Genre: Sci-Fi | Reality | Paranormal

Air Date/Time: Wednesday, August 8 at 10/9c

Network: Syfy

Summary:
Syfy’s true terror breakout hit series, Paranormal Witness, will leave viewers jumping out of their seats with fear when it kicks off its second season on Wednesday, August 8 at 10 PM (ET/PT). Through gritty, realistic cinematic reenactments, Paranormal Witness recounts the bone-chilling, real-life paranormal experiences of everyday people and allows viewers to experience the terrifying moments for themselves. Actual eyewitnesses share their firsthand accounts of the inexplicable phenomena that forced them to try to make sense of the scariest, most inconceivable events of their lives.

I’ve seen a fair few of this type of sub-genre show now, and honestly, this series is the one that I can’t watch alone at night. I made the mistake of doing that with the series premiere last year, and am really glad I didn’t with this season opener. Quite simply, it is, for me, the scariest. But let’s take a look at the nuts and bolts of it.

First off, I know from my interview with him last season that the producer of the show, Mark Lewis, is an award-winning documentarian who has done projects with National Geographic, and researches the heck out of these stories. The tag line for this show, “scary because it’s true,” is accurate, at least for me.

There is no host, and no narrator, though there are captions at the opening and after every commercial break. The story is told entirely through the witnesses talking to someone off camera (which I prefer to the witnesses speaking directly to the camera), and reenactments. It’s not an uncommon presentation for this sub-genre; the dialogue in the reenactments is limited, sometimes to just a word or two. The dramatization is really just a visualization; the story comes from the witnesses.

The cuts between the interviews and dramatization are edgy, the handheld camera angles are skewed, the colors used in the reenactments are tinted, the music is quietly creepily atmospheric, and the whole thing combines to make the storytelling compellingly, ridiculously scary. But even that isn’t necessarily unique to this series.

I appreciate that they don’t milk the scariness. They don’t need to. The scary things happen right before the commercial breaks, not after a buildup and a break and a final reveal, like so many series do. They just keep going, heaping on more and more creepy things. It doesn’t get slow, and my attention doesn’t stray. But is that the reason this is better?

Maybe it’s just the fact that this opening story is so very scary and would be, no matter how it’s presented. Because it is. It’s scary. So many things happen, and there are so many witnesses. Those witnesses are believable, the actual video and photos are startling, and wow she stayed in that house a lot longer than I would have, though I have never been a single mom with two small children and few options.

This isn’t one of those “ooo, this is creepy!” stories; this is an “OMG this is so freaking scary!” story. I prefer my scares to be fictional, but if you are a fan of the truly scary paranormal reality-style docudramas, this is the best I’ve seen.

I give Paranormal Witness: Season 2 Episode 1 “Man in the Attic,” Five Out of Five Stars.