Review - The Dead Files - From Beyond

Last time I posted that The Dead files was the season final. Where did I get that idea from?
Well, that week I lost my cat, my dog died suddenly, and lost my job. Maybe I felt like it was MY season finale?
Believe in curses? I do, I've cursed A LOT this last week or two...

OK, at least we have Amy and Steve to cheer us up. But warning, this one might make no sense, it's like an M. Night Shyamalan movie. you'll be all like:

WHAAAAAAAAA??

We are in:

Macon, Georgia
A man named Jeff has contacted Amy and Steve, his family is being terrorised by somethig in the house.
No surprises when Amy turns up she tells us 'it's really bad'. If it was really good, I guess we wouldn't be there.

When Steve meets Jeff in the kitchen, we see a rattled man who is concerned for his family - especially his daughter who seems to be bearing the brunt of it. I like Jeff, he seems genuine and feels like he can't protect his family.

Amy is walking through with all the cameras in the dark where she is picking up on two male spirits who don't get along, possibly a grandfather and grandson dynamic. of course, 'it's really bad', and 'really stressful' in the house.

Why am I here again?

Meantime during the day, Steve has talked to Jeff about the activity in the house. the fire pokers move on their own, the furniture moves into strange positions. Tammy, Jeff's wife feels afraid for her daughter, although maybe she should be afraid for herself - there's something that watches her from the corner and sits on the bed.
Tammy feels it's dangerous.
It's unsettling.
And it's definitely getting worse.

Steve meets with Hunter next, Tammy and Jeff's son. He's seen the 'shadow man' at least 20 times. He seems concerned with his sister, but maybe he should be worried about himself if he's seeing this shadow guy so often.
Finally we meet Jessica, the daughter. Her drawers apparently open by themselves, she's seen a man in her room, had her hair yanked and she has nightmares and sleepwalks.
Amy picks up on this, but she's not sure if they're nightmares or something more...sinister. She's seeing little black children like figures on the bed and holding Jessica down.
We cut back to Steve and Jessica and hear how a ghost likes to spoon her in bed -she also wakes up with scratches.

Steve's 'putting his feelers out' and meeting with a local genealogist, Cecil Etheridge jr. Slaves. there, I said it. Well, we are in Georgia, so to be expected. the land owner had 'em. the neighbours had 'em, they were everywhere. Then the civil war came to town, there's some history here with locals who fought.
Steve takes this information and goes to see another historian where he learns there was a battle and a deadly ambush on the actual property.


Now Amy is picking up on the older man and the younger man, they don't see eye to eye and the land is the key here - also the civil war.

Skip to the sketch.
Amy firstly describes the battle which has left the area 'stressed'.
She tells about the older man who likes to watch things, Tammy explains about the man who watches from the corner of her room. This is when Amy describes the dynamic between the old and young man.
Now it's time for Amy to approach the nightmares, she doesn't believe that they are natural and it happens when there is supernatural goings on in the home.
Amy was also spooned by the ghost! sharing the love.
Scary time!
Steve 'turns it over to Amy' and she prescribes the cure.
we need an older male medium who needs to be gruff, this will remove the dead guys from the house.
But hang on!
Amy says this will not solve the issue. WHAT?
Jessica and Hunter are being abducted by aliens.
just incase you thought you misread that, Jessica and Hunter are being abducted by aliens.

I'm not sure i can type any more. I feel like I've been hit in the face with a fish, it is from left field and there was no mention of this during the walk through.
The family seems ok with this. really? Maybe they're aliens.

WHAAAAAAAAAA?

Review - The Dead Files - The Obsession -

Ru-Roh, final episode!

We had better get a good dose of faces from Amy before we are without her for a while.
And no more of Steve's Nuwe Yawhk accent.

We are in Oregon, Illinois.
Heading to a bar.

Amy arrives and instantly feels like the air is knocked out of her. we are left with the tag 'There is no hope here', before we switch back to Steve.
He's sitting with the owner, who says that customers just get up and leave, things fall off shelves, touching, etc. He's owned the place for 20 years, but recently moved in, where he's been more aware of activity. he's the former mayor of the town.
The location is the last place that local girl Mary Jane and her date spent their night in 1948, before being murdered. He has since become obsessed with the deceased girl and even spent his own money on having her body exhumed, in fact about $150,000 of his personal savings has gone in to the case over the last 15 years.

Amy is seeing a nasty woman in her 20s. Whoop, off to the theater. Steve and the owner are talking about the female apparition. Steve has 'the eyes' on. He gets these when he hears people's stories.
Switch the lights off, Amy's in here now. It's bad, dangerous in here even. There's something Satanic and religious here.

