''Fear'' (promoted as ''MTV's Fear'') is an American
paranormal
Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Nota ...
reality
Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as opposed to that which is only imaginary. The term is also used to refer to the ontological status of things, indicating their existence. In physical terms, r ...
television series
A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...
that originally aired from 2000 to 2002 on
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
and spawned the genre. The program follows a group of five or more contestants who are left at an allegedly
haunted location and led on a series of dares over two nights to explore the location and determine whether it is haunted. The show was created by
Martin Kunert
Martin Kunert (born Marcin Stanisław Kunert-Dziewanowski; 1974) is a feature film and television writer, director and producer; and since 2010, a photographer. In 2004, Kunert conceived and directed the documentary ''Voices of Iraq'', made by se ...
and
Eric Manes
Eric David Manes is a feature film and television writer and producer, owner of Swiss chocolate company Coco Suisse with his wife Marianne Manes, and a State of California Registered Investment Advisor.
Biography
Manes produced the documentary ...
, who were inspired by the 1973 horror film ''
The Legend of Hell House
''The Legend of Hell House'' is a 1973 supernatural horror film directed by John Hough, and starring Pamela Franklin, Roddy McDowall, Clive Revill, and Gayle Hunnicutt. It follows a group of researchers who spend a week in the former home of a ...
''. The pilot episode was co-executive produced and directed by
George Verschoor
George Verschoor (born 1960) is a showrunner, director and a creator of television shows, known primarily for producing unscripted and reality series for television, such as ''The Real World'', on which he retains a creative consultant credit. ...
. 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, another season was ordered. The second season ended after only six aired episodes. The series was cancelled not because of a lack of interest (the show was the second most popular on MTV at the time of its cancellation) but because of the high cost of producing each episode. A DVD, ''MTV's Inside Fear'', was released on November 6, 2001.
[Fear Intro](_blank)
/ref>
''Fear'' was named #6 on ''Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
s "15 Taboo-Breaking TV Moments".''Entertainment Weekly'''s "15 Taboo-Breaking TV Moments"
/ref>
Rules
Contestants are blindfolded and led by guides to the supposedly 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 where they are taken is known as the 'safe house', usually a large room somewhere within the location where no hauntings are reported to have taken place. This location serves as the group's base and is the only part of the haunted location with lighting. Every member of the group chooses a color at random from a predefined list. During daylight hours, the group is allowed to sleep and eat, as dares only take place at night. Once night arrives, a computer terminal will usually pick one or two colors and assign a dare. This computer also provides the group with background information about the area. A member of the group, not assigned to the current dare, provides instructions from the computer via two-way radios.
Each contestant is given the option, at any time during the dare, to abort. However, doing so will cause the contestant to forfeit his or her share of the winnings and to leave the group. Another contestant will then be chosen by the computer to complete the dare. After two nights, any contestants remaining in the game are directed to the location of their monetary prize, and each collects $5,000. (In the pilot episode, the survivors only received $3,000 each.)
The dares themselves range in difficulty, often starting out easy and close to the safe house, eventually getting more difficult and further from the group's base. While most rely on simple observation (radio silence
In telecommunications, radio silence or Emissions Control (EMCON) is a status in which all fixed or mobile radio stations in an area are asked to stop transmitting for safety or security reasons.
The term "radio station" may include anything cap ...
, EMF detector
EMF measurements are measurements of ambient (surrounding) electromagnetic fields that are performed using particular sensors or probes, such as EMF meters. These probes can be generally considered as ''antennas'' although with different charac ...
), some of the dares rely on specific re-enactments of haunting events, and a few even dabble in occult or paranormal possession (séance
A séance or seance (; ) is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word ''séance'' comes from the French word for "session", from the Old French ''seoir'', "to sit". In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, spe ...
, automatic drawing, spirit channeling
Channeling, or channelling, may refer to:
Science
* Channelling (physics), the process that constrains the path of a charged particle in a crystalline solid
* Metabolite or substrate channeling in biochemistry and cell physiology
Other
* Legal c ...
).
Locations
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
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
to piece together potential matches for the locations used in the show. The locations used in the show were:
Season 1 (2000-2001)
* Episode 1 – West Virginia State Penitentiary
The West Virginia Penitentiary is a gothic-style prison located in Moundsville, West Virginia. Now withdrawn and retired from prison use, it operated from 1876 to 1995. Currently, the site is maintained as a tourist attraction, museum, training f ...
