30 March 2017

Review: Ghost Adventures - Season 14, Episode 1 March 25, 2017 Stone Lion Inn


If you haven't seen this episode yet, you can through Amazon, click the link below.
Stone Lion Inn


With Ghost Adventures having thoroughly replaced Most Haunted as the worlds number 1 "Paranormal Investigation" type TV series, I thought I would give it another chance, and since I got sent an episode from the little known "Ghost Adventures Mole" who is definitely 100% NOT Zak Bagans (No relation to Bilbo I am told), I thought I would check it out. Now I should also let it be known I am not and have never been a fan of the show, I do not follow it, I do not know the characters and crew. And I only know the name Zak Bagans because h̶i̶s̶ ̶n̶a̶m̶e̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶w̶r̶i̶t̶t̶e̶n̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶r̶e̶t̶u̶r̶n̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶u̶n̶d̶e̶l̶i̶v̶e̶r̶e̶d̶ ̶s̶t̶i̶c̶k̶e̶r̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶b̶a̶c̶k̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶j̶i̶f̶f̶y̶ I googled the show to see who was the main person.

The only other thing I recall about this show is Robert Bess, inventor of the Parabot Containment Chamber, got caught blatantly cheating on a Halloween special in 2009. You can google that if you like.

There may be some comparisons made by me during this review, with Most Haunted. I wonder if Zak and his Scooby Gang have an equivalent of Watson or GORT?

So with that said lets check out the official blurb.

Season 14, Episode 1 Stone Lion Inn
The crew investigate the Stone Lion Inn in Guthrie, Okla., where it is said the owner performs satanic rituals in the local cemetery. Later, Zak attempts to uncover the truth about what happened to the famous outlaw Elmer McCurdy after his death.

Firstly much like Most Haunted, this show is 100% a spoof. It is written, acted and performed. It is NOT in any way a legitimate investigation. But we will treat it as if it is real, as I know a lot of fans of the show really do think it is real despite the fact that ghosts do not exist which in turns makes this entire show pointless.

We are told that this location runs murder mystery tours, so instantly you have to be suspicious of the motives of the owners of this place for inviting the GA team to investigate. They rely on tourism, so what better way to boost that than to pretend the place is haunted.

We start off by being introduced to this lovely lady.


Becky Luker is her name! Also the Travel Channel ad for "Booze Traveler" is nothing to do with her, and in no way am I insinuating that the only spirits she has ever seen are Jack Daniels and Jim Bean.

A quick google of her name and she has done hundreds of interviews claiming she believes in ghosts, her Inn is haunted and so on.

The GA crew ask her if they are a part of her Murder Mysteries tour, and she says NO! And that nothing has been set up. She admits that she has been accused of performing Satanic rituals, but not that she has actually done them. My first thoughts are that this is a huge PR stunt by Becky, she has all the facials down, she looks and acts in a spooky manner and so on.

Worth noting the really high production value of this show. Much much higher than Most Haunted.

We learn about Elmer McCurdy and how she has based her mysteries on him. He sounds like a fascinating character. And I would advise anyone to go read about him.

It is revealed that Becky Luker off camera said that after her death she has arranged to be buried next to the body of Elmer McCurdy in an adjacent plot. What a lovely thing to make public.

Zak now tells us that Becky's "activities" in the cemetery may have inadvertently raised the spirit of Elmer.

We next hear from Michelle Smith


She talks about the scary things she has seen and heard, yet she still happily sleeps in this incredibly spooky room, and has not left her job. Hmmm.

Also bizarrely someone who I assume is Zak is dressed like this while talking to her.


I have no idea why he is dressed like this, it doesn't look cold, as Michelle is dressed in just a thin shirt, so not sure why he has the woolly hat on. I have no idea why he has a face mask on, unless he is really a Japanese woman on the Tokyo subway.

We hear a few more stories, and Zak does his best spooky voice in the narration and talks about "Scrying" a thoroughly debunked practice.

