Creepy scares--and quite a bit more--inhabit Jeremy Dyson/Andy Nyman's GHOST STORIES

If you're looking, as TrustMovies often is, for a worthwhile and different "scary" movie, I'd highly recommend a new one entitled (not especially originally but no matter) GHOST STORIES. The ghosts here are quite interestingly connected -- and guilt-generated -- even though they appear in what initially looks like several different tales. The link between them is one of those parapsychology "experts" dead set on exploring and then debunking what might appear to the untrained eye and mind as "other-worldly."

The writer/director purveyors of this strange and alternately entrancing and disturbing movie are Jeremy Dyson (shown at left) and Andy Nyman (shown below), the latter of whom may be more familiar to viewers as an actor, which he is again here, essaying the leading role of Dr. Goodman, the fellow who would like to debunk the various tales we're going to see. How the good doctor goes about this and what happens then makes up the meat of Ghost Stories, a kind of anthology movie that turns out to be but a single story, after all.

The connections in the three-tales-within-a-tale are both obvious and barely there, but by the finale of this 97-minute movie you may be surprised at how many more associations and relationships are present here than you'll have first imagined.

By the time of its conclusion, the movie has offered a good deal more surprise and depth than expected in what would initially seem to be a mere genre piece.

The three let's-debunk-this-nonsense tales involves a night guard (Paul Whitehouse, above) at a closed-up sanitorium, a very odd and maybe paranoid young man without a driver's license (Alex Lawther, below) and a highly entitled, upper-crust twat about to become a father (Martin Freeman, two photos down).

The three give as fine and specific a performance as can be managed in the short screen time and limited character development provided. But that's quite all right because the filmmakers also offer up the requisite scares and fright along the way (nothing we haven't seen before, but nicely done) and most important a compelling and increasing sense of absolute dread -- of what, we're not even sure.

Storywise, the movie's all over the place, and yet it manages to somehow cohere, while visually it seems dark and foreboding, even in the daylight scenes. Judaism, the faith and culture, are important, too -- how much so we don't quite understand until the finale.

Oddball but finally memorable, Ghost Stories, I think, will slowly build a following and someday perhaps take its place as a kind of minor genre icon. Released via IFC Midnight, the movie opens in New York City at the IFC Center this Friday, April 20, and in Los Angeles next Friday, April 27, at the Landmark NuArt. Simultaneously with its theatrical release, the film will also be available via VOD.

A don't-miss surprise: Anna Mastro & Paul Shoulberg's original movie-movie, WALTER

What an enjoyable, unique and smart little movie is WALTER, a film as psychologically on-the-mark as it is a real "movie-movie." It's also, by the way, a perfect example of the kind of film that TrustMovies lives for but sees damned little of: It asks you to trust it; you do, and then it appears to betray that trust and yet, in reality, does nothing of the sort. In fact, it makes you realize anew how movies are able to pull you in to their unique universe -- hook, line and sinker -- making you believe things you never would in real life but here accept as gospel because it's, hey, just a movie, so let's go along with it. And then it turns those tables.

The product of screen writer Paul Shoulberg and director Anna Mastro (shown at left), Walter begins as one thing and ends as quite another. Yet the transition is wonderfully seamless and, after the fact, the more you consider the movie, the better it becomes. To detail the plot would be to give far too much away. So let's just say that this film involves a ghost, god, heaven and hell -- all things that, unreal as they are on one level, nonetheless remain terribly important to so many people. Certainly they do to the movie's titular hero, Walter (a memorable job by Andrew J. West, shown below and evidently best known for that tiresome, zombies-forever Walking Dead series. If you enjoy this series, you owe it to yourself to see Mr. West's work here).

In one of those lovely synchronicities that feed creative endeavors, much of the movie is set in a movie theater where Walter works and where some of the excellent supporting cast circle around him.

These include his boss (a funny and surprisingly caring Jim Gaffigan), his nemesis (the sexy, smarmy Milo Ventimiglia) and his beauteous lady love (Leven Ramblin, above, left, and last seen to excellent effect in 7 Minutes).

Also on hand are several other first-class performers, each of whom adds luster and pizazz to these polished proceedings. Justin Kirk (above, left) plays that aforementioned ghost with the necessary annoyance and angst, while William H. Macy (below) offers another of his very funny and intelligent performances as the psychiatrist to whom Walter turns to rid himself of that ghost.

