SCARER'S MARKET
LUKE ROMAN IS BACK TO SELL HAUNTED HOUSES IN SURREALESTATE, BUT WILL HIS MISSING POWERS EQUATE TO TERRIFYING RETURNS?
EVEN IN THE BEST OF MARKETS, it’s been said that the process of buying or selling a house is one of the most stressful things you can do. Whether it’s the horror show of impromptu showings, the bidding wars or the demons in the basement… Okay, that last one is definitely not a common issue unless you’re watching Syfy’s SurrealEstate.
The horror dramedy series amps up that “real estate as nightmare” metaphor by making it literal due to supernatural hauntings. In the series, the Roman Agency, led by Luke Roman (Tim Rozon), specialises in properties possessing the stink of paranormal issues which prevents the owners from selling their homes.
UNDESRES
Luke and his small agency take on these “special cases” with the intention of purging them of their pesky spectres. In season one, that was all well and good until Luke’s powers of necromancy disappeared and his newest agent, Susan Ireland (Sarah Levy), had to use her pyrokinesis powers to save everyone in the season finale.
According to executive producer/ series director Danishka Esterhazy, season two opens with a much-changed dynamic inside the Roman Agency.
“A lot of the beginning of the season is about Susan coming into her own power because she’s been running the agency while Luke has been MIA,” Esterhazy tells SFX. Still powerless and a bit adrift, Luke will return and perhaps be less than gracious in taking back the reins of power he so unceremoniously dropped. “We actually have a little bit of conflict between Luke and Susan at the beginning of the season when he comes back,” the director teases.
The quirky series deftly balances its unique tone of horror comedy with a “monster of the week” format that Esterhazy says they worked hard to get just right. “In season one, George Olson, our showrunner, had a bit of a mantra: make it scary, make it funny and make us care,” she explains. “We’ve brought that through to season two, but we’ve just amped up all three.
“We’ve leaned into our scary scenes. We’ve brought more comedy, but we’ve never lost SURREALESTATE the fact that these are stories that are supposed to touch people. When we talk about haunted houses, you’re talking about things that can be very tragic, like the loss of a loved one, or a relationship ending before it could be healed.
“These are things that are very universal, that we all understand, and can be very powerful. So we always want to balance those episodes to make sure that we also bring the heart.”
Esterhazy says their gifted ensemble is another big reason why audiences
