We were watching Ghost Nation the other day, and I came up with an idea for a horror movie that I thought is so obvious that I’m certain it’s been done. I’m not a fan of the genre though, but if I describe it then maybe someone could tell me the name, if it exists.
The basic premise is that there’s a team of ghost investigators filming one of these shows, then the ghosts start taking them out one-by-one. It would probably be done in a found footage style. The characters would be a few investigators, maybe they have a psychic expert, and a small production crew.
Interesting, I wasn’t aware of “Ghost Hunters”-type reality TV shows existing before the early to mid 2000’s. Can you name some examples from the 60’s that use that premise? Were they done in a documentary style?
Almost, but not quite. The premise I have in mind is that they are a regular TV show’s hosts and crew, there to film another episode of “Ghost Hunt USA” or whatever. It starts out with stuff typical of those shows, like talking about the history of the place (“This old farmhouse was used as Army HQ during the Civil War and may have been a stop on the Underground Railroad. A local historian explains…”), setting up their IR cameras and EVP recorders and all that, then things go south from there.
Maybe there isn’t a movie like that, but the premise seems so obvious, there should be. I’m not a creative person, after all.
Second. This is almost an entire genre of horror movies. I’ve watched at least half a dozen of these just in the last year. Some take place in an old jail, an abandoned mental hospital, a disturbing old house, etc.
Strangely, the cameraperson always manages to survive right up to the point where he/she can drop the camera on the floor in just the right position to see the last surviving member of the party get got.
If I recall, at least some of the crew believe the whole premise is bullshit and have joined the “scam show” for either $$ or just shits and giggles. As the movie progresses, they come to regret thinking the paranormal is all BS. Yes, they regret it very much.
I seem to remember starting to watch a movie on TV a few years ago that hews pretty closely to OP’s description. It was the presenters and the crew for a TV show looking for evidence of the supernatural, it was a big old house they went into, and pretty soon things started to go wrong, people going missing or equipment malfunctioning. Stuff like that. I also have a vague sense that there were a few recognizable names in it, but I don’t remember who. I don’t think I watched it until the end, and I have no idea of the name.
In a sense, the archetype for this kind of film is The Haunting, except that it wasn’t reality TV people but an academic researcher and his “sensitive” subjects testing out the house. It was not done in found footage style but like a regular movie.
I don’t remember the name so maybe it’s already been mentioned but I saw a movie recently where a group of 20 somethings ran a ghostbusters type business (except fraudulent because they didn’t believe). They are hired by an old lady in a large mansion. Ghost death ensues.
It was a TV movie, scripted and filmed in advance, but presented in the style of a live broadcast. The stars of the production were Michael Parkinson, Sarah Greene, and Mike Smith. All three are known as real life broadcasters, presenters in non-fiction shows and documentaries. Presented as an investigation into an alleged haunted house it shows apparent poltergeist activity with cups and plates moving by themselves. Finally, the ghost abducts most of the cast, leaving Parkinson alone insanely babbling nursery rhymes.
This was 1992, before *Ghost Hunters *was actually a thing.
Thanks, everyone. Based on summaries I’ve read, I think Grave Encounters and Ghostwatch, with an honorable mention to American Horror Story: Roanoke all fit my plot description. Like I said, I’m not a creative person, so if I think of an idea then there are only two possibilities:
And every Call of Cthulhu campaign I’ve ever seen.
Player: “So my investigator opens the door…”
Keeper: “A swarming mass of bubbling black ooze and tentacles consumes your character with a wet squelch, and all other investigators make a Sanity Check…”
The thing I liked about it was they present the ghosts as actually entering the camera and threatening to come out of YOUR TV. As I understand it (though I expect this has been exaggerated somewhat) there was a lot of controversy in the UK because it scared children so bad. I heard some blamed the movie for causing the suicide of a young schizophrenic.
That’s not exactly the plot of The Haunting of Hill House, but it’s very close.
That book, FWIW, is scary as hell. It’s the scariest thing I ever read. I don’t personally think the movie from the 60s does it justice, but it’s critically acclaimed. The movie from the 90s, of 00s, or whatever is total crap.