The Worst Ghosts of 2019
An examination of the worst ghost evidence to hit the headlines in the last 12 months
Each year, I write a list of the 5 worst ghost-related stories to have made the headlines in the last twelve months. Worst - not because the apparitions are said to be terrifying and evil, but because the evidence or claims involved are underwhelming, sensationalised, or actually just hoaxed. This is my tenth year of doing this and you can find the past lists of Worst Ghosts by clicking here.
Now, without further ado...
#5 The Caernarfon Curtain Ghost
I’m sure I don’t have to point out the ghost in the above photo to you, right? Right? Well, it isn’t the dude stood in the foreground smiling at the camera - he is, in fact, a living human. His name is Jason Parry and he is a town Councillor in Caernarfon and he shared this photo with locals on Facebook after putting up a sign warning about dog fouling fines. People reported back to him that they could see a ghostly apparition in the window of the house behind him. The one by his left shoulder.
The Daily Post reports that ‘Cllr Parry decided to enlist the help of a friend who works as a TV editor to help shed some light on the mystery. It was only when the photos were enhanced that in Cllr Parry’s own words “it became obvious there was something there.”
Here is the enhanced photo:
That’s right. The enhancement involved turning the photo sepia and adjusting the brightness and contrast. Wow. There’s no disputing this evidence whatsoever when it has been actually enhanced to such a level. In the industry we call the ol’ sepia enhancement - only, we don’t, because it isn’t an enhancement. It’s just adjusting the existing colour levels of the photo. It doesn’t really provide any clarity at all. Sure, there’s something which could resemble a figure in the window, but it’s a bit too circle-y to be a person, and it could just as easily be a reflection or condensation on the glass. Who knows? One thing I do know is that I bloody love a Sepia’d ghost photo, me.
#4 THAT Dobby the House Elf Video
This is technically not a ghost so I’ve probably broken a rule somewhere (sue me), but a woman called Vivian Gomez went viral earlier this year when she shared a video of something odd walking down her driveway. The short clip shows a figure walking oddly and flapping its arms - you’ve probably seen it already, but here it is below:
This is cursed footage and I know this for sure because when I view it, I go all tense. This could be because watching the video reminds me of the dozens of people who sent it to me when it first made the headlines.
We don’t see the full video as it cuts off part way through leaving us without a conclusion - where does the figure go? What happens next? Why haven’t we been shown this?
The story behind the video also doesn’t make any sense, and the woman who originally posted the video on her Facebook account used misdirection in her answers to questions about it. If it was truly an oddity caught on CCTV as presented, you would expect to see right until the end of the clip, rather than footage which cuts off when the figure is half way down the driveway.
To me, this suggested that whatever came next gave away that this was a child. I think it was a joke that got way out of hand rather than an outright hoax. Or it’s a house elf. Or the ghost of a house elf. Or...
#3 The Idlewild Plantation Apparition
I’m not overly familiar with the TV show ‘Ghosts of Morgan City’ simply because there are so many ghost hunting TV shows now that it’s hard to keep up. However, in October an episode aired during which it is claimed that the investigators captured a full-bodied apparition on camera. The investigators claim that it is the transparent figure of a woman walking past a doorway, but the issue is that it doesn’t look transparent when you watch it properly and closely.
2020 update: the original video has been taken down from Youtube. The footage can be seen here in a detailed FaceBook analysis of the video.
Now, I didn’t see this video when it first caught everybody’s attention at the time of broadcast, but over at Skeptical Inquirer, Kenny Biddle has provided a full, detailed breakdown of why this is possibly one of the Worst Ghosts of 2019. Biddle states that
‘[t]he analysis presented by the Ghosts of Morgan City crew is heavily skewed toward the idea this is really a ghost, and the “evidence” presented to the viewer appears to be cherry-picked to push that idea. More to the point, the investigation was simply incompetent; with the technology and resources available to the crew, it should not be difficult to get better quality images and/or identify the mysterious visitor.’
Fair criticism, I think. Interestingly, in an article on the HiggyPop website, a lot of ghost hunter media personalities from ghost hunting TV shows shared opinions that this was real and most likely not faked. This certainly calls into question their judgement skills. I debated including this “ghost” on the list because on the surface it’s a pretty standard, interesting ghost video... until the surface was scratched. However, I don’t create a ‘Worst Ghost Researchers of 2019’ list so this apparition and those who presented it as paranormal belong here.
