How this 1985 documentary ‘scared the pants’ off us – and sparked a paranormal TV craze

By Alasdair Macintyre, Associate lecturer visual arts, artist, PhD, Australian Catholic University

On a crisp winter evening in 1985, a documentary went to air whose advance advertising promised to scare viewers out of their wits. It didn’t disappoint.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the broadcast of Haunted on Australian television.

Following the success of the 1984 Ghostbusters movie, there was a public appetite for all things spooky.

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…

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