Kindred Spirits: A haunting chat with Amy Bruni and Adam Berry

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A Television Show Is Born

1428 Elm: How did Kindred Spirits start?

AmB: Well, it was really a natural progression for us because we made a mutual decision to leave Ghost Hunters. We wanted to focus on what was next in our lives. The idea of a show wasn’t really why we left.

However, as soon as word got out that we were leaving, a lot of people started approaching us about shows. Adam and I put our heads together and thought, if we could do any show, what would we want to do?

And that’s how Kindred Spirits was born. It was this idea of, you know what, we spent ten years on Ghost Hunters confirming hauntings and walking away.

How about we confirm that haunting and then we fix it and figure out the why? And we went in and pitched it and they totally got it! It was such a relief because you hear about these horrible pitch meetings but they were just in it 100%.

So, it has always had this very warm feeling about it. I have to give a shout out to Ben because he thought of the name.

Kindred Spirits – Ghost Hunters – Courtesy of SyFy

AdB: Yes, he did. My husband came up with the name because he thought it just fit us and it fit what we were doing; helping families and everything. It’s a term for family and people that are connected in that kind of way.

And really, I don’t know if you remember the Waverly Hill episode of Ghost Hunters when we were communicating with some of the nurses with knocks, THAT for us was profound. We were like there is more to this than verifying and that planted a little seed for us.

The Waverly Hills Effect

1428 Elm: Both of you have investigated numerous hauntings. Do you have a favorite? What was the most active place or the place that frightened you the most?

AmB: It’s got to be Waverly Hills for me. I had a very powerful experience there. We went there for this season and I even looked at Tina, the owner, and said, “I don’t know if I’m ever going to come back here.” And she was like, “You’ll be back. It’ll call to you, you’ll be back.”

I was genuinely…I wasn’t terrified but it was one of those life altering experiences where it just kind of shakes you to your core and that’s what happened to me at Waverly this time. That’s notched itself straight up into my craziest experiences and probably the most haunted place I’ve ever been in.

AdB: That’s a really hard question because we had so much time between seasons 2 and 3, that we had to gather the most important cases and the ones that needed the most help. When we went to these cases, they all seemed important.