American Horror Story: Coven

So the new season has a new name and some new faces. While most of the original cast is coming back, Kathy Bates (Misery among others) and Gabourey Sidibe(The Big C) are coming on board.

The series will be filmed in Louisiana, so that should really set the atmosphere for this one. I’m very excited to see the next season of this crazy ass show.

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Deep South Paranormal – Got Them Lady In Black Blues – S01E03

The team heads out to Prattville, Alabama to investigate the Pratt Cotton Gin which claims to have reports of the Lady in Black and the spirit of a young boy who died when he fell down the elevator shaft. Obviously this is an old mill and both child labor and worker deaths would have been common. OCSA didn’t get much play back in the day.

As the team talks with locals including the police, retired workers of the mill and the mayor, they discover the boy who died was most likely named Willy Youngblood and the Lady in Black may be his mother. After his passing she became so distraught that she drowned herself in the river by the dam.

It’s a massive structure covering some 400,000 square feet so the team spends the next couple of days going to different locations. They culminate their investigation by having Hart try to summon her energy as he takes a boat out to the location where she drowned. The rest of the team investigates the other buildings and tries for EVPs.

As Hart and Randy continue their ceremony on the water, it appears a figure is caught moving across the dam. It’s looks to be a small shadow figure. From the distance and the grainy quality, it’s hard to tell what they have. Did they actually capture something or is this a shadow being cast from some other means? At first glance it appears to be a figure, but it’s very hard to tell.

Over the course of their investigation they really didn’t capture much else. They feel they got an EVP of "Mama" and Keith felt as though things were being tossed at him from the top of the building, but as with all old buildings, who’s to say that’s not an animal scurrying around?

So what do you think, did they capture the Lady in Black? Is that truly an apparition walking around by the dam? Did Hart really have the mojo to make her appear?

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Haunted Collector – Shadow Boxer and Ghost Storm – S03E08

Shadow Boxer

John heads out to Missouri to visit two locations with a variety of activity. For his first stop he visits Kansas City and the Whatsoever Center where children are seeing apparitions, the boxing equipment swings on it’s own, there are footsteps and one person even claims to have felt an energy pass through her.

As the investigation gets underway, Jason and Jesslyn go to the boxing arena and low and behold they hear the ring buzzer go off. This is the same activity the owner has experience. That certainly sounds like a short, but he’s had it checked. At the same time the upstairs camera that Brian has placed starts snapping photos. It appears to have captured a figure against the back wall of the hallway.

The team also learns about the boxing death of "Tex", who mysteriously died in his bathtub. Since boxing was linked to gambling and the mafia, they wonder if he met with an untimely end by not throwing a fight. It’s later discovered that he in fact died of epilepsy and that it was most likely an accident.

On the second night of the investigation while Jason and John are down in the boxing area, one of the bags starts to swing. None of the others appear to be moving. Brian, while watching the monitors, sees some plume of dust from under the boxing ring so they bring out their snake camera and check it out. They pull out a wrapped up bottle of phenol barbital and smelling salts. These definitely look to be related to boxing and more specifically to Tex. Phenol barbital would have been used to control seizures. This may have been Tex’s medication or it may be totally unrelated.

John links all the items together and feels the spirit energy is Tex even though he didn’t die anywhere near the boxing ring. Also, the idea of Tex doesn’t explain anything related to the two girls that have been seen on the stairs. John takes the bottle and the smelling salts away and the activity dies down. But as stated at the end of the segment, people still report the girls.

I think this is another one of those times when John may have jumped the gun and tried to link too many things together without taking all the evidence into consideration. The items he found more than likely have nothing to do with Tex and since he didn’t die there, John is making a leap. It does make sense and they certainly can be linked, but that doesn’t mean they really are.

Ghost Storm

The second part of the trip takes John and team to Joplin, Missouri, site of the massive tornado of 2011. Bob Wilson, the owner, claims he sees shadow figures, feels a dark presence and images appear in an old mirror on the stairs. Interestingly, John brings in Chip Coffey who picks up on some energy on the stairs and feels something is odd about the mirror. He also feels there is some sort of pounding or lashing rage in the daughter’s room. This coincides with the daughter saying her furniture shakes, which the guys do experience, but it comes across as more of a large truck driving by than anything else. It’s still weird nonetheless and would be freaky as hell to wake up to that.

Too bad Chip doesn’t stay around for the investigation. He’s only there for a minute before whisking off. But the team sets up a laser grid on the stairs to see what they can capture. While Brian asks if there is something the family should know, he gets the words "Let go" as an EVP. At the same time the Rem Pod goes off and there appears to be a shadow moving across the laser grid. Within a couple seconds they get multiple hits on different devices.

