hunterdu
OK, to everyone who swears it is real, could someone please explain to me why, if these places really ARE haunted and the ghosts really DID get disturbed by these individuals perfroming the dares, that the disturbances would stop IMMEDIATELY upon their arrival back at the 'safe zone'? If it were real, there have been too many episodes for something to not have happened by now. Especially in the places that supposedly have evil spirits. Unless, of course, MTV talked to the spirits' agents beforehand, and got them to agree to only scare the 'contestants' while they were performing the dare, not while they were all together. That has to be it! I just wonder how much MTV is paying the spirits.So I stand corrected. This is brilliant!
(Actually, now that I think about it, they ARE paying the spirits. Only those spirits are a lot like stagehands paid to make the noises and chase after the kids on their way back.)
culwin
Contestants get paid $5000 to do "dares" like sitting in a room full of crickets, sitting in a dark room alone for 2 hours, or performing an "exorcism" (splashing holy water around and reading a latin phrase). The funny thing is that people actually get so scared by these simple tasks and the ghost stories that MTV and their "psychic experts" cook up, some of them actually abandon the cash and quit. Of course nothing supernatural has ever actually happened on the show, except for the contestants psyching themselves out. Somehow it is entertaining... funny though, not scary.
RunningFromSatan
I love to be scared, as millions do. I heard many people talk about this show at school, so I asked what it was about. Unfortunately, someone spoiled the whole thing for me when it was first aired, so that may have lowered the scare value for me a little bit. The other day, though, I was looking through the MTV site and saw an encore presentation of the premiere would be airing last Friday. Anyway, sitting down to watch this show, I knew what to expect, but I didn't know how it would be laid out. Let me tell you, it was very scary, especially at 9 PM!A group of high school / college-age students go to, in the first episode, a supposedly haunted prison in where they have to complete dares. The first dare is the team members have to spend 15 minutes, complete silence, in a "hot spot", or where psychics and experts in the paranormal have picked out the most active supernatural sites. The only means of communication on their journeys is by radio, which is prohibited during their 15 minutes of silence. In later dares, they must go back there with EMF (electro-magnetic field) detectors and night-vision goggles to detect any strange going-ons that the human senses could otherwise not pick out. In the end, if all dares are completed, they are paid $3,000 each. If someone turns back or does not complete their dare, that person is paid nothing and need to leave the next day.**MINOR SPOILERS BELOW**That was the basics, but looking into the actual show, it gets pretty scary. In the navigation room, there are videos of interviews with former inmates, psychics, and supernatural experts that give horrifying backstories. These, I think, add to at least half the fear. For example, the scariest place is a small cell called "The Hole", where an inmate would stay, naked, in darkness, with limited amounts of food, and they would go insane. The character who gets faced with this dare, Derek, is probably the character that gets put through the most. I will not tell how, but I felt his pain throughout his experience, as well as others. The most memorable moment is Ryan in the cell with the tarp over the chair. I would've freaked out in that way, and screamed like that, as well. And don't think it stops there, because all the other places are equally scary, as well. :P
**END SPOILERS**The other scary thing about it is that, a la BWP, it's not what you see directly, it's what your imagination places in the spot of the unknown. What's creating that sound? What's making that stupid EMF detector go crazy? What's creating the wind? People with imagination will get a great ride.I also do feel that this was authenic, as well. As one reviewer mentioned, setting up most of these things would have to be perfect in almost every sense, because all events are being captured by sound, video, EMF detectors, night-vision goggles, and most important of all, the actual people. I think the people would have noticed if someone were to do these things to them and said something about it. A lot of people think this is a hoax like BWP, but look how many people believed it was real even after the actors and news reports confirmed it was fake! But this is not the case with this show, because I think it is totally authentic.In the wake of the actors' strike that may halt shows like ER, Friends, and the box office, reality shows will take over. I see a great future for this show if that does happen, and I can't wait for the next team to get scared in St. Agnes Hospital on October 27. 10/10
