Review - The Dead Files - Guardians of the dead

Psychic Medium Amy Allen and retired homicide detective Steve Di Shiavi team up to perform investigations of reported hauntings.


First we visit the location with Steve. The two investigators never cross over during the examination, Steve talks to the owners, does some research on the history and Amy does a walk through of the property with just her husband and a handicam. Then at the end we all have a sit down and present the findings.

This ep we travel to Montego Bay, Jamaica. usually we just visit people's homes on this show, which is, in my opinion, more interesting than traveling to exotic locales. Let the other shows do that I say.

Night time, Amy starts talking about a brutal past with the old sugar cane plantation that we are investigating. She looks up at the building and says, "I don't want to go in there".

We switch to Steve during the day, he meets the owner who tells him about the history of the house - a legend says that a notorious female owner killed her 3 husbands and buried them on the property.
The owner's mother tells Steve about the family's involvement in the building. The sightings, sounds and odd things going on at night. 


we switch to Amy who picks up on an older lady and a crazy / angry man - and makes the huge statement that he is involved in hundreds of deaths. Now, Amy has been critisised for her over the top reactions to what she is seeing and the delivery of her info. This is no different when she pulls a crazy face and says the man is 'vicious' in the mode of Gollum...Ok Ames, rein it in.

Steve is still interviewing people. The employees tell him about their experiences, ranging from touching, holding and sounds. One compelling statement is from a housekeeper that says a ghost held her hand and spoke to her as 5 other entities approached her. She said she thought she was going to die. I don't know why she is back in the house if this is true.

Amy is still pulling faces and pretending to vomit in the dark. Now she tells us there are 12 foot tall black guardians in the backyard that are very dangerous.

Steve does some research into the legends and discovers that there is only a modicum of truth in them.

Eventually we sit down with Amy, Steve and the owners. Amy tells the terrified people about all the things she encountered, accompanied by crazy face pulling. Steve reveals how the legends aren't necessarily true, Amy isn't sure, but pulls her story together a bit more.

Now, every episode, Amy sits down with a sketch artist and does a scary picture to show. This time we see the guardians. I can't stand how formulaic it is that every single time Steve says 'for that I'm going to turn it over to Amy'. It makes it feel scripted and I cringe every time.

Amy tells the owners what they need to do to clear the house. This also irks me because she comes in and tells them all this scary business and then leaves. This time, we need an exorcism and a medium (isn't she a medium? why can't she do it?)

I'm totally dubious on this show as from memory, Amy appeared on shows years ago as an investigator with no talent of her own, but now she is an extremely accurate medium with intimate knowledge of the arcane. I'd love to be proved wrong, but the flashy graphics and sound effects do nothing to support the validity of her findings. Entertaining none the less.

Mama Mia - Here we go again...