Ghostwatch 1992

This Horror "mock-umentary" fooled many a Brit, a la Orson Welles's "War of the Worlds", during its one and only airing on Halloween night, 1992.

"Ghostwatch" featured BBC reporters performing an on-air investigation of a haunted house. The viewers of the program were fooled into thinking a ghost named "Pipes" was haunting the family living there. To make things even more ominous, "Pipes" could be spotted by observant viewers throughout the program, while escaping detection of the on-the-scene reporters. I have to admit, even though things took a while to get rolling, there were some scary moments. I got a little freaked when I detected the ghostly apparition of "Pipes" hiding in the curtains behind one of the reporters in the house. The camera initially passes by the ghost in the curtains and then does a quick double-take, finding that nothing out of the ordinary remains. But I'm sure I saw something there.

As the program wears on, the studio reporters discover that telecasting the event has strengthened "Pipes" who gains amazing power and unleashes its malevolent force on not only the house, but the neighborhood, TV studio, and throughout the country. Apparently, this sent many into a real-life panic and "Ghostwatch" hasn't been rebroadcast since.

If someone tuned in late to this program and missed the show's opening, it's not a stretch to imagine how it could have easily fooled them.

'Ghostwatch' the BBC Mockumentary that fooled and terrified The UK back in 1992.

The whole Mockumentary is about four respected presenters and a camera crew attempt to discover the truth behind 'The most haunted house in Britain', expecting a light-hearted scare or two and probably the uncovering of a hoax. Of course, you probably can guess it doesn't go smooth sailing. The whole thing is presented as if it's happening live, but it's pre-recorded.

The acting in this is top notch because what the tricky work is two things: the clever film marking and the believable performances. Solid kid actors as well.

Even though I went into this knowing it's fake, but there are some eerie moments that scared me more than most ghost movies. The main ghost of the house is named 'Pipes', named by the two girls who are being "haunted" in their house, and while you may not see 'Pipes’, but he does appear many times throughout, some of the times I spotted him. And just from the brief glimpses of him, he is instantly memorable in the most horrific ways.

But a little heads up: this starts off very slow in terms of pace with the only evidence of paranormal activities was a few bumps there, a few bangs here, nothing much happening. As it goes along it picks up, so don't go into this expecting a jump scares every 10 minutes. It perfectly builds up to the dread and without those slow-paced moments, it wouldn't have that impact.

While Blair Witch may have tricked people into believing three film makers went missing in the woods and are being stalked by an unseen Witch. But with 'Ghostwatch', it caused some children, those who stayed up way past the time and watched it, to have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, because of how effective it was. Another incident, according to Wikipedia, an eighteen-year-old factory worker Martin Denham, who suffered from learning difficulties and had a mental age of 13, died by suicide five days after the programme aired. The family home had suffered with a faulty central heating system which had caused the pipes to knock; Denham linked this to the activity in the show causing great worry. He left a suicide note reading "if there are ghosts, I will be ... with you always as a ghost".

That's how believable it was. It's so crazy!

Overall rating: This is defiantly a lighting in the bottle situation that worked so well for those involved.