Ghost Stories

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kevinknapman
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Ghost Stories

#1 Post by kevinknapman » Mon Mar 19, 2018 10:52 pm

As expected, tonight's Odeon Scream Unseen was Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson's Ghost Stories, an enjoyable homage to old school British anthology horror films.

Nyman himself takes the role of supernatural sceptic Professor Goodman who is given the task of investigating three accounts of unexplained incidents by a long-believed dead fellow paranormal debunker.
They include Paul Whitehouse as a nightwatchman in an abandoned mental hospital, Alex Lawther as a young man who hits something with his car driving through a creepy forest and Martin Freeman as a rich businessman alone in his house while his pregnant wife is in hospital.

An often deeply unsettling film with a decent cast that combines effective jump scares and welcome touches of dark humour to create a highly entertaining horror that constantly pulls the rug from under you.
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My one main criticism is that when the actor with blatant old man makeup appears, I realised it was Martin Freeman straight away despite the Scottish accent
Last edited by kevinknapman on Mon Mar 26, 2018 6:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Ghost Stories

#2 Post by stuartboy » Mon Mar 19, 2018 11:22 pm

I also enjoyed this and it was less expected for me. I did however feel there was something fundamentally missing and it moved in rather a clunky fashion between the three stories. I also found the three known actors to be rather distracting in their familiarity and this also detracted from any tension for me. I couldn't help seeing Fast Show Whitehouse, Dr. Watson and The End of the F***ing World. Indeed I find Alex Lawther really rather creepy - for all the wrong reasons - he looks and sounds about 12 years old.
Sadly not as good as I wanted this to be.
Not a classic but passes muster.
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Re: Ghost Stories

#3 Post by elixir01 » Tue Mar 27, 2018 9:37 am

Went with an open mind (did not know anything about the film in advance), but came away disappointed. I just felt that the film didn't seem to fit together and I would agree that "clunky" describes it well. Some of the scenes were chilling, and one in particular had someone jump out of their seat, but sadly this was the highlight of the whole film 3/10

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Re: Ghost Stories

#4 Post by Deanbutlin » Thu Mar 29, 2018 10:45 am

Completely agree. Was highly disappointed with this film. Only thing I knew about this film is what I had read in the synopsis. Arrived at cinema to see a large display stating "best British horror film in years". Managed to follow the film , despite it's 'clunky', weird and not particularly scary story line, for the first 3/4 of the film but then it just turned ridiculous. If this is the best horror film that the British film industry can come up with then it's future would be in doubt. Did not enjoy it at all 2/10

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Re: Ghost Stories

#5 Post by sarahlrich » Fri Mar 30, 2018 10:27 am

I enjoyed the three scary stories (had to grab hold of my boyfriend) - but then the story went WEIRD - so loved the first half - hated the second half. Loads of unfinished stories. I would say "don't bother seeing this one"

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Re: Ghost Stories

#6 Post by fanADE » Sun Apr 01, 2018 1:10 pm

What a wonderful delight for a British Horror Movie... pleasantly surprised by the cast, which initially filled me with horror. I was expecting a standard horror & ghost investigation story.. instead i got more and psychologically troubling... There were one or 2 hints that suggested a deeper reading.. loved it.. 8/10
:D :P :p [img]%20%20[/img]

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Re: Ghost Stories

#7 Post by kevinknapman » Sun Apr 01, 2018 1:27 pm

Ghost Stories for a 3rd time this morning at Picturehouse Central. Just as much fun watching it again, mainly to spot all the visual and verbal clues hidden in plain sight that didn't register on the 1st or even 2nd viewing.
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The nine numbers appearing throughout, often separate on posters, message boards and doors but also together (in the church scene on both hymn boards either side of the altar and on the back of the door of the locked shack that Martin Freeman opens).
The name of the pub where Goodman meets the nightwatchman is called The 10th Number (it doesn't exist in other words).
The nightwatchman also calls Goodman 'Kojak', the nickname for Callahan.
The NF81 graffiti outside the tunnel is also next to the door of the locked cell in the nightwatchman story.
Though I realised the 2 bullies at the end appear earlier on the beach on 1st viewing it was only on the second that I noticed that the actor playing the young Professor Goodman is also there with his back to the camera.
Almost all of Martin Freeman's dialogue in the final scene plays earlier during the nightwatchman story after the CD skips and it switches to the distorted dialogue.
That's just a handful of examples.
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Re: Ghost Stories

#8 Post by stuartboy » Tue Apr 03, 2018 11:46 pm

Anyone else notice the TV ads for Ghost Story state "in CIMENAS ARPIL 6"?
Am assuming this is intentional.
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Re: Ghost Stories

#9 Post by kevinknapman » Wed Apr 04, 2018 6:43 pm

stuartboy wrote:Anyone else notice the TV ads for Ghost Story state "in CIMENAS ARPIL 6"?
Am assuming this is intentional.
Yes, some of the posters have 'The brain see waht it wnats to see' on them as well.
Here's an article with other mistakes on one poster and the reason for them.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/uk.movie ... 02323.html
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Re: Ghost Stories

#10 Post by jamie60509 » Thu Apr 05, 2018 8:39 am

I saw the show on stage a few years ago and it really unsettled me but I found it lost a lot of what made it so scary in the move to film. When it was happening on stage right in front of you it was really creepy!!!

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