Dir. Dominic O'Neill (2024)
A newsman and a children's show host investigate a haunted house live in Belfast.
The concept of a news broadcast from a haunted location really kicked off with 1992's Ghostwatch, a legendary BBC broadcast that purported to be a live showcase of haunted activity. There have been several imitators since, most notably the outstanding WNUF Halloween Special by one of my favorite indie directors, Chris LaMartina. Today's film is in the same vein, a faux-broadcast film from Scotland called Haunted Ulster Live, featuring some local television effects and a strong Scottish accent. I suspect we'll be seeing more films in the subgenre after the incredible success of Late Night with the Devil, and when it's done right, it's a hell of a fun watch.
Newsman Gerry (Mark Claney) enlists the help of children's show host Michelle (Aimee Richardson) for a Halloween spooktacular investigation of a local haunted house. The family that lives in the house, headed by single mom Sarah (Siobhan Kelly), has been terrorized for a while by mysterious activity within the home, and they're ready for the news to help them figure out what's going on. And figure it out they most certainly do, as the activity increases with their presence and begins to grow out of control.
Haunted Ulster Live is much more similar to WNUF than Ghostwatch, with lots of behind-the-scenes sequences that help establish the beliefs of the individuals involved in an off-camera way. It gives the film a little more depth rather than just showing what the audience would have seen, and it helps the audience to connect with the characters a bit more than they would have otherwise. It's also super realistic, and it's an updated take on the genre that takes place in modern day. Some easy effects help to up the realism, and the overlaid graphics of the station identification do as well.
The downside of the film's modern setting is that it cheapens some of the visuals. It looks a lot more digital than some of its predecessors, giving it that "fake news broadcast in an indie film" look. If you've seen an indie film with a fake news broadcast, which is seemingly in all of them now, you know exactly what I'm talking about. The other drawback of making a film like this today is that it feels like it's already been done, and Haunted Ulster Live doesn't add a whole lot to the genre that feels new or fresh.
For fans of this type of film, however, it's a great addition. It digs into Scottish folklore a bit, a new wrinkle to the genre and one that fans of urban legends will appreciate. The supernatural scenes are handled fairly well, and while it's a bit of a retread of films that came before, it connects in much the same way that those films did. It's relatively creepy, it's got a great Halloween feel, and it makes for a relatively entertaining watch. Just don't be expecting anything particularly new or groundbreaking.
Who this movie is for: Mockumentary horror fans, "Found footage" fans, Fake mediums
Bottom line: Haunted Ulster Live is a decent mockumentary faux news footage film with some realistic haunting scenes and a television aesthetic. It's not particularly groundbreaking, and you've seen most of this before in arguably better films, but it accomplishes its goals and is fairly creepy as it does so. If you're a fan of films that explore local urban legends, or are a junkie for the fake news films like I am, it may be right up your alley. It's streaming on Screambox now.
