Horrifying true story behind new Netflix show people can only watch ‘during the day time’

Chris DiCesare, the man whose story Netflix's toe-curling True Haunting is based on, has revealed the horrifying truth behind the spooky show.

For those unfamiliar, the terrifying TV series landed with a bang on 7 October and has left even the most hardcore horror fans unable to sleep after watching, forcing them to stream it only in the daytime.

True Haunting is about real-life paranormal hauntings, as documented by the people who survived them.

As well as chilling first-hand interviews with people like Chris, it also includes dramatisations and scripted reenactments, which were put together and directed by horror filmmaker James Wan, best known for Saw, The Conjuring, and Insidious franchises.

It delves into two different stories across five episodes: The Ghost Boy of Erie Hall and This House Murdered Me.

Following the reaction to the blood-curdling show, Tyla spoke with Chris, who appeared in the programme for the former, to open up about the paranormal activity he experienced during his first year of college in the 1980s.

It all began in SUNY Geneseo's Erie Hall, in dorm room C2D1, to be specific, where Chris moved in with his roommate, Paul.

From then, he claims to have been plagued by full-bodied apparitions, voices, physical attacks and spine-chilling encounters.

Shortly after moving into Erie Hall, he began hearing disembodied voices and thought he was losing his mind - but that was only the beginning.

Things got so out of hand that Chris's roommate fled, and a priest was called in to perform an exorcism, and Lorraine Warren refused to shake his hand as she 'didn't want to know' his future.

Speaking to Tyla, Chris admitted: "The physical marks have disappeared, but I am not sure that the psychological damage ever will. Trauma changes the way that a person thinks, as well as how they view the world around them.

"I wonder to myself, each and every day, if today will be the day that ‘that thing’ comes back. It has been forty years since the events at Erie Hall took place, and logic suggests that it is now all over, but my mind cannot help but to go back to the thought that it happened once, so it can happen again."

Chris DiCesare spoke to Tyla about his real-life paranormal experience that was depicted in the Netflix show (Netflix)

Delving into the traumatic moment he was 'attacked' by a ghost in the shower, he recalled: "As I stood under the water, I saw a human-shaped shadow – with a tilted head like the ghost had – on the ceiling above me. I ran out into the middle of the bathroom, almost falling because of my wet feet, but no one was there but me.

"Then, I realised that there could be no human shadow on the ceiling, because that’s where the room’s sole light source was.

"My own shadow was on the floor, spreading off from my feet. I decided that I was going to call the priest back. But first, I walked back into the shower stall to turn off the water, to prevent the bathroom from possibly flooding.

"It was then that the attack occurred. It felt as though I had been stabbed in the back with a knife."

Chris continued: "I turned to defend myself and blindly punched into the area where I thought the assailant would be.

"I tore the shower curtain off of the rod, and saw that I was still alone in the room. That’s when I looked over at the mirrors above the sinks to see that my back had three long scratches on it. Terrifying."

Another instance saw him come face to face with an apparition - a moment he said will 'forever be etched in his mind'.

He recalled how he 'caught some slight movement in the corner of his right eye' and when he turned around, he 'saw a young man – head tilted to the side as though his neck was broken – wearing some style of clothing that I could not recognise, standing inside Paul’s stereo'.

Chris admitted he still sleeps with the light on, forty years after the horrifying ordeal (Netflix)

He continued: "My first thought was that, at some point, I had fallen asleep and that this was simply a dream. But I looked around quickly and confirmed I was actually sitting at my desk chair, that my running magazine was still opened to the page that I had been reading, and that the box of candy that I had been eating from was still in my hand.

"The thing’s head moved slightly forward, and with that, I absolutely panicked."

Chris said it was only when Paul saw the same thing that he had with no prior knowledge, that he understood he was 'not going crazy, but rather some ‘dead thing’ was now in their room'.

A boy named Tommy, who allegedly hanged himself on the Geneseo campus, was rumoured to be the spirit that haunted Chris.

Chris and his roommate also theorised that the ghost could be that of Thomas Boyd, a Revolutionary War soldier, based on a connection they discovered between their own ancestor and the discovery of Boyd's body.

As seen in the documentary, he learned that it was one of his mother's ancestors who discovered the lieutenant's mutilated body.

Now, two decades after the months-long hauntings, Chris has admitted he still has to sleep with the light on.

I think after this, so will we...