Showing posts with label Ghost Adventures. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ghost Adventures. Show all posts

9 April 2017

Review: Ghost Adventures - Season 14, Episode 3 April 8, 2017 Samaritan Cult House


If you haven't seen this episode yet, you can through Amazon, click the link below.
Samaritan Cult House

Bizarrely and unexpectedly I am getting a decent amount of unique visitors for my Ghost Adventures reviews. Not many comments sadly, but plenty of people are reading them, so since I had a spare hour or so on this lovely hot Sunday I thought I would give this episode a watch.

Lets start off with the usual blurb to wet your whistle.

"Zak and the crew investigate an abandoned prison in Guthrie, Oklahoma, which in the 1990's served as the headquarters for the Samaritan Foundation, an organization with rumored ties to murder and terrorism."

It is well known that fans of Most Haunted are some of the dumbest humans on the planet. But did you know that fans of Ghost Adventures although generally quite stupid, are not totally stupid. Before I watched the episode I thought I would check out an online fan forum and see what people were talking about with regards to this episode.


There you have two fans of the show openly admitting that Ouija Boards are easily faked, and the second person even throws some facts in there.

So for that I would like to tip my hat and say "bravo" to these fans.

Unfortunately I made the mistake of reading on, and came across this highly intellectual debate.


"Demonic Shit" this is the official terminology apparently.

So as I start to watch I have to admit that Zak's narration is so wooden. I understand he is reading from a script written for him by the writers, but perhaps he could do a few reads first, just to get his cadence right. Even Yvette Fielding has mastered the art of reading from a piece of paper, and she has an IQ of 89. (Like legitimately, she took an online IQ test and got a really low score and its been an "in joke" with the cast a crew to make fun of her behind her and Karl's back.)


This is the woman mentioned above.


What a lovely friendly looking woman she is.

We learn some history about the whole story, and it is quite interesting, you should go look it up.

"Death of Allen Ross
From Wikipedia
Chicago filmmaker Allen Ross married Linda Greene and followed her cult, the Guthrie, Oklahoma-based Samaritan Foundation, as they moved from place to place following her instructions. Following Allen's murder, the group disbanded. Prosecutors believe that Linda Greene committed the murder. She died in 2002 of natural causes and was never charged. A cult member, Julia Williams, was found guilty of being an accessory after the fact to murder, by helping to bury the body in the basement. She was sentenced to two years in prison."

Zak talks to the caretaker, and asks her what she would like them to do as part of their investigation. She says that she would like them to conjure up the spirits of Linda Greene and Allen Ross. Something which lets be honest we know is going to happen regardless.

I am not saying this is just another scam episode made purely for the purpose of tourism, no I am definitely not saying that at all.

Zak has got on his breathing mask on, which I have now been told is due to a chest condition he has.



Zak has seen something through his 3rd eye. And yes it is as 'cringy' as that forum member earlier said it was.

Next up we get to hear from this guy.


Apparently he is an investigator (I assume a Ghost investigator) called Biggs and he talks about the negative energies there, how his team members have seen things including a little ghost girl. I am guessing he is auditioning for his own show on Travel Channel.

Biggs shows them around a few rooms and conveniently finds some kind of card with symbols on it, and it has the symbols of the cult on it. Yes this card has just been lying about in the dirt and rubble for over a decade and Biggs just happens upon it the moment he walks in a room we can assume he has personally "investigated" many many times before.


Clearly this is a set up, and a rather obvious one. Biggs then asks Zak if he would like to see another one, and then bends over and "finds" another card on the floor. Come on guys this is embarrassing. Don't pull stuff like this as it is dumb, even by your very low standards. Biggs clearly put the cards there, and has been told to show them to Zak. Why not have the cards in a protective glass case since historically they are of interest, don't leave them on the floor with fake dirt and aging techniques to make us believe they are the real cards used in rituals by this cult. Just look the screen grab, the card is brand new, just with dirt on it. If it was real it would be scruffy as hell and all faded.

Zak is now interviewing some lady who has investigated the property, Something else i have noticed about Zak is that he repeats back everything people say to him. For example the lady says.

"I was looking at some of Allen Ross' possessions, papers" Then we get an edit cutting her off.
And Zak repeats back to her
"You were reading letters by Allen Ross"

Look she just said that. You don't need to frame the story when she just said it.


