The Haunting of Sunshine Girl

The Haunting of Sunshine Girl
Genre Horror
Created by Nick Hagen
Starring Paige McKenzie
Mercedes Rose
Adrienne Vogel
Seth Renne
Maxwell Arnold
Rhyan Schwartz
Christopher Toyne
Kyle Stehura
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 12
No. of episodes 658
Production
Producer(s) Nick Hagen
Mercedes Rose
Paige McKenzie
Location(s) Oregon
Washington
Running time ca. 2 min.
Production company(s) Coat Tale Productions
Distributor YouTube
Broadcast
Original channel YouTube
Original run December 10, 2010 – present
External links
Website

The Haunting of Sunshine Girl is a web series that is broadcast on YouTube. The series was created by Nick Hagen and Mercedes Rose, and it is produced by Coat Tale Productions. Professional actors comprise most of the cast. The name of the main actress remained unknown until 8 of June 2013 in order to protect her from online stalkers.[1] After using the pseudonyms Sunshine Girl and Frances Jones she revealed her real name was Paige McKenzie. Also starring in the show are Mercedes Rose (Kat), Maxwell Arnold (Nolan), Seth Renne (Uncle Tommy) and Adrienne Vogel (Victoria). The series is filmed at Hagen’s home in Vancouver, Washington[1] and other places in Washington and Oregon.

The show premiered on YouTube on December 10, 2010. In October 2011 there were already four seasons (playlists) and more than 230 episodes with an average length of two minutes. The YouTube channel called hauntedsunshinegirl has 25,000 hits a day and from December 2010 to October 2011 there were more than 4.3 million total hits.[1]

The Haunting of Sunshine Girl tells the story of a teenage girl documenting the paranormal activity in her house. She uploads the short episodes on her YouTube channel.

Plot

Season #1: The Original Haunting

When Sunshine Girl and her mother (Mercedes Rose) move into a new house, Sunshine Girl begins experiencing paranormal activity. She decides to document her experiences in order to prove to her mother that the activity is real. Later, a strange woman (Adrienne Vogel) shows up at her house and warns Sunshine that the house is not safe. Meanwhile, the paranormal activity grows and gets more intense.

Sunshine receives a photograph of a man and a girl, both with bags over their heads, along with a note reading: "They are watching you." Later, the two ghosts show themselves. The strange woman returns to give a box to Sunshine Girl, warning her not to open it. The box seems to stop the haunting, but it has a foul odor, and Sunshine and her mother open it. The ghosts return, worse than before. One of the ghosts attacks Sunshine Girl, keeping her locked in a bathroom, while the other ghost burns the strange photograph.

Sunshine Girl asks the mysterious woman for help. Using a smudge stick, the stranger purifies Sunshine's house. The ghosts vanish, and Sunshine's mother finally believes they were real.

Season #2: The Oregon Coast Road Trip

This season has more of a documentary feel, featuring interviews with real people, while continuing the plot. Sunshine and her mother take a roadtrip to Oregon in search of more haunted places. Along the way, Sunshine meets Anna, one of the ghosts haunting her house. Sunshine Girl records strange EVP and hears a voice say "don't trust her."

Season #3: The Cult and the Demon

After returning home, Sunshine Girl begins a search for her father. She finds an address that her mother was keeping from her, and, believing it might be her father's new home, she visits the place only to learn that it is a frightening abandoned house. Inside the house, she finds a copy of the same photograph of the man and girl, who she now knows are the spirits haunting her house. While returning home, a strange man tries to kill her. She hits him with her car, only to have him stand up again. Finally she escapes.

Sunshine discovers that her mom is possessed by a demon. She finds a local paranormal expert that is calling himself "LeMaster" (Rhyan Schwartz) and a medium called Alistair (Christopher Toyne). Alistair visits the home, where his mouth begins to bleed. He warns Sunshine not to trust her mom. Furious, Sunshine's mom orders the medium to leave. Later, Sunshine calls Alistair, only to learn that he has died.

