• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

The Shadow Man & His Damned Hat

black hat man appears to me to be an archetypal messenger and possibly originates in our own psyche.

he can have multiple guises but firmly personifies the mysterious and unknown.

From the conjured image of a boogeyman for millions of children he serves both sides of darkness and light;
In the dark manifestation his purpose is to scare the bejaysus out of infants and children.
In the light he has the power to save said children from the parents' perceived worldy evils.

I think we are approaching a point in evolution where it can be safely stated, without redress, that what we perceive something to be is wholly based on socio-cultural factors. I think there is certainly something to be said about the collective consciousness influencing our perceptions. So we project the image to suit a purpose.

In Arklow where I was born, there was an auld mon around at the time my mother was very young. Auld Skerries was his name and he carried a sack and wore a hat and was a bit anti-social, the whole town utilized this elderly gentleman's "social inadequacies" to instill fear in their children.
When I was growing up, there was Slick Pee Olly who was summed up by a local poet thus:

Slick Pee Olly
Slick Pee,
Switchblade stalker in ee's Cuban 'eels
Hons in is pockits, grinnin as he feels
Scrawps 'is lame limb, draggin it alon wi' 'im
T' thowd stinkin bench, wer ee'l find some wench
that in't too bright, an worra fright
she's in fo t'nite...
he'll start owt reet nice
but be'ind ee's smooth skin
'ee's a predator wi'in
prayin on't meek an shy-eyed shirleys
ee 'arms worree feels like
sumtimes shyboys and sumtimes girlies
show us yer nickers, al githee a pownd
'oles already dug, t'neet yer undert ground
An' naybody duz owt
tha stays well clear
o' Slick Pee Olly
tha stays well clear
PWB

I choose to believe that black hat man, or in my perception, Ridgerider, skirts the interzone which could be purgatory, as a guardian angel searching out injustice to the weak of mind, setting the balance and providing hope to those who have heard of or witnessed his Great work. Not unlike Clint Eastwood in those old spaghetti westerns.

He's the Boss
 
jackaroo said:
black hat man appears to me to be an archetypal messenger and possibly originates in our own psyche.

8< 8< SNIP 8< 8< 8< 8< 8< 8< PWB

I choose to believe that black hat man, or in my perception, Ridgerider, skirts the interzone which could be purgatory, as a guardian angel searching out injustice to the weak of mind, setting the balance and providing hope to those who have heard of or witnessed his Great work. Not unlike Clint Eastwood in those old spaghetti westerns.

He's the Boss
Click to expand...

It's not the first time I've heard such ideas provided as a possible explanation of Shadow people, hatman, and the like. I saw him on a regular basis as a child. Another "entity" has been associated with, or believed to be connected too. This was a smaller, possibly female being. I'd dream it was in a cemetery. It wore like a dull, somewhat medivæval style, cowled full length monks outfit, and its face was always obscured as it seemed to play a 'cat&mouse' game. It would chase me but hide as well. As far as I can recall, I don't remember 'her' every appearing in my bedroom in a solid form, just as I don't recall the hatman appearing in my dreams.
The one thing that tends to not quite work with the archetype (et al) type designation, is that one of my sisters and I saw it together. The hatman was a solid physical presence that actually touched me.
 
I was poking around the web and found these things...

I don't have the audio for this, but this is from a Coast To Coast Radio broadcast in 2008

Hollis also talked about the "Hat Man," a being that she originally had thought was another incarnation of the Shadow People, but was overwhelmed with letters from people insisting that it was solid. She described the creature as having "a Zorro-type hat. He wears a three piece suit and a cape or a long trench coat." Other attributes ascribed to the "Hat Man" included occasionally wearing a watch that dangled from his hip, having either a goatee or being clean shaven, and possessing glowing red or solid black eyes.

Based on her correspondence with witnesses to the "Hat Man," Hollis speculated that the being is the Devil. She recounted a story from a soldier, stationed at a haunted base in Germany, who saw the "Hat Man" in his mirror. The soldier asked who he was and it responded, "I am Scratch." Hollis explained that "Scratch" was an old term used for the Devil. She also told the story of a man who had attempted suicide and woke up in the hospital to find the "Hat Man" sitting at his bedside. The being then said, "I almost had you" and disappeared.
Click to expand...
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2008/07/23

Also this 2013 broadcast about shadow people from Art Bell's radio program:


Some of the theories put forward here may seem a bit whacky to Forteans, but ...well, it's Art Bell. ;)
The stories may be of interest, though.
 
These beings are in my opinion are Djinn, a race of beings who were defeated by humans in far antiquity and banished to a parallel dimension from which they try and get revenge by haunting and deceiving us. They know we don't remember them because we lost our ancient knowledge of self and without that knowledge we are children to their boogeyman. I suspect they have great fun with us.
 
