02x03 - Hidden Gems

[bunniefuu]

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

Man: I hope you have something
interesting to show me.

[Screams]

I have a few odds and ends here

that might be of some interest.

Dastmalchian:
You know, every horror fan

has their own
little secret movie...

Man #2: I want to make
some films here.

[Laughter]

Really weird films,
and you two can be in them.

...that only they know about...

...that they are dying
for you to get to know as well.

Die, you zombie b*stards!

Wait, you'll f*ck me
when I'm dead?

Zimmerman: Hidden gems exist
because there's such

a proliferation of horror,

and there's so many modes
of distribution

that a movie could come out
in a wide release

and still not get valued
or seen.

It's in many ways
about exposure and rediscovery,

or a film that in some ways
was ahead of its time.

"The House of the Devil"
is a movie

that basically predicted
the horror wave

that was going to come
in like four or five years.

There are probably plenty
of movies like that

that were out of step
with what was so popular.

So, now they're being
rediscovered,

or five years later,
they're being rediscovered.

♪

Let's go, Ernie.
This place is dead.

Yeah, where's all the weirdos?

Man: [Echoing]
There are no weirdos here!

Gingold: One film that was made
by a studio that I love

that never got the release
it deserved

is called "Freaked"
by Alex Winter,

which is this absolutely insane
horror-comedy

where he plays this
very spoiled movie star

who winds up being trapped
in a compound by this guy...

I am Elijah C. Skuggs,
proud proprietor

of Skuggs' Fabulous Freakland
and Mutant Emporium.

...who turns people
into very bizarre freaks.

♪

And you have all kinds
of weird characters.

It's like Mr. T plays
the bearded lady. How are you doing?

And Bobcat Goldthwait voices
this sockhead character.

It's the end of the world.
The apocalypse!

[Laughs]

And, unfortunately,
after it was finished,

there was a studio
regime change.

The new regime did not get it.

Gentlemen, all those in favor.

Good.
It's unanimous.

I knew I couldn't trust you,
corporate greaseball.

I think it opened in one
theater in New York for a week.

♪

The work that Tom Stern
and I were doing

at that time was aggressive.

We had a show on MTV called
"The Idiot Box"

that I also starred in.

It was aggressively violent.

Freeze!
You're dead, punk!

♪

Ow! My legs!

Winter: So, with "Freaked,"
we really were focused

on creating something
that had the most amount

of physical effects possible...

Giant Rasta eyeballs,
just like Rick said!

...largely out of necessity.

It's a great
makeup effects showcase.

It was one of those films
from the '90s

where they got several
makeup effects crews

to handle all the work.

You had Steve Johnson,

Alterian Studios.

Screaming Mad George
contributes a lot

of really bizarre stuff
to this movie.

You got a problem, mister?

Winter:
So, it was this idea of taking

what really ought to have been
an animated movie

and making it live action.

We're gonna take something
that shouldn't exist

in the physical world...

♪

...and we're gonna figure out
a way to make it exist

in the physical world.

sh*t.

And that was the mission.

It was extremely ambitious

and just about k*lled
both of us.

But it was a great deal of fun.

♪

Now, that's entertainment.

♪

Due: I've given some thought
to what a rare gem

in horror might be,
and it's tough.

There are a lot
of obscure movies out there

that a lot of people love.

But I think one movie
a lot of horror fans

probably missed because
it came out in the 1970s...

and because it was
literally in movie jail...

it was at the Museum of Modern
Art, and it was locked up

and you could only see it
one person at a time

or something like that...

Is "Ganja & Hess" by Bill Gunn.

♪

It was meant to be
kind of a "Blacula" ripoff.

Announcer: "Blacula,"
Dracula's soul brother.

Due: But Bill Gunn decided
to go his own way with it,

and he used blood
as a metaphor for addiction.

Gunn: The idea of desire
is very much a part of it.

After all the Myrthians thought
they had a desire for blood,

not a need for it,
but it was a need.

♪

And it was sort of a meditation
on class differences.

Why do you live in a house
this fine, alone?

That's not a polite question.

[Chuckles] They're the only
ones worth asking.

And the little racial stuff
in there,

but also a love story...

I want you to live forever.

♪

The way you're acting, you'd
think I was gonna live forever.

