GhostWatch (1992)

[neveragain]

Inspired by the latest Inside No.9, I gave the iconic but never repeated 1992 Parkinson-led spooker Ghostwatch a viewing today. Despite my memories of it all being a bit shonky, it holds up tremendously well (some bad acting forgiven) and is genuinely unsettling at points. I remember being quite annoyed when Channel 4 list show made out that it was unbearably naff and ineffective, and now I feel vindicated that it actually works well as a film. Of course a young lad with mental difficulties killed himself after watching it but that's not my fault.

So what do you think of it? Groundbreaking hoo-ha or load of old wallop?

Those who haven't seen it, pick up the DVD for cheap on Amazon and report back by Monday. (Edit: Or there's a video in the link below for an old thread... Edit 2: Ah bollocks, vid doesn't work.)

https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=25959.30

[hermitical]

I haven't seen it since airing but remember being suitably creeped out.

Someone did a rewatch and on twitter yesterday was told off for spoilers. What's the cut-off point nowadays? 30 years?

[Pseudopath]

Not sure of the legalities, but the whole thing is up on Archive.org: https://archive.org/details/Ghostwatch

...and here's the continuity announcement from later in the evening (no doubt in response to complaints flooding in): https://archive.org/details/vhsvault_Ghostwatch_additional_reassurance

[Delete Delete Delete]

We did a rewatch of this last Halloween on (spam), we had a good chuckle at the constant mentions of Glory Holes.

[Phil_A]

Also worth mention, the edition of Bite Back that followed the broadcast, in which the producer and exec producer were forced to defend themselves against a kangaroo court of outraged viewers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUyhN-gq8xk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgrI5ZRuKdc

[Alberon]

I'm not bothered by most horror films. You watch as many films as we have and the beats of the films become obvious. You know where the false scares and real ones will be. And the monster can never really be that frightening no matter how good the makeup.

But Ghostwatch always manages to unsettle me. I last watched it about ten years back, but it still works. What is so effective is how it gets the language of a live broadcast show like that right (just like The Day Today did with rolling news). You have Craig Charles there for light relief in the hours where, of course, nothing supernatural is going to happen. Sarah Greene as the main presenter on the scene and Parky in charge back in the studio. It's the way it would have been done if real.

The subliminal appearances of Mr Pipes also work brilliantly and it ratchets up fantastically over the course of the play. The decision to never fully reveal him is, of course, absolutely the right one.

For me, it's far scarier than most 'proper' horror films I've watched.

[bgmnts]

Saw this mentioned a long while back, definitely will check it out.

[Cuellar]

We did a rewatch of this last Halloween on (spam), we had a good chuckle at the constant mentions of Glory Holes.

Yes! This was the first time I'd watched it properly, and I probably didn't get the right effect cos I was in fits of giggles throughout.

[Wet Blanket]

I watched it a few years back and thought it was pretty rubbish. The early 'Pipes' bits are creepy but once you've got low-budget hurricanes in the studio and Parky being possessed it gets too daft for my taste.

[dr beat]

What is so effective is how it gets the language of a live broadcast show like that right (just like The Day Today did with rolling news). You have Craig Charles there for light relief in the hours where, of course, nothing supernatural is going to happen. Sarah Greene as the main presenter on the scene and Parky in charge back in the studio. It's the way it would have been done if real.

The pacing of it is absolutely spot on in that for a large part of it, nothing much seems to happen and the presenters are essentially twiddling their thumbs and padding, which seems right for one of those 'Watch' programmes which seemed to be quite popular in the 90s. Yet we get bits of the story being revealed, with all the really crazy stuff happening quite quickly and suddenly at the end.

I happen to think Mike Smith is extremely under-rated in this.  It might not initially appear he has much to do, but he plays  a really important role, both in revealing parts of the story through the phone calls but - more importantly - how he's instrumental for maintaining the verisimilitude in acting as the link between the fictional world and the real-life viewing public.  That he plays it totally understatedly and professionally is vital in that regard.

[Cuellar]

Yes, it's a shame the Inside No. 9 didn't have the room to develop - it felt slightly rushed in comparison to Ghost Watch (not their fault obviously).

[Malcy]

I haven't seen it since airing but remember being suitably creeped out.

Someone did a rewatch and on twitter yesterday was told off for spoilers. What's the cut-off point nowadays? 30 years?

Cut off point for spoilers is the minute something finishes airing!

[Famous Mortimer]

I watched it when it was first on and remember being genuinely quite shook up by it. I think it was my Mum who, after letting me stew and be confused for a few minutes, told me it was pretty unlikely to be actually real. But it was very effective.

