America is never short on supposedly haunted locations. It’s actually the reason why there have been so many paranormal shows on the American television over the last couple of decades. It’s a fascination for many people, and for some, it’s become a career as well. In the show Haunted Towns,we see a group of ghost chasers known as the Tennessee Wraith Chasers. The Chasers are a group of paranormal investigators that have turned ghost hunting into a full-time job and even a TV show. Haunted Towns premiered in 2017 and currently has 8 episodes within a single season. While the show has attracted a solid following, many of its viewers still question whether the show is real or not.
The Tennessee Wraith Chasers is a crew of five men from different backgrounds with similar paranormal beliefs. Founder Chris Smith was born and raised in Gallatin, Tennessee. His first exposure to the supernatural happened when he was just a kid. Smith is a Christian and considers himself a ghost skeptic. His primary research involves shadow people–humanoid figures that many of us have seen in our peripheral vision from time to time. The Chasers’ co-founder is Steven McDougal believes he’s currently residing in a haunted home. He’s goal is to find answers to the many questions we all have about the paranormal. Scott Porter serves as the Chasers’ historian. Porter is highly educated and is the analytical mind of the group. He studies strange occurrences, and he tries to find historical evidence and answers wherever he can. Smith’s brother Brannon is the youngest in the group. Brannon is an aspiring physicist and is currently studying physics and engineering in college. The last member of the Tennessee Wraith Chasers is Mike Goncalves. Goncalves is the crew’s tech guru. He became involved with paranormal investigations after experiencing inexplicable instances while working in the crew of Ghost Asylum.
Like any other reality TV show, Haunted Towns must have some scripted component. As viewers, we should all realize by now that script is necessary for some kind of narration fluidity. But what most fans really want to know is whether the paranormal activity on the show is fake or not. After all, it’s really difficult to sell a ghost show that has no ghosts in it. The Tennessee Wraith Chasers are not new to the game either. Apart from having worked in that industry for a while now, they’ve also had a show prior to Haunted Towns. That show was called Ghost Asylum, and it featured 30 episodes within a span of 4 seasons. Haunted Towns is set up so that the crew can explore different haunted locations in every episode.
In 2017, the Tennessee Wraith Chasers fulfilled their promise and visited some of America’s most haunted places. This included Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; Salem, Massachusetts; and Savannah, Georgia among a few others. The images and the spook were certainly captivating, but the show claims that it’s more than just about the ghosts. The goal of the show was to really highlight the stories that have caused the terror about these places over the years.
For example, we all know that so many soldiers died at Gettysburg. This place happened to have been one of the bloodiest battles in the history of the United States. The history behind this location was incredible, and the stories are definitely real. The goal of the Tennessee Wraith Chasers was not to prove whether the spirits of dead soldiers still wandered the streets of Gettysburg. Their goal was to investigate the history of the paranormal talk surrounding this place, and that was definitely not fake. The spook was not fake either because just watching that area through the television screen will give anyone the creeps.
Even creepier are the following episodes. When Haunted Towns stopped by Salem, Massachusetts, fans knew that the crew was going to encounter some weird things. The overall look and feel of the shots were exciting–in a scary way. We also saw some vivid imagery and things moving when they weren’t supposed to. Were those real? Did someone rig a mechanism to make something move when it wasn’t supposed to? Those are valid questions, but they beg to ask the bigger question of whether the Tennessee Wraith Chasers were simply acting. The crew went through some scary moments on that episode. Did they prove that witches still haunt the place?
This article explains that many of the haunting information have been passed down from generation to generation. All of the places that the show visited have already established history regarding the hauntings in their respective towns. We never ask whether the soldiers actually died at Gettysburg or whether witches actually died in Salem. We know that they did. We also already know from history of storytelling that these places are somewhat haunted. The Tennessee Wraith Chasers were not out there to find evidence of something paranormal. The show’s purpose, again, is to explore the history behind the stories and to connect the stories to the reality–to connect the stories to specific places.
A large part of Haunted Townsshow the crew with gadgets and devices to see whether there’s paranormal activity in any of the places they visit. Whether that part of the show is fake or not is really difficult to state. It’s going to depend on your existing beliefs on the paranormal. Regardless of how you see the show, it’s a paranormal investigation of real historical events. The events happened. Now it’s just up to you whether you want to believe the paranormal events that occur during the show or not. At this point in the history of humanity, there really is no way to prove empirically whether ghosts truly haunt our surroundings or not. You’d have to just experience things for yourself to find your own answers.
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