Ghost Adventures Documentary: Best Evidence

Ghost

Adventures

Documentary

Hello wonderful people!

I'm reviewing a television series, well the documentary that led to the TV series...

Ghost Adventures is not your typical paranormal 'reality TV' show and I use the term reality TV in the sense that it's not a scripted show. Reality TV can go die for all I care... VH1 and MTV I'm looking at you foul excuses for television stations.

Getting back on topic Ghost Adventures is different from the other paranormal shows out there because the three investigators, Zak Bagans, Nick Groff, and Aaron Goodwin are the camera crew. What they capture on camera is what you see in the episode as well as (sometimes) what they hear. They're cameras can't pick up every little noise that happens but there's no additional camera crew filming them. They also are the producers and editors of the show. Travel channel has nothing to do with the production or editing process which gives the show more points as to how real it is.

Before talking about the show, I should talk about the investigators a little more. As previously stated there are three people, and only three on the Ghost Adventures team of investigators. They have additional evidence analyzers who appear on camera but not always in the investigations. They have also teamed up with other paranormal teams for brief moments in investigations. 

 The Crew

Zak (Zachary) Bagans - born in Washington DC and currently residing in Las Vegas Nevada, used to be a wedding DJ and a skeptic of the paranormal. When he moved to an apartment in Michigan the spirit of a former tenant haunted his room. He has three main fears, creepy looking dolls, heights, and snakes revealed in the Sloss furnaces, Idaho State Penitentiary and the Riddle House.

Nick Groff is the co-founder (of the GAC crew), co-cameraman, co-host, and co-investigator of the show as well as an executive producer and editor. He was born in San Jose, California and moved to New Hampshire, (Nashua, Salem, and Pelham) as a child. After graduating high school he studied film at University of Nevada, Las Vegas where he met his other investigator, Aaron Goodwin. Nick became a ghost hunter after college, but it wasn't until Nick's wedding that he and Aaron met (and befriended) Zak.

Aaron Goodwin is the equipment tech and camera operator, co-host and investigator of the GAC crew. He is originally from Portland but relocated to Las Vegas Nevada. Before GAC he was the camera operator for UFC and several behind-the-scenes film premieres in Las Vegas and he never thought much about the paranormal which might explain why he looks so scared in the earlier investigations including the documentary. In fact it was their need of another camera man that led to Nick introducing Zak and Aaron and he is most often used as bait in the series on almost every investigation.

All members of ghost Adventures have been attacked, partially possessed, and had something follow them home after the investigation ends. Zak was overwhelmed by a negative entity at Poveglia Island and partially possessed the Preston School of Industry. Nick was possessed by an entity at the moon River Brewing Company at Savannah Georgia and Aaron had something demonic focus on him during the Winchester house episode (which involved Bobby Mackey's Music world) and had marital problems stated in the Return to bobby Mackey's episode (in season 4.) His ex-wife had nightmares related to the Bobby Mackey's as well as being attacked by something evil while Aaron was on the road. Aaron has also mentioned that he and his ex-wife still remain great friends to this day.

The show started out as a documentary which won several awards at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival one of those awards is the 2006 Grand Jury prize for Best Documentary. The crew has also won three International Paranormal Acknowledgment Awards and in 2010 the show won the Spooktakular Parawards.

The show doesn't go without its downsides, Zak has been called out for his provoking methods as well as being aggressive and confrontational during investigations; however he only uses these techniques when there are dark or evil entities attacking the living. He's mentioned this numerous times throughout the series. The show itself experienced a slight embarrassment when a guest they had with them for their 2009 Halloween special (at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum) Robert Bess (inventor of the Parabot Containment chamber) claimed to have an EMF detector violently knocked out of his hand. It didn't go unnoticed nor did it get the cover up treatment some people like to use when controversy happens. Zak Nick and Aaron reviewed the tapes and admitted that Robert threw the EMF detector and that they couldn't find any paranormal evidence supporting his claim that it was knocked out of his hand during their follow-up for the episode for Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum.

The documentary shows the three investigators on a three week ghost hunting expedition in the historic mining towns of Nevada (Virginia City nearby Gold hill at the Silver Queen Hotel, the Old Washoe Club, the Virginia City Cemetery and the cabin near the Yellow Jacket Mine. Aaron was not with them on the Goldfield Hotel investigation.

 The Review:

brief explanation

Reviewing the whole thing will be impossible due to limited time before Halloween arrives so I will be picking the top ten most interesting segments at each location and making my first unintentional top (number here) list. No I didn't need an excuse to do this because I am the most indecisive person ever; it's just quicker this way. 

The Bad

Silver Queen Hotel:

Before I get into the good part I must call out the manager of the first location they visit, the Silver Queen Hotel. Darlene contacted them and explained to them a completely different story about the 'prostitute' who committed suicide in room eleven. She said she was hostile on the phone with them, but on camera she changed her story. That's cool just try and ruin something people are working their ass off to produce and show to the world to prove that what they belief are not just some sort of illusion. Mock them and make them seem stupid because that's real professional, then again she's not the first lady to do this on a show before. I bet almost every place you go to has history that has been swept under the carpet, take for example Eastern State Penitentiary, there's a story about a guy needing dental work (a root canal I think) while on death row, and they didn't want to take him out of the cell so they put an armed guard behind him and had the inmate stand with his mouth up against the bars (with the dentist on the other side) and the root canal was performed that way. Did either ghost hunting teams that investigated that place (multiple times) have that story aired? Nope, not to my memory of it because when I heard it the story was new to me and I've seen both Ghost Adventures and Ghost Hunters (as well as Paranormal Challenge Zak Bagans spin off show that aired over the summer) episodes that feature the prison.

