Ghostwatch

Very innovative for its time, when people were more gullible and mockumentaries weren't a dime a dozen. Occasionally spooky, sometimes hokey, but mostly just good, cheesy fun. The outrage it sparked was equally entertaining.

Not a single use of the word "ghastly"

Loved it. In our house we refer to a Ghostwatch as when I secretly pay more attention to a movie than to my wife. This time it wasn't secret so this did not apply as such. Ghostwatching The Rock during my son's birth is not only one of my greatest film accomplishments but also one of my most horrific failures as a human. Movies, they treat us well.

The best part of this is the Bite Back segment, which aired after the program, where grown men and women expressed their outrage over having been duped into believing that a child-molesting ghost had caused fevers in pre-adolescent girls and attacked members of the BBC. I have to believe that segment was also staged otherwise I'll lose what minuscule faith I have left in humanity.

It's interesting to see the roots of the horror mockumentary, years before the Blair Witch Project. There are some decisions which - nowadays, at least - make things really freakin' obvious, and others that just don't work; on the other hand, there are some that are creepy-impressive in ways you don't see much anymore.

Ten years ahead of its time, and genuinely creepy at multiple points. The ending was a bit annoying considering how well they played everything until then (in that regard it's ten years behind its time). This is a brilliant concept though and I wish I was there watching it the first time around.

Pacing could have been better, but it really feels like a live broadcast for the most part. The ending sequence is worth the watch. Rare, but a good find.

I wish I could have seen this live.

Top badass moment? Craig Charles being silly and then having to deal with stories about dead dog foetuses. Nice. And Sarah Green trying to make a circle of damp carpet seem interesting. Before the Internet, media phone tapping and social media, people believed everything they saw on TV, especially if it came from the wholesome BBC. Did this really outrage the population as much as Bill Grundy's Sex Pistols interview? One cat (plus lots of off-screen ones), no chainsaws or decapitations.

Pretty brilliant and accurate. Was believable until the "seance" in the studio. Was let down throughout by poor acting from the family and the female host in their house. Creepy at certain points and Parky is brilliant, being sceptical about pretty much everything.

Oh hey there, found-footage horror movie that predated Blair Witch Project by 7 years yet still manages to do more interesting things than more recent entries in the genre. This was a fun little horror movie that gave me a couple of chills.

Lively and charming. Takes the Welles' War of the Worlds approach one step further and seemingly had a similar response. Parkinson is brilliantly serious.

Astonishingly effective, lulls you in to the point of frustration before it strikes, finishing with a real bang as the illusion of reality gives way to the ghost story.

I like the idea of this better than the execution, an entire nation trolled by its own state broadcasting company. Unfortunately it's extremely cheesy for the most part, and only the very end is creepy at all. Most likely Ghostwatch has the reputation it has because "found footage" was far more likely to fool people in 1992 than after Blair Witch.

It's pretty funny which makes up for being merely ok as a found footage horror.

I can see how this affected people watching the show "live" but this just didn't work for me.

[Watched when aired so distant] My little Cousin didn't stop going on about this for months, alas I was already to sceptical to get carried along with it. Feels odd to be jealous of nightmares though.

B+

Actually got to me.

It was a good one.

Big points for laying the groundwork for Blair Witch Project and all the other great faux-documentary horror that followed. Influence aside, it's a pretty underwhelming flick. It's not a complete dud and does stumble onto occasionally creepy moments. Perhpaps because I didn't watch it late night on 90s broadcast TV, but it didn't quite do it for me. The cheesy bits really spoiled much of the experience (what can be scarier than wind... but it's INDOORS!?). A little too unfocused overall.

eh, average. I think it loses its effect because we know its not real and its been done to death since its release in 1992. I think those that saw this 30 years ago live on TV would have thought it was an amazing piece of television