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.

Ghost Hunters episode report card.

“Haunted Asylum”

The team heads to the Weston Asylum located in West Virginia.

The Ghost Hunters go to the Weston Asylum. Will a former patient make an appearance?

Quote of the episode:

“Dude, this place is huge man, hu-oooh-ga.”
– Tango

(more…)

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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.

Ghost Hunters episode report card.

“Spirits of the Old West”

The team heads to Nevada for some ghostly activity at the Goldfield Hotel.

The Ghost Hunters go to the Goldfield Hotel and then onto Virginia City to the Old Washoe Club. Will they find the ghosts of the Ponderosa?

Quote of the episode:

“They’re clever, the women of the night.”
– Tango

(more…)

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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.

Ghost Hunters episode report card.

“Ghostly Conversation”

Even entities need a place to unwind. The team looks into hauntings at the Ruff Stone Tavern and Mount Washington Resort.

The Ghost Hunters go to Kris Williams’ home state to investigate the Mount Washington Hotel. Who will they be talking to?

(more…)

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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.

Ghost Hunters episode report card.

“Haunted Air Force Base”

TAPS investigates an allegedly haunted military base in Dayton, Ohio.

The Ghost Hunters head to Dayton Ohio to see if buildings on Wright-Patterson AFB are haunted.

Case : Wright-Patterson AFB Arnold House and Building 70

Client Credibility

Greeting the Ghost Hunters and representing the USAF and Wright-Patterson AFB are Col Colleen M. Ryan and Rachel Castle. Rachel is a public affairs assistant and shows the team around. Rachel details the stories of paranormal claims. She works in building 70 and tells us about the voices heard, footsteps and other noises.

She tells us of a personal experience where she saw an apparition of a woman. This apparition looked like she was from an earlier era based upon her dress and hair style. Pretty creepy.

They go to the Arnold House and Rachel gives us the history of the home. People hear children playing and footsteps all the way up the stairs. Other personal experiences of people seeing shadow people and objects being moved.

Investigation

The investigation starts at the Arnold House.

Jason and Grant start with the thermal but really just concentrate on noises. Taps and knocks kind of rule the investigation for the most part. Which is kind of unusual for the team. It’s more of a Most Haunted tactic.

Grant asks the spirits to close the bathroom door. Unfortunately we don’t really see the door move. We do see that it is open and then see is nearly shut but don’t really see it move.

Kristyn and Kris try to get EVPs but don’t do much other than that this episode.

Jason and Grant test the spirit to turn a flashlight on and off. It was pretty amazing to see the flashlight turn on as it sat on the floor. Grant was taking EMF readings at the time and they did seem to increase. A pretty interesting sequence.

Tango and Steve take some EMF in another room and it does seem to fluctuate while they had it on a table. Another interesting sequence.

They move to Building 70 the next night.

Jason and Grant think some black mass is blocking the view of a light. It was an interesting sequence but it’s something that is not on camera at all. They hear some more taps.

Kristyn hears a “growling” sound and asks if it’s Kris’ stomach. It’s good to see Kris’ stomach featured once again this season. That makes three out of five episodes it’s been a player.

Evidence

Some personal experiences and tapping and knocking noises rule this episode. Jason and Grant did have their flashlight experiment and the door that closed.

They did find a recording of the taps that Jason and Grant had heard with their ears in Building 70.

No EVPs this episode.

Conclusion

This episode was entertaining. It was different since they had unusual events with the flashlight and bathroom door moving.

As they mentioned a couple of times in the show, it was cool that they had the opportunity to investigate on a working Air Force base. And the Air Force was represented well by Col Ryan and Rachel Castle.

It was great to get the tour of the Air Force cargo plane. Jason should have said “This plane is huge.”

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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.

Ghost Hunters episode report card.

“Ghostly Bounty Hunter”

TAPS investigates an estate in Ohio that was known as a haven for runaway slaves during the Civil War; the team tries to help a Massachusetts family that is plagued by shadowy figures in their home.

The Ghost Hunters head to Ohio to hunt for a hunter.