Uhuh...sure

Steve is now interviewing the workers at the bar. It's driving him up the wall a bit, and he's doing 'the eyes' a lot, even variations of 'the eyes' are happening. Ooh, he's getting a bit hard arse on them because he feels they aren't telling him the full story.

riiiiiighhht

Confusion reigns in the theater for Amy right now, she's picking up on dead people but they are trying to tell her they are demons. This walk through is not very cohesive, but it's negative anyway.

no, please go on...

Marge. oh Marge, she's been terrorised by something that has followed her home. My bet is that something hitched a ride home in her hair.
It's like cotton candy, but instead of sugar, it's made of cobwebs and poltergeists.

Don't look now, but you've caught another one

Steve has done some digging on the Mary Jane case and discovered that Mary Jane and her boyfriend were possibly killed by the local sherrif, who MJ was having an affair with. SCANDAL!

The Reveal:
Three people are hanging out in the basement. One of them is Mary Jane. She reveals how her memory was affected in the bar, and the place is a bit of a trap. The frustration is amplified and controls the living. I'm not sure what all that means, but it doesn't sound great I suppose.
The Fix:
Steve 'turns it over to Amy'. we need 1) the owner needs to take Mary Jane and her boyfriend out of the building. How? just tell them. 2) a holy man needs to come in and do a blessing.
that's it.
What about Marge's house? What about Marge's hair? no help there I'm sorry.
Amy faces you ask? Good ol' Ames didn't let us down. Not only does she do her darndest at finding the hidden secrets in a location, she damned well keeps us entertained as she does so

Yeah, this review was a short one, but honestly, they didn't go out with a bang this season. This case felt really drawn out and uninteresting. Even the reveal and the fix were lackluster. Maybe it's time for a break guys. Find us some good hauntings and come back fresh. Til next time.

Review - The Dead Files - The Instigator

The following program contains material that may be disturbing. The Subject matter and opinions may be considered controversial.

This is what we are told at the start of the Dead Files.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Steve Di Shiavi arrives at the house of Lisa, where he is informed that the household (her daughter, granddaughter and ex husband) is being 'attacked' by an unseen force, they need Amy and Steve's help. There are footsteps, doors opening and closing and even the refrigerator is being opened by something. Perhaps they need some food to go with all those spirits.   

The worst part of this situation is that Lisa believes the house has caused her marriage to break down.

Now, for non-dead files fanatics, Steve is an ex homicide detective who does the leg work throughout the day; interviewing people, digging up the history and generally being detective like and asking all the 'hard' questions. 

Are you sure it's a ghost? Oh, ok then.

Amy Amy Amy

arrives at location, with husband Matt on camcorder, and entourage of camera crew - so an intimate ten person walk through in the dark. She picks up on someone she calls the 'instigator' who likes to stir things up. Of course she pulls a face and says the word evil a couple of times. 

Quick cut back to Steve and Lisa. She's been touched. On the boobs. Awkward glances.

Tamiera

is Lisa's daughter who lives in the house with her own daughter. She and her mother have seen an old lady in the house who likes to stroke their hair. But worse than a nice head massage is being dragged out of bed by her ankles.

So Amy now picks up on this old lady who she feels is giving the man in the house a hard time. There's also a distinguished looking man who is inducing panic attacks in the people who live there. The instigator wants to be friends with this gentleman but apparently he has enough friends right now and isn't interested.

Steve has headed out to a local historian Elise. in 1872 a family moved into the property who had a lot of deaths and tragedies. 4 children and a woman passed, leaving a man in the house who dies broke and alone. Amy is now picking up on the distinguished man who we are assuming is this same guy. 

Digging further, Steve finds a death of a fourteen year old by typhoid fever - his father, a meat inspector to the city, fell ill and was taken care of for years by his elderly wife. Amy thinks the lady was cookoo in the coconut.

Who's the crazy lady?

before this history lesson is over, we hear about five people who were killed on the nearby train tracks.

Sketch time! Skip to the reveal. We are meeting Lisa and Tamiera out of the house because the ex husband is unhappy about the investigation.

As Amy speaks, we see the client's faces drop and nod in agreement. They all agree that the ex is under influence to these spirits - and that is not a good thing. These spirits are the old lady, the distinguished man and the instigator, confirmation by Lisa makes for more nodding and agreement. Steve backs up these claims with death certificates and pictures. Let's bring out the sketch because we haven't had tears yet. Yup, gasp. creepy. tears.

