A man desperate for a place to crash takes a job to clean out a house where all previous tenant have fled. As he works on the house, supernatural events start to unfold. As these evolve, the handyman finds out he may like what’s going on, or rather who’s causing it.
Based on a story by Adam Stovall and Matt Taylor, with a script written by Adam Stovall and MacLeod Andrews, and directed by Stovall, A Ghost Waits feels like a paranormal romance that is neither scary nor romantic. The story tries something somewhat new, but it just doesn’t really go for it in any of its aspects and it ends up feeling muted and like it might want to be more, but doesn’t really go for it. That is until the ending, which is something that just will make some go “come on” as it glorifies something that will not be spoiled, but something that will definitely piss some other viewers off. This viewer was a part of that group and it was frustrating enough to make the whole film feel like a waste of time. No matter what the ideas that came before, if they were well developed or not, what the film is about, the acting, or any other aspect, this ending and its frustrations just cancel it all.
The acting in this story isn’t bad, but it mostly just falls flat pretty consistently. The cast is not large and it feels like they all were directed to be nonchalant about most of the happenings in the film. The cast isn’t bad, but the film just plays as a monotone situation for more of the runtime. There are a few times where the emotions come out to play, but it’s not that much and it’s definitely not enough to keep the viewer involved.
Oddly enough, or maybe not, the film is shot in black and white and it feels like a missed opportunity to have certain scenes in black and white where some of the paranormal happenings would show so much better in color. The choice is clearly an artistic one and it does work for some of the scenes, but definitely not for all.
A Ghost Waits is an incredibly underwhelming film that had so many opportunities to be so much more. The ideas behind the films have been done before, but not that many times so there should be plenty to work with to make a spooky movie or a good romance, but it just doesn’t work here and falls flat.