So a big pile of letters, papers and so on, is just left in the house, years and years after a murder. No one took them for evidence, they just left them on the floor. Ok guys, we believe you!


The lady tells a story of when she was reading these letters she felt something pull her back. As in the spirit of Linda or Allen.

We cut to the car and they are examining an EVP on the laptop.
And as usual you cant make out what is said until they tell you and of course what they tell you fits their narrative of the story perfectly.

Have I mentioned that EVPs are evidentially worthless, and only an idiot who does not understand the scientific method would ever consider them as so?

From the one word "video" that is supposedly said on the EVP, Zak takes that as Allen Ross telling them they need to find a video that has never been discovered before. (Note: they never find a video, and this is never mentioned again)

We come back from the break, and Zak is telling the team there is an issue at the location, that being "black mold". And that the structure is unsafe and could collapse any second. Zak says they all have to wear respirators. The unsafe structure part is then just ignored.

Ok so here is the truth, in America even more so than the UK you have a thing called Health and Safety. If at any point anyone on any of these types of shows was in danger, filming would stop. Instantly, the kind of lawsuits that would be involved if anyone was ever in any real danger would take down production companies, and even the TV channel itself.

Is there a bit of mold at the location? yes but it is nothing dangerous, they have already been in the place and looked around. The structure will have been checked by professional structural experts for safety, and again if there was even the slightest of problems with that, they would not have been allowed in. So this whole part of the show is purely theatrics.

Back to the show and they have brought in the big guns, or big gun if you will in Darren Evans a Demonologist, he looks more like a poker player to me.


I am guessing he will be about as useless as Fred Batt is on Most Haunted.

Zak and Darren then have the most ridiculous conversation, with completely straight faces about how Darren has the ability to conjure demons. It is 2017 and I am watching grown men talk about demons as if they are a real thing.

Also Zak keeps talking about Yakult

Not sure why. Something to do with ghosties and demons.

Zak and Darren have found themselves a Ouija board and are going to have a play.

Did you know that "Ouija" is a trademark of Hasbro, Inc. Yep.
And that the Ouija Board was "regarded as a parlor game unrelated to the occult until American Spiritualist Pearl Curran popularized its use as a divining tool during World War I"

As for the board itself, it has 100% been proven to NOT contact the dead. If you blindfold all participants it stops working. And if no one is deliberately pushing it, it can also be explained using the ideomotor effect.

So with the knowledge that Ouija Boards have nothing to do with talking to the dead, have been completely debunked, and are no more than a board game owned by Hasbro, lets watch two grown men fanny about in the dark with it as if they were scared school girls from a 1980s horror film.


As they start, I quickly noticed that neither Darren or the cameraman filming them have respirators on. Although another team member elsewhere does. Hmmm.

Darren promises Zak that he is not going to push the planchette and that he will let it do it's own thing. Darren is leading the "experiment" and starts asking questions of the dead.

As they sit there with nothing really happening, Zak starts getting some muscle spasms, of course these are nothing to do with the uncomfortable way he is sat down, his slouched posture, no they must be the ghosts.

The planchette starts to move, and the camera filming it keeps going out of focus, how to fix this instantly? Swap the camera to manual focus instead of automatic focus, afterall you are filming in the dark, with two people who have head torches on.

Zak is still twitching, I am thinking it is acting now instead of genuine muscle spasms, all we need is for him to go full on "Derek Acorah possession" and then we have a TV show!

Watching them closely, they are both complicit in the moving of the planchette, Zak is definitely choosing the letters it stops on, and Darren is helping it move in the desired direction.

Zak gets up from the table claiming he was feeling weird, in some kind of trance.

Then the cameraman hears some noises in another room, which must be a ghost, they cant possibly be that of a cat or a rodent, no that would be just too big a leap of faith, must be the ghosties.

So a fair 10 minutes on the Ouija Board and all they got was "J.P." the covenient initials of a James Philips who had died at the location. All in all a huge waste of time.

Now apparently Linda Greene had a thing about barcodes, so one of the team who has a barcode tattoo is gonna play on the Ouija Board with Darren. Bet the Planchette goes crazy now.

As I predicted the planchette moves more easily, and it is clearly the team member moving it to various numbers that match his tattoo, you can tell he is leading the planchette as his head movement exposes him, his performing the movements with his head just a fraction before he moves it with his hand. This is a pretty poor investigation so far. Parlour games never impress me.

