User Reviews

I loved the podcast, probably the funniest one i've listened to so i was looking forward to seeing the movie. Unfortunately it just didnt work for me and i was just bored for the majority of it.

Ian and Barry were still great pair though.

I stumbled upon the 2020 horror comedy documentary "The ParaPod: A Very British Ghost Hunt" by random chance in 2021. Granted, I had never even heard about this movie from director Ian Boldsworth, but I was very fascinated by the movie's cover, and must admit that there was a certain appeal to the title of the movie. And with it being a horror movie (of sorts) that I hadn't already seen, of course I took the time to sit down and watch "The ParaPod: A Very British Ghost Hunt".

And "The ParaPod: A Very British Ghost Hunt" was watchable, I will say that much for it. But that was about it. Sadly, the movie's cover actually proved to be the best part about the movie by far.

The storyline told in "The ParaPod: A Very British Ghost Hunt" was adequate, but it is by no means a movie with the contents to support more than just a single viewing, as it was barely scraping by the first time around.

The movie has a small cast, so those involved had to put on additional effort to keep the movie afloat and watchable. And to a certain extend, then Ian Boldsworth and Barry Dodds managed to do that well enough, I will give them that.

Visually then I had hoped for quite something more than what "The ParaPod: A Very British Ghost Hunt" delivered, especially with such an interesting cover for the movie.

I managed to sit through the entire movie, though I can with all honesty say that this is not a movie that I will be returning to watch a second time. Nor is it a movie that I would recommend horror fans to rush out to get their hands on.

My rating of "The ParaPod: A Very British Ghost Hunt" lands on a very generous four out of ten stars.

I rented this off sky store for over 4£ based on the reviews on here, and so far this is the worse ghost movie/documentary i have ever seen. And honestly i dont find these two funny at all, if anything they are both very annoying. Two blokes driving around in a hearse cracking rubbish jokes thinking they are funny. Im guessing if your a fan of the podcast you will love this but i am not and seriously if you find these guys entertaining in way Shape or form your life must be very dull...... not funny not scary not great.....

This is the level of humour you would expect from a sniggering 12-year-old. It's not entertaining one bit. I would question the validity of the 10/10 reviews. I should have guessed this when ALL of the actors are unknown.

Two mates, one sceptic & one believer go head to head to investigate the paranormal. An emotional journey ensues full of horror and laughs. Loved the film, look forward to what ever these two come up with next.

If you were fooled by the title and came looking for a paranormal investigation, you will be very disappointed. If you came looking for the comedy element, and you are amused by schoolboy level pranks and childish comments, you will probably enjoy it.

I thought this would be an interesting movie, juxtaposing a skepitc with a believer. However from the very beginning it was clear that the fat hairy one was running the production, and the believer never stood a chance. Not once was a situation taken seriously throughout the film, and just constant childish pranks winding up Barry at every opportunity with no intention of finding any evidence, just going for cheap laughs. And so disrespectful, doing the snake while Barry is trying to interview someone in a museum, sticking a "Gullible Fool" sign on Barrys car door.

It was a shame he decided to go down this path, as throughout the film he does make several very valid and interesting arguements, and this could have made interesting viewing. But it wasn't, anything relevant he had to say was overshadowed by the inane stupidity of his antics.

The Parapod movie is a hilarious jaunt around England based on the parapod podcast. Podcast listeners will be very familiar with Ian Badsworth (the sceptic) and Barry Dodds (the believer) but the format essentially tasks Barry to provide Ian with proof of the existence of the paranormal. There are no tricks and there's no ghost hunting fluff the likes of which you'd find in 'Most Haunted'.

It's well worth a watch.

I really had high hopes for this after reading some of the reviews, but sadly it looks like they must have been watching another movie.

Looks like they saw a few episodes of Buzzfeed Unsolved paranormal and tried to write their own version, possibly in crayon.

I bet you a thousand pounds that not even The ParaPod stars, Barry Dodds and Ian Boldsworth (above), would have guessed that just five years after the creation of their smash hit podcast they would be introducing a feature film based on it to an adoring audience at a sold-out Leicester Square premiere. But on 7th January 2020 that is exactly what happened. I was lucky enough to attend.

The premise of The ParaPod Movie is simple enough: Paranormal believer Dodds takes steadfast skeptic Boldsworth on a Road Trip, in a customised hearse of all things, to some of the most-haunted locations this grey isle has to offer. The mission: prove to Ian the existence of ghosts. Anyone familiar with The ParaPod podcast will recognise the set-up. Those unfamiliar won't need long to get on-board. It is hilarious in podcast form, largely due to the wonderful dynamic between the odd couple, but as a film it transcends even the most fevered dreams of the Paranati.

What starts as a thrilling and hilarious adventure - one man's ardent quest to resist another's - grows rapidly into one of the warmest, most emotionally engaging and genuinely scary documentaries I've ever seen. There a laughs at machine gun rapidity (so much so that after the screening we were reliably informed that we missed many of the best gags due to us laughing over them!) but there's more than that. I don't want to give anything away, so I'll just say this: What starts as a film about two comedians investigating the paranormal shifts dramatically into a movie about two comedians making a movie about them investigating the paranormal, and all the ups and downs that entails. It's not what a lot of people think it's going to be. This isn't a daft romp. The ParaPod Movie is a sweet, terrifying and impressive piece of documentary film making.

