HAUNTED ULSTER LIVE (2023)

New streaming on Screambox from Bloody Disgusting and Cineverse!
Directed/Written by Dominic O’Neill.
Check out the trailer here!!

In 1988, Northern Ireland Television or TVNI put together a Halloween Spooktacular known as “Haunted Ulster Live” where a group of local reporters enter a house in Belfast where the family has been experiencing paranormal activity. As the night goes on, what starts out as a light-hearted show for all ages soon becomes a nightmare captured on live television.

HAUNTED ULSTER LIVE is obviously inspired by the infamous lost and recently rereleased film GHOSTWATCH which caused quite a stir throughout the UK when it was first released in 1992. Like GHOSTWATCH, the opening tone of HAUNTED ULSTER LIVE is breezy with the hosts Gerry (Mark Claney) and Michelle (Aimee Richardson) joking about the season and not taking the family seriously, but as pretty soon after the broadcast begins, strange things start happening, and soon things get downright spooky. I was surprised how wrapped up I got with this one, as the acting is quite strong and the story quite engaging. The tormented family, which felt very familiar with the family in GHOSTWATCH, soon distinguishes itself as they get into the spooky details behind the late-night hauntings involving a ghost known as Blackfoot Jack. When a medium shows up and a séance is performed, all hell breaks loose and while we all have seen reality shows and films centered around ghosthunting, HAUNTED ULSTER LIVE still manages to feel unique with a detailed backstory and haunting imagery I haven’t seen before like the backwards ghost and the being made of television static.

But of course, this isn’t a perfect film. One of the things that annoyed me about HAUNTED ULSTER LIVE is that early on, the video captures behind the scenes moments even before the horrors start and all professionalism is tossed out the window for the sake of sheer survival. I understand when the shit goes down, the reporters breaking character and being much more real, superficial, and honest in their commentary, but I feel these early moments of candid behavior were out of place and only were put in as necessities for the story. While I understand the reason for these moments of character, I think they could have been squeezed in elsewhere as these moments were never broadcasted live in the world of the film. Still, I ended up really liking the two lead reporters because of the nicely rounded character arcs both of them take, something that you rarely see in horror films that move as this sort of pace.

HAUNTED ULSTER LIVE gets iffy as it reaches the climax and all of the weird threads are pulled together. I don’t know if it all works, but it does change genres a bit and leans more towards sci fi by the end. It is an original ending and one I didn’t expect, but I don’t know if it matches the more supernatural lead in. Still, HAUNTED ULSTER LIVE is another new addition into the “broadcasts gone wrong” subgenre that seems to be on the rise after the success of LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL. This one shook me a little bit and while it’s not perfect, I’m giving it a recommend for some fun Halloween spookshow viewing.