Movies and Mass Hysteria

Halloween is fast approaching, but for shops, it is the start of the build up to Christmas. Seriously, there are already Christmas displays in Tesco and Sainsbury. Wait until November 1^st for goodness sake!

Anyway, with Halloween soon, and after watching American Gods again, I was inspired to write this article to discuss something spooky, but also very fascinating. Our ability to be easily tricked into thinking a piece of fiction is real and actually happening. Now, we’re not here to psychoanalyse mankind or any such nonsense. We’re here to look back at three pieces of media that terrorised their audiences, and the public reaction and backlash that followed. The cleverness of these works was that they were treated as real events, both within the scripts, scheduling, and the reactions from the public.

“Mass delusions are as old as I am. I was there when the Martians invaded in 1938. What a panic. Powerful panic. Now there are starmen waiting in the sky. They believed it was true, and it was.” – Media, American Gods.

WAR OF THE WORLDS

The War of the Worlds was an infamous radio drama, narrated by Orson Welles, and aired in America in 1938. Adapting H.G. Wells novel, the play was a part of the anthology series “The Mercury Theatre on the Air”, broadcast over CBS on October 30^th, 1938 for Halloween. The drama’s format was a simulated live news broadcast, which was interrupted by reports of Martians invading the United States. The idea for the play came from a British radio hoax that occurred in 1926, with a fictional riot occurring in London. A similar concept happened during an Australian broadcast in 1927.

The show lasted forty minutes, and in that space, listeners were convinced that aliens were invading, men travelled long distances, war broke out, cabinet meetings occurred, and savage, violent battles occurred on land and in the sky between soldiers and the invading Martians. Interestingly, the play actually started with an alternate version of the novel’s opening paragraphs – so, you’d think some listeners would have realised this broadcast was fictional. At the end of the broadcast, during which panic broke out, Welles threw in a last minute disclaimer, revealing the whole thing was a Halloween ruse.

The CBS producers, staff, and actors were flooded with angry calls, panicked executives and censors ordering the broadcast to either be shut down, or interrupted to make it clear the play was fictional. Police allegedly stormed the studio to arrest Orson Welles and co. for causing mass panic. Journalists raced to confront those involved with the broadcast to either confirm or deny the deaths and mass mayhem reported in the play, and then interrogate them on the reasoning behind their actions. There have been suggestions that the nationwide mass hysteria was not as widespread as history and journalism have suggested. Welles received quite the telling off from the angry mob brigade, ushering an apology to the press and public for the chaos caused.

 Some listeners only heard half the broadcast, and mistook it for the start of what would become World War II, which would begin less than a year later. The events of the Munich Agreement was also theorised to have put people on edge for days, and The War of the Worlds simply pushed them over the edge. There was an evident backlash, with the newspaper lording over the radio for their “evil” ways, yet used the play to stir the hysteria, convince everyone that the whole country when completely mad during those forty minutes.

In 1940, Orson Welles and H.G. Wells actually met and had a radio interview in San Antonio together. Wells dismissed the alleged public hysteria with good humour, believing it was simple Halloween fun. The two and the host discussed the nature of the radio play and the public reaction, concluding it was simply America responding as they would to a playful prank. H.G. suggested that America could still get away with messing around with the idea of terror, since World War II had not arrived at their doorstep yet, and they were dealing with it in a manner. Orson Welles then responded with, “Until it ceases to be a game.”

Nowadays, The War of the Worlds radio play has been mythologised thanks to its exaggerated reaction from the public. It had a limited reach for an audience, and the widespread lunacy was not as prominent as the newspapers suggested.

But, history repeats, only this time it was in the United Kingdom where mass hysteria caused mayhem on Halloween.

GHOSTWATCH

The BBC’s Ghostwatch, written by Stephen Volk, aired on October 31^st, 1992. A drama-mockumentary stylised as a live broadcast on BBC One, Ghostwatch was actually recorded weeks in advance, and like War of the Worlds, it was mistaken for an actual event, and received quite the backlash from the gullible, frightened public.

Ghostwatch was treated as a live broadcast, focusing on “the most haunted house in Britain”, and the presenters were performing an on-air investigation into the existence of the supernatural, with the hope of seeing an actual ghost. In the fictional premise, Pamela Early lived on Foxhill Drive, Northolt, Greater London, with her two daughters Suzanne and Kim. The family have been tormented for months by a threatening poltergeist they have nicknamed Mr. Pipes, who appears as a disfigured man in a dress, bangs on the pipes (hence the name), and lurks in the house’s barricaded cellar. The two girls are the victims of Pipes – Suzanne has been repeatedly possessed by him, while the other appears to have clairvoyant powers and repeatedly claims that “Pipes wants to see everybody”.

