“The Enfield Poltergeist” is a hybrid docuseries re-investigating the most famous poltergeist haunting in history featuring hundreds of hours of rare audio archive. Poltergeists are already a terrifying topic but this series makes this specific one even more so in the perfect way. In each episode the audio archive is the director in a way. The actors lip sync to the original recordings making those scenes feel extra uneasy. The lip syncing is done almost flawlessly with the actors copying the breathes and even footsteps on the recordings. It will have your mind in a state of questioning if what you’re watching is even real and it’s not the only thing in this docuseries to do that.
The house was rebuilt on a sound stage. The intro to each episode actually show you the set and decorations inside the house being built and set up. After episode one, the camera zooms out and you get a glimpse of everything around the set. You see the lights and backdrops. You see the cables running from the lights and plugged into the walls. Again, all making you question the reality of everything you’ve seen and heard. In a docuseries where the main question is if the poltergeist was real or not, this type of cinematography and story telling fit beautifully.
The first episode will have you hooked on the series and when you get into episode three and four some of the scenes get very uncomfortable, especially knowing it was the actual audio, but, you still won’t be able to stop watching. The acting in general was fantastic, the pacing and handling of the events as they unfolded was done admirably, and the sound design was meticulous.
Jerry Rothwell was “in his bag” with this one, easily my favorite project he has done. Considering Rothwell’s resume this speaks volumes. “The Enfield Poltergeist”, although maybe just lucky it had someone like Maurice Grosse documenting everything he did as they happened back in the late ’70’s, was one of the best documentary series’ you could watch and releasing on Apple TV on October 27th, the best documentary for this Halloween season.
★★★★★
The Enfield Poltergeist releases on Apple TV+ on October 27.