No, I mean, I really want you
to live forever.

...with some gorgeous
fantasy imagery set in Africa.

♪

It's not paced like
a contemporary horror movie.

It really is a bit more
of sort of a visual meditation,

almost like a poem.

[Screaming]

♪

But it has also some
pretty shocking stuff in there.

♪

And a lot of horror fans
have not seen "Ganja & Hess."

[Screaming]

♪

There it is.

[Screaming]

Carolyn: "The Stone Tape" is
written by Nigel Kneale,

who's a very, very influential
British screenwriter.

He's always been very good
at bringing science into horror.

Sayenga: A group of researchers

are looking for a new way
to record sound.

So they move into this
very old manner in England,

and they discover
that there's a room

that the workers won't renovate
because they say it's hunted.

[Screaming]

What they find out
is that these ancient walls

have actually recorded
the sounds

that have accrued over the
years,

usually of some
terrifically horrible event.

It must act
like a recording, fixed

in the floor and the walls.

Right in the substance of them a
trace of what happened in there,

and we pick it up.

We act as detectors, decoders,
amplifiers.

A recording?

It would have to be
in the stones.

Carolyn: That idea of the stones
themselves, of the material

of the walls themselves
storing events is something

that has been adopted
into proper parapsychology,

what nowadays is referred to
as the stone tape theory.

It's a mass of data

waiting for
a correct interpretation.

No one's ever managed it before.
I think we might.

The team is led
by an egomaniac misogynist,

and there is a woman...

Oh, my Jilly.
You're a very female one.

...who is the smartest person in
the room, played by Jane Asher,

but nobody takes her seriously.

She's lightly psychic.

[Screaming]

Sayenga: So essentially,

her boss uses this woman
as a conduit to try

to listen to this room
to find out what's going on,

basically, because
they want to monetize it.

It's going to be hours,
all hours.

Television without the TV set,
no box,

not even a visor
in front of the eyes.

The deeper they probe,
the more they discover

that the initial trauma goes
much deeper

and much farther back...

Man: Those walls are lot older
than the rest of the house.

In fact, they must have been
knocked down and rebuilt

and generally messed around a
lot in the last thousand years.

What?

Oh, yes, the foundations
might be Saxon.

Saxon?

...into something truly evil.

There was something
about an exorcism once.

Exorcism?

Sayenga: Something very far in our
past where you don't want to go.

How far are you trying
to go back?

A long way.

[Alarm blaring]

Thompson: It's really spooky,

and the fact that it's shot on
tape kind of works in his favor.

There's something about
the quality of that tape stock

in the cameras
they use back then.

It gives it, like, a weird kind
of "you are there"

quality to it.

I almost feels
like a documentary from hell.

She's gone.

Kneale is talking
about the embrace

of technology driven by greed...

If you want to be millionaires,

it's a crash program.
Find the medium.

Everything else follows.

...before you've
actually explored the technology

and seen side effects.

Do you know what he's done?

He's wiped the tape.

It's in the computer!

Sayenga: Which of course,

we're currently seeing
with social media

and artificial intelligence.

[Screaming]

Thompson: We've had a lot of
"Exorcist" knockoffs over the years

since 1973,

and if you thought that that had
been exhausted beyond salvaging,

there is one real gem
in the bunch,

but, unfortunately, very few
people have actually seen it

and that is
"The Blackcoat's Daughter".

And it's one of those movies
that I love to recommend,

but the problem is
you can't describe it too much

without spoiling it.

So I urge you to just check it
out,

try to avoid reading about it
as much as possible

because it's very twisty.

It's really haunting,
beautiful, very sad film.

It takes place at a boarding
school in the middle of winter,

and most of the girls
are going home for winter break,

except one girl, Rose,
who is going to stay behind

because she wants to meet
up with a guy.

And then another girl,
Katherine,

she is waiting for
her parents to pick her up,

but they never come.

Meanwhile, there's a character,
Joan, who's at rest stops.

Man: Hey, can we give you
a lift somewhere?

You've got to be freezing.

I'm parked right over there.
My wife's waiting in the car.

See? Right there.

And she hitches a ride
with this couple.

And you slowly start to discover

how these two stories
are connected.

