| Back in the ’90s I remember always looking forward to the Halloween episodes of the TV series Unsolved Mysteries. Robert Stack’s sombre narration added much to the featured ghost stories and each re-enactment was nicely rendered with simple but effective special effects.
Thrilled as I am that Unsolved Mysteries: Scariest Ghost Stories is now available on DVD, I’m even more pleased that there is a current Canadian program that tells its spooky tales just as effectively. Creepy Canada is a fun little supernatural offering you can find primarily on the Outdoor Life Network, but also runs on the CTV Travel Channel, the Discovery Channel and gets the occasional weekend airing on the main CTV network.
While primarily a ghost-story show, Creepy Canada has also featured stories on UFOs, Sasquatch, lake monsters and vampires.
According to series director and co-creator Bill Burke, "Oftentimes, the stories that really grab you are the ones that are most difficult to do."
While the makers of Creepy Canada always want to shoot in the actual locations where bizarre events have been reported, that was impossible in telling the story of the shapeshifting beast known as the Windigo. With the Windigo story set in 1918 in the Alberta town of Fort Kent and the current Fort Kent looking nothing like it did 86 years ago, a change in the shooting site was made. An Alberta historical village was found that fit the bill so nicely that Creepy Canada also used it as a double for Frank, the Crowsnest Pass town destroyed by a rock slide.
The Frank Slide piece from the current season is an example of Creepy Canada at its best. A re-enactment of a lost backpacker being confronted at night by the vision of a shrieking woman in white is truly hair-raising stuff.
It’s interesting to note that Creepy Canada uses actual eyewitness accounts of unexplained phenomena whenever possible. While this may give the show an amateurish feel at times, it also reflects the honesty that director Burke and producer Brian O’Dea strive for.
Additionally, when actors are used in re-enactments, they are recruited from the local area. Using locals eliminates the cost of taking actors on the road and lets unknown performers appear on television for the first time. Burke likes the idea that, whenever the show airs, "Somebody is in a pub somewhere going, ‘Hey! there I am.’"
One of the few serious casting dilemmas the show has faced came while Burke and his crew were preparing for a yet-to-air piece on Calgary’s Hose and Hound Pub. "We had to try and find a monkey in Alberta," Burke says. This was a far-from-easy task. Once a monkey was finally procured, it filled the role of the ghostly primate that is said to inhabit the Inglewood firehouse turned bar and restaurant.
Unable to borrow a monkey from the nearby Calgary Zoo, the crew managed to get one from a small roadside zoo roughly 80 kilometers from the city. "The thing must’ve been 100 in monkey years," says Burke, "she just kept falling asleep when we set her down for a shot." This did prove handy, however, when a shot of the ghost monkey’s death was needed. The camera was simply trained on the aged simian actress until she lost consciousness and slumped over.
While it has not yet been confirmed, there is an excellent chance that Creepy Canada will be back for a third season. The show’s popularity with viewers is on the rise and there are many spooky places the program has yet to visit. Burke, an American, says that while shooting the series, "I have probably seen far more of Canada than most Canadians." He also reports that the show is always looking for new paranormal stories to tell. Have yours considered for broadcast by submitting it to the Creepy Canada web site (www.creepycanada.com). Stories without monkeys are preferred. |
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