Sometimes, a creepy museum of cursed artifacts is not merely a creepy museum of cursed artifacts. Sometimes it’s a real-life table of contents for terrifying, true stories. At least, that’s the case for the new horror anthology on Discovery+, The Haunted Museum, which debuted earlier this month, just in time for Spooky Season.

The nine-part scripted series is the brainchild of filmmaker Eli Roth and Las Vegas’ favorite paranormal investigator—and Ghost Adventures star—Zak Bagans.

“We just wanted to make this as scary as possible, to have viewers feel what the real people [who] were affected by these items went through,” Bagans says.

Each episode fleshes out the sinister backstory behind one of the many eerie items on display at Bagans’ popular Downtown tourist attraction of the same name, the Haunted Museum (600 E. Charleston Boulevard, 702-444-0744).

Of course when it came to filming, safety came first: “We had all of my real-life items made into exact replicas that they used [on set],” Bagans says. “I didn’t want to curse all the actors.”

The first episode, “Dollhouse of the Damned,” is inspired by the Westerfeld Dollhouse, itself a model of an infamous San Francisco landmark. According to Bagans, a psychic says the dollhouse contains a demonic portal. In the show, a grieving widower gives his teenage daughter the dollhouse. In addition to the awkwardness of an age-inappropriate gift, the father ends up being possessed by the toy. What happens next … well, you’ll just have to watch to find out.

In the universe of The Haunted Museum (both the show and the place), dolls, statuettes, mirrors and even rocking chairs have the power to alter the lives of mere mortals. It’s enough to steer fearful viewers away from estate sales and antique shops. Then again, brave fans have the option to see all the source material in real life at the show’s namesake museum.

And if you want more Halloween-time streaming, Bagans has you covered. As the featured star in the new season of the Food Network’s Halloween Wars (also streaming Sundays on Discovery+), Bagans creates the chilling challenges for teams of cake and sugar artists. He also has a two-hour special in which he and his Ghost Adventures team explore the supernatural elements of Nevada’s own Goldfield Hotel. That show, titled Ghost Adventures: Goldfield Hotel, is also available on Discovery+.

Delving into darkness: Zak Bagans talks seances, ghosts and … Cheetos?

What do you think about the Halloween season? It’s my favorite holiday of the entire year. We can embrace all things scary and just love to be scared. There’s no other holiday like it.

How do you personally celebrate Halloween? I always like checking out some of the haunted houses in town. I do like going down to the Museum with some select people and doing some seances. I love conducting seances; it’s one of my favorite things. Then I have the house I bought right next door to the Museum, which is called the Black House, and I do some of that stuff in there as well. Possibly some summoning of spirits for Halloween, but all private.

Are there any special Halloween offerings at the Haunted Museum this year? We’ve added these late-night flashlight ghost tours to the Museum, which enables everybody to come here with all the lights out. They can roam around the Museum by themselves with no guide. If you want to lock yourself in a room, you can lock yourself in the room with a Dybbuk Box. You can go down in the basement alone by yourself. That experience is newish, but outside of that, we’re open as usual on a reservation-only system through our website [thehauntedmuseum.com].

You’re always on the lookout for dark memorabilia. What do you still hope to find? I recently acquired a piece from James Dean’s [car] Little Bastard. We just unveiled that exhibit at the Museum a few days ago. That’s a piece that I always wanted but never knew existed. I never know what’s going to pop up, so I’m always keeping my eyes on auctions [and] headlines.

In your experience, what are ghosts? Our world and the spirit world are like two pieces of Swiss cheese. As you put those on top of each other and you slide them around, sometimes those holes will match up. It’s like a lightning bolt in Las Vegas—it doesn’t happen a whole lot. … That’s why we don’t have ghost experiences everywhere we go all the time, why [deceased family members] are not constantly there hanging out with you, flicking Cheetos at your head or something like that. …

My belief is [when] they have understood and accepted their death, they can then move on. There are other things in that doorway that are darker, just like in our life. … I believe there are some inhuman entities, as well.

Do you ever get tired of being scared and just want to go sit on a sunny beach somewhere? I won’t lie, I’ve definitely gotta have balance. I can’t absorb myself into all things scary, all things dark. … I’m very hypersensitive to energies, so I absorb a lot like a sponge. When I have too much ... I do have to go outside, I have to go into the sun, I have to go see pretty Mother Nature things. I don’t care if it’s a beautiful patch of green grass, or a nice walk near Red Rock [Canyon] with my dog. I have to cleanse that out. … But sometimes when I’m in that [light] for too long, I crave going back to the museum or being in a dark investigation.

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