#I'm all for ghostwatching but with emphasis on ghost WATCHING

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

annual reminder not to feed the ghosts! yes I know it seems like a cute tradition, but these are wild spirits with specialized diets, and humans unintentionally cause serious havoc by interfering with their ectosystem

[amplesalty]

Halloween 2023 - Day 1 - Ghostwatch (1992)

Don't have nightmares...

Don't like the unusually warm weather trick you, it's October 1st so that must mean it's time for another month long-ish extravaganza of horror adjacent media. And what better way to start that month than with a chilling reminder of our own fragile mortality by reflecting on the passing of Sir Michael Parkinson by watching one of his stranger TV appearances. His passing just a few short months ago was mourned by many across the country, not least of all here in his native Yorkshire, with many news crews speaking to his lifelong friend Dickie Bird to reflect on their relationship and pay tribute to the broadcaster.

Parky was obviously a British institution and a beloved figure for his long running chat show which played host to all manner of classic moments that have been replayed countless times over the year on British television, who can forget his run in with a shutdown and closed off Meg Ryan, or the vicious attack he suffered at the hands of Rod Hull and Emu. So to see him in a mockumentary type piece is very out of the ordinary. But there perhaps is the heart of the matter, what better way to pull the wool over the eyes of the viewing public than to install a well loved and respected public figure in the drivers seat and lend the thing an enormous sense of credibility. Though, I'm not sure if that would have been the intention of those behind it.

I'm curious as to how this was promoted, whether or not it was played totally straight and spoken of as an investigative piece, but given that the intro plays out with a 'Screen One' ident, a BBC anthology series running from the late 80's into the 90's, and has a brief credits card for Parky and the supporting cast, it doesn't scream that they're trying to fool anyone into thinking this is real.

Ghostwatch is essentially playing out a live broadcast of a paranormal investigation of a supposedly haunted house, featuring a mentally frazzled mother and his two daughters who have been troubled by strange noises and poltergeist type activity. There is both an in studio element where the aforementioned Parky is sat with a paranormal expert, assessing the goings on, as well a manned phone line for the viewers at home to call in to report any of their own paranormal experiences. The phone line given out was apparently a standard one used by the BBC at the time for similar live call ins, lending it some credence, and if you were to call you would be given a brief explanation as to the fictional nature of the show before being invited to share your story. But because the phone line was so busy, people weren't necessarily hearing that recording.

There's also a supporting cast out in the field, with Red Dwarf star Craig Charles interviewing people out in the street whilst TV's Sarah Greene was in the house with a small camera and sound team to record the spooky goings on. Charles' part really helps underline the overall level of skepticism that runs throughout the whole thing, he leans more towards playing it off as a laugh as he really hams things up by making cliché ghost noises or putting emphasis on words like 'spooky'. It's similar with Parky back in the studio too, but he's more bluntly dismissive of the situation, always looking for an easy explanation or assuring the viewing public that there's nothing going on and nothing to worry about. He almost has a bit of the tone to him from that later Meg Ryan interview. It seems like people feel he was a bit harsh in that interview, prodding at Ryan for answers that she was reluctant to give. Like there's a moment where he's asking about her hesitancy towards the celebrity life being played out to the public and how that seems counter intuitive to being an actress. She seems a bit off put by the line of questioning and people act like he was bullying her almost? To me, it feels like maybe they're at cross purposes. Like, he wants to have a deeper conversation and really get to know what makes her tick, whereas she's more used to the American style of TV chat shows where you're on for about three minutes to give the outline of your next movie, they cut to commercial and then you're back for Jimmy Kimell to do a sketch.

He get's a bit of that here as the expert is trying to work out the unfolding scenes in front of them and, when she doesn't have an immediate answer, he scolds her and barks 'You don't know, do you?'. That really helps the show though because it's realistically what would happen, maybe there would be a greater level of professionalism and going in with an open mind but it's obviously a niche opinion to think of things as ghosts and goblins as being actually real so there's going to be a lot of outward skepticism on show. But, with the slow build where things do start happening, that skepticism does lead to excuses being made, almost as if Parky is in denial or too scared to fully admit what he's seeing might actually be true.

Whilst some of the acting can be a bit ropey in parts, I think the whole thing works really well and it's a neat premise for a show, if anything it feels very ahead of it's time. I know by the turn of the Millennium we had things like Most Haunted with ghost hunts and the like but I don't know if there would have been any similar contemporary shows to compare this to. Some of the effects are a little off too in places, like where they show footage where a supposed ghostly figure can be seen and it just looks super obvious because they really want you to notice. Same thing too later on when you start seeing brief glimpses of the ghost whilst the camera is panning or in reflections, to me it could have done with being slightly more subtle.

It's very interesting as well to learn more on the aftermath of the show, like how many complaints they dealt with and some serious situations that developed, such as a person with learning difficulties committing suicide after becoming convinced that the ghost from the show was after him. Or children watching the show and being traumatized from it. Always feel very strange to read such things from a modern perspective because it's the whole show is tame by today's standards. And this isn't even that old, granted it is 30 years at this point but there must have been slasher movies playing out on TV that are much worse in terms of their gore and horror elements. Maybe that element of realism made it that much more believable in people's minds. There is a separate documentary that was made back in 2021, a sort of anniversary look back I suppose, which I might watch some time.

[sapphireclawe]

Gaud, are you specifically referring to the European ones or all of them in general? After all, it's a time honoured tradition to feed bread to spirits at the beginning of November.

annual reminder not to feed the ghosts! yes I know it seems like a cute tradition, but these are wild spirits with specialized diets, and humans unintentionally cause serious havoc by interfering with their ectosystem