Man exploring French Catacombs attacked and dragged of by someone/something.

Originally posted by MajorMalfunction

It just feels Blair Witchy to me somehow.

Exactly my first opinion when I heard of and then saw the video. Personally, I think it was a fake. I mean, why would the guy drop the camera rather than continue on with it. However, it was interesting and I would recommend watching both videos.

Good Find

Originally posted by xlc sil3nce
Personally, I think it was a fake. I mean, why would the guy drop the camera rather than continue on with it.

What you have to realise is that when some(one)thing is chasing you, sometimes you sort of freeze up with fear. So he may have dropped the camera by accident and decided to go on with out it rather then waste time picking it up.

BTW I'm not being sarcastic, I know what you are saying is a valid point, and I think the video is a great find.

[edit on 21-10-2007 by Prozac Heart]

reply to post by Prozac Heart


Seriously, I mean if you thought something was after you and you dropped your camera, you wouldn't go back into the path of whatever it was to pick it up. Now, we didn't see anything pursue him after the fact. It's like being chased by a tiger, if you dropped your cell phone while running from the tiger, you wouldn't go back for it.

I think when you stuck in a situation of "Fight or Flight" I doubt you would care much about anything materialistic or any possession you have.

I know one thing for sure, whether if the founded footage is authentic or not, that little child narrator and the fact that it was on ABC family didn't help the case much....but I'm leaning more to it being authentic.

I feel bad for the guy that got lost in there though, most of been scary as hell. Alone, lost in a damp, dark, and narrow catacomb. I mean assuming his camera and maybe headlight, were his only light source, i doubt he'll find his way out of there, maybe they'll find him one day and lay him to rest.

But if you want to add paranormal in there, he could of felt a negative presence, which got him in the fight or flight situation, after that, I believe he most likely died of thirst or extreme stress. But I like to be the optimist, and believe he found his way out...then again lights

[edit on 21-10-2007 by skyblueff0]

reply to post by Prozac Heart


During the day today I thought more and more about the idea and I realized that if I felt something was pursuing me, I wouldnt go back for a camera either.

Osiris, to where you say there is nothing pursuing him on footage, what could have happened, assuming it was true, was either he was being pursued at an initial point and could have lost the pursuer at a turn or a fork in the road. OR
maybe he wasnt being pursued at all and maybe he was just feeling a little paranoid. Personally, when I went into the Buck Hill Inn in PA a while back, I was scared out of my mind and felt that someone was watching/following me. It also wouldnt have helped the poor guy that there are millions of skeletons lying down there. I wouldnt have even had the guts to venture in by myself.


Just another question...

Im not sure if it was previously stated, but does it mention where the video starts? Is he just walking into the tunnel or has it already started while he has been down there. Also, when the camera was found, did they conduct some sort of search for the man?

Originally posted by MajorMalfunction
I've been in the French Catacombs, and it would be difficult to go off on your own. There is a guard in the middle of the place, and all the side corridors are barred off. it's pretty much just straight on through.

So I'm not sure that could really have happened.

The Catacombs are pretty fearsome and compelling. And freaky.

One time on a vacation to paris my parents took a tour of the Catacombs and I can tell you from experience that it was NOT a pleasant place. Granted, I was 13 at the time but still. Who takes a 13 year old to a place like that anyway?

reply to post by dznetworks


You must have pissed your parents off pretty bad for them to take you there

[edit on 22-10-2007 by xlc sil3nce]

I saw this video today. It seems very fake.

Great find JacKatMtn! Very interesting. Just being in there would make me Drop Camera and RUN!

reply to post by MountainStar


Definitely a nasty place... uck... with a double side of uck.

Bumping an old-month thread

As it has been pointed already, a lot of people actually go down in the catacombs. There's the official tourist path, which indeed is pretty much a one way (somewhat long) ride, as you wouldn't want a tourist to get lost there, obviously.

Besides that, the catacombs run for several miles (186 according to Wiki) and the netork is far larger than what you can visit. This is where the cataphiles (catacombes lovers) and other people loves to roam at night. There are many entrances to thoses all over Paris, in caves and such. While I was in high school, some of the guys in my class seemed to enter somewhere around the Medecine School (6th district). My brother was also a fan of those, he even had the digger's lamp. I believe he was doing some graffitis at the time.
Last year or so, the cops busted an undergound cinema theater that was set up in the caves. And with the popularity of "Goth culture" it sure is probably visited quite a lot.

As you may read on wiki there are also a dedicated police force to patrol the catacombs. And they do quite often meet people, up to the point as they may be friendly to some cataphiles (I guess the ones they recognize as being respectful and abiding to some safety rules). Back in the day, they apparently paid up a visit to us about my brother, because supposedly some plans of the catacombs leading up right under the Elysée (The French White House, to put it in simple terms) were stolen, so they were investigating all the known cataphiles.

What I am trying to say, is that there actually quite some activity there, probably hundreds of people each week, and it is not as mysterious as it may seem. City services probably have some pretty detailed plans of the tunnel network.

