Film Fridge Logic, the Movie
Ghost Stories was a unique viewing experience for me, in that I liked it whilst watching it, right up until the last second. But as soon as I got up to leave the cinema, I started noticing things wrong with it. With every step home, I found myself liking it less and less. By the time of writing this review, I’m prepared to say it is an average and unremarkable film. If I review it again next week, I’ll probably say I hate it.
Ghost Stories is about a tv host who exposes paranormal hoaxes. He gets handed a trio of cases, and is told they will irrefutably prove the supernatural. Thus we are shown three separate ghost stories, acted out by three familiar actors. In Ghost Stories` favour, these are well visualised, well acted yarns with a good blend of comedy and horror. The stand out performance is Alex Lawther, as a hapless teenager on the edge of a nervous breakdown, whom we can't help but laugh at and route for. It’s also nice to see a ghost story take place only miles from my childhood town in Yorkshire (which, for those not from God's own county, includes such bizarre locales as a caravan site gradually falling off of a cliff and into the sea).
So what’s wrong? Well it reminds me a lot of the worst Black Mirror or Behind Number 9 episodes, a factor not helped by the shows sharing much of the same cast. Like in some Black Mirror episodes, there is an element mystery and a gradual build up, with lots of clues and threads for the viewer to clutch on to and think about. Also like Black Mirror it all culminates in a wicked, arbitrary twist built to punish the protagonist for no good reason. It’s a product of convenient, easy writing, whereby every useful clue is a red herring, and every weird happenstance or hint finally leads to an impossible to predict, deeply unsatisfying solution; one that summarises everything whilst making little sense in itself. Think White Bear and you are on the right track. I am aware people generally like Black Mirror, so let that be the litmus test. If you hated that episode, you’ll hate this. Ghost Stories might seem like a good ride, but afterwards you'll be wondering if it was all worth it.
Film
This 2017 film is something which gets better and better the more I see it. But despite some reviewers might say, there's nothing wrong with the ending.
It's not often that you see a horror movie that makes you think. Where you see more and more clues or insights each time you rewatch a movie. And yet, I'm amazed that I think is a perfect ending, other people have problems with. I will try to explain this without spoilers, but it will be difficult.
What I think the critics of "Ghost Stories" want is for this movie to be "1408", the 2007 John Cusack film based on a Stephen King short story. Like this movie's Phillip Goodman, John Cusack's Mike Enslin makes a living debunking paranormal or supernatural stories. Like Goodman, Mike Enslin has a very personal reason for doing so. Phillip Goodman is implicitly criticized for destroying people's faith in the afterlife. Enslin is explicitly criticized for doing the same. However, there is one VERY crucial difference between the two movies, which I believe makes all the difference to the critics. They can't get past this difference, but I think it makes "Ghost Stories" more interesting than just your usual supernatural horror film
I'm not bothered by this. This isn't like a certain television series in the 70's which employed a similar plot twist to undo an entire season of plot development. This was intended this way from the very beginning, and indeed, some of the earliest shots of the movie only make sense with this understanding. To me, this is actually more frightening because you can usually escape your usual haunted house, but you can't escape the ending that this movie reveals. I like trying to piece out what each of the individual ghost stories really means, because it's obvious that they are more than what they seem to be I agree with the other reviewer that Goodman's crime is not worth this punishment he receives in the film, but that only makes the film more tragic. For the record, I did like the "Black Mirror" episode "Black Bear."