User reviews

Let me preface by stating that I have lived in Louisville, Kentucky all of my life. I grew up about ½ mile from Waverly. In the wintertime we would pull our sleds down Maryman road and cross Dixie Highway to go sleigh riding on Waverly Hill. Many times during the winter of 76-77 we would climb into the Tunnel to warm ourselves. The place was still being run as a "Geriatric Center" at the time. We would go all the way through the tunnel up the hill to bang on what we thought was the "Door to the Morgue". I have to be honest. The only sensation we felt was that we were getting away with something we should not be doing. I would have to say we went up that tunnel over 50 times that winter. Nothing stranger than teen-aged boys acting stupid ever happened. I love the fact that it is getting attention after all these years. One evening when I was young we looked out our front porch and it appeared that the entire hill was on fire. There was an older hospital on the hill that burned down. It burned for hours while the entire neighborhood sat outside and watched. The thing that gets lost about Waverly is that many people survived TB there. Let's face it…The doctors back then did everything they thought was correct to save people. It took a lot of guts for people to work there knowing how contagious TB was. Too much is focused on those who suffered. I also have traveled into the building several times in the early 70's. We would go and visit shut-ins in the Nursing Home through a church youth group. By the way, the doors there were not prison like steel doors with chains and padlocks as portrayed in the film. They were wooden and open…sometimes too open. It did smell of urine and feces and you saw the occasional open gown associated with patients with dementia. It was true that it was closed by the state in the early 80's. A lot of that may have to do with the age of the building or the right guy wasn't paid off. This is after all Kentucky. The part of the documentary that turned me off the most was the piling of bodies into a cart. If I am not mistaken it appears to have been Holocaust footage. That was added for dramatic effect. It left me with a sour taste in my mouth for the filmmaker. I am a skeptic when it comes to "Ghosts". I do believe that many around here truly think the place to be haunted. Waverly for me however symbolized a fun place for adventure for a boy with a sled.

I am very into Waverly Hills and first watched Death Tunnel The Movie.Couldn't have been much worse. Then I heard that the documentary was coming out and got excited thinking that since it was a documentary it would be more serious and not have the horrible special effects.Wrong the same guys did the documentary and ruined it with effects instead of producing it raw the way a documentary should be.Waverly Hills doesn't need help with goofy effects its fine just the way it is. Tours are $20.00 per person and $100.00 for 8 hour overnight investigation per person minimal group of 10 for overnight investigation.Tours must be set up ahead of time. Awesome place for the Ghost Hunter!

This is just a long advertisement for the movie "The Death Tunnel". Although it is an interesting history of the Waverly Hills Sanatorium, the whole ghost theory is up to your interpretation. More "Ghost Orbs" which you can duplicate with dust in front of a flash camera, and the "Ectoplasmic Mist" is just someone's cigarette smoke lit up with the camera flash. I couldn't see any "Shadow People" until they drew an outline around the blurry distortion of the image. No scientific explanations were suggested for the phenomena, only paranormal. Perhaps these are only events one would have to see to believe, so be sure to make plans to visit the Sanatorium on your next vacation in Louisville, Kentucky.

Basically, this was obviously designed to be promotional material for the movie produced by the same horrible director, which happens to be even worse than this documentary and absolutely the worst movie I've ever seen, so avoid it at all costs.

As for this documentary, it's entertaining; entertaining and blatantly misleading! Most of the "historical" looking footage is most likely just that, historical footage from completely unrelated events that were sadly cut and pasted into this documentary to make it more dramatic than it would have ever been otherwise. There's no doubt that Waverly is a pretty interesting place with plenty of it's own fascinating history, but manufacturing a documentary to market the locale and the related production is, for lack of better words, appallingly useless.

And yes, I've lived in Kentucky my whole life, and I have visited the location numerous times. Waverly Hills deserves respect; and there's nothing respectful about this lame documentary.

How is this a documentary? Much more like a walking ghost tour one might take in any given Southern city. Quotes were generously dropped throughout without the first effort at identifying the source. George Orwell was the most identified quoter.

Documents were referred to without ever being produced in any form. Flat out fraudulent shots depicting period film stock were spliced aside historical film reels with no separation from reality and self-promotion. Film reels which were entirely unrealistic and improbable for the time at hand were dropped in, as if trying to ape Blair Witch, hoping to drum up a spook house on what would otherwise simply be dead real estate.