The last thing I am going to pick on the show about is what could be considered to be the worst impression to leave in a documentary film. Taunt spirits who committed suicide now I know Darlene said the ghost was harming the living but one thing you don't automatically start off doing is provoking someone who killed themselves. You especially don't laugh at them that's just wrong on so many levels and really disrespectful.

In the Yellow Jacket Mine/cabin:

On a relatively different note, I love how scared Zak seems to be in this documentary, before Bobby Mackey’s before the moon river brewery, he was just a normal guy with an interest in the paranormal. Then the demonic cases happened and he well got buffed and told those demons what-for... Also why do they pull an Ouija board out of nowhere, give no explanation as to where they got it from, how long they’ve had it, who advised them to use it, and whether or not they planned to use it again? It’s just pulled out, used for a short time, and then forgotten about for the rest of the documentary. This isn't necessarily a bad thing but it would have been nice if they informed the audience about it before just pulling out of thin air and then just abandoning it. 

Old Washoe Club:

There's no point in blurring out the label of Heinz ketchup, we know what it is.

That’s really the only complaint I have about this segment of the documentary, combining the previous two I would say they needed to be much longer unless they captured no evidence other than what was shown. (I am aware they return to the Goldfield Hotel in later episodes however that was not a part of the documentary so therefor I can not comment on it in this review.)

Virginia City Cemetery:

There was no need for that weird image of an Indian/ Native American head in negative tone showing up as they ran out of the graveyard. They never mention if they get their voice recorder back, I know they left it on the ledge of the monument that they were sitting on but when they get up and run did they take it with them? If not did they go back and look for it afterwards once the sun came up?

Goldfield Hotel:

When you run into people (willing to talk to you) creepier than the ghosts haunting the location you’re about to be locked down in, there’s a problem with both parties. This goes under the category that the Ouija board, not necessarily bad but a random addition to the show.

The Good:
Aka best evidence

There was a lot of evidence captured during the three week investigation of Virginia City, Nevada but what one person likes over another varies. Some of their best evidence might have been not so good compared to other pieces of audio and/or visual evidence captured that night.  Starting for not so great to completely compelling, this is my top five list of paranormal evidence from the Ghost Adventures Documentary.

Number Five:  the lights/orbs captured at Virginia City Cemetery.
They go into a creepy cemetery and all they get are some quick orbs and lights, while impressive considering they are the only people who have the key to the cemetery and they are in the middle of the graveyard. It’s still a little weak considering they’re in a graveyard in an old mining town. 

Number Four: the EVP’s captured at the cabin and the noises coming from yellow jacket mine.
I put this at number four because for the rest of the night the house and/or mine were rather quiet and they don’t even investigate the mine so something else could have been causing those noises if they were directly coming from the mine. The EVP’s were great but not enough to get it to the number three spot.

Number three: The arm knocking on the door of the Old Washoe Club.
The ghost is taunting the ghost hunters and it’s one of the first cases you hear something and physically see an apparition showing the action that was just heard. 

Number two: The ghost following Nick in the ballroom of the Goldfield Hotel. This is at number two because it is insanely hard to see at first, even though they zoom in on it and clean up the video during the analysis to see if it had been altered. I watched this more than once (at least three times now) and I just saw the apparition. That’s not really in their control but the way apparitions are described sometimes and the way they show up on camera are two completely different things in some cases. 

Number one: The brick flying across the room in one direction and the board going in the other (and the chaos that happens as Zak and nick try to run out of the hotel)
This of course gets to be at the top of the list because they got a brick and a board thrown in almost two separate directions. At first the board is hard to see move for some people, however the video analysis by two different people that there was a board that moved opposite of the brick. The chaos that ensues with their frantic attempts to get out of the hotel is chilling, especially the female voice heard on Zak’s camera. The person yelling Nick’s name isn’t really heard until later but it is clear there’s a lot of activity going on in the Gold Field hotel. 

Honorary mentions:
-The shadow captured on Nick’s LCD camera at the end of the hallway in Goldfield Hotel.   Although tricky to spot at first you’ll notice it after either rewinding it a few times or waiting until they reveal the evidence to Virginia at the end. 

 

The orb that runs along Zak’s arm in Room 109. Captured in the Goldfield Hotel, it's pretty shocking considering the series of events leading up to it. Zak was trying to comfort the girl who died a horrible death and she reaches out and touches his arm which a former employee of the hotel later reveals to them that Elizabeth (girl who died) rarely ever does that.

Conclusion:

This documentary deserved all the praise it got. It holds up to its promise of finding some paranormal evidence despite the group’s tendency to get rattled rather easily (compared to the show’s progression in spirit activity.) Setting the show aside it is completely understandable that they panicked during the Goldfield Hotel investigation as well as the Cemetery because they hadn’t faced the potential negativity that Bobby Mackey’s and Moon River Brewery threw at them. They handled themselves professionally during the interview especially with Darlene who changed her story while talking about the history of Silver Queen Hotel, however I disagree with Zak sitting in the tub and mocking the prostitute who killed herself. I found it rude and disrespectful since there are two different stories being told, the ghost could have been mean to the living or she could be seriously misunderstood as being harmful when all she wants is attention. What’s done is done and we can’t change the past, but the documentary deserved the series it got, Zak, Nick, and Aaron are a great ghost hunting team and continue to do amazing things for the paranormal research field.

I am Pugsly and I can now move on to my other Ghost Adventures reviews!

** Thank you AusAries2 for having this uploaded! Ghost Adventures Documentary **