ABOYNE – The Wellington County Museum and Archives lives in the “Poor House,” the oldest remaining rural House of Industry in Canada.
Luke Hutchie and Matthew Finlan will explore the building – and its rumoured connections to the supernatural – in a new CBC Gem series Ghosting.
The series follows Hutchie, from the horror show Ezra, and Finlan (also in Ezra and First Kill) as they take an off-script approach into their quest to discover if Canada’s most haunted places are truly haunted.
Fascinated with ghosts
Both actors are known exclusively for their work in the horror genre.
“I have always been fascinated with ghosts,” Finlan told the Advertiser.
He had grown up as a “theatre kid” and said that was how he got introduced to the paranormal.
“They say that every theatre has a ghost. So, from a very young age… I was like ‘ghosts are real, that’s cool,’” he said.
Finlan then began auditioning for roles that he said were for “scary, creepy, dark” characters.
Hutchie said he was born in the late ‘90s and through music videos and movies he watched, the theme was always dark.
“I just love the occult. I loved everything dark; horror has just been a thing [for me],” said Hutchie.
“I love horror and I love everything scary. I will only ever make things in this wheelhouse.”
Boat tour
The idea for Ghosting began in 2022 when Finlan and Hutchie were in San Francisco in “the heat of June” for a movie premiere for My Fake Boyfriend.
Finlan explained Hutchie did not realize Alcatraz was off the shore of San Francisco, but as soon as he knew, he was “hell bent on getting there.”
They did not make it to the island though, because those trips require booking six months in advance. They did however, get tickets for a boat tour, but things kept “going wrong.
“By the time we’ve made it to shore, we were killing ourselves laughing from all the things that went wrong, expectations versus reality, we had no place being in somewhere like Alcatraz,” said Finlan.
“Given the fact that we’ve done all of these scripted horror shows, wouldn’t it be hilarious if you saw us outside of the comfort zone of the scripted universe and in something unscripted, but in an actual scary place?”
The idea sparked Ghosting, a show where Hutchie and Finlan travel to scary places, but make the experience comical.
“We say that it’s scary stories for people who still want to sleep at night,” Finlan explained.
Ghosting
Built in 1877, the “poor house” was made as a place of refuge for the poor, homeless and destitute people in Wellington County.
Finlan and Hutchie were on the hunt for different haunted places to visit when they came across a video on TikTok by a content creator named Krista. Hutchie said Krista is a paranormal investigator in Ontario and is also featured in the series.
Krista went to the Wellington County Museum and Archives and from there, Hutchie and Finlan “dug deeper” and spoke with the owners of the museum.
“We really just deep-dived into the history,” said Hutchie.
“The really cool thing about the Wellington County Museum was that they allowed us to go into the basement, which is off limits to people who visit there,” Finlan explained.
In the basement of the museum, the two ghost hunters saw tunnels where bodies were stored at the Poor House before they were buried.
“There were corpses that would line these hallways. And then not only that, we were six feet below the earth. So, we’re at par with all of the bodies that are buried in the land,” said Finlan.
CBC Gem
Ghosting will premiere on CBC Gem for free on Jan. 26 will all episodes available at 9am.
Hutchie said leading up to the premiere, the two have “a few little fun tricks up our sleeves, as we always do.”
Guest stars to appear this season include: Katie Douglas (Ginny & Georgia, Level 16), Devyn Nekoda (Scream IV), Kevin Alves (Yellowjackets, Locke & Key), Bukola Ayoka (Robyn Hood), Frankie Grande (Big Brother), Jade Hassouné (Shadow Hunters), Zoe De Grand Maison (Riverdale, Orphan Black), Synthia Kiss (Canada’s Drag Race) and Hale Grande. Romi Shraiter (Ginny & Georgia) also appears as a surprise guest star.
The guest star in the case 107: Wellington County Museum episode will be Jade Hassouné, who will help investigate claims of the phantoms that “lurk in the dark.”
For more information visit cbc.ca and search “Ghosting.”