Virginia Madsen portrays our hero's frustrated mother with the proper sublimated craziness; Neve Campbell enchants, as usual, as a woman out of Walter's submerged past; and best of all perhaps is Peter Facinelli as the absent dad who keeps returning via flashback to create someone memorable, charismatic and sad.

Humanist down to its delectable toes, Walter, the movie as well as the character, is a kind of puzzle -- but it's one you won't comprehend as such until, suddenly, you do. It's a movie about the movie experience, and how we give over our trust to something that may seem pure fantasy -- quixotic and even silly -- in order to learn and better understand the world around us, along with the fantasies that world promotes as well as the reality beneath the fantasy. By doing so, we're as entertained as we are enriched.

You can catch Walter now on DVD via Netflix (I hope it'll stream eventually) and from Amazon, for either purchase or rental.  

Back to the old haunted house: Ted Geoghegan's pretty nifty genre debut, WE ARE STILL HERE

Moviemakers never seem to tire of taking us for another visit to that haunted house -- these days most often with elements not just of the expected ghost story but of related genres like horror and slasher, too. The latest foray into this combina-tion comes from a fellow named Ted Geoghegan, whom many of us critics have worked with in his capacity as a movie PR person. It always good to discover someone you know so adeptly changing hats (it happened just last month, too, with John Stuart Wildman and his genre piece, The Ladies of the House), and now here we have Mr. Geoghegan's oddball, enticing, very well-cast and -acted, tart n' tasty horror, WE ARE STILL HERE.

The filmmaker, shown at right, does some unusual things within this fairly typical genre, most surprisingly leaving much of his exposition to be finally shared with his audience during the end credits! He also plays fast and loose with any ground rules concerning his "monsters," who appear to inhabit only the house -- in the cellar, of course, and Geoghegan, along with his production design (Marcella Brennan) and art director (Sean Hughes) have created quite a creepy version of same -- but then suddenly seem to be able roam a bit farther and wider.

The "we" of the title -- those monsters, 'natch -- are done quite effectively, too, for the low-budget efficiencies they are (one of which is shown above). They'll bring new meaning to that old wartime saw, "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes."

The filmmaker, who both wrote and directed this little foray into fright, doesn't explain much of anything upfront, as his heroic couple, played by the lovely Barbara Crampton (fans will immediately recall Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator and From Beyond) and Andrew Sensenig (above, left and right, respectively). Why they have arrived at this, of all houses, is a big question. Just fate, I guess.

Once the movie gets started and the newcomers are paid a visit by their "neighbors," including a smart, nasty little performance from Monte Markham, above, you'll probably feel that glue binding your tush to the chair. This "house" evidently needs a crew of victims every so often, and these newcomers certainly seem to fill the bill.

They are soon joined by their good friends (and sometimes spiritualists) Jacob and May (Larry Fessenden, above left, and Lisa Marie, above right, both doing a bang-up job: He all loosy-goosy funny, she quite caring and serious). Soon after, that other couple's son and his girlfriend arrive. Naughtiness (accompanied by blood and guts) ensues. The "seance" Geoghegan has concocted is one of the better ones seen on film in awhile, in which Mr. Fessenden truly excels.

Geoghegan knows how to create both suspense and a smart sudden shock, and he gives these to us with enough frequency to make the movie worthwhile for genre fans. He also draws fine performances from his cast, with Fessenden and Ms Marie delivering surprisingly rich additions, while Ms Crampton, above, is even better here than she was in the better movie You're Next (a survival-thriller classic, by the way, which you must see if you somehow missed it). Her warmth and concern help hold the movie together and keep us rooting for her against what look like heavy odds.

The filmmaker also understands how to swivel on a dime, and so his movie often keeps us nicely off-balance as its twists and turns are spinning. He makes particularly good use of his "townspeople," above, who do not, shall we say, offer these newcomers much of a warm welcome. And his cinematography (by the fine Karim Hussain) knows its way around lighting, mood, and atmosphere.

As to "just desserts," it's difficult to say; we don't know enough, finally, to understand the "why" of much that has gone on. Overall, though, Geoghegan does an adequate job of piecing his story together without too heavy an explication, while doing a bang-up job of scaring our pants off.