This whole segment is a set up. If you think this is real folks then you need your head checked.

Two thirds of the show in and I am starting to yawn, they have lot my attention now.

Zak sneaks back in the room and as he does the ghosties spell out
"KILL GET OUT" on the Ouija board.


Why couldn't the ghosties at least say please?

They play with the Ouija Board some more and they go through a ridiculous routine to spell out some things that personally relate to Jay, the team member doing the Ouija Board with Darren.

We've finished with the Ouija board nonsense now, and as Zak moves back into the room, in the corner to the side we see some wood fall. Despite Zak saying it "Levitated" clearly it did not. And because we are filming in night vision, it is simply not clear enough to see what really happens other than a piece of wood falling. Something that is easily set up. We are told it is a major event and definitely poltergeist. I however think nothing of the sort because I am not an idiot.

Zak then sets up that Puck ITC device thingy, you know the one, where they input a load of words related to the location, then ask it questions, and random answers come up which they then do their best to fit to their agenda.

And with that the episode ends. It was a poor episode, not very entertaining, too many obvious set pieces, some over acting and that was it.

I guess I just like a bit of science with my investigating, but these guys just want to play about in the dark and do silly things.

3/10 for the episode, would have been 4 but the wooden plank levitating stunt was a bit silly even for me.

Tweet me on @JonDonnis and send your abuse to @TheBadPsych
You can also join the Forum and share your thoughts there.
We are also on Facebook, just search BadPsychics and you will find us. We have a group to join and a page to like.

By Jon Donnis

Watch this episode on Amazon.com by clicking the link below.

7 April 2017

Review: Ghost Adventures - Season 14, Episode 2 April 1, 2017 Freak Show Murder House


If you haven't seen this episode yet, you can through Amazon, click the link below.
Freak Show Murder House

So I will admit that after reviewing Episode 1 of Season 14, I was a bit unsure if I would bother doing another one, the first half of the episode I quite enjoyed, the high production value, some interesting local characters. It was fun, but then it devolved into some truly ridiculous and clearly faked moments. The team using equipment that made no sense. And making claims that were laughable to even a small child. But I checked out the views that the article got, and like it or not it had 3 times more views than my review of Episode 2 of the new Most Haunted series that is starting soon. Perhaps this is because Ghost Adventures is airing now, and Most Haunted has yet to air. Or maybe much like the TV ratings have shown, more people watch and enjoy Ghost Adventures than Most Haunted.

So I decided to give Ghost Adventures another go, and leave my Most Haunted reviews until the show actually airs. Plus it might stop the idiots at UKTV sending me threatening emails because I "broke embargo" on the show. Dudes, me reviewing Most Haunted gets you more viewers, why do you think Karl Beattie was leaking info about Derek Acorah direct to me back in the Living TV days! Positive or Negative doesn't matter as long as they getting viewers. But the idiots at UKTV aren't that bright are they. And NO I wont remove my reviews of the first two episodes either.

Anyway mini rant over.

Onto Ghost Adventures a show just as bad as Most Haunted but with a much much bigger budget.

Blurb time.

"Zak and the crew investigate the site of a 1996 double murder in Los Angeles' Chatsworth neighborhood. The guys gather chilling evidence of paranormal activity and are lured away from the location against their will."

In the early narration Zak says "We have spent years building our credibility, our reputation", Let me state for the record right now. You guys have NO credibility, and your reputation is of amateur ghost hunters fannying about in the dark.


A very serious crime happened at the location they are investigating tonight, and Zak looks like this. Just keep in mind how disrespectful you are being to the memories of the people murdered by even making this TV show, which once again is a PR stunt for the new people who live in the house and sell morbid things from it.

As we are shown around the house, it is pretty freaky looking.
For example we have this "Haunted Doll"


It doesn't look haunted at all to me. But if it is, good job it is in a glass case, because as everyone knows ghosts can't go through glass! Right? Thats the thing isn't it. I am sure I heard that one. 

Here is the owner of the house


He looks scarier than the doll to me.


Hi missus seems ok though, definitely the secret brains of the operation I reckon.

Zak gets a gust of frigid air to his face, (Karl usually gets that from Yvette but that is a different story for a different day), and they then check all the air vents, but no it is definitely a ghost.

