Post by The Curmudgeon on May 22, 2008 10:06:02 GMT 2
For the LAST time - things The Curmudgeon actually LIKES - part five!
Sigh - it never lasts long enough, does it? Every time I've brought back the limited series of positive reviews, they come at such a rate that before I know what's happening it's time to start dredging up the reality stars and God-awful excuses for music and television that I usually review. Ho-hum - so much good stuff, and so little time.
But let's push on, because we've got something a bit different for our last positive review. Now, I decided on a DVD, and when I looked through the films in my collection that I deemed good enough to take this slot (trust me, they're not all five star classics; I own Howard The Duck) one seemed to jump out at me that I'm surprised I never thought of before.
A one-off TV show that caused fear, panic and outrage among the people of Britain. A program that was NEVER allowed to be screened again. Sounds like my sort of show.
And indeed it was. Ghostwatch; screened on Halloween night in 1992 amid much advertising, hype and fan-fair, it was clear that pretty much every kid I knew would be glued to the screen that night, for we were promised a real live broadcast inside a haunted house, presented by television veteran Michael Parkinson, alongside Sarah Greene and Craig Charles. They didn't know what to expect, they didn't know what was going to happen - but if anything DID happen, hopefully their camera's would catch it. It sounded intriguing, but I fully expected 90 minutes of "is there anybody there" hokum, with zero results. I was always going to watch, but I expected to be bored. Well - that didn't happen.
These days, this show could be seen as a parody of the dismal "ghost hunting" shows like Most Haunted, except it was made about ten years before that sort of dross started filling the schedules. And in today's cynical age, this show would have full "spoiler" coverage up on the net before it even aired. It really was a more innocent time, because the next day EVERYONE was talking about it, in fact the buzz lasted for YEARS. When I first got the net one of the first things I looked up was this show. When I first got a DVD player one of the first things I bought was this show.
So what's it all about? Well, this supposedly live, genuine experiment was actually an elaborate hoax of genius proportions; casting well known TV names (thus throwing us off our guard) and slowly building up the tension with a realistic, deliberately mundane opening half hour full of the usual garbage Derek Acorah has made a career out of.
It only makes what actually happens later all the more effective. Now, you have to remember this was a BBC show starring "Mrs Nice" Sarah Greene, (who acts up a storm in this), building a fairly touching and believable relationship with the kids in the house. So when those kids are screaming as lights pop around them, when ominous shapes are seen standing in the corner of their bedroom, when one starts talking BACKWARDS, and when "Pipes", the violent ghost who lives in the house, finally makes his presence felt..
I remember watching this as a kid, absolutely terrified. Yeah, so the show totally loses it in the last five minutes, but everything up until that point; the acting, the pacing, the script, the effects, the psychology - it all works perfectly. It really is a televisual masterpiece.
So much so that, War of the Worlds radio broadcast style, it created a mainstream panic, so much so that the show had to come back on the air after the phones pretty much blew up back at the BBC, having to reassure the public that everything was OK. It made the papers, it made every schoolkid in Britain talk in excited hushed whispers for about a month. Hell, it (reportedly) even made someone commit suicide after watching it. Now THAT, my friends, is a TV show.
You would think that, after the man has stepped from behind the curtain, when you're sitting with a DVD of it many years later, that the spell would be broken. Well, in a way it is, but it leaves you to appreciate just what a fine piece of work Ghostwatch really is. The actual story is pretty in-depth, and its only after a few viewings where you spot the hidden clues (not to mention the blink and you'd miss it appearances from Pipes).
It's a shame that this shows entire legacy is its reputation for fooling the public with a "real" broadcast (even though it said "written by Steven Volk" in the opening credits.. it really was a more innocent time back then) when, smoke and mirrors aside, its a masterclass in "tell, don't show" film making, not revealing the monstrous Pipes in all his glory, only showing brief flashes in mirrors and perfectly timed "did you see that?!" glimpses.
Ghostwatch is an example of two things; an age where, without the all-conquering internet, we really did believe everything we saw and a showcase for how worthless the BBC is nowadays, who would never have the courage or the intelligence to produce a show like this anymore.
Ghostwatch should be both celebrated.. and lamented.
And that's it. The typical break from reviewing the dross is now over. Five reviews of the sort of stuff that makes The Curmudgeon's world go round have now been completed, and it's back to business as usual, talking about the wretched garbage that stupid people spend their money on. You know you're going to be there.
