Page 29 - 201001 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - January 2010

January 2010_june_july_2009.qxd 02/02/2010 8:33 AM Page 29 Ghost hunters scarier than spirits 29 Ghost hunters scarier judge. Writer/director Oren Peli's lo-fi pulse- than spirits themselves raiser, made for a reported $15,000, has by Jeremy Schwartz relentlessly awful camera work that could constitute a serious threat to timorous tummies. Without explanation, we are plunged I have no explanation for it. But nonetheless, most every Tuesday night at 10 immediately into a home-haunting. San Diego couple Micah and Katie (Micah Sloat and Katie p.m. there they are. The Klinge brothers: two chubby, self-proclaimed paranormal Featherston) station a video camera on a tripod in their bedroom. It maintains silent sentry of all investigators filling my television screen. things that go bump in the night – and they Inexplicably, I find myself tuning to the Discovery Channel week after week to indulge really do. If you're a horror fan, you probably in a show called “Ghost Lab,” which I consider the worst ghost-hunting/paranormal “reality” won't be astonished. It's clever stuff, but not the scariest movie of all time, as the marketing show on in prime time. Never before has such insisted. a show simultaneously made me laugh so hard On the other hand, the film is frequently while making me so frustrated. chilling. Fortunately, the viewing public has the Extras include an alternate ending, the chance for a temporary reprieve from this ghost hunting team. The last episode of the first original one envisioned by Peli before particular brand of paranormal inanity during season of “Academy” hinted that a second Hollywood got involved. [] the show’s winter hiatus. However, a poll season of the show is in the works. conducted in December showed an increasing But the especially atrocious disservice number of people may be watching “Ghost “Ghost Lab” does to science makes the show MacKay promises landing Lab” when new episodes eventually return to stand out in this collection of ludicrous ghost- strip for UFOs the Discovery Channel. hunting shows. The Klinge brothers, Brad and The Pew Research Center’s Forum on Barry, start every episode with the statement Religion and Public Life conducted the poll as that their group uses science to investigate Defence minister makes joke part of a larger survey on how people’s religious claims of the paranormal. This so-called use of about recent sighting affiliations and spiritual beliefs intermingle. science involves formulating theories and When asked whether they had seen or been in designing tests for those theories on the spot. the presence of a ghost, 18 percent of the But what the Klinge brothers fail to do Defence Minister Peter MacKay said respondents answered “Yes.” That proportion every single time is eliminate all other non- Friday that he doesn't know what people in has doubled since 1996. While 18 percent may paranormal explanations for the alleged ghostly southern Newfoundland saw recently but he not seem like a large number, the two-fold activity they capture on their video cameras and promised the federal government does have increase in the last 13 years shows just how audio recorders. Real science works through plans to help them. popular belief in the supernatural has become in meticulous experimentation that is designed to "We will provide money to build a the last decade. show a given hypothesis to be false. If the landing strip for UFOs at Harbour Mille," said “Ghost Lab” is one of the most recent of hypothesis holds fast through the testing phase, MacKay, speaking in St. John's to announce a furiously clenched handful of ghost-hunting then the scientists involved begin to think the federal funding for road construction in the shows currently polluting the airwaves. While hypothesis may accurately describe a small province. all these shows have their different methods of piece of the way the world works. "No, I'm only kidding. I'm joking. That's seeking out paranormal activity, they all share The Klinge brothers take the opposite a joke." one attribute in common: an absolute disregard approach. They go into an investigation with Jokes aside, MacKay said there's no for science and critical thinking. the assumption that ghosts exist and “test” for need to worry about the unidentified flying The trend started in earnest with the paranormal activity using methods designed to object. laughable Travel Channel series “Most support their assumptions. Any experiences "We've checked with other countries and Haunted,” which premiered in 2002. “Most they have that are not immediately explainable we'll continue to do so but I don't think it is any Haunted” follows a team of British paranormal are immediately chalked up to paranormal cause for panic," said MacKay. investigators as they scurry about the United activity. Most every unexplained noise A model plane flier said an earlier a Kingdom’s allegedly most haunted locales becomes a specter stalking the two rotund comment from the Prime Minister's Office talking to the darkness and generally making investigators. about a mysterious object spotted near Harbour fools of themselves. The “Most Haunted” star With the new year only 12 days old, I Mille is laughable. dimmed a bit in 2005 when two hosts of the hope 2010 will bring some semblance of critical Thursday, a federal government show were accused of faking ghostly thinking to the plethora of ghost-hunting shows spokesperson suggested people in happenings for the cameras. According to an that will undoubtedly find their way onto Newfoundland and Labrador like to launch article from the British Broadcasting thousands of TV screens across America. But if model rockets. Corporation, the hosts were cleared of any “Ghost Lab” is representative of the newest Ed Welsh, who heads a model plane club wrongdoing when a British communications crop of such shows, I won’t be holding my in Swift Current, north of where the regulator christened “Most Haunted” as breath. unidentified flying object was photographed on entertainment-only and not to be taken Jeremy Schwartz is a Western senior Monday, said he's not aware of any model- seriously. majoring in news/editorial journalism and rocket activity in that area. In 2004, the “SyFy” Channel aired the pursuing Latin and philosophy minors. Contact He also questioned why anyone would first episode of “Ghost Hunters,” which has Jeremy at westernfrontcolumnist@gmail.com. launch a model from a boat. perhaps become the most successful of any "Why would a model enthusiast, why ghost-hunting show on television. “Ghost would they pile everything aboard of a boat and Hunters” follows the exploits of plumbers- Paranormal Activity go out offshore, when they could do the exact turned-paranormal-investigators Jason Hawes By Peter Howell same thing on land?" asked Welsh Friday. and Grant Wilson and their team as they come Welsh also said the object's flame and to the aid of people who allege ghosts are The Toronto Star smoke were too intense to be from a model infesting their homes. The show has proved so rocket. successful that 2009 saw the premiere of “Ghost This may be the best homage to (or rip- So far, RCMP, public safety and military Hunters Academy,” in which five ghost- off of) The Blair Witch Project since that shaky- officials have refused to offer an explanation for hunters-in-training vied for coveted spots on the cam shocker set the bar for low-budget horror a the object. [] decade ago. Your stomach may be the final