Ghost Hunters

I've seen some messed up Ghost Hunters episodes and some bad investigations before but this episode takes the cake. I have to agree with another opinion, the editing on this show, how can I say this cleanly..., drew air rapidly inward. But thats not the worse of it. In this episode we get to see the most pathetic and inept investigation on Ghost Hunters. The prize goes to Steve and Lisa, hurray! This incident with the toy in the bag was so bad, I would not be suprised if the show folded because of it. Here you have an alleged expert investigator, Steve, and a fairly well seasoned investigator who I am not sure is full status or in training, Lisa. They are in the laundry room and out of nowhere a toy noise starts coming from a black plastic bag. Gee, just exactly what the homeowner said would happen. First of all I don't trust electronic toys. They malfunction all the time they go off without reason, its just the nature of the toys today. I know I got a grandson and I get spooked by his little plastic lawnmower reving unexpectedly and his firetruck sounding off for no reason. But whats so rediculous is that Steve and Lisa stop and lean against the washing machine and ask the "spirit" to make the toy go off again. Right on cue it does. They aask it to do it yet again, and right on cue, viola it goes off again. If I recall correctly, this type of encounter and an encounter with a shadow person or aparition are the holy grail of ghost hunting. I would be freaking out and excited as all get go if this actually happened on MY investigation. But what do Steve and Lisa do, not much they say cool, and act like yeah we've see this before no big deal. It was like they KNEW it was staged. Then they ask it to do the toy thing three times, three times in a row fast, and low and behold right on cue it does exactly that. Amazing! Still they show little emotion like its not a big deal. Then in the most pathetic display of debunking in Ghost Hunters history Steve taps his foot on the ground a few times and goes whooo hoo booo in a vain attempt to trigger any toy that may be in the bag doing these amazing things. Even more incredulous is then they casually turn to walk up the stairs!! My wife and I are both screaming at the TV, OPEN THE BAG!!!!!! Any idiot moron doing an investogation would have moved right over to that bag, took the toy out and displayed it to the camera while they checked to prove to us the viewer that it was not heat, voice or movement activated and that it was not remote controlled. This did not happen and the entire series last drop of credibility went down the drain. I would give this episode a 0 or a .1 if this system would let me but it won't, so 1 will have to do. As far as the second segment, which I usually don't have to comment on as nothing happened, it too was an insult to Ghost Hunters fans. The lady of the house looked truly tired and drawn out like she had been not sleeping well at all. They did the big explanation thing then the show practically skipped all of the set up, although they showed more in this part than in the previous one. Then Grant and Jason debunked the vibrations in floor by finding the heater was in dire need or service and vibrated like mad when it turned on. Ok, fair enough. I guess no one else was working that night because we only saw another team for a millisecond before we found ourselves with Grant and Jason again. They tried something new this time and came up with this story about if every room is experiencing activity but one thats where the entity hides. So they head to the attic. OK, but the problem is its crammed with junk. Any movement at all would cause something to shift and/or fall. So these bangs and thumps are real questionable. I have to make another point here. They NEVER show you all of the attic. This is a decent sized but small ranch its got a full attic. They should have shown a pan of the whole thing, and I'll tell you why. Grant was making his way back up after leting the camera man up and there was this motor noise that he said eminated from the whole attic. Well then why Jason did you look back past the camera man over your right shoulder?? Was the air conditioning system there??? Probably. If you recall, earlier in the show Grant and Jason debunked the heater in the basement as the cause of the vibrations. In their conversations they told us that the system was a forced hot water system which means the house has baseboard heaters and no vents. Hence, no airconditioning. When homes like that are retrofitted with airconditioning, like my parents house was, they install the unit and vent work in the attic. Thats why it was critical for us to see a pan of the full attic. Never happened. I also tried to look for vents on the ceilings of the rooms but we saw preciously little of them. So Jason your motor noise is bunk. The only intriging thing about this whole episode is the sink allegedly turning on while Grant was standing at the bottom of the attic stairs. I'll have to go back and review my DVD of that scene and see if that bathroom door looks like its possible that someone could have been behind it that would have pushed that lever up and steped back into the shadows behind the door then got out when the camera cut away. If not then this may be a legitimate event, but the only one for this episode.

The first home TAPS is sought to alleviate the fears of a mother who says her youngest child sees a deceased cat, the mother hears kids running through the house and the basement is creepy to her. High EMF readings from a box might explain the creepy feelings the mother feels in the basement but a dragon acting on Steve's commands would give me pause to wonder if something were going on which essentially they told the lady there wasn't.



The second home has loud bangs (more loose pipes), explosions and strange noises. Grant and Jason decide to go to the attic since it's the only room that wasn't reported to have any paranormal activity. Their theory is that is where an enitity would want to hide. Immediately things start going boom in the night, footsteps, water turning itself on, things falling unseen, etc. I would have put the house up for sale. And move.

