Original subtitles

A man comes across his father's war memorabilia.

Get rid of it. I don't want that in my house.

And awakens the spirits of soldiers with unfinished business.

My father didn't really get into any of the blood and gore of what happened.

Revenge is in the air, in the ultimate battle between good and evil.

You can't breathe, you can't get away.

You just, you don't know which way to go.

In America, there is real evil.

It lurks in the darkest shadows and in our most ordinary towns.

Between the worlds we see... Someone's in my room.

...and the things we fear.

There are doors when they are open Nightmares

become reality

In

2009 Debbie and Dennis Pongratz move into a home in a small town

We just wanted to retire to a place that was quiet, someplace where we could just

relax. We wanted to be in a place that had a different feel than the big city,

you know, retirement years, easygoing, you know, atmosphere.

The house looked small from the outside, but when you got inside, it looked a lot

bigger.

Hey, Den.

What are you doing in here?

I'm trying to get these supplies back onto the craft table on the house.

Oh, OK.

The house had so much room, so Dennis could have his own space, and I could

have my own craft room. For woodworking and sewing, a lot of repurposing, I do a

little bit of everything.

What would I do without you?

I'm sure you'd find somebody to help you carry these boxes in.

Got it? Yeah.

What

was

that?

The spilled contents of the box once belonged to Dennis' deceased father,

John, who served as an American soldier during World War II.

Dennis hasn't seen the old mementos in many years.

Did you know we had all this stuff?

Honestly, I forgot all about it.

When Mom died, they gave me all these boxes, and I just put them in the

garage. Didn't really want to deal with it.

But now... I didn't take a very good look at the things that were in the

box until, you know, we moved down to Corning.

And I found several of his medals.

There were campaign ribbons for battles in Western Europe. Also, he had some

things that he brought back from the war.

When he went through the box, it's like it just brought it all to life.

He remembered each thing he picked up of his dad speaking about that.

And it just kind of brought all of it back to him.

Look at all these medals.

You never told me your dad was such a decorated soldier.

He'd tell me stories when I was a kid.

I tried to ask him for details, but he would just clam up.

Different times, I guess.

My father, he didn't really get into any of the hardships or the blood and gore

of what happened around him in the war.

Dennis, why did we have that?

The sight of the swastika makes Debbie uneasy.

It's awful. Why would your dad even keep something like that?

It's just what they did back then. It's like a trophy or something.

My father told me that he acquired the armband off of a dead Nazi soldier,

which I guess that happened quite a bit during the war.

Get rid of it.

I don't want that in my house. Debbie, these are old. They're antiques. They're

probably worth something.

I don't care.

I'm serious.

It creeps me out.

Buried among the reminders of loss and valor, Dennis finds a touching surprise.

I found a decorative box, and it had letters in it that my father had sent

to my mother when he was stationed in Iceland.

This was before they were married.

Most of them was just, you know, how much I love you and things like that.

For Dennis, the letters are a sharp contrast to his childhood memories.

When I was growing up, my parents had a rocky relationship.

It was pretty volatile.

My father, he had a temper. I really think that he suffered from PTSD.

He went through hell over there.

I was really surprised about the letters that he had sent to my mom when he was

in the service.

At that point in time, you could see that they both really loved

each other.

After rediscovering a box of World War II relics, Dennis Pongratz has renewed

appreciation for his father's military service.

Looking at my father's army memorabilia, I really did have more of a sense.

of pride for my father and what he did.

I was kind of a hero, and I didn't realize that until I became a certain

age to, I guess, appreciate that.

Debbie?

Yeah?

Have you seen that armband?

The one with the swastika on it? No.

I thought I told you to put that away.

Well, I was going to, but I hadn't gone to it yet, and now I can't seem to find

it.

Well, it's just as well I really didn't want that in the house anyway.

At some point, you know, I discovered that the Nazi armband was missing, and I

checked through every box in there and even in the closet where they were, you

know, in case it fell out.

And it's just, it's a mystery.

We could not find the armband. It's just gone.

Well, it's got to be around here somewhere.

Honey, don't worry. I'm sure it's going to show up. All right? All right.

I got to go get ready.

OK.

Went in the bathroom to take a shower.

Is that you?

