Most Haunted Halloween Week PT3 Review

On the 2nd of November 2023, the Most Haunted team posted the 'Halloween Week PT3' investigation video to their official YouTube channel. I have not yet seen parts four or five as of the time of reviewing this episode as I don't want any opinions, whether that be praise or critique, to be swayed by anything they do or experience in those future parts. That being said, I will give both praise and criticism where I see necessary. 

For anyone who has read my previous Most Haunted reviews, this one will be written a little differently. Usually I would do a highly detailed review describing everything that happens in sequential fashion, but I don't think that's the best thing to do for this happens. As a result, instead of discussing the episode in the same way you would watch it, I'm going to break it down into each team's investigation but discuss it all in one go. So, I will discuss all of what you see of Karl and Stuart's investigation, then all of what you see of Yvette and Glen's investigation, and then end the review by discussing all of Gregg's investigation. Due to the length of certain investigation segments, it just doesn't seem appropriate to keep the investigations split into segments as shown in the video. 

My Previous Prediction

With all of that out of the way, time for the review. To end my last review, I gave my predictions as to what I thought would happen during this investigation. The previous video ended with narration from Yvette telling us that her and Glen would be investigating the hospital wing, that Gregg would be in the old cottage, and that Karl and Stuart would be in the witches cottage. My exact prediction from my previous review for this episode reads as so:

'I think Yvette and Glen in the hospital wing will get some tapping, maybe bangs, possibly some footsteps too. I will be surprised if they get anything more extreme than that such as moans or doors slamming. If they do get anything more extreme, I will be very interested in Glen's reaction. I also think if anything more extreme happens, Yvette will be involved somehow such as when she picked up the snooker ball. I think Gregg in the old cottage might have a quieter investigation that what Stuart had. If he experiences things on the level of Stuart, I really hope he checks behind the doors and counter. I would have preferred for Glen to be by himself in the cottage as I do think nothing at all would happen, but I think with Gregg you might get tapping or footsteps again. 

As for Karl and Stuart, all bets are off for what could occur in the witches cottage. I'm expecting loud banging. I'm also expecting for Karl to have some sort of direct experience, and for Stuart to have some sort of direct experience. I also think something will be thrown, or will fall from somewhere. I'm also expecting loud footsteps. Basically, I'm expecting for their segments to be the most active and will be incredibly surprised if they don't get anything.' 

Now, let's see if I was right about anything...

Karl and Stuart: The Witches Cottage

Karl and Stuart's investigation immediately starts off with a discussion point. Karl is talking to the camera about Pendle Hill being nearby, and then as Stuart goes to walk past the door a noise, like a clunk, can be heard. In fairness, Stuart does ask if the noise was them, but the two seem to latch onto the sound being paranormal. Personally, I think it was Stuart accidentally catching his foot on the door as he walks past. As the clunk occurs, you can see Stuart stumble forwards a little and Karl, who sees this, asks if he's OK which leads Stuart into asking about the noise he just heard. 

Stuart describes the sound as a grinding sound or dragging sound, but the camera doesn't pick that type of noise up, only the clunk. A second clunk occurs too when Stuart moves near the door, but neither Karl or Stuart acknowledge this sound. Instead, Karl calls out 'hello' and remarks by saying they haven't even started yet. This reaction from Karl is what leads me to think they thought it was paranormal, or at least want to portray it as so, especially as Karl then says 'if you're outside, come in'. 

I do quite like the next bit from Karl as he discusses the stone doorframe and what looks like some old writing which is carved into it, which he speculates could have come from a church. He also discusses the door and how it looks like a jailer's door. Stuart asks Karl if they know how old the building is, and Karl gives a really interesting reply. He says that he has no official word, and that the guy who owns the property said it was hundreds of years of. He does speculate though that just because the building is a couple of hundred years old, it doesn't mean that certain aspects such as the stone hasn't got thousands of years worth of history and energy connected to it. I like the point he makes, and I do think it is a good point to make.

