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.

“Freshman Fear”

Ryan investigates the claim of a student who says she has seen a ghost in her dorm room.

Paranormal State wonders if a student dorm room is haunted by a former student.

Client Credibility

Well it was inevitable. Ryan and the Penn State team were due to investigate a haunting on campus. For a couple of reasons it’s a natural fit. They are a college paranormal group for one thing. Plus there have been so many movies made involving college students on campus being chased by ghoulish creatures that it must be a common theme. We would think every college campus on the planet has their share of ghost stories.

The client is a student by the name of Lauren. Her story is she has seen an apparition of a girl a couple of times in her dorm room. The twist to her story that she has been playing a game that involved telling ghost stories. It was called “A hundred tales of horror.” The idea is to light a candle, tell a ghost story them blow out the candle. It is supposed to attract spirits.

She seemed sincere but it sure looked like to us that it was a high probability that she just spooked herself with this game.

Investigation

The team excels at researching a haunting. We have seen this episode after episode. This episode follows that track.

One thing that puzzles us is that they do not do “dead time” in the dorm room itself. Ryan says it’s because the room is too small and too noisy. We think it’s more likely that the room is too small to film the dead time. At three AM even a college dorm would be on the quiet side. Sure not totally quiet but it seems quiet enough. But having the room to have an investigator or two plus the cameramen wouldn’t work.

So they decide to play the game themselves. It seems to be an odd choice. It makes for an entertaining show but it doesn’t seem like something to do to help this student. So they regroup and decide maybe it’s better to concentrate on Lauren’s case. Ryan calls in a local psychic by the name of Shaurie. She gives them some things to check out but a trip to the police station does not reveal any kind of story to match to the haunting. The chances were not good in the first place as the details were very loose.

So the team returns to the idea that maybe Lauren was just scared by the game and urban legends that are known on campus. They do a “dead time” on one of the more popular ghost stories on campus. Again the possibility that this spirit being the ghost haunting Lauren are slim and none. It’s all just kind of silly.

Evidence

No evidence. No EVP. No video. The only thing even to remotely mention is batteries draining on their electronic equipment.

Conclusion

At least Ryan and the team do conclude that there probably isn’t anything here. But this episode goes into the category of why air it. It wasn’t very entertaining. It didn’t shed light on anything new in the paranormal world. It seems it’s in the category that we paid for 20 episodes, so we are going to air 20 episodes.

Did we really need to be told that young college students can scare themselves with overactive imaginations? Umm…we knew that!

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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.

“Fort Mifflin”

The team investigates Fort Mifflin in Philadelphia; TAPS conducts the first investigation into a newly discovered underground holding cell.

It’s great to have the Ghost Hunters series back for season four. The first episode of the season lead off with a bang.

Case: Fort Mifflin

Client Credibility

Since this episode is about an historic site rather than a haunting a person or family is experiencing, the credibility of the client is not as critical. The person who does show Jason, Grant and Steve around is a man by the name of Wayne Irby who is the caretaker of the fort.

He brings them to the dungeon area. He tells us a story of a Revolutionary soldier being seen standing by a fireplace. He then brings them to the officers quarters. He tells the story of the “screaming lady” Elizabeth Pratt. She committed suicide after the death of her daughter.

The executive director of the fort Lee Patrick Anderson tells a story of giving a tour of the building to some young school children. Their faces turned ashen as many of them saw an apparition of Elizabeth. It was a really creepy story to say the least.

Next they are shown the Casemate 11 which has recently been discovered. We are told of the story of William Howe who was hung for murder and desertion.

Investigation

The team is a little light for this episode. Just five people including Jason Hawes, Grant Wilson, Dave Tango, Steve Gonsalves and Kris Williams.

Jason and Grant try to capture EVPs in the officers quarters to try to get something from Elizabeth. Jason believes he hears “Mommy” at one point. They hope they get something on the equipment.

Next Steve and Tango go to the Blacksmith shop. They try to get EVPs. Steve jumps because of his fear of spiders.

