UNSOLVED MYSTERIES: GHOSTS
Unsolved Mysteries:
Ghosts
Starring: Robert Stack
DVD Special Features: Introduction by John Cosgrove
and Terry Dunn Meurer; Audio Commentary for Select Episodes by Series
Producers/Creators/Directors; Motion Menus; A Special Tribute to Robert
Stack; 5.1 Surround Sound; Original 4:3 Full Screen Format
Encoding: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
Number of Discs: 4
Episode Listing
Disc 1 - Frendly Ghost, Resurrection Mary,
Matchmaker Ghost, Queen Mary Ghosts (includes commentary), Grace's Ghost,
Voice From the Grave, Ghosts Go to Court (includes commentary), The
Entity, Ghost Boy.
Disc 2 - Black Hope Ghost (includes commentary), Tallman's Ghost,
Ghost Blimp, Gordy's Ghost (includes commentary), Highway Vision, Civil
War Ghosts, Profiling the Paranormal, Ghost Lights.
Disc 3 - Lizzie Borden's House, Tatum's Ghost, Ghostly Attraction,
Ghost Writer, Mary Celeste, Comedy Store Ghosts, Myrtles Plantation
(includes commentary), General Wayne's Inn (includes commentary), Devil's
Backbone.
Disc 4 - Gettysburg Ghost (includes commentary), Frightened Family,
Moss Beach Ghost, Lady in Black, Bullock's Deadwood, Lake Wales Haunting,
Mystery Hum (includes commentary), Always Karen.
Movie:
 
Disc:
 Would
it surprise you to know that Unsolved Mysteries is one of the
longest running television series of all time?
From 1987 until his death
in 2003, Robert Stack (probably best known as the original Eliot Ness in
the 1950s TV series, The Untouchables) hosted this show that
explored the paranormal -
one part documentary, one part investigative
report, and another part re-enactment drama. Although the show continues
on and has added murder investigation to its genre coverage, a number of
Unsolved Mysteries segments, which were hosted by Robert Stack, are
now available on DVD, grouped by paranormal genre.
Two box sets -
The UFO Files and
Scariest Ghost Stories -
are now available with a third box set ?
Miracles -
coming in November. Psychics, Bizarre Murders
and Legends will be available in 2005. Each DVD contains numerous
10-minute segments, each of which outlining a paranormal event.
Scariest Ghost Stories. With a title like that, one might expect to
be scared witless on viewing Unsolved Mysteries segments about
ghostly encounters. Unfortunately, compared to the balanced and reasonable
approach taken by The UFO Files, Scariest Ghost Stories is a
major disappointment.
Interviews with witnesses are uneven from segment to segment. There isn't
a stringent credibility test. Segment quality varies from case to case.
The more spine-tingling cases are those where the "ghostbusters march in
with their sensor equipment and actually pick up hot spots, cold spots or
ghostly recordings. Best example is a segment about the Queen Mary where
Unsolved Mysteries investigators actually recorded some ghostly and
unexplained sounds.
The unintentionally funny segments are those where witnesses aren't
particularly convincing about their encounter. Even with a cheesy
re-enactment replete with hokey special effects, some witnesses just don't
have a particularly compelling story about their encounter with a ghost.
This collection is notably
inferior to the UFO collection because
the producers didn't take the same scientific documentary approach here.
Many of the Ghost Stories segments end up being simple video
diaries backed by low quality re-enactments. The experts aren't into
investigation here ? they just offer the occasional sound bite. In one
segment, The Entity, the witnesses actually offer their haunted
house for inspection - but for some unexplained reason, the challenge
isn't taken up by Unsolved Mysteries! They're happy with a
re-enactment; no need to do any actual research here!
WORTH IT?
Not scary. Not even well done as a documentary! The only unsolved mystery
is why these segments are so inferior to the UFO collection . .
.
RECOMMENDATION:
Wait for a re-run on TV because you're not going to be watching this DVD
over and over.
- Harrison Cheung
|
