Help! My House Is Haunted: 'Nightmare In Neath' - Series 4, Episode 5 Review

'Nightmare In Neath', the fifth episode of the new series of 'Help! My House Is Haunted' sees the team head to South Wales, where they've been asked to get to the bottom of terrifying paranormal activity on an unprecedented scale at a house sat in the middle of an area shrouded in folklore and legend.

Ian Lawman, Jayne Harris and Barri Ghai have been called in by Sarah to investigate her Victorian terrace in the town of Neath near Swansea. Sarah has lived in the unassuming home for the last four years with her children. In the episode she says, "it was a nice property, it had a nice feel to it... in the beginning. And then we did some building work downstairs and after that we've had things being thrown across the kitchen."

Sarah has experienced everything from lights and electrical appliances turning themselves on and off, cupboards opening on their own, to the unsettling moments where she's heard mysterious voices and dark figures that seem to take animal and human form. Sarah added, "emotionally, I've had enough. I just want my house back."

As the show's resident psychic medium, Ian knows nothing about the investigation in advance, but picking up on the house during the drive there, Ian said he was already feeling inexplicably argumentative and irritable. He said, "potentially we could be dealing with something that sucks energy, or maybe a poltergeist, or maybe something a little bit darker." Whatever is waiting for them, Ian says is argumentative and aggressive.

As the first to enter the house, Ian was about to find out. He nervously walked through the front door and immediately became aware of the sensation of having his breath taken away. He said, "I can't understand why I feel so angry and agitated." Moving into the kitchen, Ian heard a male voice. He said, "it's almost like he lived in this house." Ian was aware of poltergeist activity in the kitchen and mentioned objects being thrown. He becomes aware of the name Bill.

After hearing tapping, Ian followed the sounds upstairs. At the top of the stairs he saw something dark running into one of the bedrooms. Ian found it hard to describe what he saw, but said it was dog or cat like. He also became aware of a female crying.

To try to find out more about the house and the local area, Jayne went to meet Bethan Briggs-Miller, a historian and paranormal expert. Bethan told Jayne that the road the house is on takes its name from a member of the family who originally owned the land. Winifred Coombe Tennant died in 1956 but was a well known spiritualist medium, who worked under the pseudonym Mrs Willett.

Bethan tells Jayne about some of the folklore and legends related to ghosts, goblins and ghouls in the area, including the tale of the "red dog of Morfa," which Bethan describes as "an animal with blazing red eyes," that is said to have haunted the old coal mines in the area. Jayne wonders if this could be connected with the dog-like creature Sarah has witnessed at the house.

Meanwhile, Barri went to meet Sarah's son, Josh, who has threatened to move out due to all the paranormal activity in the house. Josh told Barri, "things just move all the time. I've heard a noise come from the kitchen, I've walked out and there's been a sharp black knife on the floor." Josh says plates have also been thrown across the kitchen, Barri thinks this might be something trying to get Josh's attention. As recently as the day of filming, Josh has seen shadows moving around the house.

Josh told Barri that he has also seen something animal like, "I've seen a couple of small creatures, especially in my mother's room. That's where it's really really powerful sometimes."

The team came together to share the findings from their initial investigations with Sarah, then invite her to take part in a spirit trigger experiment with them. They hope that her familiar presence might encourage any spirits present to interact. Ian performs a relaxation exercise on Sarah in order to help heighten her subconscious to help her trigger activity.

They begin in the kitchen where Sarah is given a Mel Meter, a ghost hunting multi-tool that has a REM-Pod like feature built in. It works by radiating its own electrostatic field, if anything enters this field, the device will alert them by emitting a beeping sound. With this gadget in hand, Sarah is encouraged to call out to the spirits. As she does, the team heard a sinister growl, followed by what they thought was a footstep upstairs. They head up to confront it and before long Sarah's Mel Meter beeps and lights up indicating the possible presence of a spirit.

Barri then picked up a figure standing beside Sarah on his SLS Camera. This specially adapted 3D mapping camera is capable of detecting human-like shapes in its field of view and highlighting them on its screen in the form of a stick figure. After a few seconds the figure Barri saw stops moving, he explained "it's left and just left a kind of energy imprint there."

Jayne had been using a digital audio recorder in an attempt to capture EVPs, or Electronic Voice Phenomena. When she played back her audio, there wasn't a voice as such. But the team heard a growl. Ian said, "I'm sorry, Sarah, but your house is really active. That growl is not from this plane."

Later they returned to the downstairs of the house where they were using a ghost hunting app that is pre-loaded with partial words, the phonetic sounds that make up words. The app randomly spews out these sounds and it's believed that spirits can affect the random nature of this app in order to form the words they are trying to communicate. Almost straight away Jayne heard the words "Demon house" come through the app. And moments later, what they believed was a voice saying "you should leave."

After Sarah had left for the night, Barri rigged the house with static cameras and the team began their night-long investigation. They begin on the landing, where they experienced a lot of the activity previously. Soon after they got started, Barri was terrified by a sound coming from behind him, so they went into the bedroom to investigate. In the bedroom, Jayne felt something pull her coat as the strange noises continued.

As they went to investigate a sound in the bathroom, the static cameras captured something very unusual in the bedroom they'd just left. A row of three pictures on the wall above the bed seemed to have moved on their own. The movement could clearly be seen on camera. Moments later, right in front of Ian's eyes, another of the three pictures moved. The team momentarily split up, but were brought back together when they heard a strange sounds and moments later were told by a crew member that the television had turned itself on down stairs.

Later, to try to further their understanding of the case, Ian decided to let Winifred communicate directly through him. He channels her through automatic writing, a traditional spiritual technique where a medium can produce written words without consciously writing. The messages Ian writes suggest the team need to close a portal and ominously that "they're coming."

The writing lead the team up to the landing, where they hear a voice in the form of an EVP that they believe is saying "up" in reference to the attic. Barri said that the voice didn't sound human, instead suggesting it was an imp. He explained, "imps are conjured low-level demonic entities who feed on fear."

Of course, Barri couldn't resist climbing into the attic. With the help of Ian, they use holy water and pray in an attempt to drive the imp downstairs. All that remains is to close the portal to protect Sarah and her family. They do this by calling on Winifred for assistance during a séance held in her memory. Ian requests, "we ask you to build your energy once again to help those souls that are trapped here move into the light." The investigation ended with Jayne and Ian blessing and cleansing the house to drive out any negative energies.