| 9/29/2008 5:58:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article |
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| 'Our tagline is 'raising history from the dead.'
Lisa Hottinger From left to right: Scott Roberts, Raini Roberts, Lisa Hottinger, Warren Anderson. |
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A haunting experience
Minnesota group pitches show to major networks
Derrick Knutson
Review Staff
Just the thought of venturing down a darkened hallway in a rumored - to - be - haunted theater could send chills down a person's spine. But for a group of four Minnesotans, it's all in a day's work.
Minnesota natives Scott Roberts, Raini Roberts, Warren Anderson Lisa Hottinger and London native Adrian Lee are pitching a television show called "Dead Reckoning" to A&E, the History Channel and the SciFi Channel that focuses on the paranormal and the history behind paranormal events.
"We investigate the paranormal; we do historical places or places that have significant backgrounds," Hottinger says. "Usually, these places are notorious for being haunted and so we come in and do the background on the property, whatever it is, get information from some of the people that live there, or who are familiar with the "people' who are supposedly haunting the place."
The show is still in its "pitch" stage and screenings of the first episode will take place at the Mounds Theater on St. Paul's East Side on Oct. 23 and 24 at 7 p.m., Scott says. People familiar with the old, refurbished theater swear it has a few of its own ghosts, who make their presence felt from time to time.
Scott says that even people who are not interested in paranormal activity should find the historical aspect of the show interesting.
"The show is going to be half history and half paranormal activity," he says. "(The first episode) is going to have a lot of history about the Mounds (Theater)."
Hottinger also emphasizes the history aspect of the show.
"Our tagline is "Raising history from the dead,'" she says.
The general consensus of the group was that past experiences with the paranormal got them started investigating such events.
"I've just always been interested with the paranormal and I had some experiences of my own when I was younger," Anderson says. "A house that my brother and his wife had formerly lived in ... had some activity in it and we would hear footsteps a lot, doors opening and closing and things that really actually terrified me."
Anderson added that once he got older, his fear of the paranormal turned into a fascination.
"When I was (young) I didn't understand anything about the paranormal; you always think of ghosts and things like that as scary and haunting your house," he says. "(When I got older I realized) it is a soul, it is a form of someone that once was alive and their body is gone and if (I) think of it in that aspect, it doesn't frighten me as much.
Hottinger, one of the lead investigators on the show, says she has been interested in ghosts and mystical activity for a number of years. "I am the cofounder of the Twin Cities Paranormal Society," she adds.
Scott has traveled around the country looking into reports of apparitions and mysteries involving the dead.
"I've been paranormal investigating for about 10 years, and I've been a guest speaker at some of these paranormal events, Scott says. "Then I met Jason (Hawes) and Grant (Wilson) - the "Ghost Hunters.'"
The "Ghost Hunters" show airs on the SciFi Channel and follows a group of paranormal researchers as they investigate presumably haunted places throughout the country.
"I told them that I'd like to do a show like this in a different way, and I approached them and I said "Do you think there's room out there in this market for another paranormal (investigator) show?'"
Scott says that Hawes and Wilson said that there is room in the market, but they cannot help much with the show because of contractual obligations.
Scott admits there are going to be some challenges when it comes to pitching the show, but the history aspect of the show could get it picked up.
"Housing the show in a different case (setting each episode) is going to be the challenge," Scott says. "I love history and so I said I wanted to do a show about history and historical sights in the Upper Midwest."
Tickets to the screenings of the first episode are $10 and all the proceeds go to The Portage for Youth, an after-school and summer enrichment program for girls ages 8 to 15 residing in the Dayton's Bluff and Payne Phalen neighborhoods of St. Paul.
To purchase tickets, call the theater at (651) 772-2253. The restored Mounds Theater is located at 1029 Hudson Road, just west of Earl Street.
Derrick Knutson can be reached at dknutson@lillienews.com or (651) 748-7825.
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