MOVIE REVIEW: GHOST STORIES

MOVIE REVIEW: GHOST STORIES
Written & Directed by Jeremy Dyson & Andy Nyman
Starring Martin Freeman, Paul Whitehouse, Andy Nyman, Alex Lawther
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
64%

The brain sees what it wants to see.

There’s a creepy Hammer Horror vibe to most of this intriguing film, but when the film turns on its head it loses a lot of its punch and meanders to a so-so close.

Co-write and director Andy Nyman plays Professor Phillip Goodman, a man who makes a living debunking fake supernatural stories, psychics and events. Even he is creeped out when the man he based his entire career on, the long-thought-dead Charles Cameron summons him and tasks him with disproving the only three cases he could not get to the bottom of.

Goodman reluctantly delves into these three ghost stories, and they are filmed with chilling, old-school horror precision, making them genuinely creepy and chilling without having to resort to torture porn or buckets of gore.

Paul Whitehouse’s icy ex-night watchman in a dilapidated former girls mental health facility; Alex Lawther’s neurotic teen driving home to emotionally abusive parents on a deserted road late at night; and Martin Freeman’s nouveau riche father-to-be all deliver in their segments, with plenty of chills and jumps to be had.

It’s when Goodman links the three cases to his own story that Dyson and Nyman throw in a plot twist which sucks the life out of story faster than a broken airlock. Despite the last act letting down what went before, Ghost Stories can still be viewed as an entertaining Twilight one/Outer Limits style creepfest.

Category: Movie & Theatre Reviews