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Sleeping with all the lights on.
Oct. 4th, 2011 11:02 amAnd all the bears. Because yesterday I was an idiot. I know, I know, this shocks none of you.
What made me an idiot hiding under the covers? I was doing my usual aimless trivia searching, following one link to another. I had gotten into a list of "great films you haven't seen" and one of the films listed was Ghostwatch, a BBC production first aired on Halloween night, 1992. Found it complete on-line and watched it.
The movie presents itself as a documentary investigating a supposed haunted home in Northolt. Real BBC presenters (including Craig Charles of Red Dwarf fame) operate out of both a central studio and on scene. There's a phone bank, expert guests, and even the flubs you'd expect in a live event.
Soon it is established that the home is haunted by a poltergeist named "Pipes" for his habit of banging on the pluming. At first, the show is a fun lark, with neighbors getting in shots to wave, Sarah Greene broadcasting from the home while Michael Parkinson and Mike Smith handle things in studio. Craig Charles does B-roll interviews.
The best thing about this film is the writer and director both studied at the school of "less is more." The malice level builds slowly, leaving lots of room for "reasonable explanations", the presenters and crew react in understandable confusion to the strange happenings, and best of all, this is a ghost movie with very little ghost in it. Pipes makes a total of eight appearances, none of them overly clear, in the film. Half of these sightings come in the final 20 minutes of the 91 minute production. Much like Jaws, this movie plays on the fear of an unseen foe. Things ramp up quickly, and again, you are more scared of what you don;t see than what you see, finally, in the last ten minutes.
( Cut for massive spoilers. Cut and ROT13 )
I'm an idiot because I watched this thing alone on a cloudy, windy day. But still, and incredibly good horror film that gets that being scary doesn't have to mean grossing people out with buckets of gore.
What made me an idiot hiding under the covers? I was doing my usual aimless trivia searching, following one link to another. I had gotten into a list of "great films you haven't seen" and one of the films listed was Ghostwatch, a BBC production first aired on Halloween night, 1992. Found it complete on-line and watched it.
The movie presents itself as a documentary investigating a supposed haunted home in Northolt. Real BBC presenters (including Craig Charles of Red Dwarf fame) operate out of both a central studio and on scene. There's a phone bank, expert guests, and even the flubs you'd expect in a live event.
Soon it is established that the home is haunted by a poltergeist named "Pipes" for his habit of banging on the pluming. At first, the show is a fun lark, with neighbors getting in shots to wave, Sarah Greene broadcasting from the home while Michael Parkinson and Mike Smith handle things in studio. Craig Charles does B-roll interviews.
The best thing about this film is the writer and director both studied at the school of "less is more." The malice level builds slowly, leaving lots of room for "reasonable explanations", the presenters and crew react in understandable confusion to the strange happenings, and best of all, this is a ghost movie with very little ghost in it. Pipes makes a total of eight appearances, none of them overly clear, in the film. Half of these sightings come in the final 20 minutes of the 91 minute production. Much like Jaws, this movie plays on the fear of an unseen foe. Things ramp up quickly, and again, you are more scared of what you don;t see than what you see, finally, in the last ten minutes.
( Cut for massive spoilers. Cut and ROT13 )
I'm an idiot because I watched this thing alone on a cloudy, windy day. But still, and incredibly good horror film that gets that being scary doesn't have to mean grossing people out with buckets of gore.
