Ghostwatch

A holy-grail of modern found footage horror has finally made its way to Blu-ray!  Ghostwatch aired on the BBC as a “live event” on Halloween night, 1992, fooling more than a couple of viewers into thinking they were watching the real thing.  Hosted by actual TV personalities who stage an investigation into a haunting in on a quiet London block, director Lesley Manning does a phenomenal job of balancing POV thrills with studio-set talking heads.  This one is way ahead of its time!

Michael Parkinson, Sarah Greene and Mike Smith all play “themselves” as the supernatural goings-on unfold around a single mother and two children whose home is plagued with cold spots, breaking dishes and constant knocking.  The crew arrives and starts digging into the backstory of the home, with callers dropping clues about a series of undocumented deaths.  Soon the “show” is causing a panic throughout the city as the poltergeist activity becomes more blatant…and more dangerous!

 

While the acting is sometimes a bit transparent, Ghostwatch mimics the live event formula so well it’s too much fun not to play along.  Writer Stephen Volk ingeniously leaks out bits of information that keeps the audience waffling between cheap hoax and genuine horror.  There’s a three-act structure here that seems effortless, but was certainly anything but.  It’s amazing how closely the first live Ghost Adventures followed the formula, not to mention Paranormal Activity, REC and all the other found footage flicks to come. 

 

101 Films’ Blu-ray presents a great looking full-frame transfer that retains the look of a live shot-on-video broadcast but still looks as slick as if it was released yesterday.  And Ghostwatch’s legendary impact across the UK is explored in a feature-length documentary included among the extras, along with two audio commentaries and another shooting-script breakdown with director Lesley Manning.  

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