Arrival
Noah, Tony, and Michael arrived at the theater at around 8 pm. Upon their arrival, there was a locked door that was not locked previously. They contacted Jay, the owner, and learned they needed a different key to get into the building. Michael left to go to Jay’s home to retrieve the key, while Tony and Noah stayed to guard the equipment. Once Michael returned to the theater with the key, they entered the building and brought in all of their equipment.
The goal of this investigation was to play a movie as a trigger using a projector and a laptop. Most of the activities reported occurred during the operation of the theater. They felt playing a movie could stir things up if this was recreated. Since the building lacked power, originally the group planned on powering the equipment using battery packs, but soon learned they didn’t possess the power necessary. They resorted to using a generator (with owner’s permission) that was kept on the premises. The movie screen was lowered with the movie being projected from the balcony.
While Tony, Noah and Michael set up the projector and laptop, along with the cameras, voice recorders and other equipment, Aaron arrived at around 9:15 pm. Aaron was a guest investigator from another group, Forest City Paranormal Society. Noah previously worked with Aaron on another case, and was invited since other PIM members were unable to come on such short notice.
The setup concluded around 10 pm. Two cameras were located on the balcony – one focused on the seat where the elderly woman was seen just outside of the projection booth door, and the other on a section of seats in the front right section of the balcony where a man was seen leaving the balcony before disappearing. A third camera was set up on the first floor of the theater where a presence of a man was detected.
Investigation
The investigation began at 10:17 pm and the movie selected was “Sound of Music”. The movie played normally while the investigation commenced. Michael and Aaron began the investigation on the balcony while Noah and Tony began on the first floor of the theater. As the movie started, Michael reported that energy in the balcony began to build. Noah and Tony did not notice any change on the first floor.
After a short time, Tony moved to the area on the first floor where a man was detected and sat in the seat next to where the man supposedly sat. The man supposedly doesn’t like his space being invaded, so Tony moved closer in hopes he could illicit a response from the spirit. Tony talked quietly to the spirit, asking it questions in hopes of gaining a response. Noah remained in the middle section of seats listening for any noises that were out of the ordinary.
At around 10:45 pm, Michael radioed Noah to inform him that he and Aaron were going to the projector room to do an EVP session. Noah and Tony decided to go to the balcony in case something manifested. During the EVP session no events occurred in either the projection room or the balcony.
The group then decided to fast forward the movie to the end credits. Some of the reported activity occurred during the end credits and the group wanted to recreate that situation to see if they could trigger the activity. As the end credits played, everyone clapped and cheered and commented on how great of a movie it was – again trying to illicit a response. They then acted as ushers asking people to please clean up after themselves as they left and directing them to the exits – thanking them for coming. No events occurred at this time.
After the projector and laptop were shut down, all group members sat in the balcony for a short time to see if anything would happen. No events occurred during this time. Michael did note once the movie stopped, the energy that was there dissipated.
The group concluded the investigation at 11:45 pm and packed up their equipment, leaving the theater around 12:15 am.
Conclusion
This investigation was very interesting because we were able to see how the theater would have been used years ago. The movie looked so good it was hard to tell the theater was not in operation. PIM was hopeful that playing a movie would bring out activity. Unfortunately, this time it didn’t work. PIM believes repeat investigations where a movie is played will yield evidence in the long term. Since PIM was doing this investigation on short notice, and on a work night, only a short investigation could be done. In the future, a longer investigation combined with different movies may elicit a response. It seems most of the reported activity is residual in nature, which is why we believe playing movies may be our best bet on capturing evidence at the Paradise. PIM would again thank Jay for allowing us to investigate on such short notice and allowing us the use of his generator to make this experiment possible. PIM looks forward to our next trip to the Paradise to try and capture the evidence we seek.