Meanwhile LeMaster discovers that two ghosts belonged to a cult. The members have to sacrifice their first-born daughters to a demon—the same demon that has possessed Sunshine's mom. LeMaster does not want to become involved in this haunting and rejects Sunshine's pleas for help.

Desperate, Sunshine uses her ouija board to contact the spirits. At that moment, the mysterious woman returns, revealing that her name is Victoria. She shows Sunshine the place where the cultists sacrificed their daughters, and tells Sunshine that the only way to save her mom is by pretending to sacrifice herself.

During the sacrificial ceremony, the demon appears. Victoria tries to protect Sunshine, but the demon cuts her throat. Victoria disappears.

While Sunshine waits in the rain with a bag sheltering her head, the man from the abandoned house appears, removes the bag, and tells her that the demon cannot take her because she is a luiseach: a person with paranormal powers used to fight evil. After the man has gone, Sunshine's mom and Uncle Tommy (Seth Renne) find her. In the next video Sunshine reveals that her name is Frances Jones.

Season #4: Paranormal Powers

At the beginning of Season 4, Nolan, a 19 year old boy, learns that Sunshine Girl is a luiseach. Nolan persuades Sunshine to stay a night in his grandmother's haunted house. There they meet Frederick, a very violent and dangerous ghost. With Victoria's help, Sunshine delivers Frederick from being a ghost and ends the haunting.

Sunshine finds another anonymous letter in the mail showing a warehouse. Sunshine and Nolan go there, but can find nothing—until they see a man driving away. The man appears to have followed them.

Nolan tells Sunshine that he hears voices. He invites a paranormal expert to go to Sunshine's house, but the expert turns out to be LeMaster. Nolan's voices tell Nolan that LeMaster is evil and is after Sunshine because of her luiseach powers. Nolan, terrified and desperate of protecting Sunshine, shoots LeMaster, who at first appears dead. Suddenly he stands up and threatens Sunshine with a demonic voice. Nolan and LeMaster both disappear.

Nolan begins to appear and disappear in Sunshine's house. Sunshine searches for any evidence that Nolan really existed, but even Nolan's grandmother does not remember him. Sunshine returns to the photograph of the warehouse and finds a hidden message reading 3 a.m.. At 3 AM, Sunshine, her mother, and Uncle Tommy go to the warehouse, where they meet Victoria. Victoria tells Sunshine that Nolan is an awaken - a person that had a Near Death Experience and after that has paranormal abilities such as Astral projection. She then tells Sunshine after they find Nolan that her father was a luiseach, but he turned over to the Markons and turned evil.

Sunshine finds an 8 mm film in her garden. This film shows a girl being sacrificed by a strange man and a woman Sunshine recognizes as Victoria. The season ends with Sunshine meeting the ghost-girl Anna. She removes the bag from Anna's head, finally revealing that she is the sacrificed girl from the film.

Season #5: Stranger Turns

Victoria suddenly shows up to ask Sunshine if she still trusts her. Sunshine answers: "Not really." Despite of that Victoria gives the ceremonial knife to Sunshine and asks her to sacrifice her once she has to. Then one night Sunshine hears her mother screaming and Sunshine went downstairs and Victoria showed up telling Sunshine that she needs to know the difference between what is real and what is paranormal. Later, Victoria introduces Sunshine to a man that is claimed to be her mentor. Sunshine experiences lots of paranormal activity. Nolan visits Sunshine's house and tells her that he had a dream when Sunshine's father had a demon on a leash and he kept on repeating, "We're coming to get you!" A third ghost shows itself in one of her videos. She has a white dress and her hair is almost completely over her face. The paranormal activity in the house is getting worse, and in one video Uncle Tommy spit up that compost again and was bleeding from his face. Victoria comes and says that she wants to do another ritual (the first ritual was the sacrifice) but this one involves burning the house down. Sunshine has also confirmed that they are moving. Victoria returns and tells Sunshine that she was not a Luiseach but a normal teenage girl (which may be hinted that Sunshine's powers were possibly removed for her safety). The Markons had decided to forget about Anna and she did not need Sunshine's help any more. The seasons ends with Sunshine and her mom moving out of the house.

