Luke Hutchie and Matthew Finlan embark on a second season of hilarious paranormal investigation in Ghosting
After an inaugural season hunting the paranormal in Ontario, the second season of Ghosting with Luke Hutchie and Matthew Finlan takes their show on the road. “Buckle up your Birkenstocks,” cracks Matthew Finlan. “We get to go to the best of the best across the country.” This includes encounters with ghosts inside Tucket Mansion in Hamilton, Lunenburg Academy in Nova Scotia, historically preserved mines on Bell Island in Newfoundland and the Caribou Hotel, in Carcross, Yukon. “It was the epicentre of the Gold Rush,” explains Luke Hutchie. “It’s just this little random box building filled with dead people, but it’s so historically relevant and I think the show merges these things together with a really funny twist.” The twist is, of course, are the famous friends that the duo drag along for the ride. “We have Canada’s Drag Race superstar, Priyanka, Percy Hynes White from Wednesday, Joel Oulette from Trickster, Veronica Slowikowska, who is an incredible comedian. Nikki Roumel and Humberly González from Ginny & Georgia, Jordan Connor from Riverdale and Krista Nazaire from Hardy Boys,” lists Hutchie. The more elusive guest stars were somewhat harder to corral. “Fortunately, we’re going to energetically charged places,” says Finlan. “So, this season the ghosts were a little less of a diva. They chose to show up for us.”
What were the lessons learned from the first season that you applied to season two?
Luke: There’s never enough Red Bull to get you through an investigation.
Matthew: The biggest thing is, we learned the importance of understanding the lore of why this place is haunted or what went down here that allows people to think that. Also, especially with season two being cross country, how we can showcase the entire country in a way that really has not been seen before. With the locations that we go to, and the cast this time around, we’ve really upped the ante as far as what you can expect and learn about Canada.
What have become your favorite elements of the show?
Matthew: I love taking our guests, who are normally open to the paranormal but have never had the experience that Luke and I have, and introducing them to our tools and our techniques. It’s always so exciting. It’s like when you give a gift to somebody on their birthday and you’re more excited to give the gift.
Luke: I also love that the guests never know where they’re going. They literally don’t know anything. These people got in a car, on a plane, on a boat, no questions asked, and then they find out that they’re going to a mine and they’re like, “What do you mean? I’m going 400 metres underground?” And we’re like, “Surprise!” A lot of those elements have grown and expanded so much from season one. But this season is the things you loved about season one, but elevated to the max.
Are you still bringing your own friends along?
Matthew: Yeah. They’re not always friends when they leave the investigation, but they definitely start as friends.
That’s amazing. What makes for a good guest-slash-friend?
Matthew: I think anybody who’s willing to join Luke and I in a haunted house, you’re already a great guest. But there are certain qualities I think that make for a better guest, and that’s having a strong opinion either way, if you’re a believer or a skeptic, because that gives us good ammo to be like, ‘I want to convince you to join my team.’
Luke: I love the personality change of the episodes. It is such a funny thing to watch the guests essentially guiding the investigation based on how they respond. When you have someone like Priyanka who is her, you know what I mean? She’s going to be Priyanka even in a haunted house. Or you have someone like Krista, who is so scared. Like, if there’s a bump and she knows she made the bump, she’s still going to jump. Whereas Priyanka is like “Ghost, do you want to touch me?” It’s just such a different energy and I think that’s what makes the show so unique. And, in season one, the guests never knew where they were going, but they found out off camera. This time we show you them finding out what it is. We have Humberly González walking into a crazy huge mansion — a seance house, where one of the prime ministers came to talk to his dead relatives. And she’s just like, “My mom’s going to kill me. I need to leave.”
Is the paranormal good with production schedules?
Luke: I mean, well, the ghosts are union, so we do typically have them on contract.
Matthew: Yeah, it’s tricky. We tend to go overtime a lot with the spirits, so that’s hard on the budget.
