Ghost Hunters

The investigation of the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas offers some of the very best evidence captured by the Ghost Hunters. While many investigations have tons of personal experiences it is the rare event for full-bodied apparitions to be fully captured on video or with thermo-imaging equipment. This episode stands out because there can be no doubt what was captured on film. The mason workers of the era donned the exact same garb as seen by the man in the locker. And while there have been attempts to debunk the image as being merely a reflection of Grant standing in front of the locker it is clear when it both Jason and Grant return and attempt to reproduce the same reflection later it is impossible to do so. A wonderful episode completed in a very scientific manner!

I haven’t commented at all on the ratings this season, because that information hasn’t been easy to find. Also, it’s hard to correlate data when two seasons run for different periods at different times of the year. I also didn’t want to get depressed at the effect “Lost” would have, since even I TiVo “Ghost Hunters” under these circumstances.



Well, now the genie is out of the bottle, and the ratings are available. I have to say, I’m impressed! It’s impressive to think that “Ghost Hunters” is getting ratings, at least for the “season finale”, that approach “Battlestar: Galactica” numbers. This show deserves to be a success, and by gaining viewers against “Lost”, I think it clearly has succeeded.



So we’re getting a Halloween Special at the end of the month and 9 more episodes starting in January 2006. Excellent! That’s a grand total of 23 second season episodes, which is more than the typical one-hour drama gets these days. Another sign of success! Now would be the perfect time for SFC to take a good, long look at their approach to the series.



What would I like to see? Less of the goofy effects and more of the investigation. It wouldn’t kill them to focus on one investigation per episode, or in lieu of that, cover three investigations across two episodes of time, like the first season. Less of the manufactured drama, which was ramped up this season. Oh, and the more Paula Donovan, the better!



Since this was the apparent season finale, they clearly saved the best for last. And I mean “saved”, because these investigations clearly took place earlier in the season, just after Dave joined and Steve took over the technical department. I can only imagine that the post-production process revealed that the subsequent investigations weren’t producing much, so the apparent apparition was saved until the presumed end.



First case:



Well, obviously, this is all about the apparent apparition. I know that there will be a million naysayers picking that one apart, but based on what was demonstrated and revealed, I can’t see how that’s a fake. Not only that, but the apparent apparition actually moves as if turning to look into the camera. It’s rather impressive as a whole, especially since they took quite a bit of time to debunk it and couldn’t.



Here’s the thing. This really brings the whole “real or fake” question to a head. Now, I’m sure someone is going to claim that this was digitally manipulated and the whole thing is a hoax, but as usual, I have to ask the logical question: why would they go through so much trouble and risk exposing themselves just to capture something on camera? Naysayers never consider that it’s much more work to fake something like this than it is to do it right. After all, if it were easy, it would probably look and sound a lot like the obvious fakery on “Most Haunted”, and there’s a clear difference.



Second case:



Now, this I find a bit harder to swallow. It’s not that I completely dismiss psychic phenomena; I just don’t buy what happened in the episode. The “far too specific” reading was anything but, at least on film, and that temperature gradient could have been explained by the heating system in the house itself. I do accept that Jason and Grant would have checked into that, but since it wasn’t shown (in favor of the more unusual explanation), I can’t make assumptions. Even so, it was very interesting as a starting point to a different realm of experimentation.



Despite my doubts regarding the medium, I have to say that this is probably the best episode they’ve ever had. Not only did they highlight their own attempts at debunking at all the right moments, they also managed to do something that is rarely done: they caught an apparition on film. What else is there to say?

The Crescent Hotel was a great episode and the only one to date where they caught something big and I cannot easily or logically explain it away. This is the episode where Jason and Grant caught the image of a full body apparition of a civil war soldier down in the old basement morgue. They did an excellent job of going back and debunking reflections and trying to recreate the event. The only thing they should have done was as soon as Jason caught that he should have turned all the way around to film everyone who was in the room and leading hall. That would have completely solidified the finding and proved beyond any doubt that a crew member, guest or employee was not wearing a hat like the figure in the image was and was not in the immediate area at the time. TAPS tends to do this, not follow through. It may be an editing thing, and if so SciFi needs to bone up and learn how to edit a show like this or they will lose it to ratings loses. The second half was with the psychic was a waste of film.

