We here at Spectral Review are not paranormal investigators, demonologists, or drama critics. We don’t even play any of those on TV! But we do watch most paranormal shows and can tell the good ones from the bad.

This is the premiere episode of Ghost Hunters International so first lets identify the team.

Robb Demarest is leading the team. Robb has 20 years experience in the paranormal field. He has worked from the ground up doing every job in a paranormal investigating group at one time or another.

Andy Andrews is a familiar face from the original series and is an investigator.

Donna La Croix is a case manager as she was in the original series.

Brian Harnois is tech specialist. The job he first had on the original series before temporarily quitting.

Barry Fitzgerald was on last summers episodes that the original series did in Europe.

Shannon Sylvia from New England Paranormal joins the team. She has three years experience.

Ghost Hunters International episode report card.

“Chillingham”

The team investigates Chillingham Castle in England; the team searches the abandoned depths of Mary King’s Close in Scotland.

Ghost Hunters International visits two haunted locations. Will this series live up to the original? Can the team form and become a cohesive unit? Will Brian lose equipment like he used to do? Will Andy be less stuffy?

Case: Chillingham Castle

Client Credibility

The client representing Chillingham was Richard Marsh. There have been many other groups that have investigated the castle so it’s a fairly well known place with paranormal activity. Clearly a good place for the new series to start.

Investigation
Robb and Andy worked together and using the thermal camera were able to debunk a few common things that are often taken for paranormal activity but can be explained. A suit of armor in the camera looked strange but really was just a suit of armor. A moving weather vane also appeared ominous in the camera but clearly ended up being just what it was, a weather vane. There was a loud repeating noise which turned out to be just a window rattling.

The GHI team appears to be a bit more “jumpy” than the regular TAPS team. Donna and Shannon together lost their heads a few times and Barry Fitzgerald and Donna ran off from the lower dungeon which appeared to us to be more fear than investigation. The team will get a four out of five ghosts.

Evidence
The team came up with three EVPs which to us seemed a bit weak. First there was “Isaac”, another was “Toby” and the third was “James”. The first two EVPs did not sound very clear and there was not good speculation on what the names could have meant. The “Toby” was explained that there has been a dog spirit reported at the castle but then it wouldn’t know how to say it’s name would it??? The “James” EVP sounded the most clear and was explained that King James II was beheaded at that location. Yeah that could be it.

Case: Mary King’s Close

Mary King’s Close was explained to be a second of narrow street that was used as a foundation of a larger building. So it’s a section that used to be “open air” but now is unger the surface below a larger building.

Client Credibility
A historian by the name Roger Beale gave the group a tour and another historian Mark Clement gave background information on the area. A tour guide Cai Phillips told us how she feels uncomfortable going in parts of the Close. All seem credible.

Investigation

One of the stories was that the sound of a horse and carriage is heard. Donna and Shannon thought they here such a thing. It turned out that another team at made the sound. They were about to sync up production camera with an investigation camera to debunk this event.

Another story is about a young girl who died of disease that people leave dolls and stuffed animals in her room. Barry Fitzgerald and Brian Harnois take some dolls away and burn them. This is to provoke the young girl instead of appeasing her.

Evidence
There wasn’t much evidence collected. Brian did capture a shadow on a photograph. He took two pictures of the same area a few seconds apart and only the second photo has this shadow.

Conclusion
Overall a nice start for the spin-off series. We think they have assembled a pretty good team. With some old faces and with some new ones. We look forward to see how the investigations unfold in the coming weeks.

Next “Evil Unearthed”