Case: Medeiros’ House

Client Credibility

The family was Amy and Tony. They report shadows coming down the stairway. Noises in kitchen. Feeling of someone watching. A night camera that monitors their child has shown the young girl to seem to be interacting with someone. Their teenager tells us of an incident where he saw a six foot tall person on the second floor.

Very credible family.

Investigation

It’s really cold the night of the investigation. They need to bundle up!

They have to setup outside and the coldness makes their work more difficult.

Jason and Grant feel they hear someone walking up the front steps yet no one is there. Jason goes in the crawl space and thinks he sees a shadow.

They have some personal experiences but thats about it.

Evidence

Nothing other than footsteps and noises they heard with their ears. So it’s just some personal experiences on this case.

Case: Prospect Place Mansion

Client Credibility

We are shown the property by George Adams the great-great-grandson of the original owner. The basement might have spirits from slaves who were passing through the underground railroad. They tell us of the young girl who died and couldn’t be buried since it was winter.

They tell us of a hanging in the barn in the back of a bounty hunter.

Investigation

It’s really cold in Ohio. They go to the top floor and try to get the child to move the ball.

Tango and Steve try to do EMF readings talking about the girl who died by falling over the balcony. They also try to do some EVP work.

Jason and Grant use the thermal going toward the barn area and think they catch something on the camera. It’s a black blob in one of the window areas. Like it was watching them. It’s real cold out and black represents the coldest temperature. So it must be very cold. It can’t be an animal as it would be warmer since it was below zero temperature.

Probably just a glitch on the camera.

Jason and Grant send Tango and Kris to the third floor because they know that bats are up there. Thats just mean. Yuck yuck yuck. Now if they sent Steve that would have been funny.

Evidence

Again just personal experiences on this case. The thermal camera was interesting but probably just a glitch.

Conclusion

One of the weaker episodes. Just not much going on at all. Both locations were very cold and must have made investigating pretty difficult. So just because of that fact you have to give them credit for their work.

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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.

Ghost Hunters episode report card.

“The Fear Cage”

TAPS investigates a bed and breakfast in Gettysburg, Pa. that served as quarters for Confederate officers and their staff during the Civil War.

The Ghost Hunters finally get to Gettysburg. Will the Cashtown Inn deliver the goods?

Case: The Cashtown Inn

Client Credibility

The couple that owns the Cashtown Inn seemed very credible. The husband is a man by the name of Jack Paladino and describes himself as a skeptic. Many claims of the paranormal have occurred at the Inn for all the years they have owned the property, however Mr. Paladino tells us he always just shook off these claims. He wants the Ghost Hunters to find some hard evidence and then he would change his tune.

Investigation

They have a TV mysteriously turn off and on several times. After the third time Tango noticed it always happened when he was using the walkie-talkie. Do you think he thought of it because we were yelling at the TV “it’s the walkie-talkie!” OK, just kidding on the yelling at the TV part but we did notice it on the second TV power-on event.

Jason and Grant head to the third floor to the Robert E. Lee room. They hear footsteps pretty loudly. Jason then says he feels a cold spot next to him on the couch. Unfortunately the camera Grant has is not a thermal camera. It was probably just a mini DV camera. The thermal could have confirmed Jason’s observation.

Tango and Kris go to the basement. Kris gets nauseous and luckily makes it to the bathroom before upchucking. Perhaps the gurgling stomach from the Clapp library returns? OK, thats not why. We could see tons of electrical wire dangling from the ceiling of the basement and high EMF readings were confirmed by Jason and Grant.

Kris wants to go back to the basement and they try to get EVPs. She feels sick again.

Jason tells us the basement is a “fear cage”. Because of the high EMF it can cause people to have all sorts of adverse effects. Hence the title of the episode.

Since the team is staying at the Inn they are able to setup cameras in their room while they are sleeping. Very similar to their experiences they have had at the Stanley in Colorado, they can setup these cameras in their rooms.

Evidence

The first piece of evidence was the footsteps in the third floor. It’s hard to imagine for the sound to be created by having someone walking on the second or first floor.

An EVP from the basement with Tango and Kris didn’t really sound convincing to us. It sounded just like a “tick”, nothing like a “yes” to Tango’s question.

