What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

With all the adverts about The Enfield Poltergeist recently, it brought back memories of Ghostwatch. I'd have been around 17 then, had already seen my fair share of horrors, and was pretty desensitised. Until I saw Ghost Watch. Apart from a bit of hammy acting from one or two cast members, everyone did a brilliant job, and I seriously thought this was or could've been real. ***Spoilers below***Throughout the show, the viewer is treated to little teasers here and there, "Was that Pipes by the curtain, or just my imagination?", and things of this nature. When the crew member faints after seeing the ghost behind the door, and you see a glimpse of it yourself, I swear I almost filled my trunks. But the scariest parts for me were when the girl started talking in that weird voice, and when Parkie was wandering around the studio supposedly possessed. It was at that point when I realised it couldn't be real, but this show messed with my head so much, to this day, I don't know if I could watch it again without being terrified. I watched a couple of documentaries the other day about the Enfield case, and after watching Janet doing that creepy voice, it brought those images flooding back and my skin went cold and prickly. I'm not sure today's generation would appreciate Ghost Watch, but back then, there were a lot of frightened viewers and quite a number of complaints about the content.

I can understand why this show scared people when it came out. Filmed like some BBC live documentary, the show looks generally real. There are some places where the editing or camera-work would not have happened that way in a real live show, but I would expect people wouldn't think about that, and obviously kids wouldn't notice.The problem with Ghostwatch is because it wants to be convincingly real, it starts out convincingly slowly. Over the first half hour there are talking-heads style interviews and general chit chat and information stuff that would only interest people who were really interested in seeing a ghost documentary. In fact, I suspect one reason this show was so effective is that the most skeptical people would have tuned out through boredom early on, leaving only believers watching by the end.After the first tedious half hour I decided to fast forward until it looked like something interesting was going on. I wound up moving ahead another half hour.But once you're into the last third of the movie, things get pretty intense. Even if you know it's a mockumentary, the final moments are truly chilling, and I can only imagine how terrifying this was to those who thought it was a real documentary.Keep an eye out for ghostly apparitions. I missed most of them, although there is a youtube video that collects them all.

I was 12 years old, just happened to be at home watching TV on Haloween of 1992, Ghostwatch came on and looked interesting so I continued to watch it, thinking it was an interesting bit of fun with maybe the chance of something happening in the most haunted house in England! Then half way through the reality TV show started to turn into a truly scary experience, with things going wrong and the fact the viewer believed it was recorded live (which was later revealed was not) made it an experience that will most likely never be achieved again! There is a part where viewers rang the show live from their homes and reported all kinds of scary things happening, for example their dogs wont stop barking and a Glass table shattering after being touched etc, this all added to the realism and also made all the viewers paranoid that something was going to happen in their own home! (I was one of them) This show was the most scary thing ever created by any production company in the world, and I understand why it was banned for 10 years (due to a couple of people committing suicide for believing it was real apparently) when I watch it now it seems clear that the children were acting, but at the time it was not so obvious! If you plan on letting your children watch this be careful, because they will get scared and may not sleep for a few nights! A real masterpiece!

For this rare positive review (these are from my website where I normally only review the worst things available), we've got something a bit different. Now, I decided on a DVD, and when I looked through the films in my collection that I deemed good enough to take this slot (trust me, they're not all five star classics; I own Howard The Duck) one seemed to jump out at me that I'm surprised I never thought of before.A one-off TV show that caused fear, panic and outrage among the people of Britain. A program that was NEVER allowed to be screened again. Sounds like my sort of show.And indeed it was. Ghostwatch; screened on Halloween night in 1992 amid much advertising, hype and fan-fair, it was clear that pretty much every kid I knew would be glued to the screen that night, for we were promised a real live broadcast inside a haunted house, presented by television veteran Michael Parkinson, alongside Sarah Greene and Craig Charles. They didn't know what to expect, they didn't know what was going to happen - but if anything DID happen, hopefully their camera's would catch it. It sounded intriguing, but I fully expected 90 minutes of "is there anybody there" hokum, with zero results. I was always going to watch, but I expected to be bored. Well - that didn't happen.These days, this show could be seen as a parody of the dismal "ghost hunting" shows like Most Haunted, except it was made about ten years before that sort of dross started filling the schedules. And in today's cynical age, this show would have full "spoiler" coverage up on the net before it even aired. It really was a more innocent time, because the next day EVERYONE was talking about it, in fact the buzz lasted for YEARS. When I first got the net one of the first things I looked up was this show. When I first got a DVD player one of the first things I bought was this show.So what's it all about? Well, this supposedly live, genuine experiment was actually an elaborate hoax of genius proportions; casting well known TV names (thus throwing us off our guard) and slowly building up the tension with a realistic, deliberately mundane opening half hour full of the usual garbage Derek Acorah has made a career out of.It only makes what actually happens later all the more effective. Now, you have to remember this was a BBC show starring "Mrs Nice" Sarah Greene, (who acts up a storm in this), building a fairly touching and believable relationship with the kids in the house. So when those kids are screaming as lights pop around them, when ominous shapes are seen standing in the corner of their bedroom, when one starts talking BACKWARDS, and when "Pipes", the violent ghost who lives in the house, finally makes his presence felt..I remember watching this as a kid, absolutely terrified. Yeah, so the show totally loses it in the last five minutes, but everything up until that point; the acting, the pacing, the script, the effects, the psychology - it all works perfectly. It really is a televisual masterpiece.So much so that, War of the Worlds radio broadcast style, it created a mainstream panic, so much so that the show had to come back on the air after the phones pretty much blew up back at the BBC, having to reassure the public that everything was OK. It made the papers, it made every schoolkid in Britain talk in excited hushed whispers for about a month. Hell, it (reportedly) even made someone commit suicide after watching it. Now THAT, my friends, is a TV show.You would think that, after the man has stepped from behind the curtain, when you're sitting with a DVD of it many years later, that the spell would be broken. Well, in a way it is, but it leaves you to appreciate just what a fine piece of work Ghostwatch really is. The actual story is pretty in-depth, and its only after a few viewings where you spot the hidden clues (not to mention the blink and you'd miss it appearances from Pipes).It's a shame that this shows entire legacy is its reputation for fooling the public with a "real" broadcast (even though it said "written by Steven Volk" in the opening credits.. it really was a more innocent time back then) when, smoke and mirrors aside, its a masterclass in "tell, don't show" film making, not revealing the monstrous Pipes in all his glory, only showing brief flashes in mirrors and perfectly timed "did you see that?!" glimpses.Ghostwatch is an example of two things; an age where, without the all-conquering internet, we really did believe everything we saw and a showcase for how worthless the BBC is nowadays, who would never have the courage or the intelligence to produce a show like this anymore.Ghostwatch should be both celebrated.. and lamented.www.thecurmudgeon.proboards88.com