Ghostwatch (1992) on Netflix
NR19921h 31mDramaHorrorMystery
On Halloween 1992, a broadcaster mounts a live investigation into a haunting in Northolt. Pamela Early and her daughters Suzanne and Kim are tormented by a poltergeist Kim calls Pipes.
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- Netflix4.3/5
- IMDb7.3/108,942 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
The program is presented as a live broadcast hosted from a studio, where the host promises concrete evidence of paranormal phenomena and Dr. Lin Pascoe, a parapsychologist, studies the case. A reporter spends the night inside the house on Foxhill Drive in Northolt with Pamela Early and her daughters Suzanne and Kim, while a phone-in presenter takes calls from viewers who want to share their own ghost stories and an interviewer questions the neighbors about the street's past. The family's poltergeist is known as Pipes, a name that comes from knocking noises Pamela first put down to the house's plumbing, and it is said to live in a room under the stairs. Cameras, motion detectors and temperature sensors are installed in the house.
Cast
- Michelle Wessonas Suzanne Early
- Cherise Wessonas Kim Early
- Mike Aitonas Sound Recordist
- Chris Milleras Cameraman
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Ghostwatch (1992)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- An 18-year-old factory worker with learning difficulties, whose family home had knocking pipes, killed himself five days after the broadcast; his parents blamed the BBC, saying he had linked the pipes to the poltergeist on screen.
- Ghostwatch drew about 30,000 calls from distressed and angry viewers, and has never been repeated on UK television; its reception was compared to Orson Welles' 1938 War of the Worlds radio broadcast.
- Director Lesley Manning voiced the ghost Pipes herself, after the professional voice artist hired could not accurately replicate the style of voice she wanted; she revealed this at a 2010 screening in Camden.
- A report by Simons and Silveira in the British Medical Journal in February 1994 described two ten-year-old boys with post-traumatic stress disorder brought on by Ghostwatch, saying they were the first reported cases of PTSD caused by a television programme.
- Ghostwatch began as a planned mini-series that would end in a live broadcast from the property; when producer Ruth Baumgarten doubted an entire series and suggested a 90-minute TV special, writer Stephen Volk proposed doing the whole thing like the live final episode.
- The BBC grew concerned about the effect the broadcast would have on the public and nearly pulled Ghostwatch shortly before broadcast, insisting on opening credits that named the writer.
- Viewers were given the BBC's standard call-in number, 081 811 8181, also used on Going Live!, but those who got through heard a message saying the show was fictional, and with only five operators on duty many callers just got an engaged tone, which inadvertently added to the realism.
- On the show's 18th anniversary, fans began National Séance, simultaneously playing their own recordings at 9:25pm, the original broadcast time, and tweeting about it; it became a yearly tradition.