Probably the most interesting evidence from the series ever was the 5×7 photograph being rotated on the table in Grant’s room. Just incredible footage. This was from setting up the camera before they went to sleep. Grant said it was just two minutes after he turned on the camera. It was a lucky and great catch.

Conclusion

The series hit’s a home run here. Just a terrific show with some awesome evidence. This puts season four back on track as the best season yet.

Just a small note. It’s nice when they have one investigation per episode. Then there is time to show them interact. They included a scene with Steve and Tango when they were analyzing the evidence. The scene was entertaining as Steve was giving Tango a hard time with his funny colored head phones.

Apparently at least, Steve wasn’t afraid of them.

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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.

Paranormal State episode report card.

“The Sensitive”

Black mists that may have demonic influence haunt a girl; Chip Coffey joins the team on the case and makes a psychic connection.

Paranormal State deals with a demon. Is this the comeback of the demon who shall remain nameless?

This is the last episode for the Paranormal State first season. Will it be a winner?

Client Credibility

The client is a teenager named Liana who lives with her family in Allentown, Pennsylvania. We are told that she does have some personal problems. She has felt tired and sick. And Liana tells us she has had difficulty emotionally and physically. Her “paranormal thing” did appear at the same time these problems did so she wonders if it is connected.

Liana has seen dark mists in her room.

Ryan appears to think that she might have a “possession” problem. He explains there are different kinds of possession. A spirit or a negative demonic could be the culprit.

Liana seems very credible. She might be confused and have problems other than the paranormal but she tells us basically she doesn’t know what is going on herself.

Investigation

They find high EMF ratings in the crawl space behind Liana’s bed. At about the location where she would lay her head down to sleep. They are not clear if this is normal bad wiring EMF or if they believe it’s somehow paranormal. Seems like to us it’s something electrical and we wonder if they really tried hard to debunk.

Ryan put some blessed medallions underneath her bed. Claiming that if there was possession going on she would not be comfortable in that bed. We hear later that she slept well.

Next they do “dead time”. They try to get some EVPs. They decide to go to the craft room where Liana feels uneasy to try to get EVPs. Katrina hears a weird noise. They investigate another room down the hall.

Katrina doesn’t like the room. Katrina doesn’t like the door. And Herbie doesn’t like to make toys.

Ryan opens the door and finds a sign that has the word ‘Hell’ on it in several places. Next we are treated to a commercial. As the show commences Ryan says “someone has failed to finish the word ‘hello’.” Then that’s it. Nothing more.

Someone doesn’t like the letter ‘o’.

Totally makes sense that someone would write ‘Hello’ but leave the ‘o’ off and do them last all at once…but never get back to finish it!

Next Chip Coffey is up after Ryan concludes that he was wrong about possession. So it’s official, that demon not to be named from the beginning of the series didn’t make a return visit to this final episode.

Chip ends up saying Liana is a medium. She seems to be discovering this herself. They did feel individually that a young African-American girl appears in the home. Liana tagged her name starting with the letter ‘A’. Chipper thought her name was Amanda.

Evidence

They thought that they caught one EVP. A humming spirit showed up during a second dead time. Apparently this spirit didn’t know the words. But several of the people heard it with their own ears during dead time. So it was kind of unique for this show, to actually get an EVP.

They did debunk a light in Liana’s room turning up at one point. Her bed appeared to be ruffled. Nothing on video showed her bed changing so that seemed to be debunked also.

Conclusion

Actually we thought this episode was one of their better ones. They did appear to catch one EVP, even though they didn’t let us hear it on the show. It did look like Ryan and the team helped their client which is very good.

So thats it for this series for now. We haven’t heard if the show is going to return for a second season. Shows created by cable networks are much more tight-lipped about these things. We have not read any press releases touting rating successes that would give us an idea that it will be back.

Let’s hope so. This show does have potential and a second season could be better.

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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.

Ghost Hunters episode report card.

“Words From Beyond”

The night custodian at Clapp Library in Belchertown, Mass., witnesses odd activity; strange activity takes place in a house for a family’s four generations.

The Ghost Hunters investigation a library and a home. So what are these words from beyond?

Case: Clapp Library in Belchertown

Client Credibility

The client was Jacques Benoit who is the night custodian. He told us of a few incidents. Seeing an apparition and books moving by themselves on the shelves. He said things happen quite often.

