Sumith Prasad
Created by Nate Trinrud and Megan Trinrud, Paramount+’s teen series ‘School Spirits’ follows Maddie Nears, who wakes up at her school Split River High after her death. Maddie fails to recollect how she died and finds it difficult to live in the afterlife with several questions concerning her death unanswered. She also tries to leave the school premises, only to end up in the boiler room of the establishment, where she was possibly killed. The series progresses through her efforts to find her apparent killer. Since the murder mystery series is set in Split River High School, the viewers must be eager to find out whether it is a real institution. Here’s what we know about the same! SPOILERS AHEAD.
Split River High School is Fictional
No, Split River High School is not based on a real school. The educational institution was conceived by Nate Trinrud, Megan Trinrud, and Maria Nguyen, who co-created the graphic novel ‘School Spirits,’ which serves as the source material of the series. Nate and Megan were inspired by several teen and young adult shows to conceive their series. “We always kind of turned to young adult content throughout our lives as a comfort safe space. We love teen shows, we love YA shows, and we thought that it would be a perfect way for us to share that story and that healing journey—by writing one of our own,” Megan told Screen Rant about the inspiration behind the graphic novel and the show they co-created.
Split River High is not different from the several renowned fictional high schools that are featured in teen or young adult shows that must have influenced Nate and Megan. Dillon High School in ‘Friday Night Lights,’ The Harbor School in ‘The O.C.,’ McKinley High in ‘Freaks & Geeks,’ Bayside High in ‘Saved By the Bell,’ William McKinley High School in ‘Glee,’ etc. are some of the institutions Split River High reminds us of. Since Split River High is the home of a group of supernatural entities, it reminds us of Sunnydale High in ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer,’ Mystic Falls High in ‘The Vampire Diaries,’ etc. as well. Considering that the high school also sets the stage for a murder investigation, Split River High is similar to Las Encinas in ‘Elite.’
One thing that makes ‘School Spirits’ relatable despite its supernatural premise is that Split River High can be paralleled to any other high school in the country. It hosts students from various cultural and emotional spaces, offering them a place to interact with their own selves and each other. By exploring the lives and secrets in Split River, ‘School Spirits’ depicts the multidimensions of teen lives in the structure of a murder mystery. The production department of the series gave life to Split River High by turning an old property at Heather and 37th Avenue in Vancouver, British Columbia, into the setting of the series.
