Scariest Places on Earth

OK so Blair Witch Mania is running wild in the late 1990s. You have a successfull Indie Movie making millions at both Art House and Main Stream Movie Houses around the globe. So now how do you top this madness off ? By making a tv show based on the concepted storyline, only this time use real people instead of actors and real locations that are haunted. Fox Family Channel debuted this series with a Halloween Special that eventually went on to churn out several episodes. Scariest Places was hosted by Linda Blair of The Exorcist 1 and 2. The narrator was Zelda Rubenstien of the Poltergiest Trilogy. This show covered several American locations and European locations as well. Most of the European locations were located in The United Kingdom including Chillingham Castle which became a fan favorite location of the show. Fox TV dared and paid 2 families of 5 people to go and determine if Chillingham was indeed haunted. Well as it turned out "YES" this Castle was indeed very haunted ! Both families failed to complete the challenge because one or more family members were just too plain scared to finish what they started. This show was great in it's initial run but was at the same time being ripped off by a copy cat show called FEAR. This Mtv show had the same storyline challenge only with a financial incentive of $10'000.00 to the surviving team members. FEAR and Scariest Places garnered a small following of fans both abroad and on the internet. Fox Family Channel by the turn of the century was bought out by ABC TV who is in turn owned by Disney. Disney being family friendly canned this show in 2001. There were a few designated replays of the show on Family Channel but that was just to finish out the obligations to the creators of the show. Today this shows' video tapes sits in the vault somewhere at Family Channel Studios collecting dust and waiting to be released on DVD uncut uncensored and unedited. But knowing Michael Eisner and Disney that ain't never going to happen.

I have seen some episodes of this series.

Most of the episodes are questionable and based on second hand eyewitness accounts and there is absolutely no attempt to get a balancing neutral/critical opinion. It is the paranormal equivalent of Von Daniken.

I noted a particularly laughable episode on "ghosts of the colosseum" where a pyshcic with a lenghth of string comes to the conclusion that he "can feel" a ghost somewhere in the dungeons and finally "it" leads him to a street (somewhere else) where "it" was apparently buried. I mean who the hell is this guy and how do you know it is true? Then there are a whole bunch of "paranormal investigators" with infrared scanners and electromagnetic detectors claiming they see ghosts and presences everywhere and we just have to take their word for it.

There are pics caught on cam of people running scared when they "felt" the presence of a spirit. These people have been already hyped up by being told the place is haunted and there is a ghost waiting for them somewhere. There is no effort to go back and analyse what happened or interview the people involved. All the episodes follow this pattern: shallow and full of tricks.

I normally don't write in, but I worked on Scariest Places, and these people were truely scared out of their wits. The hard part was taping what they were scared of - hence most of the footage is of them just screaming - but a couple of them got so scared they pee'd their pants. Imagination, maybe. But these people were not faking. They saw something, and yes, they were scared.

Now i have watched alot of episodes of this and it is really scary the stuff you see in it just scared the hell out of you they visit the most freakey places like castles from the 1800's haunted houses places that were built over graveyards watch this show if your dare cause this show is really scary!

I caught this show on the reruns and could not believe what I was seeing. Being involved in film and a part-time paranormal investigator I found this show an insult. An insult to any serious Paranormal Investigator and an insult to anybody with an IQ over 20.

Knowing how television is made I could see all the old tricks prop masters have used over the years. Stupid face cameras with lights on them shinning directly into the victims faces, so their eyes cannot adjust to the darkness.(An old trick)

The adding of a Newcastle radio DJ who cries "Murder, death, evil!" and passes himself off a informative person. He is there to wind up the families, g them up for the night ahead and plant the seed of fear.

Cheap editing is the only thing stopping the viewing audience not seeing the crew banging and pushing things over.

It promised much and delivered very little. Check out Most Haunted it is much slicker and probably has half the budget.

This puts the field of Paranormal Investigation into game show mode. A crying shame. Wonder weather it was worth those two priests saving young Linda Blair in the Exorcist. I think not!