He seemed very credible.

Investigation

Jason was sick and missed most of the investigation. Actually he didn’t miss much since nothing really happened. Kris felt like her hand was touched while Tango was feeling a cold spot.

At one point while Kris and Tango were in the basement, an electronic children’s book made a sound which at first did sound pretty creepy. But most likely just a low battery which sometimes causes those kind of toys to do something like that.

The team did their usual good work, there just wasn’t much going on. Interestingly they did show Kris doing some research on the building which isn’t something they have shown in the past. Probably just something to throw in since nothing was showing up on video or audio.

Evidence

Zippo on the evidence this time!

Case: Attleboro House

Client Credibility

This house was owned by the same family for four generations and is now a duplex. Which is unusual in itself but doesn’t mean anything paranormal is going on. As Grant points out is it real or just stories passed down from father to son.

The client showing Jason and Grant around is Scott Boulet who is the home owner. The creepiest thing in this episode was that his voice was the same as Brian Harnois! If you closed your eyes and just listened you’d swear it was Brian acting as a client.

Was Brian pulling a Shannon Sylvia????

Creepy.

The Scott-Brian guy tells us of an apparition sitting in a chair in one room. Another story is a man in the corner of the daughters room. As the father ran to the room he had trouble opening the door.

Then we are told of a shadow in the other side of the house.

Investigation

Jason and Grant do their usual thermal pass. Just don’t find anything with the thermal nor the EMF.

They do try to debunk the shadow that the family has been seeing. They drive the Yukon by and see if the headlights cause any unusual shadow action. Steve says the shadows are obvious and wouldn’t be confused with what the homeowners are seeing.

Grant and Jason heard a noise in the kitchen and did a nice job of debunking it. A floor board was loose causing the refrigerator to move which made something on the refridgerator to make noise.

While trying to get an EVP some bell that is near the entertainment center started to make noise. They setup a camera pointing at it to see if they get anything on video.

They ended the investigation with Tango and Kris. Tango made Kris laugh because apparently Kris’ stomach made noise. We didn’t hear it on TV but maybe they got something on the audio.

Tango made us laugh too. It was a nice scene.

Evidence

Only odd thing was the bell noise but nothing showed up on video. No EVPs either. Not even the Kris stomach noise showed up on the audio.

Conclusion

It’s unusual they they put two dud investigations in the same episode. But if you don’t find anything then thats the way it goes. It was creepy to listen to the client Scott-Brian guy but other than that not much going on here.

So how did they come up with the title “Words From Beyond”??? Maybe should have been “Stomach Gurgle from Beyond”

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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.

Paranormal State episode report card.

“The Knickerbocker”

The PRS investigates a report of strange noises and phantom children at the Knickerbocker Hotel in Linesville, Pa.

Paranormal State goes to Linesville PA to investigate The Knickerbocker Hotel. Truth or debunked?

Client Credibility

The client was a woman by the name of Peg Knickerbocker. She was very emotional as she told Ryan and the team of seeing a dark shadowy figure. She told us that she has had seances in the building and is concerned she attracted something evil. She continued on to say that many people in her family had issues recently including dropping dead. Which is sort of a serious issue.

She was concerned and upset that she brought this bad luck onto them by dabbling in the supernatural.

Later on when she “told the evil one to leave”, the building lost power for a few seconds. She was convinced that the evil spirit left and the power outage was the sign.

Sorry to say but to us she seemed a bit fruit loops. We understand that people can get upset and what is shown on TV is just a small part of a person conversing with Ryan but she definitely didn’t come off with the best image.

Investigation

Ryan and the team listened to the claims of the client and actually tried to debunk them. It was good to see the team do this in this episode. We assume that PRS does try to debunk the claims but in this series they have not shown them doing so too much. So thats a good job.

Usually this team excels at investigating the historical aspect of a haunting but we didn’t get that this time. There could be three reasons why:

• They didn’t have time to show us in the episode
• Nothing turned up when they looked
• They thought the lady was wacko and didn’t bother

Evidence

The show was not clear on if they captured any EVPs at “dead time”. It appeared that the team was hearing voices or noises a lot but we really don’t know if they captured anything.

