If creepy tales of haunted houses and other landmarks are your thing, then you might want to pick up either or both of the sets titled “Haunted Histories Collection,” produced by the History Channel. But those looking for subjects slightly more sinister will also find plenty of thought-provoking material alongside the standard ghost stories contained on these affordably priced box sets. Each set is comprised of five documentaries that range from limp to goose-bump inducing, depending on your tastes.
The first volume features two obligatory titles called “Hauntings” and “Poltergeist” that deliver various tales and reenactments amounting to about what you’d expect. The set delves a little deeper on “The Haunted History of Halloween,” which is amiable yet informative fare covering the history of the holiday. “Salem Witch Trials” covers not only the infamous Massachusetts trials, but also the history of witch hunting in general. Finally, there’s the cherry on the cake, “Vampire Secrets,” which at 90 minutes runs twice as long as the other docs on the set. It might as well be R-rated, given the sheer amount of blood spilled while detailing the exploits of famous vampires such as Countess Elizabeth Báthory, who allegedly killed as many as 600 young women for their blood back in the 1500s, and the more recent case of Rod Ferrell, a disturbed Kentucky teen who took the role-playing game “Vampire: The Masquerade” far too seriously.
Volume Two again offers up two platters of garden variety ghost tales, and follows them with two docs that make an excellent double feature due to their Haitian connections: “Zombies” and “Voodoo Rituals,” neither of which are for those with weak stomachs. The final doc is the keeper, though. “In Search of the Real Frankenstein” traces the roots of Mary Shelley’s mad scientist all the way back to a trio of real scientists working on experiments eerily similar to her fictitious counterpart back in the day, and pretty much everything short of the walking dead can be traced back to their work. If there’s anything to be gleaned from either set, it’s that sometimes fantasy is close enough to reality to keep you awake at night.
