STIRRING UP SPECTRES Ben Lawrence’s Ghosthunter and the Documentarian’s Duty of Care
Jason King is not afraid of the dark. In many ways, he seeks it out. He earns his living as a security guard on long, lonely night shifts. In his spare time, he volunteers his services as a ghost hunter to Sydney residents struggling with haunted homes. He heads fearlessly into places others would never dare enter – a dark, claustrophobic crawl space apparently ripe with paranormal activity, a pitch-black drain tunnel infamously haunted by a deceased angry widow. He doesn’t do it for the money: the satisfaction of making people feel safe is enough payment for him.
The darkness Jason himself struggles with is metaphorical rather than literal. Much of his childhood is a mystery to him, blocked out for reasons he can’t recall. His mother has refused answers, and their relationship has deteriorated and eventually dissolved. Now, only one person remains who may be able to give Jason the answers he seeks: his estranged father, a shadowy figure he remembers only in impressions. The search for the elusive John – or is it Jack, or Lynal – King started when Jason and his brother Pete wondered whether they shared a father. Jason didn’t know he had a brother until, in his twenties, Pete appeared and revealed their mother had given him up as a baby, long before Jason was born. The men quickly grew close,