[Chuckles]

Zimmerman: And it has a strange
structure,

and it has a twist
that I think a lot of people

have a hard time
getting on board with,

which in some ways,
I understand,

but in a lot of ways,

I think
if you just lend yourself to it

and you meet a movie halfway,

you come away with a
really great experience.

Because I don't know
if we've ever seen a movie

where the ultimate goal
of the main character

is to be rejoined
with their demonic possessor.

Demon: You will stay here with
me.

Thompson: What if the person
who was possessed loved it

and that if they were
no longer possessed...

Don't go.

...what would they do
to get that back?

Wexler: It talks about grieving
and dealing with death

through demonic tropes,
which I appreciate.

I love when you can embrace
horror tropes...

Get your hands off me, c**t.

...and talk about something
really serious and really human.

Thompson: It was directed
by Osgood Perkins,

who is the son
of Anthony Perkins.

He's a really
visually gifted director,

and this just has some images
in it

that will just stick
in your head.

Oz Perkins, in general,
is a hidden gem director.

I think it's not just
"The Blackcoat's Daughter".

I think it's "Gretel & Hansel",

and I think it's especially

"I Am the Pretty Thing
That Lives in the House",

which I love a lot.

It feels very influenced by
Shirley Jackson, and Ruth Wilson

essentially plays a ghost
alone in a home,

sort of starting
to realize her predicament.

And that's another,
like, Sunday afternoon

with a tea kind of movie,

'cause it's cozy,

but it's downbeat
and not full of scares,

but when it builds you up to
what is going to frighten you,

it works in a really big way,

and it's so difficult
for a movie to do that.

It's so difficult for a slow
burn to achieve that expl*si*n.

[Gasps]

But "I Am the Pretty Thing
That Lives in House"

feels completely forgotten
at this point.

[Thunder crashing]

♪

♪

Walter: My recurring dream sent
to me as a warning,

a warning against the terror

that's waiting for me
in this house.

It's later on.
We're having drinks.

You break those glasses
of yours.

Then, the room goes dark.

That's where my dream becomes a
nightmare.

It's started.

Man: [Speaking Spanish]

[Bat screeches]

[Speaking Spanish]

Why should I want to k*ll you?

[Screaming]

And this machine only
affects microbes and insects.

It has no effect on humans.

Sergeant.

There are dead people
trying to k*ll me.

[Screaming]

♪

Woman: They're coming here.

They're waiting
at the edge of the city.

They're waiting for you
and they'll take you one by one,

and no one will hear you scream!

Here are three movies,

if you're having a party,

put these movies on
with no sound

and just let them play.

"Planet of Vampires"...

♪

... "2001"...

♪

...and a movie

that's often mentioned
in the same breath as "2001",

"w*r of the Gargantuas".

But just to have on at a party
with no sound,

you're not going to go wrong.

[Speaking Japanese]

Man: "w*r of the Gargantuas",

those scenes at night

and they're being chased
by a spotlight,

they're beautiful.

Dougherty: "w*r of the
Gargantuas" messed me up

in all the best ways as a kid.

"Gargantuas" wasn't shown
on cable as often

as other kaiju movies were
or as often

as other American
giant monster movies were shown.

It was sort of a
very rare treat.

But when it came on,

I thought it was going to be
like "Mighty Joe Young"

or any of the other ones,

which had a certain
kid appeal to them.

But that movie wasn't pulling
any punches.

There's a key scene

where the Gargantuas
are sort of fighting

over a certain character.

♪

♪

And things don't go well.

♪

It just gave me nightmares

because their design is
vaguely human, you know,

sort of like Kong,

but they're
in this sort of uncanny valley.

[Roars]

The visual look
of those mid-'60s

Toho films... "w*r of the
Gargantuas", "Monster Zero"...

It's just gorgeous.
The backdrop paintings.

The obvious model work.

There's just something really
visually arresting about it.

A lot of really famous people
love that movie.

Brad Pitt loves it.

At the end of it,

the good Gargantua
had to sacrifice himself

to defeat the bad Gargantua.

Tim Burton loves it.

It's kind of a struggle
between two Gargantuas.

They're like, "Yeah. Of course.
It's great.

It's 'w*r of the
Gargantuas'."

♪

♪

How do you like the land
of the Northern Lights?

♪

"Rare Exports" is my
favorite Christmas movie.