Grant and Jason go to Casemate 5. They have the thermal camera and notice a warm spot on one of the cots. Grant and Jason head to Casemate 11. The Casemates are underground and are narrow. Jason thinks he sees something scurry. He did not like being in a tight space underground. It’s odd because we have never heard that from him before. So they get Kris to try to go down in Casemate 11. She doesn’t last too long but did try.

Jason and Grant head back to Casemate 11. Grant sees a face which naturally startles him. He drops his flashlight and unfortunately nothing is caught on camera as it’s pointed at Grant, not at the window. A really nice personal experience.

It seems that they wanted to highlight that the investigators do have fears while searching these places. It was interesting because they haven’t done that in the past. Tango also couldn’t last in the Casemate 11. Looks like Brian might be wishing he stayed on this series!!

Evidence

Some nice evidence collected. Some very clear EVPs. The “Mommy” EVP did happen as Jason heard. Actually it was said twice and it was very clear. Another EVP was “the boss wants it deeper”. A little less clear but it sounded like that to us.

The next EVP was “can I get some water sir?” Not real clear but they realize that about at that time a cameraman was taking a swig of water from a bottle.

The thermal revealed the most interesting evidence. And it tied in one of Wayne Irby’s stories. The story was that an apparition has been seen standing by a fireplace. They caught a heat signature that looked like a human figure. Very amazing.

The last thermal evidence showed something that looked like footsteps walking away from the wall and then back before disappearing.

Conclusion

Wow, a terrific start to season four! The thermal of the soldier by the fireplace is right up there with anything they have gotten on that camera. We are wondering about the thermal footsteps though. We wish they showed us trying to debunk it. Some real terrific EVPs collected.

They showed that even these veteran investigators can get scared and startled going into these creepy places. If I were to go into some of those places I would probably be the one saying “Mommy”.

Looks like season four is going to be hot.

Next Episode “Two to Tango”

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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.

“Mothman”

Ryan and his team travel to Point Pleasant, West Virginia to investigate the mysterious Mothman.

The Mothman is a legend right up there with the Yeti, Lochness Monster and Champ from Lake Champlain. It’s interesting that Paranormal State decided to investigate.

Client Credibility

This episode again strayed away from the normal formula. So we suppose the “client” in this episode would be the town of Point Pleasant itself. Or one could say the legend of Mothman was the client. Either way since this investigation is different as it is an investigation of a legend and not a haunting that a person or family is experiencing.

Ryan and the team were able to interview two of the original witnesses to the Mothman. The original event was witnessed by two couples driving in a car. Both women were interviewed. Their names are Linda Scarberry and Faye Dewitt. Linda Scarberry claims to have seen the Mothman hundreds of times. Faye Dewitt just told us of the original story bits of the Mothman following them in their car and she looked outside the car window and saw the red eyes.

Investigation

The team talked to Jeff Wamsley who owns the Mothman Museum. His father had taken pictures and eight millimeter film footage of the famous Silver Bridge collapse. They showed some images with white streaks. Most likely of course just a normal film anomaly.

Chip Coffey appeared on this episode. The team relied on Chip more so than any other episode in this series. Since the search was on for the Mothman legend, we can understand that more scientific methods may not have much value on a case involving a legend.

During “Dead Time” they go over to the site of the bridge collapse. Chip describes feelings of the people in the accident. Chip relays feelings on how they died, on how it was quick. Then Chip days “If I die I hope it’s that way.” Got news for you Chipper, it’s “when” not “if”.

But then again if he didn’t misspeak, then when quoting him in the future we will have to say “In the immortal words of Chip Coffey…”

Apparently some birds fly away which startles the team. Chip and Ryan claim to see some red light.

We think it’s most likely this was put in the video during post production. Add a little drama to the show.

Chip talked about a Native American feel to the location. Ryan decides they should research this aspect of the Mothman story to maybe see if they can look at it in a new light. The team does excel in the research aspect of these investigations so it’s probably a good idea.