Already they have got out that ridiculous nonsensical useless spirit box thingy that just makes a lot of noise. And another meter that measures stuff, Zak confidentally says they have definite proof of the paranormal! We are only 7 minutes in.

Zak now interviews the kids who live in the house. Now if you really believed in poltergeist and demonic ghosts etc, would you stay there if you had children? That is how you know this is all a scam. The son Griffen Thomson tells of terrifying dreams. Now either this kid is a good actor, or is having serious mental issues, and by staying in this house and having his parents feed his delusions, they are putting his mental health at risk. That or he is in on the gig and playing along for a cut of the profits.

What do you think? If any of this was real, would you put your children in danger? Of course not. Remember ghosts do not exist. Keep that in your mind always and you can see better how these shows fake things. And talking of fake....


Yes unlike Most Haunted, Ghost Adventures are allowed to have fake mediums on their show, Patti Negri is not a real medium.

Patti Negri is shown around the house and it is claimed she does not know about the murders, and this is a legit test of her abilities.
And if you believe that you are a gullible fool and should not be left alone as you might stab yourself in the eye with a folk when you eat your beans on toast.

Also did you know that Patti Negri has her own IMDB page, and is listed as an actor and producer. Yes really, go look it up. Anyway back to the show and lets pretend she is not really a professional actor.

As she goes into the hallway she starts her performance. She starts panting like a dog, and claims she feels like she is being suffocated


Would you trust this woman? Just look at her. She makes sure to check the camera is on her when she is performing.

Zak repeats that she knows nothing about the murders. Zak is either lying directly to his audience, or he is a gullible idiot.

Zak fills her in on what happened in the house. And Patti Negri has a huge smile on her face, because she "acted" in the right place in the house.

Zak says that psychics enhance their investigations. Which right there proves that he is a gullible idiot.

The whole team now start a weird seance in the dark, because you know ghosts only come out when it is dark. Has anyone ever tried to explain why ghosts only do stuff at night?


You can fast forward through this bit, as it is all a bit silly. A candle flickers, because that is what candles do. Patti Negri is spouting some nonsense about the ghosties.

We are about half way through the episode and I am starting to lose interest now. Come on guys throw something, do something. Anything!

It is revealed that the owner of the house who is also at the seance is revealed to be wearing a satanic symbol around his neck. Didn't we have a person in the last episode do Satanic activities? Seems to be a trend. Guess it sounds good.


So it seems this ITC thingy they like to use, has lots of words inputted into it, they then ask questions and answers come out. I wonder how many words are inputted? If it is just say 20 words all connected to the "Haunting" then it would be easy when random words come out to make them fit. Regardless of that it is unscientific and evidentially worthless.


Zak does his best Karl Beattie impression as just as part of him goes into a room and off camera there is a noise in the room.


Sticking a stick figure over a blob is not detecting a ghost.
I am slighting reminded here of face swap on Snapchat, when it swaps your face with a random object. This just goes to show that such equipment is very fallible and should not be taken as proof of anything.


Here is a baby face swapping with the cooker.
Now in very low light you can understand how anomaly recognition software could fail.


Face swap with a cookie! Just to put it into perspective. Does that mean the cookie is a ghost cookie?

The best way to know if a ghost is there is to put the lights on, and film it. Filming in the dark, using over sensitive software that you do NOT understand, did NOT create, and have no idea what is going on does not mean you just captured a ghost. This kind of software is designed to look for faces, figures and so on, so will try to make them out of anything.

We now have to listen to more EVP nonsense, don't look at the screen and read the subtitle and you would have no idea what is said.


We cross to a crew member who is in the attic, and there is some "unexplained noises" As always unexplained does not mean unexplainable. 


Yes they are using the Ovilus V. So dead spirits who existed before the advent of computers are somehow now capable of manipulating a piece of technology. Yes that is what we are supposed to believe.

The rental car's alarm goes off. Guessing the ghost likes to turn car alarms on. So that explains things then. They cant appear on camera, but they can do stuff like set off a car alarm.


This is the grand finale, and it is quite funny. Zak speaks to the doll, and the spirit box replies "Killer", however i wasn't looking at the screen at this moment, and I thought it said "Ian". Make of that what you will.

Zak makes his usual claims that they captured 100% proof of the paranormal, blah blah blah. And the episode ends.

I can say with the utmost confidence that this episode did not improve their reputation, nor give them any credibility, in fact quite the opposite.