Stuart says the door reminds him of Oliver Cromwell, which is an interesting nod to the area's history, and Karl does exactly what I criticised him for doing in the last review: he says 'everywhere you look, it looks like there's something horrible'. To give him credit, he doesn't push this narrative of the location being horrible anywhere near as much as the previous episode, but he's standing in an empty room. There's nothing at all horrible to look at aside empty space and a couple of cabinet doors. As I said in my previous review, I understand he wants to try and build the tension, but this moment didn't seem to fit his comment at all.

When it cuts to their next segment, Karl and Stuart are hearing banging from upstairs, which Stuart points upwards towards. Karl films the ceiling, which is something I still view as pointless as nothing at all is captured by doing this. They do go upstairs after a short but of speculation of what could cause the banging, and Stuart thinks it's because a window might be open up there. They don't show around the house at all, which is a big criticism I have of Karl and Stuart's investigation, and they head straight for the room they heard the noise from. Instead of showing no one is in the room behind any doors, they immediately get to filming the windows. I understand why they do this as they're testing Stuart's theory on the noise being from an open window, but for the viewers they need to always establish they are the only people in the building first. 

Karl then hears a sound occur while they're upstairs, one which you can hear in headphones, and so Karl calls out 'hello' again. This is where Stuart stands with his hand hidden behind a post and a couple of taps occur. Stuart points to the floor, which is where Karl points the camera to, and more taps occur. Karl says he thinks the sound is coming from in front of Stuart and asks out for the spirit to copy him. Karl stomps his foot, and then the taps copy it. All of this is while the camera is pointing at the floor, and while you can't see Stuarts hand which we know is behind a post. After the footsteps are copied, Stuart's face is put back in shot, which means we can again see his hand is behind the post, and one of two things occur in this episode which I can only refer to as utterly idiotic. I can understand the logic, but it doesn't work at all with only the one camera pointing at Stuart's front.

Karl asks Stuart to put his fingers behind his back to see if the spirits can see how many he is holding up. If they had a locked off camera showing how many fingers Stuart shows behind his back, then this works provided no one else is in the building. Without that camera it is exactly the same as asking Stuart to think of a number and for the spirit to guess what number he is thinking of. Taking someone's word for something like this is the least scientific thing you can possibly ever do. 

Stuart puts his hand behind his back, revealing his fingers were curled against the post in the process, three knocks occur, and Stuart reveals he had three fingers up behind him. I try to be fair when it comes to any activity teams claim to have, but doing this makes the team look like a joke. I heavily criticised various points in the previous episode as they made certain team members look like it was their very first investigation, and this moment goes perfectly with those criticisms. Karl and Stuart have been investigating the paranormal for around twenty years. I cannot believe they thought this would be a good test without any evidence of what Stuart was holding up behind his back, and I can't believe they went through with it. Stuart does acknowledge you can't see behind him, and says he isn't lying, but you cannot just take people's word for it when it comes to being as scientific as possible.

During the next segment, Karl asks the spirit to do something to or for them, and Stuart introduces them both to the spirit. Stuart also asks the spirit to replicate the sound they heard earlier and says he can feel the energy bubbling up. This is a good time to mention I became extremely confused when watching this episode. Karl discusses how disorientated he is in the house, and this whole episode makes it seem like Karl and Stuart have never been in this cottage before. Before this episode was uploaded to YouTube, the Most Haunted team uploaded a video which was a full investigation they did of this very cottage. I understand sometimes people make multiple videos and choose particular days to release them, and not always doing so in order they made the videos, but if this was their first time in the location, then it's odd that no one addresses it being their second time in the first video. Really, I think they should at least say the day each location they've conducted has occured on. For all we know, that other video could have been filmed on the exact same day as this investigation.

In this part Karl also comments that it seems like the location is getting both darker and colder, and Stuart agrees. A loud slam occurs, and it takes them way too long to enter the room they heard it from. Karl says he can't go in as he doesn't have a torch, so instead of Stuart who has both a torch and camera going first, Stuart wastes time passing Karl a torch. When Karl goes into the room, Stuart follows him and films as Karl goes in and out of each room. Stuart doesn't go in the rooms to show the camera no one is in there though, and this again is awful investigation work which opens up this type of criticism far too easily. 

