Anthony Head

Vampires, Demons, Werewolves, Witches, Zombies. Supernatural creatures which have criss-crossed our nightmares for centuries. But are they just figments of our imagination? Is there some basis in truth that might explain why these stories are so wide-spread, so familiar, and for many, still so frightening?

Anthony, who for years played the character Giles alongside the fictional Buffy The Vampire Slayer, embarks on a series of extraordinary journeys around the world to investigate. Vampires in the Carpathian mountains of Transylvania, Demons in the Syrian desert, Werewolves in the forests of France, Witchcraft in Zululand and Zombies in Haiti - across the globe Anthony uncovers the facts behind these legends. What he discovers is that, beyond the Hollywood images, lie some very dark, very disturbing tales; stories that go to the very heart of our beliefs, our humanity and our perception of life and death. True stories, True Horror.

In the series Anthony travels the world exploring the origins of the myths in order to separate the truth from the fiction and history from science.

Anthony has interviewed the head of the vatican exorcism division, chief druids, theologians and archeologists. The series has seen him travel the globe from the Syrian desert to Rome and Romania to South Africa and the Caribbean. Tony explains, "I interviewed a criminal pathologist in a morgue in Romania about what happens to the body after death and how symptoms can be mistaken for vampirism. Its not often you get to examine a dead body. That was fairly...sobering."

Anthony says he was spooked only once while making the series. "We did a seance," he recalls, "and the director kept saying, ’Don’t come upstairs, we’re just setting everything up.’ I thought he was rigging it. I had reservations all the way through. At the end of the seance the table twisted nearly 360 degrees and then tipped on end, and I’m going ’yeah, yeah’! Afterwards the guy who was running it said to me, ’The reason I didn’t go too far was that I didn’t want it to get too personal because there were people in the circle that had stories to come out and I didn’t want that to come out on camera.’ I said, ’So what we’ve just been through was real then,’ and he said ’yeah.’ I said, ’Well I’ve got to address the camera and say that, cause I thought it was all rigged and it wasn’t."

The series will begin on November 17th, 2004. There will be five fifty minute episodes presented by Anthony. The series is devised and produced by Denman Rooke of October Films Ltd for Discovery Networks Europe.