We Are Still Here (indeed!) -- from Dark Sky Films and running just 84 minutes -- opens this Friday, June 5, here in New York at the Cinema Village and in L. A. at the Laemmle Music Hall 3. Simultaneously, it can be viewed via VOD.

Streaming tip: Caldera, Garrido & Valor's goofy delight, GHOST GRADUATION, is finally available

Another in the seemingly endless array of wonderful films from Spain, GHOST GRADUATION (Promoción fantasma), which I covered when it made its New York premiere during the FSLC's late-and-much-lamented annual series, Spanish Cinema Now, is finally streamable via Netflix and elsewhere. This goofy little comic/supernatural gem tracks an adult teacher from his school days onwards, as he comes to grips with an ability to see ghosts when no one else can. When he befriends an ill-fated group of these -- high school students killed in a fire a couple of decades back -- and they him, an increasingly funny, surprising and finally sweetly moving story comes to life (and also, well, to death).

As written with charm and smarts by Cristóbal Garrido and Adolfo Valor and directed with style and barely a misstep by Antonio Ruiz Caldera, the movie -- from its wonderful opening scene at a school dance to its final "dab away those tears" finale, the film combines a fine story with characterizations richer than this genre usually offers, excellent performances and a just-about-perfect use of special effects, as needed.

There's a delightful subplot involving our hero (the usual great job by Raúl Arévalo, at left, two photos above, shown with Alexandra Jiménez) and his shrink and the shrink's dead father -- Luis Varela (above, left) and Joaquin Reyes (above, right).

Most of all, however, it's that group of students, shown at right -- all deceased, except for the young lady, bottom right -- who manage to make this movie so much fun and so full of small surprises and charms. Look for that crack Spanish comic actor Carlos Areces (from The Last Circus) in a plum role, too.

So whenever you're in the mood for something feel-good that's actually "earned" (or as earned as any tale of the supernatural can be), start streaming -- and have a lovely time. (I suspect that fans of that fine Spanish TV series Grand Hotel will enjoy this film, too.)

Streaming Vincenzo Natali's latest scare flick: HAUNTER, with a well-used Abigail Breslin

TrustMovies has greatly enjoyed the half-dozen films by Vincenzo Natali that he's so far seen, so viewing HAUNTER, which received highly mixed notices from critics and audiences, was still a shoo-in. Sure enough, Natali and his writer Brian King take a bunch of much-used terror tropes and ghost goings-on but bounce them around creatively until they come out rather fresh. The movie will bring to mind The Others, Groundhog Day, the Amityvilles and another half-dozen well-trod tales but still manages to become its own special story as it moves interestingly along.

Natali, shown at left, has always had a smart visual sense combined with an enjoyment of fun and games, all of which is put to use here. He begins his film with the ever-involving what's-going-on-here? scenario and then allows us to find out -- but only partially. The movie keeps unfolding its secrets slowly and quietly.

As its star, the filmmaker has chosen Abigail Breslin (below), a smart young actress who seems willing to try various genres and roles within them, usually to good effect. Here she brings that intelligence coupled with typical teen-age annoyance (at parents and younger sibling) to the table and plays it for both humor and, later, drama and scares.

As her adversary, the well-worn Stephen McHattie (below, from the succulent Pontypool) is also a fine choice -- even scarier here than he usually is. The pair become a good example of well-matched antagonists of the horror genre.

While all of this proves interesting enough as it unfolds, there do seem to be some rough edges in terms of what, why and how. Natali elides these as best he can, so that we move along, questioning only lightly and momentarily until the next surprise/thrill occurs.

Basically the plot has us stuck in a house -- yes, it's dark and foggy outside, but relatively warm and friendly inside -- as we slowly come up against present, past and further past, as our heroine tries to prevent a serial killer from striking again. That's about as much as you need to know. So sit back, relax and enjoy Mr. Natali's nice visuals and the good job his cast does with the all-over-the-place plot.

Haunter, from IFC Midnight and running just a tad long at 97 minutes, streams now on Netflix, and also on Amazon Instant Video and elsewhere -- and can also be seen via DVD.

