I was just a kid when I saw this. I knew it was a drama, and even as a kid I was not one of the idiots who thought it was real then complained to ofcom, but I remember really regretting watching it on my own in the dark. I dreamed that later that night I came downstairs and turned the TV back on, and there was the testcard with the little girl and the clown, only the girl was all decomposed and the clown had a demonic face... Nightmare fuel of high caliber!
Still good now when you watch it again years later but at the time people did think this was legit and it was live.Of course it was pre recorded and it wasnt real but the amount of people that bought into it and watched it and complained just shows how successful it was.I was about 15 when this was out and I didnt get the chance to watch it as my grandparents were watching something else but I remember the uproar it caused.Just shows the Brits are the inventors of great scares.
Absolutly scared the pants off me as a kid. Watched it round my grandmas house and had to sleep in a bedroom I wasn't used to lol. The sound of cats fighting and snarling still makes me shiver just like the dogs howling at the beginning of the excorcist.
like most scary programmes, it's all about the backstory that makes it truely effective - no wonder so many of us as kids (and yes, i was one of them) found it terrifying, when the story is about a child-molester / "baby-farmer"... some of the words from the children in this are quite disturbing.
My parents broke the law when I was 12 and I was on my own when I watched this. I was completly traumatised, until I got to school. Alas, I never lived it down.
me to mr or mrs or miss rawshock,even my 2yo old daughter saying boo behind here pepa pig curtains ,makes me jump and another pair of y fronts go in the bin ,wot a waste ,god bless my y fronts.
Wow I've not seen that since Oct '92. Being a teenager alone in the house it shook me up. Next day at school people talked about nothing else. Its still making the hairs stand up on the back of my neck even now...
I've gotta say, does anyone else think that, when things start to kick off, it kind of reminds you of those creepy Japanese horror/Ghost stories? I mean in the sense of how creepy it is mainly. Also the cat noises!
The genius of Ghostwatch was that it tapped into some very real issues on a subconscious level. There were some rather distrubing (but very subtle) references to sexual assault here. Also the comment that teenagers are likely to inspire poltegeist activity REALLY made me worried, being a teenager at the time ( as we all were, who are watchng these clips.) It also raise questions about the extent to which we trust TV hosts, presenters etc. Course they argue it was a DRAMA not a hoax. Yeah, right!
I agree 100%. Ghostwatch was amazing, genuinly did what TV should do- entertain. Now it is all "celebs dancing on ice singing songs from the shows" nonsense.
I saw GW when I was 12- we turned over half way.My mum hadnt seen the build up& also thought it was real but for kids on halloween. I know the Producers laugh at the idea of it (I have met Stephen Volk) but this produced a fear in me so powerful I was affected for 2months, had repeated flashbacks, depression, my charcter altered & I re-experienced the fear to the point of nausea. Very effective test of the 4th wall, seems we do believe anything our TV tells us -experiment confirmed.
Yeah, Halloween 1992 I would have been 13 (my you tube "age" isn't accurate ((don't ask!)) )
Really really scared me, especially as I watched this staying at a big, old ex-University Hall all by myself where my aunty was living at the time.
Thing was, even though it wasn't REAL it was So REALISTIC- ghosts and disturbances in a very ordinary, normal suburban home. That is what made it so worrying too.
me too mate, for about 3 years i saw shadows behind my bedroom curtains and used to go to sleep feeling sick! I was 9 when i saw this in 1992 and that voice of pipes at the end never left my mind!! NOTHING has ever affected me like this did, and i put it down to genius script writing, this is without a doubt the best thing tv has ever produced..ever! I think the autocue bit at the end was abit crap but i guess they needed to put something cheesy in it to show it wasnt real..didnt work tho lol!!!
Yeh at the time there was acse where some1 tried to sue for causing PTSD in a kid. When he came to our college, there was so much hostility that the teacher had to calm people. Steven Volk came across very arrogant, self-absorbed and simply told us we wre stupid to belive such a thing was real. Was a disappoitment to meet a real producer and then have everyone walk away saying how conceited and arrogant he was.