Did you see this episode? Despite it being a spoof, a written and produced TV show made purely for entertainment, did you believe any of it?

Much like episode 1, I started to lose attention at about the half way point, which is coincidentally the same point they started using ridiculous pieces of equipment. 

Will I review episode 3? Who knows, depends if I have a spare hour or so.

And with that I will say goodbye.

Tweet me on @JonDonnis and send your abuse to @TheBadPsych
You can also join the Forum and share your thoughts there.
We are also on Facebook, just search BadPsychics and you will find us. We have a group to join and a page to like.

By Jon Donnis

Watch this episode on Amazon.com by clicking the link below.

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.

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By Jon Donnis

7 April 2016

Proof of Ghost Adventures Fakery - EXPOSED!


Reddit user Yorambo noticed that the exact same scream is heard in two separate Ghost Adventures episodes.

Here is his post
"Hey you guys, long time Ghost Adventures fan here. Was just watching the season 10 halloween special, and realized something.. when Nick hears the scream when he goes into the oubliette, he is completely stunned. However, the scream is the EXACT same noise as they hear in the Lincoln County Hospital in season 11. Did anyone else notice this?"
Reddit

This is not the first time the show has been faked, and of course ALL shows like this fake stuff, they have to otherwise they would not get commissioned since nothing would happen.
I have seen some hilarious excuses from GA fans explaining this fake scream. One of the more ridiculous excuses was that it was a fox, and that fox screams always sound the same!

And you though the Most Haunted fans were dumb!

Anyway enjoy!



Video Backup incase above video gets removed.


10 March 2015

Ghost Adventures Series 10 Episode 11 "Texas Horror Hotel" - Review & Recap


Synopsis:
The GAC investigate the Magnolia Hotel in Seguin, Texas. Plagued with a history of murder and suicide, the guys try a new magnetic microphone; and see a handprint mysteriously appear.

Original US Air date: March 7, 2015

Review and Recap by Jon Donnis
Well I thought I would give Ghost Adventures another shot, my previous review and recap got me a lot of criticism, mainly from the fanboys/fangirls of the show, some of the criticism I can accept since I had never watched the show before. I was told I should see this episode or that episode, that it isn't always that boring. Every excuse under the sun. But I don't want to watch older episodes, as I never like to go backwards, I prefer to give them a clean slate, forget about the past and judge them only on the latest thing they have done. So with that here is my look at what I believe is the last episode of Season 10 which aired a few days ago in the US.

One thing that is notable about the start of this show is it's similarities to Most Haunted and their recreations, and history lessons at the start of each show. But the GA production value is clearly much higher and much better produced as a whole.

We start off with the usual fancy edits, and Zak asks someone from the hotel if it is haunted, a rather dumb question to ask since she obviously invited them to investigate, you should always doubt any claim by an establishment like a hotel or pub, for the simple fact they will use such claims for promotion and for business.

We get to hear a lot of history about the Hotel, and as a viewer we are clearly being primed with information about what has supposedly happened there, what can happen and so on.

If this was a legit investigation, this kind of information can only influence any investigator, and would make more sense if this was told at the end of the investigation and to see if it could match anything that the investigators could find out. But of course that wouldn't make for very entertaining TV especially if nothing happened during the episode. Bit like saying "well we found nothing, but apparently stuff happens, but not for us, oh well, is there a Burger King nearby?"

Again the biggest mistake of this show and the crew is the start point of believing, it shows a true ignorance of what they are doing as well as a lack of any kind of scientific methodology, but then what's to be expected of a "for entertainment only" Reality TV series.

While interviewing the owner of the hotel, she gives off so many facial clues that give away she is perhaps lying or embellishing stories, the lack of eye contact, slight smiles, looking down and so on. Also can I just mention how god awful the recreations are, like a poorly made "The Grudge" rip off. And yes I know that Most Haunted did the same kind of silly thing, but at least they had the gorgeous Mel Crump as the eye candy. Now if Ghost Adventures hired her, then I would be an instant fan.

Hang on a second, they are now at the famous The San Antonio Ghost Track, if you are unfamiliar with this, basically there is an optical illusion which makes it feel like your car is moving up hill and being pushed towards some railway tracks, this was debunked years and years ago and many times too.

The story goes that there are ghost children pushing your car, people put talc powder on your car and then look for finger prints after.