It's a great double feature
with "Gremlins"

because it is a great
Christmas horror movie

that somehow manages to be scary
but fun at the same time.

It all takes place in Finland,

and there's this excavation
going on in this huge mound

nearby.

Leading up to Christmas,

everyone starts to see this kind
of weird Santa Claus type of guy

hanging around
and being real creepy.

Rodrigues: And what you realize
is that what we know is

Santa Claus

are actually the elves.

They're protecting their master.

And what they are digging
out of that excavation site

is what Santa Claus truly is,

which is... Santa Claus is
Krampus

and he is this big demonic thing
that will steal children.

Salisbury: It's told through
the eyes of this little kid.

You know, and he treats it
like a kid does.

The sense of the danger
is there,

but the sense of exploration
is also there,

and then trying
to convince people

that he knows what he knows.

This is another one
of these isolation spaces

of being trapped
in this wonderland

that anything else
would be beautiful,

but you're looking at it,
and you're going, "Well,

where do you run?

Where do you hide?
You leave footprints.

These things can sniff you out."

It's a classic Christmas movie.

I think anyone
who likes that kind of, like,

weird kind of Christmas
horror stuff should watch it.

It's Christmas time.
So let's act like it.

Holy blood!
Blood! Holy blood!

"Santa Sangre" is definitely one

of those classic cult movies
that you go,

"What did I just watch?"

It is so weird.

k*ll her. k*ll her.

Did you hear her?

She wants me to k*ll you with my
hands.

I love the fact that
it takes place in Mexico City...

...in this circus of freaks.

And already, Mexico City is
full of freaks.

I mean, look at me, right?
That's where we all came from.

[Moaning]

Guerrero: You start in the
setting that is so weird

and definitely
not an okay place for a child,

and you meet your
lead characters

that are two little kids,

this little boy
that is put in a situation

with what is
the most dysfunctional,

a*usive father-mother
relationship out there.

It's really scary.

Get up, you b*stard!

This movie was not afraid
to cross every type of boundary

there is out there.

Woman:
[Singing in foreign language]

Guerrero: You get to see how this
boy, now a man, will do anything

his crazy mother will tell him.

This girl has defied
you with her lust.

No, Mommy, it's not true.
It's only a game.

Guerrero: That to me,

just talked so much
about a*usive relationships.

Just talked so much
about childhood trauma.

Now you're a man.
Just like me.

[Chuckles]

So it's a movie that's artsy,
that's weird,

that's gory and just
incredibly memorable for it.

It's weird.

Forgive me.

Please forgive me.

♪

♪

Zimmerman: "The Untamed is an
incredible film from Mexico

by Amat Escalante

that feels directly in
conversation with "Possession"

and sort of the ecstasy
of beastly cosmic alien sex.

Bonilla: A married woman,
Alejanda, is having a lot of issues

within her marriage.

[Man grunting]

And she comes across,
through a friend,

this creature
who can only give pleasure.

Then she starts to become
obsessed with this pleasure.

Because everything
in her life is falling apart.

She's dealing with a spouse
who's a*usive,

but also cheating on her
with her brother.

Very telenovela here.

But there's a lot of pain
in her life.

A lot of dissatisfaction,

and she's dealing with
a lot of machismo or sexism

within her community
through traditional gender roles

and traditional views.

Zimmerman: It really marries
these tones of

really heavy domestic drama...

[Grunting]

...and small town life,
and, you know,

families and couples who have
a lot of interpersonal conflict.

And then this alien

that has taken up residence
in an isolated farmhouse

that gives people kind of
sexual pleasure beyond measure.

[Moaning]

So as she becomes
more attached to the creature,

she starts to rebel against
these social norms that have,

like, restrained her,
especially in a small village.

But also the creature
that supposedly only

gives pleasure starts
to k*ll and to hurt.

It's one of kind.

[Thunder crashes]

♪

It'd take an army
if mice to do that.

Maybe it's a rat.
- A rat?

Bart: In some countries,
they serve it as a delicacy,

like chocolate covered bees
or caviar.

A filthy rat on fine china.

♪

♪

[Screaming]

♪

♪

Woman: You never left your
house!

You must do this alone.

Man: And where would you go?

Woman: Free.

Shh.

