Line #35 Series/AHaunting


1	->''"In this world, there is real evil in the darkest shadows and in the most ordinary places. These are the true stories of the innocent and the unimaginable. Between the world we see and the things we fear, there are doors. When they are opened, nightmares become reality."''
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3	''A Haunting'' is a ghost-related DocuDrama series airing on the Creator/DiscoveryChannel from October 2005 to November 2007 and resuming October 2012 on Destination America. Each episode features a story that [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory may]] [[BasedOnATrueStory or]] [[BlatantLies may not]] be grounded in reality. The story is reenacted by actors on camera and interviews with the eyewitnesses are featured in the hour-long program. The locations and intensity of any given haunting varies from episode to episode. Sometimes features [[SpookySeance Spooky Seances]] and [[SpiritAdvisor Spirit Advisers.]]
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6	!!The show ''A Haunting'' shows examples of the following tropes:
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8	* AbandonedLaboratory: Featured in several episodes.
9	* BigFancyHouse: [[SuspiciousVideogameGenerosity Usually at low, low prices.]]
10	* CatScare: In "Demon Child", the older daughter is briefly startled by her pet cat.
11	* ChristianityIsCatholic: Averted. Catholic priests do appear to perform exorcisms, but other types of ministers also help combat the hauntings.
12	** We've also seen clergy members from numerous other belief systems. In one rare instance, the victim in question called in a pair of ''Wiccan'' priests to perform a cleansing. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, it only made things worse.]]
13	* CreepyBasement: This comes with the package if your house was a funeral home, as the family in "The Haunting in Connecticut" learns.
14	* CreepyCemetery
15	* CrossOver: One of the episodes, "Gateway to Hell," features the location of Bobby Mackey's Music World. This location has been shown in multiple other paranormal investigative features, including ''Series/GhostAdventures''.
16	** The Johnson family in the episode "Echoes of the Past" were also featured in the ''Series/GhostHunters'' episode "Shadow People".
17	* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Often used as backstory.
18	* CuteGhostGirl: Or at least Cute Young Adult Ghost.
19	* DeathOfAChild: A lot of the ghosts are children, but a more prominent example is in "A Haunting in Ireland" where the ghost in question was a baby that was killed because his mother wasn't married.
20	* DemonicPossession: Several of the episodes have some form of this. In the episode "The Exorcism of Cindy Sauer", this happens to the titular Cindy and it gets to the point where her son loses his faith because of it. Unfortunately, while the entity was exorcised, it still keeps coming back.
21	* DontGoInTheWoods: In "Dark Forest", the family buys a house located in the New Yorkan countryside, surrounded by forest.
22	* ElectromagneticGhosts: In most of the episodes, ghosts mess with amplifiers, televisions, radios, drills, cars, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking toys.]]
23	* EldritchAbomination: Some of the demons that are shown approach this, if not nearly completely embodying it.
24	* EvilDetectingDog: Well, they don't always detect evil, but the pets of the haunting victims are always the first to know there's something off. This usually doesn't end well for the animals; in one episode, a horse had to be put down, and in "A Haunting in Georgia", the family dog ran away and the family never found him.
25	* [[HollywoodExorcism Exorcism]]: Usually, in some form or another. It's easier to count the episodes where one ''doesn't'' happen, however, it has varying levels of success. In one episode, they use a smudging instead of an exorcism.
26	* ExtremelyDustyHome: Or dirty home. This tends to happen when a place sits abandoned for a long time.
27	* FootprintsOfMuck: In one episode, the owner of a haunted house found black footprints going from floor to the walls and to the ceiling.
28	* GhostlyChill: Occasionally.
29	* GhostlyGoals: More often than not, the ghosts have something tying them into the living world. However, this played for a bonus when the some of the ghosts remain in the living world to ''protect'' the haunted from a much worse entity and, in another episode, even a baby can have one, as he wanted a mother.
30	* GhostStory: The premise of the show.
31	* HauntedHeroine: Or Hero.
32	* HauntedHouse: About half the episodes are set in houses, including both of the pilot episodes. The rest are set in a variety of locations, including cemeteries, bars, and even a haunted apartment. On rare occasions, it's the people ''themselves'' who are haunted.
33	* HauntedHouseHistorian: They pop up in a lot of the episodes.
34	* HumanoidAbomination: Some of the ghosts and demons when they make themselves known or seen border if not embody this trope fully.
35	* IndianBurialGround: The cause of a number of hauntings from the show.
36	* ISeeDeadPeople: Four or five of the episodes feature children who are shown conversing with the [[MonsterOfTheWeek Ghost of the Week]].
37	** Several episodes also deal with people coming to accept their ability to see dead people.
38	* JumpScare: Comes with the nature of the show.
39	* LivingShadow: Some of the hauntings feature this, but the eponymous BigBad in "The Shadowman" embodies this to a T.
40	* MamaBear: Weirdly enough, we get this from a ''ghost'' in "Sallie's House" when the ghost of Sallie's mother attacks the husband of the family, not of the mother, because, according to the psychic, the husband wouldn't accept Sallie (he didn't believe in ghosts).
41	* MonsterClown: One of the illusions that a haunted house creates to scare its owner's child's friend is a phantom clown.
42	* NotSoImaginaryFriend: The episodes "Demon Child" and "A Haunting in Georgia" have the parents thinking that the entities their kids talk to are imaginary friends. They're dead wrong.
43	* OurGhostsAreDifferent: In one episode, the haunting didn't come from any passed on, actually, it came from the haunted herself, where the {{poltergeist}} came from her unaddressed mental health.
44	* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Man from "Demon Child" looks oddly vampiric with his utterly pale skin and disturbing facial features. He's apparently some sort of ghostly vampire that becomes stronger by corrupting young victims into malice. Whatever he is, it's very clear that the consequences of failing to get rid of him with this trope in mind [[EnfantTerrible could be]] [[WasOnceAMan dire indeed.]]
45	* SpookyPhotographs: Used to tell what is present in the house.
46	* StringyHairedGhostGirl: Several have been shown, usually demonic.

Context Series / AHaunting