#2 The Falmouth Cemetery Ghost Face
Firstly, why is it that alleged ghost evidence always sees to be the ‘Best Ghost Evidence Ever’? Isn’t it a bit... well... arrogant to suggest that your evidence is the best? Can’t evidence just be good? Or interesting?
Anyway, I digress. The video below was posted on Youtube by Mark Davies who claims to have captured a ghostly face peering around a gravestone during a ghost hunt in a Cemetery.
“Probably the best capture in the world of spirits showing themselves from beyond the grave” brags Davies. The video (which is far too long, in my opinion) shows something out-of-focus at the side of a gravestone and we’re told it is a face. In the video, a ghost hunter (presumably Davies) is filming the gravestone during the day - but we don’t get to see behind it. We then go to the nighttime footage.
The footage has several issues. Firstly, it’s massively out-of-focus - even for something filmed in IR Night Vision! At one point we see something shapeless appear in the background and then disappear within seconds. This, we are told, is an apparition. Then there is the alleged “face” which appears around the edge of the gravestone. Neither of these things is in focus and neither has enough definition to it to suggest it is a figure or a face. If they were not presented as such by Davies, I don’t think the viewer would consider them to resemble these things at all.
A word of caution: the audio of this video is loud.
It is more likely that that these anomalies on the footage are caused by the camera trying to focus on things in the background without having much to focus on. Filming in Night Vision also means that anything out of focus is presented as a sort of white blob or abstract shape.
Not only this, but when using Infrared cameras you have to be mindful of what you are filming and how you are filming it to reduce glare, reflection, and even obstruction which can cause the IR light to bounce off of objects that are too close to the camera and cause a weird looking glare or haze effect.
It would also be interesting to find out if the camera has a ‘smart IR’ setting. This setting will adjust the intensity of the IR feedback into the lens from objects which are closer to the camera which means that the IR will reach objects which are further away from the camera in a dark setting. Cameras that don’t have smart IR will often saturate objects which are close to the camera and cause a “white out” effect with little-to-no detail present. This can still occur even if your camera has smart IR if you position the camera too closely to a reflective object.
Like, oh... I don’t know... a gravestone?
Now, at one point during the video, we are shown the footage with just the edges defined as black lines which I guess is meant to make it easier for us to see the “face” and the “figure”. However this is just a video effect that you can find in even the most basic video editing software. It doesn’t enhance the original footage, so if the original footage is blurry, dark, or out-of-focus (which it is in this case) then the effect can only use that footage to create the desired outcome. It doesn’t enhance it at all.
In another video following the one above, Davies states that he’d like an expert to “try to debunk this” which he claims is impossible. He’s right, of course because his footage is such bad quality that you couldn’t even begin to properly investigate it, let alone try to explain it.
#1 Most Haunted at HMP Shrewsbury
This year, Most Haunted moved away from television and onto Youtube and offered up their show as pre-recorded videos as well as live-streamed events from their channel. One format of video presented by them are ‘Most Haunted Shorts’ which are roughly half an hour long and featured a small number of the cast members exploring allegedly haunted locations. These ‘shorts’ tend to not follow the traditional format of the television show. One such short was filmed at HMP Shrewsbury - a prison that was in use up until 2013.
In the video Stuart Torevell, Karl Beattie and Yvette Fielding are walking around the prison during the day (yet still use Night Vision cameras.) Yvette goes off alone and Karl and Stuart are running around the cell block area where they claim to hear footsteps and doors opening and so on. At about 12 minutes into the ‘short’, Stuart appears to be assaulted by a ghost. Watch as he carefully avoids saying “I was hit in the stomach with a truncheon” while hinting at exactly that. The video below starts at the 11 minute mark, so watch on...
Has Stuart been taking acting lessons? If so, he should ask for a refund because his pretending to be winded actually winded me. Now, this isn’t the first time that Stuart has been attacked by a ghost, but what makes this remarkable is just how much Most Haunted have jumped the shark when it comes to the stuff they’re presenting as undoctored and unstaged ghost research now that they’re no longer on TV and are in complete control of their output, and that’s why Stuart Torevell being attacked by nothing at HMP Shrewsbury gets the #1 spot on my Worst Ghosts of 2019 list.
So, there we have it. The worst ghosts of 2019!
Wishing you all a happy new year ✨