We then have a bizarre conversation between Zak and Becky whereby Becky reveals how many people she has killed over the years. And then follows it up with "as part of the murder mystery" Zak does play along, and acts scared, which is quite funny. Zak is like-able if a strange character.

Zak convinces Michelle to stay in a room on her own and conduct an EVP session on her own.

One quite annoying thing about this show is the constant sound effects and musical score going on. It makes viewer participation completely pointless. Sometimes shows can over produce, and take the viewer out of the moment, Ghost Adventures is very guilty of this.

We then cut away to a short interview with Grant Aguirre who is Becky's oldest son. They talk about Michelle, I wonder if she is gonna get blamed for the whole scam?


We are now back with Zak and Michelle and they are examining the EVP recordings. They have got something. They play the recording, and there is some cursing, she denies that she said said it. Zak accuses her and she looks incredibly guilty.

Luckily they have video of her in the room, they play it and amazingly it is not her saying the curse words! Cue dramatic music.......

Zak exclaims he is 99.9% sure that it is a spirit voice.

But hang on a second, the swearing is NOT picked up by the audio on the video footage, only by the digital recorder. The video footage seemingly shows that Michelle does not say the swear words, but it also shows that the swear words were not audible to the video camera.

So there are two possibilities here.
1. Michelle swore under her breath without moving her mouth, which is exactly what you would do if you were faking an EVP and knew you were being filmed. This would also make sense in that the camera filming her would not pick it up since she is speaking directly above the digital recorder.

2. The other possibility is that the swear words were added after the event through the digital software they were using on the laptop to analyse it.

So the conclusion we can gather from all of this is something I have been saying for years and years and years. EVPs are evidentially worthless, since they can be so easily faked.

Now if the video footage had picked up the swearing too, then it would be more interesting since physically we have something to look at that would in part back up her claim of not saying it, as well as the evidence of the swearing itself. And yes even then that could easily be faked too, but what I am saying is that it would overall be a more impressive thing to release as "evidence"

But instead we are left with Zak saying he has caught a spirit voice, when the truth is, he has caught nothing that has any real value at all.

Not to mention the fact when she was first asked if it was her, she looked so guilty like she had been caught out, and when they said they had video footage of her, she looked very panicked and not at all confident she was telling the truth.

It is worth saying that at least this show is giving me something to examine, to think about. It is not just idiots throwing stones about, and ridiculous screaming and so on. I am sure that happens on Ghost Adventures, but in this particular episode I am more impressed by the entertainment factor, and the effort made to make everything look good. Yes scientifically GA is completely inept, and they have no idea what real evidence should be.

They decide to go out side and do some experiments by the grave of Elmer.


It is a bit windy, they have some various pieces of equipment which they claim will help Elmer travel to the Stone Inn. They talk to Elmer, and using fancy equipment are getting no response at first. Some thing called a Puck ITC is used and they start getting answers back to their questions. This all stinks and the equipment they are using looks like the usual crap you buy from ghost hunting websites. Completely pointless exercise which is only fooling the kind of idiot fans who think these shows are real.

They turn on a "Spirit Box"


It is basically just a radio scanner and a speaker. What that has to do with spirits I have no idea. As usual people have taken technology that already exists, stuck the word "spirit" in the title, and then sell it to the kind of idiots you can only find on ghost hunting forums. Cathy I am looking at you here.

Nothing they provide in this portion of the show impresses me. It is 100% theatre, pre planned, pre written skits. Very poor.

Nothing they give I would class as real evidence. Just entertainment for the cameras and viewers at home. It would be a rather boring episode if they just sat outside in a tent and nothing happened.

But for Zak to say they have "irrefutable proof that we have made contact with Elmer McCurdy" is a joke. I refute everything they say and show, as it is NOT scientific, they are using ridiculous unproven equipment.

Even Most Haunted never use language like that, instead they will say that its the best evidence they have ever seen, but they never say they have irrefutable proof.

Back in the house and they have footage of a door opening a bit by itself. Looks to me like it has been gimmicked, possibly with some wire or string.

