Customer Reviews

A Haunting in Georgia

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I recommend buying The Veil: Heidi Wyrick's Story The Veil to find out all the details this haunting documentary doesn't reveal (because of time constraints and storytelling).

As it is, this documentary can stand on its own. I caught this on the Discovery Channel by accident and was stunned to realize this was the same family from "Mr. Gordy's Ghost" in Unsolved Mysteries: Ghosts Unsolved Mysteries.

I have nothing but respect for the Wyrick family and especially Heidi, who innocently befriended a man long dead. Their faith and fortitude are sorely tested by the bizarre occurrences and by the spirits---some good, some neutral, and some downright evil--that are drawn to Heidi.

The staging, as with the rest of this series, is definitely Hollywood and calculated for effect, but it works, it makes you keep watching. The narrators achieve the right somber tone. The actor playing "Mr. Gordy" as well as the one playing "Con" tug at your heart, they are so believable.

And the actor playing the menacing "dark figure" (shadow person) that terrorized Heidi deserves his/her kudos for being convincingly creepy. In every scene with the dark figure, I had to cover my eyes for a moment (there's a moment in the DVD when Heidi is following the ghost of a little girl, and the dark figure appears casually in one room Heidi passes in a blink-and-miss-it moment).

But it is Heidi that shines in this documentary with her vulnerability and her strength. It was also nice to see Dr. William Roll of "Unsolved Mysteries" fame.

This was a very interesting movie about a family with each member having a different degree of sensitivity to seeing ghosts, and paranormal activities. I also purchased A Haunting in Connecticut which I enjoyed more. A Haunting in Georgia is more a documentary style where as A Haunting in Connecticut is like watching a movie. Both were very entertaining as well as scary.

This segment of A Haunting was a little slow, but really good. I enjoy having it in my collection. If you like the series, you will like this one.

This second of two pilot episodes for Discovery Channel's A Haunting - Seasons 1-4 series is unlike any of the show's episodes - indeed, it is unlike any other ghost investigation I have ever seen. This truly is the family's story; not only do they recount their experiences via interviews, they reenact those experiences themselves (with the exception of the little girl who plays Heidi as a young child). It makes for a surprisingly personal viewing experience. One of the most moving scenes involves the family members being anointed and prayed over in their church - and I suspect that was the real deal rather than a reenactment. It's certainly possible, as this family was still very much dealing with the haunting at the time of filming.

A Haunting in Georgia revolves around young Heidi, who came to acquire a new "friend" soon after her family moved into their current home. This was a kindly old man named Mr. Gordy whom four-year-old Heidi came to love very much. Heidi's parents dismissed Mr. Gordy at first, thinking he was just a product of their daughter's imagination, but events played out in such a way that doubt and then fear came to define the family's experience. Heidi began seeing other entities, including a man wearing a blood-stained shirt and sporting an injured hand and a dark and shadowy figure that scared her very much. In time, the entities in the house make themselves known to other members of the family, physically scratching Heidi and her father at one point. That's when the family decides that they have to do something, first turning to parapsychologist Dr. William G. Roll. Roll looks for scientific explanations for hauntings, and - even though he can't explain the scratch marks on Heidi and her father - blames the family's paranormal experiences on a strange combination of localized positive ions, place memory, and - later on - innate psychic abilities in several family members.

Not surprisingly, Dr. Rolle's "just ignore it" advice does nothing to alleviate the family's problems, so they turn elsewhere for help. No definitive answers are forthcoming, as one psychic's "ghosts" are another psychic's "demonic entities." The rest of the video basically looks at how the family is coping with the frightening situation more than ten years after it began. You can't help but feel sorry for Heidi. As if having to endure all of these strange and frightening experiences weren't bad enough on its own, she has to deal with the ridicule of her classmates and local citizens once the story gets out. This is not the kind of localized or poltergeist activity that ends up with the spirits being vanquished or the family abandoning their home, and that really sets A Haunting in Georgia apart from other documentaries on the subject of ghosts.

This isn't the most exciting or creepy ghost story you'll ever watch and hear, but its differences from the norm make it quite interesting. And for those skeptics out there, A Haunting in Georgia spends a significant percentage of its ninety-four minutes discussing possible scientific explanations for the haunting. If you just want to hear a good, juicy true ghost story, this probably won't be what you're looking for. Those with a serious interest in ghosts and spirits, however, should find this to be a most compelling and unusual case indeed.

