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Video: Halloween Countdown (Part Two): Rolling Hills Paranormal Research Center

By Philip Anselmo

This is the first of two videos on my recent visit to Rolling Hills Paranormal Research Center in East Bethany. Rolling Hills is the site of the old Genesee County Home, former "poor house," home for the "insane," and nursing home. In this video, Rolling Hills owner Lori Carlson gives us a brief overview of the facility, its past inhabitants and its current inhabitants... that latter would be the ghosts.

Tomorrow, we hope to get up the second video, which will consist entirely of footage from my tour of the facility between the hours of 11:00pm and 3:00am. While I wasn't fortunate enough to stumble into any ghosts, I got some great shots of an eerie, disquieting and utterly fascinating space.

In the meantime, let's learn a little about this place...

Be sure to check out part one of our Halloween countdown, posted yesterday: Cooking with the Dairy Princess: Halloween Special (Jell-O Eyeballs).

Howard B. Owens

Philip, great video. It breaks a few of the rules we learned in video class ... but absolutely works. Just fascinating information.

Oct 28, 2008, 9:27pm Permalink
Lorie Longhany

When I was in Girl Scouts, some 40 years ago, we used to go out to sing Christmas carols to the residents. It was a nursing home at the time. I remember vividly how scared we all were -- a group of ten year old's that heard all the legends and stories -- singing to folks that suffered from dementia, not to mention the smells. Now I look at it with fond memories but back then we were scared.

Very cool video. This place is rich in history.

Oct 28, 2008, 10:12pm Permalink
Philip Anselmo

Howard: I think I broke just about every rule! Ha. It's too long. No secondary footage. No cutaways. No changes of camera position at all. But... yeah. It seemed to work anyway. Lori is such an expressive speaker and, as you said, it's just so interesting what she's talking about.

That being said, I've got plenty of secondary footage of walking around the place. But I thought that would best be served by its natural sound. I hope to get it up today, but may not until tomorrow.

Oct 29, 2008, 8:00am Permalink
Darrick Coleman

Yeah, even though it was 5 minutes of just her talking I enjoyed the interview and what she had to say! I'm looking forward to the "walking around" footage!

Oct 29, 2008, 10:17am Permalink
Philip Anselmo

"Catch any ghosts?"

It may be difficult to answer that question. I "may" have caught a ghost, but he made me sign a non-disclosure form, so all I can say on the matter is: No comment.

Seriously, though, I didn't run into any, but the space was no less fascinating because of that. My girlfriend was with me taking still shots, and she caught a couple "orbs" on camera. I'll explain that when I get the post up, which looks like won't be until tomorrow.

Oct 29, 2008, 1:00pm Permalink
Charles Augrom

In June of 2005 I was involved in a ghost hunt at Rolling Hills. 40 people entered the building at 9:00pm for an 8 hour hunt. By 1:00am only 15 of us were left as the others left for various reasons. 4 of the remaining hunters were paranormal investigators from Toronto. Although I didn't meet any ghosts I did experience some strange temperature differences in certain rooms. My camera picked up many 'orbs'. Much of the time I wandered alone though the dark corridors with a head lamp and a camera. It was both exciting and scary. I'm ready to do it again.

Oct 29, 2008, 11:43pm Permalink
Brian Hillabush

The video was long, but awesome. I tend to break the rules with my videos all the time, but it seems that they have to be long for game coverage and interviews. It was the same with this one; I could have watched another 10 minutes of her speaking.
I definitely want to go check that out.

Oct 30, 2008, 12:01am Permalink

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