The Celebrity Paranormal Project
This minor reality show aired on VH1 in 2006 and
seems to have flown right under everyone's radar. It's easy to see why; it's
derivative, shallow, annoying in parts, and at the core of it, pretty silly.
Amazingly it's also dang fun watching, which is why I'm glad to see it being
rerun this Halloween (07) at the stroke of midnight. (I hope the show eventually gets
a cheap dvd port, or is at least re-run annually, if not, this is just a little
dvr heads up for you folks.)
The premise is simple; take famous folk to a horrible
haunted local, then abandon them for the night. Now I dislike celebrity and
"reality" programming with a passion. (Well, with an apathetic smarm
at least.) But while it's one thing to watch some Paris wanna be harangue shop
keeps and meter maids, it's quite another to watch them blubber like a toddler
when spidery shadows and unearthly echoes begin to close in on them from
everywhere and nowhere.
The show follows the basic template of your 'Fear' or 'Scariest Places on
Earth'. You know; Blair Witchy jump-cuts, cheesy reenactments, and models that
don't know what tuberculosis is trying to figure out how to use an EMF meter.
(No, I'm not kidding. I dearly hope they're rerunning the "What's
ta-bur-calosis?" episode.) The show's signature gimmick is trying to
provoke astral emanations by recreating the suffering of the dead. It's hardly
the empirical method, but hell, if I where an evil specter it would get my
attention.
I'm sure the show isn't for everyone. One flaw of
course is a rather loose definition of celebrity (I.e.; Anyone we could get to
appear on the show.) Hey, if you're your only known for being a contestant on a
reality show, you're not famous enough to qualify for another reality show,
alright!
Most annoying is that like other shows of this sort ('Ghost Hunters', 'Scariest
Places') the producers include dopey little sting cords and fakey bangs to keep
the audience antsy. Now, this is hardly science (not even of the paranormal
variety) but if you keep firing up the 'machine that goes ping' every five
seconds how the hell are we supposed to know which noises are real?
Even so the show is spooky good fun at least, and the episodes with Gilbert Godfried and David Carradine are especially entertaining.
No score, just try to catch it.
10/30/07