Customer Reviews

The Unexplained Boxed Set [VHS]

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

 

 

Another A&E 2 disc set which has recently been reduced in price... At 200 minutes it's a waste of two discs - technology advances would put this onto one disc, which would be much more convenient.

This set contains four episodes:-
Disc 1: The Vampire Myth. 46'04" 1998. Mono.
Modern Californian Vampires - Moderate.
Bram Stoker & Dracula - Good.
Vlad the Impaler - Good,plus.
Poltergeist. 46'27" 1997. Mono.
Boston Inn Poltergeist - Moderate~good.
Children and Poltergeist - Moderate~good.
Kentucky C&W Bar's evil Poltergeist - Good.
Yorkshire 'Tapping' Poltergeist - Good.

Disc 2: Extreme Sacrifice. 46'11" 1998. Mono.
US Secret Service - Moderate~good.
Niagra Rescue - Moderate~good.
Korean War Heroism - Good.
Spontaneous Human Combustion. 46'10" 1998. Mild stereo.
Illinois Incident - Moderate~good.
1964, Widow - Good.
1986, New York - Good.
1982, London - Good.
Charles Dickens - Good,plus.

The picture and sound quality is up to the usual A&E standard; as is the lack of sub-titles....
Overall this is a fairly good introduction to Unexplained Phenomena, and a useful addition to one's DVD documentary library. And I think that this is the first time that I have ever seen anything about S.H.C. on DVD...

I hope not to offend anyone. With all due respect to those that may not agree with me, I would like to respectfully share my opinion in case someone finds it useful.

Do not waste your money on this. The stories are so trivial or so superficially explained that you will not know if you should laugh, sleep or regret to have throwing away your money by buying this. The title of the collection is very pretentious, but there are no more than 3 or 4 stories that occurred, mostly, in small towns in Oregon or lonely bars in a Kentucky city. A more accurate title would be "Some unexplained events in small cities in the USA", and then the content would be ok. But "The Unexplained boxed set" will lead you wrong, because this title suggests more than you will receive.

Two examples:

a) The Vampire Myth segment would be richer if it included some research in Rumania (after all, a place with long tradition of the real vampire myth), and would have been more serious by giving less spot to the people referred as "bunch of weirdos" by another Amazon reviewer. Such people, all of them, live in the USA. I would have nothing against it or against them if the title of the volume were, i.e., "The vampire myth in the USA: some true stories" or something like that. Actually, in that context, the stories of the interviewed people may be more appreciated than here.

So, you expect something insightful, but you only find 5 things: i. A guy in LA that sucks blood as a way of life or a hobby, without any other connection with vampirism; ii. A couple that believes that Vlad Draculea ("Tepes") "lives" with them, showing the decoration of their home inspired by the "Impaler" and showing how Tepes actually speaks through them; iii. A woman that likes to sleep all day long in a coffin; iv. Some remarks from Bram Stoker, naturally; and, v. Some comments of Tepes life.

i, ii and iii does not belong to a documentary nor even to a "light-documentary" about vampirism; and iv and v are so obvious that you feel that you are loosing your time.

b) I think the worse segment is perhaps Poltergeist. It is even worse than the Vampire's one. About Poltergeist there are famous cases that should have been mentioned here, from all over the world, staring in Europe (after all "Poltergeist" is a German word); but there are also many cases in USA too. Even tough it might have ended as something else, cases as, i.e., Amityville, have a lot to say about poltergeist; and all the legends surrounding the making of the "Poltergeist" movie would have been far more interesting, etc... But not: the producers decided to go (and with a superficial approach) after two very simple and "typical" stories in Boston and Kentucky ("I saw something on that window", "we heard voices", "we felt something evil", etc., but nothing more) and one story in Yorkshire about some flying eggs (!). I think that this last one was included to say "We included something from Europe!" to avoid to be considered "too local", but sorry, not enough, bad attempt. More local and more simple, would have been impossible.

The only "Unexplained" thing I found was the question "why the producers made something so poor, superficial and absolutely trivial?"

What is unexplainable about a bunch of weirdos in California sucking each others blood and talking about their strange sexuality? How about Vlad the impaler? The whole vampire thing is totally explainable, and it even mentions that in the film.

The poltergiests segment is pretty decent, but nothing as good as unsolved mysteries, IMO.

The extreme sacrifice footage is once again, in my opinion, an explainable phenomenon.

The spnotaneous combustion segment is the best of the series, and provides a lot of footage and accounts, interviews, etc.

So as the title of my review states, the footage in this set is interesting, but the title slitghly decieving, as a lot of the phenomenon is very explainable. However, still a reasonably enjoyable watch. I would rent if possible.

I was excited to recieve this box set,but clearly was disappointed.not at all what I exspected.they make it sound alot more entertaining than it is.i would love to return it but it is not worth the hassle.Dont waste your money people!

I bought this DVD Set 3 years ago and I was disappointed by it. In my opinion only 2 episodes are good, "Poltergeist" and "Human Combustion", the other two are not really good. My question is: Who decided to put these 4 shows together ?? The Unexplained was a very interesting show back in the late 90's and the 4 episodes featured on this DVD Set are not even in the Top 10 of the best episodes in the history of the show ! Where is the episode about Alien Abductions ? Or the episode about Civil War Ghosts, or the one about Psychics Detectives, or Secret Societies ??

This set is a waste of time and money. Buy the Unsolved Mysteries DVDs instead.

This is just the kind of documentary that I enjoy. It gave intensive background on the subjects it discussed as well as interviews of actual persons who have experienced these things. Just the type of great factual programs that you can expect from A&E. If you like factual, informative documentaries then this is for you.