No One Dies in Lily Dale - not easily convinced

No One Dies In Lily Dale
Directed by: Steven Cantor
Documentary - HBO

Do I believe in Ghosts and or Spirits? Yes. Do I believe energies and spirits surround us? Of course. Do I think that there are certain gifted people that can see, feel and communicate with people that have passed and are now ghosts aka spirits? No.

I must say - when I read the title of this film and read its plot I was quite intrigued. I consider myself an open minded person when it comes to issues of spirituality and the super natural - HOWEVER I am quite the cynic when it comes to "certain people" being the only gifted ones able to "see" in these situations.

Lily Dale is a small town in upstate New York - that has the largest number of "registered" mediums recorded. They consider themselves a Spiritual Community. People travel there for readings, tourists go to feed their deepest curiosities and the inhabitants are there to "Answer questions" and of course, profit.

The documentary follows a select group of mediums - follows their daily life and does a bit of background on how they found their "gifts". They have these big open events - kind of like they did on John Edwards shows - you pay a fee, they spurt out a situation that has to get close to someone out of the 100 people there...you know the rest.

This movie had the POTENTIAL to be awesomely intriguing and interesting. Instead it was predictable and almost cheesy. At one point they showed a group of mediums - who said they get together and have a round table reading together so that they can read for each other! They all had their eyes closed and were talking in their soft whispery NPR voices and kept saying things like "Joe, you know your brother has been hanging around..." and then Joe says "Yes I have felt that, thank you Katherine for confirming that for me...". There are even 3 sisters who talk openly about seeing their dead parents in every day life. "You know Joan, mother is waving some hot brownies at you and giggling!" I am not trivializing this - this is the kind of things they were saying to each other. It was too cheesy to be real.

Am I am cynic? In some ways yes! Do i "believe"? Yes I do. I don't think ANYONE should have to pay for such spiritual and sensitive information and that if we all try and hone our skills - we all would be able to have these types of abilities at some level. As babies and children I feel we have these raw abilities and they are slowly suppressed as we grow and mature - to help fit what is "normal".

Almost every Medium in this movie told a customer at some point that their crossed over loved one, "Is at peace and doesn't want you to worry, know that they are fine...". Is that really what all ghosts and spirits think? I know there are angry spirits, and worrisome spirits, and sad and happy spirits. Show me a mad one! I want to see that! Don't just show me the happy stuff - how fake is that!

My rating for this movie is a 3 out of 5 stars. For such an amazing topic - it needed more depth and imagination. I would have liked to hear more into the background of the mediums and heard what death turned on or off their abilities.

My opinion - skip the flick and work on your own skills.