Ghost Stories - review

Ghost Stories is *not*, as some may wonder, a sequel to David Lowry's A Ghost Story from last year. It is an adaptation of the theatre play of the same name, written and directed by Jeremy Dyson (The League of Gentlemen) and Andy Nyman (Derren Brown), who also stars as Philip Goodman, a debunker of the supernatural and paranormal.
Goodman is contacted by a former paranormal investigator on his death bed who needs Goodman to tell him that three cases he struggled to explain are in fact not evidence of the paranormal.
Goodman proceeds to interview the three men who had these experiences; A nightwatchman (Paul Whitehouse), a student (Alex Lawther) and a smarmy businessman (Martin Freeman). While initially they seem like separate tales, certain details start to crop up that suggest something more sinister is at play here.
As mentioned earlier, this is based on a play (which this reviewer saw twice and was chilled to the bone both times) and the plot is very similar although the framing device is slightly different (In the play, Goodman was delivering a lecture to the audience).
Given the previous work of the writing and directing duo, one can expect a reverence for British horror, a macabre sense of humour and a film where everything is not what it seems... despite the existence of the lead character.
Shot in the style of Seventies British horror films; static cameras, long shots where your eyes move around the screen looking for something evil, 8mm sequences; the stories are put together deliberately to slowly crank up the dial of terror before releasing all that tension with a jump scare. And it is to their credit that the finished product has the desired effect.
A lot of this comes from the performances from the men reliving these terrifying encounters.
Paul Whitehouse is superb as the angry, bitter, broken Nightwatchman who is plagued by mysterious noises and visions during a late shift in the single most effective sequence. He is best known for his comedic roles but he is even better at the portraying the drama and horror he feels.
Alex Lawther is once again incredibly effective as a young man scared to the point of insanity by something he encountered in the woods but he is in danger of being typecast as the troubled youngster that he has previously played in Black Mirror and It's The End Of The F**King World.
The final tale introduces us to Martin Freeman's smarmy character who is able to get under Goodman's skin to the point that it makes him question his own experiences that leads to a final act that pulls the proverbial rug out from under the audience.
There might not be anything too original in any of the individual stories and the scares are signposted (along with hints and visual clues that will become clearer on second viewing) to anyone who knows their horror but the film plays with this knowledge and subverts these expectations.
Nyman & Dyson clearly know their horror and know exactly when to hold back and when to push the button and execute the scare, resulting in a wonderfully delivered ghost story that will chill you to the bone.

4 stars

A Ghost Story - review

On paper, and even in reality, A Ghost Story should not work. 90 minutes of Terrence Malick-esque meditation on death featuring Oscar-winner Casey Affleck in a sheet and a scene where Rooney Mara spends over five minutes silently eating an entire pie. It is the sort of thing that will alienate a lot of viewers. It certainly did in the screening I was in.

However, just as there are some people unwilling to believe in life after death, for those who are able to open up their minds to the possibility of something other than exists upon this mortal coil, A Ghost Story offers one of the most beautiful, moving and haunting (pun intended) films of the year.

Shot in 1:33 Academy ratio, writer-director David Lowry takes a look at the effect death has on a couple played by Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck (the later whom suddenly passes away), leaving Mara to grieve as Affleck returns to their shared abode in a plain white sheet that initially draws comparisons to Michael Myers in Halloween and E.T.'s Halloween costume in E.T. The Extra Terrestrial.

Yet Affleck is able to bring so much (after) life to the sheet and you can feel, just from his body language, how it is feeling at any time.

For a film called A Ghost Story, there are surprisingly few horror movie tropes. At no point (well nearly none) does the ghost appear out of nowhere signalled by a sudden crash of a piano.

That is because interestingly the focus of the film is from the perspective of the ghost rather than the loved ones, with the transition coming during the most talked about cinema scene involving pie since American Pie... Or The Help!

The aforementioned scene has proved too much for many to stomach (the character included) as Rooney Mara attempts to fill the hole left behind by eating an entire pie from start to finish. The scene last over five minutes and initially may seem slightly on the absurd side but as it went on I found it oddly compelling and when a large chunk of the pie crust fell on the floor I became obsessed with knowing if she would pick it up and eat it.

Just like the leftover crumb, "it is always harder for the one left behind" and in this respect that applies to the ghost who must witness his former partner move on from him; first with another lover and then moving out of the house, leaving him to wander the rooms waiting to complete his unfinished business which is linked to a secret note hidden by Mara's character and destined to become a Macguffin as hotly debated as what Bill Murray whispers as at the end of Lost In Translation.

The ghost is certainly unlikely to find himself in high spirits as he contends with the greatest enemy to us all. Not loss but time. Time catches up with us all. Forced to spend an eternity in that spot, he witnesses other people come and go in the house and developing his powers to influence the lighting and objects within his domain in an almost impotent rage. Grief can outlast even bricks and mortar as the house decays around him but time eventually can heal all wounds and offer a second chance, which is where Lowry's story begins to converge on similar themes to Nolan's Interstellar.

So just as the ghost is emotionally tied to the house he shared with his love, A Ghost Story will stay with you long after you leave the cinema.

5 stars