Zak is now in bed with his woolly hat on! Asking the ghosties to touch his toes.
The whole thing is getting a bit silly now, and not in a good way.

And the music effects in the background are so distracting too.

We get some more noises, a camera "falls" over, and they capture an orb! Yes ladies and gentlemen, the orbs are back in 2017!

I must say the first 20 minutes of the show were quite good, I was entertained, but then they started getting silly, setting up stunts, using ridiculous equipment and they have very quickly lost my attention.

The spirit box malfunctions so this of course is proof of spirits. Yes that is how they think.

Into the last 5 minutes of the show, and the whole thing is coming across as very set up and fake. I expect we will now have a big finale.

The whole group is back at the "nerve centre" they start to review footage etc, as they are doing this the door to their room opens a bit by itself. They then ask the door to close and it slams shut "all by itself" in one of the more laughably fake moment of the episode. (Big finale moment) As they examine the door, the spirit box turns itself on, and starts making noises. I think the whole thing is getting a bit ridiculous now.

They finish off by photographing the whole area with a full spectrum camera, yet get no evidence whatsoever (this bit takes no longer than 5 seconds).

So they had all these things happen, everything that is easily faked, they claim the place is very very haunted, poltergeist activity a plenty, yet they don't capture a single piece of real evidence, not one thing that could be examined scientifically. Nothing at all.

And as the credits role, they even have a door slam shut by itself as part of special effects! Yes they actually did that as part of the end credits! Not part of the investigation, not evidence, but part of the effects that they finish the show on.

I would be amazed if anyone watched this and thought it was real. The vast majority of people must realise it is all faked right?

The show was mostly entertaining though, I will admit that, the characters were likeable. Michelle was easily my favourite cause she was clearly on the scam. Becky was way over the top to be taken seriously.

I give the show a solid 6/10

Please leave your comments below.
Please let me know if you enjoyed this review, if you would like me to do more, of if I shouldn't waste my time on it.

Tweet me on @JonDonnis and send your abuse to @TheBadPsych
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By Jon Donnis

15 comments:

Unknown said...

10 out of 10 for the review.

bijoux said...

Really enjoyed this! fwiw, confession time... This show is one of my favourites to suspend my (dis)belief for for an hour - they've grown on me over the (ahem) years. Aaron has the best 'fear' reactions, lol. I tend to think that they really believe everything. They had a team member called Nick. He left amidst some hooha, and now does his own show - Paranormal Lockdown. He has a speaking box gadget straight out of an 80s sci-fi spoof. Awful.

Unknown said...

If you watch in the bottom right hand corner of the isolation shot of the door slamming shut you can see a string pull it closed. Pretty obvious

JD said...

I couldn't see any string, but i was watching on a small tv. Is there any clip of this?

Lee James said...

Wow. Some ppl just can't bring themselves to understand the death part of our lives. Assuming you do, then what happens when we keel over? I can tell you first hand that yes, EVP recordings are very real and are also difficult to wrap your mind around. But doubters, go out and buy a digital recorder and do yourselves a favor. See for yourself what is real and fake. Bedside I cam promise you that it may take several locations/nights or days and actual [get off your ass effort] but you will quit this nonsense about "ghosts aren't real, spirits don't exist". Unless you've done your due diligence and actually put in work and not just blogging, then you have no ground to stand on.


Have a good day and good luck.

Lee James said...

Some ppl need to just get up of the couch and off the blog and do yourself an actual favor to see what's real and what's not. This blog was a big waste of precious time for the author. Since apparently spirits don't exist and all. We just die into the infinite black abis. But yourself a digital recorder and make better use of your time by expanding your mind and your insight as to what is beyond our true understanding. More than you obviously know. Lets just hope your not a close minded person who won't see the truth anyways even agree it smacks you in the face.

Good luck and best wishes.

JD said...

It is a shame you have not done your research on me and just assume I am some armchair skeptic. You couldn't be further from the truth.
I am the single most experienced and knowledgeable skeptic in the UK.
No one comes close when it comes to examining the claims of psychics and so on.

