Ghostly addition to horror tales
Ghost Stories (M, 98 mins) Directed by Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman Reviewed by Graeme Tuckett
With the likes of The Haunting of Hill House
available at a flick of your TV remote, it must be challenging to make original horror movies for the big screen. But there is definitely a mini golden-age of horror happening right now. A Quiet Place, Raw, The Babadook, Hereditary and even the recent Halloween relaunch, have all found – and deserved – their audience.
Meanwhile, The Conjuring
franchise and its many mokopuna are at least technically very competent, and written with a refreshing awareness of exactly what they were put on this Earth to do. So can a British indie based on a stage play muscle in and make a buck here in Godzone? I hope so because A Ghost Story has plenty to like about it.
The film is a loose trilogy of stories, connected by a sceptical ‘‘paranormal investigator’’ who is out to debunk anything supernatural. But when he is challenged by his ageing mentor – now living alone in a caravan and clearly housing a few possums in his top branches – to find an explanation for three particular cases, our man Phillip (Andy Nyman, who co-directs) has no choice but to get to work.
The first case involves a nightwatchman at a derelict hospital, haunted by a vision of a young woman who may be channelling his own paralysed and comatose daughter.
The second features a young man who is convinced he is cursed after running down a mysterious figure on a country road.
And the third – which stars Martin Freeman – is a grim retelling of a poltergeist and at least one tragic death.
Until this point, Ghost Stories plays as an anthology movie and I was underwhelmed as I waited for the credits to roll. But writers and directors Nyman and Jeremy Dyson have saved the best – an explanation of sorts – for last.
And finally I began to appreciate why Ghost Stories played to packed theatres for more than a year. If you’re still paying attention at about the 80-minute mark, you’re in for a treat.
Ghost Stories isn’t quite on a par with the very best of the recent horror renaissance, but it delivers its share of shivers and jumps with a restrained inventiveness I truly appreciated.