Destination Fear

Heard of Dakota when he was on Ghost Adventures & my friend told me about Destination Fear. I have watched all three episodes thus far and this last one was amazing. Best compelling evidence of the paranormal I have ever seen in any of the ghost hunting shows I watch. Definitely leaves you on your toes!! The realness that Dakota and his team bring makes it that much better.

I was very skeptical of this show before I started watching it, partly because it's produced by Zak Bagans who thinks every haunting is a demon and partly because Dakota and the team always seemed to be screaming in the previews. I finally decided to give it a shot and see how they go about investigating a haunting. I started with season two and was surprised to see they don't actually investigate. I think part of the reason there are so many negative reviews is because people expect the Destination Fear team to investigate the haunting but that's not what they're doing. They are going to these places to EXPERIENCE the haunting. There's a big difference between experiencing a haunting and investigating one. Once I grasped the main concept, I actually came to really enjoy the show. Granted, Chelsea can be very irritating because she screams at every little noise and it seems like every other word that comes out of her mouth is "like" or "literally". There was one instance where she said "like" six times within one sentence. And yes, they do scare easily and sometimes they run away but there are also times where they go towards a noise to see what made it. To be completely honest, there were a couple episodes that thoroughly freaked me out (particularly Sweet Springs Sanitarium) and they do catch compelling evidence. I highly recommend this show to anyone who wants to witness a haunting and not necessarily want to see how it's investigated. Try to look past the irritating speech patterns of Chelsea and the girlish screams and just enjoy their experiences. Also, it is hilarious every time Dakota gets frightened by his walkie.

Update: The newest season has given me hope. They are using more equipment. They are catching evidence finally. Chelsea is still a annoying but not as much. They still run around like kids before the investigation still. But during the investigation they have gotten better about it. Looks like zak bagans is setting up the new generation of ghost hunting.

They walk around the investigation sites like teenagers. They do not use any equipment, every once in awhile they use a recorder. The female screams and cries any time there's a noise. So you can't hear what's going on. They rarely do play backs, so you can hear it. When something does happen, they just freak out and move on. They do not go and investigate where the sounds or lights come from. I feel they are not true investigators, they treat this like an opportunity to get on TV.

One would think after doing this for years, their nerves might harden. Yet they are always screaming. While recording the undetectable, constantly screaming at every noise seems counterproductive. Gets really old, really fast.

The audience can barely perceive the sounds, because one second later, all they hear is "WHOAH", "NO WAY!", "DID YOU HEAR THAT?". And, the camera is always on their faces, never the surroundings. Perhaps they could use some lessons from wildlife photographers.

I get that it is "about fear", but the premise also states that the fear induces paranormal activity. Ok, we got fear captured, how about getting some of the paranormal on tape?

In one episode, they talk about their car being trailed for 2 minutes by a UFO, yet Dakota didn't get it on film. Can you imagine being a paranormal documentarian, and honestly admitting that? For 2 whole minutes, the holy grail was was right there, and neither of you tried to capture the moment? I call BS.

They get paid, receive exposure, and travel to do all of this... the moaning about it all seems disingenuous. Few dozen episodes in and lots of adventures; stop faking it.

Really enjoy the programme. Binge watched it on Discovery+. For those who are leaving negative reviews.... Lighten up! A group of young people trying too scare themselves witless. Interesting use of some technology that does get a response and unexplained. Take it for what it is and enjoy it.