Ghost Adventures 100th Episode

Ghost Adventures 100th Episode:

The Exorcist House

Ghost Adventures reached their 100th episode milestone. They've also been in their eighth season for a while now. It has been decent; not too bad not too excited but we're only eight episodes into said season. The place that happened to be investigating on their 100th episode was the house that inspired the popular movie The Exorcist.

A bit of history first, it's based off a book that is based off of events that took place in 1949. It started in Maryland and ended in St. Louis where the exorcism took place. A boy who has remained unnamed even after all these years, experienced demonic possession and as various sources feel the need to state, he was from a troubled home. Some details are sketchy and vary in places but cutting it down to size those facts remain the same.

The movie plot is different obviously, but it had plenty of rumors surrounding it like deaths before the film release and a fire that took place on set. It was probably not related to the fact that they were filming a movie about an actual event, but it's still fun to look at some of the facts found on the internet. She mentioned the whole 'the kid and his grandmother were playing with an Ouija board and that's how the demon possessed him' story. There may be variations on this throughout the internet but bottom line a demon showed up and possessed the boy and might have told them to go to St. Louis, or they had relatives in St. Louis and thought maybe a vacation might help their son's behavior, insert theory here. There was a different show, unrelated to Ghost Adventures that mentioned the boy having Louis carved into his body and for the life of me I don't remember what it was, when I watched it, and what channel it was on.

The Exorcist house episode was pretty interesting. It dealt with the possibility of demons again and with their history with demonic hauntings, and the great niece of the priest who did the exorcism stating she knows it was real (the 1949 exorcism) and refused to be interviewed anywhere near the home were pretty chilling starters to the whole episode. I feel the balance of interviews and pre-investigation theatrics to set up the whole tone of the episode leaned more towards the interviews and reminding you that, this is where one of the most famous exorcisms in history took place and there may be a demon still here but it could just be residual as well. It's not that the investigation lacked in evidence because they received some very compelling evidence, I just felt like I had to wait forever to get to the investigation, and then once the investigation happened it didn't hold up to the hype. I do like how this episode really shows how much they've grown as a team and how they've 'grown up' when it comes to this case. In the earlier seasons Zak was very full charge guns blazing when it came to demons and it was very reckless. However they were still trying to re-invite a demon into a house which is just a stupid and reckless as going in guns blazing.

I haven't given praise where praise is due. They did get good EVPs and had an intense spirit box session. Those were the two that stood out to me. I disagree with the use of the Ouija board but they weren't necessarily using it as indented. It was just sitting there as a trigger object to get the voices. However, the Ouija board might have had something attached to it because later on they interviewed the guy they got the board from and he said he saw a shadow figure in his house after previously using the board. So was it the residual energy or actually active energy of the house or was it something brought in with the board the whole time? Either way they got some pretty good evidence whether it was the spirits they were trying to initially contact or different ones.

I know they can't always get definite answers on investigations. Paranormal investigations don't work by walking in and demanding something to happen and it always happens once you tell it to do something. Also even if you did a live playback there's still no way to know if you have a definite yes or no as to the thing you want answered about the haunting. It's rather disappointing that they went in and got half of an answer but they did their best on their limited time schedule. This episode wasn't a complete failure, it was rather successful, but I couldn't felt but feel slightly disappointed. I can't put my finger on what disappointed me about the whole thing. Normally I know what disappoints me about an episode of anything, not this one. So I'll give it an okay approval. It wasn't mind blowing, while it did have some mind blowing evidence.

Ghost Adventures Season 7 Episode 28

Ghost Adventures:

Return to Goldfield Hotel…

Again…

 

Nick Groff, Zak Bagans, and Aaron Goodwin known as GAC (Ghost Adventues Crew)

Ghost Adventures third episode on Goldfield Hotel in Virginia City marks my return to Paranormal Television reviewing.

I stopped reviewing paranormal shows for a while because the shows I watched fell flat on their faces. The Syfy show “Ghost Hunters” is not worth my time and energy to watch and review.  They have sold out and are only in it for money and ratings in my personal opinion. I do not mean any disrespect to the TAPS crew I’m sure they’re wonderful people and I could never do what they do, however they need to take control of their show and stop having cooperate involvement. 

EMF sensitivity does not explain every claim of paranormal activity in a place that has a long history of activity. You have greatly disappointed me. 

