I always love whenever I do activities with the East Tennessean, everyone is always so sweet and it’s one of my favorite communities to be a part of. Last weekend, we  went to the Stateline Drive-In to watch “Beetlejuice 2.”

It was phenomenal and a wonderful movie to begin the fall season and I got to support a local business (with some interesting history, which I recommend readers check out) that almost didn’t survive the digitization of drive-in movie theaters.

What it also did was to remind me of the different types of ghosts and undead that exist, though the movie seems to have forgotten that itself.

(Contributed/locusmag.com)



All the undead in the movie are classic ghosts; those once alive and tied to a physical place, but when I had watched the original movie, I had believed that Beetlejuice was not a classic, but a Poltergeist.

Unlike classical ghosts, Poltergeists are typically described as ghosts who have never been alive and have better ties with the physical world, meaning that physical manipulation of the objects (and lives) of the living are more easily moved and effected. There aren’t many non-human ghosts and there are a few in which the lore differs. For example, banshees. Some lore, like Scots Irish fae lore describes them as part of the fae, whereas others consider them the spirits of women who had violent deaths.

One of the things I like about ghosts the most is how accessible the lore and media is. And there’s no incorrect way to portray them.

Different cultures had different takes on them too, often tied to cultural beliefs and religions. Chinese ghost culture for example, is supposedly tied to the practice of worshipping ancestors. The Yoruba people have Orisha, which are helpful spirits sent from the supreme creator, Olodumare.

As may be noted from previous articles, the number of ghosts in Appalachia is never ending and if I wanted to, the column could simply become a documentation of only ghosts, though I do try to diversify it!

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