Paranormal Lockdown US: Old Chatham County Jail, Georgia Review

Nick Groff and Katrina Weidman become one of the first teams to investigate a location riddled by phantom noises, as they lock down for 72 hours inside a haunted jail in Savannah, Georgia.

Here in the UK, the series is being billed as 'Paranormal Lockdown US', and although the show is new to Really, it actually pre-dates the recent UK series and has previously been shown on Quest Red in the UK. This week Really brings us the final episode of the second season.

Old Chatham County Jail in downtown Savannah, Georgia sits in the heart of one of America's most haunted cities, built in 1974, the four storey structure is a fortress of concrete and iron, but in recent years, accounts have escaped of guards and inmates encountering apparitions roaming the halls, disembodied voices and phantom footsteps.

By 1989, the population exceeded its capacity and the Old Chatham County Jail was closed. Few have crossed the threshold since, but rumours of its paranormal inhabitants continue to slip through the bars.

At the time of filming the episode there were plans to demolish the building, but before that Nick and Katrina locked themselves inside, the first to sleep their since it closed, with minimal available records or prior investigations to guide them, there is no knowing what awaits them.

Upon arriving at the imposing building, Katrina told Nick, "out of all of the places we investigate, jails are the worst for me because they make me so uncomfortable." Nick agreed, "yeah, and the scary thing about this investigation is that we don't know much about the location."

The duo begin their investigation on the fourth floor in the East Wing where they plan to begin at the top and work their way down to get a baseline of the building and find out where the most active areas are. Early in the vigil, still on the fourth floor, they heard what they thought sounded like dragging footsteps.

Moments later Katrina called out "can you make a really loud noise" and the building seemed to respond with a loud knocking sound. They thought the sound was coming from the next floor down, so ran down to investigate. The third floor is where the most violent and infamous inmates were held, including Carl Isaacs, a serial killer responsible for six deaths across Georgia in the 1970s.

Here Nick pulled out his GeoPort which monitors vibrations, radio waves and electromagnetic frequencies. It's thought that intelligent spirits can manipulate or use the device's sensors to relay intelligent responses in the form of words or sentences. They had a couple of words and phrases come through, but none were particularly clear, until one seemed to say "you wanna go that way". When Katrina asked where, a voice through the box said "15," which was interesting since they were currently close to cell number 15. However once they sat in the cell, it seemed to fall silent.

The rest of their first night of investigating was fairly quiet, so they found spots to sleep. Nick set up his bed on the East Wing of the third floor, where he slept in the middle of a hallway and was disturbed by odd sounds throughout the night. Katrina was two floors down in a cell that had earlier made her feel uneasy, but seemed to have a peaceful night's sleep.

'Paranormal Lockdown US' continues next week on Really as part of the channel's #Freakend event, bringing viewers three nights of paranormal entertainment every Thursday, Friday and Saturday.