begob
A TV show investigates a haunted house. Live! On air! With household names! Unfair to judge this by the achievements of reality/found-footage productions since 1992, but the dialogue and acting are clearly weak, and the tone is confused between irony and sincerity.In the end there's a spooky sense of mystery as the live feed is cut off, but it's completely ruined by the hokey manifestation of the spook inside the studio. The story tellers failing to commit to their story.My preference would be for irony, and a satire of smug TV presenters. As it is - no scares, no laughs, and a feeling it was tossed together by people who didn't care.
Spikeopath
Halloween 1992 and the BBC aired Ghostwatch as part of its Screen 1 Drama series. It was all told a horror mockumentary based around the Enfield Poltergeist investigation of 1977/8. Famed for family friendly fodder programming, the reaction to Ghostwatch shook the BBC to its core and the TV institution banned it for 10 years and has never shown it again on one of its channels. Problems arose because many viewers were unaware that the show was actually fake, this in spite of the many clues given both in written credits and the hiring of actors in critical roles!Watching it now some 20 years after the fact, it's hard to believe so many were taken in by the unfolding events of the show. Certainly it's understandable that youngsters watching would be scared by the second half of the show, that is if they wasn't bored stiff by the first half which plods along at an almost lethargic pace? But grown adults besieging the switchboards with worries about the realism of the show? And a weight of complaints not seen since The Sex Pistols swore on TV in 76? Apparently so it seems.Ghostwatch's legacy is tainted by over reaction on one hand, and sadness in the other. The show was cited as the cause for an 18 year old man hanging himself. Martin Denham had learning difficulties and after becoming obsessed with the show, committed suicide five days after the show was broadcast. There were other cases where children as young as 10 were said to have suffered post-traumatic stress because of the show. Sad for sure are these events, but they lend the film an aura of terror that it doesn't deserve. But on an influential front it deserves the utmost praise. It can be seen as a prototype of the reality TV shows that have dominated TV in the last decade, while you have to think that the makers of The Blair Witch Project saw it and took notes.Ghostwatch does have genuine moments of creepiness, the number of sneaky visual placements of Pipes the ghost are very effective. As is his back story. The sound work is suitably chilling, where over emphasised knocking and the sound of wailing cats really hit the desired mark. The cast, too, are stoic and performing well with the material to hand. Michael Parkinson is the head link man hosting the show, a splendid bit of casting because we all trust Parky. Mike Smith plays it suitably tongue close to cheek, his wife, the beautiful Sarah Greene, is the most believable as she spends the night in the house with the Early family, while Craig Charles outside the house larks about and never once plays it seriously. But the others, including the two child actors, struggle to convince. But was they meant to anyway? Because ultimately it's a pastiche production. 6/10
The Curmudgeon
For this rare positive review (these are from my website where I normally only review the worst things available), we've got something a bit different. Now, I decided on a DVD, and when I looked through the films in my collection that I deemed good enough to take this slot (trust me, they're not all five star classics; I own Howard The Duck) one seemed to jump out at me that I'm surprised I never thought of before.A one-off TV show that caused fear, panic and outrage among the people of Britain. A program that was NEVER allowed to be screened again. Sounds like my sort of show.And indeed it was. Ghostwatch; screened on Halloween night in 1992 amid much advertising, hype and fan-fair, it was clear that pretty much every kid I knew would be glued to the screen that night, for we were promised a real live broadcast inside a haunted house, presented by television veteran Michael Parkinson, alongside Sarah Greene and Craig Charles. They didn't know what to expect, they didn't know what was going to happen - but if anything DID happen, hopefully their camera's would catch it. It sounded intriguing, but I fully expected 90 minutes of "is there anybody there" hokum, with zero results. I was always going to watch, but I expected to be bored. Well - that didn't happen.These days, this show could be seen as a parody of the dismal "ghost hunting" shows like Most Haunted, except it was made about ten years before that sort of dross started filling the schedules. And in today's cynical age, this show would have full "spoiler" coverage up on the net before it even aired. It really was a more innocent time, because the next day EVERYONE was talking about it, in fact the buzz lasted for YEARS. When I first got the net one of the first things I looked up was this show. When I first got a DVD player one of the first things I bought was this show.So what's it all about? Well, this supposedly live, genuine experiment was actually an elaborate hoax of genius proportions; casting well known TV names (thus throwing us off our guard) and slowly building up the tension with a realistic, deliberately mundane opening half hour full of the usual garbage Derek Acorah has made a career out of.It only makes what actually happens later all the more effective. Now, you have to remember this was a BBC show starring "Mrs Nice" Sarah Greene, (who acts up a storm in this), building a fairly touching and believable relationship with the kids in the house. So when those kids are screaming as lights pop around them, when ominous shapes are seen standing in the corner of their bedroom, when one starts talking BACKWARDS, and when "Pipes", the violent ghost who lives in the house, finally makes his presence felt..I remember watching this as a kid, absolutely terrified. Yeah, so the show totally loses it in the last five minutes, but everything up until that point; the acting, the pacing, the script, the effects, the psychology - it all works perfectly. It really is a televisual masterpiece.So much so that, War of the Worlds radio broadcast style, it created a mainstream panic, so much so that the show had to come back on the air after the phones pretty much blew up back at the BBC, having to reassure the public that everything was OK. It made the papers, it made every schoolkid in Britain talk in excited hushed whispers for about a month. Hell, it (reportedly) even made someone commit suicide after watching it. Now THAT, my friends, is a TV show.You would think that, after the man has stepped from behind the curtain, when you're sitting with a DVD of it many years later, that the spell would be broken. Well, in a way it is, but it leaves you to appreciate just what a fine piece of work Ghostwatch really is. The actual story is pretty in-depth, and its only after a few viewings where you spot the hidden clues (not to mention the blink and you'd miss it appearances from Pipes).It's a shame that this shows entire legacy is its reputation for fooling the public with a "real" broadcast (even though it said "written by Steven Volk" in the opening credits.. it really was a more innocent time back then) when, smoke and mirrors aside, its a masterclass in "tell, don't show" film making, not revealing the monstrous Pipes in all his glory, only showing brief flashes in mirrors and perfectly timed "did you see that?!" glimpses.Ghostwatch is an example of two things; an age where, without the all-conquering internet, we really did believe everything we saw and a showcase for how worthless the BBC is nowadays, who would never have the courage or the intelligence to produce a show like this anymore.Ghostwatch should be both celebrated.. and lamented.www.thecurmudgeon.proboards88.com
