Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi is best known for her larger-than-life personality on Jersey Shore, but her latest television adventure takes her far from the beach and into some of Canada’s reportedly most haunted locations - including two spots in Niagara Falls.
In Snooki: The Paranormal Rookie, the reality television personality explores the supernatural alongside a team of experienced investigators, including Canadian psychic medium Kevin Whitaker and occult expert and historian Missy Morrow.
We spoke with Whitaker and Morrow about the show.
For Whitaker, joining the series was a natural extension of work he has been doing for decades.
Morrow brings a different perspective to the group.
Alongside her interest in witchcraft and the occult, she is passionate about historical research and collecting unusual objects and stories.
She also works as a fashion designer and seamstress, creating costumes for drag performers, burlesque artists and other stage performers.
The series follows Polizzi as she learns the ropes of paranormal investigation, bringing her curiosity and belief in the supernatural to historic buildings and other locations with eerie reputations.
With Whitaker’s experience, Morrow’s historical knowledge and tech specialist Todd Thomas’s investigative equipment, the team sets out to explore the stories and unexplained experiences connected to each site.
The series is built around a side of Polizzi that audiences may not know as well as her Jersey Shore persona.
According to Whitaker and Morrow, her interest in the paranormal is genuine, and bringing that passion to television was a project that took time.
The series takes the team to locations across Canada, with each investigation offering a different setting and its own collection of stories.
This past Friday, an episode was released titled The Power Station, which was set at the Niagara Parks Power Station.
According to the episode synopsis, the investigation centres on the mystery of Annette Rankine and takes Polizzi and the team deep beneath Niagara Falls.
The episode features unexplained voices and a playful spirit, marking what the series characterizes as a turning point in Polizzi’s development as a paranormal investigator.
For Morrow, researching the power station involved digging into historical records, including old undertakers’ journals that documented deaths and burial locations in the Niagara area.
She said some of those records would eventually take on unexpected significance during a later investigation at Loretto Academy, which acts as the season finale, although she did not know the team would be visiting the convent when she first began researching the power station.
While researching people who had died in the area, Morrow came across entries in the records of Morse Undertakers that listed several people as having been buried in the convent yard.
At the time, she said, the references meant little to her because she was unaware that Loretto Academy would become one of the team's destinations.
That changed when the investigators arrived at the convent and Whitaker began describing impressions he associated with people buried on the property.
Morrow said Whitaker mentioned a name that she recognized from the historical records she had consulted while researching the power station.
For Morrow, the apparent connection between the two locations was one of the most surprising moments of the experience, linking historical research conducted for one investigation to impressions reported during another.
She went on to say the convent stood out among the locations she investigated because of the variety of experiences the team encountered there.
She described the property as a large complex with different areas, including the school, living quarters, gymnasium, recreational spaces and cemetery.
The setting presented a different kind of historical research challenge, with multiple buildings and uses to consider when exploring the stories associated with the property.
One of the most memorable moments for both Morrow and Whitaker came when they were using a device to communicate with spirits but didn't quite understand the messages coming through.
Morrow was also left stunned.
Whitaker described the experience as particularly striking because the team had previously encountered sounds they believed resembled foreign languages but had not been able to translate them.
He said having someone present who could understand the language made this investigation different from those earlier experiences. The stories offer a glimpse into the personalities behind the investigations, as well as the different experiences the team encounters while filming.
For Polizzi, the series represents an opportunity to pursue an interest that has been important to her for years, rather than simply revisiting the reality television format that made her famous. Whether audiences are drawn by the history of the buildings, the investigators' different approaches or the prospect of seeing Snooki outside her usual television setting, the series offers a new look at Canada's haunted lore.
Snooki: The Paranormal Rookie is available on Crave.
(Written by: Matt LeBlanc)