GHOST HUNTERS:
It’s the mid-season premiere for TAPS, the Ghost Hunters, and they start off by going to a prison that is rumored to be the final days of America’s first serial killer. “A Serial Killer’s Revenge” was filmed at the Old City Jail in Charleston, SC where people have claimed that they have felt as if someone was touching them or scratching them while visiting the prison. The team goes to the prison with all their gear to find out if any of the claims are true.

In the episode “Camp Fear”, TAPS take on one of everyone’s fears, the woods. Rutledge, GA is the home to Georgia’s Camp Rutledge where it was used as a location for a Friday the 13th movie. At the camp people have claimed to have heard noises, seen figures in the woods, shadows walking around, a boy drowning, wet footsteps, and other incarnations that would give a brave person the hibbie gibbies. Out in the woods of this camp the team of Ghost Hunters try to track down some elemental spirits that are running rampant on this camp before making a stop in Marion, NC to find out if there is a ghost trying to hurt a girl that lives there.

LET THE HUNT BEGIN:
In the episode “A Serial Killer’s Revenge”, there’s basically nothing different than past episodes that I’ve seen of Ghost Hunters. The group TAPS (The Atlantic Paranormal Society) go to a location that has rumors of being haunted where people claim that they have had some sort of encounter with a ghost or spirit. They have all the gear, cameras placed around center areas of the prison, cameras that has night vision lens, and all other sorts of gadgets in their quest to find the spirits of the world.

I wasn’t too thrilled with this episode of Ghost Hunters because not much of anything happens. There’s some moments where one of the group members suddenly has scratch marks on her arms but that’s the most exciting moments of the episode. When I watched this episode I wasn’t really expecting to see a real ghost floating around the building or the group attacked by some vengeful evil spirit looking to back at the living. Though I am looking to get those chills that go down the spine when I think something spooky might happen or that maybe they will hear some crazy noise that’s out of place, something that will make me have those chills. Didn’t happen, at least not the chills for me. There where some moments where I thought something was going to happen, it seemed like they where onto something, but by the end of the episode I never got spooked.

With “Camp Fear” episode I expected it to be the same as the last one but I was completely wrong. Could it be a bas fear that resides in everyone that makes the woods scary, even when on tv? Maybe, maybe not but I got to admit this episode did give me the chills. Even though nothing happens that I think would be classified as a ghost or spirit but the idea of that kind of stuff happening is pretty scary, especially when it’s out in the middle of nowhere when you couldn’t get any help if you needed it and when it gets dark it’s like the world has turned off it’s light.

This was the kind of reaction that makes this show fun to watch. I never expect this kind of show to actually prove and show some real ghosts and spirits, if it did it would have made national news, probably world news, instead of being aired on a cable station once a week at 9pm. What I look for in this show is not the proof of ghosts or spirits but if the show can illicit some sort of reaction from me because it’s tapped into my own thoughts and fears of something. It’s the anticipation of what’s around the corner and if that sound really was made. Ghost Hunters uses all the edit mold for reality TV, build up the first part of the segment, have it start to lead somewhere, then right at the end make it look like it’s going to payoff but go to commercial. Add in the suspenseful music that’s played during the moments when the team seem to hear or see something, the night vision cameras, and how serious these guys take their job and what you get is a show that’s both entertaining and a little on the edge of being too much.