Yorktown Memorial Hospital's abandoned corridors, dark chapel, and unsettling basement provide an atmospheric setting for an overnight paranormal investigation filled with unexplained noises, disturbing electronic responses, and increasingly anxious encounters. Returning several years after an experience that reportedly frightened him enough to flee the building, Jas explores the former hospital alongside Chandler, determined to confront the location that previously overwhelmed him. Their investigation combines historical storytelling, ghost-hunting equipment, solitary exploration, and a particularly intense Estes Method session. The result is an entertaining and frequently unnerving experience, although the investigators' interpretations sometimes extend considerably beyond what their recordings can establish.
The investigation begins with a walkthrough that quickly introduces the building's oppressive atmosphere. Jas reports seeing a shadowy figure crossing an entrance near the chapel, while both investigators react to distant footsteps, metallic noises, and unexplained voices. Their exploration moves through abandoned patient rooms, areas containing children's toys, the chapel's confessionals, and a basement filled with disturbing spaces and stories. The building itself contributes considerably to the presentation, with its long hallways and deteriorating interiors creating tension even when nothing unusual occurs. Jas and Chandler's nervous humor provides welcome relief, although their frequent jokes and exaggerated reactions occasionally interrupt moments that might have been more effective with quieter observation.
Yorktown's reported history adds another dimension to the investigation. Jas explains that the hospital opened in 1951 under the Felician Sisters, closed as a hospital in 1986, subsequently operated as a drug rehabilitation facility, and finally shut down in 1992. He also discusses an estimated 2,000 deaths, stories about a physician nicknamed the Butcher, sightings of nuns, and allegations of occult rituals after the building's abandonment. Importantly, he sometimes identifies these accounts as estimates, legends, or paranormal claims rather than established facts. However, that distinction becomes less consistent when the investigators begin connecting their experiences to specific historical allegations. The Butcher's supposed intentional mistreatment of female patients, for example, receives increasingly confident interpretations despite the absence of independent evidence establishing those accusations.
The investigation relies heavily on spirit-box applications, Necrophonic sessions, electronic voice recordings, and other paranormal equipment. The devices produce words and phrases that the investigators associate with the hospital's reputation, including references to death, religious imagery, demons, and names that might belong to former occupants. One particularly memorable exchange occurs inside the chapel's confessionals, where responses interpreted as references to killing and a woman named Rebecca appear to support the location's disturbing legends. These moments create compelling narrative connections, but their evidentiary significance remains uncertain. The investigators frequently interpret ambiguous words as meaningful answers, while ordinary explanations such as coincidental audio fragments, environmental sounds, and subjective pattern recognition receive relatively little consideration.
The decision to separate for individual investigations provides some of the night's strongest suspense. While Chandler explores the basement, Jas remains outside sharing historical accounts and a detailed message from a previous visitor who claims to have encountered a shadow figure in the chapel. Chandler subsequently describes hearing loud noises while alone, prompting a discussion about whether both investigators experienced related disturbances. Their later decision to explore different floors simultaneously creates a more immersive sense of isolation. Chandler's basement investigation features a REM pod reacting repeatedly, reported footsteps, and an encounter with a room described as a former holding cell. Meanwhile, Jas explores the upper floor using recording equipment and paranormal applications, reporting unsettling sounds, sudden weakness, and an overwhelming feeling of being watched. The parallel investigations offer useful variety, although the absence of controlled comparisons makes it difficult to determine whether their experiences share a paranormal cause.
The investigation's most elaborate sequence takes place shortly after 3 a.m., when Jas wears headphones and a blindfold for an Estes Method session in the chapel's confessional while Chandler asks questions and monitors the surrounding area. The resulting exchanges include references to children, pain, blood, threatening behavior, and names that Chandler attempts to connect to the hospital's darker stories. Chandler's visible concern intensifies as he reports footsteps, unusual sensations, and a possible figure nearby, while Jas becomes increasingly distressed. The sequence benefits from its sustained setting and the contrast between the investigators' experiences, but it also demonstrates the limitations of this approach. Responses produced through a radio-sweeping device can be ambiguous, and suggestions about demonic entities or occult activity are not independently verified. The encounter is effective as paranormal entertainment without providing conclusive evidence of supernatural communication.
The closing minutes deliver an appropriately uneasy conclusion, with Chandler becoming concerned about Jas's physical condition and ending the session after Jas reports dizziness, shaking, and severe discomfort. Their hurried departure gives the investigation a genuine sense of urgency, even if the cause of those symptoms remains unknown. Throughout the experience, the presentation succeeds through its atmospheric location, extended exploration, and the entertaining chemistry between its hosts. Nevertheless, repeated requests for likes and subscriptions, promotional interruptions, and frequent declarations that ordinary sounds must be paranormal occasionally weaken the pacing and credibility. A more restrained examination of the recorded evidence, accompanied by clearer separation between historical information, local folklore, and speculation, would have made the investigation substantially stronger.
Pros
- Makes excellent use of Yorktown Memorial Hospital's abandoned corridors, chapel, basement, and upper floors to create a consistently unsettling atmosphere.
- Establishes a personal connection to the location through Jas's previous frightening experience and his reluctance to return.
- Incorporates the hospital's reported history, local legends, and a detailed account from a previous visitor to provide context for the investigation.
- Uses separate explorations, recording equipment, spirit-box sessions, and an extended Estes Method experiment to maintain variety and suspense.
- Benefits from Jas and Chandler's natural chemistry, nervous humor, and contrasting reactions to frightening situations.
- Builds toward an intense chapel investigation that provides a memorable conclusion to the night's escalating tension.
Cons
- Frequently interprets ambiguous electronic responses, environmental sounds, and subjective experiences as paranormal communication without adequately considering alternative explanations.
- Historical allegations involving the Butcher, intentional patient deaths, and occult rituals occasionally become treated as established explanations despite limited supporting evidence.
- Repeated references to demons, possession, and the significance of the full moon encourage sensational interpretations that the investigation does not substantiate.
- Promotional interruptions, repeated audience engagement requests, and excessive joking sometimes disrupt the atmosphere and slow the investigation.
- The investigation's equipment demonstrations lack sufficient methodological controls to establish whether unusual responses or REM pod activity originate from supernatural sources.
Jas and Chandler deliver an atmospheric and entertaining paranormal adventure that makes effective use of Yorktown Memorial Hospital's unsettling environment, disturbing legends, and opportunities for isolated exploration. Their chemistry and escalating encounters create genuine suspense, particularly during the extended chapel investigation, but speculative interpretations and insufficient scrutiny of the equipment prevent the experience from functioning as persuasive evidence of paranormal activity. As a supernatural-themed entertainment production, it succeeds considerably more than it does as a rigorous investigation, offering plenty of memorable scares for viewers willing to approach its claims with skepticism.