They showed Ryan listening to something and muttering “maybe play it backwards” or something like that. So we assume they did not find anything.

Conclusion

It was an entertaining show and we were happy to see the team try to debunk some claims for a change. And they showed (to us anyway) that they really didn’t believe the client’s claims of the paranormal.

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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.

Ghost Hunters episode report card.

“Two to Tango”

The team investigates the Burlington County Prison. The jail is now a museum.

The Ghost Hunters head to Tango’s home town on the suggestion of Tango’s Father. So it’s two to tango…

Case: Burlington County Prison Museum

Client Credibility

The case was brought to TAPS by Dave Tango’s Father. He is a ex-cop and amateur ghost hunter. We are told that Mr Tango was just “creeped out” by the Burlington County Jail. So it’s unusual that they investigate a place because of just feelings of an investigator. Hopefully when they get there they will learn more claims of hauntings.

They are shown the prison by Marisa Bozarth who is a museum attendant. She had some experiences and she wants TAPS to find evidence so she can have something to back up her story. She told us of a shadow person that crossed her path. She felt as it went by her that it’s head turned and looked at her. She shows them another room where voices have been heard.

Then they go to the dungeon which was a solitary confinement cell. A prisoner who was executed at the jail is supposed to haunt the cell. People have smelled cigarette smoke even though no one is allowed to smoke in the jail.

Next they go to the basement and she tells a story of her and another worker experiencing another shadow with a nasty smell.

Investigation

Jason and Grant smell cigarette smoke. They don’t seem to be able to debunk it.

Kris and Tango try to get EVP in the “women’s wing”. They do an experiment where Kris whispers in one cell and Tango can hear it several walls away.

Steve and Tango get an odd EMF reading by the gallows. And Steve thought he saw a shadow. Nothing on camera though. Tango feels he smells blood and gets the chills.

Jason and Grant see a light and are able to debunk that it is a reflection, probably from a car driving by outside.

The team has a lot of personal experiences. They seemed to put more weight on these personal experiences than they have in the past. To the point that Kris and Tango are asked to go to the third floor to see if they feel anything. It’s weird because just the suggestion of it kind of ruins the experiment. And they don’t usually put much weight on these kind of things. Weird.

Evidence

They find one piece of interesting evidence. It’s on the thermal camera. Something appeared to move across the camera. What we have always questioned is when they thought they have caught something on the thermal, it’s had a heat signature. And it’s been warmer. When we usually hear that spirits create cold spots, we have wondered why the thermal would then show them with a heat signature that was warmer. This particular thermal movement doesn’t appear at a different temperature. We usually see this temperature difference via color, it being a yellow or white. So it’s possible this is different than anything else they have ever gotten.

We wonder if they turned off the “color” on that camera. Can the camera be setup to display a particular color range? Could it just be set to a gray scale? It did look just black and white to us. That is a question I would like to ask Jason and Grant.

Case: McArthur’s House

Client Credibility

We meet the person who looks to be doing Donna’s old job of briefing Jason and Grant on the next investigation. Her name is Heather Drolet. She is an investigator and does accompany them on this case.

The case is about a four year old daughter who is having trouble sleeping in her room. Claiming spirits are bothering her.

The mother of the child is Teresa and she tells us some of their experiences. The grandmother tells of hearing a voice and having creepy feelings. Teresa tells us that the child has been checked out by her doctor and she seems OK.

Investigation

They debunk a plumbing problem. A faucet seems to turn on by itself. It’s old and they sell her a new one. Just kidding.

They debunk a door that can be easily moved with a good gust of wind. One of the claims was the door slamming shut. There are two large windows in the room which they determine could easily cause the door to slam.

They find high EMF readings in the basement due to electrical wiring. Probably the cause of creepy feelings by the adults in the home.

Evidence

No evidence was captured. But thats because the home is not haunted. The debunking they did seemed to solve the clients problem.

Conclusion

Not a lot going on in this episode. The team did their usual good investigation but not much turned up. The team did have some personal experiences which is fine but they did seem to weigh them much more then they have in the past.

We have questions on the thermal evidence they captured. And questions on the camera itself on how it works.

Not one of their stronger episodes.

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