October Movie Review: Struggling to choose what Ghosts to Watch? How about Ghostwatch?

It had occurred to me that I was testing fate a while ago, but I avoided it. I should have known. You can run, but you cannot hide. September 12th was when my problem confronted me. Besides the strange feeling of looking for such a movie a month and a half early, another feeling was creeping over me. Dread. And not the kind I was looking for. This wasn’t ghost spooky, this was I’m-way-out-of-my-depth spooky. 

I haven’t seen a lot of Halloween movies. There was no way I knew enough to do a proper themed round-up. My options were to either sit down for a movie marathon, just bite the bullet and write about Rocky Horror Picture Show, or somehow find a unique enough movie to warrant the respect of die-hard Halloween movie fans and make me seem like a professional. Which I totally am. 

An hour later, and with the combined efforts of my wonderful parents, the list had narrowed from literally everything to three movies: Arsenic and Old Lace, Ghostwatch, or Sleepy Hollow. All seemed like good possibilities, and Sleepy Hollow seemed particularly intriguing because I happen to be related to the IRL Katrina Van Tassel. (Sorry, but, like, I had to sneak that fact in here.)

But one movie stood out above the rest. One movie that was immediately banned from being aired for a decade upon release. One movie that garnered (a dubious) one million calls from the concerned public. One movie that, even with the sun shining through the windows at 10 AM, like, kind of really, actually scared me.

Ghostwatch is a mockumentary about a haunting that takes place in a small house in Britain. I don’t want to say much about the plot, because I think you should watch this movie as close as you can to how most people saw it: thinking they were tuning into a real news report about real events that were happening live.

That’s right, they just aired this puppy faux-live while pretending to take calls and having an actual number you could dial up. Which people actually did. In theory, the five people they had responding to the IRL callers would reassure them that the story was fake and let them get on with their Halloween. The problem was the way they were immediately overrun with calls, and couldn’t respond to everyone. At the same time, the fake news reporters on screen talked about how they were overrun with calls and couldn’t respond to everyone. So much for reassurance.

I mean, they got an actual news anchor THAT PEOPLE WATCHED ON A DAY-TO-DAY BASIS to sit there and act like this story was real. Did he just go back to work? Did anyone trust him ever again? Who condoned this behavior? So many questions. No answers.

In the modern day, we obviously know this isn’t a news report. However, besides being a fascinating flashback to the olden days of live TV (I’m sorry, teachers, don’t look up the release date; it’s a joke, I swear), the format has stayed unique and specifically, uniquely disturbing. There’s a quiet horror surrounding the technology that seeps through the years since it was made into the modern day. Between the many, many layers of screens and recordings, telling what is real, what is fake, and what is somewhere in between is nigh impossible. It also manages, despite the unusual medium, to have a profound underlying question: how far would you go for your reality to be taken seriously?

So if you want something unique, something that is frequently compared to the War of the Worlds radio broadcast, something that conversely did not inspire the Blair Witch Project, I would highly recommend this movie. 8.5 spooky skeletons out of 10 spooky skeletons.

A housekeeping note: It is rated R. If you are worried about being scared or disturbed by this movie more than intended, please look up the plot and read through. I don’t want to spoil anything for the general audience, but it does have some rather disturbing moments and themes. It can also be a bit slow at times, which I think just adds to the realistic feel, but if you want a high-paced movie, a gory movie, or a not-scary movie, I would not recommend Ghostwatch.