Ghostwatch
Directed by Lesley Manning
A TV reporter investigates a haunted house in this classic British “documentary”, which was originally broadcast in the UK on Halloween in 1992. As experts in the BBC studio discuss supernatural phenomena, reporter Sarah Greene waits patiently for proof of a poltergeist named Pipes, whose bad behavior grows bolder throughout the evening. GHOSTWATCH freaked out gullible viewers across the UK (no warning indicated the special was scripted), leading to controversy, lawsuits and a devoted cult following who continue to search the doc for hidden glimpses of the ghoul.
A TV reporter takes her crew to investigate a haunted house in this legendary British “documentary”.
Cast: Craig Charles, Michael Parkinson, Mike Smith, Sarah Greene
Member Reviews
I grew up watching stuff like Ghost Adventures and Paranormal Lockdown due to my Dad being a big fan of that stuff. So, paranormal videos and media have a soft spot for me, nostalgically speaking. When I discovered this film, I was already hooked from the way it presented itself. It is supposed to be a real live talk show that is showing live feed of a haunted house investigation. We have all the elements of what we would see with Ghost Adventures, Ghost Hunters, Paranormal Lockdown, etc. But this came out all the way in the 1990s. Now, stuff like this has been around for way longer, however, it is neat to see underrated gems like Ghostwatch have gone on to inspire many different films like Paranormal Activity, Host, The Conjuring 2, Late Night With The Devil etc. Another point I want to touch on is how eerie this film gets. The whole atmosphere of Pipes and the few glimpses we see of him is disturbing and unsettling (shout-out to Keith Ferrari who nailed what appears to be his only role). It really gives off that eerie vibe that those ghost hunting tv shows had that spooked the fuck out of me when I was younger that I now long for in bulk. I think this film handles that atmosphere very well. The history of this film is neat and really interesting as to why a company like BBC would air something like this and give that generation their own version of Orson Welles's War Of The World's type media. The feedback that BBC got because of this film is very interesting and, if you are curious to know more about that, I reccomend this video by Farrell McGuire who touches on all or a majority of the elements of this film while still leaving enough ambiguity for you to still have something to look for when watching this film on Shudder or wherever you watch it. So yeah. All in all, this film gets 5 stars!
Britain was crazy for letting this air on live television. It’s easy to see why there were over a million phone calls reported in after the “live report” ended, this was pretty damn believable. Even by today’s standards and knowing these weren’t real events I was drawn in and immersed.
Loved it! To think that this was broadcast "War of the Worlds"-style on network TV kind of blows my mind. Obviously you have to watch it from a 1992 perspective, but even then, it's pretty great. (And in my opinion, way better than Late Night With The Devil, since everyone keeps making that comparison. But I didn't like that movie at all. )
This movie is clever. If you are capable of imaging watching this on tv in 1992 it is wild. Ghost Watch walked so Late Night with the devil could run.
I am genuinely befuddled by all of the positive reviews. I feel like I watched a different movie than everyone else. Someone said “what Late Night With the Devil wished it could be”. Late Night With the Devil is in a different strata. . This movie is an absolute snooze fest from beginning to end. A whole lot of nothing happens from beginning to end. Hopefully others will heed this review and not get fooled by all the positive reviews like I did. I’d rate 0 skills if I could.