TV is the New Reading

‘Paranormal State’ tracks down

things that go bump in the night

In a new reality show on A&E, cameras follow a group of college students as they sit around in people’s basements well into the night.

I remember being a part of several such situations myself, generally involving alcohol. The only spirits involved in A&E’s production of “Paranormal State,” however, are the kinds that go bump in the night.

First and foremost, we meet Ryan Buell, who has been fascinated by the paranormal all his life, and seems haunted by some sort of demon presence.

When he got to Penn State, he gathered a group of students who shared his interest in the spooky. As the camera pans around to them, we learn everyone has specialized tasks. There are recorders and tech people and trainees and occult specialists and counselors and so forth.

In these first installments, I didn’t get a sense of anyone actually doing much of anything except for Buell, who kept the narration going in his “director’s log.”

It seemed that Buell was there to confront the ghosties, along with a guest medium or two, while the other students conducted interviews and gathered information. Also, the purpose of the trainee, it seems, is to be sent back to the hotel if anything vaguely interesting starts to happen.

The group takes a Judeo-Christian approach to spirits and energies, using biblical blessings and exorcisms to cleanse the spaces. They have banners and symbols they place on people’s doorframes and they declare spaces to be cleansed based on ...

Calling all demons

OK, the students are called in because homeowners are creeped out by their homes. In the first episode, there were light and dark energies and the 7-year-old child identified a spirit from the ‘70s called “Timmy.” In the second, there was a cemetery across the street in which an entire family was interred, and the current tenants thought they were haunted by dark forces.

The students did do investigations through client and neighbor interviews and county records before piling into the basement for “dead time,” which they said was about 3 a.m., at which time Buell said spirits are most active.

They encounter some strange noises and doors opening and closing but no direct contact with spirits themselves except for one dark presence that was apparently touching the homeowner.

This despite their assertion that the ghosts are upset with their presence and are resistant to being cleansed. And then there’s that demon following Buell around who the medium picked up on but is apparently just biding its time before confronting Buell.

The production team restrained itself from showing flashing lights moving here and there and chains rattling and so forth. However, producers did play spooky music throughout, which got irritating, as did all of the whiz-bang flash edits and graphic elements every scene. And college kids manipulating energies and dark forces are always pretty impressed with themselves, so that got irritating as well.

But as reality shows go, it’s mostly harmless and despite a bunch of nothing much at all happening, the homeowners felt better at the end of the visit so I suppose that’s a benefit. I’m not sure it’s worth the time or effort, myself, but A&E’s “Paranormal State” airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on A&E.

Features Editor Terry J. Aman compiles the Best Bets for The Minot Daily News.

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