Shortly thereafter a strange thing starts to happen with the mirror, it appears to be forming shapes and swirls. John can’t see any of the activity himself, it’s only visible with the camera. He tries to check for light sources and moves the chandelier, but it doesn’t change the effect. Oddly, John says he sees the number 22 in the patterns and associates that with the tornado since it happened May 22.

John begins to give Bob the evidence he’s collected when Bob drops a bombshell of a story. He said before he helped pull 19 people from the rubble of a building right next to where he worked. He tells of sitting with a man telling him everything is going to be fine knowing full well it won’t be. As he puts it, he lied and he is utterly torn up about it. Bob stayed at his side until the poor man passed away. How completely heart wrenching.

John associates the "Let go" with Bob and that he needs to let the story out and release his emotions about it. This could be the root of the problem. It seems Bob is dealing with "Survivor’s guilt" and needs to talk about the things he’s seen and experienced.

His story is strange because something appeared to go through the laser grid and energy caused the Rem Pod to go off. If we go with Chip’s feelings, he felt a presence as well. Something tangible seems to be going on, more so than just Bob letting his feelings out. While John overshot the root of the problem in the first part of the episode, I think he falls totally short for the second part. I don’t think he’s discovered or unraveled anything at all. But yet, they claim all the activity has stopped since he told his family about helping the victims. Again, parts of this just don’t tie together correctly.

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Deep South Paranormal – Til Death Do Us Part – S01E02

So here is the second episode in this new series and it’s not really coming together the way I had hoped. I really don’t get the feeling these guys know what the hell they’re doing and they seem more intent on screwing around and playing in the mud than discovering anything. And to be perfectly honest, Hart is coming across as a senile old coot. He talks a good game, but he jumps at everything and as we see in this episode he tucks tail and runs for the hills at the most mundane of things.

This team begins their investigation at Mont Helena in Rolling Fork, Mississippi. The story goes something like this – Helen fell in love with Henry. For reasons I don’t believe they elaborated on, Henry gets into an argument with his friend. The argument is settled with a duel which Henry loses. Henry is slain and Helen is left a shattered woman.

What ends up happening in the house is activity seems to pick up when a play is put on that describes the tragic events surrounding Helen’s life. As part of the investigation, the play is put on while the team checks for evidence. Oddly they get a Rem Pod going off repeatedly during the singing portion. They don’t have any EVPs or thermal imaging going on, but the Rem Pod is indeed active.

A part that makes no sense to me is Keith plays his guitar to try and coax Helen to continue making contact and Jonathan loses his damn mind over a dead bird. Oh my goodness!!! A dead bird, out on a farm!! This has to be the work of the paranormal.

We’ll skip over the part where they go playing in the mud. Their goal was to get to the Vick home, to learn more about Henry. Still, very little is revealed about why this duel took place. Did I miss something?

They do get some trigger objects and personal items. Keith and Benny use these to try and make contact with Henry. While they don’t get any direct communication with him, Keith claims he feels an overwhelming sadness in the house.He’s almost brought to tears. As you may expect they hear a lot of footsteps. Considering how old the building is that shouldn’t be a surprise.

Kali sits with one of the dolls that has been collected by the Vick family. After making contact using the Rem Pod, it appears the spirit wants spend time with Kali. Over time it appears some dark shadow may be forming just above her shoulder. Randy takes this as an aggressive sign and has a bit of show down. Perhaps as a way of showing off his myriad of tattoos, he throws down the flashlight and pulls off his shirt. In a sign of bravado he asks the spirit to touch him, which it may have likely done. We see him jump and bend over as though something has happened. Right after that, Randy is packing up and running away. He says it’s out of respect because they understand each other. I’m not inclined to agree. I think Randy is making an unscheduled underwear change.

Speaking of underwear changes, in the old church, Hart is ringing the bell to try and summon Helen. He says bells attract spirits. Perhaps he’s watched It’s A Wonderful Life one too many times. To that end, he pulls on the church bell three times, giving it firm tugs to make sure it rings loud and clear. When physics takes over and the momentum causes the bell to ring a fourth time, he starts screaming a bunch of gibberish and runs for the door. This makes me wonder if these guys should really be doing this sort of thing.

By the time we get to the end, I’m shaking my head at how foolish all of this comes across. Sure, there does appear to be something happening during the play and that is worthy of more investigation, but taking thermal hits of a dead bird and claiming it’s the paranormal? Idiotic. And pulling on a rope three times then crapping yourself when it rings one more time is just stupid. It’s like Abbott and Costello doing a paranormal investigation. This team really doesn’t seem savvy enough to work with and understand the paranormal. Everyone has their own style, but this isn’t looking too good.

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