Ghostwatch, or, The Pipes, the Pipes are Calling

YouTube loves recommending video essays to me, so for a long time I’ve seen thumbnail after thumbnail promising a deep dive on “The scariest scene ever filmed!” or “The hidden secrets of the most surprising twists!” and the like. Often, it’ll be “The most horrifying TV broadcast you’ve never heard of!” and about 90% of the time, they’ll be talking about Ghostwatch as if they’re the first ones to introduce it to anyone. So I’ve had years of having the internet hyping it up, elevating it to legendary status, and introducing the basics before I was able to see it. Ghostwatch is a horror movie that aired on the BBC on Halloween night in 1992. It’s presented as if it were a live broadcast, split between studio segments and a remote crew spending the night in one of London’s most haunted houses. The family living there — a single mother and her two daughters — have a long history with poltergeist activity in the house, an entity that the younger daughter has nicknamed “Pipes.” A crew of…