Streaming on Discovery Plus
New episodes every Friday
Most people know the United Kingdom is the most paranormally active sovereign collective in the world. Here, each separate country is freaky in its own unique way, and it’s about time there’s a show about Spooked Scotland. This series is very similar to other shows. As it is in now mid-season, I can finally remark about which aspects of its production works or not.
The good news is that this paranormal reality tv show offers a lot of interesting locales. Gail Porter is the host, and Chris Fleming is the lead investigator. Tech specialist Ryan O’Neill and parapsychologist Dr. Evelyn Hollow round out their team. Long time fans of this genre may remember the leads from Dead Famous, which ran from 2004 to 2006. However, as with every program that’s out there, they have their fair share of critics. I don’t believe celebrities should be chased down to see if they’re still lingering around. When Harry Houdini can’t make the greatest escape of them all, then some things are best left buried.
Spooked Scotland has nothing new to add other than to see the host freak out. As a result, I’m mostly addicted because I’ve always wanted to know more about this Celtic country’s haunted past and if we’ll catch a glimpse of the most famous spooks, like The Hound of the Baskerville. Okay, that beast is a fictional creation, but the Mackenzie Poltergeist is supposedly real.
We’re not dealing with a lot of history, and in a country with plenty of haunted locations, just how long it’ll be before they take to the moors has be excited. I’m like Michael Jackson watching that werewolf movie in his music video Thriller. It’s easy to see this series won’t run out of places. When there are many graveyards to visit, I’m sure the next season’s shift will be easy to plan out.
Last week’s episode concerns the Tron Theatre, which The Hellfire Club burned down. This organisation’s name evokes images of its membership conducting grave misdeeds, but in truth, it was formed to serve the needs of high society. It’s safe to say there were a few members who practised the arcane arts.
In the comic book, Uncanny X-Men, The Hellfire Club had members (mutants) plotting to control the world, much like the Illuminati. However, one member, Mastermind, brought Jean Grey into the fold and brainwashed her to become the Dark Phoenix. Most of these ideas aren’t borrowed from real life stories, but I wouldn’t be surprised Chris Claremont got a few ideas during his research. This club has been represented and misrepresented plenty of times in pop culture, and I’m enjoying this series when it makes those connections.
However, I’m not surprised Spooked Scotland’s most latest episode reveals George Bruce (pictured right) agitated a lot of women during his time. He made his presence known, but what he did to Gail was not pleasant. In what’s very theatrical about this episode is putting the guts of an Ovilus 4 ITC Device (for Electronic Voice Phenomena tracking) into an old vintage radio.
And as for all the accusations of Georgy-boy being involved in the local witch trials and having the victims (now ghosts) forgive him in the afterlife, apparently they’re vindictive. This theme might continue into the next episode, and it’ll be worth the watch just because the series is leading up to some kind of conclusion.
If this group can help those trapped spirits to move on, then I say we have a series worth following.
Next up on Spooked Scotland is an episode where Gail, Chris, and the team visit the spooked Edinburgh Vaults. Because this location has been explored before in the past, with Mystery Hunters and Ghost Adventures, I’ll tune in. As for whether there’ll be anything new to uncover about its terrible past, that’ll be up for debate when the next episode is this Friday!
STV News Spooked Scotland Preview
Really tried to get into it but we hardly hear or see what the hosts experience so how are we supposed to tap into the programme.
On occasion, I found the history to why a place was haunted more interesting than the investigation. Hopefully later episodes will offer more of this.