Can horror comedies be truly scary?

So it’s no surprise that it was only a matter of time before someone tried it again with the advent of television. When they did, perhaps the most surprising element was that British talk show host Michael Parkinson was front and center in the hoax.

Long before that The Blair Witch Project, Ghostwatch scared the audience with shaky shots from the camera. Billed as a live Halloween event, viewers watched Michael Parkinson broadcast from the TV studio Red dwarfCraig Charles and TV presenter Sarah Green reported live from “Britain’s most haunted house”.

Much has been written about it Ghostwatch in itself, but perhaps what sold the deception so effectively was how oil everything was The jokes were whimsical, but not funny, the presenters were visibly, but not convincingly, strained by the material. For the first hour of the film, the only signs of paranormal activity are reports of knocking, gruesome children’s drawings, and someone calling to say they see a figure on some dark, blurry dashcam footage. Everything else is second-hand – some concerned neighbors, children who tell fairy tales, the presenter talks about his own unconvincing “paranormal experience” of the past years. And because it was the BBC, we also had the obligatory skeptic who would come and make fun of everything.

Like its director, Leslie Manning told Geek’s Den a few years ago“I was very aware that so much horror at the time was extremely intense until you found ‘it’ and then it let you down. You start saying, “Hmm, those special effects are good” or “Oh, this classic doesn’t hold up, the blood is too red.” It always seemed too technical for me. But that wonderful gap – the anticipation and the fear of the unknown – is the gap that I find much more exciting.”

The next time television attempted something this daring was in 2018 Inside #9 The 2018 Halloween Special, “Deadline“, live broadcast of the show.

After five minutes of the show, the sound turns off. A BBC announcer interrupts to inform us that due to technical problems the live broadcast of the show has been cancelled, and instead offers the audience a repeat of the first season episode “Silent Night”. But as it repeats, the sound begins to disappear. A figure appears in the background, which was definitely there No in the original episode. The host’s subsequent apology is accompanied by a creepy whisper… and it all goes downhill.