In the small tourist town of Eureka Springs, Arkansas, an infamous hotel sits on the pinnacle of town known as the Crescent Hotel. Step inside to a different era and marvel at its beauty... which harbors a sinister past of miracle cures gone bad. A quack doctor once offered miracle cures to cancer patients and others who had no known cure. Many people died there, which leaves the hotel rife with spiritual energy (or so some believe). The TAPS teams picks up something on a thermal scanner that they can't explain, but you have to see the episode yourself to believe it! Absolutely astounding!

when i say the ghost looking that them, my heart began to race. i thought it was a joke but then the guys started freaking out and so did my mom and i. that was CRAZY!! and when they went back to try to debunk it, nothing gave them the same resulults as the night before.

Tonight's episode took the TAPS crew down to Arkansas to check out a hotel, which is supposedly haunted, much like the rest of the town, oddly enough. During the investigation, Dustin finds a laptop computer case belonging to Grant out of place, against the door, and not on the TV stand, where Grant said he left it. Unfortunately, this was never caught on camera.



Down in the morgue, yes, it has a morgue, Jason and Grant are using the thermal imaging cameras when Grant picks up what appears to be a human figure staring at them. Jason is the one who actually notices it. When they examine the locker the image was coming from, they are unable to find anything. The #2 on the locker was actually coming up as hot, but the figure was rather cool. The locker wasn't shiny enough to reflect someone's image, so it couldn't have been Grant or Jason. They looked a little closer at the figure and said it looks like an old soldier, with a hat on.



When the footage was shown to the owners of the hotel, they were excited about it. One man said it looks like a mason's hat. Personally, I thought it looked like an old civil war soldier's hat or something of that period. The main point is they seem to have caught a full body apparition on tape.



The second case came courtesy of the older gentleman from the hotel. It was the house belonging to the local doctor, who has long since passed on. The home is currently occupied by an older gentleman who claims to be a medium. After giving them the tour of the house, they set up, and send a few people to look into the woods for ghosts. I was a little surprised by that, I thought it was going to be pointless, and it turned out they didn't catch anything other than spiders, a cat, and a deer.



Back at the home, Grant and Jason ask the man for a psychic reading, which he agrees to do. Jason went first, while Grant held the thermal camera on the medium as the reading went on. As the reading progressed, there seemed to be a lot of energy. Grant moved the camera to Jason, and as Jason tried to block a particular question/answer, the camera seemed to pick up an abnormal amount of energy coming from Jason, and going towards the medium. As the energy got to the medium, Carrol, his head got hotter, and he moved his from about heart level-down a foot or so, and the energy immediately disapated. Grant kept quiet about this until they packed up and were leaving, he just had to tell Jason about it. They were both impressed by Carrol. His accuracy rate seemed incredible high compared to most mediums, so Grant felt he was one of the few genuine mediums. Other than that thermal footage, they weren't able to find any other evidence in the house, or the woods nearby.



Overall, I loved this episode. The thermal camera was the star of the show in an odd way. The weird things they were able to capture was incredible.

now this was a good episode of ghost hunters. i am a very big fan of this show. i thought i saw it all with the eastern state penitary with the ghost that they caught on tape. and with all the evp's(electronic voice phenomenom) and this episode blew me away.the morgue was amazing. at first i thought that, that was a reflection of grant or jason holding the thermal camera in their hand but they had noticed it too. it wasnt any of them. if was a full body apparition of a ghost. when i saw it my jaw dropped. then they went to the meduim's house. i had to go to sleep. i wasnt really paying attention to what was going on but when i saw those eyes hiding behind the tree, i couldnt tell if that was real or fake. i was hoping that it was real becuase that gave me the chills. they were chasing the eye down becuase they saw it looking at them. i want somebody to tell me if that was real. i didnt get to see the whole episode. and i would like to know if anyone knows how to get the full episode on to your computer without waiting for it to come on tv again. i would really recommend for everyone to watch this one episode. it was really good. i give it two thumbs way up!!!!