Watch Ghostwatch For Free

Please don't spend money on this.

Nice effects though.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

A fully homegrown horror classic from the British Isles, this is miles away from the cosy Hammer fare that our country are usually more famous for. In fact it acts as an interesting precursor to that huge hit of '99, THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, in that its depiction of events takes the spoof documentary format to make the on screen horrors closer to home. When it was first shown on BBC1, back on the Halloween of 1992, a huge fuss was kicked up by the typically aggravated tabloid press who claimed it was evil and the BBC had no right in duping the public and scaring everybody in the process. Since then, dupes have been seen going for silly money at movie markets and online auctions, and GHOSTWATCH has acquired a cult, almost religious status. The main reason for this is that it has never been repeated since the '92 showing, and for many years wasn't available on any video format. As is the case with so many things that have been banned, the demand for this film is phenomenal.The showing of GHOSTWATCH - and the surrounding public condemnation of the program, which was said to be responsible for a suicide - has been likened to the radio broadcast of Wells' WAR OF THE WORLDS back in America in the 1930s, in that a fictional account has been taken for the truth by many a gullible person. I wouldn't go that far, but I do think that GHOSTWATCH is a homegrown phenomenon and also the best thing that the BBC has ever produced - even if they don't realise it. The casting of well-known television presenters such as Michael Parkinson, Sarah Greene, Craig Charles, Mike Smith et al at the time was a major coup, as many viewers were convinced that such respectable personalities wouldn't be caught up in a major hoax (as per the following Right to Reply and Bite-Back programs in which various distraught watchers vented their anger on the figures responsible).The first half of the film is deceptively slow, with the emphasis on talk and background knowledge - perhaps to add to the realism of the piece. Lots of props are brought in to keep things interesting, from broken crockery to infra-red cameras, and there are lots of things to look out for which will have some bearing later on in the program. To add to the realism, a telephone line was set up for viewers to ring in with their own experiences, which led to a number of actors/actresses phoning up to complain of their own hauntings that evening - as one supposed parapsychologist says, "we've created a national séance".In the second half of the film, all hell is let loose in the household, gradually culminating in a life-or-death fight for survival. The screeching of cats is heard from underneath the stairs, strange bangs and noises come from the walls and Susanne, one of the girls living in the house, is covered with spontaneous scratches all over her face. Eventually she ends up being possessed and speaking in a demonic voice like in THE EXORCIST, while back at the studio Parkinson is plagued by poltergeist phenomena such as howling, forceful winds. One of the little girls disappears and Sarah Greene ends up being dragged into the cupboard under the stairs, never to be seen again, while Parkinson himself is possessed by the evil spirit.Eagle-eyed viewers are recommended to watch out for Pipes, the physical manifestation of the phenomena, who looks like a mutilated old bald man in a black robe. His image pops up almost subliminally several times through the film in "did I see that or didn't I?" moments. Of course, GHOSTWATCH is not without its faults. Some of the actors - while pretending to be real characters - aren't very convincing, especially the mother and daughters; generally Greene and her cohorts fare better. Also, the end of the movie, with the destruction of the BBC studio, is a bit over the top and hard to swallow. However, it's pretty astonishing that even seen today, when you know it's all faked, GHOSTWATCH still manages to scare you out of your wits, especially in the last twenty or so disconcerting minutes.I can only imagine what it would have been like to see this film on the night it was broadcast with the events supposedly happening on air in real time, as just about the entire nation got gripped up in the panic and fear and widespread sickness and nausea was recorded. As an eleven year old child at the time, I vaguely remember seeing a couple of moments - the possessed girl and bizarrely, a red skeleton which wasn't in the film but must have been a figment of my imagination - and being unable to sleep for half the night. I recommend this movie - for a movie it is, complete with a cast list at the end which I suspect half of the viewers didn't spot - to all horror fans looking for a good scare, because this low-budget unique production certainly supplies that.

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.

