A Haunting: The TV Series Review

A Haunting is an American television program that depicts eyewitness accounts of possession, exorcism, and ghostly encounters. The program features narrations, interviews, and dramatized re-enactments based on the various accounts of everyday people. The series has featured several stories of supernatural encounters, including traditional hauntings, attacks from ghosts, demonic possession and experiences with psychic phenomenon. The series covers incidents at locations all over the United States, as well as several episodes that were set in Canada, the U.K. and places in Asia. Episodes had a wide range of places that were said to be haunted…houses, apartments, farms, restaurants, theaters and even deep forests. Episodes tend to present the accounts of paranormal experiences through re-enactments by actors which are accompanied by commentary from the eyewitnesses and investigators themselves.
A Haunting is/was a weekly TV series that originally aired on Discovery Channel till it was dropped after four seasons. In 2012 Destination America picked up the series and aired five more seasons also focused on the paranormal experiences of the average family. One of the more well-known episodes was ‘A Haunting in Connecticut’ of which the movie of the same name was based. In fact the series spawned two movies. The second one was called ‘A Haunting in Connecticut: Ghosts of Georgia,’ based on the experiences of another family in Georgia.

Quite often the stories were terrifying, and sometimes violent; and the unsuspecting family often had little choice to move into the dwelling without any forewarning of the danger lurking in the abode. And, just as often, the family was in no position to leave due to lack of funds to enable a move to another living space. This scenario usually culminated in the family fleeing for their lives with little more than the clothes on their backs and the vehicle in which they fled. Episodes within the series tended to follow this frequently recurring pattern. Usually, first, the victims of hauntings begin noticing peculiar incidents that become more frequent and terrifying. Often there is always one person for which vehement and outright denial is the first reaction – usually telling one or more family members they are crazy or imagining things. As is often the case, the situation escalates and every possible conventional explanation is ripped apart giving even the most staunchest unbeliever no option but to contact a group of paranormal investigators, a priest or minister, (which rarely ends well as the priest or minister usually ends up making the situation much worse), or a spiritual medium or even a coven of witches for assistance. In some cases, the victims are able to successfully resolve the paranormal issues, while in other cases, the victims have no choice but vacate their residence and flee for their lives and sanity.

Narrated by Anthony Call, the series was a very well done and garnered quite the fan following. With the spooky introduction, the eeriness of the settings and very professional interviews of the eyewitnesses, the paranormal investigators and actors who help to re-enact the experiences this was one of the better series dealing with the paranormal and supernatural to air on TV.