November 8, 2007
GH: Waverly Hills Redux
Okay, so the results are in and the Halloween 2007 LIVE investigation has been officially wrapped. I'm not entirely sure what to make of this one. I will start off with the light that Steve & Tango saw walking towards them last week — the non-mention of that (along with their sudden desire to ignore it last week) is a pretty good indicator that it was just a crew member who didn't respond to them for some reason.
Now onto heavier matters, the weight of that ball is on my mind. We did see camera footage of the ball apparently moving on its own but while Jason & Grant said there was no wind in that hallway, if it was light enough to be moved by wind is it light enough to be moved by a hoaxster waving a piece of cardboard or something? Remember there were a lot of random people & crew members in that building, some of them — as seen with Steve & Tango — apparently off by themselves for whatever reasons. Also — assuming no hoaxsters, we know there are also no windows which brings back the possibility of the breeze despite Jason & Grant's assurance otherwise.
Moving on to the matter of Steve and the weed of doom, some people have looked at the video and say that Steve did not come in contact with the plant until he was jumping backwards having already been startled by some sensation on his legs. To me it was not so clear when he first came in contact with the plant but I don't think it's unfair to say the mere existence of a plant sticking out of the concrete and growing to about the same height Steve says he was touched should lay enough doubt on the situation to just call it a loss and move on.
At one point during the investigation we had another classic Jason & Grant moment where they both looked around a corner and saw something the camera didn't see and began chasing it. The most famous of these moments was when they both claimed to have seen the full bodied apparition of a woman in 19th century clothing (complete with bonnet) walk down a flight of stairs in… Tombstone, was it? I don't even remember.
The point is, if the camera didn't catch a single pixel out of the ordinary then the audience is left to wonder whether the camera guys totally dropped the ball, or if J&G are chasing shadows, or maybe trying to spice up the drama a bit. If there really is something worth seeing each time this happens, those camera guys have to be quicker to react when the guys make it clear they're staring at something around the corner.
One thing I found really interesting during the LIVE event that they only barely touched on during the final cut was the light several people said they saw down in the chute. It was described as almost seeing an opening at the end of the tunnel in the distance except they knew they shouldn't be able to see the end of the tunnel from where they were standing. This could easily be some explainable phenomena but to me it was still the most intriguing experience (not evidence, I don't believe they got it on video) because it was seen by two people at one, twice, and unless I'm mistaken coming from two different directions. Perhaps worth figuring out, if only for curiosity's sake.
I'm going to close with ECW star Elijah's run for the hills: As Jason pointed out, anyone who isn't used to being that creeped out might have run like a little girl just as quickly, but damn that was still hilarious. Also, I hadn't realized originally that there actually was a scraping sound that is clearly audible and that's apparently what got him running. It isn't verifiable from the tape but supposedly the sound came from behind him or to his left and what got him going wasn't the sound itself but when he realized there wasn't anyone there to make it — although he was already quite riled up from seeing a shadow pass in front of a window at the same time Jason did (too bad no video footage).
All in all the revisit to Waverly Hills certainly made for some entertaining television but I'm rather disappointed by the lack of evidence and suspicious that the evidence they did collect isn't in any way paranormal. That's fine though, I'm not going to complain too hard — I'd rather see a ball wobble close-up than some guy holding a curtain at the end of a hallway.
Filed under Ghost Hunters, Posts by Logisti
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Comments on GH: Waverly Hills Redux »
J. @ 11:42 pm
One of the things I found interesting was the number of panic button hits, yet nothing was really found by those tips, leaving me to think that there are a lot of people with over-active imaginations out there watching the show. Either that or they caught a glimpse of something and it happened so fast they thought it was more than what was actually there.
The light coming toward Steve and Tango looked like the flashlight from a crew member, so maybe that's why they didn't go after it. Hey, at least it wasn't another someone with a black cloak draped over them running about.
I agree on the ball thing, it'd be easy to move - with something like cardboard - if it is light enough.. perhaps by one of the crew guys? I am reminded of Grant looking in a room and asking someone if they moved the ball that 16 or 20 feet. We never saw the person, just Grant asking. How many crew people were in the building? Maybe it was just some of the guys snapping pics for upload to the Sci-Fi Ghost Hunters site? And what about human contamination factor that the crew would possibly introduce?
Steve's experience was interesting, and it doesn't look like he touched the "weed of doom" until after scampering backwards.
I kept wishing the camera would not focus on the investigators, but what the investigators were looking at. I'd much rather see a black, shadowy mass moving than Grant running down the hall.
Yes, the lady in the bonnet walking down the stairs was the Tombstone case.
I did hear the scraping noise and saw Elijah look to his left. I thought he also mentioned that something touched his left shoulder. His bolting away from whatever made for a funny moment.
