The Dead Files

Opening introduction:

[Allan]: My name is Amy Allan. I see dead people. I speak to dead people. And they speak to me. But there's only one way to know if my findings are real. I rely on my partner.

[DiSchiavi]: I'm Steve DiSchiavi. I'm a retired New York City homicide detective. And I know every person, every house, has secrets. It's my job to reveal them.

[Allan]: But Steve and I never speak.

[DiSchiavi]: We never communicate during an investigation.

[Allan]: ...Until the very end.

[DiSchiavi]: When we uncover if it's safe for you to stay...

[Allan]: ...Or time to get out.

After items such as family pictures, trinkets, or personal effects have been removed from a location claimed to be haunted, Allan walks through attempting to communicate with ghosts and spirits. Meanwhile, Dischiavi questions residents, employees, and local experts in genealogy, local history and law enforcement regarding the site's history. Later, Allan collaborates with a sketch artist to create drawings of spirits she claims to have channeled during her walk-through. The episodes conclude with a "reveal", where the drawings will often appear to match Dischiavi's findings.

According to skeptical reviewer Karen Stollznow, Allan often claims to find the same activity, such as shadow people, in multiple locations. Some items - such as religious iconography - are not removed but often left in locations. Stollznow notes that Allan appears to offer no evidence to verify her suggestion she had no preexisting knowledge of a location, which could be problematic for well-known ones such as Alcatraz or the Lizzie Borden house. Stollznow characterizes DiSchiavi as more of a "biased believer" than a skeptic, and suggests that the show is edited in order to make his investigation appear accurate, removing parts of Allan's observations that don't align with DiSchiavi's findings.[2]

• Apparitional experience
• Parapsychology
• Ghost hunting
• Haunted locations in the United States

• Official website of The Dead Files
• The Dead Files at IMDb
• The Dead Files at TV.com
• The Dead Files at TV Guide
• The Dead Files at TheTVDB