{"id":15297,"date":"2020-10-28T09:00:17","date_gmt":"2020-10-28T13:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev2.worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2020-10-29T09:05:09","modified_gmt":"2020-10-29T13:05:09","slug":"investigating-the-paranormal-with-painless-productions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/investigating-the-paranormal-with-painless-productions\/","title":{"rendered":"Investigating the Paranormal with Painless Productions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jim Casey, CEO of Painless Productions, talks to <\/em>TV Real about <\/em>The Holzer Files, which is launching its new season with a special Halloween week premiere on Travel Channel.<\/em><\/p>\n

Often referred to as the \u201cfather of the paranormal,\u201d Hans Holzer\u2019s four-decade exploration into hauntings such as the Amityville Horror house has had a lasting impact on pop culture. His work helped create legions of supernatural enthusiasts, more than 120 books and even inspired Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis to write Ghostbusters<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Holzer\u2019s paranormal mysteries are explored in-depth in The Holzer Files<\/em>, which is launching its new season with a special Halloween week premiere on Travel Channel. The show, from Painless Productions, follows a dedicated paranormal team\u2014led by paranormal investigator Dave Schrader, psychic medium Cindy Kaza and equipment technician Shane Pittman\u2014as they revisit Holzer\u2019s most captivating cases with the help of his daughter, Alexandra Holzer, and researcher Gabe Roth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our never-ending search for what\u2019s next in the paranormal genre, my team reached out to Alexandra Holzer, the daughter of America\u2019s first paranormal investigator, Hans Holzer,\u201d recalls Jim Casey, CEO of Painless Productions, on the series\u2019 origin. \u201cAlexandra mentioned she was in possession of several boxes of old films, audio recordings and journals from her father\u2019s hundreds of paranormal investigations. We immediately developed four or five possible creative directions for the series, one of which I took to Matt Butler at Travel Channel. I\u2019d barely begun pitching when Matt stopped me; he got it instantly. Few people understand the genre like Matt.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew when we greenlit The Holzer Files<\/em> we had something special on our hands, but we didn\u2019t realize just how much of a paranormal Pandora\u2019s box we\u2019d opened until we started filming,\u201d adds Butler, general manager of Travel Channel. \u201cThe freshman season of this series was an immediate hit and reached nearly 10 million viewers. Hans Holzer was a prolific chronicler of hundreds of ghost hunts, preserving everything from photographs, case notes, letters, film footage and chilling audio recordings from his interview subjects and trance mediums. Most of this material has never been seen before, and we\u2019re just getting started.\u201d<\/p>\n

Casey says he knew the series was a hit, but what surprised him most was the instant social media support it received. \u201cThe paranormal community is protective of their favorite shows, and I expected some harsh criticism from fans of other series\u2014even my own,\u201d he tells TV Real<\/em>. \u201cBut I was (happily) totally wrong. The response was overwhelmingly positive. Then, something amazing happened between seasons one and two: we located another massive cache of Hans\u2019 recordings we never knew existed. We\u2019ve now got terrifying cases to reinvestigate for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Premiering on October 29 at 11 p.m., the second season comprises 13 new one-hour episodes. It follows the team on the haunted trail of legendary cases\u2014from an elegant mansion in New York City, home to one of the world\u2019s most infamous hauntings, to the historic Maryland tavern that hid John Wilkes Booth after he shot Abraham Lincoln. The premiere episode, \u201cPhantom Hand,\u201d takes viewers back to 1963, when the Todd family of Cleveland encountered a ghastly hand reaching toward them from the basement door in their Mason Court apartment.<\/p>\n

\u201cParanormal programming asks what might be the only truly universal question: is there life after death?\u201d Casey says. \u201cI believe paranormal is also popular for the same reason true crime is popular: you\u2019re helping the audience unravel a mystery. In true crime, the murder is just the beginning; we also need to learn why and by whom. It\u2019s the same with paranormal programming; establishing that a location is haunted is only step one. I think producers and networks that recognize this are the ones who succeed most in the genre.\u201d<\/p>\n

The genre has evolved over the years, he notes, and The Holzer Files <\/em>takes a fresh approach. The series \u201cgave us the opportunity to tell origin stories, connecting cases from the beginning of modern paranormal research to the present-day reinvestigation of the same hauntings 50 to 60 years later with updated methods and technology,\u201d says Casey. \u201cI believe paranormal shows need visual style and good scares, but strong storytelling and organic investigation techniques will always be critical to growing the genre.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall, he says that Painless Productions looks to tell stories that are \u201ccompelling and entertaining,\u201d and The Holzer Files <\/em>fits the bill. \u201cWe constantly remind ourselves of what we all learned in 5th grade: character, conflict, plot, theme and resolution,\u201d Casey says. \u201cA good-looking show is never enough. Regardless of the genre, keep the story always moving forward to keep viewers dying to know what\u2019s next.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jim Casey, CEO of Painless Productions, on Travel Channel’s The Holzer Files.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":350,"featured_media":15298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,69],"tags":[5201,4698,5202,108],"class_list":["post-15297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-profiles","category-top-stories","tag-jim-casey","tag-painless-productions","tag-the-holzer-files","tag-travel-channel","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nInvestigating the Paranormal with Painless Productions - TVREAL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/investigating-the-paranormal-with-painless-productions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Investigating the Paranormal with Painless Productions - 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