when you were, you know, you had you didn't have like the same type of equipment and resources that we have today, but yet you were still able to create this amazing, amazing piece of art that holds up, that has held up over time. And I mean, I think that's that's absolutely brilliant.

SPEAKER_02 51:36

Yeah. Even looking back at something like James Whale's Frankenstein movies, yeah, are are especially like Bride of Frankenstein and Son of Frankenstein, uh there are comedies. They're they're they're dark and they're creepy, but they're funny. Yeah, they're meant to be funny. And it it and it feels like he's uh uh pushing that uh increasingly through those through especially Son of Frankenstein with the Claude Rain screen. I think that if people could go back and see some of these older movies without kind of the fog of expectation, yeah, they they would they'd realize you know how smart and innovative they were.

SPEAKER_03 52:32

Yeah, absolutely. I agree. And what is on your haunt agenda? Like, can you give us a little preview of what we can see coming up on your channel and blog? And we have a meeting, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:51

We every year, right about this time, we have a big meeting, and she she has a map with the you know, the the yarns of pivots. We've been invited. Yeah, it's it it's it's a thing. Um, and every year we end up having to pivot because something changed. Every year, every year. We really love to do um one big trip this year. We always try to do something a little bit different, yeah um outside of this region, but we always love to go back and see what people are doing here. Um, I had somebody say to me once, how how can you go to the same places over and over? And I said, because they're different, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:41

Yeah, we can go in 10 minutes later and it'll be different. Yeah. It's and you know this. Yeah, it's live theater.

SPEAKER_02 53:49

It is, it is a change. Yeah, um so we we'll start beginning of September and go through beginning of November. Um probably one definitely one big road trip.

SPEAKER_01 54:06

Yeah. Yep. We'll do at least one trip, sometimes maybe two, and we'll see who know who opens. Because yeah, oftentimes there's like, oh, oh look, there's a couple new places that are nearby. So and some of the other places that we normally go to throughout the season. And um, I don't know what else are we doing this year. Like the time. Well, this is in August.

SPEAKER_02 54:37

But this is this is this is a banner year. This is the official 10th anniversary. Yeah, yeah. Yes, because you guys started in 2016. Yeah, yeah. So I mean, my daughter's making noises about trying to she's she's trying to get us to come to Los Angeles. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 54:54

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 54:55

She she's she's an actress and lives out there, and she wants us to come out there and experience all the LA Halloween stuff. Wow. We'll we'll we'll see. Yeah. The same paid or when she was smaller and she wanted to do something.

SPEAKER_00 55:15

We'll see. We'll see.

SPEAKER_02 55:17

Um but we will definitely um Pittsburgh area. Um, Ohio. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 55:28

It's like the Haunted Housewives tour.

SPEAKER_02 55:32

Right. Yeah. We we typically do uh three to five attractions every weekend. Um we plan ahead. We we try to plan ahead. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:48

Stuff happens, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 55:49

Yeah, and then sometimes you kind of have to pivot a little bit and do feel like, okay, we might switch that to next weekend, or yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:00

Last last year was definitely like that. I I ended up getting really sick the second week of haunt season, and oh no, that's the worst time to get sick.

SPEAKER_03 56:11

Any other talks? I know, right?

SPEAKER_00 56:14

We have like eight weeks, not you wanted to. Yeah, I didn't mean to.

SPEAKER_02 56:22

But you know, you don't know.

SPEAKER_03 56:23

You just have to you just yeah, so and what um off-season uh haunts did you go to? Because obviously Castle Blood has their thing. Um, and there's a couple places that sometimes do off-season uh haunted events.

SPEAKER_02 56:42

Yeah, um, Castle Blood has a pretty regular calendar of them, and they do a really nice job of putting together seasonally appropriate stuff. They they they do a great job with the theming. Um Demon House does some fun stuff. They did a they did an Easter egg haunt. This was so good.

SPEAKER_03 57:02

Oh, I missed that.

