A youtube user recently showcased the phenomena surrounding a mysterious painting that came into his possession from his grandmother depicting a man howling and staring off into the distance with his face contorted into an inhuman scowl of horror and anguish. The painting, dubbed “The Anguished Man” has had with it a great deal of incredible paranormal phenomena associated with it since it first started being seen in the family’s home. So is it a real paranormal painting? This chilling story is enough to make your hair stand on end.
The painting itself is eerie for sure. The image depicted on the canvas shows a man whose eyes have sunken back into a roughly impressionistic face that looks almost like he’s melting. The deep reds give the impression that the man in the image is suffering a great deal alongside the black mouth, which is contorted into a scream. But if the painting itself isn’t enough to give the impression that there is serious anguish involved in the painter’s history, then the story behind it will certainly confirm it. The story accompanying the image is that he combined his own blood with the oil paints when making the image. And shortly after that, he killed himself. While we don’t have many details of the painter’s life before he died, this certainly suggests an interest in morbid magical practices and/or at least a painter with a long and troubled history.
And of course as you may have already guessed, the painting has been showing quite a bit of paranormal activity as well. The current owner of the image has uploaded several videos showing the haunted painting leaning against the wall while strange events unfold from elsewhere off camera. It’s always difficult to tell the difference between hoax and reality on Youtube in the paranormal community, but something about the series of videos uploaded by user MrModnation seems genuine. And while they may not be proof positive that something paranormal is going on, the slamming doors and sounds of someone scraping along the walls seem to suggest a serious paranormal presence that simply cannot be ignored.
The videos, which have between 2,000 and 30,000 views a piece as of the writing of this article are being met with the entire spectrum from staunch skepticism to serious interest in the painting itself. While it has some wear around the bottom, it seems the painting is less interesting for aesthetic reasons than the story (and possibly spirits) behind it.
So is the anguished man truly a haunted painting? You may remember our coverage of the now famous “Hands Resist Him” painting depicting children standing in front of a window. The painting has been the center of a great deal of research by the community, and several individuals have constructed experiments with replicas of the image which appear to have similar paranormal properties to the original. Witnesses have reported everything from computer trouble to the sudden summoning of paranormal entities in the wake of possessing a single copy of this mysterious image. Let’s hope The Anguished Man proves just as much of a paranormal playground for the sake of enthusiasts.