Inhalte(1)
Sarah Greene and Craig Charles report from a reputedly haunted London home for the outside broadcast, while Michael Parkinson and Mike Smith stay in the warmth and "safety" of a BBC studio. The Early family are allegedly being harassed by the ghost 'Pipes', so named as his banging and crashing were initially attributed to bad plumbing. After a deliberately slow start the tension gradually builds, culminating in a terrifying crescendo. Although entirely fictional, the masterly combination of great scripting, intuitive direction and perfect casting made the supernatural pastiche appear frighteningly real. (101 Films)
(mehr)Kritiken (2)
For me, the most surprising horror discovery of the year. Here it is almost unknown, but when the BBC aired it for the first time in Britain it caused a lot of fuss; and no wonder. The plot of Ghostwatch would fit perfectly in today’s trend of found-footage and mockumentary, it plays at being a serious TV documentary and was aired as such – in 1992, several years before The Blair Witch Project! It is really beyond my comprehension how this forerunner of all current fake horror documentaries could push the format so far. When you see it, you’ll be surprised, too. By the way, Oren Peli must have taken some inspiration here for his Paranormal Activity, en particular for the third part with the girls and Toby. What’s not so good are the very weak actors (actual BBC reporters), but the idea and the atmosphere (the second half is truly scary) pull it forward and I recommend it to all horror fans. Nowadays, we are used to this format, so part of the effect may be missing, but if I had seen it live back in 1992 I wouldn’t have been able to sleep.
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I don't usually like mockumentaries because they are usually handled by amateurs, but in the case of "Ghostwatch" I am very satisfied. This is a film that I enjoyed, which is fully developed in its stylization to truly represent something that could be taken as real. Moreover, good actors were chosen, and fans of "Red Dwarf" may be pleased by the presence of Craig Charles.
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