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Imagine a cross between The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, THE SHINING, and THE GHOUL, and you'll have some idea of GHOSTKEEPER's general direction. Sadly, however, it's not nearly as interesting (or entertaining, for that matter) as any of those films. Perhaps inspired by David Cronenberg's success at making effective, low-budget Canadian films, the makers spin a story of insanity and psychological torment, but only succeed in confusing the viewer with the nonsensical storyline. I don't mind films for what they are, but when one comes along claiming to be insightful and clever, it just gets my goat. The box (incidentally, the cover image has NOTHING to do with the film) claims that this film is Hitchcockian, what?! The most fun you'll have here is looking at the pretty scenery of the snow-covered mountains. With such an isolated and picturesque location surely it wouldn't have been difficult to get a little bit of atmosphere conveyed on film, but sadly there is none here. All it needed was a nice tracking shot over some icy locales, with the wind whistling on the soundtrack, and that would have been enough for me. But no.
For two thirds of the film not much happens at all, it's just boring people sitting around and talking about their boring lives. In the final act it all goes a bit weird, with one man (obviously having watched Jack Nicholson in THE SHINING too many times) cracking up and going for a walk in the snow without his jacket. A blonde bimbo has her throat slashed (the only tiny bit of gore in the entire film) and then is apparently cannibalised by something living in a locked room, although we don't actually get to see any of this or know fully what's going on.
The acting is poor (none of the actors or actresses are familiar, apart from one woman who appeared in RABID), the music is non-existent and the whole film makes little sense. One major twist at the end is obviously from the first moment the characters enter the hut. They're an unlikable bunch as well, breaking into a sealed building and demanding that they stay the night. With little action, poor writing, little horror, bizarre cuts (one scene goes from two characters fighting to one of the characters impaled on a fence, whether this was poor editing or some kind of cut to the video have, I'm not sure), and a total lack of drive, GHOSTKEEPER is yet another low budget misfiring film to avoid.
score 2/10
Leofwine_draca 21 July 2016
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3508814/ |
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13-7-2020 05:12:38