Elsupremo said:
These beings are in my opinion are Djinn, a race of beings who were defeated by humans in far antiquity and banished to a parallel dimension from which they try and get revenge by haunting and deceiving us. They know we don't remember them because we lost our ancient knowledge of self and without that knowledge we are children to their boogeyman. I suspect they have great fun with us.
Click to expand...

Just wondering what you base this opinion on, Elsupremo? re: Shadow people = Djinn. I mean, it's a new slant on these things but it's pretty much, once again, explaining one mystery by invoking another. It kind-of means nothing. Actually, that's not fair of me. I'd genuinely be interested in your opinion
 
I would have to say that there is very little that we can know about the djinn, unless they tell us. Muslims say the djinn are notorious liars. For me the single thread that ties together what we humans can know about djinn is Free masonry. There is also The Holy Koran but I am not Muslim.
 
LauraRoslin said:
Just wondering what you base this opinion on, Elsupremo? re: Shadow people = Djinn. I mean, it's a new slant on these things but it's pretty much, once again, explaining one mystery by invoking another. It kind-of means nothing. Actually, that's not fair of me. I'd genuinely be interested in your opinion
Click to expand...
I find it very interesting that the meeting place of The Shriners, in the city where I grew up was called " Al Quoran Mosque"
 
After being made aware of this thread elsewhere, it seems that I, too, may have experienced Hat Man!!

"At the Best Western Hotel in Fulford, York in about 2010. I woke in the middle of night and I clearly saw the figure of a man at the end of the bed wearing an odd hat. The hat was very much like that worn by David Bamber when he played Mr Collins in the BBC Pride & Prejudice, wide brimmed with a small dome. This one did make me feel scared and I immediately put my head under the covers! I couldn't see any details other than the outline, he appeared very black, like a dense shadow."
 
I had an experience with something similar at Easter 2018 (significant only because it happened the night before Good Friday and I was looking forward to the impending day off!)

I was home for the long weekend and was sat on my bed (in a fully lit room) reading something on my laptop. I may have been feeling a little sleepy, but I certainly don't recall drifting off (as I say, it was still fairly early and I had my 'big light' still on).

All of a sudden, I got the impression of a very tall man in the corner of the room. I saw him maybe for a second or two but he was wearing a brown coat, bottle top glasses and had a brown porkpie hat on his head.

I leapt from the bed (the laptop went flying and yes, it did have to be replaced) and ran downstairs two at a time. My brother was also in the house and heard my shouting, heading straight into my (freshly abandoned) room and... saw absolutely nothing.

It is possible I could have dozed off for a second or two, but as someone who semi-regularly experiences sleep paralysis, I know the conditions in which I usually get it (and what it feels like when I'm in the midst of an episode) and this was an experience completely singular to anything I'd had before.

I know its not the classic 'man in a fedora' sighting, but the hat was a noticeable feature nonetheless... perhaps whatever it is has a collection?!
 
sounds like a childs made up story.

i used to think there was a little man on my windowsill but it was just the shadow of my lamp on the curtain. used to look like a small fat man with a pointy hat and a claw hand (which i guess was just my imagination running wild)
 
Is there a conflation going on here?

The Hat Man as a distinct entity v A Man In A Hat as a more generalised sighting of, well, a man in a hat.
 
Hi,
I didn't know anything about the shadow people until a few years ago when I discovered it on the internet. needless to say I was very shocked.
When I was a small child , my parents and I had not long moved into a new flat. I insisted that I slept with the bedroom door open, until one night I woke up with a start and standing in the doorway to my bedroom was a large black shadow of a man wearing a hat. I was so scared at first, I couldn't speak. then managed to let out the biggest scream I could. from that day to this I still sleep with the bedroom doors fully closed.

the second time I was when I had not long met my partner I was sitting in her front room and I turned to look out into the hallway and standing there was a massive black figure of what looked like a man wearing a monks cloak, no features just black from head to toe. strangely I wasn't scared I look away and then back and It was gone. I chose not to tell her then just in case she thought I was weird. I guess I've only got one more to see.
 
Last edited:
Has anyone noticed the similarity with "the showman" in this Thomas Ligotti story?
Go to 18:16 to hear about this figure.

 
20210316_212606.jpg
 
I have posted a thread on this forum about my younger brother who used to see the top hat man every night for a while when he was about 5 ( interestingly our dad had died that year) and he used to say that the top hat man would come to his room and beckon him out with a crooked finger and then my mum would find him on the stairs in his sheets and blankets all wrapped up.
 