So they talk to more town people about the Chief Cornstalk incident. This Native American was apparently killed by settlers. While Cornstalk was dying he placed a 200 year curse on the town. Some town folk say the town has been cursed, not much economic activity and there is no denying that the town has had hard times. Of course this must be because of the curse.

For World War II, a local TNT factory was built and used in the war effort. It’s explained that it might have been built on Indian burial ground. This could very well be the case. They tie in the Mothman because it was seen near this old factory.

The next night they decide to go to the TNT factory area where the Mothman was first seen. They get out the night vision cameras. They talk about some geese being in the area which was odd since it was winter. We hear a odd sound and something blocks out the night vision camera going from left to right in front of the camera’s view.

Again it’s probably a post production effect. There is not an identifiable figure blocking the view, just a passing darkness. The image above shows this darkness as it nears the completion of it’s pass through the camera’s view.

Evidence

Not really any evidence collected.

Conclusion

Overall we liked this episode. It was entertaining. Since it was an investigation of a legend we knew it really wasn’t going to go anywhere in the gathering of paranormal evidence when we read the show description.

But that’s OK since this episode wasn’t about helping anyone with a haunting. It was an interesting look into one of those legends that have intrigued people over the years. But legends are that, just legends and something that is near impossible to disprove or prove.

If every episode was like this one, we would not watch this series. But to do one of these in a season of 20 half hours is acceptable.

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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.

“Asylum”

The PRS explores a New York state prison that was once a mental asylum.

Paranormal State takes a turn in the series and investigates an institution instead of a haunting being experienced by a person or family.

Client Credibility

This episode in this series was different than any other so far. There really wasn’t a client in this episode. At least not like their other episodes. It was more like a Ghost Hunters International location but without the legend.

We were shown the grounds by Melvin Williams the current superintendent of the facility which is a drug rehab center. And Michael LePage, a staff member told us of a sighting of a apparition. Another staff member Lisa Bordeaux told a story of feeling someone was near her and a door opening.

Investigation

Chip Coffey appeared on this episode. He felt there were many active spirits. Then another spirit that he thought was a nurse or someone who was trying to help the “trapped” spirits by the name of “Lucy”.

They use a controversial tool called a “Frank’s Box”. It’s been used by Christopher Moon and is known as a “telephone to the dead”. You can watch a demonstration video.

We think what is dangerous about this device is that it could be something that could be a hoax. It’s not an “off the shelf” device like a digital recorder that is often used in EVP collection. Since the device is designed to pick up radio waves it seems to us very exploitable by someone who wants to perform a hoax. We are NOT saying this is what happened it’s just bothers us because there is a lot of room for a hoax here.

Using the device it reports that a demon is present and a strong one at that. To be honest we thought for a moment that the demon from an earlier episode was back. But this appears to be a different demon and it’s holding the spirits back from moving on.

Then when the device falls to answer it’s claimed by Frank that the demon is holding everyone back. Then when Chip Coffey starts spraying holy water the box appears to say “stop that eff-ing spraying”. That was what we are told the box said by Frank but to us on TV it was inaudible. Does that Demon’s Mother know what comes out of it’s mouth?

What is good is that Ryan and the team are skeptical of the box. We are glad that they just don’t buy it hook, line and sinker.

They do go onto trying to find “Lucy” who might have been a nurse. The superintendent and a former nurse are not able to shed any light on anyone who may have worked at the facility.

Evidence

The “Frank’s Box” was the only evidence gathering device highlighted really. It did claim to find “Lucy” as did Chip Coffey. The box is such in doubt though it’s hard to trust it as evidence.

Conclusion

They did put together a service for the mostly unmarked graves in the cemetery on the property. They also perform a ceremony with Lorraine Warren to try to help the spirits.