Now if that was the version they showed 'that' night when I was eleven I think I may have passed out with fear...awesome alternative ending..yep I know it's fake but the cat noises and the voice of 'pipes' still chills me! Ghostwatch was, is and always will be genius!
This is alternate, what was the original? I've just seen the full GW on here and it had that same ending, except I don't know if it had Pipes talking. Was that the difference in the endings?
Thank you! This still scares me today at the age of 22! Haha, silly, but there you go. Do you know anything about the complaints when this first aired? Did people REALLY believe this to be actually all true? Or was it that some of the content was a little too over the top? Like when Craig was talking to the neighbors about dead fetuses? That was just a bit much really. I'm so going to watch this again for Halloween! Wish the BBC would show it again.
Have you seen the GhostwatchBtC channel on Youtube? They're currently making a retrospective documentary about the show. If you leave a personal comment/Ghostwatch story, they'll try to include it the final cut!
There's also a great 2-part video in their Favourites called 'Biteback' in which the producers talked to the viewers about how outraged they were.
I've just seen it actually - what a bunch of moaners! They're just upset because they were duped and they allowed their children to watch it past the watershed and believe they aren't the ones to blame.
Trust me a lot of people believed this was true. Parkinson was involved in making a series called Strange but true about the same time and several other similar progs about ghost stories and hauntings were being made. This was net obvious step. This was broadcast on Halloween and everyone thought it was a live broadcast and actually happening. Lets face animal mutilation was a very small step to take when you are already talking about disappearing children and ghosts which attacked kids.
That was the exact same ending.
TheMrGobble 4 months ago 2
I just watched the recently re-released DVD of
Ghostwatch last night and THIS was the ending shown.
motownredux 4 months ago
They should do a sequel that follows Mike "Smithy" Smith's quest for revenge.
SpiritKnob 5 months ago
I was just a kid when I saw this. I knew it was a drama, and even as a kid I was not one of the idiots who thought it was real then complained to ofcom, but I remember really regretting watching it on my own in the dark. I dreamed that later that night I came downstairs and turned the TV back on, and there was the testcard with the little girl and the clown, only the girl was all decomposed and the clown had a demonic face... Nightmare fuel of high caliber!
DoctorKandosii 7 months ago
Still good now when you watch it again years later but at the time people did think this was legit and it was live.Of course it was pre recorded and it wasnt real but the amount of people that bought into it and watched it and complained just shows how successful it was.I was about 15 when this was out and I didnt get the chance to watch it as my grandparents were watching something else but I remember the uproar it caused.Just shows the Brits are the inventors of great scares.
Pulpedtoafiction31 7 months ago
Absolutly scared the pants off me as a kid. Watched it round my grandmas house and had to sleep in a bedroom I wasn't used to lol. The sound of cats fighting and snarling still makes me shiver just like the dogs howling at the beginning of the excorcist.
scoobyspeed 11 months ago
Loved this, scared the bejesus out of me when i was 9 lol
Silverdevil2010 1 year ago
like most scary programmes, it's all about the backstory that makes it truely effective - no wonder so many of us as kids (and yes, i was one of them) found it terrifying, when the story is about a child-molester / "baby-farmer"... some of the words from the children in this are quite disturbing.
HoraceAndTheSpider 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
I was eight years old and home alone when I watched this, it scared the c'rap out of me.
MrRobertSama 1 year ago
I was eight years old and home alone when I watched this, it scared the crap out of me.
MrRobertSama 1 year ago
Horror directors should watch this to see how it's done. This was terrifying when it was aired.
nojustus1 1 year ago
Yep. Pooped myself stupid! Watching it again brings it all back an it still looks good!
