'BuzzFeed Unsolved' Season 6 is so scary, one host "blacked out with fear"

After six seasons of looking for ghosts, you would think the hosts of BuzzFeed Unsolved would be immune to a scare or two. And that is partially true, hosts Ryan Bergara and Shane Madej confess to Inverse. But while shooting the newest season finale, Bergara says he was so overcome with fear, he completely blacked out.

“We go to one of the most famous haunted places in the world. The evidence we captured is one of the strongest pieces of evidence,” Bergara tells Inverse. “The season finale is the most scared I’ve been since the Sallie House. I feel like I actually suffered a serious mental break.”

On September 20, the same day internet denizens attempt to storm Alien 51 to “see them aliens,” BuzzFeed will premiere the sixth season of its hit supernatural investigation series, BuzzFeed Unsolved: Supernatural.

Bergara and Madej keep quiet on what (and where) the new season will investigate. But Bergara says the finale is a real helluva scream. “I blacked out with fear. I watched footage of myself later that I don’t remember. It felt like I was watching a different person.”

“I can confirm that as a witness,” adds Madej. “It’s very funny.”

Bergara, who started the show in 2016, is the “believer” out of the two, opposite Madej’s skepticism. But even Bergara says he’s become a bit tough over several years of making the series. “I feel like after six seasons I’ve gotten hardened. There’s a callous in my soul.”

“Shane says I don’t believe anymore, which is not true,” he says. “It’s just that we’ve been doing this for so long, what I didn’t have when we started was context. Every place we’ve walked into was the scariest place on Earth. Now, I have context to these places in terms of how they look, how they feel when we get there.”

He adds, “There is a place every now and then that will scare the daylights out of me and revert me back to day one of ghost investigating, and that’s apparent this season on multiple occasions.” Of the season finale investigation, “That place reignited the Ryan from three years ago.”

“As much as I’ve accused Ryan of walking back on his beliefs, I have smelled genuine fear on him this season in a way that I haven’t in a year or two,” Madej says. “His nerves were challenged.”

While Bergara is still a believer, Madej remains the eternal skeptic. “I’d love nothing more than to believe in ghosts,” he says. “I would like to see something with my eyes or something on film that is not loosely cobbled together.”

To Madej, most evidence by ghost hunters including even the ones Bergara and Madej have collected requires “a lot of mental gymnastics.” “I’m not trying to not see things,” he says. “But it’s gotta fit my criteria.”

Madej is more willing to believe in the existence of aliens than ghosts, but “alien life” is a broader definition. For example, aliens can be bacteria, rather than bipedal green men who come in peace. But neither Madej nor Bergara are willing to storm Area 51 with thousands of other people in the name of memes.

“Area 51 has always been a fascination with me,” Bergara says. “Would I go lead an assault? Probably not. I don’t want to get shot. That doesn’t seem like a fun way to spend an afternoon in the desert.”

“I do believe in aliens,” Madej says, “So, I understand. I don’t recommend people go there. I think that would be ill-advised.”

While the cases and locations for the new season of BuzzFeed Unsolved: Supernatural remain unknown until the episodes air, there are some pieces of new tech the “Ghoul Boys” are adding to their ghost-busting gadgetry. “It’s not a showstopper, but we incorporated a Mel Meter this season,” says Bergara, who adds that it’s a “popular tool” among the ghost hunting community.

Mel Meters, which can be acquired for relatively cheap — prices range from $99 to $180 on Amazon, here’s one for $240 on GhostStop.com — measure electromotive force, or EMF, as well as temperature changes in any room. 

In 2012, Gizmodo wrote that “Ghost hunters use the meters to look for spikes in the EMF signal, with the spikes suggesting a change in electrical current, and thus a spirit being,” but added “there is no firm evidence connecting the two.”

Says Bergara, “It’s just another tool in our toolkit.”

Meanwhile, Madej says “a sexy new rig” has been added to the show’s production, “which is really just a way of saying we stopped rubber banding cameras together. This new system is slightly more professional.”

Also: Spook-tacles.

“I bought on Amazon some night vision glasses that will hopefully allow me to see ghouls better,” Madej says. “I call them my ‘spook-tacles.’ I think they’re gonna be a staple in our inventory going forward. Ryan despises them.”

“I don’t despise them as much as I just think they don’t work,” Bergara says.

Says Madej, “They work.”

“Things look orange and it doesn’t add any luminosity,” argues Bergara.

“Ghosts show up in them,” insists Madej.

Says Bergara, “No they don’t.”

BuzzFeed Unsolved: Supernatural premieres September 20 on YouTube.