Overall an interesting episode. The team usually excels at the historical research of a location but this episode didn’t come up with any historical details that matched up. They did try but just didn’t come up with anything. It was great that the team was skeptical on “Frank’s Box”.

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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 International episode report card.

“Frankenstein’s Castle”

The gang heads to Germany to investigate the Castle Frankenstein remains.

Ghost Hunters International visits just one location in this episode. It is the season finale for a very successful first season of this series. We look forward to more seasons to come.

Case: Frankensteins’s Castle

Client Credibility

The client was a man by the name of Walter Scheele. We are told he is a Frankenstein expert which as we watch we realize is true. He tells us of the history of the castle and one man who lived there in 948 by the name of Arborgast Von Frankenstein. The family of Frankenstein lived at the castle until 1602. At one point Johan Konrad Dippel Von Frankenstein lived at the castle and was known as a grave robber. Mr Scheele tells us he did experiments on body parts and he was a “blood brother to the devil.” Sounds like a nasty fellow and must have been the inspiration for Mary Shelley’s story.

Mr Scheele was very credible.

Investigation

Josh Gates of Destination: Truth was along on this investigation. He brought a bit of humor and personality to the episode which actually was kind of nice. We usually just like to have the show concentrate on EVP, video and other evidence gathering but the couple of witty lines Josh said were entertaining and added something extra.

The team did do their usual good job of investigation. This episode had more than the usual amount of personal experiences. Donna LaCroix, Brian, Robb and Andy all saw some shadows. Donna claimed to see/feel a shadow behind her while a camera was pointed near her but nothing was seen on the video.

Evidence

Nothing was found on any their video recordings. They did capture a couple of EVPs that might have been in a language other than English. The EVPs were validated by Walter Scheele. One of the EVPs was described by Mr Scheele as an old German dialect saying “Arborgast is here!” It was a nice tie-in to earlier in the show where it was described that Arborgast Von Frankenstein’s spirit was haunting the castle.

Conclusion

Overall a pretty good show. This episode was the final one for this first season of Ghost Hunters International. It looks like the network and producers were willing to invest in only six episodes for this team. We here at Spectral Review believe there will be more produced. The hard ratings numbers for the most part have not been made public but the show did have a strong debut. It all depends on if the show was able to maintain a good level of viewers. We hope so because the show is done pretty well and the team did a nice job in these six episodes.

There are so many interesting places in Europe that could use a TAPS style of investigation and this series can concentrate on places that are filled with legend and lore.

Previous “Headless Haunting”

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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.

“Requiem”

Ryan and the crew head to Allentown, Pa., to investigate a 19th-century home and barn belonging to a young woman and her mother.

Paranormal State has one of their best episodes to date.

Client Credibility

The homeowners are a family by the name of Warren. The daughter is college aged and tells us that she has always felt uncomfortable in the home since they moved in when she was a young girl. She had felt something touch her neck. Not a choking feeling, more like a brushing feeling. When she was younger her parents brought her to doctors to try to help her in traditional ways.

She seemed very credible.

Investigation

Another terrific job of investigation by the team.

The owners had told them of a previous owner who had committed suicide in the barn behind the home. The story is of a man named Jim Barnes who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and did not want to be a burden on his family. The team interviewed people who knew Mr Barnes and Ryan spoke on the phone with his widow. Jim Barnes was a retired military man.

Chip Coffey appeared on this episode and confirmed that a spirit was in the barn and wanted nothing to do with the team. Also Chip felt a young male presents in the home. The team talked with former owners of the property who owned the home before Jim Barnes and they learn that a young boy named Walter had died in the home.

Ryan and the team do a terrific job researching and are able to talk to people to get details of the story.

Evidence

Not much evidence to highlight for this investigation. They had some camera issues that seemed a bit odd but most likely just computer/camera hardware issues. A door did open by itself but wasn’t caught on camera.

Conclusion

This episode was one of this series best. We love how Ryan and the team research and find people who can shed light on the spirits involved.

They brought an honor guard in perform a ceremony to honor Jim Barnes for his service to his country. It was a terrific idea for them to do.

