# Non-supernatural stories in which something supernatural happens **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 2, 2013, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670 "2013-04-02T22:01:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670/81 "2013-04-05T22:34:40Z")
Not sure I’m remembering it correctly, but the in the final scene in _Crash_ (2004), it snows in LA and the song _Hallelujah_ is sung. ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670/82 "2013-04-05T23:01:22Z")
> [@GargoyleWB](#): > > **Karate Kid** , Mr Miyagi’s laying hands to fix Daniel’s knee. And its remake, where Jackie Chan’s character does a similar “ancient Chinese secret” healing procedure. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2013, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670/83 "2013-04-06T01:08:59Z")
How about a supernatural story where something supernatural happens, but you’re not sure up until that point that it was a supernatural story? In _Pan’s Labyrinth_, for most of the movie, you’re not sure whether the faerie world is “real”, or just a delusion in the girl’s mind because she can’t deal with her brutal reality. But then, almost at the end, she uses the magic chalk to really escape from the really locked room, thereby proving that the magic was real after all, all along. ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2013, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670/84 "2013-04-06T01:25:20Z")
The Korean romantic comedy/drama **My Sassy Girl** is pretty straightforward, genre-wise. Then, in the last few minutes there is some business with a time capsule, a little UFO-thing and a weird frog. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2013, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670/85 "2013-04-06T04:59:17Z")
This doesn’t quite fit with the OP, and is very petty, but I saw **Django Unchained** again the other night and was reminded of the only thing I hated about a movie I otherwise loved. At various points prior to reaching Candieland Django sees Hilde standing in a field or by the side of the road. Are we supposed to think that Django is having visions? Is delusional? It’s “supernatural?” Hilde is not there, but he sees her standing there, as a fully formed human being, staring at him. WTF? _We_ didn’t need to see her. We already “met” her via flashbacks. We already know he’s on his way to rescue her and are rooting for him to do so. Why does he see her? Yes, I know there are other things about the movie that aren’t exactly realistic, but Django being mentally unstable hadn’t been hinted at prior to his “visions.” It’s not like **Kill Bill** or **Inglorious Basterds** which are obviously set in an alternate universe. I can’t think of other examples but I’ve seen it before in movies that are _otherwise not ghost/supernatural stories_ (I don’t mind it in ghost/supernatural stories), where a character will see another character who’s not really there. I hate that and it takes me out of a movie something fierce. I’d be fine with it if Character A sees Character B for a split second, looks away, does a double-take, looks back and it turns out to be someone who just strongly resembles Character B but is not Character B. That’s clever. But just plopping in a vision/delusion/supernatural sighting? of someone who’s not really there is annoying to me. If that happened in real life I’d seriously suggest a psychiatrist and strong meds. I know and said it was petty, but it’s just a trope I hate. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2013, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670/86 "2013-04-06T05:14:34Z")
> [@Postariti](#): > > The Hudsucker Proxy is an odd screwball comedy. Towards the end they suddenly, dramatically, throw in an angel. It was a real jolt, and took me out of the movie. Old Moses keeps the old circle turning. He is set up as a supernatural being and so is the Angel of Death, the man he fights. It is not thrown in. Fate abounds in that movie. newspaper with the want ad chases Barns down the street and attaches to his leg. He enters the building just a Hudsucker exits. The hoop, thrown out, rolls along a long way to that one little boy who will figure out how to play with it and start the craze. That movie is very mystical all the way through. I still can’t figure out is she really is a Muncie Girl or not. ---
**Author:** ![Renifer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71c47a/32.png) [@Renifer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renifer)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2013, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670/87 "2013-04-06T16:05:36Z")
Susan Wittig Albert’s _Rosemary Remembered_, a supernatural revelation from a Ouija leads to the solution of a mystery. The series is not supernatural-based but very pro-New Age. Also Agatha Christie’s _Hallowe’en Party_. “Pussy’s in a well.” One of the Judge Dee books, _The Chinese Gold Murders_, has the possible appearance of a ghost. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2013, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670/88 "2013-04-06T20:29:30Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > Hamlet struggles between it being the ghost of his father or an evil spirit has taken the shape of his father and is trying to trick Hamlet into doing evil. Either way, it’s a supernatural being. Right, but is it a real supernatural being? The ghost appears largely in Hamlet’s mind, and briefly to a couple of guards on a lonely night’s watch. (Even today people in lonely places will sincerely swear they have seen UFOs or ghosts or other scary things.) I’m not arguing that this is the correct interpretation of the ghost, I’m just saying it’s plausible. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2013, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670/89 "2013-04-06T20:50:01Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > Right, but is it a real supernatural being? The ghost appears largely in Hamlet’s mind, and briefly to a couple of guards on a lonely night’s watch. (Even today people in lonely places will sincerely swear they have seen UFOs or ghosts or other scary things.) I’m not arguing that this is the correct interpretation of the ghost, I’m just saying it’s plausible. Using modern day sensibilities yes it’s plausible. As written, it’s a ghost. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2013, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670/90 "2013-04-08T12:08:04Z")
Maybe the Teen Angel sequence in Grease. But that could just be a dream. And then there’s the flying car at the end… > [@Equipoise](#): > > This doesn’t quite fit with the OP, and is very petty, but I saw **Django Unchained** again the other night and was reminded of the only thing I hated about a movie I otherwise loved. At various points prior to reaching Candieland Django sees Hilde standing in a field or by the side of the road. Are we supposed to think that Django is having visions? Is delusional? It’s “supernatural?” Hilde is not there, but he sees her standing there, as a fully formed human being, staring at him. WTF? _We_ didn’t need to see her. We already “met” her via flashbacks. We already know he’s on his way to rescue her and are rooting for him to do so. Why does he see her? Yes, I know there are other things about the movie that aren’t exactly realistic, but Django being mentally unstable hadn’t been hinted at prior to his “visions.” It’s not like **Kill Bill** or **Inglorious Basterds** which are obviously set in an alternate universe. > > I can’t think of other examples but I’ve seen it before in movies that are _otherwise not ghost/supernatural stories_ (I don’t mind it in ghost/supernatural stories), where a character will see another character who’s not really there. I hate that and it takes me out of a movie something fierce. I’d be fine with it if Character A sees Character B for a split second, looks away, does a double-take, looks back and it turns out to be someone who just strongly resembles Character B but is not Character B. That’s clever. But just plopping in a vision/delusion/supernatural sighting? of someone who’s not really there is annoying to me. If that happened in real life I’d seriously suggest a psychiatrist and strong meds. I know and said it was petty, but it’s just a trope I hate. I thought they were just him seeing her because he wanted to see her so much, and he was quite aware they weren’t real images. More like when you lose someone and keep seeing them everywhere even though you know it’s impossible. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670/91 "2013-04-09T17:22:28Z")
In the YA novel, _Miriam’s Well_ by Lois Ruby, Miriam is diagnosed with cancer. Her family’s religion forbids medical treatment. Her church prays for her instead. Prayer doesn’t work. The state takes her into custody and she’s given conventional medical treatment for cancer. That doesn’t work. Then a nurse does some mystical laying on of hands and ta-da! She’s cured. ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Hen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ad7895/32.png) [@Small\_Hen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Hen)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670/92 "2013-04-09T17:49:13Z")
> [@Bob Ducca](#): > > If anybody has read the Wally Lamb book “I Know this Much is True”, there are some elements of magic-realism (I think that’s the term I’ve heard used) that happen. Do you have any examples? I read that book ages ago, and I don’t recall anything supernatural. There was a kind of mystical Native American religion of some kind, but did anything actually happen? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670.md?page=4)