Spooked: Reviewed

I recently attended the Louisville Ghost Hunter Society meeting at the Louisville Palace Theatre for a viewing of SPOOKED: THE GHOSTS OF WAVERLY HILLS SANITORIUM. They showed the documentary and afterwards, the directors (who flew in from CA for the event) offered a question and answer session, along with Keith Age, the President of the LGHS.

The Waverly Hills Sanitorium has always intrigued me, especially since I grew up less than a quarter mile from it. I'm very skeptical when it comes to ghosts and hauntings, but man...there is some really crazy stuff going on up there. Constructed in the twenties, this former TB Hospital sits in seclusion atop a large, wooded hill in the south suburbs of Louisville. Over 63,000 people died up there, 20,000 of which during the first year it was open and over the years, the supernatrual mythos that surrounds the abandoned building has attained nationwide recognition. Once TB (also called the "white plague" due to the attack of red blood cells the disease is now known for) was cured, it later was converted into an old folk's home (my grandmother actually worked there for a short while in the sixties). The hospital closed in 1985 and is now only open for special paranormal tours and Halloween parties.

The filmakers actually filmed the Sony Pictures movie DEATH TUNNEL on location up there. I've heard it was just "ok" as far as horror movies go, however while filming the movie (shot entirely on location in the hospital), they uncovered so much folklore about the hauntings, that they also filmed SPOOKED, a real-life documentary on the hauntings and history of what's been called "The Scariest Place on Earth". SPOOKED is an outstanding documentary that explores both the grim medical history of Turburculosis treatments as well as each and every haunting, many of which can easily be observed, filmed, documented on any given night. I'll admit that several of the photos of shadows and glowing orbs weren't overly convincing, however the photos of the "shadow people" and the spectres, especially those shot out in the daylight were breathtakingly convincing. Some of the documentary's highlights include:

- Audio recordings of ghosts, voices, people hacking and coughing, nurses talking to patients all in abandoned rooms
- Photos of hundreds of shadow people, spectres, glowing orbs and probably the most convincing of all, the photos of the ghost of Mary Lee, a little girls ghost who haunts the hospital regularly inside and outside in the garden. At one point in the documentary, the guide looked down and pointed at her little wet bare feet footprints on the floor. There are also several accounts of her approaching people, rolling a small leather ball across the floor and asking people to play with her.
- Accounts of people smelling food being cooked from the old kitchens
- Major paranormal activity readings from inside the Death Tunnel. This was where hospital workers carted the dead bodies out underground so that the other residents didn't see them.- Wonderful old historical photos and film of what it was like in the old days.
- Documentaries of "Room 502", another true-life tale about a nurse who hung herself.

All in all, I would highly recommend the documentary. Whether you're a believer or a sceptic, there's so much going on here, it's worth a viewing. Even if the hauntings don't interest you, the historical value alone is enough to maintain your interest and who knows...you may even walk away a little "spooked" yourself. I sure did.