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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 International episode report card.

“Headless Haunting”

The team visits a German fortress whose chambers are haunted by the spirit of a beheaded 13th century nobleman. Then it’s off to Slovakia where the team separates legends from facts in the dark halls of Orava Castle.

Ghost Hunters International visits two locations. A castle in Germany and one in Slovakia.

Case: Orava Castle

The Orava Castle is just one of many castles in Slovakia built in the 13th century. It was built and added onto over the centuries.

Client Credibility
The team was shown around the castle by Peter Palka who is a local historian. He says he believes in a “higher power” so we interpret that to mean he has an open mind about the paranormal. He shows the team the newest part of the castle that was built by the Thurzo family. Juraj Thurzo’s wife Elizabeth is known as the “Black Lady” as her spirit has been seen wearing black clothes.

Peter leads the team on the upper level which is an older part of the castle. This part of the castle was built during time of war with the Turks and wars between Protestants and Catholics. He tells of a story where the Archbishop was bricked into a wall during the 15th century.

Next they go to the citadel part of the castle, the oldest part of the castle. The story there is about the “White Lady”. The owner of the castle at the time was known as a rough and angry guy. At one point he cut his wife’s arm off and she died two days later. The story continues years later when he was in his death bed dying she appeared before him in white wedding clothes and she told him she forgives him. What a good sport!

Peter doesn’t at this point tell us the name of the man and this “White Lady”.

Peter seemed very credible.

Investigation

Robb and Andy begin in the “torture” room with the thermal camera. They heard a door noise and followed where it lead but did not find anything.

Brian and Barry go to the citadel part of the castle to try to catch the lady in white. They try to capture some EVPs. Barry feels being touched and both of them see some shadows.

Robb and Andy decide to do a thermal sweep of the citadel. They also try to capture some EVPs. They seem to find something with the thermal but it proves to be nothing.

Shannon Sylvia and Brian go to the “museum”. Brian tries to teach Shannon some “tricks of the trade”. Brian feels he is touched. They both report seeing shadows. Why don’t they try to get something on video?

Then Barry and Donna LaCroix go to the museum and also feel they are touched. Donna feels like a hand was shoved into her face. All scary reports but nothing on video.

Barry and Andy return to the citadel. They try to setup the EMF to be an “alert” like they did in an earlier episode at the Black Horse Inn. It does spike and they try to get EVPs.

Evidence

They did catch one EVP to Donna’s comment complementing Barry which was “I know”. It was a pretty clear EVP but we wonder why it’s in English. A second EVP to Donna’s question “Is there somebody here now?” It’s clearly a male voice but the team cannot figure it out. They leave it to Peter to determine that it sounds like “Donzhon”. Which turns out that is the name of the man who cut off the white ladies arm and was forgiven. Now this would have been impressive if Peter had told us the name at the beginning of the show. It’s still impressive to us because Peter seems credible.

One last EVP that seems to be “nyet”, or no in Russian to a Robb question whether “they wanted them there”.

Case: Reichenstein Castle

Client Credibility

The Reichenstein Castle was shown to the team by Sandor Schmitz who is the caretaker. He told the team that the castle was origianl a toll castle, a castle that collects tolls as ships pass it on the river. These tolls were excessive and the owners were known as robber barons. One owner by the name of Dietrich von Hohenfels would behead the owners of the ship if they wouldn’t pay the toll.

He tells the team of reports of shadows and noises in a couple of rooms of the castle. In another room the headless ghost of Dietrich von Hohenfels has been seen. Sandor believes the headless ghost does haunt the castle. He seems credible.

Investigation

Andy and Robb do a thermal sweep. They don’t find anything out of the ordinary. Robb tells that a legend is that the headless ghost can be seen from a tower. Andy says he will climb it, he does and states he doesn’t see the ghost. Robb tells “monkey boy” to come down.

