Customer Reviews

The Paranormal Caught On Film

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

 

 

I follow my local library's new books in circulation via an RSS feed. So when the book The Paranormal Caught On Film by Dr. Melvyn Willin showed up, I though it might be a fun few hours of reading. In reality, it wasn't much more than about 90 minutes of pictures and commentary that in the end didn't do much more me one way or the other.

The book is 141 pages of pictures and commentary on photographs that purport to show paranormal activity or beings. They are classed into the categories of Ghostly Figures, Strange Lights & Apparitions, Simulacra, The Unexplained - Poltergeists & Other Phenomena, and Back From The Dead. The layout of the book is small, usually with a picture on one page and the commentary on the opposing side. To Willin's credit, he doesn't attempt to defend each and every picture as authentic. In fact, he usually states the case for both sides of the argument of "staged" or "real". It's even more surprising given that he's a paranormal researcher, and you'd expect some bias towards one end of the spectrum. The pictures range from old turn of the century shots to camera phone clicks that ended up showing more than the phone owner originally saw. Based on what type of picture it is, Willin is realistic as to what normal events could have happened to create the image. Some are very explainable, while others are much less so.

While the pictures were interesting, ultimately the book didn't do much for me. I'm more than willing to be open to the existence of "paranormal" phenomenon, so it's not as if I disagreed with the writer. I think it was more along the lines of the book being small, and the writer never really coming down on one side or the other on many of the images. In the end, I felt like I was looking at someone's personal photo album with a few comments thrown in. For a library read, it was good. But if I had paid money to purchase the book, I think I would have been very disappointed.

A lot of the photos in this book are from ghoststudy's website & soem are from other sites on the web, but I prefer looking at photos on paper. There are stories to go along with the photos, it's not a "picture book". I recommend it if you're into ghost photography or if you just like the paranormal.

The photos are poor quality.... and few .... this book is not worth the money. I was totally disappointed. All of the pictures are available on the Internet. The author's comments do not include any enlightening information.

i gave this book to my daughter for xmas. she liked it. cool pix but in some pix you cant even see what your supposed to see.... oh well.... I BELIEVE!!

Found this book to be a good mini reference for what is happening on the other side. Choice of fonts take away from the knowledge portions that help describe what the viewer is seeing in the book. The book can be used to give someone a "heads-up" on unexplained events.

I bought this for my 9-year-old son, who's really interested in ghosts and the paranormal. This book is full of suitably creepy and intriguing images, and gives him a lot to think about. He loves it and can pore over it for hours!

The author clearly has access to a tremendous amount of pictures, yet he gives us very little in this book. Out of all of the photos, I saw only literally 5 that might have been just beyond someone tampering with the photo. Like others have said, these photos are on the internet, and most of the information about them is like a line of background about the photos.

I think what needs to happen is that the author needs to create one large compendium of ghost photos. It must have cost a lot of ink and money to print each copy, and they sell for a lot of money. You really only get about 40 pictures with it, really. Maybe less. What the author needs to do is create one large book with all photos in it rather than try to rack up money by giving small bits in each book.

3/5