Although I only saw it as an adult, I'd suggest it was even better than "Alternative 3", which had recognisable actors in it.

[Dirty Boy]

I utterly cacked it as a 9 year old.

It stands up very well despite some ropey acting (the kids in particular). Interesting to read they wanted to go further with subliminal sounds and images, until the beeb put the kibosh on the idea.

I think it was someone on here who said that the slow drip of information about Tunstall having been a child molester pushes it into a level of darkness the BBC has never gone near since, at least in this format. Didn't almost every actor involved effectively wipe it from their cv's for years after?

That pixel faced bloke telling the story of a ghost spitting on his mackerel always makes me laugh.

[Bazooka]

Me and my sister still reference 'Mr Pipes'.

[BlodwynPig]

Me and my sister still reference 'Mr Pipes'.

Should I inform family services?

[biggytitbo]

It holds up as a great piece of entertainment and it still has a Knealian creepiness to it despite how stagey and completely uniconving it is as a real show  - the acting by everyone except the presenters is so unnatural and stilted. Maybe they should have had it so it's acknowledged its actors pretending to do a real show about a haunting, but then they really experience a haunting - with the actors not knowing what is real or staged until very late on?

[Icehaven]

I utterly cacked it as a 9 year old.

Same here (well, I was 11 though.) I didn't know it was a 'drama' until the credits rolled, and even then it was too late, I didn't believe it wasn't real, the damage was done. Nothing has come close to scaring me as much since, it was all we talked about at school the day after, completely blew my mind. And never mind your Freddies and Jasons and Chuckies, Pipes is the only character I ever have been and still remain utterly petrified of, even the name unsettles me  to this day.
I've rewatched it a few times, first time reluctantly when a friend got a copy in the early 2000s, watched mostly from behind my hand, and a second time a couple of years ago which I managed a bit more of but still felt a deep discomfort. I actually saw how hammy and plain daft a lot of it was then but like a lot from childhood your muscle memory kicks in and the memory of how it completely freaked me out as a child still bubbled up. Don't think I ever quite believed Michael Parkinson wasn't possessed ever again.

[studpuppet]

Just for reference, here's the original BBC report on the Enfield Poltergeist that informed a lot of the tone of Ghostwatch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sls6pszMGfk

[Dr Rock]

Mr Pipes. Sounds like something from Bagpuss.

[Bingo Fury]

I watched it when it was first on and remember being genuinely quite shook up by it. I think it was my Mum who, after letting me stew and be confused for a few minutes, told me it was pretty unlikely to be actually real. But it was very effective.

Although I only saw it as an adult, I'd suggest it was even better than "Alternative 3", which had recognisable actors in it.

Yeah, "Alternative 3" had the 12-year-old me completely suckered until the appearance of the astronaut "Bob Grodin", seen that very year as a naval captain on "The Spy Who Loved Me".

[Rev+]

Maybe they should have had it so it's acknowledged its actors pretending to do a real show about a haunting, but then they really experience a haunting - with the actors not knowing what is real or staged until very late on?

It was supposed to be the last episode of a conventional series, with five episodes of drama leading up to the 'live' finale.  There's no way of knowing but I suspect that if it had been a bit more traditional it wouldn't be as well-remembered.

I saw this when it originally went out and knew it was fiction, but it was still a little unsettling.  Watching it is oddly fixed in my mind though, in the way everyone knows where they were when JFK was shot.  I remember quite clearly that when it was over, I went over to my mate's place and watched Frankenhooker because he had Sky.  I found that a great deal more disturbing.

[BlodwynPig]

Mr Pipes. Sounds like something from Bagpuss.

[bomb_dog]

Full marks for that.

[non capisco]

I turned it on in full belief it was a real live phone-in show at the bit where Mike Smith was taking a call from a distraught mother saying her glass coffee table had smashed by itself and her kids were just staring at the tv in a state of hypnosis. The woman started screaming "WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?!" and that was the cue for me to be overwhelmed with terror and decide "FUCK WATCHING ANY MORE OF THIS." Retreated to my beddy byes in quaking terror. 13 years old, I'm truly ashamed to say I was. I'm glad all the swaggering lads at school the next day were giving it "Did you see that Ghostwatch last night? How can anyone have thought that was real?" before I'd piped (ahaha) up with any of my lily livered lamentations on the subject. Appearing to hold a belief that Michael Parkinson had become possessed on live TV would have been a hard one to live down, despite the fact I didn't even get anywhere near that bit.

The missing link between Ghostwatch and the Inside No 9 special is of course the 'ghosts' episode of Down The Line. Now, that was a proper slow building masterclass.