Pay the Ghost (2015)
A professor frantically searches for his son who was abducted during a Halloween parade.
Director:
Uli EdelWriters:
Tim Lebbon (novel), Dan Kay (screenplay)Stars:
Sarah Wayne Callies, Veronica Ferres, Lauren Beatty.Storyline
One year after Mike Lawford's young son disappeared during a Halloween carnival, he is haunted by eerie images and terrifying messages he can't explain. Together with his estranged wife, he will stop at nothing to unravel the mystery and find their son-and, in doing so, he unearths a legend that refuses to remain buried in the past.
Movie Reviews
Melodrama Over Horror
Pay the Ghost won't be enigmatic to find your attention. While the premise sounds simple and intriguing enough; a mystery of a ghost that kidnaps children on Halloween with a scale of a basic detective story; the movie hardly finds anything scary within this story. Sure, this story does have some interesting details that intersects both supernatural and crime movie elements. But without offering much terror, this combination just makes it all silly. Even worse is a climax that is riddled with clichés and pays off with horrible effects that could be worthy for laughter. Even for a Nicolas Cage film, this isn't the most charming suit as a guilty pleasure or a respected work.
You can't blame anyone being hooked with this premise. While it's nothing original exactly, there is still something gripping from its details. But the characters are taken as seriously as a typical domestic drama. In a story that involves a lot of ridiculous supernatural elements, these moments often feel out of place. Even the detective work seems quite grounded and the more they're figuring out what really abducted the son of its protagonist, the sillier the movie really gets. To its credit, it does take us to interesting places and shows us some campy side characters to probably spice up the atmosphere, but what really lacks here is the scares. Sure, it has jump scares, mild violence and awful darkness, but they're not quite effective.
You can't blame anyone being hooked with this premise. While it's nothing original exactly, there is still something gripping from its details. But the characters are taken as seriously as a typical domestic drama. In a story that involves a lot of ridiculous supernatural elements, these moments often feel out of place. Even the detective work seems quite grounded and the more they're figuring out what really abducted the son of its protagonist, the sillier the movie really gets. To its credit, it does take us to interesting places and shows us some campy side characters to probably spice up the atmosphere, but what really lacks here is the scares. Sure, it has jump scares, mild violence and awful darkness, but they're not quite effective.
