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here are ten more instantly recognizable clichés from the movies. Maybe, if we ever compile the comprehensive list of movie tropes, screenwriters will use it as the template for all movies that Hollywood chugs out – in which case we should ask for a cut!

This has to be one of the most used clichés in the book: the hero/heroine is trapped in a nightmarish world of dreams, they’re just about to be killed/see their loved one die when they bolt upright, gasping for breath, in obvious distress. Occasionally, the director will spice up the cliché by putting the camera right in the actors face. However it’s done, virtually every horror/psychological thriller will feature at least one. See: Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Hackers, Moulin Rouge

The more cynical movie fan will groan when the saccharine goo that is the “When I was a Little Girl” speech rears its nauseating head. This ploy is a lazy screenwriter’s way to make us feel empathy, or sympathy, for a character regardless of their personality flaws etc. See: Pretty Woman, While You Were Sleeping

Why? Why do people stare at the phone after receiving bad news? What do they expect to see? A fairy pop out of the receiver saying “Just kidding!”? Now that would be something to see… See: Ed Wood,

The topic of UFOs is one on which everyone has an opinion. From the strong believer to the condescending skeptic, everyone has deep rooted beliefs regarding the subject. Some believe UFOs are travelers from other planets or dimensions. Others believe them to be experimental military aircraft. I have picked stories from different countries and eras to show that people have been reporting the same characteristics and attributes in UFOs and Extra Terrestrials for decades upon decades, and very often these stories were reported long before the seed of UFO awareness was planted in the mind of the public, through TV, film and literature.

I, personally, believe that, in the future, the existence of intelligent Extra Terrestrial life in the universe will be seen to be self evident, and people will look back and laugh at the ignorance of the past, much in the same way we do today when we remember people used to think the earth was flat, or that it didn’t orbit the Sun. Slowly but surely scientists are beginning to agree that it is mathematically impossible for intelligent life not to exist with our planet in the endless expanse of the universe, and the trillions of planets it contains. We truly live in exciting times, as day by day, more and more is discovered about the Cosmos to show this to be empirically true. I’ll leave you with the words of the pioneer of America’s Apollo Space program, the great Wernher Von Braun. “You must accept one of two basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not alone in the universe. And either way, the implications are staggering.”

During the night of the 12th of February, 2010, lifelong paranormal skeptic Roy Shaw was walking his dog in Devon, England. Wandering through the quiet streets of his neighborhood, he began to approach his local Lawn Bowling club, when he was startled by an odd object hovering high up in the sky. Hazy and distant at first, it began to descend slowly and move nearer in his direction. Circular in shape, it suspended itself above the bowling club and Shaw entered the grounds to get a better look at the object. He watched in amazement as it zigzagged around, before landing on the far side of the green.

He was astounded to make out a 100ft long space craft, with blue and red lights streaming along it’s underside. At this point a 4ft high white apparition exited from the ship and floated towards him across the lawn. ‘It was about 4ft high and seemed to be translucent and moved very slowly towards us. I was transfixed because it made a droning noise, which sounded like “my, my” repeated over and over’ he later told newspapers. His dog, Sydney – an animal he stated is normally very placid – began growling and bearing its teeth at the spirit. At this point, Mr Shaw ran for his life, with such haste he twisted his ankle in the process. Another dog walker in the area claims to have seen the ship dart off into the sky at a 45 degree angle. Funnily enough, Mr Shaw still claims to be a paranormal skeptic, even after this bizarre encounter. Above is a sketch of the UFO he saw.

A woman telephoned RAF Wattisham, in Suffolk, England, on November 21st, 1989, in a distressed manner to report an encounter she had the night before with a strange man in her area. At around 10.30pm, the woman was walking her dog near a sports field when she was approached by a man with a ‘Scandinavian type accent’ dressed in light brown overalls that resembled a flying suit. A recently released report from the National Archives about the case reads. “He asked her if she was aware of stories about large circular flattened areas appearing in fields of wheat, and then went on to explain that he was from another planet similar to Earth, and that the circles had been caused by others like him who had traveled to Earth.” The man went on that they’re visits were friendly but was ordered not to make contact in case they were seen as a threat. He said he disobeyed his orders as he felt it was important for contact between our people and his to occur.

They talked for 10 minutes until he suddenly ran back in the direction he came. The woman, realizing the gravity of her situation and the strangeness of what had just occurred, ran home in a panic stricken state. Whilst doing so, she heard a thunderous buzzing noise, growing in haste and volume behind her. She turned to see a large spherical object, glowing a brilliant orange and white, rise from the trees and eventually disappear up into the atmosphere. The MOD notes attached to the file described the case as ‘one of our more unusual UFO reports.’ The operator who took the woman’s call described it as ‘a genuine call’.

In 1974, Carl Higdon was hunting in Medicine Bow National Forest, Wyoming. Taking aim and firing at an Elk something strange happened; his bullet seemed to move in slow motion. As he went to retrieve the bullet a sudden strange feeling came over him. Turning around, he saw a humanoid over six feet tall which he described as having a black jumpsuit, a wide belt decorated with a six-pointed star and emblem of yellow. It had straight hair standing out from his head, no eyebrows, bow-legs and long arms ending with rod-like appendages instead of hands. The being asked him if he was hungry and gave him four pills, telling him if he ate one he wouldn’t be hungry for 4 days. The humanoid then pointed to him, and in an instant he found himself encased in a transparent device and wearing a helmet.

Two more humanoids appeared, carrying the 5 elk Higdon had previously hunted; which were now stiff and in an unnaturally frozen state. He was told he was going to their home planet, some 163,000 light-years away, and subsequently arrived there in a flash. On the planet he said there were many buildings that resembled the Seattle Space needle, and the planet’s sun was of an intense heat. His next memory was of being back in Medicine Bow Park, with 2 and a half hours having elapsed. He staggered in a deranged state unable to find his truck, eventually finding it 3 miles away. He radioed the Sheriff, who found him at midnight exhausted and frantic, shouting ‘They took my elk’. After being taken to the local hospital and examined, they found all his vitamin levels were miraculously high, and tuberculosis marks he had on his lungs had vanished. Higdons wife and 2 other people in the area saw green and red lights in the sky on the night of his abduction.

George Gatay was a well respected local man in the town of Nouatre, in western France. A veteran of WW2, he fought with the French Resistance in Luxembourg against the Nazi’s. On the 30th of September, 1954, he was in charge of an 8 man crew working on a construction site. Whilst working he felt a ‘peculiar drowsiness ‘come over him. He felt compelled to walk, although he did not know where or why, as if some unknown force was guiding him. When he stopped he was in sight of an unknown being some 30ft away on a hill. He described it as having an opaque glass helmet, grey coveralls and short boots. He also noticed a rod like weapon in its hand and a square shaped electronic device on its chest. The creature stood in front of a dome shaped object which hovered 3ft above the ground. The craft also had a cupola shape on top, with blade like devices protruding from its highest point. In total awe of what he was looking at, Gattay stood in a paralyzed silence.

As he gazed in amazement, something even stranger happened. He stated ‘Suddenly, the strange man vanished, and I couldn’t explain how he did it, since he did not disappear from my field of vision by walking away, but vanished like an image one erases. Then I heard a strong whistling sound which drowned the noise of our excavators. Soon the object rose by successive jerks, in a vertical direction, and then it too was erased in a sort of blue haze, as if by a miracle.’ Gattay then ran back to the site to report what he saw, and noted that at his first attempt to do so he was overcome with an unshakable feeling of stillness. After greeting his workers with a panicky ‘Have you seen something!?’ Two of his workers concurred with his account, claiming to have seen