Syfy moves real people to haunted spots for series
BY RITA SHERROW World Television Editor
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
3/12/13 at 7:56 AM
Watch a video promo for the
next episode of “Stranded.”
Be prepared to be scared.
Syfy’s latest series “takes
a diverse group of amateurs
and strands them for a week
in an allegedly haunted location
to record what they see
and hear” and, sometimes,
feel.
That’s the premise for the
reality series “Stranded,” airing
at 9 p.m. Wednesdays on
cable 45.
It’s a paranormal and
psychological experiment
filled with lots of screaming,
shaking hands and things
that may or may not go bump
in the night — all captured on
unmanned surveillance cameras
and equipment carried
by amateurs.
“It’s about real people not
just going into a reportedly
haunted location to investigate
but to really live there,
to move in,” said Josh Gates,
host and executive producer
of Syfy channel’s “Destination
Truth.” “This is what
it’s like to live in a haunted
house, and these folks are
real people. They are not
professional paranormal
investigators — and they
go into these locations for
five days, and they’re there
completely alone. And we
voyeuristically watch what
happens to them.
“So it’s really a visceral
kind of embedded paranormal
show, and it was really
exciting to us …”
Gates is joined as coexecutive
producer by Jason
Blum, who also served as
executive producer of ABC’s
scary but unfortunately canceled
series “The River” and
producer of the “Paranormal
Activity” film franchise, “Insidious”
and “Sinister.”
The producers used
various methods to find
their “Stranded” participants,
Gates said in a recent
teleconference. They sought
out application videos using
Craigslist and by posting
bulletins.
The goal was to find
groups of people with a
“range of viewpoints,” he
said.
“We really wanted someone
in each group that was
a paranormal enthusiast,
somebody who was a skeptic
and, hopefully, somebody
kind of in the middle who
hadn’t made up their mind.”
The goal of the new series
is to have the three “stranded”
participants provide
content for six episodes of
the unscripted show without
a camera crew as backup but
armed with an array of flashlights
and techno-equipment
designed to capture anything
otherworldly. Hence, lots of
footage in green night-vision lighting.
Gates stressed that there is
a difference between a professional
paranormal investigation
and this TV show.
“‘Stranded’ is something
which is very experiential,”
he said. “And look, when
people claim they experience
a haunting, when someone
says my house is haunted or
my property is haunted, they
don’t usually have the benefit
of any of the gadgets and
techniques that professional
paranormal investigators use.
“… It’s about real people
going to places that are notoriously
haunted and seeing
if living there — embedding
themselves in the property
and being there for five days
— if they can experience
those things.”
For the premiere episode,
the amateurs spent a week in
a closed hotel, finding freezing
cold spots in one room,
asking whatever or whoever
lingers in the location to
make itself known by giving
them a sign, setting traps
with dolls and reacting to
unexplained noises.
It’s a series that feeds into
the popularity of paranormal
films and TV shows like
“Destination Truth” and
“Ghost Hunters,” Gates said.
“… There’s a lot of different
people at the paranormal
party,” he said. “I think some
people are there because
they just like to be scared.
We like horror films. We like
scary stories. We like that
sensation.
“I think some people are
there for religious reasons.
They want to understand and
know more about whether
or not there’s something beyond
this world. I think some
people are there because
they like the investigative
sense and the mystery of it.
“… It obviously speaks to
something very primal about
us which is that it’s the greatest
mystery of all, right? It’s
the undiscovered country.
“So I think that we live in
America where around 80
percent of people believe in
some sort of afterlife. I mean,
that’s more people than
believe in evolution, so we’ve
got a ton of people who really
believe that something’s
out there but they don’t
really have a good answer
for it. So I think we are all
attracted by this world.
“It’s the ultimate question.”
‘STRANDED’
When: 9 p.m. Wednesdays
Where: Syfy, channel 45
Rita Sherrow 918-581-8360
rita.sherrow@tulsaworld.com
Associated Images:
A closed hotel, an abandoned prison and a hospital are among
the settings for the paranormal reality series “Stranded,” airing Wednesdays on Syfy, cable 45. SYFY
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