Mac Carter/Andrew Barrer's HAUNT opens, and TrustMovies gets a heavy-duty dose of déjà vu

Yet another family moves into yet another haunted house in yet another movie that hopes to wring a little something special from this done-to-death situation. Regarding HAUNT, directed by Mac Carter from a screenplay by Andrew Barrer, audiences may be forgiven for immediately mixing things up a bit, beginning with that rather derivative title, which brings to mind a bunch of other movies: Haunts, Haunter, Haunters, Haunted, The Haunting, and so on, into oblivion. Not to mention the fact that the somewhat over-used subject matter should call to memory another ten dozen films -- from the old Amityville Horror and its remake to the more recent Insidious and that hugely over-rated piece of bump-in-the-night badness, The Conjuring.

Perhaps to help us distinguish the movie, someone (maybe Mr. Carter, who is pictured at left) decided to give us a definition of the word haunt right upfront at the movie's opening, where we can't miss the fact that the definition used here is certainly nothing like the usual one. No: instead it highlights the fact that a "haunt" can be a spot where animals come to feed. Ah-hah, we think: you've certainly clued us in! And then we wait, through what seems like eons of nonsense, to get to that moment -- the very end, of course -- for the awaited feeding frenzy. This is bullshit, which also results in boring, bad movie-making.

I don't quite know why, but some very good actors -- Australia's Jacki Weaver (above), Ione Skye and relative newcomer Liana Liberato evidently signed on to this one, and all do their best with pretty woeful material. The exposition plods, we get the usual scary faces out of nowhere (below), jolting sound effects deafen us, and a naughty wooden box appears that may bring to mind a low-end Hellraiser.

None of this comes to much of anything -- except the expected carnage (the tiresome point of almost all the movies in this particular genre) -- and the "story," once we piece it together from the dribs and drabs the filmmakers have dropped along the way, turns out to be a seen-that/heard-that yawn.

Ms Liberato, above, is as fetching as ever, even with those darkened eyes, which genre fans will immediately recognize as a very bad sign, while the would-be hero and son of the family (played with youthful enthusiasm and stupidity by Harrison Gilbertson, below) makes all the wrong decisions (another genre "must," it seems) as he leads the way into bad, worse and worst. Yes, the film is atmospheric, but filmmakers, please: It takes more than atmosphere & a few overused scares to makes a good horror film.

Haunt has just about cured me of this particular genre, as I have not seen a decent variation on the theme for ages now. I may try Vincenzo Natali's Haunter, however, as that director (Cube, Cypher, Splice) usually does not disappoint. Meanwhile, this film -- from IFC Films and running too long, even at only 86 minutes -- opens this Friday, March 7, in New York and maybe elsewhere, after a run on VOD for the past month that will probably continue for awhile longer.

A modern-day Abbott & Costello: Emily Lou Gabriel Diani's cute "ghoster" THE SELLING

Don't know about you, but I was always a fan of the 1940s comedy team of Abbott & Costello. (Ever seen Hold That Ghost with A&C and Joan Davis? Silly fun.) Watching a new low-end, pretty-obvious, and also silly-fun movie titled THE SELLING put me in mind of Bud Abbott (the lean straight man) and Lou Costello (the fat funny one). Not that the two guys at the center of this one are thin and fat, but both are pretty funny and their movie has to do with the duo's trying to sell a haunted house. This is the kind of situation A&C might have encountered has they been making movies today, and I would not be at all surprised if a few people involved in this new film were themselves A&C fans.

The director of the film, Emily Lou (shown at right) and its writer and star Gabriel Diani (shown below and on poster at top) break no new ground with their film, but if you're in a somewhat forgiving mood, there's a good deal of fun to be found here and a relatively high level of professionalism in everything from the writing to the direction, acting, and the production values. Even mild special effects, such as those used here, have come quite a distance from the days of the old black-and-white B-movies inhabited by A&C.

The plot, such as it is, involves everything from an attempted exorcism (Barry Bostwick, below, plays the beleaguered priest) to a seance overseen buy a "ghost rights activist," an overly protective mother, budding romance and cutthroat competition within the real estate company that sets off the plot machinations.

