NC-writer Review of Scariest Places on Earth

Scariest Places on Earth (2000– )

Silliest places on earth! (Very slight spoiler)

[10 January 2005]

After reading other reviews of this, I thought it would be a terrific spine-tingling compilation of scary stories...but rather than producing chills, it produced gales of laughter from me and my husband. The back-stories of all these "haunted" places are very intriguing, and some of the footage is interesting, but the people who do the investigating are obviously hamming it up for the cameras, the special effects are obviously staged, and they try to use lighting to make things look spooky, but with hilarious results--such as having people point flashlights up from their chins, a la Blair Witch. It's so obviously staged that one scene (VERY SLIGHT SPOILER) shows a girl entering a spooky tunnel from the back, and her cap is black. When it shows her from the front, pointing the light up from her chin, her hat is suddenly white. Back and forth it goes, with her hat changing colors. Many scenes of the "investigators" have the camera bobbling around as people scream, and you have absolutely no idea what they're screaming at. Often the narrator says that a person goes into a room all alone, yet there is a camera following them around, so clearly they're not alone. And why is it that all of the "investigators" are students? Because their screaming is louder and shriller than adults? The funniest thing, though, is the voice-overs by Zelda Rubinstein, the delightful little woman from Poltergeist and Picket Fences. Her voice is decidedly spooky alright, but because this video is so funny already, her "narration of impending doom" makes things even more amusing. I'd say that if you're in the market for a good frightening video, you'd be better off renting Thirteen Ghosts--or if you have access to older movies, check out Helter Skelter, In Cold Blood (with Robert Blake), or even Aliens. While "Scariest Places on Earth" is mildly interesting, the main entertainment is in how funny it is--unfortunately it's not the least bit scary.