Ghostwatch (Limited Edition) [Blu-ray]

Product Information

British label 101 Films has officially announced that it will release on Blu-ray Lesley Manning's made-for-TV drama Ghostwatch (1992), starring Michael Parkinson, Sarah Greene, Mike Smith (XIX), Craig Charles, and Gillian Bevan. The release will be available for ... An inspiration to a generation of filmmakers, and years ahead of the profusion of found footage movies that would follow, Ghostwatch is regarded as a classic of the genre and remains as relevant, as terrifying, and as inspirational today.

Ghostwatch (101 Films) Blu-ray Review - Rock! Shock! Pop Ghostwatch (101 Films) Blu-ray Review - Rock! Shock! Pop

Michael Parkinson, an actual BBC newsman, is the host of the show and he interacts with some call-ins and the aforementioned paranormal researcher who explains the details behind the haunting. The reporters sent on the scene are Craig Charles, who interviews some of the people in the neighborhood, and Sarah Greene, who goes inside the house with the family and experiences the activity first hand. This cookie, set by YouTube, registers a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen. For many this Halloween TV special from 1992 has remained ingrained in their memory. Was it real or pure fiction many asked at the time?

With the passing of Parky, today, after a brilliant innings of 88, the first thing I fondly associate with him, despite all of the millions of great interviews with celebrities is his "starring role" is this magnificent innovative cult classic supernatural horror film. The grandfather of "found footage" film genre and frankly, still my favourite by far. Extras on this disc start off with an audio commentary with film historians Dr. Shellie McMurdo of The University Of Hertfordshire/University Of Roehampton and Dr. Stella Gaynor of The University Of Salford. They provide a very thorough history of the production and also share their own memories of seeing the movie for the first time in their younger days. They talk about how they trusted the different newscasters that were used in the production as they were familiar to them from regular newscasts, how they felt about revisiting the movie years later and the impact that it had even on subsequent viewings, the importance of not being able to rewind the movie on the initial television viewing and how that would put ideas in your head, the legacy of the production and the influence that it had and lots more.

Ghostwatch’ review: Dir. Lesley Manning [Celluloid Screams 2022] ’Ghostwatch’ review: Dir. Lesley Manning [Celluloid Screams 2022]

What if Ghostwatch wasn’t a hoax? That those events millions of us witnessed were real? What if Ghostwatch depicted a real-life haunting but the BBC had to cover it up as a drama? A show they were not ashamed of, as the public perception of it was, but, terrified of – of the very real monster it had created. The whole thing is very well put together, and it's directed in such a manner that it keeps up at a very fast pace. Casting real life news reporters in prominent roles helps to add to the illusion, as this very much does feel like a live news broadcast from the early nineties. There are all sorts of great moments that foreshadow the conclusion and if you pay close attention to details, you'll be rewarded with some nice little scares in the latter half of the production. years later and “the cat now being out of the bag” about it, as well as a proliferation of found footage/live streamed/homemade horrors vying for our attention, does Ghostwatch still manage to entertain, especially during the “spooky season”.

The premise of the thing is pretty sneaky - take a handful of recognizable and respected British news personalities such as Michael Parkinson, Sarah Green, Mike Smith and Craig Charles (all playing themselves), set some of them up in the studio and send a team out to a haunted house to investigate the supposed hauntings that occur there on a regular basis. Broadcast the entire thing over live TV and unleash some extremely frightening imagery onto an unsuspecting and surprisingly gullible populace and voila, you’ve got yourself a bit of a horror classic. For an North American audience it may not be as convincing as on this side of the pond we're less likely to be familiar with some of the faces involved, but Ghostwatch still makes it very easy to suspend your disbelief for ninety-minutes. Watch this one with the volume up at a decent level and the lights completely off for maximum effect. The Early's have gone to the press with their problems before but the tabloids blew it all into a joke at the family's expense. To hopefully get to the bottom of things, they get involved with a paranormal researcher who gets the BBC involved and of course, this is how Ghostwatch came to be. And the thing that held the uncanny terror altogether was Pipes, the apparition formerly known as Raymond Tunstall, the undead child molester who in death now walked the corridors of the ill-fated Early family’s residence. Pipes didn’t get much screen time, but sure made an impact with each glimpse of his partially eaten-by-cats features adding to the sense of dread and menace. “Did you see the ghost?” people asked each other the next day. Indeed, they had, but no one could really figure out how many times he had made his presence felt. Limited Edition Booklet: Includes ‘Extra Sensory Perception Management’ by Sarah Appleton, ‘Ghostwatch – As it Happened’ by Tim Murray and short story ‘31/10’ by Ghostwatch writer Stephen Volk