Imagine in the early nineties, long before reality television was established as a format, ABC took cameras inside of a real haunted house. Imagine established television personalities like Diane Sawyer, Alex Trebeck, and Tim Allen were involved in the problem. What if seemingly genuine ghostly activity was caught on camera? What if things went terribly wrong? And what if it was all presented as 100% true? "Ghostwatch" did something much like that, involving recognizable BBC personalities in a convincing recreation of a haunting. It wasn't real, of course. Any one who noticed the opening and ending credits probably could have realized that. But tell that to the frightened, fooled television audience. People called in amass, complaining. Most tragically, an autistic child, taken in by the program, killed himself from the trauma. "Ghostwatch" was never aired again.The effectiveness of a program like "Ghostwatch" is dependent totally on how believable it is. Getting the most trusted newscaster in the world to go along with the prank wouldn't matter if the whole could be laughed off as a gag. Luckily, "Ghostwatch" is committed totally to verisimilitude. The structure of the film is calculated to appear as realistic as possible. The rhythm of any live television documentary is matched perfectly. The live feed of the family inside the house is cut back and forth with banal interviews with experts or previously recorded ghost stories. The mindless chit-chat between the hosts match the tone. This sets up the precedence of reality.The freakiness of the unspooling events slowly escalates. "Ghostwatch" is, if nothing else, an exercise in deliberate pacing. The film drawls from witnessed poltergeist phenomena. The opening features children awoken in their bed by banging on the walls. We see the pictures of the oldest sister covered with cuts. A mysterious wet spot appears on the carpet, perfectly circular. Photographs fly off the wall. The girls are consistently more worried. The temperature in their bedroom drops while their skin remains warm. The banging in the walls becomes more frequent. Video becomes distorted and slowed down. A stuffed bunny is found floating, eyeless, in the sink. The sound of cats crying and scratching overwhelms the dialogue. This all leads up to the film's most frightening moment. The boards on the crawlspace door are pulled off. The door slowly opens on its own accord. The audience catches a brief glimpse of Pipes before the camera cuts away. "Ghostwatch" isn't over after that, about ten minutes left to go, but the film obviously peaks in that moment.Have I mentioned Pipes? The central villain of "Ghostwatch" is a ghostly apparition of a balding man in a gray dress, his eyes and face scratched out. The ghost is never seen clearly, only in shadows or brief flashes. Some of these are very quick. The camera pans around the room, the spirit standing next to the girl's window. Panning back quickly, he's gone. Others are completely subliminal. He is briefly glimpsed in reflections or the background. "Ghostwatch" manages to build up an impressive mythology behind its villain over a series of three phone calls. A supposedly live caller rings in, discussing the haunted history of the area. We learn a baby farmer drowned infants in that house. Later on, in a sobering monologue, a different caller relates the history of the home's previous tenant. Normally, I'd be against a character just talking about the story's background. However, like Robert Shaw in "Jaws," sometimes the camera just needs to stop and listen.Being presented as true, the increasingly concerned callers were presumed to be real people as well. Viewers from all over the country report strange poltergeist activity. Without spoiling too much, the program suggests that, after Pipes and his nasty supernatural cronies are done ruining the Early's lives, they're coming for you. A lot of fiction attempts to yank the carpet out from under the viewer. Most come of as horribly hokey. "Ghostwatch" is presented so realistically, its program so convincingly spooky, you buy. I'll probably leave the hallway lights on tonight… It does take a patient viewer to enjoy "Ghostwatch." When Michael Parkinson and Dr. Lin Pascoe are looking at warped spoons, you'll be forgiven if your attention wanders. Similarly, a subplot involving a skeptical scientist in New York doesn't pay off much. The acting from Brid Brennan, as the oldest Early daughter, is a bit ropey at times. However, it's very easy to see why this program freaked people out. Still obscure in the States, "Ghostwatch" definitely deserves to be more widely seen. It's a shame "reality" TV ghost hunting shows, found footage films, and YouTube video hoaxes have made a similar experiment impossible. No one would buy "Ghostwatch" at face value today. Watching it on Halloween night, during the witching hour no less, I found myself believing. Just for a minute anyway.

Just watched this again for the first time on DVD (It's available on Virgin On Demand) with my wife, who missed it first time around. Granted, when you know (now) that it was all a fake, then some of the power of the film is diminished, but it still managed to creep me out quite a bit.The first time I watched it I was fifteen and had missed the initial credits, and was well suckered in. Not quite daft enough to believe it was real, but there was still a pure sense of dread as cheesy TV presenters like Mike Smith and Sarah Greene seemingly got involved in a live Halloween broadcast that got out of hand. I did sit there thinking 'is this real or not?' - can't imagine what I would have though had I been younger, though. Tons of subtleties abound, as the tension builds and things move from the cheery British documentary to full-blown paranormal chaos. I won't go into the details here because it's worth watching fresh. My wife didn't think it was that scary (although she enjoyed it) but she said that was down to knowing it was a hoax. Still a classic though. A definite must-watch for any horror fan.