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Released by: Travel Channel-Gaiam
Released on: September 6, 2011
Director: Various
Cast: Various
Year: 2009-2010
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The Series:
Debuting on the Travel Channel in 2009, Ghost Stories has lasted two seasons so far and while paranormal shows are all the rage these days, this one approaches things from a more historical perspective and is put together from interviews, archival clips and location footage, along with a healthy dose of reenactments, rather than 'guys in the dark with night-vision cameras' footage. Wait… reenactments? Those normally suck, right? Right, they normally do but here they're actually done fairly well - better than average at least. The reenactments don't really feature any dialogue, so there's less of a chance for the type of bad acting that usually plagues shows like this.
Here's the caveat though - the narration. Each and every one of the episodes in this series is narrated by former Murphy Brown star Jay Thomas and he does it with a campy, deep, baritone voice. With the narration prone to bad puns and sinister laughs at inopportune moments, it winds up like a mix between a soulful Barry White and The Crypt Keeper telling you a story. The producers of the show take the 'sitting around the campfire' approach to the stories, in that they're presented very matter-of-factly and are delivered in a casual manner, but man does it ever get corny and a quick search around the web reveals that a whole lot of people feel the same way about it.
If you can look past the narration, however, there are some interesting and spooky stories told here. While the show does often times go to locations that will be all too familiar to ghost show fans (the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, The U.S.S. Hornet among others), they also go to a few more esoteric spots and if they don't capture 'evidence' of the paranormal the way shows like Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures claim to, they do paint a pretty macabre portrait of each spot with some great location photography and interviews with locals and experts.
The two discs that make up this set contain the following episodes:
DISC ONE: Boise Theater / Trans-Allegheny / Moundsville Penitentiary / Villisca Axe Murder House / Peter Shields Inn / Elma Sands / U.S.S. Hornet / Fort Mifflin / Sammie Dean / El Fumador
DISC TWO: JJ Stark / Prince Suleyman / Sister Katharine / Toni Jo / Joel Clough / Dr. Edwards
As the series plays out it gets more 'ghost' specific than location specific in that it shifts focus from talking about various ghosts that haunt a singular location or a few locations in a nearby area, and instead focuses on more personal stories. This isn't a bad thing as it allows the writers to go into the history of a few fairly notorious stories and a few not so well known stories. From a sociological and historical perspective, however, the location specific episodes are the more interesting ones, particularly when they're able to interview people who have an affiliation with whatever building may be the focus of a specific episode. A perfect example is the female prison guard who is interviewed in the Moundsville Penitentiary episode, as she's got some interesting stories about her relationship with a deceased prisoner who is now believed to be haunting the abandoned jail and who was buried in an unmarked grave after he was murdered in his cell.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Ghost Stories was shown on TV in 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen which is how it's presented on this DVD release. Aside from the fact that the transfers are interlaced, things look pretty good. Some minor compression artifacts show up in the darker segments but odds are pretty good that if you're not looking for them you won't notice them. Other than that, the transfers here look just as good, if not maybe a little bit sharper, than they do on television.
The only audio option on this release is an English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track, no alternate language options or subtitles are provided. The quality of the audio here is fine, the narration is clean and clear as are the interview segments.
Aside from static menus and episode selection, there is a bonus episode on the second disc called Ghostly Lovers that details an interesting story of undying love amongst the dead - it's either really corny or really romantic depending on how you look at it.
The Final Word:
If you can get past the ridiculously corny narration and bad puns, there are some fascinating and truly creepy stories told here as well as some great location photography. The presentation is decent, offering up the episodes in nice quality, but the lack of extras is a bummer. Don't take this one too seriously and enjoy it for the bizarre history lessons it offers and you can have fun with it.
