According to an article on the Lancashire Live website, the former Regent Cinema, Church Street, Blackpool is allegedly haunted. “A photograph of mist (or breath in the cold) resulted in one local news outlet stating this building was haunted.”
The Regent is no longer a full time cinema: it’s an antique and curio fair, complete with a welcoming cafeteria. However, the reputation for being haunted is something that continues. A couple of years back I went on a guided ghost tour of the building that occurred between midnight and four in the morning. I managed to capture the picture below but I’m not sure if it’s an image of something supernatural or simply a mote of dust illuminated by my camera’s flash.
I do know that lots of people who were on that tour reported encounters with the inexplicable. One woman told me she’d been talking with a man from the 1950s who’d been a regular patron of the cinema whilst he’d been alive. Others playing with Ouija boards said they had received messages. And there were others who simply claimed there was an atmosphere that made them feel uncomfortable.
I don’t know if my photograph shows anything supernatural, but I do know that it’s not the most disturbing thing I ever saw there. I think the picture below which shows a Virgin Mary with a Melania expression on her face, and a baby Jesus with disturbingly adult features (and a FitBit), is something that will haunt my dreams for a long, long team.
So, throwing the questions out to anyone local, or anyone with relevant knowledge: have you experienced something similar at the Regent Cinema or in a similar area?
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