Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		2.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Ghost Hunters: Season 6, Part 1 Blu-ray Movie Review

Ghosbusters gone bust.

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater September 19, 2011

I’m a stone-cold skeptic. A rationalist. An adherent to the principles of reason, logic, and science. If I were on The X-Files, I’d definitely be Scully, not Mulder. Which means, of course, that I don't believe in ghosts or boogeymen, “spirit orbs” or specters, not to mention the outlying paranormal menagerie of fairies and trolls, werewolves and vampires, reptilian overlords and the countless long sought-after cryptozoological creatures for which no substantial proof has ever been given. The evidence is simply insufficient. Fringe “science” has yet to make any verifiable claims about the existence—let alone the intentions—of the supernatural, and I don’t suspect that’s going to change anytime soon. That said, I’d love to be proven wrong. I’d love for some intrepid paranormal investigator to conclusively substantiate the existence of, say, ghosts. It would be the Nobel Prize-worthy discovery of the century, a validation of billions of people’s belief—and hope—in some sort of afterlife. It would shatter our paradigm of consciousness and eventually influence every facet of human experience. Whoever made such a discovery would probably become rich and influential and wildly esteemed. So why are there hardly any real scientists doing this kind of research? The question answers itself.

What was that?!

The burden of proof, then, lies with those who wholeheartedly believe in supernatural phenomenon, guys like Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, founders of The Atlantic Paranormal Society, or, as the group is usually called, T.A.P.S. Hawes and Wilson—Roto Rooter plumbers turned paranormal investigators—started T.A.P.S. after both having supposed personal experiences with the supernatural, experiences they refuse to talk about publicly. The mission of T.A.P.S. is to investigate purportedly haunted homes, businesses, and places of interest, with the intent of debunking supernatural claims while also looking for evidence of spirit infestation. In 2004, the group became the subject of Ghost Hunters, a Syfy channel reality show that follows Jason, Grant, and their rotating crew of likeminded spirit seekers on their spooky after-hours exploits. Each episode features one, sometimes two locations, and the process is almost always the same. The T.A.P.S. team first gets a guided tour through the place—with a history of the kinds of paranormal experiences people have had there—before setting up a network of infrared, thermal, and night vision cameras. Then, it’s “lights out”—and someone almost always actually says “lights out” at this point—for an 8-16 hour investigation of the premises. The T.A.P.S. members tote around electromagnetic field detectors and digital thermometers, looking for slight fluctuations that might suggest the presence of a ghost. They take photographs with crappy, consumer-grade point-and-shoot cameras and then marvel at the “orbs” they capture. They do “E.V.P. work”—that is, electronic voice phenomenon—asking spirits questions in hopes of provoking some kind of response.

Mostly, they sit or walk around in the dark, talking—in essence—to themselves. So, how does this make for compelling television, you ask? Good question. Here’s the thing; while I’m a complete naysayer when it comes to the spirit realm, and although I find T.A.P.S.’s application of the scientific method laughable at best, I’m a sucker for a good ghost story, and I’m usually willing to suspend my disbelief if it lets me get a bit freaked out. And occasionally—occasionally—Ghost Hunters serves some up genuinely unsettling moments. Jason will spot a shadow moving at the end of a dark hallway—we can’t see it of course, but we see Jason’s reaction—or Grant will do the “shave-and-a-haircut” knock on a piece of furniture, prompting an unseen spirit to knock back with “two bits.” When junior T.A.P.S. members “review the evidence”—which usually takes place at a nearby hotel—they’ll sometimes find that the E.V.P. questioning yielded ghostly, unheard-at-the-time responses, muffled voices that, if you listen carefully, seem to utter intelligible words. Every now and then, they’ll discover a vaguely human form outlined in the thermal cam footage or notice an object moving on its own. Not for a second do I believe that any of this is actual proof of the supernatural—pereidolia can explain just about all of the “evidence” the team finds—but taken as entertainment it can be deliciously spooky. For an out-and-out rationalist, Ghost Hunters is very much a guilty pleasure.