SPEAKER_02 57:04

Um of Hills Estate does a lot of off-season fun stuff. Um where else? Factory of Terror out in Ohio. Um, the the Akron Haunted Schoolhouse and Laboratory does off-season events that we go to. Um I feel like I'm missing uh Duda's Haunted Farm is doing they're they're doing their the Bloodfest. Bloodfest, yeah. They they do two weekends uh without a week apart, two weeks apart. And Wells Township in down in brilliant Ohio always does some sort of off-season event. They they do pretty regular like lights out events and music events. Um that's that's a fun place because that place is just like it it's like the mint configuration from Hellraiser, it's just the Venus. Um and like Freddy's haunts out in Aliquita. Oh yeah, they did a few. They they've done some off season stuff. They partner with uh Nightmare at Stagecoach Hollow to do some different things. I feel like I'm missing people. I don't know. In front I'm used to, but they're not around anymore. But yeah, we're we're always scouting for season events.

SPEAKER_03 58:28

Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah, there's always just something out there that it's like, oh, I haven't done that yet. Then you want to get in all of them, and right? Or we find something like Edgar Allen Poe speakeasy thing.

SPEAKER_02 58:47

Oh that's that's just delightful. They get they have professional actors come in and perform um four pieces of of Poe, and super fun. Um but we had we had a terribly crowded weekend back in June. We had I think it was Castle Blood, uh-huh, the Oddities Expo, yeah, the Allentown night market. Everybody had some fun weekend.

SPEAKER_01 59:17

Yeah, if it's if it's and then if nothing's going on, we just watch horror movies. There's nothing wrong with that. Sit here and yell at the TV, right?

SPEAKER_00 59:31

There you go. Don't go in there. What are you gonna do? Climb up the window, grab it.

SPEAKER_03 59:46

Oh my gosh, yeah. Cool. So where can people uh find you guys uh if they want to check out uh some of your uh recommendations, your your blog, your YouTube channel? All the social media.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:03

Well, we have Facebook, haunted Housewives with Tish and Lily on Facebook. Okay, we have a YouTube channel where we post um video reviews and thoughts um that differ from the written reviews. We try to bury the content a little bit. Yeah, we're on TikTok, we're on Instagram, yeah. Is there anywhere else? Um one of these days we'll get a proper website, proper website.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:33

One of the easier we are easy at. We did we've had a blog spot for a while, and some of our reviews are still on there, like our old 2016, uh 2019. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:48

If you want to see, if you want to see the like novel like stuff we used to write.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:54

The beginnings of the haunted housewives.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:57

Yeah, all of the titles for music, yeah, were yes, they were titles from songs, they were just they were lines from songs, yeah. Yeah, oh wow, cool. Yeah, we like to add extra.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:12

We're like, oh, we're the simple songs. We're everything involved.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:21

Oh man, well, I'd love to keep talking to you guys, but we're coming up on the hour here, and I want to say thank you so much, Tish and Lily, for coming on. Uh, it's it's a real pleasure. And when I met you guys at Castle Blood, I was like, I have to have them on the phone. Yes, we have to talk spooky stuff, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:48

Because your videos come across our page, songs come across our page because like we we yeah, we we see you in all of the richness of celt after hours, all of you doing. But uh thank you so much. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:06

Yeah, you're welcome. And yeah, I do want to do something um a little special for the Halloween episode because I launched this pod, officially launched this podcast on Halloween. So yes, because I always wanted the anar, the official anniversary of the podcast to always be on Halloween. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Hannah was my first official guest. So yeah, yeah. Shout out to Castle Blood for bringing all the spooky kids together. Absolutely. Shout out to Ricky and everybody there. They're just that's just such an awesome place. Never gets old. Never gets old.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:52

No, it really doesn't. It's so much fun.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:54

Yeah. Well, thank you guys so much again. And yeah, maybe we'll do something special for the Halloween episode. Hello.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:02

Stick around and tell ghost stories and do light as a feather stiff as a board.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:08

There you go.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:13

You and your demonic stuff, no. Oh my goodness. Oh the memories of doing that.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:21

Yes. Well, awesome. Well, yeah, we should, yeah, definitely talk about it and yeah, maybe do something cool for Halloween. But um, but yeah, thank you guys again for coming on. Thank you, everybody that's been tuning in and listening and giving the listenership a nice surge every week in uh listeners. And just be sure to tune in every Friday for a new episode because unless I other I say otherwise, I always have a new episode every Friday. So until then, until the next episode, where we will have horror author and screenwriter Paul Grammatico on. Until then, though, stay safe, stay fierce, but of course, stay spooky.