Spooked: The Ghosts of Waverly Hills Sanatorium

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.

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 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.

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.

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.