Weird, Wicked Weird: Two women, one new 'Supernatural' pilot

Photo courtesy of Esther Boyd

Katie Boyd, center, facing camera, films a pilot episode for "Supernatural Hotspots" in Portland.

- courtesy of Esther Boyd

Photo courtesy of Rayna Tolley

Katie Boyd, right, and Beckah Boyd are the hosts of "Supernatural Hotspots," a Web series they had been filming themselves before Wasted Minds Media of Portland partnered with the Boyds and filmed a pilot show in August.

- courtesy of Rayna Tolley

‘Supernatural' breakdown
A look at some "Supernatural Hotspots" webisodes to date:

Madam Sherri's Castle, West Chesterfield, N.H.

Antoinette Sherri was a wealthy, maybe eccentric woman who died in 1965. All that's left of her castle is a looming stone staircase and shallow stone walls.

"The energy here is just fabulous. If you're feeling down, Madame Sherri's is the place to be. It has a lot of residue, which is like playback. ... She is very present here, very present here. I can't wait to talk to her some more."

— Beckah Boyd, doing a reading on the site

Precious Blood Cemetery, Woonsocket, R.I.

With more than 28,000 people buried there, it didn't take long for the pair to pick up on activity and spirits.
"So that individual wants to talk to you?" — Katie Boyd

"They all want to talk." — Beckah Boyd

Rutland Prison Camp, Rutland, Mass.

The old state prison camp grounds were badly overgrown, and buggy. A blooper reel has Katie tripping, swearing and getting her first tick.

"You have fun being all Indiana Jones and hopping from rock to rock — I'll stay right here." — Beckah to Katie

For more, www.supernaturalhotspots.com
kskelton@sunjournal.com

 

They've done haunted houses hundreds of times, waiting in the dark for a noise, a shadow, an unseen hand to reach out. Now Beckah Boyd and Katie Boyd are ready to creep around during the day.

Katie, a demonologist, and Beckah, a psychic medium, filmed the pilot for their Web series "Supernatural Hotspots" in Portland in late August. Its premise: Investigate haunted, legendary or superstitious places — places the public can access — in broad daylight.

"It might scare the pants off of people, but places they can go if they're brave," said Beckah Boyd.

On their wish list to investigate in Maine: several forts, and wherever Bigfoot hangs out.

The Boyds (no relation to one another) work out of Manchester, N.H., and founded the all-women ghost hunters group Ghost Quest more than 10 years ago. That spawned a local access cable show that ran for almost two years.

Filmed with a road trip, ride-along feel, early episodes of "Supernatural Hotspots" begin with the pair in the car, a Darth Vader action figure in frame on the dashboard, talking about their destination.

"We've done so many private investigations where everything's always been very serious," said Beckah, 24. "So to be able to go out, josh around, have fun and see if we get anything — and invite people on that same journey — showing the lighter side of the paranormal is kind of the point of the show."

The ultimate goal is to land on cable TV. For the new series, she and Katie, 38, have promised guests. Vampire and witch guests.

‘True tests'

They'd filmed several webisodes, visiting Madam Sherri's Castle in West Chesterfield, N.H., and the Old Stone Church in West Boylston, Mass., before partnering with Wasted Minds Media in Portland to film a pilot and start anew with a slightly more polished look.

"The banter, the ‘oh my God, are we lost?' that's kind of fun; we liked that," said Jordan Scott, an intern at Wasted Minds Media.

Those older episodes, centered on New England, are already online, along with blooper reels. The format will stay the same, Scott said, with the women given a location but no background about what they might find there. A historian will come in at the end of an episode to confirm findings.

"It'll be a true test of their abilities," Scott said.

She hopes to get the pilot online this month. Once Wasted Minds has several new episodes under its belt, it will likely start pitching the series to networks.

Both of the Boyds work in the paranormal full time. Katie, a former corrections officer, is the author of "Devils & Demonology in the 21st Century." Beckah, a member of the American Tarot Association with a psychic consultation business, has a book out this fall, "Raising Indigo, Crystal and Psychic Kids."

They're also still active with Ghost Quest cases two to three times a week.

The paranormal TV marketplace is crowded right now — "Ghost Hunters," "Ghost Adventures," "Destination Truth," the new "Ghost Lab" — but Katie said she believes they fill a unique niche, particularly by basing the series on two women.

"There's too many shows out there that the public can watch, but they can't really interact; they can't experience it," she said.

They both like the idea of showing off sometimes little-known historical places, she said, as well as setting the record straight. Not every reported demon is really a demon.

But, she said, some are.

Up next: For Halloween, the Sun Journal follows Katie and Beckah as they film an episode at an allegedly haunted night club in Maine. Things that bump and grind in the night? Just wait and see.

Weird, Wicked Weird is a monthly feature on the strange, intriguing and unexplained in Maine. Send ideas, photos and disco zombies to kskelton@sunjournal.com.