There was a cross on my bathroom mirror, and it looked like frost.

I'd never seen anything like it.

It was just very strange.

My immediate reaction was to get the camera, because I wanted to make sure I

got that shot of that cross.

Hey, Dennis!

Come here!

Dennis! Debbie, yeah, what, what, what, what?

Look!

Look! Is that a cross?

How'd that get there?

I don't know. I was just getting out of the shower, and it was right there in

the mirror.

When I saw the cross in the mirror, I didn't know what to think. I mean, you

know, it's not something you see every day.

Kind of looks like... Like what?

Looks like the cross the German soldiers wore in World War II.

The cross reminded me of the iron cross of the Nazi regime.

What do you think that means?

I don't know.

I got some pictures.

Did you get pictures? Yeah, I did. Okay, good.

It wasn't something that I easily dismissed because you get a little

unnerved. You got to wonder where it is coming from.

Despite feeling unsettled, Debbie tells herself that the appearance of the cross

is a good omen.

I'm trying to make myself feel better about what that cross meant. I thought

you could think it was protection.

While Dennis is not convinced it means anything.

I was a little freaked out about it.

But not to a point where I was hysterical or anything like that. We

just thought it was, you know, strange or weird.

We kind of brushed it off and just went on from there.

That weekend, Debbie gets an unexpected visitor.

My granddaughter called and asked me if I could watch my great-grandson.

And I said, sure, bring him out.

Did you know Kay Jeffrey?

He loves coming to Grandma's house. They'll run from one end to the other,

and he plays. He's like a normal child.

Can I have something to eat?

How's peanut butter and jelly sound?

Yummy.

OK.

Out of the blue, I started getting cigarette smoke, just like someone was

blowing it in my face.

I have never been a smoker. I have always been extremely sensitive to

cigarette smoke. I sneeze a lot when I'm around someone that's smoking.

It was horribly strong.

I could not figure out where that smell was coming from.

It was really strange.

You look like one of my toys.

Wanna play with me?

When Jeffrey comes to visit his great-grandmother, a mysterious stranger

challenges him to a game of war.

Stop!

I went to the other end of the house, and a couple

minutes after that, he just started screaming.

Jeffrey!

My granddaughter came to pick him up. What's going on?

I don't know. He was playing with his toys just fine when I went to go make

him some lunch, and then he just started screaming.

He said that he'd seen a man in our house.

You couldn't get him to move. When you talked to him, he wouldn't budge. It was

like he was in a...

A daze.

Look, I... I better take him home.

Out of the blue.

I seen this dark, shadowy figure looking out our window.

It startled me.

Oh, come on.

I only seen it for a second. It was gone.

What happened?

I was glad you're here. We have to talk.

Earlier today, I was watching Jeffrey, and then I went to go make him a

sandwich, and everything was fine, and then he started screaming, and then all

of a sudden, he went running outside of the house. The poor kid was terrified.

She was pretty freaked out, you know, about it.

Just not knowing the source or what it meant.

He kept saying something about this... This bad man or something inside the

house. The poor little boy. He was so scared, honey. Calm down.

Calm down. Calm down. No! Take a breath. No! No!

Sweetheart, what?

There is something going on in this house.

Sweetie. You don't always want to think, okay, it's paranormal, but you really

can't dismiss it at that point.

What? Take a look at this.

There was one picture of the front of our house with a very large man's face

looking out our window.

For me to be able to actually see something in a photo that I took, that

was proof to me that we weren't crazy, that there was something there.

I definitely saw a shadowy figure, and I didn't know what to think about that

because, I mean, that was something completely different than...

then knocks or bangs or shadows, because now we've got something that's right

there. Dennis reacted the same way I did. He was just trying to figure out

what it could be, and we didn't know if it was something we needed to be afraid

of. I knew something wasn't right about this house, and it was very serious to

have scared my great-grandson the way it did.

But unbeknownst to the couple, a new ghost has entered the home and is ready

for battle.

I did.

One night we heard this loud banging. It was so loud that it woke us up.

Like someone was pounding their fist against the wall.

What are you doing?

It didn't make any sense, but there was no one else in the house.

In the dead of night, an unexplained commotion... You hit me? I did.

...awakens Dennis and Debbie Pongratz.

