Movie reviews: Ghost Adventures

On Wednesday, July 25th at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, millions tuned into the Sci-Fi Channel for the TV premiere of “Ghost Adventures,” a raw documentary’ in which Zak Bagans, Nick Groff, and Aaron Goodwin go to Virginia City, NV and Goldfield, NV on a ghost-hunting expedition. Virginia City is rife with macabre lore and reputed to be one of the most haunted cities in America. The townsfolk seem to enjoy their town’s reputation and history. Goldfield is the site of the Goldfield Hotel (the last paying, and living, guest was in World War II), which is reputed as being one of “the scariest places on earth.”

“Ghost Adventures” has already won Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary that was given by the New York International Film & Video Festival and it was almost nominated for Best Feature Film from the Eerie Horror Film Festival. Zak and his team also traveled to the Berlin Feature Film International film festival and the Cannes film festival for international appeal.

Zak and his crew venture into places where others fear to tread. “Ghost Adventures” is probably one of the most convincing paranormal documentaries that viewers have seen, or will ever see. Along with the usual orbs there are noises, EVP (electronic voice phenomena), mysterious shadows, flying objects, and the coup de gracea full-bodied apparition. The internet is abuzz with the news of this evidence and with the film’s premiere. The film and its crew all have My Space websites, and hundreds of My Space Friends.

This film and the Zak’s techniques have been described as “extreme ghost-hunting” due in part to the taunts Zak slews at potential spirits in a highly controversial way, to the areas that they visited, and partly due to the evidence that they captured. One viewer has described Zak Bagans as the “Ty Pennington of Ghost Hunting” because of his charm and appeal to viewers and his enthusiastic attitude to his profession (Ty Pennington gained fame in “Trading Spaces” and then his own show, “Extreme Makeover”).

In Virginia City, NV the team visited the Old Washoe Club that harbors an infamous reputation. Among the rooms they visited were a crypt that was used to stack and store bodies that had died from disease or mining accidents in the later part of the 1800’s. Many orbs and EVP’s are heard throughout this segment and it is within this Club that a full-bodied apparition is seen walking across the screen. As Nick sets up cameras and other paranormal equipment he