In the interest of full disclosure, I may have accidentally seen one episode of the Zak Bagans-helmed Travel Channel series Ghost Adventures, but I’m not entirely sure. The reality shows involving paranormal investigators asking empty rooms if they want to make contact have never interested me much, and Bagans’ brand of ‘bro-style’ ghost hunting I’ve always found particularly grating. And yet, I do enjoy a mockumentary involving strange goings-on, in the style of The Legend of Boggy Creek or even The Blair Witch Project. And so I found myself watching the extension of the Ghost Adventures series, Demon House. 

The “documentary” follows chief ghost bro (Jamie Sammons’ term, not mine, but I like it) Zak Bagans as he purchases a purportedly haunted house in Gary, Indiana with the intention of investigating the claims of the previous residents. The Ammons family, led by mother Latoya, stated her children had experienced supernatural phenomenon, including levitation and honest-to-goodness demon possession. Their story was bolstered by local police captain Charles Austin, who agreed that the events in the home were caused by something paranormal. I won’t get into the veracity of these claims, other than to note that Mr. Austin was a believer in the supernatural to begin with and child psychologists concluded that the Ammons children were ‘delusional,’ and ‘ were acting deceptively and in accordance with their mother’s beliefs.’ Also worth noting, Miss Ammons was behind on her rent, and often used the supernatural events as reason to avoid payment to the house’s landlord. I tend to believe that the demons in the house were invented, and the kids were going along for the ride.

Bagans purchased the house in 2014. He and his crew began filming inside the house, and the film, Demon House, is the result of that filming. Over the course of the film, Bagans assaults a fellow crew member, investigates others who have come into contact with the Ammons family, and generally suggests that some evil presence exists in the house, one which can be passed around like a bad case of herpes if you happen to come into contact with Bagans. Of course, all these events are purely subjective. Dizziness, confusion, aggressive behavior… these things are difficult to measure and so make for great symptoms if you want to prop up the notion of demonic activity and influence. How can you disprove the cause of an emotion?

 

Like most of the shows from which Demon House derives its gags, most of the scares are suggested, never seen, aside from one smudge of black that appears in a few frames. I suppose I can’t prove it isn’t a demon, I just think there may be a more reasonable answer. Most of the runtime involves Bagans suggesting that the house is negatively influencing its visitors, including a cameraman who quit, and the tragic murder-suicide of a former associate, which feels especially odious to use in this film given the tragic nature of the events. This all culminates in Bagans spending the night alone in the house, a night which results in him becoming cross-eyed, according to the host. I remember when that gag was played for laughs and not scares.

The real issue I have with Demon House isn’t the dubious nature of the narrative, although I think Bagans is mostly full of crap, it’s that Bagans himself is wholly unlikable. Watching him question locals about their time in and around the suspected haunted house is a chore. When the presumed protagonist of your film, a documentarian in search of the truth, introduces a twist with the phrase, “and that’s when shit got crazy,” it becomes difficult to take any of it seriously, which the film seems desperate for its viewers to do. It is so somber a journey, and so bereft of anything like a tangible scare, it quickly becomes laughable. With Bagans doing nothing to ground the proceedings in something like reality, with his too-casual narration and the awkward leaps to connect anything negative with demonic forces, the lack of drama in the movie makes the whole thing feel pointless.

At the end of things, with Bagans morosely narrating over the top of images of the house being demolished (which did happen in 2016), one is left to wonder, what was the point of any of this? It has no scares to prop up the meandering narrative, and no central characters to care about or invest oneself in… It is, like all of the shows that inspired this movie, and exercise in ‘wouldn’t it be scary if?’ There is no real proof of anything paranormal (if there were, you would see it on the news, I promise), no sense of foreboding to make it work on an atmospheric level and Bagans himself is borderline ludicrous. Even if you enjoy a faux documentary, this is a poorly executed example of that style, and only those truly possessed by a malign entity might get some ironic kicks out of this one. I found it dull and often silly, and would suggest a decent found footage movie instead, if you’re in the mood for something that poses as the real thing. This is one to skip.