[Rustling]

Hill: "Trollhunter" is another
great found footage film.

Thomas!

People have been able to take
that found footage structure

and keep it fresh
and keep it exciting.

And it really works well
as humor.

Andre Overdal knows
tone like nobody's business.

He knows how to create a world
and a reality that

from the first frame all the way
to the last, you believe.

So, in "Trollhunter", five,


you get lost.

You just are sure
that this is something

that could be found footage.

You absolutely believe it.

It's so well ex*cuted.

It gets these nosy
documentary folks

who want to follow behind
this guy who is dead serious,

who is telling them from the
jump, "This is serious business.

You could die,"
and they're laughing at it

and they think and he's nuts.

And then they're stuck on it
when they really get to see it.

And then it's not only, you
know, this one kind of troll.

It's an entire troll,
you know, classification.

Not like smaller trolls
like we would see,

but these massive, huge beasts
of folklore and legend.

The way that we see
them portrayed in the film

is this great combination
of what we would imagine

a charming illustration of,
like,

a fantasy-esque troll would be

and the worst possible reality
of what that could be.

They are huge,
drooling, disgusting messes.

This film does
an amazing job making

these creatures seem real.

♪

♪

Man: You've seen things
that have yet to happen. [Gasps]

[Screaming]

You had a premonition.

You saw into the future.

Sher: Before he made his
famous gore-fests,

Lucio Fulci was an
amazingly accomplished filmmaker

in many genres,

and he made some really,
really fabulous thrillers.

One of the very best
is "The Psychic",

where Jennifer O'Neill plays
a wealthy woman

whose diplomat husband is
away for the weekend.

She's living
in this kind of gorgeous villa,

and she starts having
visions of a mysterious room

that she's never seen before

where she believes some kind
of m*rder has taken place.

And she becomes obsessed
with finding out what are

these visions about
and solving this m*rder

that she believes
that she's seen.

Darling, why don't you forget
this ugly story?

I can't.

But the fact that it isn't a
Fulci gore-fest

I think is what's
kind of kept it under the radar.

It isn't "Zombie".

It isn't "Gates of Hell".

You know, it isn't "House by the
Cemetery".

Not much blood in this movie.

It's not particularly violent,

really, but it has a very
sort of Edgar Allan Poe

kind of feel to it.

It involves someone
being walled up alive.

Say no more than that.

Man: So you came here today
for the first time.

And the first thing

you do is grab the pickaxe,

smash in the first wall you
come to,

and find a skeleton.

I know it sounds ridiculous
to you.

But I'm telling the truth.

I love "The Psychic"
because it is so lush.

The costumes are luxurious.

The set design is beautiful.

And it has this very kind of
sophisticated feel

for a m*rder mystery.

But then Jennifer Neill's
visions

are very trippy and '70s.

And I love that juxtaposition of
kind of timeless sophistication

with very,
very '70s stylistic conventions.

It's one that really
kind of sticks with you.

And, of course,
it has this little watch theme.

Listen.

[Song chiming]

♪

There's a central
musical motif in it

that later became used
in "k*ll Bill: Volume 1".

Aah!

If nothing else, everybody knows
that piece of music.

So... But go see the movie
that it came from, really.

It's worth it.

[Screaming]

[Gasps]

How do you spell that word,
"psychotic"?

You might have to spell
it M-U-R-D-E-R, m*rder,

if you don't get someone
over there quickly.

Berger: Peter Collinson

was a director
who the last thing

you expected him to do
was going to be something

in the horror genre.

He did "The Italian Job"...

Well, look happy,
you stupid b*stards.

...which is a lightweight
kind of fun, pop British

comic heist movie.

And he suddenly took a really
interesting sort of left turn

with some people from Hammer

who had tried
to form their own company,

and he made a movie with
Susan George called "Fright".

It is probably the
very first time

I remember seeing a movie about
a k*ller stalking a babysitter.

This was, like, 1971, and
it is crap-spurt scary movie.

[Screaming]

No two ways about it.

Critically destroyed
when it came out, of course.

Back then, you thought
you had to be entertained

in the conventional way,

and no one was prepared for the
sheer downbeat moral obfuscation

that Peter Collinson
wanted to throw on his audience,

even in a pop horror movie.