I really hope the GA crew aren't gonna "Do a Palin" and fall for a simple trick.

Here is a video explaining it.


Ok so to their credit, they easily debunk the finger prints and hand prints on peoples cars, and then they bring along a surveyor who debunks the level of the road, much like the video above.

So I have to give them credit for doing that, but the fact is it has been debunked many times before so I am not really sure why they needed to spend 10 minutes debunking something that no sane person would believe in anyway. It does go to show that you cant believe what your own eyes tell you and optical illusions do fool you. I guess for the newbie fan, or uneducated fan, such "debunktions" are a good thing and hopefully will help educate people.

We are now back at the hotel and they are investigating, and they hear a noise, and its not followed up, oh well. Now they have some fancy looking device which picks up electromagnetic fields, pure nonsense of course, but it looks nice and makes them look like they have a clue what they are doing. Let me be clear, just because someone says that a device can detect ghosts, doesn't mean it can any more than if I put a toaster on a table. Remember these people are NOT scientists, and this whole scene is rather laughable.

Back to the investigation and we are getting more bangs from off camera, of course we have no idea how many people are in the hotel, one of the woman claims she has been pushed in the back by a ghost, and since that claim, it is repeated as if it is a fact.

We then have an interesting moment whereby a digital thermometer shows 66.6 degrees just after one of the crew claims to feel a cold breeze, we are then told that "it is said that spirits can manipulate temperature, is this more than just coincidence?" Firstly I don't see anything that is coincidental in nature. Unless they are talking about The Number of the beast! But that is actually 616 as any true experienced historian would know, and that 666 only came about as an anology, and as for his claim that he felt an ice cold breeze, well for all us Brits, 66.6 fahrenheit is a very warm 19.2 celsius. So this was just the GA team desperately reaching to find something out of nothing, and getting it wrong along the way. Oh well.

Out come the digital recorders to get EVPs! What always amuses me on such shows is they have digital recorders, yet EVERY SINGLE video camera they have can pick up sound and at a much higher quality than the digital recorders, yet they never seem to pick up the nonsense that digital recorders do! That should be a big big clue as to how such things work! Think of a SLR camera taking a 50 megapixel photograph, and your phones front 1.2 megapixel front camera taking a picture of the same thing, and then wondering why your 1.2mp camera is picking up "artifacts" and "anomolies".

Great moment whereby they hear a noise, open a door and see 2 eyes staring at them, and it is a raccoon! And now we know they were never alone in the hotel! You know it really is quite embarrassing the sheer amount of useless "spirit finding" equipment they have. They might as well be waving a banana about in the dark for the actual science data it would provide.

Instead of saying "one of the unexplained spirits we have been hearing and feeling", can they just say "one of the raccoons we have been hearing and feeling". For the amount of money they have spent, the lack of any real evidence is telling, the only "unexplained" things are noises off camera.

There is a funny moment when a crew member walks into a chair, and their own equipment shows a hand print. They then try to claim that a spirit was holding it in place so it wouldn't move when walked into. I genuinely laughed out loud at this whole scene. At least it wasn't the raccoon!

And just when I thought the episode was over, one of the crew ended up having a cellar door fall on him and nearly break his hand, at least they never claimed it was the ghosties!

With just minutes before the end of the episode they decide to have a seance, and then my worse fear happened, something I had truly dreaded might happen, they start talking about ORBS! Sweet baby Jesus, even Most Haunted stopped trying to use orbs as proof over 5 years ago, any tiny amount of credibility these guys may have had is instantly destroyed by a single 3 second shot, with the following description. And just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, they have a SB11 Spirit Box! And yes it is as ridiculous as it sounds, its basically a radio constantly tuning to different frequencies over and over again, it makes a hell of a racket, it has been completely debunked, and is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard of. Steven Novella wrote a great piece about it a few years ago which you can read at...

http://www.skepticblog.org/2012/05/14/ghost-box/

How can fans of Ghost Adventures expect me to take this show seriously when they have such an incredible lack of knowledge of anything they are using!

I have to admit the previous episode I watched was just boring as nothing happened, this episode however although markedly more entertaining, has just gone to reinforce any pre-conceived ideas I had about the show and the "malarkey" that they get up to.

I know there will be people out there who watched this episode behind a cushion, got themselves all excited and scared, and those same people will be attacking and abusing me after reading this, of course none of those people will be scientists, engineers, or anyone with any true knowledge of how the various "ghost hunting" equipment really works, or the explanations of what they pick up.