Luke: The way the show is set up, we tend to allow enough time for things. We do film for 10 hours. And we’ve never had nothing happen.
Matthew: What actually tends to happen is, we’ll be in the room, we’ll have the cameras going, we’re using the device, getting some results, and then as soon as we wrap up, somebody will be like, “Wait, did you see that? Or did you just touch me?” And it’s like, “Of course, we’re dealing with the paranormal and they are so finicky about when they choose to show up or not.” So, some of the most compelling things I’ve experienced have been off camera, but that still makes me feel like these locations are very haunted.
Is the lesson here that there are literally ghosts everywhere and you just have to choose cool locations?
Luke: I think any old place has a story. And any old story has the dead, and with the dead you can always assume there’s a ghost. But with the tools that are brought in or the strategies that are employed, we allow the opportunity for whatever is there to present itself in ways that are maybe unconventional, but seems to have worked out in our favour.
What do you do when literally nothing happens? Talk me through the tap dancing of still making a TV show.
Luke: I put on a wig and lay on the floor of a cabin with Kevin Alves and I tried to seduce the ghost. In the episode with Jordan Connor, there was a room at the Fort Museum place where nothing was really happening. And I had a gimmick, like, ‘Okay, we’ll dress everybody up as soldiers to see if we can get the ghost to rock the chair.’ There’s these little things in place if really nothing’s going on. My logic is to piss off the ghost.
Aggravating the paranormal seems like a really good idea.
Luke: I bought a demon in a box and we opened it.
I’m sorry, you purchased a demon? Is there a shop?
Luke: Girl, you would be surprised how easy it is to get. They’re a hot commodity. People are just buying boxes and saying there’s a demon in them and being like, ‘Here’s a $2 million box that has one of the pharaohs of Egypt.’ It’s very bizarre.
Matthew: It’s kind like weddings, how you can find someone who’s going to provide you everything you need for a wedding. There are paranormal distributors that will give you everything you need.
On a semi-serious note, this is a really wonderful opportunity to bring Canadian history to viewers through this very unique avenue. What have you learned?
Luke: I learned that my great-uncle died on the Titanic while filming season two of the show. So I definitely learned a lot about myself. But I also think CBC, with this show, understands the importance of representing the country’s talent, and it also promotes the country and all these parts of Canada you would never see otherwise. You’re really taking a dive into what makes Canada, Canada.
Matthew: in terms of the history of the country, it’s so funny. We often dive into the war of 1812, but I think something that always surprises me is how, as a country, we really did fight to be what we are today for our freedom, for the space, for what we know to be truly Canadian — especially as we head into the west coast of the country, which we got to explore this season. I didn’t realize how many American rebellions there were trying to take over our land. Do you know what I mean? And we defend ourselves every time.
Are these dead soldiers you’re now trying to communicate with?
Matthew: What do you need? We got it all. Yeah. We have the first Canadian to die in an automotive accident.
Are you casting spirits for season three now?
Luke: Oh, always. Honestly, I’ll be the next one.
Matthew: You joke, but with all the items Luke keeps buying and bringing onto the show, I’m sure there are spirits that have been following us around. Luke keeps talking about how the doors are locking in his apartment. I think Luke’s getting more convinced as we keep going. Next season, you’re going to be the one telling me ghosts are real.
Luke, are you still a skeptic? Is that why you’re buying boxes of spirits? Because you don’t ultimately believe it is real?
Luke: If I buy a demon in a box, you better believe I’m going to see a demon. You know what I mean? And I don’t think that’s unrealistic. If I buy a can of paint, I expect paint to be in the can. So I’m not being unreasonable here. But with this season, I definitely go on a journey and you see me have to push my own understandings of what I believe. But until I’m levitating in the air, I need The Exorcist to happen, you know?
Ghosting with Luke Hutchie and Matthew Finlan premieres on Friday, March 21, on CBC Gem