Before the Ghost Adventures show on Travel Channel / Discovery+, there was the Ghost Adventures Documentary.
In this full-length documentary film starring the same ragtag crew of Zac Bagans, Nick Groff and Aaron Goodwin – they travel to two old mining towns in Nevada in search of the afterlife. Even though they venture about a bit in other locations, their main cases are focused on the Old Washoe Club in Virginia City, Nevada, and the Goldfield Hotel in Goldfield, Nevada – supposedly two of the most notorious haunted sites in the USA. During the height of their existence, the two infamous locations were the scene of rape, murder, and other crimes of passion.
I find it fascinating how different the show and the documentary actually is – for one, the documentary actually has compelling evidence. It is also less cheesy in its approach to the subject. Zac is still Zac mind you, but more tolerable level 3 or 4 compared to the levels 9 to 11 he currently is in the show. I also find it interesting that a group of amateurs (of which they were in 2004), were able to clearly create a compelling documentary with cheap camcorders and basic equipment.
The whole production, once you get over the cringy title sequence, is a film student 101 class in decent storytelling. The editing is brilliant for it’s time and low budget – and even YouTubers could learn a few things on how to use B-roll as effectively as demonstrated here.
Within 20 minutes of the documentary, the Ghost Adventures crew has already captured and shown more ghostly evidence, than they normally do within a whole series of the show. A full-bodied apparition, the holy grail of ghost investigation, is captured and is a piece of convincing evidence.
The documentary is less ‘jump scare’ trigger-happy, than its TV series counterpart. I find it refreshing to watch a more serious and ‘professional’ approach to the whole film. Trying to build their creditability – so a more well-balanced film. It’s almost as if you’re watching a true crime documentary, with news clips and news articles – than the cheesy show they became later on.
I also think this version of the show really benefits from focusing on an array of locations within a certain area. I find it a real shame they didn’t continue with this concept with the show itself. Furthermore, I also found it refreshing that the team would include “we tried this, but it didn’t work” moments littered throughout – not in a comically padding way like in the show – but a more respectful tick-box (just to mention) and moving on.
Overall, with a full-bodied apparition, a poltergeist that sends them running, and more shocking evidence that proves ghosts exist – this 90 minutes documentary is worthwhile the time to review compelling and interesting evidence – without the circus ‘freak show’ mentality later series adopted.
Ghost Adventures Documentary
Pros
- Amazing Storytelling
- Awesome Evidence Captured
- Zac Bagans is actually bareable
- Well-balanced Documentary
Cons
- Cringy music, but it was 2004 😛
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