Ghostwatch (1992)

I sort of wish I'd seen Ghostwatch on TV the first time it aired. It plays like any slightly mischievous BBC investigation: hosted by Michael Parkinson, with Sarah Greene on location and Craig Charles monkeying about in the background, Ghostwatch was shown on 31st October 1992 and purported to be a real investigation into the existence of ghosts. A single-parent family in London claimed that a poltergeist was terrorising them, and with the help of various psychics and investigators, the BBC set out to find out the truth. As the cameras picked up strange shadows and ominous shapes in the background, the switchboards were jammed as viewers in their thousands phoned in to report that they'd seen a ghost...

Except, of course, that it was all a set up, recorded weeks in advance, and the family and their ghost were all actors.

But like the fabled War of the Worlds broadcast, the public didn't know that, and that's probably why Ghostwatch consistently makes it into those 100 Scariest Moments charts on Channel 4. Because it starts in such a low key way; because the script is so clever, and because the presenters act entirely like they would if the events of the show were really happening, it's strangely believable. And the ghost sightings are brilliantly executed, too: first a swirling shape in the background; then a shape standing against a curtain that isn't there when the tape's rewound; first knocking on the walls, then scratching, then a reflection of a spooky man in a long black dress, just before one hysterical caller phones in to regale Parky with the full story of the spooks of that completely normal looking London house...

Eventually, all Hell breaks loose as the 'ghost' gets into the machine at the BBC, throwing equipment around until all the cameramen scarper in terror; Sarah Greene is dragged into a closet, never to be seen again, while Michael Parkinson starts reciting children's nursery rhymes in a voice not his own, and it's all so over the top that it just had to be a hoax. But the first half is so clever, and so subtle, that images from the programme stick in your brain, and you don't quite want to go to bed...

Even on DVD, Ghostwatch still gave me the creeps. If I'd watched this back when I was 8, 'live' on television, I don't think I'd have ever been the same again. Genius.

IMDB link

N.B. The spelling of "poltergeist" in my last draft of this post was very, very bad. I blame Lloyd Kaufman.

1 comment:

soulmining said...

I wish I'd seen this at the time, although I remember the furore that followed. Picked up the DVD a few years back and (like you) was surprised at how effective it works and is still unsettling in places even today. You have to remember back in 1992 there was none of this reality telly, "Most Haunted" type shows... really bold piece of telly for its time.