It's too bad so little evidence was captured from this investigation, but I'd rather have the truth of nothing happening than another questionable piece of "evidence" that looks/sounds like a hoax, yet is labeled as "good evidence" and leaves me to wonder what they would consider bad evidence.
mark @ 10:23 pm
I agree J on the camera people, they need to do these investigations how can i say, " less haphazard" or more controlled, this goes for the investigators also and it looks like they had *WAY TO MANY* people running around. This should be Jason and Grants call to get it really organized better than it is but maybe this is hard to do on tv but i dont see why. Less talking might be good idea but this wont work on tv, then they go "oh look at that" or "did you hear that no you where talking or i was lookikng at the ground". I am sure other paranormal experts or groups just cringe at this show but i still am enjoying it even i am very skeptical. One thing i also wanted to mention and this would actually relate to all investigations late at night, the body's natural tendency is to want to *SLEEP* (LOL). Since this is proven, it may effect everyones judgements, comments, etc. during these investigations. I am not sure what there procedures are on the day of the shoot if they sleep during the day or what, they probaly dont, this might explain Steve's encounter with the *WEED OF DOOM* (haha) Logisti that was so great to come up with i crack up every time i think of it or read your post again! I think that guy with flashlight did look like he was draped in something black and this was classic Dave Tango when he saw it "was that human"? (LOL)
MeanGirl @ 1:19 am
J., I would imagine the GH crew have their cameramen aimed on the TAPS members because their intent is to make a reality show about the people doing the work, not to do the TAPS team's work for them. If GH aimed their one and only camera (according to Jason and Grant) out into the darkness to try and catch evidence, they would be stepping into the role of a TAPS person. They would no longer be there to record the team, but would become a team member themselves.
But I do agree, it kills me every time I can't see what Jason or Grant is seeing! And this also reminds me that I've been wondering why the TAPS IR camera's are so much crappier than the GH cameras. When we get to see the GH footage of the guys great facial reactions to what is going on, gosh it looks good. But then we cut to TAPS IR footage and it's near impossible to make out what's happening. You would think TAPS would have the funds now to buy better IR cameras. Even if it is exponentially higher, wouldn't it be worth it?
J. @ 3:02 pm
Yeah, I guess that'd be the reason the camera people film TAPS instead of what TAPS is seeing… even tho like you said, their stuff is higher quality. But it'd make sense to want to catch something paranormal on film if it was possible, regardless of who did the filming. Besides, I believe if it wasn't for the film crew, they wouldn't have caught Frank getting smacked in the face with his bag in the New Bedford Armory. Correct me if I am wrong about the camera guy catching it when a TAPS guy caught it on camera instead.
It won't do TAPS any good to have the more expensive equipment if they don't know how to use it and interpret the results like they do with the stuff they have now.
bill kelly @ 12:25 am
i have a question. though i dont recall it happening here, but there was one where they captured something then one of the investigators pulled the plug on the computer before info was saved. on the tv footage, you heard what they heard and wanted to listen to more carefully later. but since the computer was unplugged they said they had no proof. why not go to tv footage? they tend to do this a lot.
Logisti @ 10:09 am
The obvious answer would seem to be that the TV footage did not corroborate the alleged lost footage.
Dante Hicks @ 3:07 pm
I just wanted to address a couple of things. I've been to Waverly Hills. I was on a tour, and not an investigation, so what I feel I captured is very hard to pick out, due to noise and what-not. Anyway, the ball that they used that night is a ball that's been there for some time. You can tell by how dirty it is. That very ball I've had in my hand, rolling it down the hall (it didn't come back). That ball, surprisingly, has some weight to it. It's not like the balls that you see in the stores, where there's a ton of them being held back by bungy cords. It's a thicker rubber, or plastic, or whatever. If a breeze moved the ball, it would have to be a pretty strong breeze to move it 16 ft. The window openings that lack a window are on the sides of the hallway, so the breeze would have to come in, hit the wall, then move the ball. Having been there, not very likely.
The shadows, let me just tell you about the shadows. You seem them all over the place, and I dismissed most as your eyes playing tricks on you. BUT… one point of the tour, on the 4th floor, after everyone turns off all light sources, you're given the chance to walk down the hallway and walk back. Shadows were present, but again… eyes? Well, on my walk back to the group, I CLEARLY saw a shadow, about my height, look out from a doorway, 3 ft from me. I stopped and asked if anyone saw anything about me. Most people saw the same shadow I saw. It retreated back into the room, and as I passed the room, I was told it came out and followed me for a bit. Pretty cool stuff.
Lastly, if you remember from the show (I know it's been a while since it was on), in the hallway outside of rm 502, Jason heard noise coming from a room. I found this pretty exciting, since I also heard noise coming from the same room.
Anyway, there's my 3 cents worth…
jack @ 9:22 pm
Having been to the Waverly, I have to say that one of the most unsettling things was the 'phantom glass'–Steve saw this on the original show.
Walking outside on the roof(during the tour 'break') you can walk all around that solarium room with all the missing windows. As you walk your eye is constantly drawn to your reflection in the glass—but there's no glass.
The fourth floor 'shadow experience' is apparently standard. Some people in the group claimed to see shadows–I don't know. My daughter and I shined our flashlights down the corridor in the opposite direction from the group until we were told to shut them off. We thought that we saw something moving in that direction. My daughter snapped a quick picture and we got what looks like the shape of the 'white dog' they talk about lying on the floor.
The glass was the thing that really got to me.