Now, one of the household is bringing these spirits in and giving them energy....it's the EX!

Oh no you di'nt

Steve 'turns it over to Amy' and It's time for the solution. A medium needs to move the old lady on, reuniting her with her dead son. Then the medium needs to move the distinguished man on. Then the instigator is to go. Amy hands over a small vial of tar water which she is to sprinkle at every opening to the house to keep the dead out. BUT, the women have decided to move anyway. Amy says that if the ex stays in the house they are to NEVER go and visit him as the dead will be focused heavily on him and things will get nasty up in there.

So wraps another episode of the dead files. I just have one question, why does Amy never pick up on things that Steve doesn't find? It just seems all too neat and tied up in string. Sure, maybe they edit it that way, but it does make me question how it can all be neatly packaged and no loose ends left dangling like real life. But then again, this isn't real life is it? It's ghost hunting tv, and it pays to remember that no matter how convincing it all seems.

Review - The dead files - House of mirrors

Amy Allen and Steve DiShiavi are on the road to Independence, Oregon, in search of a haunting once again.
We all know the drill by now (don't we?), Amy does her walkthrough at night, filmed by husband Matt who is in turn filmed by another crew (?!) while Steve's realm is the day: interviewing occupants and digging into the history. We then spend the ep. going back and forth between the two, putting the puzzle (sometimes very conveniently) together until the finale with the householders where a creepy picture is presented and Amy's inscrutable cure is prescribed.Along the way we are entertained by the many faces of Amy Allen.

Here we go!
Steve, car, talking at the camera. he tells us how a couple living in a farmhouse are being terrorised by activity and think their relationship may fall apart without their help.
Amy is now telling us how there are tricksters on the property who create illusions and mess with people, but not in a "haha, got your nose" kind of way, more in a "you go crazy now" sort of fashion. They can also enter people's dreams.

Steve meets Terry at the kitchen table. He admits to hearing voices, seeing full bodied apparitions and even being chased by something in the house which he shares with partner Bobby and sometimes grandson Ashton. Terry is worried that it is affecting his grandson and feels utterly helpless.

"What the Hell?" is usually what we hear from Amy when she enters a location. This time is no different. She's seeing a person yelling in the lounge, it's someone who lives there, and now she is sensing a telepath in the home but HOLD THE PHONE there is the creepiest looking dead plant growing across the ceiling in this room and no one is mentioning it, OK, moving on...this telepath is making things appear.
"OH boy", no we're in the bedroom and meeting the 'tricksters'. They are apparently manipulating the occupants fears and anxieties.

Terry has just told Steve about the women's voices he hears in the kitchen and is describing the figures he's seen at the end of his bed, which are human shaped but smaller.

Come on Amy, time for a crazy face and yes! there it is. She describes the trickster beings as small black humanoids who are quite enjoying all the havoc they are causing.

Steve is now interviewing partner Bobby in the house. He describes the small black figures that both Amy and Terry have talked about, Grandson Ashton also tells Steve about things coming out of the closet  with red eyes and a tall man in the bathroom.
Right, time for Steve to do some history on the home and here's what we know: a prison superintendent lived on the land with his mother in the nineteenth century, he was blamed for a third of his prisoners escaping. His mother then died and was buried there.
Secondly, a deadly feud between neighbours in 1889 happened close by. Now we also find out that the house was moved to its current location from another farm property, so we head out there. Of course, there was a suspicious hanging and deaths there too. Feeling the urge to move anyone?

A sketch is done so it must be time to gather everyone for the reveal. We start the story outside and gradually ramp up the terror and it's not long before we're getting the close up reaction shots and furtive glances all round. We continue to go through the history until we get to the telepathy part, it's Terry, big reveal. It's not really explained but moving on to the tricksters now. Close ups for everyone! Amy crazy face comes out to play and there's tears. But we're not done, let's pull out the sketch: It's the tricksters standing around the bed. hang in there guys there's more, they have a leader.
There's that line "and for that I'm going to hand it over to Amy." Cringe.

Plan of Attack
First off, a physical medium needs to talk to the leader, but at the same time a shaman needs to come in and deal with the tricksters, setting up a wide perimeter around the house.
The guys have to write a journal every week and burn it.
Oh What? that's it? No African Wildebeest tamer? ok, seems easy enough.
Then there's the text at the end of the show that tells us they are still looking for a shaman and a medium and the activity still continues. So what then? Come in, stir it all up, terrify the occupants and then leave?
Seems odd that Amy can't at least hook them up with who they need to perform these things.
Also, most importantly, she neglected to tell them they need someone to come in and do an exorcism on that dead thing creeping across the ceiling, taking over their home which was by far the creepiest thing about the whole episode.

