Review: GHOST STALKERS: ‘The Old Taylor Memorial Hospital,’ Sunday, November 2, on Destination America

Chad Lindberg and John E.L. Tenney from GHOST STALKERS

I love me some good ghostbustin’ TV action. If I’m going to commit some sit down time, I’m really hoping for a good effort with credible jargon and gadgets and true-believers as guides to build up the suspense. In the latest episode of “Ghost Stalkers,” we get some good stuff with “The Old Taylor Memorial Hospital,” which airs on Sunday, November 2, at 10/9c on Destination America. The title brings it home conjuring up thoughts of Scooby and the gang.

Taylor Memorial Hospital, Hawkinsville, Georgia

Our guides, John and Chad, appear to have hit the mother lode of paranormal activity in this one! And they have their own peculiar ways of responding to it that we’ll get into. First, this is a personal mission for both of them. Each experienced a near death experience. Each believes that he has witnessed portals to another world firsthand. Their goal is to seek out these portals. A hospital, next to cemeteries, is one of the most spooky and powerful of places as it sees multitudes of life coming in and going out. All that energy leads to something: portals!

To tell these guys apart, John is the older, taller, and dapper one. And Chad is a lot like Shaggy from the Scooby-Doo toons. They are both dedicated but prone to getting spooked. You get that early on as Shaggy, I mean Chad, is anxious about picking up cold spots. Don’t they always pick up these cold spots? That means there’s ghosts around.

The Old Taylor Memorial Hospital in Hawkinsville, Georgia, dating back to 1937, closed its doors in 1979 and has fallen into ghastly disrepair. Everything looks horrid now. The Operating Room looks scary. The Delivery Room looks scary. And The Incinerator Room looks triply scary times a million!

There is supposed to be a benevolent ghost, a nurse, that still looks after the children. There are plenty of ghost children. And there’s some Shadow People. Shadow, what? Our guides so matter-of-factly say it that it is just assumed that “Shadow People” are as common as benevolent ghost nurses that still look after the children. You know, Shadow People. Anyway, the hosts readily admit they are bad news.

Equipped with a Tesla Coil and a fog machine, John and Chad will root out these ghosts, and Shadow People, if it takes all night!

Sometimes joking around helps to cope with the unexplainable. To the show’s credit, it gives you plenty to ponder over. The hospital’s birth/death confluence, we are told, guarantees the creation of portals. Later on, gamma radiation levels spike, and confirm the hospital has portals. You listen to Chad’s heartfelt observations and sudden gasp at something and, well, you can’t help but get hooked in.

Getting back to what I found most peculiar about all this paranormal activity is the fact that, once these guys get some really compelling evidence of ghosts and such, they’re really pleased about it and then chalk it up as a good night’s work. What they’ve accomplished is good enough for them and for whoever is viewing the show. Time to move on to the next mission. They don’t go completely bonkers. They don’t wonder who they should notify or what needs to happen next with what they’ve uncovered. But then, why should they? Who would believe them, right?

You can find out more about Ghost Stalkers by visiting our friends at Destination America right here.

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