Ian Boldsworth is on fine, fiery form as he deftly dissects the arguments of well-meaning but ultimately misguided believers in supernatural phenomenon, (there's one scene in a very famous 'haunted house' that demands repeat viewings just to take in the surgical precision of Ian's argument for reason) and it is every bit as delicious as you'd expect. With impish mischievousness, our skeptic keeps the wheels turning. The final showdown, as I think it best to describe it, left me on the edge of my seat and afraid to even blink for fear of missing something that just must be there! The closing moments are breathtaking, frightening and face-achingly hilarious. Ian is the best we've ever seen him.

But it's Barry Dodds who deserves special praise for simply being himself, unashamedly. If Ian is the bone-rattling driver of this no-such-thing-as-a-ghost train then Barry is the willing passenger who, at times, appears to have bitten off more than he can chew. With refreshing vulnerability we see him go from tour guide, to mark, to victim, to hero. I laughed and cried at what he went through. I can't state strongly enough how beneficial it is to go into The ParaPod Movie with no spoilers. I also can't state strongly enough how stressed one of those spoilers made me. I was literally shaking at one point, through a combination of empathetic fear and heartbreak. I had tears in my eyes at the aftermath.

I know I'm a fan, but I vowed to be as unbiased as possible in my review of The ParaPod Movie. The truth is that there is not a single thing I can think of that I feel deserves criticism... I wish the cinema had turned the volume up a touch, so I could hear the jokes we missed over the blanket of audience laughter. That's it. Against all odds, Ian Boldsworth, Barry Dodds, Simon Gibbs and everyone on the crew have created something very special indeed - an hilarious film that stays true to the promises of 30+ episodes of much-loved podcasting, while pressing ambitiously toward a heartfelt and disarmingly deep exploration of the relationship between our stars (and they are stars); one which caught me completely and joyously off-guard.

The ParaPod Movie is the culmination of three years hard graft by director/star/everything Boldsworth and heart-of-the-piece/co-star Dodds, along with a small but hugely talented crew. Special mention to editor Simon Gibbs (eyes open for one of the most beautiful wipe cuts I've ever seen) and composer Thomas van der Ree, who treated the premiere audience to the first ever live performance of The ParaPod theme tune. Everyone involved should be incredibly proud of themselves.

This film was shrouded in a fog of hype, thanks to an exhaustive documentation of its production on Ian's Patreon page. It could've been a massive failure, but for the efforts of all involved. What we've been given is one of the most enjoyable cinema experiences I've ever had the pleasure to sit in on. The ParaPod Movie deserves awards, it deserves praise, it deserves a massive audience. And not just an audience of fans of the podcast; EVERYONE should see this film.

Give two guys some production gear and tell them to ad-lib a movie, and THAT is what this is like watching! God.. I want that half hour of my life back! After a half hour, I felt like I was watching paint dry on the wall. Nothing was funny. Nothing was scary.. and (to be honest).. I simply couldn't go any further than the first half hour. My guess is that these guys had their buddies give this thing 10 stars (If this is 10 stars, then Star Wars, Gone with the Wind, Sound of Music, and movies like that are 9,999,999,999 stars in comparison!)

If you were asked to rotate your company on a desert island for a week - would you ask to be joined by sceptics or someone with a more open approach to the possibilities of other layers to reality existing?

The problem is that in this era, science has reverted to scientism and skepticism has become a discipline all of its own when in fact science and spirit used to blend in a far more intelligent manner than we are surrounded by today.

This film did nothing to change that situation - in fact it detracted from both sides of the "debate" with inane discussion and school-yard humour. Barry 'the believer' was possibly the worst advocate for the paranormal you could find... there's more articulate discussion in random YouTube comments than anywhere in this hour long romp into nowheresville.

I'll just add one case to any true skeptics out there... it was monitored and analysed by science based observers... but of course no-one dares bring this case up in any media efforts. The Scoles Project.

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Loving all things paranormal and being a big fan of paranormal based podcasts this one looked interesting.

I had never heard of the Parapod Podcast before and after watching this mess I wont be listening to it anytime soon This documentary was neither scary nor informative, it was basically a rather camp and slightly dim believer and an obnoxious smug sceptic visiting alleged haunted sites, no real investigating just silly school boy pranks set up by the extremely annoying sceptic which I think only he found hilarious judging by that awful husky Mutley-esque laugh of his.

I still cant believe I managed to sit through the full documentary to be honest, it was beyond cringeworthy seriously.

The only segment I found amusing was where Carol the lady living next door to 30 East Drive gave Boldsworth a dressing down for being a smug show off.

Don't waste your valuable time with this shambles.