Whoever's in there, I've called the cops!

We just started hearing, like, banging noises.

Kind of like if somebody was pounding on a wall with their fists.

Although Dennis does not see physical evidence of the intense struggle, he can

feel its aftermath.

With all the things that had happened up to that point, the only conclusion that

I could come to was paranormal activity in the house.

Dennis, is everything okay?

I don't know. Are you all right? I don't know. I just heard this banging, and it

was like it was right next to my head.

This is just crazy.

Your mind goes in all directions. You don't know what to think. You don't know

if you should try to get help. You're afraid of who to even ask.

It was a concern at that point that how far is this going to go.

We just hoped that the activity didn't become dangerous or destructive or

anything like that.

We're trying to keep us as calm as we possibly can, you know, when all this is

going on, because when you're living with this much confusion in your house,

you pretty much have to figure out how to deal with it.

But even in the light of day, Debbie can't help but feel on edge.

In your own home, a place where it's supposed to be serene, you're supposed

to feel comfortable there because that's your space.

And you feel like your space is being invaded by something you can't see.

And you wonder if you're going to be able to get away from that.

All of a sudden, I felt my hair being pulled.

It felt like somebody was standing behind me.

The only thing that came into my mind was, just run the other way.

I have a claustrophobia issue, so I always make sure that there's an exit.

The

door

handle was just violently shaking back and forth.

like someone was trying to get in. I didn't want to get any closer to that

door not knowing what was on the other side.

Whatever it was was engulfing me, like it was just sucking the air out of me.

You can't breathe, you can't get away, you just don't know which way to go.

It just feels like everything's closing in.

For months, Debbie Pongratz has lived with paranormal activity in her home.

One day, events escalate out of control.

It's frightening because you just didn't feel safe.

You just felt like something was everywhere, just all around you.

And you wonder if you're going to be able to get away from that.

It was choking me.

I don't know what I wanted to do, but it was trying to kill me.

What? My what?

Something was suffocating her. I was concerned for her safety. How far is

this going to go?

What are we going to do?

I don't know. I don't know.

But we'll figure this out. We just thought, who's going to be next?

We had to get somebody in there to help us with this.

Debbie and Dennis reach out to experts at Paravisions Paranormal. This is my

wife, Debbie.

The Pongratts actually were experiencing a lot of things. There was something

going on in their home that they had no control of.

And I knew in my heart that I had the tools and the abilities to help them

out. Thank you so much for coming.

It's OK.

When we arrived, I saw Debbie.

And she just broke down crying.

and was shaken so bad that she reached over and hugged me and said, Lee, I'm so

glad you and your team are here.

When the team came, it was like a weight lifted off of our shoulders.

We knew that they could get rid of whatever was in the house.

Jim Wilson is the tech expert on the team.

Hey, Lee, take a look at this.

I immediately was trying to collect evidence.

And the K2 meter was going absolutely crazy.

I looked over at Lee to be like, we have something right now.

Let's get it going.

Deb Lance, a medium, senses a presence in the room.

Deb brings that ability to sense the spirit a lot stronger.

She's like our center eye. And this spirit was trying to make connection

with Deb as her demeanor started to change.

I felt eyes on me, and the energy was very overwhelming.

I immediately saw a man in spirit form in military uniform.

The gentleman told me he was Dennis' father, John.

And he appears to have something urgent to communicate.

Do you have a message for your family?

Is there something you want to tell us?

Why are you here?

Why don't you go have a seat in the other room?

I began to channel John's energy so I could accurately convey the message.

And his message was a warning.

But he was coming from a place of protecting the family, not trying to

harm them.

I did not anticipate him jumping into my physical body.

It's as if I'm watching a movie.

Tap. And I'm the star in the movie, but someone else is using my body.

The spirit was trying to use her as a vessel to communicate.

There was a noticeable change in her. She became very angry, very agitated,

very strong-willed. It was not the Deb that we know.

She became a whole different person.

Deb, are you okay?

Are you still with us?

When I was channeling John, I felt immense emotions, intense, intense

anger. I felt amped up. I felt very protective.

I felt angry. I felt everything all combined in one big emotion.

Suddenly, Lee, a psychic empath himself, can also sense the spirit of John.