On hand are a handful of familiar icons of British television – Michael Parkinson was the sceptical presenter in the studio, Craig Charles (of Red Dwarf) was on the street interviewing the locals, while Sarah Greene played the role of the intrepid reporter, venturing into the house with her film crew to search for ghosts. During all this, Parkinson says the viewers get call the BBC phone switchboard and speak to Mike Smith, Greene’s husband, and share their own ghost stories. Those who called the number were informed via recording that it was actually a work of fiction and not live. The problem was that the switchboard did get overloaded, so few people truly learnt the actual nature of the programme.

As the show went on, things started getting freaky in the house. Throughout the programme, guests could potentially spot Mr. Pipes standing menacingly in the background of certain scenes. His backstory is revealed to be terrifying, actually a pedophilic lunatic who hung himself in the house’s cellar and his face was eaten by cats. But, then it turns out he was possessed by the ghost of a Victorian-era child killer named Mother Seddons, hence why Pipes wore a dress. There is even a hint that these events in the neighbourhood have been going on for centuries, like Pennywise from It is responsible for everything.

 

More and more viewers call and claim they are seeing Pipes in the house. Suzanne gets possessed again, Greene’s sound operator gets a mirror smashed over his head, and then all hell breaks loose in the studio. It becomes clear that Mr. Pipes has been using the broadcast to create a nationwide séance circle, terrorising the nation through their TV sets. Sarah Greene is sucked into the cellar and vanishes, whilst Parkinson is possessed by the phantom cats, ending the broadcast.

Much like War of the Worlds, many viewers missed the titles, including that it was written by Stephen Volk, clearly indicating it was a work of fiction. Like the backlash with the radio drama, many people were angered that they had been deceived, that the eternally trusted BBC had aired something so scary (on Halloween), etc. The BBC received many frightened and angry calls during and after the programme. The producers were dragged onto the show BiteBack to be punished by a verbal firing squad. Sarah Greene, alive and well, popped up in CBBC to assure children she did not get sucked into hell. Allegedly, people were hospitalised, three pregnant women went into labour, and one woman got so irate, she demanded that compensation for a pair of new jeans for her husband…

Still, there was a serious incident where a young man with learning difficulties committed suicide five days after Ghostwatch aired, and his suicide note appeared to lay the blame on the show. Ghostwatch has subsequently been considered non-existent by the BBC, never airing it on television again, though they have re-released the mockumentary on DVD several times over the years. The show has had influence on many other films and shows. The silly ghost-hunting shows on both sides of the Atlantic took influence from Ghostwatch, and films like Paranormal Activity, and The Blair Witch Project. Speaking of which…

THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT 

In 1994, three filmmakers ventured into the Black Hills Forest near Burkittsville, Maryland, in search of the mythological Blair Witch. They were never seen again. A year later, film footage was discovered in the woods and the truth behind their disappearance was revealed in one of the scariest films of all-time.

Okay, that is a load of rubbish, but that was the genius of the movie. The low budget found footage film had such a brilliant and convincing story, that many people believed the footage was real. In the film, Heather, Josh, and Mike (played by actors who are very much alive) get lost in the woods and tormented by an unseen entity, who may or may not be the Blair Witch. The whole film is fictional and incredibly well executed. The internet was still in its infancy, and the viral marketing used for The Blair Witch Project was fantastic. An elaborate lore was crafted around the witch and her curse over Burkittsville – imagined in the film as being built over a fictional, abandoned town called Blair, who trialled the witch, Elly Kedward, and left her to die in the woods.

The marketing and presentation of the film as a true story was so convincing, that hordes of tourists flooded Burkittsville to find the truth – even though it was complete fiction. Bad news for Burkittsville, who have forever been associated with the Blair Witch. Heck, someone even stole the town’s population sign, since it appeared in the movie, and they had to replace it. The Blair Witch Project gained a rather crumby sequel, Book of Shadows, and included the reactions of both tourists and Burkittsville in the plot. The film gained a second sequel in 2016. The Blair Witch Project, while not the first found footage movie, certainly proved to be the most successful. Films like Rec and Cloverfield were inspired by its success.

It is fascinating how this sort of metafiction pops up every now again, and has the same or a similar impact upon the public imagination. The War of the Worlds allegedly caused mass hysteria, in likely relation to the outbreak of war. Ghostwatch, while not an actual live recording, was cleverly treated as one, and the unsuspecting BBC viewership had never experienced such a show before. And The Blair Witch Project used such a brilliant marketing campaign to convince people to see the movie. I suspect the media of the 1930s greatly exaggerated the reaction of the radio play, and a lot of people missed the opening titles of Ghostwatch, which stated the show was a work of fiction. And Blair Witch…well, I guess some folks really enjoyed the film, and some really bought its authenticity.

I wonder what will happen if and when another one of these inventive “mass hysteria” pieces of media occurs.