You won't be disappointed!

Such a frustrating disappointment

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Just watched this again for the first time on DVD (It's available on Virgin On Demand) with my wife, who missed it first time around. Granted, when you know (now) that it was all a fake, then some of the power of the film is diminished, but it still managed to creep me out quite a bit.The first time I watched it I was fifteen and had missed the initial credits, and was well suckered in. Not quite daft enough to believe it was real, but there was still a pure sense of dread as cheesy TV presenters like Mike Smith and Sarah Greene seemingly got involved in a live Halloween broadcast that got out of hand. I did sit there thinking 'is this real or not?' - can't imagine what I would have though had I been younger, though. Tons of subtleties abound, as the tension builds and things move from the cheery British documentary to full-blown paranormal chaos. I won't go into the details here because it's worth watching fresh. My wife didn't think it was that scary (although she enjoyed it) but she said that was down to knowing it was a hoax. Still a classic though. A definite must-watch for any horror fan.

Having seen two different ghosts on separate occasions in my life, then my answer is, most definitely, yes. And no, I wasn't dreaming. I wasn't allowed to see this show back when it originally aired back in 1992, my mother and aunt were busy keeping the living room for their own drunken yacking. But I did sneak in a couple of times and saw a couple of definitive bits such as the ghost of Pipes appearing behind the curtains. I never knew it was a sham at the time but was intrigued nonetheless. Afterwards, BBC 2 screened Halloween 2 and I was more freaked out by that. But then came Sunday and the whole of Britain was buzzing about it.That particular Saturday night was probably the most iconic Halloween in a long time. The BBC even kept the show hidden away for many years afterwards because of all the controversy it stirred up. So anyone who has memories of being scared back then have not been able to see the show up until recently since the British Film Institute released a DVD. Fifteen years on, in the middle of a reality TV craze and with inattentive audiences, Ghostwatch would certainly not work in 2007. People now are just too cynical and no one really watches TV on a Saturday night now. There are many other distractions. It was the fact that so many people at Halloween parties, kids and adults alike, were fooled by this that made it so notorious. And there was hardly any advertising for Ghostwatch either and the only way people would know what was on is by checking the TV guides. Now we have the internet and almost every element of a production is scrutinized before anyone sees it.You could say that it was part of Ghostwatch's power that despite hardly any advertising and being bookended with 'this is not real' that was taken so seriously. But that would an absurd statement. It's a pretty 50/50 affair. The acting and direction is often stale and clumsy but the subliminal shots of Pipes going unnoticed by the crew make it so brilliant to watch.Set up like a Crimewatch show we have Parkinson in the studio with a Parapsychologist discussing the Pipes phenomena and other ghost stories while Sarah Greene and Craig 'No Talent Whatsoever' Charles are on location in a council estate where Pipes the ghost is making life a misery for the Early family. As you can imagine, there's a lot of hand-held camera action and quick glimpses of the ghost. I've spotted about seven but there may be more.It's rather dated and badly acted but it's still got enough in it to be interesting in these cynical times. Just try to blank out Craig Charles, why he was chosen to be in this I'll never know. I just wish that the BBC went further and push Ghostwatch to the max instead of mainly just playing it safe.

I was 12 when Ghostwatch was shown on Holloween on BBC1! I remember sitting on the sofa with my Brother and Mam, my Dad went out before the show had began. We were pulled into the story and got scared to death by Pipes and the story of the Early family, this was years before Most Haunted hit the screens! You could spot Pipes, you could hear the stories and watch as the team falls apart! I totally believed Sarah Greene was taken by Pipes and that Parky was taken over by Pipes too, GREAT TV! Little did we know that it was due to be banned and never shown again, until the ban ran out and it was released on DVD/Video, which I had for Xmas 3 years ago! Even now I cant watch it alone or with the lights off.....the power of being 12 back then and Pipes coming to get me still shakes me up! For me Ghostwatch is pure great British TV! Sure it might be dated and some people might call it boring...but to this 26 years old...sleepiness nights happen after I watch this show 14 years later!

The mark of 2/10 represents the score for a program that tried to be a serious investigation into the paranormal. Let's face it, if you were going to try and convince me that this was a serious paranormal investigation, then you don't have Sarah Greene, Mike Smith, Michael Parkinson and Craig Charles as presenters as well as a lot of obvious actors pretending they were scientists or victims of poltergeists. All we needed was Noel Edmonds.Anyone who thought this was real and was genuinely scared by it is beyond help. What scared me was how the BBC could waste licence payers money on such crap!!!