Documentary Films or TV Shows About Real Paranormal Experiences

Robos A Go Go

So I'm interested in learning about real paranormal experiences, preferably from a source that takes a more serious, critical approach than what you'd usually see on a tv special. I specifically want to avoid cheesy reenactments and obvious embellishments. In their place, I'd like to see thorough research and extensive interviews that don't just take some random person at their word when they say they saw Abraham Lincoln looking all ghostly.

Is there such a thing or is it pretty much impossible to do a documentary on the paranormal without stretching the truth and overlooking obvious questions to make the subject matter look more realistic than it really is?

RUNN1NGMAN

Well, The Exorcism of Emily Rose isn't a documentary, but the screenplay pulls from the court transcripts of the trial extensively, and it takes a pretty objective view of the incident itself. There isn't much dramatic embellishment in the movie--it's pretty close to a docudrama. And the film leaves things pretty open as to whether the possession was real or not. It's also an interesting commentary on the conflict of secular law and religious faith.

Robos A Go Go

From the previews, Emily Rose seemed extremely sensationalized. Were all the clips of obvious demonic activity from one character's point of view or something?

Deadfall

Do you want to include aliens? There was a documentary on the History channel recently called "I Know What I Saw." It was pretty thorough and I found it interesting. Lots of video, some sort of public hearing with a ton of ex military officials. I only caught parts of it but I liked what I saw.

RUNN1NGMAN

Robos A Go Go wrote: »

From the previews, Emily Rose seemed extremely sensationalized. Were all the clips of obvious demonic activity from one character's point of view or something?

I can't exactly remember the details, although I remember that the previews made the movie seem much more like a stereotypical horror movie than it actually was.

Of course, their are only a handful of people who were eyewitnesses to what happened to Emily Rose, but the scenes that portray the alleged "possession" and attempted exorcism are based on the testimony of those witnesses. That doesn't mean those scenes still aren't scary as shit, but it's scary shit that according to sworn testimony really happened. And the film shows the inconsistencies of both sides' stories, so it's certainly not one-sided.

Richard_Dastardly

Have you checked Hulu? There are quite a few documentaries on there.

I really doubt you're gonna find what you're looking for, since any documentary that's not a TV idiot grab is probably gonna lean too far to the 'this shit ain't real' side to even be worth the effort of making.

RUNN1NGMAN

You might want to try and find some straight-up documentaries on the practice of exorcism. I mean, one of the largest religions in the world has priests that specialize in the exorcism of demons. I think I remember a 60 Minutes episode that had a story about exorcisms--I think a few Vatican-approved exorcisms are still performed each year around the world. I'm sure someone has done an objective documentary on the practice.

Robos A Go Go

I figured that an earnest documentary wouldn't validate a person's bizarre experience, but that doesn't mean you can't have a substantive interview with the individual detailing what they think happened and perhaps balance that out with a scientific approach to the question of why people have these experiences.

Runn1ngman: Good idea!

Daenris

Robos A Go Go wrote: »

So I'm interested in learning about real paranormal experiences, preferably from a source that takes a more serious, critical approach than what you'd usually see on a tv special. I specifically want to avoid cheesy reenactments and obvious embellishments. In their place, I'd like to see thorough research and extensive interviews that don't just take some random person at their word when they say they saw Abraham Lincoln looking all ghostly.

Is there such a thing or is it pretty much impossible to do a documentary on the paranormal without stretching the truth and overlooking obvious questions to make the subject matter look more realistic than it really is?

Pretty much this, considering there really isn't any good, solid evidence for the paranormal outside eyewitness testimony.

For things like ghosts, the non-eyewitness evidence is stuff like crappy orbs in photos, ridiculous EVPs with people hearing words in noise/static, and random electromagnetic/thermal noise on instruments. Pretty much garbage and easily discredited as far as evidence goes.

For aliens/crytozoological stuff, it's blurry, crappy pictures, weak and easily faked things like footprints, unexplained animal attacks, and a lot of confirmed hoaxes.

For ESP/psychic, there's years of scientific research that frequently shows no effect, or when it is it can be explained more simply by bad methods/analysis, or a subset of studies that actually seem to show a very small effect and aren't plagued by problems with methods, but are generally ignored or the results don't hold up to replication.

The evidence, as it stands, is ridiculously small, so that's why pretty much any documentary focuses on eyewitness accounts because they're the easiest to collect and report -- though obviously the least influential.

From someone who does believe in some aspect of the paranormal due to researching the evidence, for most areas of it there's really no compelling evidence that could be collected to be showcased on a documentary. And for the areas that do have some amount of compelling evidence, it's not really interesting or outstanding enough to make an entertaining documentary.