lazypadawan | Spooky Fest '10: Paranormal T.V. Redux

A squinting lazypadawan--hey, it was bright in there--with the cast of 'Ghost Adventures' at Comic Con.

If you've read this long enough, you probably know that I'm a paranormal t.v. junkie. My weekly viewing includes "Paranormal State," "Ghost Hunters"/"Ghost Hunters International", "Ghost Adventures," "Celebrity Ghost Stories," and "Destination Truth."

The only new entries within this year on the t.v. rotation are Bio's "My Ghost Story," Travel's "Ghost Stories," and Animal Planet's "The Haunted."

"Ghost Stories" started out as a few specials and has been expanded into a series. Basically it recounts tales of hauntings at various locations and interviews locals, psychics, and paranormal experts. Actor Jay Thomas does an over-the-top narration full of gallows humor. Not a particularly scary show but an entertaining chaser to "Ghost Adventures."

"My Ghost Story" features first person testimony on terrifying experiences, many of them with actual photos or videos of alleged paranormal activity. What's interesting is that this show features a lot of private residences and off-the-beaten path locales. Not the kind of show I'd want to watch by myself late at night! I think the prize winners in my book were the New Mexico prison that was the site of a horrific riot in 1980 and a home in SoCal where a woman contacts a friend who had died fairly recently from cancer at her former home.

But for my money, "The Haunting" on Animal Planet is by far the scariest show of them all. It's a docu-drama of sorts featuring a families at the mercy of aggressive paranormal forces. Since it's on Animal Planet, all of the stories feature pets getting caught in the crossfire. I've had to change the channel on a couple of episodes because I was afraid I was going to get nightmares, like the one a few weeks ago with the guy who was being attacked by a succubus. The scariest episode was one that aired during the first season (the show has just started its second) about a pair of teenage amateur ghost hunters who pick up an evil spirit who follows them home. The spirit gave these predictions that all came true, including a murder. One of the pets dies. Worst of all, these kids lived in Maryland and I knew the area where they lived and the abandoned hospital where they supposedly picked up the evil spirit. Eeek!