* Episode 2 – St. Agnes Hospital for the Chronically Ill* (Real Location: Fairfield State Hospital
Fairfield State Hospital (as it was known from 1929 to 1963) or Fairfield Hills Hospital (as it was known after 1963) was a psychiatric hospital in Newtown, Connecticut, which operated from 1931 until 1995. At its peak, the hospital housed over 4, ...
, Connecticut)
* Episode 3 – Duggan Brothers Cement Factory
''Fear'' (promoted as ''MTV's Fear'') is an American paranormal reality television series that originally aired from 2000 to 2002 on MTV and spawned the genre. The program follows a group of five or more contestants who are left at an allegedly ...
* (Real Location: Ideal Cement Company, 6411 Ideal Cement Rd., Castle Hayne, North Carolina
Castle Hayne is a census-designated place (CDP) in New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 1,202 at the 2010 census, up from 1,116 in 2000. It is part of the Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Planters and sma ...
)
* Episode 4 – Hopkins Military Academy* (Real Location: Augusta Military Academy
The Augusta Military Academy (AMA) was a secondary education military academy in Fort Defiance, Virginia, United States. The school was established in by Confederate veteran Charles Summerville Roller as the Augusta Male Academy and formally becam ...
, Virginia)
* Episode 5 – Camp Spirit Lake* (Real Location: Camp NoBeBoSco
The Northern New Jersey Council was formed in January 1999 and serves Bergen, Essex, Hudson and Passaic counties as an effort to better serve the Scouting communities encompassed in these areas.
History
In 1915, the Ridgewood Council (#359) ...
, Hardwick Township, New Jersey
Hardwick Township is a township in Warren County, New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the township's population was 1,598, a decrease of 98 (-5.8%) from the 2010 census count of 1,696.
History
Hardwick Township was created around 1713 thro ...
) This episode is infamous for containing a completely fictionalized account of the Princess Doe
Dawn Olanick (August 5, 1964 – July 1982), previously known as Princess Doe, was a previously unidentified American teenage decedent from Bohemia, New York who was found murdered in Cedar Ridge Cemetery in Blairstown Township, New Jersey o ...
murder.
* Episode 6 – Buck Hill Inn
* Episode 7 – Eastern State Penitentiary
The Eastern State Penitentiary (ESP) is a former American prison in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is located at 2027 Fairmount Avenue between Corinthian Avenue and North 22nd Street in the Fairmount section of the city, and was operational from ...
* Episode 8 –
* Episode 9 – Fort Gaines
* Episode 10 – La Guerre Plantation* (Real Location: Desert Plantation, Louisiana)
Season 2 (2001-2002)
* Episode 1 – Mina Dos Estrellas: Pt.1
* Episode 2 – Mina Dos Estrellas: Pt.2
* Episode 3 – Hacienda Tabi
* Episode 4 – Ki Sugar Mill* (Real location Haʻikū Sugar Mill in Haʻi kū, Maui
The island of Maui (; Hawaiian: ) is the second-largest of the islands of the state of Hawaii at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2) and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is the largest of Maui County's four islands, which ...
, Hawaii)
* Episode 5 – Serenity Lake Sanitorium* (Real location King Edward VII Sanatorium in Kamloops
Kamloops ( ) is a city in south-central British Columbia, Canada, at the confluence of the South flowing North Thompson River and the West flowing Thompson River, east of Kamloops Lake. It is located in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, w ...
, British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
, Canada)
* Episode 6 – Boettger Brewery* (Real Location: Lemp Brewery
The Lemp Brewery was a beer brewing company established in 1840 in St. Louis, Missouri that was acquired by the Griesedieck Beverage Company in 1920, which subsequently became the Falstaff Brewing Corporation. The brewery complex property consis ...
, St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...
)
(* denotes locations where names are not the actual names of the location)
Music
The hard rock
Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...
band Godsmack
Godsmack is an American rock band from Lawrence, Massachusetts, formed in 1995. The band is composed of lead singer and rhythm guitarist Sully Erna, bassist Robbie Merrill, lead guitarist Tony Rombola and drummer Shannon Larkin. Since its forma ...
's song "Voodoo
Voodoo may refer to:
Religions
* African or West African Vodun, practiced by Gbe-speaking ethnic groups
* African diaspora religions, a list of related religions sometimes called Vodou/Voodoo
** Candomblé Jejé, also known as Brazilian Vodu ...
" was used as the theme song. For much of the second season, the song " First Day of Nowhere" by Sinisstar was used in the end credits.
References
External links
*
*
''Film Threat'' article
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fear
MTV original programming
Paranormal reality television series
2000 American television series debuts
2002 American television series endings
2000s American reality television series