I speak from a position of knowledge on every level imaginable.

You think this blog is a big waste of time, well whatever Ghost Adventures forum you crawled out from to attack me, you CAME HERE! Therefore you have read my waste of time. So my time is not wasted. You are here. And with a bit of luck you will come back here, maybe read other articles, and maybe just maybe grow a pair of balls and educate yourself a bit.

JD said...

I understand the death part of our lives perfectly fine, it is the exact same feeling as about 9 months before I was born. I did not exist, my consciousness did not exist.

There exists not a single bit of evidence IN HISTORY to say we survive death. But science does understand every single process from the moment we are conceived to the last cell in the human body decaying.

As for EVP recordings, it doesn't matter if they are real or not, EVIDENTIALLY they are worthless. You seem incapable of understanding this. There is nothing difficult for me to wrap my head around at all. I probably understand the supposed process better than you.

And much like someone else who left a comment, you assume I am an armchair skeptic, Nothing could be further from the truth.

As for ghosts not existing, the Large Hadron Collider has proven that ghosts do not exist. Unless you are claiming that a $50 digital recorder is more sensitive than the single most EXPENSIVE and sensitive piece of scientific recording equipment IN HISTORY?
Are you claiming that by the way? Just want to judge your level of intelligence.

And yes I have done my due diligence, and put in the work, more so than anyone else in the UK for a start.

Have a good day, and I look forward to you debunking the Large Hadron Collider, what with your multiple physics Phd's

Cococat26 said...

Love Zac he is so funny and has to get top off to reveal muscles and tats to annoy spirits for artistic purpose .. its a laff .. hats of to the Zac .. all good fun he doesn't claim to be x y z its adventures and his investigation its gets boring when you seen one seen em all but its fun Zac is brill .. or do people take this seriously crumbs .. Zac still hot though

Cococat26 said...

Jon was trying to read about your sensing murder but link comes up blank ?help please

JD said...

Sorry I don't follow? Ask on the forum not here

Paul John said...

If you dont like it juz shuddup...if u think its fake then dont watch duh!

JD said...

I don't watch it.
I reviewed the first 5 episodes of this series for this site. Realised how truly awful and fake the show is, and then I stopped watching it and stopped reviewing it.

Only a truly empty mind would think anything they present is real, especially after the "Entertainment Purposes Only" disclaimer they put up.

Bet you think Pro Wrestling is real too.

Unknown said...

I can answer this- Zak is wearing a mask because he has explored lots of dusty places over time and it caused him to have some issues with his breathing. He wears the face mask for protection from dust particles.
As far as life after death, I hope that it's real. But being "earthbound" is not something I would want for myself or anyone else.
I want to see my son again.
He was my only child and he was killed in 2001 at the age of 9 and I haven't been happy since. I've been told many things by people concerning this, but the worst thing I have been told is "You're so strong. I'd DIE if something happened to one of my kids".
No they wouldn't. Not unless they took their own lives.
It's one of the worst possible things anyone could say to me, or any grieving mother, for that matter.
I hope there's a better place (Heaven, Paradise... ) after this, but I don't have the answers.
I'm not going to commit suicide because I don't know what the consequences are for this, and I can say that it's a cruel thing to do to anybody who cares about you. I have endured the trauma of that situation. My best first cousin,who was also my best friend, hung himself on Christmas 2005 and I was the one who found him hanging in his closet. It was horrible. Not only was it VERY painful, but it angered me.
(I'm getting off on a rabbit trail now so I'm going to stop)
God bless!

JD said...

Hi. I'm so sorry for your loss and what you've been through.

The truth is no one knows what happens when we die, no one, I'm an atheist, I do not believe in heaven, but I don't know what happens when I die, I suspect it's just like before my brain fired its first electrical impulse.

One way or another I try to lead a good healthy life, I'm in no rush to find out.

We as humans can do so much good, so let's all try to be healthy good people.

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