Michael J Wilson

When the blinders stop working.

I've been meaning to watch them.

Poster for Satan's Little Helper (2004). A demon with a wide creepy grin holds a pumpkin. The pumpkin has the title carved into it.

Now it's Satan's Little Helper (2004). This is so stupid but so fun.

The final jump scare is a bit too like those old gifs that would go around where you look at an image until it screams at you, but pretty good.

Ok. Host is pretty good. Highly recommend for a short effective scare.

Using a zoom background to hide a reveal is GENIUS.

You simply do not have to go into an attic at nighttime. Reminds me of this great instagram-based horror arg from 2020 - Arcana-Game.com

The use of sound in this is really good. Also... the innate fear of something behind you.

I like the set up of a lock lockdown virtual seance. Now I want to do one.

Good character set ups right at the top. And great use of the "glitches" of 2020 zoom.

In general, I find the "webcam" movie to be a bit bad. Modern tech in movies just rarely works. Like Searching form 2018. The premise is interesting, but the results are often less than. So let's see what this has.

This movie was filmed by the actors in their own homes with their own equipment during Covid lockdowns. It's about friends on a weekly zoom call who start to experience ... things.

Poster for Host (2020). Mostly black image, but a person is in distress in the lower third of the image. They are partially covered by a hoodie or a blanket. The word "host" is in red above them.

Second horror movie for today is Host (2020). This was a movie directly inspired by Ghostwatch. It's on Shudder and is only 56 min. I've not seen it!

I wish I had seen it as it aired. Watching this on TV would have been amazing.

The moment where they start to have callers and people reporting that watching the show is causing activity in their own homes is where the BBC probably started getting complaints.

😍

They put Sarah Greene through it in this. Making her move furniture around, climb on things, and all while talking to the camera.

I need them to stop saying "glory hole".

The pacing of this is so good. They spend so much time showing you "evidence" and discussing it.

Mr Pipes is such a great horror villain name. Tying the haunting to the heating ductwork... just great.

Yep. And it also formed the basis for the first documented cases of tv-induced PTSD.

They're talking about a space beneath the stairs and just called it a glory hole........

That's true! This actually caused panic.

What really sells this is that none of it feels scripted. They interview kids and it feels like news interviews. They also constantly show you the film crew and cut back to the studio. They even debunk things. Great use of the TV format.

It might be on other platforms, but that's where I'm watching.

Now I'm wishing someone in the early 00s had thought to get Dan Rather to host a Paranormal Activity-like movie.

Shudder

Ghostwatch rightly gets compared to Orson Welles' War of the Worlds. The movie aired in a weekly movie block, but the framing convinced many that it was real. There was a huge controversy in the UK! So much so that is never been reaired in the UK in full.

Cover image for Ghostwatch (1992). Three journalists sit against a black background looking at the viewer. The darkness of the background makes them look like they are floating in a void.

I'm starting my annual horror fest with Ghostwatch. This is the granddaddy of shaky cam "found footage" movies. It's creepiness is rooted in pacing and the fact that they used the framework of a news program to set it all up. Michael Parkinson was an interviewer! It would like Dan Rather hosting it.

Nightmare Before Christmas is about how cultural appropriation destroys both the original and colonial societies.