Season #6: The Cabin in the Woods

For Sunshine's high school graduation, her mother decides to take her to a "haunted" cabin in the woods. They stay in the cabin for a few days and they start experiencing paranormal activity going on. Sunshine then finds a guest book to the house that contains a name that says that the ghost wants his dog Rex. They later on go outside and they find a metal gold box that contains the dog, Rex in it. It turns out that Rex is a stuffed animal dog. Later on they leave the house for a little bit to get away from the ghost. They come home and the dog is on a bed upstairs. A few nights later the lights go out and there is crazy stuff happening. The boy was not found but he touched Sunshine. Then they leave.

Season #7: The Haunted River House

In this less spooky, more humorous season, Sunshine meets Nolan's mom, who says that she knows of a haunted house that Sunshine should check out. Also, the "paranormal investigators" from The Investigation of Haunting of Sunshine Girl keep calling her. They meet up at the haunted river house and they check it out but not that much happens. At the end they do however find out what causes the so-called hauntings.

Season #8: A New Haunted House

Sunshine and her mom Kat have moved to a different house, but they are still experiencing paranormal phenomena; voices coming from the ventilation system and kitchen drawers opening by themselves. When Sunshine visits Nolan in his new apartment, the ghost seems to have followed her there. In one episode the haunting is more intense than in previous seasons and episodes, and Kat is briefly possessed. Sunshine discovers that the ghost speaks Latin.

Halloween Special: A Halloween Haunted Adventure!

In this Halloween special, Sunshine girl, Kat and Nolan visit a haunted house. When they arrive, they find the door open, with a note indicating that the owner have fled from the house. They go inside anyway and look around, which turns out to be a bad idea, especially for Nolan.

Season #9: Nolan is missing then found

Since the Halloween events, Nolan is missing. Sunshine is worried about him and starts to investigate. She meets Nolan's brother Colin, who is also looking for Nolan. She tricks Nolan in showing up, using some psychology, after which Nolan en Colin become rivals for Sunshine's friendship. In the meantime minor paranormal activity takes place - Anna the ghost is playing with the lights and the Latin speaking ghost makes himself heard - but the focus of this season is on Nolan's en Sunshine's friendship.

Season #10: Answers about the ghosts

Season 10 is much longer than the previous seasons, and consists of 86 episodes. The seasons can be broken up into different parts, set in different locations, but all having the same underlying theme; Sunshine learning about ghosts and learning to control and use her luiseach powers. The first part it set in Sunshine’s home, where paranormal activities are more prominent than before. The second part is set at the haunted house of a couple, Jamie and Patrick, who are not telling the whole truth. In the third part Sunshine and Nolan visit the haunted recording and sound editing studio of Marc, where they experience very strange and frightening phenomena. The fourth part is mostly set at Sunshine’s home again, followed by a part where Victoria takes her to a training house to further develop her skills. In the final part Sunshine, Nolan and uncle Tommy set out to find Sunshine’s father, which leads to a dramatic climax.

Found Videos

In this section, Sunshine Girl posts videos of paranormal activity that have been sent by fans or that she has found on the internet. The videos include popular myths and urban legends such as Black Eyed Kids or Slenderman.

The Investigation of The Haunting of Sunshine Girl

The Investigation of The Haunting of Sunshine Girl (included in season #5) is a video uploaded on 5/16/12 which is 14:15 long (filmed on March 10, 2012). A paranormal team tries to prove if Sunshine's ghost videos are real or a hoax. After a night of terrifying paranormal activity, the investigators flee the house.