As a fan of the podcast, I'd been waiting for years to get to see this... and it didn't disappoint! The chemistry between Ian, who's often the comedic relief, and Barry, the ridiculous and affable paranormal "expert", is pure comedic magic.

It has been some time -- it's felt like 87 years -- since this movie was announced and it's taken me about as long to formulate my feelings on both the subject matter and the presentations of the two protagonists in the "filuum".

I was a big fan of the Parapod podcast, the focus being on the word was. The movie just doesn't work because it presents several problems in its direction. Boldsworth, skeptical star and director appears to not want to be there, like he has been forced into a road trip by his sub-co-host Dodds, a believer with an inability to do research and get the basic facts and figures of even the most famous of haunted locations. Boldsworth however is the director of the movie. He has documented the process on his Patreon account (where a lot of the movie can be watched for free) and it's clearly his project that he is shoulder-charging Dodds out of which creates a juxtaposition that renders the set up as suspiciously fake. This has been further compounded by Boldsworth revealing a lot of behind the scenes footage that shows a lot of what was filmed was a set up. He has contradicted himself several times unwittingly and shown that all is not what it seems onscreen. He has damaged his own product and is yet to realize.

For myself, the biggest issue will always be how mental health issues are used as a weapon and argument to attack Dodds and other paranormal enthusiasts with. Boldsworth has himself produced (and since deleted, make of that what you will) a podcast about mental health issues yet is very comfortable referring to Dodds as mentally ill for his belief in ghosts. This deeply troubling trait has legitimized similar behavior both towards Dodds and some of the other believers in the movie (who are never given a chance to prepare or present themselves as the skeptics are) and a re-listen of the podcast shows how much attitudes have changed in the last five years alone towards this thorny issue. A persons belief system is always open to questioning and so is that of the skeptic but when people are referred to as "mental", "braindead", "stupid" and "mentally ill" you have to examine the damage that this could do to the cause of mental health recognition both here in the US and the rest of the world. The stigma that campaigners have sacrificed so much for is back, front and centre here and it is played for laughs. I may be a skeptic myself but I cannot condone this sort of "critical thinking". There is also a sinister undercurrent of homophobia running in the podcast that thankfully has not made it onto the silver screen. Dodds may not be the most academically bright and he may be unconvincing in his presentation of evidence but this does not amount to a mental health issue and this must be called out and stopped NOW. There is also a very distressing scene mid-movie that left me wanting to switch off as it was presented without any trigger warning and others need to be warned about this. I do not normally consider myself an internet commentator but the issues raised above compelled me to make my feelings known.

To try and leave this review with some positives, the score is excellent and the editing by Simon Gibbs is exceptional, a pace brisk which is only lacking in the end sequence. He has a bright future in the industry. What a shame I cannot say the same about Boldsworth and Dodds. Two stars, one for the composer, one for the editor.

As a fan of comedy and a sceptic with passion for the paranormal, I absolutely loved this film. It combined my love of the paranormal with the sceptical and rational frustration I feel when on ghost hunts with members of the public. Although delivered through bunter and laughs, there's actually a good balance of believer/sceptic, and the film delves into some pretty deep feelings relating to the stars' differing beliefs.

The movie is genuinely a laugh-out-loud comedy. It's an incredibly watchable and fun journey that follows two friends, taking their debate about the existence of the paranormal further than any listeners of the original podcast it spawned from could imagine.

At the moment the movie is touring selected cinemas, but if you're a fan of Ian and Barry's work, or just into the paranormal, then this movie really is for you - make sure you don't miss the chance to see it and laugh along with a cinema audience. Even those who weren't listeners of the podcast who I dragged along to the cinema from the paranormal community loved it, proving that this movie is a standalone success.

I have been a long time lover of the podcast, so naturally I was very excited to watch this. All I can say is it didn't disappoint! Ian and Barry are excellent as always, and don't worry if you have not heard the podcast, as it's not essential for the movie..

I have watched the movie three times already, each time I seem to find new things to laugh at, this movie is on track to become a cult budget classic.

Think of something like An American Werewolf In London which was very funny, but also deeply unsettling. This is a very different kind of movie but pulls off the same trick of making you laugh whole also getting properly under your skin. Highly recommended.

Really enjoyed the parapod movie. If you are hoping to see a paranormal evidence based film then you'll be disappointed as this film isn't a reflection of true investigating. However, it is great fun, full of laughs and does give food for thought to paranormal investigators like myself.

Great fun and definitely worth a watch.

Only way I can describe this is 2 guys -- one who has never thought if a ghost ever existed or not and the other guy is someone who has never thought if a ghost ever existed or not -ever. I would say they were just given a script the day of filming but even that would mean they have never seen a ghost hunting program or a paranormal program or any of the found footage films.. I LOVE this genre and if the movie presented itself as a regular crappy b movie movie I would have given it a 4.2-5 just for the "laughs".(B-movie laughs, there are no regular laughs) It seems like the two main characters are friends in real life and last month they just heard that people believe in this phenomenon called ghosts and then they said to themselves 3 weeks ago - Hey, let's make a movie about ghosts. This gets no stars . That's 0.0 stars out of 10.