Spirits are one of those things that we always imagine roaming the halls of a haunted building long after it is abandoned for good – or even just the night. Ant that’s precisely what this CCTV footage claims it captured in the form of one of the creepiest pieces of incidental ghost footage online in recent weeks. But is it real? Or is this ghost haunting a store after closing hours less ghost and more hoaxed?
First thing viewers will likely notice is the dramatic score added to it. The music, while essentially superfluous does add a dramatic feel to the footage making viewing it a bit more tense than it ordinarily would be. But then something walks in the background. The shape appears to be a completely bleach white figure from head to toe except for long shadows which cross over the face. As the figure walks past, its face seems to turn and then it turns again away and keeps walking until it is finally out of frame. What was it looking at?
There are several things that come to mind when viewing this footage. First, the ghost does seem to put on a sort of show as it appears. Was this the apparitions desire to be noticed? Or was it simply looking into the room? It seems strange that it would look directly at the camera, but theoretically it could have known that someone regularly checked the CCTV tapes of the previous night and been intending to reach out and make some sort of contact with the outside world. After all, whatever means it was using to become visible it may have taken quite a bit of effort – of course that’s assuming the footage is genuine.
On the other hand it could have been looking to get noticed because it was hoaxed to do so. The footage allegedly comes from a phone shop that closed one night and came back the next morning with a surprising view of the paranormal. One explanation to the video prompted is that it’s just a cutout that was dragged in front of the camera. Sadly we live in an age where hoaxes as simple as this would likely be found out quickly. And of course the entity – whatever it may be – does turn to look at the camera. It certainly isn’t a normal person as it seems to generate its own light. And then again it does have shadows on its face leaving more room to ask questions.
So is it real or fake? Given the circumstances, it’s hard to tell but it’s all too easy to imagine a hoax such as this being perpetrated by someone hoping to get their store exposure. But that’s where the story gets strange. The store in question has not come forward, though many of those who first unearthed the footage have. And as UK Newspaper The Sun has reported the story – it’s a surprising turn of events that the store in question has not come forward. But does this anonymity help or hurt the footage’s credibility in the end?