Paranormal Lockdown is a paranormalreality television series that was executively produced by Nick Groff, formerly of Ghost Adventures. The series follows Nick Groff and fellow paranormal researcher Katrina Weidman (formerly of Paranormal State) as they confine themselves for 72 straight hours in what they claim to be some of the most haunted locations.
The first season aired on Destination America from March 4, 2016 to April 8, 2016.[1] The second season aired from December 16, 2016 to March 3, 2017 on TLC.[2][3] On November 20, 2018, it was announced that season three would premiere on December 4, 2018, returning to Destination America.[4][5][6] On February 14, 2019, Groff announced via a video Instagram post that Paranormal Lockdown would not be returning.[7][8]
Premise
The series features Nick Groff, a paranormal investigator who is "on a mission to discover something new in the paranormal field", and paranormal researcher Katrina Weidman who both spend 72 hours together in reportedly haunted places. Groff and Weidman believe that "the longer they stay, the more the spirits will communicate with them and the more information they can gather about the unknown".[9] The opening introduction for the show is:
72 hour confinement...in the most haunted locations...in search of groundbreaking evidence.
Reception
Investigator Ben Radford states that the claims of living 72 hours in a haunted house as some sort of a challenge is "absurd." People all over the world claim to live in haunted locations, apparently longer than 72 hours. Before you can claim you are living in a haunted house, "ghosts must be proven to exist", a claim that the paranormal community has yet to prove. There are many methodological problems with their investigative techniques, according to Radford. "They fail to properly investigate and verify their assumptions at virtually every step, making leaps of logic and guessing far beyond the evidence". Lockdowns like what you see on this reality show are using ineffective techniques with equipment not meant to be used for this purpose, to look for something that has not been proven to exist or even defined. "A stakeout (such as these) is essentially a scientific experiment without the science". Completely lacking in controls. "Groff and Weidman... are walking around a house with a camera crew, literally and figuratively in the dark. The only things they're testing are their video editors' endurance and the patience of their viewers. These 'reality' television shows are entertainment, not investigation."[10]
In this two-hour Halloween special, Nick and Katrina travel to Yorkshire, England to investigate the Black Monk House, claimed to be haunted by a poltergeist. They are joined by paranormal researcher and demonologist John Zaffis.
Nick and Katrina go behind-the-scenes, showing viewers how they spent 72-hours locked down inside New York's Hinsdale House where an exorcism was performed.
Nick and Katrina go behind-the-scenes of their 72-hour lockdown at Kentucky's Anderson Hotel, a former hotel that turned into a flophouse which closed in 1987, where several suicides are said to have occurred.
Nick and Katrina go behind-the-scenes of their 72-hour lockdown at Franklin Castle, a Victorian mansion built in 1860 that's claimed to be "one of the most haunted houses in America".
Nick and Katrina go behind-the-scenes of their 72-hour lockdown at Randolph County Infirmary, a former poor house built in 1852 and burned down, then turned into an infirmary and nursing home until it closed over a century later.
Nick and Katrina go behind-the-scenes of their 72-hour lockdown at Monroe House, claimed to be "the most haunted house on Monroe Street", where they unearth skeletal remains in the crawlspace.
For 72 hours, Nick and Katrina confine themselves in the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, West Virginia, including Ward F, the Women's Auxiliary Building and the Medical Building's morgue.
In their 72-hour lockdown, Nick and Katrina are the first guests to spend the night at the old Anderson Hotel in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky since 1987, when the then-flophouse permanently closed its doors.
Nick and Katrina spend 72 hours in the Franklin Castle in Cleveland, Ohio, a Victorian mansion built in 1860 that's claimed to be "one of the most haunted houses in America". They claim to hear a voice pleading for help they believe to be the original owner, Hannes Tiedemann's dead wife, Luise.
Nick and Katrina travel to rural Winchester, Indiana to spend 72 hours inside the abandoned Randolph County Infirmary. This former poor house was built in 1852 and burned down, then it turned into an infirmary and nursing home until it closed over a century later.
Nick and Katrina spend 72 hours in the Hinsdale House in northwestern New York. They claim to see flies, feel choking sensations and have mind tricks played on them.
Nick and Katrina spend 72 hours in the Kreischer Mansion, built in the late 1880s by Bavarian immigrant Balthasar Kreischer, who also built mansions for his sons, Charles and Edward. .
Nick and Katrina spend 72 hours in Indiana's Monroe House, where they claim ghostly happenings and evidence of ritualistic occult activity have spooked the homeowner.
Nick and Katrina spend 72 hours in England's HM Prison Shrewsbury, which opened in 1793 and is said to be the site of 220 years of public executions, suicides, and tragedy, including the prison's last hanging of a possible innocent inmate in 1961.
Nick and Katrina spend 72 hours in the historic Oliver House, an estate built in 1769 by loyalist Dr. Peter Oliver Jr., who was banished from the home by a mob during the American Revolution. The house has supposedly been the location of children's deaths and a plague that wiped out most of the Wampanoag population out in the woods.
Nick and Katrina spend 72 hours in the St. Ignatius Hospital in Colfax, Washington. Built in 1893 by the Sisters of Providence. This former facility is currently an abandoned building.
Nick and Katrina spend three days in the Bellaire House, built in 1909 by miner Jacob Heatherington. The home was passed through the family until his descendant Lyde, who died here. Her brother Edwin, devastated by her loss, hired mediums to contact her.
Nick and Katrina travel to Buffalo to spend 72 hours in the Statler City Hotel and try to make contact with a lonely young woman who committed suicide by jumping out of an 8th floor window in 1947.
Nick and Katrina spend 72 hours in one of New Jersey's historical homes, White Hill Mansion, built by original owner Robert Field in 1722. In its nearly 300 year history, the house has been a battlefield hospital for Revolutionary War And Civil War soldiers, a bordello where two prostitutes were killed, and a speakeasy for mobsters who dumped their victims body in the nearby Delaware River. They claim to make contact with Samuel, the Field family's young son who died there.
After Nick and Katrina found human bones in their first lockdown at the Monroe House, they thought the case was closed. Now they return to explore further.
^Radford, Ben (2017). Investigating Ghosts: The Scientific Search for Spirits. Corrales New Mexico: Rhombus Publishing. pp. 38–41, 57, 95–95, 175. ISBN9780936455167.
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