MTV's Fear
MTV's Fear was an
MTV reality show in
2000, that placed a group of 5 or more contestants in a reputedly haunted location and led them on a series of dares over two nights to explore whether or not the place was haunted. The show was created by Martin Kunert and Eric Manes. The series aired the first two episodes in a pilot run, which received outstanding reviews and a full season was ordered. After eight more episodes, the show began to lose popularity, but another season was ordered. The second season was met by dismal reviews and the show was cancelled after 6 episodes aired. A DVD,
MTV's Inside Fear, was released in 2001, containing contestant interviews and deleted footage from the show. However, there are currently no plans to release the episodes on DVD.
The show brought several innovations to the reality show genre, including:
* Having contestants film their own experience as no video crew followed them into the haunted locations.
* Use of
night vision cameras.
* Making people eat items that revolted them. (common trick used on
Fear Factor)
* Use of body mounted cameras to have contestants film their own close-ups.
The contestants were picked from videotaped audition tapes. In order to provide absolute secrecy about their location, the group was blindfolded and led by guides to the haunted area. They were then instructed to remove their blindfolds after a predetermined amount of time, allowing the guides to slip out unseen. The area they were taken is known as the safe house, which is an area of the haunted location where no hauntings are reported to have taken place. As the nights progress, a computer announces when a dare is assigned and the contestant who is assigned the dare. This computer also provides the group with background information about the areas and instructions for the dare. Each contestant was given the option at any time to abort the dare, but if the dare was not completed, the contestant would forfeit their share of the winnings, have to choose another contestant to do the dare, and leave themselves. After two nights, the contestants remaining in the game would be directed to the location of their monetary prize, and each would collect $5,000.
The dares themselves ranged in difficulty. While most relied on simple observation (
radio silence,
EMF Detector), some of the dares relied on specific re-enactments of haunting events, and a few even dabbled in occult or paranormal possession (
Séance,
Auto-Drawing, Spirit Channeling). For a complete list of dares, see
Dares of MTV's Fear.
The locations shown in the show usually had their name changed to protect their location from vandals and show fanatics. However, some of the places allowed their name to be used, and some of the fans of the show used the Internet to piece together potential matches for the locations used in the show. The locations used in the show are:
Season 1
* Episode 1 -
West Virginia State Penitentiary* Episode 2 - St. Agnes Mental Hospital
* Episode 3 - Duggan Brothers Cement Factory
* Episode 4 - Hopkins Military Academy
* Episode 5 - Camp Spirit Lake
* Episode 6 -
Buck Hill Inn* Episode 7 -
Eastern State Penitentiary* Episode 8 -
USS Hornet* Episode 9 -
Fort Gaines* Episode 10 - La Guerre Plantation
Season 2
* Episode 1 - Mina Dos Estrellas
* Episode 2 - Mina Dos Estrellas
* Episode 3 - Hacienda Tabi
* Episode 4 - Ki Sugar Mill
* Episode 5 - Serenity Lake Sanitorium
* Episode 6 - Boettger Brewery
(* denotes locations where names are not the actual names of the location).
* The storytelling and camera techniques which Kunert and Manes innovated for this series became the basis for their film
Voices of Iraq.
* The reason for two "Mina Dos Estrellas" episodes was because the entire group of contestants quit before the end of the second night in the first episode. This was the only time less than two contestants managed to finish all the dares. (In St. Agnes Hospital, three cast members finish the regular dares, but the group is offered a bonus dare for more money, which only one of them takes).
*The show was parodied on
The Andy Dick Show featuring a trip to a "haunted" 98+1 Cent Store.
* In the episode set in Eastern State Penitentiary, at least, producers used a number of tricks to scare contestants. From their control booth, they monitored all activity, and controlled a number of scares. Speakers were set up in areas to emit noise when the producers wanted. Lights which contestants carried were also controlled through the control booth, and could be made to flicker/die on command. Also, at one point, a number of white mice were in a room with a contestant. These mice were purchased at a local pet shop and placed there, and returned the next day (Eastern State has rats, which are incredibly large and grey in color).
* In the episode set in Eastern State Penitentiary, one contestant was required to spend the day locked in a cell. Underneath their bed was a box of food and water to get them through. As they were never told about it, they never found it, and it went unused.
* "Camp Spirit Lake," is Camp NoBeBosCo, a boyscout camp in New Jersey. It was also the filiming location of the original Friday the 13th.
* At WV Penitentiary, the electric chair was removed from its original location and now rests in the Museum adjacent to the main lobby. The producers placed the electric chair (or a copy) in the prison. This undermines the "authenticity" of the show.
* The MTV producers also went into the "Sugar Shack" and painted several gray specters on the walls, covering genuine graffiti that inmates had created there. For this reason, MTV is forbidden from ever stepping foot on the prison grounds again.
*
Dares of MTV's Fear*
Fear on MTV Fan Site
