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If I were a studio executive, I’d buy “Ghostfacers.”
The episode follows the “Ghostfacers”, formerly the two less-than-intrepid teen ghost hunters of Hellhounds.com Ed Zeddmore and Harry Spangler, who are addressing unnamed studio executives to purchase their demo pilot. Now operating as reality TV wannabes, the two have assembled a team of fellow “lone wolves” including Ed’s sister Maggie, camera man Spruce and intern Corbett, who harbors a mad crush on Ed. The team’s target is a haunted house where, of course, no one has stayed the night . . . alive. While breaking into the condemned house, the team overhears a car and scurries under the fence, assuming it’s the police – but it’s really the Winchesters. As Sam and Dean pass by in the Impala, the Ghostfacers set up base camp in the parlor the house. Dividing into two teams, they canvas the house looking for supernatural activity, with Harry’s team discovering the figment of a man being shot to death numerous times.
Meanwhile, Sam and Dean, posing as cops, interrupt the proceedings downstairs. Unfortunately, Ed recognizes them as the two “amateurs” who interferes with their documenting in Texas (see “Hell House"). Harry’s team returns to base camp with the footage of the ghost, which Sam and Dean dub a “death echo” – a ghost locked in a replay of its death over and over again. In the confusion, Corbett wanders off, his camera equipment constantly on the fritz due to strange interference. Just as he puts his night vision goggles on, the ghost appears right behind him, and his scream echos through the entire house. At midnight, the house experiences a supernatural “lock-down” and no one is getting out until daylight – if they make it that long. Spruce overhears Sam telling Dean he only has “two months left”, and the two hunters are forced to pull their resources with the bumbling Ghostfacers.
After another death echo, the Winchesters discover the house belonged to a Cold War-era hospital janitor who kept corpses fresh from the morgue for his personal company. During another spike of paranormal energy, however, Sam vanishes. Amid the commotion, Ed catches Harry and Maggie kissing and a fight ensues. After breaking up the fight, Dean and Spruce are separated from the others on the way to the bomb shelter, where the ghost has already gruesomely dispatched Corbett and plans to do the same to Sam. Upon Dean’s instruction, Ed, Harry and Maggie awkwardly place themselves within a salt circle to protect them, but are tormented by Corbett’s death echo. Meanwhile, Dean and Spruce rescue Sam, who tells them the ghost is killing out of loneliness. Downstairs, Ed and Harry reconcile, with Harry encouraging Ed to “be gay for that dead intern” and break Corbett out the death echo. It works, and Corbett’s spirit, jarred by Ed’s tender confessions, thrusts himself into the ghost, ending the haunting.
Following a “touching” eulogy for Corbett, the Ghostfacers show their work to the Winchesters. Dean describes it as “half-awesome” – but swipes their memory card, while Sam leaves behind an electromagnet which wipes out their hard drives. The Impala drives off to the Ghostfacer theme song, with the Winchesters concluding the world just wasn’t ready for Ghostfacers.
This was a refreshing episode to come back to after a break. The entire episode is shot in various first-person angles ala “Ghost Hunters”, and used to effects both humorous and scary. The beeping out of swear words gives an organic feel to the episode, which is well-written with the Ghostfacers’ humor, yet the first-person angle never feels too trivial or lost in its own gimmick. The switching between various perspectives is extremely effective, especially as return to poor Corbett’s dead close-up time and time again. A great episode to watch over and over again as well as an excellent jumping-on point for the final episodes, “Ghostfacers” is as close as they come to the genuine article – scary, funny and everything in between.
