Late Night Watch

Ms. Spenser wanted to get a jump on the Halloween season early, or at least wanted to watch Ghostwatch (1992). In fact, she got a Shudder (trial) subscription to see it. It was originally broadcast in 1992 on British TV, as if it was an unscripted look at the supernatural, War of the World style. It was presented by the usual crew of British presenters, Michael Parkinson in the studio, Mike Smith taking phone-ins, and his wife in the field at a haunted house. Also, presenting outside the house was Craig Charles (Red Dwarf) who says inappropriate things, because that's why you hire Craig Charles. 

The haunted house in question is inhabited by a single mother, and two girls, The younger has named the poltergeist Pipes, because her mother told that's where the noises are coming from. She doesn't seem very bothered, but her older sister isn't so calm. Back in the studio, a psychic, Gillian Bevin, assures skeptical host Parkinson that this is a very serious and spooky house. 

We hear some noises and maybe a few things fall over, but it looks pretty tame. But viewers keep phoning in to say they see someone in the shadows of the house - which the host can't find when looking over the tape. They even catch on off the girls making noises by pounding on the walls, and start thinking it is actually a hoax (over Bevin's objections). Then things start to get crazy.

Does this sort of sound familiar? One of the quiet hits from last year was David Dastmalchian's Late Night with the Devil (2023). Dastmalchian plays a late night TV host in the 70s whose show can't catch up to Carson. In desperation, he decides to invite the Devil on as a guest. Or not really - he invites Laura Gordon, an author on psychic phenomena and her subject, a cute little girl who is sometimes possessed by a demon named Mr. Wiggles. Also invited are Fayssal Bazzi, who plays a psychic named Christou, and ex-stage magician, skeptic and blowhard Ian Bliss. 

Christou does a cold reading of the audience, then contacts the spirit of Dastmalchian's late wife. When Bliss debunks this, Christou starts vomitting black bile and collapses. We find out in a commercial break that he died in the ambulance. 

Like in Ghostwatch, things get creepy, then are debunked, then get much creepier. 

The directors, Cameron and Colin Cairnes, needed an idea for a low-budget, high-impact movie, and they got it. 

I'm not going to say either of these is a better movie. Ghostwatch was written by one of Ms. Spenser's favorite horror writers, Stephen Volk, which is how she discovered it. It plays it a little straighter, without going too deep into the character and psychologies of the presenters and poltergeist victims. I guess audiences could fill those in themselves, knowing these personalities. Late Night explores Dastmalchian's character at length, his dabbling with the esoteric rich men's club, the Grove, the loss of his wife, his desperation to stay on the air. There is also a hint of a forbidden romance between him and Gordon, as well as a deep antagonism between him and the skeptic. Of course, Late Night is a period piece (beautifully executed), while Ghostwatch has only become one with the passage of time. 

I recommend watching as a double bill, in chronological order.