If you haven't already go read that link I posted just up the page. EDUCATE YOURSELF.

Will I watch more Ghost Adventures after this one? Perhaps, but only to make fun of what are clearly uneducated fools who have no idea what they are doing. I accept the show can be entertaining, but a serious investigation into the paranormal? Not a chance in hell (the hell with 616)

That's me signing off for now.

Jon Donnis
Follow me on Twitter @JonDonnis 








3 March 2015

Ghost Adventures Series 10 Episode 10 Review & Recap


For a while now, people have been telling me I should watch Ghost Adventures, a show that follows self proclaimed ghost hunters Zak Bagans, Nick Groff, and Aaron Goodwin as they investigate locations that are reported to be haunted.

Ghost Adventures or GA for short started on October 17, 2008 on the Travel Channel in the States as a TV show, the same channel that at the time aired Most Haunted. So it is safe to say this show will be of the same style.

Ghost Adventures actually started out in 2004 as a "documentary type film".

GA has already had around 140 episodes, compared to 188 of Most Haunted. But GA is widely regarded to be a much bigger show, and has had more viewers worldwide, even the recent reboot of Most Haunted struggled in the ratings against GA on UK TV channel REALLY.

Much like MH, GA has had its fair share of controversies, one of the most widely reported is the Cowboy Bob incident, basically during a Live special Robert Bess the inventor of the "Parabot Containment Chamber" claimed that an EMF Meter was knocked violently out of his hand by ghosties! But because this was a LIVE show, everyone saw what really happened, and the hosts were forced to "debunk" it.

Much like MH, most of the times a show gets exposed as faked is during Live shows when obviously there is no time to edit and cover things up. GA got caught out, but at least they addressed it in a respectable manner.

Here is a video of their response to this incident.



Although I give them credit for addressing this, they really didn't have much choice, and i thought their fancy analysis and slow motion was a bit over the top.

Anyway there is a bit of history about the show to catch people up on what the show is about, and one of the main incidents.

I have never watched GA before, I do not know the characters, their motivations or beliefs, so as far as I am concerned I will give them a totally fresh slate and judge them as such.

Ghost Adventures Series 10 Episode 10
Official Synopsis:
The Ghost Adventures Crew, along with Darkness Radio host Dave Schrader and Bill Chappell, travels to a quiet suburb just outside of Seattle to investigate the residence of a local Bothell man who claims that a demonic entity is wreaking havoc in his home by burning bibles, throwing furniture, and burning demonic symbols in his walls.

Review and Recap by Jon Donnis
The first thing I notice while watching GA compared to MH is the much higher production values, this show is clearly quite slickly produced and directed.

They begin by talking to a man who claims his house is haunted and that Bibles have been set on fire, things thrown etc. Zak Bagans asks the man a really good question, why stay in the house? The man comes out with some bull, about being grounded at the house, having a job and so on. We get to see some home video footage, which looks blatantly faked to me. Its noted that he rents the house, so no problem to leave, yet he chooses to stay despite all of his claims. Hmmmm....

The first problem I see is that the GA crew are starting off from a position of belief, instead of skepticism. The home video footage is very very dodgy that the man has given. If any of what he had claimed was really true, there is no way you would stay in the house.

Within the first 10 minutes, I have decided that this looks like a scam by the man and woman who live in this house, attention seeking. This is just my opinion. The thing is, I know that ghosts do not exist, so that means someone in the house has to be behind it. They haven't shown any children yet, who are usually behind these kinds of things, so it has to be the adults.

They then trot out a "Paranormal Investigator" a strange looking woman called Jennifer Madsen, who instantly annoys me, a quick google of her and I cant find anything of interest on her.

She claims to do a lot of Native American Cleansing, so instantly you can understand she is a bit of a loony. Unless of course she means literally she likes to wash and clean Native Americans!

The man of the house seems to believe that it is an evil Native American spirit that is behind the haunting.

So the format of this show seems to be the first 15 minutes are history lessons, interviews with relevant parties and then the show moves on to the investigation.

One of the first things I have noticed is the lack of women on the crew at all. No screaming idiots, no sexy make up girl.

Anyway the investigators start off by reviewing Keith's (man of the house) videos, much like me they seem suspicious, so that is a good start. Although we are now nearly 20 minutes into the show, and nothing has really been done, or explained. Just a lot of talking and explaining.