The characters

Sunshine Girl (Paige McKenzie)

Sunshine Girl is a typical teenager and high school student. She likes collecting old things and listening to Vampire Weekend. She doesn’t have many friends, but she spends a lot of time with her mother or with her video camera. It is not until the end of Season 3 that she reveals a fake name to avoid any online stalkers, which is Frances Jones. Finally, she reveals her real name, Paige Mckenzie, due to participating in Seventeen Magazine's Pretty Amazing contest.[2]

Kat (Mercedes Rose)

Kat is Sunshine’s mom. She is very cheerful and funny, and she regards her only daughter as a good friend. Although she had interest in paranormal phenomena when she was young, she is a skeptic. Her relationship to Sunshine's father is an important point in the story's plot since she does not like to talk about that time of her life. Uncle Tommy tells Sunshine that Kat disappeared one day and came back later with a little child.

Victoria (Adrienne Vogel)

Victoria is a strange woman who earns the nickname “Creepy Lady” during Seasons 1 and 3. Her job is to protect Sunshine Girl and she shows up whenever Sunshine is in danger.

Uncle Tommy (Seth Renne)

"Uncle" Tommy is a family friend who is close to Kat and who has known Sunshine since she was a child. Sunshine is very close to him.

Nolan (Maxwell Arnold)

Nolan is a 19 year old boy. Ten years ago he had a near-death experience. Since then, he can hear voices, astrally project, and does not age. Although Sunshine Girl always states that he would not be her boyfriend, they build a very special relationship. He said he loved her but she never said it back, even though she probably does.

Background

In 2010 filmmaker Nick Hagen went to actress Mercedes Rose with the idea of a web-based show: Paranormal Activity meets Gilmore Girls with a little Easy A.[3] Mercedes Rose’s real life daughter would play the leading role. Sunshine’s house in the show is in fact the house of writer, producer and director Nick Hagen. Most episodes are filmed with a flip camera by the actors themselves with no script.

Reception

Critical

This format is probably best suited for this medium, even more so than the cinema screen, because it’s so intimate and intentionally amateurish in nature. It’s fairly well produced and pretty convincing, and Sunshine Girl herself is a nice enough hostess with the ghostest, so it’s definitely worth a haunting or two.
—Will Viharo, Placevine Studios [4]

Viewers

In October 2011 the YouTube channel hauntedsunshinegirl had 25,000 hits a day. That time there were more than 4.3 million total hits. Sunshine Girl’s Facebook page had more than 6,000 fans.

Many of the viewers originally thought that the videos documented actual paranormal activity and were furious when it was revealed to be fiction, with some people threatening the real-life actors or accusing them of being frauds.[3] Even when actress and producer Mercedes Rose was revealed to be a legitimate actress with an extensive filmography, some viewers still believed that the show was real.[1] Rose also mentioned fanatic haters who watched every episode obsessively: "They love to comment, debate, swear, send death threats and comment, debate, swear... over and over again." [5]

Since November 4, 2011, The Haunting of Sunshine Girl is an official show on YouTube. In November 2011 it was the number one show in the category "Science Fiction".[5]

Interactivity

The viewers can communicate with the character Sunshine Girl on her Facebook page and on YouTube. They can give her advice regarding the paranormal and can influence the plot. Sunshine Girl also has her own Twitter account where she regularly interacts with her fans.

Spin-Offs

Sunshine's World

Sunshine's World is another YouTube channel by Coat Tale Productions. There is no plot. Sunshine Girl just posts videos about her visiting a pumpkin farm, a shop in Portland or showing her posters to the audience. It is the vlog of an 18 year old girl. The last upload to this channel was February 20, 2013.[6]

Sunshine Screen Prints

In "Sunshine Screen Prints," Sunshine Girl shows her audience the basics of screen printing.

Uncle Tommy's YouTube Confessions

Uncle Tommy's YouTube Confessions is the first spin-off based on a supporting character of "The Haunting of Sunshine Girl". It is an interactive series in which the audience sends secret confessions via comment or email to "Uncle Tommy," which he and friends might then read on the show. Occasionally Kat or Sunshine Girl appear in Uncle Tommy's videos.

