SYNOPSIS
A live-broadcast ghost-hunting special, originally aired on the BBC in 1992, as a crew of investigators and a broadcast team investigate a London family home after reported poltergeist activity.
OPINION
My expectations were low going in - I'm not a big fan of the paranormal investigator schtick, and how good could a BBC television special from 1992 really be, anyway, by the standards of today? As it turns out, the answer is "extremely fucking". A perfect simulacrum of exactly what it comports itself as, it remains riotously entertaining up until a genuinely terrifying climax, employing the kind of metatextual exploitation most famously exploited by the infamous (and, perhaps, apocryphal) "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast. It's actually prescient, in this era of rapidly-adopted Web 3.x social media information intubation. What are we allowing into our homes through these networked systems? What happens when someone - or something - takes advantage of it? And, if that were to happen, how could we stop it? Ghostwatch isn't particularly optimistic about any of these questions.
CAST + CREW
Director: Lesley Manning (Leila, Berkeley Square)
Cast: Michael Parkinson (Madhouse, Love Actually)
Sarah Greene (The Man Who Knew Too Little, Doctor Who)
Craig Charles (Red Dwarf, Lexx)
CONTENT (spoilered; highlight for warnings)
child abuse, possession, suburban haunting, transphobia
CAREER STATS [on a scale from 1 (least) to 10 (most)]
FUN: 7
Takes a minute to get warmed up, but when it does - hoo boy.
SCARINESS: 7
Almost entirely goreless, but will give kids nightmares.
INTENSITY: 9
When shit goes sideways, it goes off like a bomb. A shitbomb.
RECOMMENDABILITY: 10
It will surprise you. It will work. You will remember it.
SEE ALSO:
Noroi: The Curse, Lake Mungo, Petscop
