Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		4.0

Ghostwatch Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 20, 2022

Note: MVD Visual is handling distribution of the domestic release of 101 Films' Blu-ray of Ghostwatch. It does look like 101 is putting this out itself for the UK market, and in that regard, there's also a standard edition being released for the UK market without all of the non-disc supplements this release includes.

Orson Welles' infamous Halloween radio broadcast of that other Wells' The War of the Worlds remains perhaps the single most famous example of a fictional media event being perceived as reality. There have been a number of adroit analyses of the socioeconomic aspects that may have played into large swaths of the American populace "falling" for a blatantly theatrical radio presentation, but part of what happened can certainly be ascribed to the fact that it took place in 1938, when audiences were perhaps less jaded than they are nowadays, and therefore more liable to simply assume what was being broadcast was "the truth". In that regard, it may be kind of amazing for American audiences in particular not familiar with the broadcast currently under review to find out that over five decades after Welles and his Mercury Theater troupe scared the living daylights out of millions of people that something quite similar happened in England, albeit this time on television, where one might think audience perceptions might have been more attuned to the fact that "reality" was in fact fiction. Ghostwatch aired on Halloween night in Britain in 1992, and it purported to be a special live broadcast looking into some supernatural activity at a West London flat where a family was ostensibly experiencing some frightening poltergeist activity. Now part of Ghostwatch's particular genius is that it recruited actual "presenters" (as television hosts and pundits are known in the UK) to populate the show, and to provide some analogous context, it would have been like Welles utilizing some famous news announcer from the 1930s like Walter Winchell or Lowell Thomas to "report" on the alien invasion.

One of the perhaps unintentionally funny things about Ghostwatch is that it evidently followed in the wake of a whole series of so- called "Watch" programs which were documentary style, real time looks at various places and/or professions, including shows like Hospital Watch and Crime Watch, the latter of which seems like it might have been the UK version of something like Cops. In any event, the mere fact that this show had Watch in its title may have lent it a certain imprimatur of "realism" and authority, which was no doubt further emphasized by the participation of "presenter" Sarah Greene, who had in fact had a history with various Watch outings. Making things seem even more like an actual quasi-news report was the participation of both Mike Smith, another well known British television presenter who just so happened to be Greene's husband, and Michael Parkinson, another icon of British broadcasting who might be compared to someone like David Frost, able to handle everything from "straight" news reporting to celebrity interviews.

This is all to say that this very audaciousness in terms of personnel may be what helped to convince a lot of people that Ghostwatch was in fact a real life documentary, despite the fact that some may assume that in 1992 audiences should certainly have been more jaded than they were in 1938, when Welles pulled off his "stunt". The actual ghost story here is in some ways almost irrelevant in a way to examining Ghostwatch as a broadcasting social phenomenon, but it's played for some intermittent spookiness and definitely goes in a couple of fun directions. Greene is the "on the scene" reporter at a home where single mother Pamela Early (Brid Brennan) and her daughters Suzanne (Michelle Wesson) and Kim (Cherise Wesson) are being tormented by a poltergeist they call Mr. Pipes. This is just one of two places where the production mixes actors (the Early family) with a "real life" person. Meanwhile, back in a perhaps safer broadcast studio, Parkinson and Smith are joined by (like actors portraying the Early family interacting with "real person" Greene) an actress named Gillian Bevan, appearing as a supposed expert in paranormal phenomena named Dr. Lin Pascoe, here commenting on the supposed remote feed from the Early house which is being viewed by her, Parkinson and Smith.

There are some really fun twists and turns the tale takes and in one particular aspect it's easy to see why, yes, maybe gullible, audiences were freaked out by the broadcast, since it goes a "step further" than Welles and Wells by suggesting anyone watching is going to be possessed by some nefarious spirit, which in a way is probably more frightening than thinking if you look out of your window, there may be an alien looking right back at you. It's fascinating to see how clearly Ghostwatch presages any number of found footage productions, and unlike many found footage productions, this one isn't intentionally ambiguous about supernatural goings on.

Ghostwatch Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Ghostwatch is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 101 Films and MVD Visual with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.33:1. Despite some really luxe packaging and even a more expansive press sheet than usually accompanies these releases, there's really no technical information imparted, though this kind of amusingly has some of the same upscaled appearance that I frequently mention with regard to another BBC production from this general era, Doctor Who. This is one of those "historical" presentation that simply has some baked in deficits which are probably not helped by the increased resolution and/or upscaling, and in fact may at least at times be hobbled by those efforts. In its best moments, which tend to be the better lit sequences with stationary cameras, detail levels are generally decent and the imagery relatively crisp, within the overall context of the presentation. Handheld moments and especially the lower light moments reveal a variety of artifacts, with some pretty noticeable pixellation and macroblocking, as well as a general lack of clarity. As can also be made out in some of the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review, there are some intentional "lo-fi" video moments, as in some of the supposed closed circuit feed from the Early house. This is actually one of those presentations that may benefit from being viewed on a smaller screen. Some may feel I'm being overly generous with even a middling 3.0 score, but after having seen several seasons of Doctor Who from around this same timeframe put out on Blu-ray by the BBC itself, this actually compares fairly favorably to some of those presentations.

Ghostwatch Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Ghostwatch features an LPCM 2.0 Mono track that is obviously narrow, but which still packs some significant energy into a variety of spooky sound effects. I actually found some of the more "electronic" sounding effects that accompany the supposed live feed being interrupted by the sprit world to actually be more annoying than startling after a while, but the ostensible "on the fly" documentary of the Early home scenes have surprisingly consistent levels and clear representation of sometimes panicked dialogue. The studio bound pieces with Parkinson and his cohort are obviously more controlled, and probably not so coincidentally sound fine. Optional English subtitles are available.

Ghostwatch Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Do You Believe in Ghosts? (HD; 48:14) is a really fun retrospective looking back on the production, with some enjoyable interviews and quite a bit of backstage information.


• Commentary with film historians Shellie McMurdo and Stella Gaynor


• Commentary with filmmakers Stephen Volk, Ruth Baumgarten and Lesley Manning is the better of the two commentaries, at least insofar as gleaning production data goes.


• Shooting Reality (SD; 7:36) is an archival featurette with director Lesley Manning.

Additionally, this Limited Edition comes with some very handsome packaging and non-disc extras. A slipbox encloses the keepcase holding the Blu-ray disc with newly commissioned artwork, as well as a set of six art cards, a reproduced script with annotations by director Lesley Manning, and another booklet including three really good essays and stills.

Ghostwatch Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Every so often an unexpected surprise shows up in my review queue, and I have to say Ghostwatch certainly qualifies in that regard. This Limited Edition offers a number of pluses, which may help to outweigh a technical presentation where the video "is what it is". With that one caveat, Ghostwatch comes Highly recommended.