Feature films

Sunshine Girl and the Hunt for Black Eyed Kids

In November 2011, Coat Tale Productions started a Kickstarter project in order to fund a feature film, In Search of Black Eyed Kids. In it, Sunshine, her mom and other characters from the series will search for the mysterious creatures that have become an urban legend. Many of the fans were young people with limited donating power, eventually leading to the majority of funding coming directly from the cast, crew, and their families.[7] The project budget eventually totalled $11,000 USD.

In January 2012, the crew began filming in Portland, Oregon. The film is being produced in association with Lyon Films and also features actress Aparna Brielle.[8]

The production company had installed the homepage bekmovie.com. There they wanted to announce where the movie can be seen and how fans can win a trip to a screening with the main actress. The movie Sunshine Girl and the Hunt for Black Eyed Kids was released in December, 2012.

Three

In November 2013 an Indiegogo project was started to fund a second feature film, temporarily named Alone.[9] The project budget eventually totalled $2,480 USD. Coat Tale Productions was able to film the movie late January 2014.

The film centers around a girl stuck in a cabin with a ghost and it is set in the 1980s. Not much more is known about the film beyond that, including what the significance of the title Three is and why it is changed from the working title of Alone.

Release of Three has been delayed until further notice, because McKenzie's time was fully occupied by working on her book.

Book

In May 2014 the Weinstein Co. has closed a multiplatform deal to adapt the web series The Haunting of Sunshine Girl into both a YA book and a film franchise. Paige McKenzie wrote the book with co-author Alyssa Sheinmel. The book was released on March 24, 2015, by Weinstein Books as hardcover, paperback and e-book. [10] McKenzie will lead the YA film adaptation.[11]

TV show

In April 2015 Paige McKenzie revealed that ‘The Haunting of Sunshine Girl’ is set to be turned into a TV show, starring McKenzie herself. [12]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Vorenberg, Sue (2011-10-16). "Sunshine’s shadowy side". The Columbian. Retrieved 2012-08-16.
  2. ↑ "Seventeen Magazing Pretty Amazing 2013".
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 September 15, 2011 6:47 AM (2011-09-15). "Actors Are Liars (The Actors Voice - POV)". More.showfax.com. Retrieved 2012-08-16.
  4. ↑ http://www.placevine.com/blog/2011/11/11/“the-haunting-of-sunshine-girl”-paranormal-proclivity/
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Thank You for Hating - Unscripted - A Blog for Actors - Backstage". Unscripted.backstage.com. 2011-11-22. Retrieved 2012-08-16.
  6. ↑ "Sunshine's Vlog YouTube Channel".
  7. ↑ "I Hate Roller Coasters (Or, The Highs and Lows of Crowd Funding) - Unscripted - A Blog for Actors - Backstage". Unscripted.backstage.com. 2011-12-03. Retrieved 2012-08-16.
  8. ↑ Kaufman, Zachary (2012-01-10). "‘Black Eyed Kids’ sought for movie". The Columbian. Retrieved 2012-08-16.
  9. ↑ Alone - Feature Film Pre-Order - *Temporary Title, fundraising campaign website.
  10. ↑ "THE HAUNTING OF SUNSHINE GIRL - Book One". Weinstein Books. 2015-03-24. Retrieved 2015-03-25.
  11. ↑ "Weinstein Co. Adapting 'Haunting of Sunshine Girl' Web Series Into Book, Film Franchise (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reported. 2014-05-08. Retrieved 2014-07-04.
  12. ↑ "‘THE HAUNTING OF SUNSHINE GIRL': WHAT ARE YOU HOPING FOR IN THE SUNSHINE TV SHOW?". Maximum Pop!. 2015-04-29. Retrieved 2015-04-30.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Haunting of Sunshine Girl.