Antics on the Web: Nightmare at Nibler’s Review by Robert Brouhard
Funemployment Radio’s episodic podcast, starring Greg Nibler and Sarah X. Dylan, is a five-time-a-week stop for many people around the globe. The show is one of the few “funny” podcasts that really works, and it’s because of the chemistry of the duo of Nibler and Dylan.
A few years ago, Mr. Nibler started mentioning that he felt his house was haunted. Well, Sarah X. Dylan took this as a challenge and started a full paranormal investigation of his house (after winning a challenge that Greg Nibler thought she’d never be able to accomplish). Their footage is now available via Vimeo Video on Demand as Nightmare at Nibler’s (tagline: “Haunted by the dead, or all in his head?”). The website describes it as this:
This real-life ghost investigation takes place at the home of Greg Nibler, one of the Hosts of Funemployment Radio. He has claimed to hear things, see things and scariest of all….feel things in his house in SE Portland that aren’t there in the “physical” world. It took losing a bet to Sarah X. Dylan for him to finally allow an actual ghost investigation of his house. Is the house haunted? Is he just crazy? Now we can all find out!
This was enough to intrigue me. So, when the opportunity to review the video arose, I jumped all over it. I was given a code for review purposes.
The video, directed by Derrick Lamere, starts with Greg being interviewed explaining why this investigation is happening. I tend to view everything in a shot where someone is being interviewed and the first thing I noticed is a mint-in-package New Kids on the Block Jordan fashion doll/action figure (from the Concert series, complete with “Let’s Get Serious” interview cassette). I don’t know where he’s being interviewed, but that is scary.
Then the footage starts on October 24, 2014. Aaron Duran is the lead investigator on this mission, and he has a creepy talking Frank’s Box (aka Ghost Box) that he is using for this investigation along with some other tools. Scott Dally is the co-investigator… he isn’t a “tool,” but he is a party animal. We get some history about how the Funemployment Radio show used to be recorded in this house and how weird things used to happen in the room where they recorded… including an interesting EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon) recording from about five years prior to this night.
Then we move to Nibler’s bedroom (boom chicky bow wow) where Nibler explains how an aggressive entity attacked and choked him at one point.
A crawlspace is next with the coolest flooring I have ever seen. Old doors. How cool is that? Oh, and there’s some wallpaper that has to be seen to be believed.
After the tour, the group starts having talking sessions with the possible entities in the house in the various rooms. And eventually… the Ouija Board.
The video could have gone into a lot more detail and interpretation of what this investigation found — and I would have liked that— but it leaves the analysis mostly up to the viewer.
Overall, I found Nightmare at Nibler’s to be just a short documentary film about a fun group of people doing a haunting/ghost investigation. It looks like they filmed from around 8:00 or 9:00 at night until really early in the morning and had a blast until the ultra-sleepies started in. The film is a little under twenty minutes and worth a watch. If you are a fan of the show, it is a must-watch. Is he haunted by the dead? Is it all in his head? You’ll be left with that decision, and you’ll have some fun getting there too.
“Antics on the Web” is a Cemetery Dance Online exclusive series of articles about horror that can be found on the Internet. Robert Brouhard is a freelance writer and an active member of the Horror Writers Association.
