Oct 23, 2019
Ghostwatch was a British movie that traumatized an entire nation and mentally scarred young children for years to come.
Presented as a live news broadcast, Ghostwatch followed a group of reporters as they staked out an alleged haunted house in the hopes to find irrefutable evidence of ghosts. It was broadcast only once on BBC 1 on Halloween 1992, gaining an impressive audience of over 11 million viewers. The movie offered no disclaimers that it was a fictional account of a news broadcast and cast recognizable British TV personalities in the lead roles, further blurring the line between fact and fiction. It’s estimated that 30,000 calls were made to the “live” call-in number displayed on the screen during the show. If a caller was able to get through, a recorded message was played saying that the show was fictional and was not being broadcast live. Since the phone lines were jammed by the sheer volume of calls coming in all at once, not many callers were able to get through to receive this message. It’s not the first time that a work of fiction presented as a real news account caused panic or confusion.
On October 30 1938, Orson Welles narrated “War of the Worlds” by H.G. Wells in the style of a news report, complete with breaking news interruptions. The listener was told repeatedly that it was merely a reading of the science fiction classic, but the style of the broadcast seemed to cause confusion anyway. The theatrical interpretation began with: “Ladies and gentleman, we interrupt our program of dance music to bring you a special bulletin. Martians have landed in New Jersey!” While the amount of alleged “panic in the streets” as a result of this radio program are probably more mythical than anything, Welles’ reading of “War of the Worlds” presented an original way to present fictional material.More recent attempts of this fact or fiction debate include 1995’s Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction. The show was rebroadcast several times, growing in ratings each time. The program presented video footage of a “real” medical autopsy of an alien corpse with special effects wizards and medical experts commenting on the validity of the autopsy’s authenticity. In 2012, another docufiction special titled “Mermaids: The Body Found” aired on Animal Planet and the Discovery channel. The show detailed the discovery of a strange aquatic form. It was a ratings hit and, apparently, fooled millions of people at the same time. Ghostwatch seemed to be an inspiration in other ways. The rise of “ghost hunting” reality shows with their use of night vision and thermal imaging cameras seem to owe a direct debt to this movie. Found footage films, which would become very popular in the years after the broadcast of Ghostwatch, seem to be the direct descendants of this movie. There are certainly a number of parallels that can be drawn between The Blair Witch Project and Ghostwatch.
Pipes the ghost (as named by the kids in the movie based on the knocking sound that he makes on the pipes in the house) makes brief appearances during Ghostwatch as a flicker on the screen or a reflection in the window. Fans of the movie are still searching for easter eggs, but the most recent count stands at 13 different appearances for Pipes. If you’re eager to play a Halloween-themed version of “Where’s Waldo?”, go ahead and look for Pipes while viewing Ghostwatch.
For a longer, more comedic look at Ghostwatch, listen to episode four of “Someone’s Favorite Movie”, a new movie podcast dedicated to the b-movies, guilty pleasures, and forgotten gems that people love to talk about. Got your own guilty pleasure that not many people know about, but you feel deserves to be seen? Email us at someonesfavoritemoviepodcast@gmail.com and tell us about the movie and why you love it. We might cover it on a future episode!
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Randy juggles two jobs and is the miserable retail slave of the two. He lives outside beautiful Flint, MI, USA and struggles with being a lazy, yet overworked dreamer and a struggling, but barely trying writer.
Tommy also lives outside Flint, MI with The Beloved and his two step daughters. He's a stand up comedian and a man of questionable common sense. Check out his stand up dates and plan a trip to throw tomatoes at http://tomethompson.com