[Screaming]

The first half of that movie

exploits everything
you can imagine

that, you know, has been retread
again in very clever ways with,

of course,

"Halloween" and 100 other films
in the ten years after that.

But this movie really got it
down.

Please.

There are some very,
very disturbing things.

You try moving again, you try,

and I'll be forced to attack.

I'll k*ll you and I'll cut you!

And it attacks relationships.

She's absolutely bloody
impossible sometimes.

I can't tell you.

You're just annoyed
with yourself,

'cause you know you wanted it,
so you're taking it out on me.

I said get out.

It attacks the idea of family.

Why do you hate me?!
Why, why why?!

And it has
a perverse sympathetic concern

for the people
who are the assailants.

Hey. Hey.
Hey. Hey.

...as well as the victims

and how easy they
can switch modes.

You try it
and I'll k*ll these two!

Are you listening?!
Both of them!

He means it.

Very clever film, really scary,

and not an easy one to get over.

[Yells]
- [Screaming]

Hi. I'm Emily.

I'm Jessica.

Zimmerman: "Let's Scare Jessica
to Death".

That's a hidden gem in my mind,

because so many people knew
the title.

The title was instantly iconic,

but it languished in VHS
for so long.

It didn't make a DVD debut
until the mid 2000s.

So we have a movie
that I think people knew existed

but never actually saw.

Woman: Dreams or nightmares?

Madness or sanity?

[Laughs]
- I don't know which is which.

It's creepy.

It's unusual.

[Screams]

Very effective movie.

Woman: You want to die.
You want to die.

It is one of the
most essential horror films

of the '70s,

and maybe the preeminent example
of a kind of

gauzy psychological
horror subgenre,

these films that are defined
by being isolated

and paranoid and scary,

and maybe there's something supernatural
going on, but maybe there isn't.

He was lying right here.

And the best of those movies
ride the perfect line between.

Where you folks going?
- Other side of Brookfield.

It's a farm on Cove Road
called the Old Bishop Place.

Do you know it?

Yes, I do.

Niles: It's about this,
I guess they're a hippie couple,

and their friend.

They drive around in a hearse.

It's cheaper
than the station wagon. [Laughs]

And really annoy everybody
in this small town.

Damn hippies.
- Creeps.

Man: Good riddance.

A lot of the themes of "Let's
Scare Jessica to Death"

are kind of the death
of the hippie movement.

Hey, watch it.

Zimmerman: Or at
least mourning what it promised.

Woman: Jessica, why have you
come here?

The character, Jessica,
just had a nervous breakdown.

So she's trying
to get her head back together.

Jessica: For the first time in
months, I'm free.

Forget the doctors.
Forget that place.

I'm okay now. We'll start over.

They find a dr*fter,
a woman named Emily.

I just found this place,
and I thought it was abandoned,

so I just sort of moved in.

Zimmerman: And over the course
of this,

Jessica is growing
more paranoid,

more concerned that Emily is
not who she says she is.

[Grunting]

Because there is the local
legend of a woman named Abigail

who drowned in the lake
the day before her wedding.

Looking at the picture,

looks so much like you.

My Lord, it does.

Don't worry.
I won't go away.

And the townspeople say
Abigail still roams the hills.

The legend is
that she's still alive.

Some say she's a vampire.

It's kind of a ghost.

Woman:...alive.
I'm still alive.

Kind of a vampire.

Zimmerman: And it leads to this
really incredible ambiguous ending of

was Emily haunting things
or was Jessica truly losing it?

And she's left terrified, upset,
stranded in a boat on the lake.

It's what I like to call
sad horror, which I love.

Like, it's maybe my favorite
genre.

It just kind of leaves
you melancholy.

Leaves you a little haunted.

Boo! I bet that scared ya,
didn't it?

One of my favorite hidden
gems is 1992's "Ghostwatch".

This is a faux documentary

that purports to
be investigating a haunted house

on the outskirts of London.

Man: So welcome live

this Halloween night to
the first ever TV "Ghostwatch".

That's the house where
it might all happen tonight,

or it might not.
We shall see.

It's one of the
scariest films I've ever seen,

and every time I watch it,
it scares me.

[Banging]
- I don't know what's going on.