It's exactly like the special on Discovery channel.
If you like the series it's a must have.

this feature length documentary on an alleged real life haunting has it
eerie moments to be sure,but the whole thing just doesn't quite add up
for me.there are some positive things about it though.the music,for
one.it's suitable eerie,to say the least.and once again,the narration
of Tony Call(The F.B.I. Files)is is a perfect fit for this type of
documentary.a few things bothered me though.for instance,when the
family members were being interviewed about the events,they didn't come
across to me as being completely sincere or genuine.and as another
reviewer commented,why would the family stay in the house after all
they had been through?apparently they are still living there and still
experiencing activity.to me,that doesn't make sense.which is why is i
use the word alleged.for a much better documentary dealing with a real
life horror,i would recommend A Haunting In Connecticut,which is much
more believable and terrifying.A Haunting in Georgia has its
moments,just not that many,and there are too many inconsistencies. 3/5

This has to be one of my favorites of The Haunting series. Production, acting and narration. I love how they made the character of Mr. Gordy very pale in appearance in contrast to his gentle demeanor towards the girl. You can see how things could really turn horrible.

It would have been more interesting to see Mr. Gordy protecting the girl and her family from the other darker entities.

Heidi and Mr. Gordy's story will tug at your heart strings. The only sad thing is that Mr. Gordy had passed away years ago...but the heart warming thing was...Heidi didn't care! This was the best part of this pilot for A Haunting. The rest of the story takes an evil turn as Heidi grows up, and Mr. Gordy fades away...and the other, hostile spirits torment Heidi and her family. Although good, it wasn't as interesting as Mr. Gordy's part.

The music and atmosphere are creepy and eerie. The acting was a little wooden, but these people were playing themselves and are not professionals. I think they did a good job.

Sometimes it falls off the logic trail. And it also shows an error in the first section with Mr. Gordy. I will combine both points:

When Heidi first meets Mr. Gordy, he asks her to go to the swing. Not knowing Mr. Gordy, Heidi rushed back into the house to ask her Mom's permission. Her mother panics, and calls Heidi's father at his work. At work, he is wearing a dark colored shirt, and light blue jeans. He rushes home and into the house, and is still in the light blue jeans. He grabs a gun and rushes out the door.....and in the next shot he is running off the porch...in DARK BLUE jeans. Now, Mr. Gordy met Heidi in the yard, but the father, looking for Mr. Gordy jumps back into the truck and drives around the roads. Why didn't he search the grounds? Why did he leave the house and drive up and down the road? And no one made sure that all the doors and windows were locked.

Another leap in logic happens a little later. The doorbell rings and Heidi opens the door to see a different man standing there in a bloody T-shirt. Heidi, leaving the door open, goes back to the kitchen around a corner out of view of the door to tell her mother. The mother grabs a large knife from the drawer, takes Heidi back to the sofa by the open door and orders her to sit there. Now, instead of checking the house to make sure no one was in there since the door had been left open out of anyone's view, the mother rushes out into the yard brandishing the knife leaving Heidi in the house alone. What if the guy was in the house and was a real guy? Mother is in the yard clutching the knife in plain view when a passer by stops his truck and yells "Is everything alright?". Mother, holding the knife, stops, looks at the driver, then hides the knife behind her back as if he never saw it.

This is one of the better A Haunting's, but it's not the best one. It is worth a watch, even if you only watch the Mr. Gordy part. That part was touching.

A Haunting in Georgia is probably on the same level of entertainment and suspense as a Haunting in Connecticut. The biggest difference being a Haunting in Georgia *gradually* evolves into an equally terrifying experience, whereas a Haunting in Connecticut is terrifying right from the get go.

The Georgia haunting starts out with a little girl who experiences frequent appearances by an old man. Without spoiling anything, eventually the girls grows up and experiences more intimidating and scarier ghostly presences. This is honestly when the REAL story begins, though the odd circumstances surrounding the old man are definitely worth tuning into.

Numerous ghost specialists come into the girls family's home and try to explain the events, but unfortunately for the girl, they all come to the conclusion she's born with a gift (or curse, rather) to sense ghosts at the most unpredictable moments.

Another twist to a Haunting in Georgia is that, as the ghost activity intensifies, the mother experiences more problems as well, indicating that the daughter is most certainly NOT the only person in the house having unusual things happen. Even the father wakes up with unexplainable scratch marks on his skin. Other unusual moments occur when the daughter returns home and sees a dark presence standing on the front porch before walking through a window.

Another interesting part of the documentary is the guy who tries to explain that it's not actually ghosts responsible for all the activity, but rather movements underneath the earths surface that can change ones perception. It's a pretty complex, though interesting theory.

Choosing between this and a Haunting in Connecticut is a tough task, so I recommend going after that deal where you can acquire *both*. Two really good lengthy stories (both over an hour and 30 minutes long, for 3 solid hours of scares and entertainment).

This is not so Hollywood. This is more of a documentary- using the real people and not characters pretending to be in "Hiding." The re-enactments give it the small southern town glimpse into a real ghost story. You are not going to shoot out of your seat in terror, but these nice country people put themselves out there for scrutiny. Dr Roll's commentary was a great addition to the story. This is more like a history of a house and its spirits, and how the extended family & community support them in their time of despair.