WEIRD STUFF :: 408 Kimball Street

If they do it right, parents can create an impenetrable veneer of a safe, idealistic world for their children, where wishes came true, Santa Claus was real, and there were no monsters under the bed. This was the environment my parents presented to me; we were a family who lived within our means, but I was spoiled with love and a mutual trust.

On October 30th, 1991, the night before Halloween, my parents - and my sister - informed me with a blunt nonchalance that ghosts were, in fact, real. And after regaling me with stories of firsthand accounts built upon that established trust, I had no reason not to believe them.
I was in the third grade; my biggest concerns were stranger danger, Freddy Krueger, and long division - but those were all manageable. Now I had this to contend with.

The story - or stories - was that the apartment building they lived in from 1975 to 1986 (and that I actually lived in for the first three years of my life, which gave me discomfort) was haunted, and they each had their own unique, vivid, and admittedly cool experiences to share.
And share they did!

The next day at school I felt a heightened sense of reality, seeing through other dimensions. I felt entitled - I had a secret that I enjoyed keeping to myself. And I did! I kept the safety on that weapon most of my life, until every once in a while I'd find myself in a conversation about the afterlife or the existence of the paranormal, and those were the times when I'd lock 'n load.

About the Video

This movie was produced in the fall of 2002. The original intention was to find & shoot something interesting about the City of Fitchburg, Massachusetts - but the only interesting thing I knew about Fitchburg were the spooks of Kimball Street. So I pitched the stories I knew to our producer, who promptly sought out the current owner of the building and ultimately facilitated the entire production (like any strictly competent producer should do). Our editor/videographer went out capturing b-roll (including aerial footage from a plane!), and I assembled the cast of interviewees (which was easy 'cause I was living with some of them at the time).

The premise was to get all the previous tenants back into the haunted dwelling & tell their stories on camera. Following that, we were to research the history of the house in the hopes of finding some morbid or mystical explanation as to why it was the way it was.
This idea and setup was my contribution, which got me a Director credit. But in the end, the final cut has a different look and vibe than what you may be used to from Bennett Media (though I did choose the music). Also, note our original handle, "Blue Sky Productions," before Disney acquired it (as they do with everything).

At the very least, we're left with documented accounts of a few of those unbelievably believable stories to tell in the dark that had haunted me since I was 8.

- Paul