000bubblehead000 1 year ago
My parents broke the law when I was 12 and I was on my own when I watched this. I was completly traumatised, until I got to school. Alas, I never lived it down.
rawshock1 2 years ago
me to mr or mrs or miss rawshock,even my 2yo old daughter saying boo behind here pepa pig curtains ,makes me jump and another pair of y fronts go in the bin ,wot a waste ,god bless my y fronts.
2walsall 2 years ago
If you look really closely at 0:32, just before when the light explodes, you can see Pipes' face on the video distortion.
laineycrusoe 2 years ago
So is this a show or a movie because this is so fake gotta love the acting..
DeadSilence2009 2 years ago
Admit it, you crapped your pants when you saw this.
castletriglav 1 year ago
a friend literally pooed his pants, he still has it in a jar
TURBODORK2 2 years ago 3
lolwut
SyrithUB 2 years ago
I would've just died if I'd seen this live...
UGLYDAVIEISME 2 years ago
this is more scary than the original!
tokando69 2 years ago
Wow I've not seen that since Oct '92. Being a teenager alone in the house it shook me up. Next day at school people talked about nothing else. Its still making the hairs stand up on the back of my neck even now...
zingogringo 2 years ago 8
If you liked this, be sure to check out the GhostwatchBtC channel on Youtube.
P2Pproductions 2 years ago
how is this an alternate ending?
johnm7491 2 years ago
It's to do with the angles the camera is using, I believe. If you check part 10 on here, then come back and watch this, that'll show you.
wirhannah 2 years ago 2
looks very similar to the original ending to me too
CADAVERHUSK 2 years ago 3
i cannot believe this has onli 6000 hits, this show needs 2 be remaid, true talent
puremanchester 3 years ago
no, cuz they would ruin it
rayblack2004 2 years ago
I've gotta say, does anyone else think that, when things start to kick off, it kind of reminds you of those creepy Japanese horror/Ghost stories? I mean in the sense of how creepy it is mainly. Also the cat noises!
Also very Blair Witch like, but creepier.
PuffyAmiYumi 3 years ago 3
Yeah. Specially the cats meowing like in Ju-On.
Gauldoth 3 years ago
Ergh, I've got chills : /
PuffyAmiYumi 3 years ago
i remember this scaring the shit outta me first time i saw it,even now its creeping me out
steve01evil 3 years ago 3
me too. very scary stuff.
LooseShoeView 3 years ago
better than any holywood ghost story ever.my heart was pounding. if there is anything scarier please let me know. blair witch comes close
ariana29x 3 years ago
Search for: 'Alien Abduction: Incident at Lake County' in Google Video. That's pretty good.
CarlShowalter 3 years ago
still shit scary, only the DR ruins it.
SirAtkins 3 years ago
Scary! I like the use of Test Card F.
This is how it should have ended! :P
weegerri1sm 3 years ago
The genius of Ghostwatch was that it tapped into some very real issues on a subconscious level. There were some rather distrubing (but very subtle) references to sexual assault here. Also the comment that teenagers are likely to inspire poltegeist activity REALLY made me worried, being a teenager at the time ( as we all were, who are watchng these clips.) It also raise questions about the extent to which we trust TV hosts, presenters etc. Course they argue it was a DRAMA not a hoax. Yeah, right!
tvargan 3 years ago
TV was way better back then. People had imagination.
maxi937 3 years ago 13
I agree 100%. Ghostwatch was amazing, genuinly did what TV should do- entertain. Now it is all "celebs dancing on ice singing songs from the shows" nonsense.
tvargan 3 years ago 3
Yeah, exactly.
maxi937 3 years ago
I saw GW when I was 12- we turned over half way.My mum hadnt seen the build up& also thought it was real but for kids on halloween. I know the Producers laugh at the idea of it (I have met Stephen Volk) but this produced a fear in me so powerful I was affected for 2months, had repeated flashbacks, depression, my charcter altered & I re-experienced the fear to the point of nausea. Very effective test of the 4th wall, seems we do believe anything our TV tells us -experiment confirmed.
unimoggie 3 years ago
Yeah, Halloween 1992 I would have been 13 (my you tube "age" isn't accurate ((don't ask!)) )
Really really scared me, especially as I watched this staying at a big, old ex-University Hall all by myself where my aunty was living at the time.
