10 Must See Made For TV Horror Movies

5. Ghostwatch

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BBC

Here in 2024, it's clear as day that 1992's Ghostwatch is a sham, a cheesy elaborate hoax of a 90 minutes.

However, at the time of its airing on Halloween night '92, this BBC production caused extreme uproar and instilled dread in those who watched what was portrayed as the very real haunting of a mother and her two daughters in London, England. That was the Early family, and this investigation into the poltergeist known as Mr. Pipes was spearheaded by Michael Parkinson, Sarah Greene, and Mike Smith - three extremely respected, trustworthy British TV presenters.

Rather than a live broadcast exploring the paranormal - an exploration that resulted in an explosive finale as Pipes takes over the TV studio and possesses Parkinson - Ghostwatch was of course a mockumentary TV movie that was filmed weeks before Halloween.

Still, regardless of how fake and staged things look to modern eyes, it's fascinating to watch Ghostwatch these days, remembering how invested people were at the time of its airing. To highlight that, 11 million viewers tuned in to Ghostwatch, the BBC had hundreds of thousands of complaints, and tragically one 18-year-old took their own life five days after Ghostwatch aired due, partially, to being influenced by what they'd seen.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.