After a flood of emails and phone calls from the people of Vernon and beyond, True North Paranormal is coming back to the Vernon Towne Cinema for another round of frightening footage.
TNP’s Paranormal Probe was first aired at the 90-year-old theatre on Aug. 21 but quickly sold out. Now, by popular demand, it’ll be aired again on Wednesday, Sept. 18 at 7 p.m. at the cinema.
“When we did the original airing we really had no idea what to expect, and it sold out within the first 30 minutes of the doors opening,” said Dean Trumbley, owner of Thunder Boyz Productions and producer of True North Paranormal.
“Sitting in an old, vintage-style theatre and watching a ghost-hunting show just added a whole experience for people and apparently it’s rippled across Canada now.”
The film was originally intended to be made into a TV series along with nine other paranormal films the crew has shot in locations throughout B.C. But after the popularity of the first Vernon Town Cinema airing, Trumbley and his team realized that the best viewing experience was with a bag of popcorn and a theatre atmosphere.
“It was totally by accident,” Trumbley says of the discovery. Born and raised in Vernon, Trumbley wanted to share the production to his home community, but wasn’t expecting the kind of response it received.
“I think we kind of stumbled across something,” he said. “The TV market is already pretty competitive and if we’ve got something kind of unique, why not do it? And everybody’s been responding very well to it.”
The film has been requested by theatres from across B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and even out east. Trumbley says the requests just keep coming in.
“Just this morning I signed on a theatre down in Cranbrook that wants to air it.”
Though the film is now set to be aired far and wide, it’ll be extra spooky at the Vernon Towne Cinema, as the film was shot in the vintage theatre.
With how quickly the film blew up the first time around, Trumbley and his team had to race to keep up with demand.
“We very rapidly had to get out motion picture distribution license and ratings for all the other provinces, and now it looks like it’s going to be kind of a regular thing happening in theatres.”
They secured their permanent distribution only two weeks ago.
“It was a pretty cool process, very fast, and now we’re all ready to rock and roll and distribute on a regular basis.”
Trumbley started out in the industry 10 years ago when he created the TV show Bushnell’s Trigger Effect, which has a distribution of a staggering 51-million people in Canada and the U.S. The success of that show led to Thunder Boyz creating True North Paranormal three years ago.
As was the case for the film’s debut, tickets will be $5 per person and doors will open at 6 p.m.
READ MORE: Paranormal film to debut in Vernon Towne Cinema
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