Still my main issue with this show is the starting point of belief, it instantly means everything they say and do lacks all credibility, even if they are suspicious and bring up some good points. Another problem is the huge amount of people involved, so many camera guys, people watching monitors, the investigators and so on, it really adds nothing to the show, other than giving more people the chance to fake stuff.

They start off the investigation by getting Keith and his girlfriend to wonder about the house and see if they can encourage the ghosties to do something on camera. Keith seems suspiciously well rehearsed for what he is saying. As they walk about and talk to the ghosts, nothing happens, and they even act surprised that nothing is happening.

Also another thing to note is they are doing everything in the dark, yet Keiths own dodgy footage showed things happening in the day or with the lights on! Of course night vision makes everything look more spooky! You can blame the Blair Witch Project for that!

25 minutes in, and I have to say I am getting a tad bored. Although as I say that an Infra Red light belonging to the crew has gone out, as usual the claims of it being on a full battery are trotted out.

So far the only thing that has happened is that an IR light has gone out. Zak tries to claim that Tina the women who lives in the house is giving off negative energy, and that he feels nothing from the house.

Eventually Keith and Tina are told to leave and they go off to a hotel. Leaving Zak and the crew on their own in the house to see what they can find. They get to play with some fancy equipment, which in all honestly is completely useless, but they got to spend the budget on something I guess.

Thermo cams, SLS cameras, EMF meters and so on.
You could wave a banana around for all the good it would do when it comes to detecting ghosts.

What I would do right now for a Stuart Toreville to appear and suddenly throw some stones!

The GA investigators are talking out loud to the ghosts (which do not exist). Just think about this for a moment, I am sat here watching grown men, pretend to talk to ghosts while stood in the dark in some strangers house. Who is the crazier person here? Them or me? That is something I need to get my head around.

30 Minutes in and a camera has gone down! Yay! Come on you ghosties, you have to build up towards the end scenes, that's TV Paranormal Investigations 101!

The camera that has gone down is in Keith's office and the so called hub of all things that go bump in the night. After investigating it, its just a dead battery. Why don't these idiots ever plug these things directly into the mains!

The investigators are starting to get bored, and realise that nothing is happening, I think they have realised that the problem is Keith and his Girlfriend, and I am sure they are either gonna claim that the woman herself is haunted, or that Keith is faking things.

They now proudly state they are going to take this investigation to a "Maximum Scientific Level", with Electrical Engineer Bill Chappel conducts an experiment with a brand new device he invented which is basically a projector (that he did not invent) projecting some read outs onto the wall. Lots of crap like Humidity, Barometric pressure, temperature and so on.

It also has a built in EVP recording feature and a female computer voice that asks questions.

All seems like a huge waste of money to me, especially as we know that EVPs are evidentially worthless. But then again it makes idiotic believers go "wow" and "they are so professional and scientific".

Remember just cause you use fancy equipment, doesn't make you a scientist.

Either way they waste some time, and get nothing of interest happen from the machine.

Less than 5 minutes left and they have no evidence whatsoever of a haunting.

Zak desperate to try and save the show, decides to do one final walk around of the house on his own. Nothing happens, so he pulls out an digital recorder to try and get something.

Zak suddenly gets shocked, and its a bug on his face. Lol, That made me smile.

And there investigation is basically over, and nothing has happened.

Ok so what can I take from this episode, Zak comes across as a nice enough genuine man, I cant really say anything bad about him from watching this one episode. The show didn't fake anything.

I would've preferred them to take a more skeptical approach and call out Keith and his Girlfriend, since obviously they are behind the so called haunting.

Will I watch again? Not sure, probably not. You see when you have a show that doesn't fake things it is incredibly boring.
I can understand why some uneducated believers might like the show, afterall there is that old claim of "things don't always happen, so we have to show that too"

Its almost like the lack of proof is used to prove the ghosts. Its an excuse I don't buy personally.

Zak seems likeable and honest, the show has really good production values, but the rest of the crew have little to no personality, so to watch for them is pointless.

They have an over reliance on useless equipment that they really don't understand, and a starting point of belief which leaves them lacking credibility.

Watch it, don't watch it, I don't care, but can I personally as the UKs most knowledgeable and experienced skeptic, can I recommend it? NO.

Sorry guys.