So, based on the recommendation, I watched a 1992 BBC produced Halloween special Ghostwatch. Playing like a real news investigation with at least some British news people, it tells the story of a haunted house, allegedly in real-time. The film passes between people in the studio, a man-on-the-street outside the house, and the investigation itself going on inside. Apparently this created some hubub at the time, with a lot of Brits getting freaked out by it and the BBC refusing to air it again. Whether that’s hype or not, who can say….
The show is interesting, though it shows its age in that not much here is original. The haunting itself wouldn’t have been original in 1992 either but the “found footage” quality of it would have been pretty innovative at the time. It pre-dates the popularization of the formula by way of The Blair Witch Project by a few years.
The first hour is… ok… a little slow… but its intentionally a build up for the freaky/scary stuff they pull in the final 30 minutes. It’s not consistently scary but it does generate a mood and introduces the idea of spooky things happening elsewhere in England because of the broadcast that was really pretty neat. A hint, a tinge, of chaos on top of the stuff they were showing.
And, like most found-footage, it ends on an ambiguous note. One of the better ambiguous notes though, and this after seeing scores of these types of movies.
FYI – apparently the cable channel Shudder is playing it in the US… not that I have that station (it’s the horror-only cable channel… or maybe it’s a bit like Netflix… not sure).
Score: 81