Change Your Image
waltercraig
Reviews
Ghost Stories (2017)
Good but very annoying in places
I have just gone through about 50 reviews on here and not one mention of 'Dead of Night', (my all-time favourite film) which is the (very English) grand-daddy of all portmanteau horror films, and the inspiration for the Amicus series, among others. 'Ghost Stories' is essentially a 'Dead of Night' rip-off - in fact, I could almost go as far as to say it is a straight re-make, with some slight changes. A selection of supernatural tales, narrated within an overall framing story, which goes weirdly surreal and a bit bonkers in the final act, the up-shot being that the sceptic gets his come-uppance at the hands of the supernatural forces which he has spent the bulk of the film trying to de-bunk - or is it all in his own personal demons-filled mind ? This ending has been used so many times in films about the supernatural that it just has no life left in it whatsoever. About time for something different ? There are obvious references to 'Dead of Night' - the one that immediately springs to mind is the time 'a quarter to four' - and there is also a fair dollop of that other old English supernatural classic, 'Night of the Demon' in there. There are some nice little genuinely spooky moments throughout, but my main gripe is the lack of endings in stories 1 and 2. We don't get to see what happened next, just when things were getting scary - we know that the protagonists escaped, but are not shown how. I could waffle on all day, but I had better stop. The film was very watchable overall, but the ending just didn't quite gel. Plus the ambiguity is annoying - just how much of what we have seen are we supposed to think actually happened in reality, if any of it ? I suppose we are supposed to make up our own minds (where have I heard that before ?). I am giving this film 9 out of 10 purely in recognition of the writers' and directors' sheer chutzpah in trying to out-do 'Dead of Night'.
Elfie Hopkins (2012)
Do not see this film
Do not waste your time and money on this film. I could act better than Jaime Winston, and I've never done any acting. All she does is say her lines in a flat monotone, while giving the impression that she would rather be somewhere else altogether. None of the other actors are much better, to be perfectly honest, including Ray Winstone. Everything about this film is entirely unconvincing, and you will know it in the first 2 minutes. I stuck it out for 30 minutes before I walked out, and that was only because I had paid £8 for a ticket. I figured that I would have a better time going home, doing some decorating and then watching the paint dry. It was a spur of the moment decision to go see this film - if only I had read the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes beforehand.