Format: Streaming video from AMC + through Amazon Prime on Fire!
Most film anthologies are horror anthologies. I think the reason for that is that horror movies are easier to do in short form. Oh, you can do a comedy this way, and I’ve seen a Western anthology as well, but horror movies are really about the scare. We don’t need to know a great deal about the person beyond the fact that they are in danger for us to care, and we don’t really need more than something creepy to give us the scares. Ghost Stories is a British anthology that gives us a framing story that connects the stories much more firmly that normally happens in this kind of film. It’s a fun premise, even if the ending is one I found very frustrating.
The framing story presents us with Philip Goodman (co-writer/co-director Andy Nyman) lives a lonely life despite having success as a professor and a television presenter who debunks spiritual claims and psychics a la James Randi. In truth, Goodman is more inspired by a Randi-like character named Charles Cameron, who was a debunker in the ‘70s. Goodman is invited to meet with Cameron and discovers that his childhood hero is essentially living in a mobile home, impoverished and ill. Cameron tells him that his life’s work is a joke because there are three cases he could never fully debunk.
And, naturally, these three cases are going to be the three stories in the anthology. The first of this is a night watchman named Tony Matthews (Paul Whitehouse), who lost his wife to cancer. Matthews feels guilty because he has lost touch with his daughter, who is seriously ill (and the daughter is from another woman). Matthews was haunted by apparently the spirit of a young girl while working in an abandoned asylum as a guard.
The second story concerns a very disturbed young man named Simon Rifkind (Alex Lawther). Simon is obsessed with the occult and suffers from a bad relationship with his parents. One night, while driving on a lonely road, Simon struck a creature in the woods, and the creature seemed to be something otherworldly.
The third story concerns a rich man named Mike Priddle (Martin Freeman), who tells about his encounter with a poltergeist that attacked his home while his wife was giving birth (and dying during the delivery). For Goodman, all of the stories can be easily explained, and he returns to confront Charles Cameron.
Here's the thing—the stories are good, but also all feel kind of unfinished. They simply end without a lot of real explanation and Goodman simply moves on to the next story to interview the person in question. Naturally, all of this comes together in the final act of the film where the three stories are going to be tied together. It’s here where I have the most difficulty with Ghost Stories because the ending feels very much like a cheat. I’m not going to spoil it, but if you’ve seen the movie, you know what I’m talking about.
It's kind of a shame because there are some genuine scares in the film, albeit more of the jump variety. There’s a lot here that should make this a hidden gem, but the ending is such a disappointment that it really spoils the whole experience for me. It feels in large part like the writer/directors wrote themselves into a corner and got out of it in the only way they could, and that way was unsatisfying.
I do like that there is a thread running through the stories. It’s an interesting choice, though, to make all of the characters who had these unexplainable events in their lives be so really unpleasant as people. Night watchman Tony Matthews comes across as bigoted and angry. Simon Rifkind is weird and demanding. Finally, Mike Priddle is a rich douchebag, the sort who doesn’t have an conscience or ability to empathize with anyone, including his own dying wife. Even Goodman himself is kind of an ass. Everyone is pretty awful in some respect.
I always want to like the movies that I watch, even when I know something is going to suck. I don’t like wasting my time. Ghost Stories is one that should have been good and one that I should have liked—the reviews of it are better than decent and it’s got a solid following on Letterboxd, and the Rotten Tomatoes score is surprisingly high. I’m fine to be in the minority on this one—the first two acts are good and the third act starts strong, but it really shits the bed.
Why to watch Ghost Stories: Connected anthologies are pretty cool when they are done well.
Why not to watch: The ending feels a bit of a cheat.
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