Andy and Brian again use the EMF detectors as “alarms”. They go off a few times. Andy felt he was touched.

Shannon and Donna managed to work Olga’s room to try to get some EVPs. We know their styles clash a bit but the last few episodes Donna has gotten the best EVPs. They felt they were smelling some sort of scent. Or as Shannon said she “smelt” something.

Evidence

They were not able to get any EVPs or anything on the video. Just several personal experiences which as Robb says isn’t really evidence.

Conclusion

Still overall another good episode from the Ghost Hunters International series. They have one more episode left in this first season. Maybe they can get something on video since they really haven’t gotten anything on video in any of the episodes. Another nice thing for this episode is that they did not show any “drama” interactions with the people on the show. It’s something we can just do without.

Previous “Fortress of Fear”

Next “Frankenstein’s Castle”

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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 Woman in the Window”

Ryan and the team help a family whose home was once part of the underground railroad.

Paranormal State has one of their stronger episodes as they help a family who maybe being haunted from former owners of their home.

Client Credibility

The clients were a family living in Pittsburgh in a home that was built in the early 1800s. Larry is the boyfriend of the daughter of the people who owned the home. Larry lives with the family and he and his girlfriend have a child.

Larry had seen an apparition of a woman on a couple of occasions. Larry seemed very credible along with the rest of the family.

Investigation

The home was a stop on the underground railroad. The team determined that it was important to check the attic and the tunnels in the basement. The attic trek that Ryan took left him with just insulation on his back. The trek to the mostly closed tunnel entrance in the basement revealed some relics from the 19th century. He found a picture of a couple, most likely the former owners of the property.

The picture and other relics were brought to Jon Ford. Jon Ford is a historian and an expert on the underground railroad. He felt that the people in the picture were abolitionists. Ryan and his team really do a great job of historical research. We have to say that episode after episode, this is their strongest attribute.

Ryan brings in psychic CJ Sellers. She is able to verify a couple of points about the woman and suggests the spirit may be upset that Larry is living with the family yet unmarried to the daughter.

Dead time did not reveal much other than a mysterious phone ring. It was an odd thing to happen but we thought that there were not phones in the 1850s anyway so why would this spirit choose this way to communicate?

Evidence

The strongest evidence is that both Larry and CJ Sellers point out the woman in the found picture to be the spirit in the house. Ryan did give them several period photos to have them choose from and both were able to find the right one.

Conclusion

Overall one of the stronger episodes from this series. We definitely think this show does a consistent job on historical research and this episode was even 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 International episode report card.

“Fortress of Fear”

Paranormal activity is frequently reported at Rasnov Citadel in Romania. The team visits the location in search of answers.

Ghost Hunters International battles the elements to do their investigation and personalities begin to clash between team members.

Case: Rasnov Citadel

A tough investigation for the team. The weather is nasty with a pretty good snow storm. It causes them to leave the cars farther from their destination than they wanted. So they had to carry the equipment quite a distance. Andy is not on this investigation as he is home for the birth of his child.

Client Credibility

The client was a man named Ciprian Moruzan who was the citadel manager. He seemed very credible as he stated he was a skeptic and didn’t believe in the paranormal because he hadn’t experienced anything. He told the team of a story of a monk apparition that has been seen praying in front of a crucifix. He tell us of shadows being seen and interesting noises during the night.

He shows the team the well. The story of the well is that two Turkish prisoners were told to dig it and would be freed if they found water. They eventually did find water after 17 years but were killed anyway.

The next spot was the “museum” where a dog “max” will not enter. Mr Moruzan did a really nice job showing the team. Very credible client.

Investigation

Robb, Barry and Brian go to the front gate. They use the EMF detector and they try to get some EVP. Barry knows some German and Romanian so he uses both languages in addition to English to appeal to them.

Next Donna LaCroix and Shannon Sylvia go to the crucifix to try to work with the praying monk apparition. They try to get EVPs and Donna complains of battery draining on her camera quickly. Maybe the monk sucked up her juice.

