Paranormal State

Paranormal State – Do Bad Things – S05E10

PRS heads Ohio after being called in by Heather who lost her sister in an apparent suicide. However, she feels demonic spirits in the house caused her sister to take her life. Heather thinks her siser was possessed by evil and was driven to hurt herself. As they dig deeper they find the brothers had problems when they stayed in Heather’s room and that they too feel there is something evil in the house. They report they keep hearing voices that say to kill their parents and to kill themselves. They feel the spirit was just too much for their sister and she ended her life. Even the mom believes evil got into her daughter.

As the team checks out the house Ryan starts in with the "in the name of Jesus Christ, I command you" mantra. During the investigation the only thing they get is some tapping in the garage where the suicide took place. That tapping could have been a mouse, rat, bird or some other animal living in there. It could be dripping water for all we know. Perhaps a loud clock in a box just ticking away.

Katrina checks with the former owners who lived there for 50 years and they state they never had a single experience while they lived there. Of course, I’m sure they would never admit the walls were bleeding or anything. But this casts some doubt on the claims of the family since they found no evidence during their investigation and the previous owners report nothing.

When Ryan confronts the mom, she becomes pretty hostile and says they need to only investigate the house and not the people. She then tells them all to get out, the investigation is over.

Heather doesn’t want to give up so Ryan brings in Father Jim who basically tells her she needs to move on with her life. They throw Holy Water all over the place and hope that takes care of it. Basically Ryan thinks the family is cursed, however, he doesn’t give a single reason why he thinks that way. Looking at things like abuse, depression, mental illness or medical conditions would be stupid, it has to be a family curse.

Sadly this family is in need or some serious help. Something wrong is going on and this whole demonic/paranormal angle seems like a really weak copout.

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Paranormal State – The Lurking Man – S05E09

Nancy is the homeowner who thinks she is being watched. She keeps waking up only to find herself surrounded by Native American spirits. Her daughters feel like they’re being watched too and they all see shadows and hear noises. The problem has gotten so bad that they’ve left the house and won’t spend the night there.

This episode is very confusing to me. It is very disjointed and a lot of the details seem to be missing. We get some details that the kids have been playing with the Ouija board which of course is a sure sign of a demonic presence in Ryan’s world. Then there is some mention of an occult book which just adds fuel to the fire. Couple this with some Native American tie that really hasn’t been properly researched and Ryan has all he needs to start talking about the demonic and how the land needs to be appeased.

They bring in a sketch artist so Nancy can describe the person she has seen. They somehow figure out this is a person who committed suicide (perhaps murdered) near the property and that he is lurking about. With no evidence to actually support this claim they spring into action by offering up some of their blessed medals and by performing a house cleansing. Even though Ryan is claiming that there is occult work going on – the Ouija and occult book – and that somehow Native American powers are at work, they put a couple medals in the house and all is well.

I guess I just didn’t follow this one.

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Paranormal State – Ghosts of the Forgotten – S05E08

For this episode, Elfie wants to investigate the Lake County Poor House which house immigrants, the mentally ill and criminals. There are several claims of activity including one woman who says her chair was pulled out from underneath her by the spirits. There is even a claim that a hanging too place up in the attic.

Why Elfie wants to investigate the place is a bit of a mystery since she acts like she doesn’t want to be there. She doesn’t seem too interested in participating and certainly doesn’t want to be alone in the place. When she goes off to investigate the attic she can’t get out of there fast enough. We do learn however that Elfie has been absent from the show due to several tragic events in her own life. Both her father and brother have recently passed away. I’m surprised she came back at all even is she is more just hanging out on the sidelines, but Ryan’s condescending attitude toward her is just more than I can stand. He acts like she a holier than thou ass to her. He’s treating her like a little kid. I’m surprised she put up with it.

But the part of the show that really drove me nuts, was the Ganzfeld experiment. It’s time to tape some golf balls over our eyes and strap ourselves to a chair and call it science. This is just the dumbest experiment I’ve seen. When you give yourself sensory deprivation what do you think is going to happen? You will think all sorts of things are going on that aren’t real. Let’s hallucinate and call it the paranormal. This is a BS experiment. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it!

The only interesting part was Serge debunking a picture of a ghostly figure caught in the window. He believes it to be a trick of light (even though the guy who took the picture argues vehemently that it isn’t and even becomes defensive about it) and ends taking a similar photo using his flash.

However, that is about the only thing that happens on this investigation. They don’t seem to capture anything and Ryan spends all his time belittling Elfie. This was a real stinker of an episode and gives more support that Ryan can be a real asshole sometimes.

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Paranormal State – Paranormal Detour – S05E07

While apparently on break between cases, Ryan and team try an experiment to see if they can drive into some random town and find paranormal activity. An interesting idea, but not really all that remarkable. I think it would be hard to find a town that didn’t have some house or building or track of land that all the residents thought was haunted. Isn’t there always some creepy place everyone is afraid to go or they talk about in whispers?

Anyway, through crazy, random happenstance they end up at the Klondike Restaurant which has claims of the paranormal. The owners claim they hear their names being called, they see shadows, they hear whispering, glasses get broken, there are cold spots and someone in the laundry room keeps asking if they can help with the laundry. The owner and several of the employees have no doubt the place is haunted since the activity has been going on for years.

I’m not sure why, but Ryan brings in Lorraine Warren who immediately says the place has all manner of dark energy and feels confident a murder took place there. After only mere moments of being there she is convinced the place is off the charts bad. Right after that declaration Ryan begins to have a conniption about being touched all over his body. Even Lorraine thinks he’s acting crazy. There is nothing to substantiate all this touching and none of the people interviewed mentioned anything about it.

They have now turned things into a full fledged investigation and the team is going to work a shift at the restaurant and see what kind of experiences they can have. Katrina ends up feeling some odd things while doing laundry down in the basement and claims to hear someone sneeze even though she is down there alone. She also claims to hear footsteps when no one is around. Seems like she is the only one getting any activity. It should be noted that the washer and dryer are giving off huge amounts of electrical energy which could explain the odd feelings people have down there. And if the wiring is that bad down in the basement it’s probably pretty crappy throughout the rest of the building. Who knows what people are feeling with that kind of energy coursing through the place.

But in usual fashion Ryan starts running around yelling, “in the name of Jesus Christ…” which is not only annoying, but it doesn’t accomplish anything. It seems to be his fallback plan when nothing is going on. It builds dramatic tension.

I don’t believe they got any tangible evidence to support a single claim that the place is haunted. And they really don’t do anything while they’re there so why should the activity decrease? (as listed in the episode summary text) Further, it doesn’t seem like the owner is really bothered with the idea of the place being haunted. If anything, seems like that would be a good thing for business.

This episode was kind of flaky. It was an interesting idea but I’m not sure what the takeaway should be.

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