I could sense the energy change.

there was a presence of a male that was trying to get my attention.

And I saw a young soldier in a World War II uniform.

No! I'm going to kill you, you bastard!

He was coming to me very angry, screaming at the top of his lungs, being

very demanding. Get out of my house! Leave my family alone! Wait!

While conducting an investigation in the Pongratz home, The body of psychic Deb

Lance is overtaken by a spirit.

Deb, are you okay?

Are you still with us?

No! I'm gonna kill you, you bastard!

Take it easy! Get out of my house!

Leave my family alone! Wait!

Lee, also a psychic empath, suddenly becomes aware of a second spirit in the

house. He was looking straight through me at something else behind me.

And I realized it was a Nazi soldier.

And that is what the other World War II soldier was addressing his aggression

to.

The energy between these two spirits was a hate.

You've got a World War II U.S. Army soldier, you've got a Nazi soldier, and

they were targeting each other.

Then, in an instant, the ghost of the Nazi soldier disappears.

That dark energy, I felt it slowly just, you know, disintegrate. And as that was

disintegrating, I could feel that the World War II soldier's energy was more

relaxed, more calm.

When I was done channeling John, when he left my physical body, everything was at

peace. John was at peace.

For me, it was like I woke up from a dream.

We know that this has been confusing for both of you.

But we've made contact with two spirits here today.

We've taken up residence in your home.

One of whom was sent here to protect you.

A soldier.

Your father.

Lee confirms that he too experienced the spirit of John Pongratz. I was like,

right here, this is the guy that's here in this home.

This is him.

Your father, is that right?

Lee had pointed out my father in the picture,

and I was really surprised at that. I mean, I didn't think that that was my

wildest dreams, that my father would be there.

Yes, that's my father, John.

He was a good man.

But I just don't understand.

Your father's presence wasn't here to hurt or scare you.

There was another ghost in the house.

Ghost of a Nazi soldier.

It was that entity that was tormenting you both.

Lee explains why the spirit of Dennis' father had returned.

During World War II, John had shot a Nazi soldier, and he took

a... couple of his items.

And Dennis pulled these out, and I think that's what triggered that energy, that

dark Nazi energy to come back, is he wanted his things back.

John was there to protect the family.

This other ghost, the Nazi soldier, where is he?

I assured them that the Nazi soldier is gone.

He's been expelled.

He's never coming back.

It's over.

Dennis, your father, John, he saved you.

Wait.

It's not over.

I'm sensing John's presence here with us now.

He's saying something about letters?

John. gave me the message that he needed these letters found.

He wanted to know where these letters were.

Dennis, he says you know.

Letters. Yes,

I know what he's talking about.

I thought about the letters that we had in this decorative box.

Letters that he had sent to my mom when he was in the service.

Here, these are... This is what he's talking about.

They're letters that he wrote my mother during World War II.

They're very, very deeply personal letters that John had written to his

wife. He was really tied to these letters. He truly did love his wife.

As we started to open up this box of letters, I felt this lightness in the

air.

John was going towards the light. I knew that this was the closure that he was

looking for, that this is what it was all about, so he could actually cross

over. That's what John wanted, was to be back with his wife.

I felt really relieved that my father was at peace, and I do believe that my

father really did love my mother, and my mother really did love my father. They

did have a rough, rocky marriage, but...

You know, in the end, it was important for him to be with my mother.

I felt really good that they were back together again.

It's given me a sense of closure, and I have more respect and love for him now

than I did.

Looking back at this case, what sticks out to me is it started out bad. It

started out as this World War II soldier was going after this Nazi, and it

ended... and like a love story.

The couple have survived their brush with the supernatural.

Now, months later, their lives have finally returned to normal.

This experience for me, myself, was life-changing. There was a lot of things

that had happened to me that really frightened me, things I couldn't

explain.

This gave me a sense of there is an explanation for most things that happen,

but it's also given me insight to the other side.

I would say to people that don't believe in the paranormal, there's another

world there around us. They just need to open up a little bit to possibilities.

For Dennis, this experience has given him insight into the paranormal world.

That the battle between good and evil continues, even after we're gone.

I don't have any doubts that there are things out there that we don't know

about, just because of my experiences with paranormal activity in our house.

They're there.