Thing was, even though it wasn't REAL it was So REALISTIC- ghosts and disturbances in a very ordinary, normal suburban home. That is what made it so worrying too.
tvargan 3 years ago
me too mate, for about 3 years i saw shadows behind my bedroom curtains and used to go to sleep feeling sick! I was 9 when i saw this in 1992 and that voice of pipes at the end never left my mind!! NOTHING has ever affected me like this did, and i put it down to genius script writing, this is without a doubt the best thing tv has ever produced..ever! I think the autocue bit at the end was abit crap but i guess they needed to put something cheesy in it to show it wasnt real..didnt work tho lol!!!
tidykris 3 years ago
Yeh at the time there was acse where some1 tried to sue for causing PTSD in a kid. When he came to our college, there was so much hostility that the teacher had to calm people. Steven Volk came across very arrogant, self-absorbed and simply told us we wre stupid to belive such a thing was real. Was a disappoitment to meet a real producer and then have everyone walk away saying how conceited and arrogant he was.
unimoggie 3 years ago
Now if that was the version they showed 'that' night when I was eleven I think I may have passed out with fear...awesome alternative ending..yep I know it's fake but the cat noises and the voice of 'pipes' still chills me! Ghostwatch was, is and always will be genius!
Jantek36 3 years ago 2
This is alternate, what was the original? I've just seen the full GW on here and it had that same ending, except I don't know if it had Pipes talking. Was that the difference in the endings?
PuffyAmiYumi 3 years ago
No closing titles!
Schnorbs 3 years ago
Oh I see! Thank you!
PuffyAmiYumi 3 years ago
Yeah, there are a couple differences in p2p's version.
First, the opening 'thermograph' image actually wasn't one of the 'heat-vision' shots at all - it's been colour corrected.
Then, there's an edit between two studio scenes that seems more in keeping with the original script.
The build-up of static around Parky is also new, followed by the Test Card (not featured in the original programme, either).
There's also some new audio to be heard (bangs, Kimmy's voice, etc).
Hope this helps!
CarlShowalter 3 years ago
Thank you! This still scares me today at the age of 22! Haha, silly, but there you go. Do you know anything about the complaints when this first aired? Did people REALLY believe this to be actually all true? Or was it that some of the content was a little too over the top? Like when Craig was talking to the neighbors about dead fetuses? That was just a bit much really. I'm so going to watch this again for Halloween! Wish the BBC would show it again.
PuffyAmiYumi 3 years ago 2
Have you seen the GhostwatchBtC channel on Youtube? They're currently making a retrospective documentary about the show. If you leave a personal comment/Ghostwatch story, they'll try to include it the final cut!
There's also a great 2-part video in their Favourites called 'Biteback' in which the producers talked to the viewers about how outraged they were.
CarlShowalter 3 years ago 2
I've just seen it actually - what a bunch of moaners! They're just upset because they were duped and they allowed their children to watch it past the watershed and believe they aren't the ones to blame.
PuffyAmiYumi 3 years ago 2
Trust me a lot of people believed this was true. Parkinson was involved in making a series called Strange but true about the same time and several other similar progs about ghost stories and hauntings were being made. This was net obvious step. This was broadcast on Halloween and everyone thought it was a live broadcast and actually happening. Lets face animal mutilation was a very small step to take when you are already talking about disappearing children and ghosts which attacked kids.
rosiejane66 3 years ago
i bought the dvd months ago, only watched it once, even tho i know its fake it still scares the crap outta me in places lol
caffeinejunkie2 3 years ago 6
i have this on tape and love it. the bbc need to do something like this again.
twiggyf15 3 years ago 4