If you read my Offseason review, you may recall that I said that I got it confused with another movie – Carnage Park – and thought that I had already seen it. Well, you’re not going to believe this, but I did it again! This time, the mix-up is probably more understandable. Rather than the same director, the films have similar titles. What I learned when reading the synopsis of Ghostwatch, my 13th (spooky number!) movie of 31 for October, is that it is not Deathwatch. The latter is a ghost story set in the trenches of World War 1 that explores the madness of war as well as the supernatural. The former is a faux news special exploring a suburban haunted house. So, the similarities end at their titles. Let’s get into it, shall we?
BBC 1 is proud to present an investigative special on what many experts call the most haunted/cursed house in Britain. The Early’s house on Foxhill Drive looks just like its many suburban neighbors but it has a sinister history of suicide, death, and the unexplained. The investigation is divided into the studio team, the in-home team, and the man-on-the-street outside the home (played by Craig Charles of “Red Dwarf” fame!). The studio team is taking phone calls from the public, responding to the in-home events in real-time, and interviewing experts. The in-home team is embedded with the Early family – mother, Pam, and her two young daughters, Suzanne and Kim. And the outside interviewer mostly provides jokes and goofs to lighten the mood. Mostly. Over the course of a few hours, strange occurrences go from possibly explainable mundanity to terrifying.
This is a very effective “War of the Worlds” style broadcast that reportedly caused quite a stir when it was shown on BBC in 1992. It’s hard to believe that people may have thought it was a legitimate investigation as recently as then, but it’s 2025 now and I personally know people who believe that “evil” media can put one under Satan’s thrall. Ugh. Anyway, Ghostwatch does an excellent job of selling the BBC News framing device. It immediately draws the viewer in. Especially when callers to the studio start claiming to have seen shadowy figures in the backgrounds of some of the shots. The audience can’t help but inch closer to the screen and to scrutinize the shadows more closely. So, when the resident entity, “Pipes”, does start to make its presence known through loud noises or popping lightbulbs, it is especially jarring to the rapt viewers. And the lore behind the haunting is pieced together nicely to give us some inkling of why the ghost is malevolent. The film culminates in a shocking reveal with widespread consequences. It may not be terrifying for jaded gorehounds, but it offers clever creeps in a believable documentary package.
The Final Cut: Ghostwatch is a chilling ghost story presented in an entertaining ‘investigative news special’ format.
No Real Danger 