Deep South Paranormal: The Good, the Bad, and the Ghostly

I recently found out about a show called Deep South Paranormal, and I recorded an episode so I could check it out.  The show is about a group of ghost hunters from Lafayette, Louisiana: Hart Fortenbery, Keith Ramsey, Benny Reed, Kevin Betzer, Jonathan Hodges, Randy Hardy, and Kali Hardy.  The episode I watched was entitled "The Good, the Bad, and the Ghostly," and it began with Hart asking Jonathan and Benny to help him find snake venom.  Like all rational human beings, Benny is afraid of snakes, but Jonathan picks up a cottonmouth; Hart says that the venom will keep him from harm, "whether it's spirits or the real world."  Now the team is ready to visit Cahawba, Alabama, a ghost town where a family called the Bells were murdered while defending their slave, Plez, who the Troys (a family who had a long-standing feud with the Bells) had accused of stealing.  John Bell, Sr. and John Bell, Jr. were shot to death by the Troys, and after they were killed, Plez was chased to the St. James Hotel in Selma, where he was shot and killed in a second-floor room.  It is believed that Plez and both of the Bells haunt the town, and paranormal activity has been detected at the old slave quarters, the tree outside the slave quarters ("the hanging tree"), the place where the shootout between the Bells and Troys occurred, the cemetery, and the St. James Hotel. 

Keith, Benny, and Jonathan check out the slave quarters while Hart and Randy take the cemetery in the woods; Kevin and Kali keep their eyes on the video feeds while the others are investigating.  Keith, Benny, and Jonathan hear scratching noises and the sound of chains, then go outside to the hanging tree, where Keith asks for privacy, so he can conduct an E.V.P. (electronic voice phenomena) session, and as he does that, Benny and Jonathan try to provoke the spirits by taunting them.  Meanwhile, Hart and Randy follow some mysterious sounds deep into the woods and later hear footsteps, and Kali informs them that she saw a shadow pass over Randy's reflection in a pool of water.  Hart decides that it would be a good idea to put Randy in a coffin because that might help "wake the dead," so they build one the next day.  The next night, Keith, Benny, and Jonathan take up camp in the room where Plez was murdered at the St. James Hotel; they get a thermal hit on the bed that looks as if someone could be sitting there.  At the cemetery, claustrophobic Randy is in the coffin; Hart sees something glowing near the coffin, and Randy feels like something is in there with him and asks to be let out.  The next day, the team gathers to discuss their findings and conclude that the hotel is haunted, and there's an angry presence in the cemetery.

I enjoyed my first episode of Deep South Paranormal...the ghost hunters are a pretty entertaining group, and I'd like to see more of their investigations. However, I would've given the episode a higher rating if it weren't for the snakes at the beginning of the show...snakes make my skin crawl, even when they're just on TV. ; )

My rating: 7/10

http://www.syfy.com/deepsouthparanormal