Ghost Hunters International – Duran Sanatorium/Rose Hall – S02E13

Costa Rica – Duran Sanatorium

For the first part of the investigation, GHI heads down to Costa Rica to investigate the Duran Sanatorium. This location has gone through many changes, from tuberculosis hospital, to a mental ward, to a minimum security prison, to a maximum security prison. It’s certainly seen it’s fair share of troubled patients and ill deeds. Not to mention, many of these patients and prisoners were mistreated.

First thing to note: Perhaps Paul could find a big boy shirt with sleeves on it to wear? Maybe this is the macho Costa Rican biker look, but it looks so tacky visiting a client dressed like that. I guess he was trying to show off his tattoos. Remember, you can’t be a true ghost hunter without them.

Not much happens during this investigation, but shock of shocks, the team actually does some debunking. Apparently the clothes line is mistaken for ghostly apparitions. The movement of the clothes can cause odd flickers and shadows in the room.

The investigation is pretty quiet, but at the reveal Robb and Barry spring some new evidence on the client. They have a picture of a blob in the window of the Administration building. For heaven’s sake, that could be a moth, a bird, a flicker of light or a flying squirrel. Ok, maybe not a flying squirrel, but it’s hardly gripping evidence of the paranormal.

The next photo is one featuring a blob out in the courtyard. Yes, there is something in the photo; a shapeless white, fuzzy, streak. It could be something paranormal, but it could just as easily be a bad reflection, the camera picking up the flash or even humidity. It’s interesting, but to say it’s paranormal is quite a reach.

But reach they do…

And finally they have the picture of a little girl sitting the steps. If you really want to stretch your imagination you can almost, sort of, maybe, create an outline of a little girl. It looks more like wishful thinking to me.

It should come as no surprise they say the place is haunted.

Jamaica – Rose Hall Great House

Next up is the Rose Hall Great House. Annie Hall, the "White Witch", practiced voodoo and apparently treated her slaves quite badly. She is also believed to have cast spells on them. Annie is also noted as killing her husband with arsenic.

First thing to note here is the sheer volume of noise coming from the jungle. You can barely hear them during their little side interviews and while they’re walking around. No EVPs for this location, which to me, makes the outcome somewhat interesting. She sounds like the sort who would stick around and raise some Cain.

Once again, I’m in shock as GHI kicks in the debunking gear! They debunk the idea of people capturing Annie sitting on her bed as people capturing their own flash. They also debunk the idea of people capturing Annie in the mirror. Kathy (the client) is skeptical so Robb does a live demo. He even goes so far as to show the image in the "evidence" photo was of a vase on the shelf (Bad camera angles will get you every time!). Finally they uncover the rattling bottles as a giant rat roaming around. I haven’t seen them do this much debunking the entire season! Robb was on fire! As an aside, I hope the Health Department wasn’t watching that bit with the rat.

It almost comes across that when Robb and team can’t be persuaded by bangs, pops and those damnable EMF meters they can really get to the root of the paranormal. They dismiss Rose Hall as being haunted, but Kathy doesn’t agree. She still clings to the idea the place is haunted.

So is this the last episode for the season? Why was it so short? Last season GHI belted out 23 episodes. For this season they bailed out at lucky number 13. They had such a huge break I figured a whole lot more episodes were coming. Do they not want to compete with Ghost Hunters and the new season or is there something else going on here? Are we going to see a lineup change on Ghost Hunters?

Other Articles of Interest:

• Ghost Hunters International – San Lucas Island – S02E12
• Independent investigation of the Spalding Inn
• Ghost Hunters International – Quarantine Station
• Ghost Hunters International – Port Arthur Penitentiary – S02E10
• GHI – Tasmania/Malaysia – Tasmanian Death Sentence
• Paranormal Cops- Messages from Beyond – S01E06
• Paranormal State – Shadow Caster – S04E09
• Funny how the paranormal has changed
• Ghost Hunters at Alcatraz 100th Episode
• Ghost Adventures – USS Hornet – S04E08