Karl determines that the sound was a door slamming in that room, and they have a brief discussion over if the door was originally open or closed. Stuart points out to Karl that he'd asked for something like that to happen, and then does make a good point about the door slam happening at the time it become cold. You could argue, if this is legitimate activity like the programme claims, that it became cold because the spirit present took the heat energy from the room and converted it into the kinetic energy used for the door slam. Stuart also says it's become quite sinister, which Karl agrees with and says he'd rather be sitting in front of a nice warm fire. Just as I said in my previous review, they've had no evidence that the spirit is of sinister nature. A door slamming and a few knocks happening does not make a spirit sinister. 

The next segment starts with Karl asking if the spirit can open and close the door behind them while it is on camera, but it doesn't. They do have a discussion about why spirits don't do stuff in full view, and Karl gives really good speculation about spirits possibly wanting the energy from people being scared. I disagree with his speculation though as it takes energy to make things like doors slamming happen, so it makes no sense for them to use a substantial amount of energy for what may end up being only a small return of that energy. 

Next, the other idiotic thing occurs. I've seen similar experiments happencin investigations, and I've even tried this kind of thing in my own investigations, but Karl does it in such a baffling way. He sees a lightbulb hanging from the ceiling, and instead of calling out for the spirit to make it start swinging, he makes it swing and asks the spirit to make it stop swinging. Being completely honest, I don't watch that many paranormal investigations; but Karl and Stuart's investigation in the video is one of the most ridiculous investigations I've ever seen. The light bulb stops swinging, and Karl questions if that was just natural. This is the point where he makes it swing again and asks for the spirit to keep it swinging. I don't have issue with the second part, but an experienced investigator asking a spirit to make the bulb stop swinging, which he has made swing from rest, is unbelievable. 

Stuart says the atmosphere is electrifying, and a bang occurs. Karl hears it, and tells Stuart that it sounded like a thud came from downstairs. They both go downstairs and find nothing to be out of place, and Karl calls the location horrible again. Stuart hears a noise, which Karl does say could be the wind, and Stuart says he's shaking. Karl says he's waiting for pipes to come off the wall and for blood to spill out and asks if 'something sinister' or 'something nasty' occured there. I really don't like how over dramatic this all is from Karl.

Karl and Stuart's fifth segment starts with Karl closing cupboards downstairs and Stuart asks the spirit if they've angered them by closing the cupboards, only to then laugh about it as he doesn't know why they'd be angry at that due to them just being doors. Karl says there's definitely something there, and Stuart agrees and says he can feel an energy around them. Karl asks the spirit to do something and loud bangs occur from upstairs. 

They both go back upstairs and they establish the door they thought caused the slamming earlier hadn't moved. Stuart asks for the spirit to do something to him or Karl and then sees a light, similar to the ones he saw in the previous episode, occur from the doorway into another room. This causes Stuart to leave enter that other room, and for Karl to stand in the doorway of that room. While Stuart is telling Karlcit's like what he saw in the other cottage, a lound bang occurs, and when the two go back into the other room they see the ladder has fallen over. 

Stuart stands the ladder back up and tries wobbling it to see if it will fall. He even gets on it and shakes it to see if it would fall due to uneven flooring or faulty legs. Unfortunately the camera still does not show the interior of any room upstairs to see if someone is hiding behind a door. You can even see in the photo above that there is an open door someone could easily be hinding behind. They couldn't even have to be behind the door, they'd just have to go behind the wall. This segment ends with both Karl and Stuart saying the room's gone colder.

The next segment picks up with Karl thanking the spirit and saying the ladder incident really scared him. A bang happens, which Karl says is a knock on the stairs, and Stuart agrees so they both go downstairs. This is where Stuart says something has changed, seemingly for no reason, and so Karl says they've got to get back. They talk briefly about how it doesn't feel good there and Karl even says he thinks if he stayed there by himself then his life would be in danger. The two then leave.

