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[CDX]

https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/2...nfamous-banned-bbc-program-ghostwatch-states/

Hallelujah! For many, many years people have been talking about the BBC program “Ghostwatch,” which upon airing caused quite a fervor in the UK. The show starred respected UK journalists and television personalities and was the perfect Halloween treat, but many viewers found more trick in that they believed what they were seeing was real. Think Orson Welles reading The War of the Worlds, but with spooks!

Shudder, the premium thriller, horror, and supernatural streaming service backed by AMC Networks, is releasing the BBC’s infamous faux paranormal documentary “Ghostwatch” for the first time ever in the United States.

Produced as a part of the BBC anthology series “Screen One,” it was presented as a live television investigation of paranormal activity, not as a scripted TV movie. It was banned after the premiere because of disturbed viewers making an estimated 30,000 panicked calls to the BBC switchboard in a single hour. “Ghostwatch” was never re-aired on UK television, never aired in the United States, and has never been made available on home video in the U.S.

About “GHOSTWATCH’s” release on Shudder:

• Has never aired in the United States, nor has it been made available on home video in the U.S.
  
• Aired once on BBC1, on Halloween night in 1992. Presented as live television and not a horror mockumentary, it resulted in an estimated 30,000 calls to the BBC switchboard in a single hour. It has never re-aired on UK television and was banned in the UK until released on DVD by the British Film Institute in 2002.
  
• Features actual BBC personalities playing themselves, adding to the confusion for an unsuspecting audience.
  
• A clear precursor to The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity, and the found-footage genre
  
• Has a cult following: An annual event, known as National Séance, occurs every year on Halloween night at 9:25 PM (the original broadcast time of “Ghostwatch”), when fans are encouraged to hit “play” on their own personal copies of “Ghostwatch” and live tweet the special.

I remember first hearing about this from an old GAF thread, and it was called the "RTTP: Ghostwatch (1992) The scariest TV movie ever made."

Never heard of AMC's Shudder. I'm not sure how I feel about all these different streaming services.

But, it's kind of crazy that back in 1992 some people thought it was really happening live on TV. I guess using actual BBC reporters didn't help.

 

[FortuneFaded]

Parky looking like Trump on that cover.

 

[SteveWD40]

It will be far less scary as they know it's fake and won't know who the presenters are.

I watched it live at the age of 12 and it felt real, seeing presenters I knew reacting to a very convincing poltergeist (until the end when it got silly).

 

[KennyLinder]

It was AMAZING when it was on TV.

I suspect it has dated quite badly.


"PIPES!"

 

[Sweeney Tom]

Shudder is incredible. $5 a month for easily the best horror film selection available

 

[Fancy Clown]

Shudder is great OP. Fantastic selection of horror movies that grows all the time, and it's only $5 a month. Invaluable resource for october's horror marathon.

 

[tomtom94]

It doesn't work if a) you know it's fake and b) you don't know who the presenters are.

However, I am pleased to see a streaming service picking up "forgotten gems" - I think that we might see more of that in years to come. If you can pick up the rights cheap and trade off its reputation, why wouldn't you?

 

[SymbiantXenos]

Round and round the garden....

 

[Admiral Woofington]

On a scale from vampire to spooky skeleton, jut HOW spoopy?

 

[Mortimer Brewster]

Time to get reacquainted with old Mother Seddons.

 

[bosseye]

It was AMAZING when it was on TV.

I suspect it has dated quite badly.


"PIPES!"

Fucking hell, Pipes scared me witless. Really stayed with me, especially that bit where they turn the light off and there is a glimpse of an awful face in the curtains (I think it was curtains). Shit me up something proper.

Won't be anything like as impactful now though, a lot of it came from seeing familiar presenters giving it a real air of legitimacy.

 

[Jackpot]

Charlie Brooker's analysis of it will provide the background you need.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOEozFtqe3s

 

[mclem]

Trying to think who to translate Mike Smith, Sarah Greene and Parky into for a US audience. Parky would be... Barbara Walters, I think, perhaps? Very much a conversational style, gets into quite a lot of detail.

Mike and Sarah are tricky, because they're both presenters, and also a married couple. I can't think of any married pairings, but maybe Donny and Marie Osmond as siblings would have that extra layer of relationship?

Edit: Oh, I'd forgotten Craig Charles was in it, too. At the time, someone with youth appeal, not sure what an equivalent would be - an MTV host?

