Ghostwatch ★★★★★
It starts off incredibly charming. A relaxed pace of veteran BBC presenters doing their best at filling time for a live broadcast where nothing is happening and nothing is likely to happen, but still doing a lot of setup for when things eventually start to take a turn.
But there is also an underlying meanness to it. They are here to make television and Parkinson is not afraid to capitalise on this family’s misery to do it, to twist the knife a bit when the girls are seemingly at their lowest, to keep pressing them when they are past the point of breakdown before affably cutting away to another expert interview.
When the supernatural elements start to assert themselves more blatantly it feels like the BBC is complicit in it. Not just inadvertently creating the conditions for this horrible, nationwide séance, but being invested in the misery of a family for the sake of reality TV and eagerly dragging up and broadcasting every unverified, salacious detail they can. The transphobia and ablism in Turnstall’s backstory is an unfortunate blemish on the film but it feels fitting that the BBC’s careless rush to spread it is part of what allows it to be hijacked and torn down.
It is also just effective, creepy horror. Even having seen it several times before I felt my breath catching in some parts.