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Released by: Lionsgate/A&E
Released on: September 17, 2013.
Director: Various
Cast: Various
Year: 1985
Purchase From Amazon
The Movie:
History is full of all sorts of strange events and whether you believe in ghosts or not, it's easy to see why some of the locations of acts of great cruelty, horror and tragedy might retain… something. The History Channel show Haunted History explores those locations, sometimes presents evidence of their supposed hauntings, and most importantly, tells their stories. Here's what you'll find spread across the two discs in the set.
DISC ONE:
The Ghosts Of Gettysburg - Hauntings in Gettysburg have been well documented over the years and anyone who has been there for a ghost tour or read up on the history of the location probably already knows most of what is covered here. With that said, it's a good primer for those unfamiliar. It was a good job of explaining why there were so many causalities in the battle and then goes on to discuss some of the small town's more haunted locations. The Jenny Wade house, the site of the only civilian casualty in the war, still receives visits from Jenny while the Farnsworth House, which was the site of a make shift hospital and a sniper's roost, is a sight with consistent and sometimes aggressive activity.
Salem Witch Trials - It only makes sense that Salem would be haunted, right? The episode gives us a quick rundown of what happened in the town and what lead to the witch trials and then goes on to explore a few key locations: a tavern where the chairs are sometimes put up on the tables by themselves, a graveyard, the area that was once where the hangings took place and is now a playground and a few others.
Murder Castle - H.H. Holmes is one of the first true American serial killers and to do his evil deeds he bought a city block in Chicago and had the entire second floor turned into a maze of hidden rooms and passageways. When tourists came to visit the 1893 Chicago World's fair, he'd give them lodging but many of those guests wound up his victims. A relative of Holmes explores the basement of what is now a post office build where Holmes' infamous murder castle originally stood. The episode also does a good job of explaining what happened to Holmes, how he was caught, and why he might be a prime candidate in the Jack The Ripper murders!
Lost Souls Of Pennhurst - When the Pennhurst Asylum opened in 1908, the intention was to provide a safe and calm environment for people with mental and emotional disabilities. As time went on and the powers that be started practicing eugenics, conditions deteriorated to the point where a hospital meant house hundreds soon housed thousands. The place became a cesspool, patient abuse was rampant and the place was seriously understaffed. A TV expose brought the problems to light in 1968, which saw a temporary infusion of money, but things soon got bad again. The place was closed in 1987 but this episode makes the case that not everyone left and that the spirits of not only some of the patients but some of the employees still roam the abandoned buildings that make up the campus.
DISC TWO:
Katrina Cannibal - Even before Hurricane Katrina laid waste to the city, New Orleans had a reputation as a haunted hot spot of sorts. This episode focuses on what happened after 2005. Sure we get some background on the city, but we also learn of the deaths of a pair of holdouts who wouldn't evacuate the French Quarter that would months later end tragically with a murder/suicide. That's right - though Iraq War veteran Zack Bowen and girlfriend Addie Hall survived, Zack would go on to kill her, chop her up, have sex with her dead body and cook her dismembered body parts. This episode puts forth the theory that Zack may have actually been possessed.
The Torso Murders - A man known as The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run spread terror across a depression era Shantytown outside of Cleveland, Ohio in the 1930s as he left the dismembered bodies of his victims in the area. Elliott Ness and other officials were called in but the case was never solved. The areas that were the murder locations and dumping grounds for those victims would seem to want their stories known.
A Deadly Possession - In 2001 a Portland, Oregon based antiques dealer stopped at an estate sale and bought what looked like an interesting wooden wine box. After taking it back to his place, strange things started happening and evidence of hauntings began to occur. He sold the box off to a museum director and when the activity followed the box to its new owner, he decided to try and uncover the history of the item. This was the basis for the 2012 story The Possession, which revolved around a Dybbek Box.
The Manson Murders - In 1969 Charles Manson and his family committed the infamous Tate Labianca Murders that made headlines around the world. Their base of operations was the Spahn Ranch out in the California desert. This location is reportedly haunted by the ghost of Donald Shea while the house on Celo Drive where Jay Sebring and Sharon Tate were brutally murdered is supposedly visited by their ghosts quite often. This episode dives into all of this and also discusses the strange events that took place before the killings in which Sharon Tate foresaw her own death. Footage from Jim VanBebber's The Manson Family is used in this episode.
Some of the reenactments can be corny, as is often the case with TV shows like this, but a lot of the location footage is excellent. The series turns out to be a good solid mix of ghost hunting reality TV and legitimate documentary work, thankfully with more emphasis on the latter side of the equation. Many of the subjects here are really only glanced over and each one of these episodes could have easily been turned into a feature length piece but as it stands, this is a strange and interesting series that explores some of the darker corners of the past.
Video/Audio/Extras:
All of the material in this collection is presented in its original 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio, which is how it was all originally broadcast when it first aired on The History Channel. The transfers don't look so bad at all, they're really no better or worse than most television documentaries. Colors are fairly lifelike and accurate looking as are flesh tones, though the black levels aren't all that strong. Detail levels are as good as you'd expect from a shot on video presentation, meaning they're fair to average, though there are no obvious issues with mpeg compression artifacts or edge enhancement worth complaining over.
All five of the documentaries in the set are presented in fairly standard English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo presentations. There are no alternate language dubs, subtitles, or closed captioning options of any kind provided. As far as the quality of the mixes goes, there's not much to complain about here. The levels are well balanced and the background music sounds decent enough. These are not particularly complex tracks - they're basically just narration and interview bits with an instrumental score overtop from time to time - so the stereo mix is perfectly sufficient. There are no problems with hiss or distortion and the dialogue and narration is always perfectly audible.
Aside from some very basic static menus that offer chapter selection, the five discs in this collection are completely barebones and contain no extra features whatsoever.
The Final Word:
If you're a history buff you don't even need a fascination in the paranormal to find this series interesting, though it certainly doesn't hurt. The show delivers some surprising facts and deals in stories that are grim and unsettling, but that doesn't take away from the fact their allure. No extras, but the set looks and sounds just fine. If you're into this sort of stuff, there's a lot to appreciate here.