Regarding the posted video... well: it was filmed in passages that are used on a semi-regular basis, since there is numerous markings everywhere. The body silhouette painted on the wall that serves as a landmark looks very much like the work of a graffiti/street artist that could be seen a few years ago quite frequently (the equivalent of the space invaders mosaics) so for one I would doubt that those particular tunnels are so "isolated" to speak of.

Apart from the general presentation and context (ABC Family? Stupid "spooky" voice-over straight from a cheap Amityville rip-off?), the story seems fairly inconsistent in the sense that if the camera was picked up somewhere -where it was dropped- it would make much more sense to start research from this point. Sure the cam was "given" to the director we see in this, but if it was found by a catacomb roamer, surely Freedland knows him and give him a call to have some indications regarding the path to take.
I also wonder why would anyone go to film more than 40mn of PoV shots down there alone. It's not like he wouldn't find anyone to accompany him or that it would be really all that original: Catacombs are made of bones and tunnels, w00t!
And well, if I was scared, i would use the lamp from the camera to, you know, try to see around me.
So yeah, I am assuming one or two things there about the behavior of the "vanished guy": I guess one may find reasons why he was alone, why he wanted to film an hour of PoV film down there, and why he freaked out and never never turn back (or why for that matter the camera would stay in the PoV position while running), but putting all that in the context of the show it was presented on, that makes a lot of of "clues".

So yeah I would definitely go for a "fake" conclusion: definitely look like a post-Bair Witch stunt that makes a good piece of entertainement for ABC family.
As a matter of fact, before Blair Witch (and just a while after the "Roswell autopsy tape" became famous), a small series airing on German-French TV Arte called the Forbidden Files was aired: basically amateur footages of paranormal events (which were of course all staged). Pretty good stuff... This catacomb stuff reminds me of that.

Forbidden Files

I saw that footage a few years ago, but now I cannot find it anywhere... Can anybody provide a link so I can watch it again?

I was just talking to someone who was having the same problem finding it on the net...

Why would it suddenly become so hard to find?

Weird...

Anyone have any ideas?

dude tht kwl i wanna go there but i dont at the same time u know wot i mean anyway it suks how the tou doesnt sow probably even 5% of the full actual catacomes

This is a really interesting video, i was throughly creeped by the idea of it, what noises he would have heard, things he may have "seen", where his body lies now, did he get out? Did he die by falling down a huge hole or end up cowered in the darkness until he just faded away?

The fear instilled in the poor man would be unimaginable, especially when you consider he dropped his only light source from such uncontrollable emotion.

Anyway onto the "paranormal" aspect. I dont believe he was creeped by anything or saw anything or thought anything was chasing him. That kind of environment is uncontrollable, confined and feels unnatural and you cant get out or see a prospect of getting out quickly which can play on your mind, not even rats go that deep! It looks to me like he just cracked and wanted to get out as quick as possible.

We can see the progression of desperasion in how his movement got quicker and quicker from a slow walk until he was running quite quickly culminating in just an utter break down of control which resulted in him dropping the camera and running blindly. Not anything paranormal. Just mind games, as someone else mentioned, a break down of the fight or flight theory.

reply to post by MajorMalfunction


People enter them through other places like the sewers or whatever. there are hundreds of entrances to them so it is completely possible that he got in and lost.

Yeah its a bit weird that I cant find this footage anywhere on the net, its all been removed...

I saw it a few years ago, not sure if it was pre or post Blair witch...

Wouldnt mind seeing it again if only I could find it..

Anyone able to help?

reply to post by MsMisha81


Where the HELL did you see it?

There are plenty of ways to get into them without going on a tour. Finding a guerrilla tour guide to take you at night or explore on your own, they run all over underground and your bound to find your way in using a manhole or something. The police patrol them but it is not a hard place to hide in....

A lot of people go into them to party, drink, hang out.... I am sure there are people living down there since I have read a lot of stories about travelers finding furniture, burning candles and coolers with wine in them.


I would much rather experience the real catacombs than the ones shown only to tourists.... they are not as fancy and put together, not a lot of designs in the bones, just rooms, halls, bones thrown about, crazy tourists running around scared to death because they are lost HAHAHAHA......

reply to post by Telos


Not to doubt your BS detector, Telos, but that account is awful and such an obvious fake that it disheartens me to think that of all the intelligent people who visit this board, a few might have actually believed it.

My problem with it is that it reads like bad Lovecraft. Hell, there are phrasings and motifs taken directly from Lovecraft. If requested, I can provide quotes and notes.

The mystery of the Paris Catacombs is no doubt interesting, and I can only imagine the terror that would be caused to be lost and alone down there. That being said, I feel that this video, which I too saw years ago, is a fake.

I think one of the things that is so creepy about it though is the possibility that someone can be truly lost in one of the most populated cities on the planet. I would argue that this is what makes the catacombs so creepy. That and all the dead bodies.

Nevertheless, this is a good thread, well worth reading.
And Telos, can you email me a copy of that book?

i have seen this footage, he is not knocked out or anything. he gets so dehydrated that he collapses, the catacombs are HUGE.