 

[The Elite]

I didn't think I would hear anything new about this in 2017.

I am not sure this will work quite the same way in this day and age. I watched it for the first time a few years ago. Loved it.

 

[IronRinn]

Shudder is pretty great and it is pretty much the only way you can see The Devils in the US (legally) so worth it just for that.

 

[Cosmonaut X]

It still works reasonably well, but so much of its power came from the setup and the way it was presented as genuine, with presenters familiar to and trusted by the audience. That gave it the little extra oomph it needed to pull people with it, right up to the finale where it felt like someone said they needed to make it clear it was all set up, so they went OTT.

I'd recommend it in an instant, but with the caveat that it really only worked it's magic in that tiny window of time - particularly with those familiar presenters and a trusted broadcaster - and while there's a lot to enjoy about it still you won't ever get the same experience now.

Between this and Chimera, I spent a fair bit of time being terrified by TV at that age

 

[jufonuk]

Yeah I remember watching this, then begging my mum to turn it off while shitting myself.

 

[Air Zombie Meat]

Not sure how this will work now that there's an entire genre of faked ghost investigations.

 

[SteveWD40]

Yeah I remember watching this, then begging my mum to turn it off while shitting myself.

I slept with the light on for months.

 

[admiraltaftbar]

This special is so much fun. Worth watching especially since it's all on YouTube. I think it's actually a little scary even when you know it's fake just because it does creepy ghost haunting scenes pretty well. It's a perfect Halloween watch in my opinion.

 

[Xater]

It will be far less scary as they know it's fake and won't know who the presenters are.

I watched it live at the age of 12 and it felt real, seeing presenters I knew reacting to a very convincing poltergeist (until the end when it got silly).

It's about ghosts, so of course it's fake.

 

[KennyLinder]

This special is so much fun. Worth watching especially since it's all on YouTube. I think it's actually a little scary even when you know it's fake just because it does creepy ghost haunting scenes pretty well. It's a perfect Halloween watch in my opinion.

Shit, I just looked but couldn't see it on YT!

 

[Metalmarc]

Didnt see this cos i was young, but saw the McPherson tapes ? (that Alien one) the first time creeped me out, even tho i was about 15 or 16 (Silly Boy) but i had never seen anything like it and i think the first time it ended they cut the credits off too, adding to the effect, even though if you watch it now its quite silly.

Didnt help i was watching a lot of unsolved mysteries etc at the time.

 

[HStallion]

Is Shudder really a good streaming service? $5 a month isn't bad and I love me some horror movies and I'm often disappointed by the selection on Netflix and other places. I like everything gory shlocky trash to the classics to newer stuff that isn't the same movies found elsewhere.

 

[admiraltaftbar]

Shit, I just looked but couldn't see it on YT!

I appear to have misspoke there is this one:
https://youtu.be/_VFqEz_ZigU

But it's zoomed in. It used to be in it's unaltered entirety on YouTube but I guess since it's getting a US release it got taken down.

 

[AlimNassor]

I woulda had nightmares if I watched as a kid. I used to believe in Ghosts and watched all those Ghost "documentaries".

 

[EGM1966]

It's cool and it's definitely a piece of TV history now.

That said while it holds up nicely as a small ghost story (and better than say stuff like recent Conjuring 2) it's one of the few programs I feel really does fall into the "you had to be there" category of watching it first time it aired in U.K.

 

[DavidDesu]

Saw this live as a kid. Probably didn't help my pant-shitting issues (LONG RESOLVED - edit).


Can't imagine the point of releasing it in the US, especially since everyone should know it's fiction.

 

[BoogieWoogie]

I'm a big horror fan and haven't really looked into Shudder.

Anyone have a good list of the movies they offer? Do they have a free trial by any chance?

 

[pulsemyne]

Everyone around my age (late 30's) remembers watching ghost watch. Took me about 3/4 of the way through to realise it was fake. Superbly done though. A great piece of British TV history.

 

[SteveWD40]

It's about ghosts, so of course it's fake.

I was 12

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

But, it's kind of crazy that back in 1992 some people thought it was really happening live on TV.

People are dinguses. In the US on Halloween 1995 I think there was a similar sort of presented-as-news show about making alien contact and ending with it looking like humanity would get wiped out, and even though like every commercial break was like THIS IS FAKE of course some people got worried.

