Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

In the days before paranormal documentaries became so popular in cable network programming, there was Unsolved Mysteries. Hosted by the late Robert Stack, its main focus was to present the known facts of true open-ended stories—usually crimes or lost loved ones—then urge viewers to call a toll-free numbers to provide investigators with any other details they may add to the cases. During the series's first season, it gave its viewers a rest by devoting an entire show to true ghost stories for Halloween. These proved so popular they eventually stopped saving them for Halloween and segments of the mystical world would eventually sprout up at anytime during the entire season. The producers extracted these ghost segments from the shows they appeared in and combined them into one topic-specific set for the DVD market. As entertainment, ghost stories are timeless and Unsolved Mysteries: Ghosts is a video anthology of some of the most entertaining ghostlore doccos fans can find.

This set contains four discs covering 34 stories produced during the show's 13-year run on NBC. Each segment runs anywhere from 8–12 minutes coming to 372 minutes of run time. There are an additional 200+ minutes of bonus features, including an introduction by Producers John Cosgrove and Terry Meurer, overlapping audio commentaries on eight segments, a short on the 200th mystery the series solved, a tribute to Stack, and trailers for three feature movies that its distributor, First Look Home Entertainment, also markets.

The stories the producers chose range from heartwarming to mystifying to malevolent. One of the more endearing stories is that of the Delta Queen, a steamboat built during the 1820s and still sailing with passengers to this day. At one time it was piloted and managed by the spunky Mary Green, one of the first women to take such a job in the early 20th century. Despite relishing her duties, she died after only two years on the boat at the age of 79. One night decades later, Myra Frugé, working the purser's office, took a call from an elderly passenger who complained of being cold and uncomfortable. Frugé called on the first officer, Mike Williams, and asked him to check on the passenger in cabin 109. When he knocked on the door, it was unoccupied. In the meantime, Frugé noticed an elderly woman on the deck staring at her through the window, then disappear. When Williams returned to the purser's office to tell Frugé about the empty cabin, he noticed she was upset and kept her company until she calmed down. She quickly identified the woman as Green from a portrait hanging on board and Williams knew that cabin 109 was one she occupied. He and Frugé soon fell in love and married, giving Mary Green the credit for bringing them together.

The General Wayne Inn in Philadelphia originally opened in 1704 and hosted such high profile guests as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Edgar Allen Poe. Its earliest known report of phenomena was in 1848, when an employee saw the apparition of a young soldier in a Hessian uniform in the basement. It has a prankster ghost, though. Innkeeper Martin Johnson watches as a series of women are touched in the bar, then turn around and accuse innocent men of goosing them.

In Newport, Texas, Sam and Judith Haney decided to put in a swimming pool and soon dug up a couple of coffins. They found out the houses in their subdivision were built over Black Hope Cemetery, where former black slaves were interred. Disrespected enough in life, the spirits of the identified remains, Charles and Betty Thomas, fight being equally disregarded in death by driving the occupants out of their homes. The Haneys would share similar experiences with their neighbors, the Williams, such as lights, TVs and water faucets turning on and off; shadows, sounds, and smells traveling around their homes; and toilets flushing on their own. The Williams had six family members diagnosed with cancer within a couple of years and their 30-year-old daughter died of a massive heart attack. As far as they are concerned, that was too much to be coincidence. The subdivision developers were sued for failing to disclose stigmatized property.

The producers said that when the crew first started putting these stories together, they were initially skeptic, but many of them turned into believers after covering them. Each one is told with pictures, interviews, and dramatic reenactments. The research takes most of the stories in different directions, then allows the viewers to make up their own minds from the info provided. The writers made a point of interviewing first-hand witnesses, researchers, and sometimes even skeptics to present a completely different viewpoint. The crew selected stories that had several witnesses and those with a strong historic background were even better. While some facts may be trimmed for the sake of brevity, the facts given are generally reliable.

If complaints need to be made, the segment "Ghosts Go to Court" is it. It covers of the story of an English couple, the Smiths, who are suing the previous owners, the Melbourne sisters, of their house for failing to inform them it was haunted. The sisters were countersuing because they believed the Smiths created the ghost story to renege on their financial obligations. This case was still pending when it originally aired, but it was also supposed to set a precedent in the UK. This DVD provides no updates on the decision, as many segments did when they were rerun. (For what it's worth, there are laws that sellers must disclose stigmatized properties to buyers in California.)

The packaging of the set is also a bit annoying. Although each disc has its own slender cover, the box is cut so it doesn't fully encase all but the spine so they can easily slip out if not held properly.

There are a couple of stories that fail to bring in a paranormal element, such as the story of the disappearing brigantine Mary Celeste and the Mystery Hum. Perhaps the Mary Celeste is there because it is a historical mystery and the show covered few of those and maybe it was added to this package because the ghost stories have a lot of historical sequences. Does inclusion of the mysterious hum some people hear mean they believe the cause is supernatural? To think the sufferers are all looking for scientific rationale.

Several of the stories cover places that offer reasonable public access in a variety of venues, such as the Queen Mary, Lizzie Borden's House, and the Myrtles Plantation. The management at the Bullock Hotel, in Deadwood, South Dakota, was initially reluctant to tell their ghost story, but now offer ghost tours of their lovely little establishment.

With a big audience and a decent budget, the production values of this show were quite good. According to Cosgrove, the first several seasons were done on film, then it moved to video. They initially tried to use the actual people for dramatic reenactments, but eventually gave that up since it's rare to find natural talent. They chose actors who resembled the people and they were definitely in the moment. In historical scenes, the costumes and sets were quite convincing. The special effects of the 90s may not have been as easy as they are today, but they keep the stories spooky. The signature theme for this series has an eerie quality better suited to its unexplained segments than those of crime.

This DVD package offers closed captioning but no foreign language capabilities. Episodes can be picked out individually or played at once. Each disc has two of its segments with overlapping commentary, but the aforementioned special features are copied onto each one. Those interested in some of the other types of mysteries this show covered, the other topics packaged for DVD include UFOs, Miracles, Bizarre Murders, Psychics, and Strange Legends.

Overall, some of the paranormal stories this show produced were or have become some of the best known in the USA. With the interviews of so many primary resources, this one is better than folklore. The Unsolved Mysteries: Ghosts package is well worth it to anyone interested in the subject.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older