Paranormal investigator Zak Bagans documents the most authenticated case of possession in American history.

Okay. Zak Bagans. You either love him or hate him, and hearing that he made a ghost-hunting documentary will immediately  tell you whether or not you’re interested in watching it.

Full disclosure: I’m one of those fans, and I was all in with Demon House as soon as I heard about it.  And that probably tells you whether or not you even want to read this review.

Bagans first heard about the activity at 3860 Carolina Street in Gary, Indiana about 3 years ago. He spends the first third of the movie re-hashing the events that led to the home being labeled “The House with 200 Demons.”  In November, 2011,  Latoya Ammons moved in with her three children and mother. Very soon thereafter, footsteps and other noises began manifesting to the family.  On one memorable occasion, the children began acting possessed, making guttural sounds and cursing at the mom. The children were taken to a hospital where their behavior continued, and one son was witnessed climbing up the wall backward.  Police officers and CPS came to the house to do a visit and see if the children’s behavior is the result of being neglected or abused. During the course of their videotaped tour of the residence, they caught an EVP on tape, as well as found some odd items buried in the dirt of the basement: shoes, panties, and other odds and ends.

The reenactments of these events are interspersed with the actual video and audio, and it’s a little jarring. The real taped events and evidence are subtle and quiet, and require a determined ear to understand what’s happening. The reenactments are over-the-top, overly dramatic, and damn loud.  I’m used to this kind of thing from Bagans’ TV series, but to others it might be a bit annoying. Fair warning.

Bagans explores the counter evidence to this haunting a bit, too, including previous tenants of the house who claim absolutely nothing supernatural ever occurred at the house. But this being Zak Bagans, any counter-evidence is merely glanced at before he gleefully dives in to the meat of the investigation, including trying to interview the family in question, only to be rebuffed (are the family members truly frightened, or do they have another agreement with a different production company? Do we find out? Nope).

Weird things start happening to people involved in the film: parapsychologist Barry Taff ends up in the hospital with organ failure, Zak lashes out physically at his tech crew as he seems to internally struggle with evil spirits, and his cameraman Adam goes full-on bonkers back at the hotel, pacing up and down the hallway, yelling at unseen entities and daring them to attack him.  I am well aware that anecdotes are not evidence or data, they are just anecdotes, but I still got a bit of a chill as the weirdness accumulated.

As in every Ghost Adventures episode, the finale of the movie involves Bagans being locked into the house overnight (he is literally screwed inside via plywood panels covering the doors and windows).  Noises and shadows and all kinds of fun stuff occurs during the night, some of it inconsequential, and some of it…well…by this point, who knows what’s true and what’s embellished?  It’s all still entertaining and that, for me, is kind of the fun of Bagans’ adventures.

Demon House basically boils down to a longer episode of his TV show, with a little bit of swearing thrown in, and I enjoyed watching it.  Your move.