Barry, Brian and Robb continue to the museum. Barry thinks he sees a shadow. Again they try to get some EVPs with Barry’s multiple language strategy. Robb debunks Barry’s shadow by noticing a light source from a window reflects off of something in the room that does give a shadow moving effect. Nice job.

Donna and Shannon get Max the dog to try to get him into the museum area but fail to get the dog into the building. Maybe Max doesn’t know English with a New England accent?

Next Brian does a real nice job going down the well. His Air Force training gets some practical use in ghost hunting. He brings a camera and recording equipment with him as he feels some cold breezes. It will be interesting to see if he gets EVPs.

Next Donna and Shannon go to the museum and Donna tries to do some EVP work. The stress of travel and working together 24/7 is taking it’s toll. Patience is running thin. Shannon doesn’t want to conform to Donna’s style of EVP collecting, at least at this moment of time. So Robb needs to separate the two so the raw nerves have a chance to chill out for a while.

So Shannon gets to work with Barry in the chapel. There have been a couple of times when Barry seems to just take off and run. Once in the “Irish Elemental” episode in the summer of 2007 on the regular series and once earlier in this series. Here he thinks he hears a growl. He goes down some stairs and looks through a crack opening made by a door to some other place. Then Barry kind of freaks out and tells Shannon “go now now”. Very similar to Brian’s “Dude Run!” from a previous season but a lot less quotable. When Brian’s incident happened he got lambasted by Jason and Grant. No such thing happens here to Barry.

The team tries to rally behind Barry to try to find what he saw. Which was two legs that moved past his view. They spend time trying to investigate the room in the chapel. Apparently this door where the incident took place does not open so they go outside to see if there is access another way. They eventually realize that it was too dangerous to get to this room.

Evidence

Unfortunately nothing collected by Brian’s terrific investigation of the well. Nothing on video either anyway.

They did capture some EVPs where having Barry was an asset as he was able to recognize something as being in a different language.

One of the EVPs is Romanian “Poftim” which means “What, can you say that again?”. A second EVP was also Romanian “Bine” which means “I’m alright”. What was great about these EVPs is that they were verified by Ciprian Moruzan the manager of the citadel.

Conclusion

Overall another good episode. We here could do without the “drama” of personalities. The producers of this show which also produce the original series seem to like and to even promote people not getting along. We didn’t like the “drama” then either. Maybe it’s why they hired the new people that they did. They probably made them take personality tests to ensure they would be fighting with others by the time they were on the road for three weeks. We can probably look forward to more Andy “migraines” too.

Previous “Haunted Village”

Next “Headless Haunting”

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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.

“Haunted Piano”

After antiques collectors bring a certain piano into their home, Lorraine Warren must lend her expertise to dismantle and destroy the instrument.

Paranormal State examines an old piano for paranormal activity. The weakest episode so far and really low on the believability scale.

Client Credibility

The clients were named Nadine and John. They took the piano off the hands of someone who just wanted to get rid of it. They were antique collectors or just like old stuff. Their stories amounted to just getting “bad feelings” and they attribute those feelings to this piano.

They had a bunch of mice in their home after bringing in the piano claiming they don’t usually have mice in their home.

There is not much to base their credibility on other than their feelings of something paranormal happening.

Investigation

The team did their best but they didn’t really have much to go on. They did have a “piano expert” check out the piece and he did say that mice will nest in them. Which is obvious to us that is what happened. They didn’t clearly say that this was the case but to us viewing the show it seemed obvious.

The team called the former owners of the piano and the people did not want to talk to them. It’s most likely that they just were happy to get rid of the heavy piece of wood and didn’t want someone to dump it back on them.

Evidence

There wasn’t any.

Conclusion

This episode really shouldn’t have made it to air. It was kind of a waste of time actually. Ryan has said part of the show is to educate the public about different types of paranormal activity and “haunted objects” are a part of that world.

They just picked a lame one to illustrate it.

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