All this proves old-fashioned fun given a modern update that never tries too hard and thus settles for some good giggles rather than all-out belly laughs. Everyone in the cast, nicely differentiated by both the script and the ensemble's performances, creates characters who are interesting and fun, and though the movie offers the usual suspect (a serial killer, 'natch), it never grows bloody or even that scary. Comedy remains forefront.

Worth noting in the cast are Janet Varney (center, left, above) as the prettiest and sleaziest of the brokers, Jonathan Klein (above, left) as our hero's best bud (the Costello role), Nancy Lenehan (above, right) as our hero's mom and especially Etta Devine (center, right, above) as the hapless ghost whisperer.

The Selling, from GoDigital, is available now via all digital platforms, and supposedly also arrives this coming week on DVD, according to Blockbuster, at least -- though I could find it nowhere on Netflix.

THE AWAKENING: Nick Murphy's good ghost story stars a tasty Rebecca Hall

Within a few weeks of each other, we've had two movies make their debuts featuring fine leading-lady performances from two of the strongest actresses currently working in film -- with both playing a debunker of the paranormal. Last month Sigourney Weaver shed her grace on the under-rated Red Lights, and now we have Rebecca Hall playing a ghost-buster of a century earlier in Nick Murphy's new old-fashioned scare movie THE AWAKENING.

By "strong actress," TrustMovies means not ony that these women know their craft about as well as anyone working today, but that both also have the ability to command the screen, along with whatever character they are playing, so that this character emerges as someone you would not want to cross. Some of this, of course, comes via their sheer height. According to what I can learn from the web, both are just under six feet (Weaver's 5' 11"; Hall is 5' 10"). Perhaps both have grown up used to taking command of situations.

Perhaps because Ms Hall (shown above) has not been lucky enough (or unlucky enough, versatility-wise) to appear in the lead role of a blockbuster such as Alien (which pretty firmly set Weaver's career down the "strong woman" highway), she has had the oppor-tunity to play roles (Please Give, The Town, A Bag of Hammers) in which she comes across as considerably more vulnerable, along with those (such as the one under consideration here) in which she outdoes in strength of character any of the guys on view.

As director and co-writer (with Stephen Volk), Mr. Murphy, shown at left, has come up with a chilling, well-told tale of a present-day ghost who appears to be wreaking havoc in a boys school located in the picturesque (is there any other kind?) British countryside. Present-day, in this case, is just post- World War I, when plenty of young British men went dead or missing, thus giving rise to grieving relatives all too willing to believe in "spirtualists" who might be able to bring their dead sons or lovers briefly back to them -- even if only as a voice, a thump, or an odd ray of light.

Ms Hall plays Florence Cathcart, who, though grieving for her own lost love, determinedly debunks case after case of these frauds until, one day, a teacher named Robert Mallory arrives at her door, pleading for her to accompany him back to that aforementioned boys school. Mallory is played by Dominic West, above, who does a lovely job here. He has air of genuine sadness about him that makes us, as well as Florence, feel quite protective of him. Also in the cast is Imelda Staunton, who's fine, as always, as the school's combo nanny/nurse, and Isaac Hempstead Wright as one of the more pivotal students. Chills, scares, surprise and romance ensue.

Mr. Murphy sees to it that his film is kept in a palette of drab, near-colorless greens, grays and browns, as though the sun can never quite come out, which befits these dreary times. The companion with whom I saw the screening resented this -- "When I can tell than they've done it, then I don't like it!" I could tell, too, but still found it appropriate and subtly, quietly maneuvered. The filmmaker also keeps his pacing measured but spry.

What best makes the movie work is its clever plotting that lets out bits of information ever so gradually, and with the weight of each bit seemingly equal, so that we take it all in but don't give anything too much extra thought. This acts a kind of red herring so that we can imagine that the key to all this -- which lies in the past, of course -- might also concern sex, sensuality, a somewhat threaten-ing handyman, or simply the shenanigans of the boys themselves.

The explanation, when it comes, is a good one -- better and less disappointing than are most in this genre. It makes sense on several levels, and while it might call to mind a few other movies of this ilk, to even mention their titles would be to give too much away. So go, enjoy, and drink in the wonderful Ms Hall. The Awakening, from Cohen Media Group and running 107 minutes, opens this Friday, August 17, across the country. Click here to see all cities and theaters.