Ahh, here it is. Without Warning (1994)

 

[wenis]

Worth a rewatch. Hmm, I'll have to give it go with all this rainy weather going on. Perfect environment.

 

[GillaTheGorilla]

God I remember this, it had me absolutely terrified, even worse me and my brothers got so scared our parents turned it off before the end, if i'd have seen all the studio part it wouldn't have got me so bad. Great piece of work but a very 'had to be there' one. I slept with the light on for weeks afterwards.

 

[InaudibleWhispa]

It hasn't aged well (in the same way that even real 90's reality TV is cheesy), but it's still an interesting watch given its history and it was ahead of its time.

 

[Red Liquorice]

On a scale from vampire to spooky skeleton, jut HOW spoopy?

Haribo Halloween mix level of scary.

 

[PushTheButtonMax]

Saw this live as a kid. Probably didn't help my pant-shitting issues (LONG RESOLVED - edit).


Can't imagine the point of releasing it in the US, especially since everyone should know it's fiction.

It's an interesting piece of tv history, especially to horror fans; it's worth a watch even if it's not live.

 

[maquiladora]

I couldn't sleep for a week after this. Legit damaged me.

It was only so effective because I thought the whole thing was real. I can't imagine it being scary now because of how dated it is and the fact that you know it's all staged.

 

[Aikidoka]

I've recently learned that the whole "people thinking War of the Worlds was real" is FAKE NEWS.

 

[mclem]

I think one of the reasons it was *so* effective amongst the kids of the time is that the older ones would have known Mike Smith as the outside broadcast host from the Late Late Breakfast Show, and younger ones would have been familiar with Sarah Greene from Going Live, a Saturday Morning kids magazine show.

I think they picked their cast very well to get the right sort of impact.

 

[SymbiantXenos]

Everyone around my age (late 30's) remembers watching ghost watch. Took me about 3/4 of the way through to realise it was fake. Superbly done though. A great piece of British TV history.

Spoiler

when the 'cats' started howling I knew then the jig was up

 

[Spine_Ripper]

Never heard of it before and thought that was Trump lol. Sounds pretty cool. Isn't there a similar (fake newscast) American film about a meteor hitting earth?

People are dinguses. In the US on Halloween 1995 I think there was a similar sort of presented-as-news show about making alien contact and ending with it looking like humanity would get wiped out, and even though like every commercial break was like THIS IS FAKE of course some people got worried.

Ahh, here it is. Without Warning (1994)

Without Warning

That's the one! I need watch both of these.

 

[SymbiantXenos]

Never heard of it before and thought that was Trump lol. Sounds pretty cool. Isn't there a similar (fake newscast) American film about a meteor hitting earth?

Without Warning

 

[kiri]

Got my DVD ready to go again this Hallowe'en!

I love spotting all the Pipes appearances, really well made!

 

[Cosmonaut X]

I think one of the reasons it was *so* effective amongst the kids of the time is that the older ones would have known Mike Smith as the outside broadcast host from the Late Late Breakfast Show, and younger ones would have been familiar with Sarah Greene from Going Live, a Saturday Morning kids magazine show.

I think they picked their cast very well to get the right sort of impact.

Yup. Like I said above, they chose their hosts carefully to maximise the impact - Parkinson, Greene and Smith were a great choice, as was Craig Charles who was believable as a guest host. IIRC, they had titles and a writer credit on there that should have given the game away to alert viewers, but if you missed them at the beginning there was really nothing to give the game away until the very end.

 

[Doc Holliday]

Scarier than the original Woman in Black TV movie?

 

[Samus4145]

So what am I supposed to be seeing in the gif in the OP?

 

[JBourne]

Without Warning

Without Warning is so great. Hearing Ghostwatch compared to it makes me immediately interested.

 

[Taffer]

I think one of the reasons it was *so* effective amongst the kids of the time is that the older ones would have known Mike Smith as the outside broadcast host from the Late Late Breakfast Show, and younger ones would have been familiar with Sarah Greene from Going Live, a Saturday Morning kids magazine show.

I think they picked their cast very well to get the right sort of impact.

It must be real because none of the presenters are actors. Yes Crag Charles but he's obviously trying to break into serious broadcasting and has to start out as the outsider and work his way up to a studio gig.

 

[SymbiantXenos]

Without Warning is so great. Hearing Ghostwatch compared to it makes me immediately interested.

Watched WW again just last week.