Hauntings Across America

"Exclusive video of real ghosts" boasts the front jacket copy on this so-so otherworldly tour across America hosted by Star Trek's Michael Dorn ("Worf")...but no matter how much I gawked, squinted, or peered, all I saw was lights, photos, and cheesy special effects. Various authors and investigators offer commentary during segments examining Marilyn Monroe's ghost, a long-dead coach who abused boys at a YMCA (some kind of exorcism is performed, resulting in lights--and this is pure speculation here--created by a Video Toaster), and other ghostly incidents. The script is pretty dorky (example: "we have two Southern hauntings for you now..." which sounds like something you'd hear on a home shopping channel), and the footage pretty pedestrian. Although there was an eerie moment for me: in one sequence two people return to a hacienda where they had a ghostly experience twenty years ago. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck go up as I looked at the unnamed man--he very much resembled Michael Wallis, the host of Route 66: The Mother Road. A little homework revealed--hold on to your skeptic bone here--that the Route 66 video was (gulp!) produced by the exact same company that produced this video (spooky, huh?). There is a nice plug at the end of the program to visit your local library for more info; unfortunately, this tape is a very optional choice for those same libraries. Aud: P. (R. Pitman)