I would like to preface this blog post by ashamedly admitting that I have watched every episode of A Haunting that the Discovery Channel has ever produced. A Head Full of Ghosts is an almost perfect critique of this style of television. From my grand experience as a consumer of this media, and my limited experience as a film boom-operator, I have surmised the following about reality film crews:
1. There is a set formula that sells, and the creative director will get what they need regardless of the family’s consent.
2. Efficiency is prioritized.
Despite reassurances from Barry, the film crew is here to take as much dramatic material as possible. This is epitomized during Marjorie’s pre-exorcism evaluation, where Barry does not allow a shirt to be put over Marjorie’s sports bra. This example is particularly disgusting, because it shows that Barry knows that is his artistic medium sex sells, even the sexual image of a schizophrenic fourteen year old girl. The film crew manipulates the events of the story through father Waverly, who takes complete advantage of John’s desperation and drives his marriage apart to ensure that the exorcism happens. Sex appeal, then shock value, then a climactic exorcism is the formula employed by the film crew. While they come off as being on the side of the family, they haunt the house in order to get what they need. When Marjorie sneaks into Merry’s room and wraps herself in blankets, the first thing Merry describes is the LED of her camera staring at her at the foot of her bed. The crew also loads a dresser drawer to slam open and shut during the actual exorcism. Their cameras are everywhere, and their influence stretches through the entire house.
The film crew as a whole is an unfeeling, uncaring specter that floats through the house, twisting events to most efficiently and reliably produce episodes. Barry has no interest in whether Marjorie gets better, and he lets this show during the time between the evaluation and the exorcism. Marjorie is finally acting normal, and while the family is watching TV together Barry shouts at the family to provide entertaining, dramatic content. Even this desperate act was calculated, in order to efficiently create content through domestic disputes. In this regard, series writer Ken is almost more guilty. He builds a relationship with Merry in order to obtain footage that may not have otherwise shared. All of these transgressions of trust compound to create an entity that in many ways terrorizes the Barretts.
If you do not know what I mean when I say “Reality Horror television” check out this opening of A Haunting:
The opening to A Haunting (2005) Narration by Tony Call.
Whoa—that trailer for A Haunting is so over-the-top that it almost seems a parody. Your point that the house is indeed haunted, by the film crew, who is willing to do whatever it takes to get what they want, is a crucial one.