Where was 'Truth Seekers' shot? Hospitals to abandoned schools, the scariest locations on the Amazon Prime show
Amazon Prime’s horror-comedy 'Truth Seekers' will bring back the acclaimed duo of funnymen — Nick Frost and Simon Pegg. Fans of the two stars who have relished the pair's great comedies like 'Shaun of the Dead' and 'The World's End' are expecting a lot from this eight-episode series. At the heart of the series lies a team of paranormal investigators who join forces with one another to uncover the mysteries and ghost sightings in the United Kingdom.
The trailer of the film bodes well in sending some chills in the spine with not only ghostly encounters but eerie and quaint settings. From haunted churches, underground bunkers, secret doors, abandoned hospitals to auditoriums and schools, the film is shot at some of the spookiest spots in the UK. Here we try to decode these places.
Auditoriums: 'Don't go upstairs, it's full of asbestos'
Nick Frost, the lead protagonist of the series and also one of the creators of the show, has enthralled fans with the scary settings that have been used in the show. An October 9, 2019, picture that Frost posted on his Instagram shows a staircase with a door sending a warning "keep the door closed at all times". The picture can give goosebumps as it depicts an apparent bombarded place with scraping paint from the wall and the roof.
This reminds us of the scene in the trailer where ghost investigator Elton John (Samson Kayo) is about to open a door that has a similar dangerous warning saying "DO NOT ENTER". That door is however different from the picture that Frost shared but there is ample possibility that doors do have significance in the show. Moreover, it makes us wonder if Elton has any connection with doors as they are emblematic of pathways in two dimensions — the real and paranormal world.
So this analogy of doors is worth eyeing in the series. It is revealed by Julian Barratt (Dr Peter Toynbee) that one of the scenes in the series was shot in an auditorium that looks similar to what Frost posted in his Instagram post.
"In the auditorium, all the paint’s peeling off or crumbling, and we ended up in here and there was this room upstairs which we snuck into, where we shouldn’t have been. We were obviously told by production "don't go upstairs, it's full of asbestos" and we just did. Those locations are really scary, especially if it's miles away from anywhere."
When hospitals trigger the fear of death
While hospitals personify the healing and well being of people, the show seems to have debunked this notion. It has used the imagery of hospitals to engender fear. This is evident from pictures where another ghost chaser Astrid (Emma D’ Arcy) is seen encountering supernatural and dreadful figures while she is on a hospital bed.
Further, the trailer shows many snippets of ghastly creatures inside a vacant gloomy hospital passage. Giving a peek into what these hospitals actually look like, Rick Frost posted a picture in September 2019 that shows hospital beds, probably the same one used by Astrid.
Julian Barratt (Dr Peter Toynbee) said, as reported on the website BT, that shooting in abandoned hospitals is always the scariest setting. "I remember once we were filming in an old, abandoned hospital and there were lots of rooms with strange equipment and weird mechanical arms, and sort of old rotting bathtubs. Obviously, you’re sort of thinking 'what on earth went on here? What is this place?'"
Nick Frost too recalled, “Hospitals too were kind of creepy. I wasn’t afraid of ghosts, I was afraid of radiation! Were there rays hanging around? Thousands of people must have died in that hospital."
Shredded wheat factory and creepy schools
UK is known for its quintessential places that accentuate the charm of its milieu. However, the series as it appears from the trailer and previews encapsulates mystery in these old buildings. Besides that, the film was shot in some strange places like an old shredded wheat factory and an abandoned school for deaf children.
Malcolm McDowell (Richard) reportedly told BT about shooting in the factory, "A lot of the stuff [I filmed] at the end of the series was shot in an empty, disused shredded wheat factory in Welwyn Garden City. That was pretty weird. That alone was ghostly. It was this huge empty place. To see this great space, the size of four football fields, where thousands of people must have worked, it was sort of sad. How much shredded wheat could one possibly consume?"
Nick Frost recalled shooting in an abandoned school for deaf children: "There was this maze of cellars and rooms under it, which were really creepy. There was a sign on the wall as you descended into this dark abyss that said 'all children must be accompanied by an adult'. It was kinda creepy."
Truth Seekers creates an enigma with its strikingly horrifying and lonely places. Some of the other places that Nick Frost shared on his Instagram include October 1, 2019, post captioned "#Truth Seekers". The picture shows a vacant passage with a bicycle.
In another picture, posted in the same month in 2019, there is a small chamber with white whitewashed and stone bricked walls and a window at the end. An October 22, 2019 picture gives us another glimpse and this time of shooting at night. The picture shows white bright light emerging from the green woods with some crew members standing on the left.
While not much is revealed in the trailer, one would like to see how all these gloomy places amplify the show’s appeal. 'Truth Seekers' is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video from October 30.