Bang for Your Buck: Anthology Films You Need to See: Ghost Stories (2017)

                                                     

British horror is not something that typically gets talked about. Asian countries like Korea, Japan have seemingly mastered the genre. And with the American blockbuster horror films, the Brits get overlooked. However, they might have made one of the best horror anthology films with Ghost Stories in recent years.  An anthology film is a movie that tells multiple storylines, mostly in a connected universal timeline that connects the stories at the end. Ghost Stories is a movie that will stick with you after watching, starting out as what seems like a creepy paranormal investigative mystery but slowly turning into much more. Let’s recap the movie and break down what was good and what was bad about the film. 

Synopsis (Spoiler Alert) 

Phillip Goodman is a paranormal investigator with a focus on debunking the unknown to prove that supernatural and superstition is all a figment of the imagination or outright made up. These beliefs began when he was a little boy, as his Jewish father shunned his beloved sister out of the family home for dating outside their culture. He gets called upon to speak with Charles Cameron, an elderly and dying paranormal investigator who’s had 3 cases in his life that haunt him because he was never able to disprove them. He asks Phillip to investigate them and prove to him that he’s not crazy. 

1. Story 1: The first case is about a guy working a night watch job at an abandoned asylum named Tony Matthews. When the guy was working, he was tormented by the spirit of a young girl. 

2. Story 2: A teenage boy Simon Rifkind, obsessed with the occult due to a night where he ran over something in the woods. This something turned out to be some type of demon that chased him before being attacked by some tree creature. He would wake up the next morning in the same woods with none of those things around him. 

3. The final story is Mike Priddle, who is being haunted by a poltergeist while awaiting the birth of his child. His wife died giving birth to what is implied to be an inhuman creature-like baby. He suddenly commits suicide with a shotgun while Phillip is interviewing him. 

Phillip visits Cameron to discuss his findings while experiencing unsettling figments of his imagination. Cameron tears off a mask revealing he’s been Priddle the entire time. Blown away, Phillip expects this is some sort of hoax. But Priddle takes Phillip to a time where he witnesses a young mentally challenged boy get dared to go into some drains. While in there he had an asthma attack and died, and Phillip left him there to die. This has always haunted him, and suddenly, a corpse of the disabled boy appears, putting Phillip to bed in a hospital bed as he cries “no, not again!” This implies that this is a dream that happens all the time to Phillip. Suddenly, we are brought back to reality where Phillip Goodman is in a hospital after a suicide attempts. There are tubes in his mouth as he appears to be in a vegetative state. The characters of the movie are in fact all the hospital staff, and the stories are based on objects in his room. The doctor (who’s Priddle) says Phillip will be there permanently as he’s not making any progress and that he hopes he’s having pleasant dreams. The movie ends with the janitor putting a mirror in front of Phillip to “change the view.” 

Thoughts 

It’s rare that a film is able to perform a plot twist that takes the viewer completely by surprise, but that’s what Ghost Stories does. Watching the film back, there are certain moments where the film teases what is to come, but nobody could expect that he’s in a vegetative state. There were some moments that didn’t make much if any sense. The 3rd story was a bit bizarre and confusing, and the reveal that Priddle does for Phillip is a bit of a jumbled mess. In fact, it’s not until the scene with the disabled boy that you begin to have some idea that this is a hell that Phillip is reliving. There are a lot of elements to this story, and you can’t miss anything. The interesting aspect of the film is the flashbacks into Phillips life are more important to telling the story of what’s actually happening than the 3 cases he investigates. It’s a movie that will make you uncomfortable from the spooky scenes it provides, and the real life medical state and fate of the main character. Typically, these anthology films are a bit limited based off the complicated and long form storytelling that comes with the type of movie, but this film is really well done, and well written with a clear reveal at the end in mind.    

Danny’s Star Rating: ★★★★★★★ 7