An urban legendish thing, seemingly influenced by cultural factors.. a pop cultural concept... even a mention or two of a claw.... a hat and a coat..
and no one yet's compared him to--

I know, I know, maybe it's insulting (and inapplicable to a lot of the stuff herein) but it fascinates me that out of all the "scary high-strangeness man with a hat, maybe a coat, maybe a claw" nobody's mentioned a certain occasionally tuplalike brainchild of Wes Craven (especially as of New Nightmare)
In all seriousness, in the sense of pop culture reflecting high strangeness things, Fred's sort of on point?
 
Junopsis said:
An urban legendish thing, seemingly influenced by cultural factors.. a pop cultural concept... even a mention or two of a claw.... a hat and a coat..
and no one yet's compared him to--

I know, I know, maybe it's insulting (and inapplicable to a lot of the stuff herein) but it fascinates me that out of all the "scary high-strangeness man with a hat, maybe a coat, maybe a claw" nobody's mentioned a certain occasionally tuplalike brainchild of Wes Craven (especially as of New Nightmare)
In all seriousness, in the sense of pop culture reflecting high strangeness things, Fred's sort of on point?
Click to expand...
I agree that could sometimes be a factor .. Poltergeist The Movie was one of the first films to tell us clowns were scary then Poltergeist 2 told us weird men in hats were scary .. God is in. His Holy temple etc ...

 
Even the other way around, I hope-- as an example of "people see these things, so they show up in pop culture". (Also because that privately amuses the hell out of me; but Wes would have been happy if he'd somehow indirectly affected things people genuinely perceive, too, I guess.)
 
Junopsis said:
Even the other way around, I hope-- as an example of "people see these things, so they show up in pop culture". (Also because that privately amuses the hell out of me; but Wes would have been happy if he'd somehow indirectly affected things people genuinely perceive, too, I guess.)
Click to expand...
You probably already know this and I can only repeat it from memory but ...

Roughly, when Wes Craven was a little kid (as he tells it), he looked out out his bedroom window and saw someone who looked homeless, he was wearing a striped sweater and had a Fedora hat on. He looked up at little Wes's window. Wes darted away, Wes built up the courage to have a second look and the man was still standing there looking up at his window. Hence the inspiration when Wes was an adult to create the Freddy Krueger character in his 'A Nightmare On Elm Street' films.
 
Junopsis said:
An urban legendish thing, seemingly influenced by cultural factors.. a pop cultural concept... even a mention or two of a claw.... a hat and a coat..
and no one yet's compared him to--

I know, I know, maybe it's insulting (and inapplicable to a lot of the stuff herein) but it fascinates me that out of all the "scary high-strangeness man with a hat, maybe a coat, maybe a claw" nobody's mentioned a certain occasionally tuplalike brainchild of Wes Craven (especially as of New Nightmare)
In all seriousness, in the sense of pop culture reflecting high strangeness things, Fred's sort of on point?
Click to expand...
There are funky old horror movies from the 1930s that feature sinister men in hats. One I found on YouTube years ago had a master criminal whose spine was bent and crooked, and he wore a hat and covered his face, and one of his hands was a claw. I think he was called "The Claw." I'd post a link but I can't find it. It was a lousy, blurry copy, but it had a great scene of "Apache dancing"—a kind of ritualized domestic violence disguised as entertainment—in a little waterside dive bar.
 
IbisNibs said:
There are funky old horror movies from the 1930s that feature sinister men in hats. One I found on YouTube years ago had a master criminal whose spine was bent and crooked, and he wore a hat and covered his face, and one of his hands was a claw. I think he was called "The Claw." I'd post a link but I can't find it. It was a lousy, blurry copy, but it had a great scene of "Apache dancing"—a kind of ritualized domestic violence disguised as entertainment—in a little waterside dive bar.
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure you're referring to Blake of Scotland Yard (a movie serial; later edited into a single feature film), and the master criminal was known as The Scorpion.
Blake_of_Scotland_Yard.jpeg
... The Scorpion in this version is a hunched figure who hides his face behind a rubber mask, then hides that rubber mask under a floppy-brimmed hat, then holds his cape up in front, in true ‘Hooded Claw’ fashion, just to make sure that nobody knows who he is.

He also has a deformed hand which is like a crab’s claw, hence his name of, ah, the Scorpion. Well, I suppose it’s a bit like a scorpion’s claw too. Not that it is a deformed hand, it’s just another rubber appendage. Good for disguise, not so clever for operating equipment. Fortunately the Scorpion has a whole squad of goons based in Limehouse to do his dirty work for him.
Click to expand...
SOURCE: http://mjsimpson-films.blogspot.com/2013/01/blake-of-scotland-yard.html
 
Souleater said:
I saw his 'Body Worlds' exhibition in Brick Lane years ago, really enjoyed it.
Click to expand...
He is certainly a unique fellow. I understand that he is in poor health these days, sadly, suffering from Parkinson’s disease.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top