Actors and friends Matthew Finlan and Luke Hutchie are taking their show Ghosting national.
The hosts of CBC Gem’s paranormal investigation series are gearing up for the premiere of Season Two, featuring their own call to The Ghost Files, hosted by former BuzzFeed personalities Ryan Bergara and Shane Madej.
“Yep, all the ghosts from coast to coast,” Finlan said during a March Zoom conversation. “It’s really incredible, some of the locations we got into—because Canada is big. I don’t know if you’ve looked at a map recently, but it’s huge.”
Season One focused on Ontario haunts, including the Olde Angel Inn in Niagara-on-the-Lake, the historic Stormont-Dundas-Glengarry Jail in Cornwall, and the Orillia Opera House. Season Two, however, provided an opportunity to explore Canada’s diverse history, which excited the duo.
“It’s an awesome way to showcase the country’s history, but not in a staunch, textbook way,” said Finlan, a Peterborough, Ontario native. “It’s through our specific POV, and we also get to bring along an amazingly talented friend whose résumé is loosely tied to the location in a way that makes them thematically applicable.”
By thematically applicable, Finlan means that each guest has a connection to the location through a character they’ve played in a horror, thriller, or reality series. For example, Yellowjackets actor Kevin Alves joined them in Season One as they investigated the McDonald Log Cabin in Alliston, Ontario. Similarly, Scream VI’s Devyn Nakoda, who played Anika Kayoko and had a harrowing run-in with Ghostface on a ladder, investigated the ghost of a child who fell to his death from the stairs of Castle Kilbride in Baden, Ontario.
Joining them for a lively Season Two are Joel Oulette (Trickster), Veronika Slowikowska (What We Do in the Shadows), Percy Hynes White (Wednesday), Nikki Roumel (Ginny & Georgia), Humberly González (Tarot), Jordan Connor (Riverdale), Krista Nazaire (Hardy Boys), and Priyanka, the winner of Canada’s Drag Race.
This season’s investigations take them to haunted sites across the country, including the Caribou Hotel in Carcross, Yukon; the Tuckett Mansion in Hamilton, Ontario; the Bell Island Mines in Newfoundland; Craigdarroch Castle in Victoria, B.C.; Lunenburg Academy in Nova Scotia; Fulford Place in Brockville, Ontario; Kingston’s Fort Henry; and the Kawartha Settlers’ Village in Bobcaygeon, Ontario.
Diversity is key to the show, as the hosts aim to highlight lesser-known histories tied to each location. During their investigation with Nazaire at the Kawartha Settlers’ Village, they uncovered a true crime story involving a gay love triangle.
“It was really cool to be modern-day, out-loud-and-proud ghost hunters,” Finlan said, adding that it was the first crime they investigated on the show. “It was awesome to be there, to give permission to his spirit to be himself, to communicate with him in a really open way, and to say, ‘Listen, you were alive in a really scary time, and that was probably one of the reasons you’re stuck in this trauma loop. We’re here, we want to get to the bottom of it, and we come with no judgement.’”
Finlan and Hutchie also lean into the skeptic-versus-believer dynamic on the show, but Hutchie clarified that he’s not a James Randi-style skeptic.
“It’s not that I don’t believe in ghosts or anything beyond or the afterlife,” Hutchie said. “It’s more like—things don’t scare me. So, when you say, ‘It’s haunted,’ I don’t necessarily feel that it’s real.”
He referenced old home videos of Ed and Lorraine Warren’s investigations, where chairs move on their own, and suspects trickery is involved.
“I am down for it. I eat it up. I buy it. I watch it. You have me. I will see every Conjuring movie there is,” he said. “But when it comes to real life, I want to experience it myself. I don’t give a fuck that you heard the faucet leaking when you know that faucet’s been broken for a hundred years.”
At the end of each episode, the duo and their guest determine whether or not the location they visited is haunted. Finlan hopes this inspires others to explore—without trespassing—their curiosity about the paranormal.
“I really hope audiences are inspired to get some tools of their own and go out to explore some places because that is true to the name of the show,” he said. “We realized there’s no verb for ghost hunting. When you go out on a dance floor, it’s called dancing, but when you go ghost hunting, it’s always just ghost hunting. It needs a name.”
Thus, Ghosting was born. Season Two premieres on CBC Gem on March 21. You can also catch Finlan in Finn Wolfhard’s directorial debut, Hell of the Summer, due out April 5.