On a crisp winter evening in 1985, a documentary was broadcast with a preview that promised to scare viewers out of their minds. It did not disappoint.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the program's broadcast Haunted on Australian television.
After the success of the 1984 film Ghostbusters, there was a public appetite for all things scary.
Over the course of 97 minutes, “Haunted” documents 14 cases of alleged hauntings across Australia, from Fremantle in the west, to the convict settlements of Port Arthur in Tasmania, to the leafy suburbs of Brisbane.
Commissioned by Network 10 on a mission to “scare people”, writer-director Iain Gillespie and his crew traveled around the country to interview everyday people about their paranormal experiences.
Haunted, rated well after broadcast. But four decades later, Gillespie tells me he has mixed feelings about it:
It was created as a commercial documentary film. I'd rather do something more scientific.
Despite this, the show became a major forerunner of the paranormal television genre.
Discovering senior places
The success of “The Haunted” depends on the apparent credibility of the witnesses.
In one scene, a car welder nervously talks about his encounter with a girl in a striped bikini who disappeared before his eyes.
And perhaps most memorable is the little mother from the athletics club who, while taking a puff on her cigarette, describes the ghostly matron who stood outside her hostel window, staring blankly at her.
Network Ten/Iain Gillespie/Terry Carlyon
Much of Haunted's eerie atmosphere comes from its visuals. Gillespie credits cinematographer Terry Carlyon with styling the documentary:
He photographed building facades during the day, but using filters and low camera angles made them look nocturnal and very creepy.
The spirits take over the mediums
Interest in the paranormal in mainstream media began in the Victorian era spiritual photography. The first photo of a ghost has been published in 1862and the medium was later championed by creators such as Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle.
In the 20th century, researchers such as Harry Price, Hans Holzer and Maurice Grosse documented cases of ordinary people struggling with ghosts and hauntings.
The Enfield Poltergeist A good example is London in the delayed 1970s. The case led by Grosse, Ed and Lorraine Warren (the couple who inspired the “The Conjuring” film franchise) received wide coverage in the press, including in the Australian tabloids.
In 1992, the infamous live paranormal investigation began To choose aired on British television on Halloween night.
Although it was a mockery, it was given credibility because it was presented by respected journalists and hosted by television presenter Michael Parkinson. At the end of the show, Parkinson stood in an abandoned television studio apparently possessed by the demonic entity his team was investigating.
In the days following its broadcast, the BBC received thousands of complaints from viewers who were upset by the programme.
But it was arguably the British series Scariest (2002–2019) that, more than any other show, set the formula for newfangled paranormal television.
The investigative team, which included the host, film crew, parapsychologist and psychic medium, would spend the night in a supposedly haunted location and make extensive employ of night vision cameras and environmentally sensitive devices.
The footage would then be accompanied by quick edits, creepy music, and disturbing glimpses of spooky graphics.
Between 2004 and 2019, over 70 paranormal series were created in a documentary style aired in the United States alone.
American spectacle Ghost Asylum (2014–16) is a glaring distinction. It's about a brawny group of brothers who have the absurd goal of being the first team to “trap a ghost” with their own fear-mongering device.
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A more “authentic” example is The other side (2014–). In this series, a compact team of indigenous Canadians investigate haunted sites with respect, with a smudging (burning) ceremony taking place before each investigation.
Ghost hunting in the digital age
Interest in ghost hunting on television has also been reflected in the growth of amateur “paranormal societies” around the world. Many groups have formed, especially in the US, and gained members through social media. He was there too raise in ghost reports during COVID lockdowns.
The technologies used in “ghost detection” equipment have advanced significantly since the 1990s and early 20th century. Today, researchers like the host have been around for a long time Ghost adventures Zak Bagans and his team employ electromagnetic field (EMF) meters and digital thermometers to track sudden drops in temperature – usually associated with suspected ghost presence.
Other recent developments include spirit boxes and ovilus: devices that transform environmental fluctuations into spoken words, giving spirits a “voice.”
There are also structural airy sensor (SLS) cameras adapted from the body sensing technology used in the Xbox game console. They design an infrared grid that purports to detect and visualize a spectrum resembling human stick figures, even in complete darkness.
Much of this technology was influenced by devices from the original Ghostbusters movie.
A lasting legacy
In a recent episode of Haunted, Iain Gillespie introduced three amateur ghost-hunting students who spent the night in a supposedly haunted restaurant in Melbourne, using straightforward equipment they built themselves.
Network Ten/Iain Gillespie/Terry Carlyon
These days, Gillespie doesn't have much time for the wave of ghost hunting shows taking over our screens:
I look in vain for something credible. I haven't found one yet.
Whether you are a believer or not, there is no doubt that paranormal television satisfies many viewers' need for confirmation that some part of us can survive death.
Image Source: Pixabay.com