Yvette and Glen: The Hospital Wing (and Upper Living Quarters)

Not much happens at all during Yvette and Glen's investigation. Yvette has an EMF meter with her, which is fantastic as I criticised the team last time for lack of equipment. In a way, I did find it quite funny though as this was an area I said the EMF meter probably wouldn't be great in due to all the power still being on in the building. Yvette does test it against the operating theatre lights though while they're off, and it doesn't effect the meter. There is a comment about other lights being left on, which implies a spirit turned them on as we saw them be turned off in the previous part, but no one ever says this. 

There are slight comments about the atmosphere of the location with the two saying they feel unsettled with the lights off, but the most extreme comment is from Glen saying the overhead theatre lights are like a wierd science experiment waiting to happen. I was quite glad to see Glen call out for the spirit to injure him like how it seemed to injure Karl in the first episode. These kinds of claims should be investigated, so it was great to see Glen do that here. Even Yvette calls out for the spirit to injure Glen like how it injured Karl, so I was quite impressed. Nothing happens though. 

Glen calls out for the spirit to show that they really exist, and then asks Yvette if she just saw a light flickered or if it was just him imagination. She says she doesn't see it, and it's great that Glen acknowledges as he says it that it could just have been his imagination. As the skeptic of the team, this is one of the things he should be doing. He does describe it as the same kind of thing that happens just before a power cut, but it's good that Yvette dismisses is and the two don't linger on it. 

Yvette leads the way out of the operating theatre and asks for the spirit to copy her as she bangs on a table. Nothing at all happens as they both call out for something to happen. Yvette says she's feeling sick, and Glen says that it will be because of the gas and air smell. Due to the lack of activity, they both go upstairs to the upper living quarters. They hear a bang on the way up, and Glen says it sounded like it came from upstairs. Glen directs Yvette to the room Oliver Cromwell stayed in and a thud occurs which they both comment on. 

At one point, Yvette goes into what looks like a walk in wardrobe and says her EMF meter flashed. Glen then tries to film it over her shoulder, but Yvette then finds out it was a delayed detection from the torch she's holding. She tests this well by waving the torch over the meter to make it spike. This moment does show the EMF meter to be useless though due to the torch being able to make it spike. 

Nothing at all happens in Cromwell's room, so they both leave it and wander around upstairs for a bit. Yvette says she can smell a mixture of smoke and something else which wasn't nice, and then Glen shows her where the tap seemed to turn on by itself. He also says that area is the only place he felt uneasy. There's a good moment where Yvette thinks she hears something, but then determines it to be the rain outside. 

Yvette says it's deathly quiet, but then they do hear a door in the distance. Glen says that's interesting because he heard something similar before realising the tap was on. I agree that it's interesting, but I'm pretty sure there is no footage of him saying this in the previous episode. They check if the tap is on, and it isn't. There's a moment where Glen trips over something which makes a noise, but he does tell Yvette that it was just him. Yvette then comments on if an item was in a room earlier, Glen says yes as he nearly walked into it earlier, and Yvette response by saying it would have been great if he said no. This is then where Yvette decides to call a lift.

They get in the lift and Yvette begs for the lift to stop during all three lift trips they take. A jolt does occur during the second trip as it stops on the upper floor, but that would likely just be natural. Glen does point out the jolt though, and Yvette agrees. Yvette jokes with him that no one would be willing to go in a lift with her, but they're all willing to call out for spirits to kick them. Yvette and Glen's investigation then ends with Yvette saying they've heard a door bang, but nothing else. 

Gregg: The Old Cottage

Nothing at all really happens through Gregg's investigation of note. I think he does very well by himself as he puts the camera down a couple of times to have his whole body in shot, and he briefly shows behind the counter in the main room. There is a constant dripping you can hear on the camera, and he does say he can hear a tapping, but I think he can mostly hear something the camera isn't picking up. 