Is this not in some way a great disrespect to actual victims of TB, a dance on their collective graves for the sake of commercialism? The line between actual footage and manufactured self-service is so thin; the drippings of doubt so insignificantly played down; the scientific boundaries so blatantly ignored... how could this possibly be listed in my TiVo as documentary?

It's a vacation promo, and at that it fully succeeds.

Hell, I'd visit the joint if I could locate it on Google Earth. Not scary said a previous poster. Not too serious either, says I. Fascinating story. Flimsy film-making.

The show was very informative and very detailed accounts of history. Interviews with past employees and patients. Many historical pictures. The pictures of ghost were hard to make out at times and the video of the shadow people goes by way to fast. The music and sound effects tended to drown out anyone who was speaking. When interviewing the elderly you cannot have loud background music. It actually took away from the scary and went toward annoying. I would have to say the computer voice introducing each floor was equally hard to understand. Example the fourth floor scenes show interview with old man in green sweater. I could hardly hear him when the music attempted to go from scary to sincere. I would like to see more shows like this.

It was like someone was trying to make a scary video game and a documentary at the same time. The historical aspect was great. Everything else was horrible, the plugs for the directors other movie that seemed to happen every other minute, the video of the actual ghost hunting was edited like a scary movie rather than an investigation, they had haunted house music and sound effects that would distract you from what was happening. THanks for wasted 2 hours of my time! When there was evidence, it would fly by! Most of it was just people talking about the place.The episode of the Ghosthunters show that went there absolutely destroys how this show was. I am so upset with sci fi channel for playing this, I haven't watched it since it aired.

This was a very good movie I mean it,but it sort of freaked me out because I live in Louisville,it only takes me about 5 minutes to get up there.So I have been in there,I have heard a lot,but whenever I go in there I feel sad,for no reason,and when I get out I feel like crying. This movie was very informing and interesting,that place is a bit creepy but it is very cool!!But if you go to the haunted house they have up there you only go in the mourge,1st,and 2nd floors,because the building is very old and is starting to collapse.But there are times during the year where you can actually take a tour of the whole hospital.I hope someday that I do get to take a tour as well.

Some parts were a little "creepy", but for the most part it was brought down by interviews and talking. I was expecting some actual footage and images that would make my hair stand on end. Granted, they provided photos that claimed there were paranormal images shown...I, literally, couldn't see them. This truthfully made me more of a skeptic than anything. It made me want to buy Penn and Teller's B.S. series on DVD because they probably would have a nice comment on it. Either way, I was NOT SPOOKED by any of this. Perhaps if this material was done in a way that was shot live and first hand, then we may have something to get scared of. For example, lock the filmmakers in the rooms and have them shoot footage uncut and let us watch what's happening. Long story short, be cautious of buying this DVD and realize that it's not that scary.

Spooked: The Ghosts of Waverly Hills Sanatorium (2006)

*** (out of 4)

Effective documentary talking about the history of the Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louisville, KY, which for years was used as a TB hospital where legend has it over 63,000 people died. All five floors of the building have had strange things over the years including various ghostly sightings and especially in a notorious Room 502 where legend has it a pregnant nurse hung herself and of course "The Death Tunnel," which was a 500-foot tunnel used to send the dead down. Being from Louisville I've always been interested in the history of this place and it appears that just about every show that deals with ghosts have visited and all came away saying there's some pretty strange stuff going on. This documentary is far from perfect but in the end I think it did it's job and that was to make a creepy picture. I'll start off with the negative stuff and that's all the "added" stuff that never really should have been here. This includes a few re-enactments, really fast editing that does nothing and a few moments where some heavy metal music was used. All the added effects really kill the atmosphere of the hospital itself. With that said, I found the rest of the picture to be entertaining for a number of reason. Most shows dealing with this place have shown ghostly images and other strange effects and that stuff is on display here. What really separates this documentary is that they interview several people who worked at the hospital as well as a couple who were patients there. The staff members are also interviewed and share their stories about the place. The documentary does a nice job talking about the history of the place and I think most should come away satisfied.

OK so its a documentary about an old hospital that was used to treat TB and then was an old folks home. My first complaint is that I couldn't figure out why the director had the need to constantly plug his movie 'death Tunnel' whenever he could get a chance (it looks like a terrible movie). I also found some of the 'eyewitness'' accounts are no very convincing. However I did find some of the cinematography to be good and some of the stories (they more than likely made up) where entertaining. The saving grace for me was the actual location. If you google it and do a little research of your own you might enjoy this doc more. The history of this place is very interesting and tragic and while the movie has moments were it portrays this well it just cant keep it up. Good attempt but lack credibility.