Unfortunately, part one of the show’s sixth season—part two will be released later this year—is largely disappointing, with a distinct lack of memorably eerie conclusions or encounters. Ironically, it also seems to me that over the past few seasons the show has gotten more and more stagy and exaggerated; they find less, but what they do find seems more played up and possibly scripted than ever. The emphasis has shifted away from any kind of scientific process and more towards the “personal experiences” and emotions of the investigators. (“Dude, it feels really cold over here.” Or, “What was that?! Something just touched my hair.”) In this first half of the season there are only a few “reveals”—the part of each episode where they show the proprietor of the location what they’ve found—that have any remotely noteworthy findings. I left most of the episodes with an overwhelming feeling of that’s it? I sat through forty-five minutes of these gullible, easily spooked “investigators” wandering through a dark house just to hear a brief recording of ambient room noise that, providing you already know what to listen for, kind of sounds like a person saying a word or two? I used to watch the show with sweaty palms, waiting to see what would happen next, but I found here that I barely had the patience to make to the end of each episode. It wasn’t for a lack of potentially creepy locations. Between Alcatraz and the abandoned Norwich State Hospital, America’s oldest zoo and the Absecon Lighthouse, the former homes of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Stephen Crane, haunted hotels and demon- inhabited houses, you’d think Jason and Grant would find something beyond a few disembodied voices. Where are the shadow people and ghost children, the darting specters and full-body apparitions? The simplest answer, of course, is that they don't exist.

Ghost Hunters: Season 6, Part 1 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

By the very nature of the material, Ghost Hunters isn't exactly going to set any new standards for picture quality. The episodes, presented here with 1080i/AVC encodes, are shot predominately in the dark—duh, ghosts never show up if there are lights on, everyone knows that—and most of the footage during the investigations is in black and white "night vision" mode, which turns faces into pale full moons and eyes into shiny black orbs. I guess that's all part of the creep factor. Since we're dealing with such low-light situations, harsh video noise is prevalent and contrast sometimes goes all over the place, from flat and dull to way too punchy. This is expected. The segments shot under normal lighting look much more natural, and feature strong, realistic color, along with a decent degree of clarity. A high definition presentation definitely benefits the show, and if you've seen any of the old seasons in standard def, you'll notice a fairly striking difference right away in how much clearer everything looks. There are still some some serious problems, though. There are all kinds of compression issues spread across these three discs, from excess noise and periodic banding to occasional video artifacts, aliasing, and even some visible macroblocking. Then again, you're probably not watching Ghost Hunters for the picture quality, and there's nothing here that's terribly distracting.

Do note that as it was nearly impossible to capture screenshots in 1080i due to combing, all screen grabs in this review were captured in 720p and do not represent the full visual quality of this release.

Ghost Hunters: Season 6, Part 1 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The back of the Blu-ray case gives "Dolby Stereo" as the only audio option, but you'll notice that the discs actually contain uncompressed LPCM 2.0 tracks for each episode. Like the picture quality, the audio is largely faithful to source, although that source isn't always of the highest fidelity. Taken from digital field recorders, shotgun mics, video cameras, and other tools of the ghost hunter's trade, the audio is sometimes hissy and muffled, and it's generally far from pristine. That said, most of the voices—of the living, at least—come through clearly, and when they don't, subtitles are automatically supplied. The episodes really heavily on musical stabs to sell many of the cliffhanger scares that come immediately before commercial breaks, and these sound relatively clean and full. And that's really all there is to say here. If you've watched the show on Syfy, you already have a strong idea of exactly what it sounds like on Blu-ray.

Ghost Hunters: Season 6, Part 1 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Unfortunately, there are no special features on the discs whatsoever. Bummer. I guess we'll have to wait for part two of season six.

Ghost Hunters: Season 6, Part 1 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This is probably the most boring half-season of Ghost Hunters yet. The T.A.P.S. crew visits some truly creepy locales, but they don't find much beyond muffled E.V.P.'s, a few moving objects—rarely shown clearly, or in their entirety—and some conspicuous shadows. They do have plenty of "personal experiences," however, which—obviously—are always trustable. Longtime Ghost Hunters fans might be jazzed to finally see the series come to Blu-ray, but if you're not so dedicated to the after-dark adventures of Jason, Grant, and the rest of the T.A.P.S. team, you'd be better off catching re-runs on Syfy.