The Newkirks Announce Latest Project: “Hellier”, a New Series About High Strangeness in Kentucky

There are places where reports tell of creatures from ancient caves, odd lights are seen in the skies, and visits from shadowy entities are common. John Keel called these places “window areas”, locations both damned and enchanted, where intelligences from beyond our reality crept into existence.

Hellier is a documentary about one such place.

When Greg & Dana Newkirk weren’t busy tracking down haunted artifacts, presenting museum exhibitions around the country, or assisting clients with cases, they were quietly working on a documentary series about one of the strangest cases they’ve ever tackled as paranormal investigators.

HELLIER is a five-part, cinematic documentary series following an investigation into unsolved mysteries, impossible synchronicities, and a web of high strangeness which stretches from the heart of Appalachian coal country. Driven by a plea for help from a man under supernatural assault, a small crew of paranormal researchers, led by the Traveling Museum of the Paranormal & Occult’s Greg & Dana Newkirk, find themselves in a dying coal town, where a series of strange coincidences leads them to a decades-old mystery with far-reaching implications.

The project is a culmination of hundreds of hours put in by a small handful of people who believed so strongly in the series that they turned down television opportunities, shared top secret case files, and worked round the clock to create something riveting and beautiful that could be viewed by the widest possible audience.. for free.

Everything about Hellier was researched, investigated, produced, shot, edited, scored, designed, and very soon, will be released by under a dozen people. Hellier is a labor of love, and an answer to what paranormal television can – and should – be.

Hellier releases worldwide, free-of-charge, on Friday, January 18th, at 12:01 AM EST. For more information, be sure to subscribe to Planet Weird on YouTube, follow Planet Weird on Facebook, and visit the official website at Hellier.tv.

“HELLIER” EXPLORES UNSOLVED MYSTERIES, UFO SIGHTINGS, AND HIGH STRANGENESS IN THE HEART OF COAL COUNTRY WITH FIVE-PART DOCUMENTARY SERIES – ALL EPISODES STREAMING JANUARY 18TH

CINCINNATI, OHIO – JANUARY 7, 2019– Planet Weird presents HELLIER, a five-part, cinematic documentary series following an investigation into unsolved mysteries, impossible synchronicities, and a web of high strangeness which stretches from the heart of Appalachian coal country. Driven by a plea for help from a man under supernatural assault, a small crew of paranormal researchers find themselves in a dying coal town, where a series of strange coincidences leads them to a decades-old mystery with far-reaching implications. HELLIER premieres all episodes on Friday, January 18th at 12:01 AM ET on multiple streaming platforms.

In 2012, paranormal investigator Greg Newkirk was contacted by a frightened man named David, who claimed that small, humanoid creatures were emerging from a long-abandoned mine shaft on his rural Kentucky property. After enduring a series of nightly assaults by the strange entities, David shared a collection of stunning photographs of three-toed footprints – and even the creatures themselves. Then, David disappeared.

In the years that followed, the case only became stranger for Newkirk and his wife, Dana, as they fielded more emails from mysterious figures and tracked down historical leads from Appalachian locals. Then, in 2017, prompted by an impossible synchronicity, director Karl Pfeiffer and fellow investigator Connor Randall rendezvoused with Greg and Dana to unravel the dangling threads of the mystery once and for all. They travel into the shadows of the Appalachian mountains, to the source of it all, where a dwindling town named Hellier buries its secrets in the ancient caverns deep beneath the earth.

Aided by reluctant locals, cutting-edge parapsychological methods, and a trail of breadcrumbs left by occultists and UFO researchers decades before, the investigators uncover a mystery with frightening and far-reaching implications: the phenomena is bigger than Hellier, and someone – or something – has noticed them.

HELLIER is a cerebral documentary series that, for the first time in the history of paranormal-based television, doesn’t shy away from the true strangeness or complexity of the phenomena. With a rare anamorphic vérité format that puts the viewer in the middle of the experience, HELLIER changes the rules for what paranormal television can – and should – look like.

All episodes of HELLIER premiere free of charge on Friday, January 18th at 12:01AM ET on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Vimeo, and Hellier.tv. Check out Hellier.tv for episode descriptions, downloads, detailed series information, behind-the-scenes looks, and special features. Follow @WeirdHQ and #HELLIER for more exclusive content and updates.

HELLIER is produced by Planet Weird. Executive producers for Planet Weird are Greg Newkirk and Dana Newkirk. HELLIER is directed by Karl Pfeiffer and co-produced by Connor Randall.

About Greg & Dana Newkirk

GREG NEWKIRK (Executive Producer, Cast) is one of the world’s only full-time paranormal researchers, and has spent the last two decades tracking down and investigating cases of the strange and the supernatural, and conducting groundbreaking research on everything from alien abduction phenomena to poltergeist hauntings. Greg is also the co-founder of the Traveling Museum of the Paranormal & Occult, the world’s only mobile museum of the unexplained, and his work in the fields of cryptozoology, parapsychology, and paranormal research has seen him featured on hit shows like Travel Channel’s Mysteries at the Museum and Animal Planet’s Finding Bigfoot.

DANA NEWKIRK (Executive Producer, Cast) is a practicing hedgewitch with well over two decades of experience in seeking out the strangest cases of the unexplained. Dana began her career by forming the first-ever all-female paranormal investigation team in the late 90s, the subject of SPACE’s Girly Ghosthunters series. In 2013, she co-founded the Traveling Museum of the Paranormal & Occult, for which she serves as head curator. When she’s not conjuring up conversations with phantoms on hit television shows like TLC’s Kindred Spirits or Destination America’s Paranormal Lockdown, Dana can be found giving tarot readings, interactive lectures, and hands-on workshops to packed houses across the country, sharing her expertise on everything from divination, to conjure & rootwork, to practical magic.

About Karl Pfeiffer & Connor Randall

KARL PFEIFFER (Executive Producer, Director, Editor, Cast), has always been passionate about the mysterious, uncanny, and supernatural in the world around him. In 2009, he won the first season of Syfy’s Ghost Hunters Academy and went on to appear on Ghost Hunters International. While serving as the Resident Paranormal Investigator of Colorado’s famously haunted Stanley Hotel for five years, he directed and edited the web series Spirits of the Stanley for the Dark Zone web network and conducted 250 investigations on the property. He is also a portrait and conceptual photographer based out of Northern Colorado, a freelance filmmaker, and he’s the author of two fiction books.

CONNOR RANDALL (Co-Producer, Cast, Score) is a musician and paranormal researcher. When he’s not working his seasonal job at the Colorado State Capitol, he’s often found touring the country and banging his drums in the downtown Denver scene with his punk-rock band, The Ghoulies. As a Resident Paranormal Investigator for The Stanley Hotel, he was also featured in Spirits of the Stanley and, alongside Karl, became iconic for his work seemingly channeling spirits through their original viral experimental Spirit Box technique they dubbed The Estes Method.

About Planet Weird

PLANET WEIRD is the hub for some of the most diverse and groundbreaking projects in the world of the unexplained, reaching millions of viewers globally every year. From the immersive city-hopping experience of the Traveling Museum of the Paranormal & Occult to Week in Weird, the world’s most-read destination for supernatural news, Planet Weird is the pulse of the paranormal.

The Planet Weird website is located at weirdhq.com. Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/WeirdHQ and Facebook at facebook.com/PlanetWeirdHQ.