I thought it was awesome, though the commercials drove me crazy.The old people made me cry and in general the show was entertaining. I understand it was a different approach to Taps, but I liked both shows. I did not side by side put them in competition with each other. All that matters is Taps found paranormal activities and so did Spooked.

Granted that TAPS are Ghost Hunters and they are damn good ones at that, Spooked was filmmakers sharing their story. I do live in Louisville and know a few of the people that was in this doc, and they told it like they told me.

LGHS has a lot of passion as well as the owners and the locals of Waverly, it was a very personal touch.

As far as the death footage, I had never seen that so it made me think now both on TB as well as the NATURE OF WAR. It opened my eyes to help find a cure to TB, War and the ghosts trapped in dimensions.

I have to say I enjoyed my evening watching Sci Fi.

Hello, I was in the documentary. I know that waverly is haunted. For you who don't believe please explain the photo i got of the figure in the window that was in the documentary. i took that during the day time. I also have worked there when it was a nursing home. Everyone can believe what they want to. But the producers who made spooked are great people and is trying to get the truth out there.Juat because you haven't seen or felt anything doesn't mean it isn't there.I have been a paranormal investigator for a long time and have many photo's of thing i have caught on camera and evp's also.I don't think it is fair to come on here and bash those who do believe.There are a lot of unexplained things in this world. So if you don't believe don't bash those who do.

I feel the same way some of the reviewers do about the producers/directors. They look/act more like rock stars on tour than serious filmmakers and it does not add to their credibility. As for the assertion that they used fake or holocaust footage - I was able to google many historical photos taken at Waverly from earlier in the last century. One thing is undeniable, somebody who worked for this company knew how to edit, compose and make a very scary and disturbing documentary of the Waverly Hills Sanatorium. As mainstream filmmakers they suck. As documentarians they are pretty decent. This movie is informative, entertaining and well worth the investment on DVD. Yes, much of what you see was done for dramatic effect, but if a filmmaker can not hold and entertain his audience, he might as well just expose the stock and walk away. I watch and have watched a lot of Horror/Ghost movies and documentaries and I would rate Spooked very highly among these. Try to ignore that "Death Tunnel" was made by the same people - not everyone is a John Cameron or even a Roger Corman. They also make "Children of the Grave" (doc) and "Darkplace" (movie) which are sold with Spooked. I have not as yet viewed these last two, but if they are done in the "Spooked" style I look forward to them.

I just got the DVD. It is a pleasure to watch without all the Sci Fi commercials. I can not even think of going into Waverly. I would be afraid to bring a ghost home with me, I mean where do all these ghosts hide. The old people that was at the Sanatorium made me cry, it was very sad as they were full of spirit and hoped for a cure. The shadow photos are scary, I can not even look at a shadow again without thinking that someone is standing there. The DVD extras are cool. The Bone Dump is crazy, how can you put that stuff in the woods? It definitely made me a ghost believer. I am gonna take a road trip down to Kentucky and take a tour. It definitely is one of the scariest places I ever seen.

I agree this is scary and sad to see these people suffer so much..I watched it during the summer and it scared me I was about to cry!!!! Even though it's creepy..I recommend people watch it!!! Trust me you will learn something about your self that you never knew before and it will surprise you a lot!!! This has changed me so much to not be afraid of ghosts and it will do the same to you. I never thought how depressed people where in that hospital until now....it was sad to see survivors talk about losing their friend or loved ones in that hospital and to not go back being afraid that they will haunt them. But what is worse is not knowing what caused the death of that nurse... which we will never know!!!

This is one of the best horror documentaries I have come across that deals with the "gold mine" of haunted places in the world. The interjection of holocaust and other generalized historical clips add to the true horrific mindset and reality of this place and embeds that into the viewers mind. A true master piece for those with an intellectual mind! Put together by two true geniuses of film mastery! The final editing of this documentary with the interwoven historical clips creates a true masterpiece and concept of combining horror with a paranormal documentary. Even if you have seen the original version, you will want to seek out and get the newly released "Declassified" version and the extras found within it will make it a well welcomed addition to your horror, paranormal or documentary collection.

I can not wait to see their newest such type of documentary being released later this year and titled "Children of the Grave". Phillip and Christopher Keep up the GREAT work!!