This episode caught my attention the most because of the crew's concern about the possible haunting of two small children. The fact that Steve and Grant were more concerned about the safety of the children because of the fact that they both have families, caught my interest and made me feel that this was the best episode ever. Maybe there weren't any sign of ghosts or a haunting, but the fact that they were so concerned made this particular episode very special indeed.

It is one episode that I would watch again any time that it was on. The fact that the crew made the discovery of the young boy's playing of violent video games right before going to bed, and the fact that they brought this to the mother's attention, was perfect and showed them to be particularly special.

I must disagree with HogggWild999's review, but what a fan of the show he must be to write such a long review! The segment with the toy dragon was good I thought, HogggWild says he was dissapointed because Steve and his partner don't get excited, and he says it seems 'staged'. Ok, let me explain, one of the main attributes Jason and Grant instill in their crew is calmness, you dont want some ball of nerves in this type of work, that would be ridiculous!!! If you have seen most other episodes you'll notice nothing EVER riles Steve (isn't that how Ghost Hunters are supposed to be?), except for flying on airplanes. The second episode in the attic I thought was very chilling,... great episode. Ike1384's review asked about the 'least active part of the house (attic), being the 'most active' concept. You are confusing ghost 'activity', with, human activity. The part of the house where there is the least human activity could naturally be the place where the most 'spirit' activity is. I know I like to hole up in my 'cave' a lot of the time. I don't like hanging around other peoples 'areas' for too long.

I never enjoy personal home investigations that much. Not a lot of room to do stuff and the homeowners are usually more paranoid than reasonable.It's nice to know TAPS cares about these people and want to help settle their nerves, but for the purpose of TV can we stay to better places. But the stuff that happened in the attic in the second house was pretty interesting. Still can't believe they (the homeowners) couldn't put two and two together and figure out the furnace room might be making some of the noises. Hopefully things pick up next week, but if not it wouldn't be the first time the show has over-hyped an episode.

After so many high-profile locations in the first several episodes of the season, this is the kind of episode the fans were begging for: a couple of simple residence cases. This harkens back to the first season in many ways, even if the production is a bit more slick and the team has been streamlined. We even get more of Donna and those badly staged introduction scenes of yesteryear!



Along with the reduced scale of the investigations, there’s less of the constant expression of wonder on everyone’s faces. The team was far more credulous during the European Trilogy, so the return to some good, old-fashioned debunking is good to see. Some may consider it to be for little more than show or to make the bigger reveals seem more valid in comparison, but there are some useful lessons along the way for the novice investigators.



Case #1: Tedeschi’s House



When it comes to any situation where “electronic toys make noise on their own”, as a parent of a young child, it’s hard to know how to react. Because that happens all the time when kids dump toys on top of each other, at least in our house. It sometimes even sounds like the toy is making noise in response to your own reactions. If the toy is remote controlled, stray RF signals will set them off constantly. As shown in the episode, the toy in question is under other toys and in a bag, so it’s not possible to know what kind of toy it really was. I can’t help but think that Steve and Lisa were reacting to something completely ordinary.



At the same time, if the homeowner is worried for her kids, TAPS is right to take it seriously as investigators coming to find explanations for the apparent activity. The high EM field readings would definitely cause physical effects on those in proximity, as medically proven, and that might even account for Steve’s constant comment that “something is weird in here”.



The investigation was covered in near-record time, focusing mostly on the reaction to the toy, and the editors really did everything possible to create tension out of the footage in hand. The massaging of the conversations was rather obvious, and for me, I had to wonder if they didn’t have enough material from the other investigation and just wanted something quick to insert for time.



Case #2: MacLean’s House



This was a little more complicated, but it amounts to something very similar. Most of the activity had a rational explanation, particularly in terms of the furnace piping and the water tunnel running under the property. That’s what a lot of people were waiting to see again.



Now for the controversial part. I’ve never heard the idea that an entity likes to hide in the least active part of the house, though they might have mentioned it before. I’m not sure I understand the concept, because if the evidence is to be believed, the attic was more “active” than anyplace else in the house! Most of the anecdotal stories seem to suggest that the most active room is where the “haunting” is taking place, and where the interaction would be found.



The loud “vibration” sound actually reminded me of a poorly-seated sump pump causing vibration in the connected piping. I wonder if anything related to the furnace would make that kind of sound. The faucet situation was off-camera, so there’s no telling what happened. The various noises sound authentic, since they were more or less on-camera, but with only one angle being covered, there’s nothing definitive about any of it.



Here’s where the skeptical allegations become most disturbing. It’s one thing to say that historical sites are willing to fabricate evidence for the purposes of publicity. In the end, no one is getting hurt by an over-enthusiastic interpretation of events at a public site. It’s quite another thing for TAPS to play on the fears of a homeowner just to keep up the ratings. Television is a ruthless medium, but that would be very hard to forgive.



If there’s one issue I have with this episode, it’s how the director and editor tried so hard to ramp up the tension and make very simple situations seem fraught with activity. The first case was definitely cut that way, but some aspects of the second case also forced and needlessly manipulative. That’s been true in the past, but by now, the production could be a bit more polished.