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| Gates, Courtesy Syfy |
BY AARON SAGERS
After five years of chasing ghosts and monsters across the planet, while frequently encountering dangerous transportation and questionable food,
Josh Gates is now working on his scariest assignment yet -- and he prefers it that way.
The lead investigator of Syfy's globetrotting, monster-hunting series
Destination Truth, which premiered in 2007, Gates has become something of a staple for the network. Beyond acting as host (and eventually co-executive producer) on the show, his face has also been out there as Syfy's
de facto emcee. But now he has stepped entirely behind the camera as executive producer and showrunner for
Stranded, a new paranormal reality-TV Syfy series debuting Feb. 27 at 10 p.m. that will introduce some scare tactics to the well-tread investigative genre.
Produced by Jason Blum (
Paranormal Activity,
Insidious,
Stranded) and
Ping Pong Productions (
Destination Truth,
Finding Bigfoot and a handful of other paranormal shows),
Stranded attempts to merge the standard ghosthunting show with familiar ghost movie tropes to create a new formula: the horror docu-drama.
Each week a new group of three -- roomies, newlyweds, skeptics, believers which Paranormal Pop Culture
posted a casting call for -- is placed in a different, supposedly haunted location for five days straight without even a production crew in tow. For instance, the premiere takes place on Star Island, a 50,000 square-foot hotel on an island 10 miles off the coast of New Hampshire, and supposedly home to an evil spirit Native Americans feared. When the team arrives, they they find a brief history of the building and a handful of paranormal investigation gadgets waiting for them, and they're tasked with spending their waking hours exploring the mysteries of the building.
But the emphasis of
Stranded is not on capturing evidence inasmuch as simply living in a haunted house alongside whatever potential activity might be taking place there.
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The dock leading up to the Star Island hotel,
Courtesy Syfy |
And based on the first two of six episodes, the result is an intriguing, sometimes startling, psychological drama. Instead of the ghost "expert" series where stoicism is prized,
Stranded focuses on the experience of these average Joes and Janes. As such, when things go bump in the night, and the investigators can't run away, it can create a deep, emotional response.
The show is also an interesting evolution for Gates. Going from having a camera strapped to his back
and front as he traversed the world, he now finds himself largely in a production office, putting together an entertainment product. While the challenges of producing a show is perhaps less sexy than, say, hunting for yeti, it's no less a massive, and scary, project. But in a recent phone interview, Gates spoke at length about his excitement around
Stranded, and about evoking authentic, visceral reactions from the participants -- and hopefully from the viewing audience.
(after the jump...)
director James Wan's 
's Patrick Wilson, 
's Barbara Hershey, the suspense/horror follows a family haunted by interlopers from a demonic phantom zone who eventually recruit some paranormal investigators for assistance.