The Dead Files, on the travel channel, has always been terrible, but I don’t know about the episodes I missed. I seriously doubt they improved much because their backwards and inside out story telling format is still in place. The only improvement was letting (formerly) silent Matt talk although he’s saying things Amy’s already said, but it’s an improvement and I’ll accept it for what little it’s worth. 

Ghost Adventures, my pride and joy, the show I told everyone to watch if they want to see real paranormal evidence on a televised show, took a massive downward spiral.  Somewhere around season five the format changed, Zak started telling us everything that happened before it happened and then it was shown; completely killing any suspense the show was building. That is not how you keep an audience built on the suspense of wondering if anything will happen. 

However when this season aired their popularity soared. They started gaining an audience, an audience of sheep from what I’ve seen on Twitter. I believe a true fan should have the ability to criticize the thing they love the most. If you refuse to open your eyes and gobble everything up without question then how can you tell when the wool is being pulled over your eyes? 

I thought the wool was being pulled over my eyes, but then Goldfield Hotel: Redemption aired. This episode was completely different from previous episodes. There was a lack of being hand fed the evidence before it happened. There was no breakdown of evidence on an imposed chart on the television in the middle of the show. It felt like the episode took of the training wheels and let the viewers’ ride with adult wheels. Goldfield Hotel: Redemption was the breath of fresh air greatly needed for the series. It revived my faith in the show and the GAC crew.

Let me state now: I am fully aware that paranormal activity is unpredictable and you can’t walk into a place and demand for something to happen and then it happens. I am aware that they have no control over what they catch and don’t catch. I am also aware their Virginia City based episodes and their documentary are some of my favorite episodes, but I can and am willing to put any biases aside for the sake of good or bad episodes of Paranormal television.

This describes the show with 100% accuracy.

In this episode, they did what they’ve always said they wanted to do. They got evidence. They proved there’s something on the other side. They did no rely on ‘High EMF field sensitivity’ for every single thing that happened. That might be a valid excuse but I doubt high electromagnetic fields can physically manipulate objects, throw them a lengthy distance and strike an object so hard it bounces off an object and ricochets in another direction. EMF fields do not cause sudden mood changes and outbursts like the one Zak Bagans had when he nearly broke Aaron’s camera.

The voiceovers that Zak does in post-production were not overbearing they went back to their original foreshadowing. “… A spirit arrived that seemed to remember us” Zak finished explaining that they were trying to communicate with the ghost of Elizabeth and he says that about the Ovulus, it comes to life and says “Nick” although it can only provide one word answers remembering them could have meant anything. The spirit came through and said Nick’s name. If any of the voiceovers were suspense killers, they were few and far between. They might have been necessary as well. 

I feel the need to mention the explanation of the events that happen when the EVP of “Let Me Have It,” was captured seemed to be a little annoying but at the same time it helped prepare me for what I was about to see. It could have been a little shorter and less extensive but I am nitpicking. 

I wish with all my heart the shadow Zak saw was caught on another camera. I’ve watched the episode twice; it was shown on an exterior camera, it might have been hard to see though.  Another slight ‘downside’ would have been the pause in the investigation to consult with their audio tech people Billy and Jay. Usually those moments kill episodes and they rarely recover. This meeting was necessary so it didn’t slow the pace down that much, the only reason it slowed was because of the intense moment that happened before hand with Zak, but it picks up right again afterwards.

As for physical spectral evidence, when they get footsteps they’re audible even before they cleaned up the section and show it so you can actually hear it. They were so loud they sent Aaron upstairs to go check there was no audio contamination. I will not spoil this whole episode but I have listed some of the great examples of their evidence. I hope the following two episodes of season seven, are just as good as this episode. When I say “just as good as this episode”, I mean a return to the format of their earlier seasons.

All I have left to say is this: if they stayed in Virginia City did they stay in the Mizpah Hotel and if so, did anything happen while they slept?

My Mini letter to Zak, Nick, and Aaron

                                                       

Dear GAC crew,

Please film future episodes exactly the way you did with this one (Goldfield Redemption) do not go back to the voiceovers that tell us things before they happen and then physically show them. It is so irritating and frustrating, there’s no need to walk us through the episodes let us experience it for ourselves. I am glad to say you all have changed my opinion for the better. I don’t care whether the evidence is exciting or boring, just please don’t drown the episode in spoon feeding us everything that happens. I know some other ‘fans’ might like it but to the seasoned paranormal fan it’s highly irritating. Let them newbies learn on their own if they want spoon-feeding, but don’t leave the rest of us high and dry. 

~Pugsly

A funny meme 

I found while looking for GAC pictures