[Demon speaking indistinctly]

Don't leave me, Mum!
[Screams]

The BBC had been hyping
"Ghostwatch" for months

before it came out,

claiming that they
were going to send in some

of their actual on air talent

to a haunted house
on Halloween night.

It all began in here
on December 28, 1991.

What audiences
didn't realize is that

the entire special was
actually a film directed

by Leslie Manning,

and it starred all
of these BBC broadcasters.

The program you're about to watch is a unique
live investigation of the supernatural.

Geoghegen: So here you've got
the BBC's Michael Parkinson,

someone
that audiences implicitly trust,

and he is sitting there
talking to all of Britain,

explaining to them
that this Halloween night,

they will be heading
into this haunted house

to try to figure
out the mystery of a ghost

that is attacking this mother
and her two daughters.

It starts out as a bit
of a lark.

You're watching and

it's funny
and the BBC talent interacting,

and everyone's excited.

Here,
we have the thrill seekers.

Pillars of the community

all waiting to see
if the ghost is going to arrive.

Welcome to Fright Night.

But then it really skillfully

and slowly creates
an atmosphere of dread.

I had this overwhelming sense
of evil. Spiritual decay

is the only way
I can describe it as.

Who are you talking to?
- Pipes.

Audiences start
to notice a figure

that appears
in the background of the footage

that they're watching.

I don't have a cat.

It turns out to be
a ghost with the nickname Pipes.

He is the ultimate ghost.
I love him.

Pipes! Pipes!
He got in!

Bonilla: As they're doing
this investigation,

they're trying to figure out,
is it a fraud or is it real?

These are
disturbed detention stickers.

Rubbish.

And it continues
to be this debate

where you have skeptics that are
saying it's a bunch of garbage,

but it also feels like it's
a commentary on our media

because of
how easy a story can be spun

to be believed or disbelieved.

Did you say that?
- No, I didn't.

Woman: In the end, they all made
us look even more like idiots.

And as it goes on,
it gets crazier and crazier.

In Derby,

someone was ringing to say
that her clock had stopped.

Get to bed.
To your right.

Mr. Naro
from Cheltenham

says his son is making
glasses break.

I'm gonna go and get help,
alright?

Oh, dear God.

[Screams]

Equipment starts to malfunction.

There's a haunted quality
to the BBC set

that starts to break down.

♪

People went nuts.

It was what you wanted,
wasn't it?

We just gave you
what you wanted.

People lost their minds.

They were calling the BBC.

They fielded thousands and
thousands of complaint calls.

A young man in Britain
had committed suicide

after watching it,

claiming
that "Ghostwatch" had proven

that there was an after life,

and he had nothing more
to live for.

After the BBC was made
aware of this tragedy,

they put the lid on
"Ghostwatch".

It was never aired again.

The BBC had washed
their hands of it,

but horror audiences had not.

And it became this thing
of legend.

"Ghostwatch" is, to me, one of
just the ultimate hidden gems,

and it's the type of film
that as soon as you see it,

you want other people to see it.
It's so creepy.

It's so well made,

and the haunting past
that it actually has in

both the real world and over
the course of the production,

it just adds to
how creepy it is.

Man: Have we lost the link
completely?

Boo!

[Thunder crashes]

♪

♪

[Gasping]

Hey, he's got a hand
under there!

Man: The only perversions that can be comfortably
condemned are the perversions of others.

[Screaming]

[Screaming]

Man: There is no ghost!

[Speaking indistinctly]
- I said drop the knife!

[Roars]

Man: The monsters are heading
for the city center.

[Both roaring]

♪

Who are you?!

[Groaning]

♪

♪

[Troll roaring]

I saw it like it was real.
It wasn't a hallucination.

[Screaming]

[Screaming]

Woman: It's not real, Jessica.

Man: Right, do you think
Mr. Pipes has come to hurt you?

I think he's come
to hurt everybody.

I think he wants to do
nasty things.

[Screams]
- Pammy?

So what are the essential
horror film scores?

You always hear the story

that John Williams
just played a couple notes.

That's all it took.

He's taken the most direct route
with these kind of minimalist

electronic scores.

There's no way you
can listen to that film score

and not feel
the violence behind it.

♪

♪

♪

♪

[Screaming]

[Cows mooing]

Hey. I'm okay. Ah!