Sofia Rositani – Editor-in-Chief
Spooky season has arrived with the return of the “Ghoul boys” themselves.
As an avid watcher of the YouTube channel “Watcher,” I was so excited to see that they are doing “Ghost Files” which used to be BuzzFeed’s “Unsolved Supernatural” series.
Ryan Bergara and Shane Madej left Buzzfeed and created this channel. They explained that working together is a “natural and horrifying decision.”
The channel, “Watcher,” was created in January 2020 and was launched alongside another former Buzzfeed employee, Steven Lim.
“(the company) is a digital media studio that creates television-caliber, unscripted series that aim to bring joy, inspire curiosity and genuinely connect with audience,” according to the Watcher website.
“Ghost Files” is like Unsolved but longer, better and funnier. The first episode took place at the Waverly Hills Sanitorium, a haunting building that, for us believers, is full of spirits. This building, built in 1910, was created for those who suffered from Tuberculosis and about 63,000 people passed away in the building, according to the episode.
This first episode was a good one to start the season off with because they had gone to the sanitorium before and for Bergara it was his worst nightmare. The second time around it still is his worst nightmare with Madej in the background taunting the spirits.
We see a new side of Madej this first episode. Before, going in he would be a jerk and not believe anything but this time around he is not acting this way. Does he have his moments? Sure, but he is more open to it now and is hoping to get some form of contact with the paranormal this season.
“I am open. I am receptive,” Madej said.
Throughout the episode they do get a few noises and voices. The creepiest one being the knocks and hums they got on their recorder. They also do multiple spirit box sessions, each being different from the last, which was really fun to see.
At one point in the investigation, we see the “ghoul boys” go to the body chute. Which is a long, downward slope, underground corridor where the nurses would have to take the dead bodies, so the other patients don’t see them. It is as bone chilling as it sounds, and I give kudos to the nurses who had to walk down that each time a patient passed away.
Toward the end of the episode, we see them do an investigation alone. Madej, cool as ever, was able to go through pretty easily, even though he said the sanitorium was one of the scariest places they ever went to. He hid the walkie talkie for Bergara to find. What they don’t notice until they edit the video is the shadow figure behind Madej.
Once Bergara goes in you can feel his fear and later his anger when he could not find the walkie talkie. He eventually finds it and his anger dissipates into fear. Luckily, he gets back to them in one piece, and they end it.
Just from this first episode alone I can tell leaving Buzzfeed was the right choice because they got to have creative liberty to do what they want and make longer episodes.
“Our job as investigators is to collect and present questions, possibilities.” Bergara said. “Interpretation, however, solely belongs to you. But for our part, Waverly Hills Sanitorium can now be locked away in the Ghost Files.”
