{"id":27878,"date":"2018-04-21T15:53:55","date_gmt":"2018-04-21T19:53:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=27878"},"modified":"2018-04-21T15:53:55","modified_gmt":"2018-04-21T19:53:55","slug":"ghost-stories-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2018\/04\/21\/ghost-stories-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghost Stories (2018)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u201cAnd it was going so good too.\u201d That\u2019s my initial reaction to the third act of \u201cGhost Stories\u201d which feels like one gigantic cop out of a finale. You can reason that the creators wanted to introduce these esoteric ideas that come colliding, but I felt like \u201cGhost Stories\u201d just ran out of ideas and just stopped trying. I\u2019m also not a fan of the underlying message about how lack of belief is linked to being some kind of bitter individual with a horrible life. Either way I imagine the finale to \u201cGhost Stories\u201d will be a very polarizing element in the horror movie world in 2018. I think some horror fans will defend its radical approach while others will lambast it for trying way too hard. I\u2019m in the latter category. I didn\u2019t buy its self important morality play.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The thing about horror anthologies is that they\u2019re similar to sketches on comedy television. Sometimes it\u2019s tough to write an ending and we\u2019re never quite sure where the writers are going to take us. Sometimes it goes on too long and we\u2019re anxious for it to close, and other times, the movie knows well enough to just end. Based on the stage play, \u201cGhost Stories\u201d centers on Professor Philip Goodman. As played by Andy Nyman, he\u2019s a man who spends his life debunking hucksters and alleged paranormal investigators. After a well renowned professor goes missing, he\u2019s led to a mysterious location where he comes face to face with the man himself. He is now is a firm believer in the supernatural. Despite Philip\u2019s protestations, he hands him three cases that have never been solved.<\/p>\n

\u201cGhost Stories\u201d is identified as an anthology but in reality it\u2019s more an episodic horror movie in the vein of \u201cPulp Fiction\u201d where scenarios begin and end. Among the tales there\u2019s the inclusion of a night watchmen being terrorized by something in a burnt down building, a young man who crashes in to something in the middle of the road one night, and a poltergeist haunting a man the night of his wife\u2019s labor. The stories just end without much of a send off, and it\u2019s a shame since I appreciated their closing scenes (especially the opening story). \u201cGhost Stories\u201d is not an awful anthology like \u201cHolidays,\u201d it just doesn\u2019t know how to finish, and when it finally does, you\u2019ll be wishing it had ended so much sooner than it does.<\/p>\n

The trio of tales feels incredibly rushed and never has much of a pay off beyond a jump scare. And I\u2019ll admit that the jump scares work beautifully since the direction and sound design are absolutely top notch. There\u2019s also some remarkable cinematography that make every story feel wholly unique and eerie. I sat on edge through the trio of tales, and was sad when they never quite delivered. At almost a hundred minutes, \u201cGhost Stories\u201d feels ten minutes too long and would have worked with a much tighter and ironic climax. Instead what we get is a derivative final act that\u2019ll leave audiences thinking \u201cWhat the hell is going on?\u201d and send them off with \u201cThat\u2019s it<\/em><\/strong>?\u201d I wish I loved \u201cGhost Stories,\u201d as its production quality is top notch, and its concept is excellent, it\u2019s just so mediocre and anti-climactic in the end.<\/p>\n

In theaters and on VOD.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cAnd it was going so good too.\u201d That\u2019s my initial reaction to the third act of \u201cGhost Stories\u201d which feels like one gigantic cop out of a finale. You can reason that the creators wanted to introduce these esoteric ideas that come colliding, but I felt like \u201cGhost Stories\u201d just ran out of ideas and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[103,276,302,409,477,703,1008,1087],"class_list":["post-27878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-anthology","tag-demons","tag-drama","tag-ghosts","tag-horror","tag-mystery","tag-supernatural","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27878"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27880,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27878\/revisions\/27880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}