Review - the dead files - deranged

Psychic medium Amy Allen and her detective partner Steve Di Schiavi are back with a new episode. According to the intro, they never meet during an investigation and only compile their findings at the end of the show when they have a sit down with the owners.
Ok, so today we're at:

Falconer, New York.
Steve is heading to Sheila's house, where everyone is being terrorised by a spirit, especially her fourteen year old daughter (hands up if you're hoping for a poltergheist?!)

But now we flick over to Amy and her husband Matt as they do a walkthrough of the location. Now, one good thing and one bad thing:
+ Matt sweeps through the property and removes all personal items so that Amy doesn't pick up on who lives in the house. Good.
+ Matt follows her around with a camcorder to film all of Amy's strange expressions and impressions. Fine. But why then do we need an entire film crew to catch both of them doing what is supposed to come off as an intimate, creepy, psychic ghost tour? I can just see ten people trudging around the house with them, making noise and getting in the way. What if one of them has B.O. and another keeps farting? do we then have an evil entity in the house? Seems an odd thing to do and makes Matt being there totally redundant. Bad.

Back to Steve. Hi Sheila. We hear how her daughter Sarah is having daily experiences, getting sick and bruising up. Sheila is sick too, stabbing pains.

Amy and Matt are being recorded recording again. Amy picks up on the physical pain that people in the house are having. She doesn't know how they cope.

Apparently there's a super religious presence in the house that wants the dwellers to believe he's a ghost. I don't understand. He IS a ghost right? Anyway, he likes a particular woman in the house and smothers people by sticking his fingers in their mouth.

George now, Sheila's husband. He's chased a spirit out to the garage before and tells how he had a visit from a strange man which ended strangely and strangely enough they never saw him again. Strange.

Upstairs now and Amy is pulling faces. She cops a lot of flack for this, but really, I like it. Being an overly emotive person myself, I can put myself in her shoes and I think my eyebrows would wiggle and I would scrunch my face up too, especially if I was seeing some of the things she describes. Oop, now there's a demon in the house. Ok.

Nathan, Sheila's son tells how he used to see a set of red eyes going into the bathroom and items go inexplicably missing - only to turn up months later.

Matt quietly films (why is he here again?) As Amy pulls some crazy voices saying there's some bad stuff going on, so I have to pause for a giggle and miss what she says about some bad lady.

Michelle Henry is a local historian that Steve visits to get the background. Turns out an owner of the property in the nineteenth century was committed to an institution for 'religious excitement' and classed insane and committed suicide.

There's also been four deaths inside the house so Steve goes to visit Tina Scott, a genealogist to get the low down. Then he meets a local cop to hear how a brutal murder was committed close to the house. Sheesh, sounds like a fun place...

Amy has picked up now on the deaths and the sickness, and decides that it's not healthy for the living to be there.

Reveal time.

We go through a few characters that Amy picked up on while Steve interjects and adds his findings - putting together who is possibly who. It wouldn't be a reveal unless we make someone cry, so bingo, check that box.
The religious guy plays the centre role, so he's the one Amy has had sketched up. Family sufficiently disturbed, a couple more spirits are thrown into the mix for good measure.
We know what Steve's going to say next. No Steve, don't say it!..' And for that, I'm going to turn it over to Amy'. Ugh.

The cure
The elderly woman can't be dealt with. Really? Thanks for that.
A holy person needs to perform a sermon for the religious zealot, then a blessing.
Three sensitives are needed, two females and one male, one of them has to be a physical medium and they have to have a seance.
The daughter needs to be removed from the house until this is done.

Wow. Lots going on at this house. I'm left scratching my head though, as there is so much written history about this place that Steve presented, it just seems far too possible that Amy is given prior knowledge. I would love to believe everything I see, but this is tv, it needs to be entertaining, it needs to be neat and folded and laundered and put back on the shelf. Having said that though, for the entertainment factor, I'm glad we're back in normal homes again, is far more interesting than large tourist attraction sites and gives more of a human angle when Amy and Steve present them with the information at the end - even if that is given in a way to scare the living daylights out of them "you have a demon, and by the way, here's the pictures...also you'll need a left handed monkey trainer from Guatemala to perform a ritual to remove it...good luck!" 

we're watching you watching her and it's creepy

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...