I was very skeptical of this show before I started watching it, partly because it's produced by Zak Bagans who thinks every haunting is a demon and partly because Dakota and the team always seemed to be screaming in the previews. I finally decided to give it a shot and see how they go about investigating a haunting. I started with season two and was surprised to see they don't actually investigate.
I think part of the reason there are so many negative reviews is because people expect the Destination Fear team to investigate the haunting but that's not what they're doing. They are going to these places to EXPERIENCE the haunting. There's a big difference between experiencing a haunting and investigating one. Once I grasped the main concept, I actually came to really enjoy the show. Granted, Chelsea can be very irritating because she screams at every little noise and it seems like every other word that comes out of her mouth is "like" or "literally". There was one instance where she said "like" six times within one sentence. And yes, they do scare easily and sometimes they run away but there are also times where they go towards a noise to see what made it. To be completely honest, there were a couple episodes that thoroughly freaked me out (particularly Sweet Springs Sanitarium) and they do catch compelling evidence.
I highly recommend this show to anyone who wants to witness a haunting and not necessarily want to see how it's investigated. Try to look past the irritating speech patterns of Chelsea and the girlish screams and just enjoy their experiences. Also, it is hilarious every time Dakota gets frightened by his walkie.
Review of Destination Fear
