INTERVIEW: ‘Destination Fear’ returns with scary new adventures
Photo: From left, Chelsea Laden, Alex Schroeder, Dakota Laden and Tanner Wiseman explore the Twin Bridges Orphanage in Twin Bridges, Montana. Photo courtesy of Travel Channel / Provided by Discovery with permission.
The paranormal adventurers Chelsea Laden, Alex Schroeder, Dakota Laden and Tanner Wiseman have returned with new episodes of their reality series Destination Fear, airing Saturdays at 9 p.m. on Travel Channel and streaming on discovery+. On the show, the team head around the nation and explore various abandoned places that may or may not have supernatural resonances. They are like Mulder and Scully on The X Files, heading to these locations with open minds and seeing how they can learn a few lessons about history and the limits of their own fear.
On the premiere episode, which aired Nov. 6, the team headed to a novel location: an orphanage, specifically Twin Bridges Orphanage in Twin Bridges, Montana.
“We’ve actually never been to an orphanage before, so it was a first for us,” Dakota said in a recent phone interview. “There are a couple takeaways, but the overall feeling there was completely different. There was a lot more sadness in the air. I felt that we were all able to relate to the location a lot more just because we are such close friends and family. … It was so active and so creepy. The whole time we were there we knew what we were dealing with was children, for the most part, but we had heard about this dark, negative entity that seems to haunt the entire property, that will randomly show up at times. Almost the entire night we didn’t really experience it, but there was a certain point in the night where we did experience this darkness. And what we captured to go along with it I think will really creep people out.”
On future episodes, the Destination Fear team head to Old Nazareth Hospital in Mineral Wells, Texas; Phelps Dodge Hospital in Ajo, Arizona; and Nevada State Prison, among other places. Perhaps the most exciting addition to the season comes in the finale episode, which takes them to Ireland and Spike Island, which is sometimes billed as “Ireland’s Alcatraz.”
“When you go to an asylum, especially a prison, you feel unwanted,” Alex said about the differences in the locations they explore. “You feel a lot of negativity. This [orphanage] was different. We didn’t feel peaceful because I never got that sense, but you did feel sad. The entire time there was a lot of empathy in the air.”
Chelsea said that the Twin Bridges Orphanage presented some unique challenges for the crew. For starters, the sprawling campus of the orphanage includes many buildings spread out over tons of acres, so there were some logistical hurdles. “So this was a very big location to cover,” she said. “Just looking at the blueprint, I remember when we opened the package, I was like, oh my gosh, it’s huge.”
For Tanner, these adventures with his friends remind him of their early ghost hunting days when they were children. They would often head out and explore abandoned places, trying to test the limits of their fear and see what type of “evidence” they could gather. That childlike wonder is now a main part of Destination Fear, and it makes the reality series distinct amongst other paranormal programming. They are not investigating like other shows; instead, they are experiencing.
“We have done this since we were kids,” Tanner said. “We love going to abandoned buildings, and we just find them really, really cool. We love the history that goes along with it because the buildings are all so unique. Some of the history is just absolutely terrible, but the story behind it is fascinating. To be able to go into these buildings that are very, very, very old, it’s just so much fun. We heard stories about some of our favorite buildings actually about to get demolished, and we’re just super-bummed to hear about that. The basis of the show is going to abandoned locations, so if these places start being destroyed, we have no place to go.”
For Chelsea, the experience of taking the show overseas to Ireland was a game-changer. The United States has history, but nothing like other parts of the world. And when the team heads to creepy-sounding Spike Island, they have a lot to contend with as far as the hundreds of years of stories that could resurface.
“When you go into a building that has so much history, it’s a different kind of experience,” Chelsea said. “It really allows you to learn a lot about that specific area or country. … I think it’s really important to preserve some of these structures, especially these buildings that have a pretty historic medical history. I think it really is important to preserve part of our history. Just like Tanner said, seeing some of these buildings destroyed, it is kind of disheartening. It is something that we really enjoy doing, and it gives me a whole new perspective into our history. When you can actually walk into a building, it’s just so different than reading it in a textbook.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Destination Fear features Chelsea Laden, Alex Schroeder, Dakota Laden and Tanner Wiseman. New episodes air Saturdays at 9 p.m. on Travel Channel and are available to stream on discovery+. Click here for more information.
