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Released by: Image Entertainment
Released on: March 19, 2013.
Director: Various
Cast: Jason Hawes, Grant Wilson, Dave Tango, Steve Gonsalves
Year: 2012
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The Movie:
Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson are two guys who spend their days working for Roto-Rooter installing toilets and fixing pipes, and at night head out all around the East Coast (and now further, venturing west to California in this sixth season and south towards Georgia for a fair bit this time around as well) of these here United States either proving or, just as frequently, disproving evidence of paranormal activity. This unlikely hit has done good things for SyFy, proving to be one of their longest lasting and more popular original series, which just goes to show that there are a lot of people out there with an interest in this type of material. There have been a couple of spin-offs so far (Ghost Hunters International and Ghost Hunters Academy) and more than a few rip offs on other channels, but the original is still the most popular thanks to its interesting mix of supernatural sleuthing and the regular (and very likeable) cast members who make up the investigative team.
At any rate, Jason and Grant formed TAPS - The Atlantic Paranormal Society - a group that specializes in using high tech equipment, with a deft blend of common sense, experience, education and speculation to figure out what some people consider to be actual hauntings. Once again, Ghost Hunters Season Seven Part Two gives them a chance to, with cameras rolling, do their thing and the results as interesting as usual. Grant and Jason aren't the only members of the team, however. There's a heavily tattooed ex-cop named Steve who helps out with the cameras, a technical expert named Dave Tango, and a few other experts out to lend a helping hand.
The series has been airing on Sci-Fi/SyFy for the better part of a half a decade at this point, but Jason and Grant still manage to find a lot of interesting places to investigate. Not every investigation produces chillingly eerie results, which is what makes this series more believable the countless other ghost shows that have swarmed the airwaves in its wake. This first half of the show's eight season, however, has some pretty good episodes. Here's a look:
DISC ONE:
Roller Ghoster - Mason, OH: Kings Island Amusement Park/ Antrim, NH: Antrim Family House
Buyer Beware - Naples, NY: Naples Hotel/ Gardner, MA: Gardner Mansion
Flooded Souls - Haletown, TN: Hales Bar Dam
Dead And Breakfast - Red Boiling Springs, TN: Thomas House
DISC TWO:
Moonshine And Madness - Max Meadows, VA: Major Graham Mansion
City Hell - Providence, RI: Providence City Hall/Farmington, NY: Burson House
Frighternity - Kingston, RI, University of Rhode Island: Lambda Chi Alpha House/ Baltimore, MD: USCGC Taney
A Ghost Of A Marine - Annapolis, MD: U.S. Naval Institute
DISC THREE:
Family Of Spirits - Mount Joy, PA: Bube's Brewery/ Reisterstown, MD: Boston House
Haunted By Heroes - Mt. Pleasant, SC: USS Yorktown
The Princess And The EVP - Bretton Woods, NH: Mount Washington Resort
Please Sign The Ghost Book - Whitefield, NH: The Spalding Inn
Overall, fans know what to expect here while those not impressed with the series won't find anything new to convince them to change their minds. The series is interesting though edited a little too heavily, and with more focus on the investigation rather than the results of the investigations. This is fine as it is probably what most viewers want out of the show but for those looking for a little more 'proof' it can sometimes be frustrating. On top of that, the use of the 'guest investigator's is flat out corny and completely unnecessary - while I suppose it could be seen as a fun variation on the tried and true formula, it comes across as a ratings grab and adds nothing to the show's attempts at legitimacy. Where the show succeeds is in its case of likeable team members and in its entertainment factor. Like every other reality TV show on the planet, we have no way of knowing what happens behind the camera to staging is possible, but if you can get past that and suspend your disbelief, you can have a lot of good spooky fun with this series.
Of course, the big news this season was that Grant had decided, for personal reasons, to leave the team. He breaks this news early in the season and stays on until the last episode in this collection, and those who have seen recent broadcasts of the series know that he hasn't come back to join TAPS yet. Whether he will or not remains to be seen but this news, delivered before the episodes in this set play to the finish, does add some human drama to the show that it hasn't really ever had in the past. Sure there have been instances where one team member or another wouldn't be able to make a specific investigation but given that Grant co-started the team with Jason, the news is his leaving hits the TAPS team pretty hard.
As far as the investigations go, there are, as always, good ones and not so good ones. The first disc features a journey through an old run down haunted amusement park that just makes for a perfect location for this type of thing. The results won't blow you away but the scenery in this episode is great. The investigation at the Hales Bar Dam is pretty great, the team gets some very interesting evidence but also manages to debunk a couple of things as well. The same goes for their trek through the Graham Mansion, a location with a history of slavery related violence and murder. Some interesting evidence is captured and the team declares the location to have activity occurring that cannot be explained, but also finds logical explanations for how and why huge apparitions are spotted up at the top of the hill and why people feel like they're being touched in the basement. A couple of military locations yield some interesting results while the exploration of City Hall in Providence, Rhode Island - a location supposedly haunted by a former mayor, is quite fun to watch, particularly when Steve's fear of heights causes problems for him. All in all, this isn't really much that we haven't seen before, but then if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? The series is nothing if not formulaic at this point but the TAPS team remains a likable group of 'paranormal investigators' and the locations that they continue to explore offer up enough odd history that the series is still entertaining, and even occasionally spooky.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Each of the episodes that make up this set is presented in their original 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen aspect. If you've seen the show on SyFy in HD then you more or less know what to expect here. The transfers look good as far as standard definition offerings are concerned, showing okay detail and some minor compression but the night vision footage still looks like night vision footage. This isn't the type of series that you buy for video quality, but overall color reproduction is fine and black levels are good.
The audio for this release is Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. There are no alternate language tracks nor are there any subtitles, which is a shame as a lot of the investigation footage features the cast members whispering at times and they'd have come in handy for that reason. Regardless, most of the dialogue is pretty clear and there's some goof left to right channel separation up front.
A fourth disc in the set contains a load of deleted scenes, a few from pretty much each episode in the set. Fans will probably be familiar with the episodes themselves as the series is broadcast pretty frequently on The Discovery Channel but the deleted scenes, some of which is fairly interesting, is exclusive to this set and never before seen, making it of interest to fans of the show.
The Final Word:
The series isn't treading any new ground this time out, in fact, some of these locations have been visited not only on competing ghost shows but on Ghost Hunters itself. With that said, the formula is tried but true. If you've enjoyed the seasons that have come before and, like a lot of viewers, can't get enough of this type of show, then it stands to reason that you'll enjoy this latest batch as well. It doesn't bring anything new to the table in terms of ideas, but with Grant exiting the show this season does have a bit more human drama to it and the results in the change to the TAPS team give it a slightly different vibe at times.
