If you want an enthralling documentary series that questions traditional beliefs of what is real and what isn’t, and also provides a combination of creepiness and binge-worthiness then Planet Weird’s “Hellier” is calling.
The five-episode installment explains the common parallels between the traditional paranormal and the phenomena of UFOs, and general high strangeness. What the film aims to do is see how these research genres and cultures connect, but by the end pokes at a much deeper human understanding about searching for the truth.
The Planet Weird research team led by Greg and Dana Newkirk are led on this wild chase that takes them to rural Kentucky after mysterious e-mails tip them off to an area of the country with abundant unexplained sightings especially “goblins” that live in caves. You soon realize whatever these things are have left tracks, physical (foot prints) and on the psyche of the town and those “harassed” by them. Upon further investigations, these “goblins” are described as what many would say looks like an alien. The mystery continues to unfold by pulling from all corners of the unknown, which plays to the theories that all paranormal experiences share commonalities.
The film has that “Blair Witch Project” feel at times, and has the production quality and tone of a made-for-SyFy TV movie, but with the on-the-ground real investigation aspect to it. The show starts off by really tugging at the imagination and curiosities of the viewers, which carries continuously throughout episodes 1-3. The last two episodes end anti-climatically in the sense there is no grand reveal, but maybe that is the lesson learned here; sometimes the journey is more exciting than the end result.
Ultimately, “Hellier” is about the synchronicities in this realm of research and life in general.
Watch here.
-By MIKE DAMANTE