When downstairs, he says he can hear a tapping, switches the torch on to check if the floor is damp or if there is a drip, but says he can't hear anything. He says when he switches his torch on the tapping stops, and that when he switches it off it starts again. You can hear some taps I don't think are drips on the camera when he does this. He compares it to his experience in the hospital wing during the previous video where it seemed like the spirit was quite shy and possibly playing with him. He does establish during the episode that it seems like the activity is occuring around the stairs, but aside the tapping he hears, he doesn't get anything else. I do like his investigation though as I think out of all teams, he is the only one to properly investigate the location as best he can. His investigation ends with him saying there are hundreds of Most Haunted episodes where nothing happens, but they never make it to air. 

Summary of Activity

1. Tapping

2. Banging

3. Ladder falling

4. Door slamming 

5. Light anomaly (Stuart)

6. Temperature drop

My Thoughts

I found it quite amazing that my predictions seemed to be spot on, especially when it came to Karl and Stuart. I said something might fall, and the ladder did. I said they'd have personal experiences, and they were saying about feeling cold, and Stuart saw another light anomaly. I said they'd hear banging, and they did. They were definitely the most active investigation, and you have to question not only why it was the most active, but how I managed to predict it so easily. 

I was off with Yvette and Glen as I didn't think they'd get doors slamming, and thought they would get tapping. As Yvette said, they only got a door slamming. I was right though with my prediction for Gregg. I said he might have a quieter investigation than Stuart, and he really did. I said you might get tapping or footsteps again, and you did get the tapping. 

As said earlier, I think Glen's investigation was the best as he experienced something, he paused what he was doing, he investigated it, and then continued. Yvette and Glen were too active to properly investigate, although I can understand why as they weren't getting any activity anywhere. As for Karl and Stuart, it was ridiculous. If they had taken the camera and thoroughly shown each room then I'd be more ok with their investigation, but what they did was not an investigation. Karl and Stuart's investigation was the equivilant of taking your friends to the pub and hearing someone drop a glass. They weren't doing anything, and didn't have a clue about anything. I really don't like being this critical, but I really do think there is no good way of looking at Karl and Stuart's sections. Even the two tests of having Stuarts fingers behind his back, and Karl swinging the light were pointless and done in such an inexperienced way. 

My Predictions For Next Time

The episode ends with Yvette's narration telling us that for the next part Karl is investigating the hospital wing, Glen is in the old cottage, Stuart is in the psychiatric building, and Yvette and Gregg are both in the cellars. I'm really excited to see the next part. Karl by himself in the spot he got injured, and Stuart alone in the place he was experiencing doors slamming. I think both will get activity, but I'm less sure this time on how much. I think Stuart will get doors slamming and footsteps. I think Karl will get the same. As Karl is by himself, I don't think he will get injured again, but I do think he'll say about seeing faces or apparitions. He's probably going to have some sort of personal experience in that regard, but I'm not too confident on it. 

I think Glen will get near to nothing in the old cottage. He may experience slight taps like what Gregg had, but I don't think it will be anything near like what Stuart had. As for Yvette and Gregg, I think tapping and maybe footsteps. It's hard to predict this one as we haven't seen the cellars yet, so I'm going to say tapping and maybe footsteps. I will be quite surprised if anyone gets any moans, although I would not put that past Karl or Stuart's sections. 

I hope you enjoyed this slightly different review! I know I didn't do it in as detailed a way as usual, but not at all much happened so I didn't feel the need to do it like that. A special thank you to Damain and eveyone else who supports the blog. If you want to follow The True Paranormal, you can subscribe for free to this website, or you can follow the True Paranormal on Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter), Tumblr, or Instagram. You can also subscribe The True Paranormal on YouTube. If you want to email me for any reason, you can contact: thetrueparanormal1@gmail.com 

If you want to watch this episode of Most Haunted I've just reviewed, you can click the link below:

Most Haunted Halloween Week PT3