Review: The Ghosts of Monday

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2023
Images from the Internet

The Ghosts of Monday
Directed by Francesco Cinquemani
Altadium Group; Jingi; Cleopatra Entertainment; MVD Visual
78 minutes, 2022 / 2023
https://altadium.com/
www.cleopathra-entertainment.com
www.mvdvisual.com

The proliferation of cable “documentary” shows focused on Ghost Hunters has led to a subgenre in that field. Often they are found footage style like Alone in the Ghost House (2015), Ouija Death Trap (2014), and Beyond the Shadows (2020), just to name a trio. Of course, there have been some mainstream “Ghost Hunter” films for decades, such as The Haunting (1962), The Legend of Hell House (1973), and Poltergeist (1982).

So here we are, with a new Ghost Hunter tale that never goes well for the participants, with some relatively strong star power in the form of Julian Sands, who starred in some A-listed films in the 1980s and ‘90s, and has been in cinematic decline in the 2000s as he refocused his career to the stage. But he is enough of a name to grab some attention, especially for genre fans who loved him in Warlock (1989).

Ghost Hunter films tend to follow a basic premise: the group goes to investigate a legendary haunted locale, and find more than they bargained for. In this case, it is the Grand Hotel Gula, located in Cyprus (the country in which this is filmed; in fact, this is the first home-grown horror released out of that island country). Planning on shooting the pilot episode of the documentary series “Ghosts of the Old World,”, the group, led by the show’s host and narrator, Bruce (Sands), are on their way to find the spirits, and not the kind that come out a liquor bottle, which Bruce imbibes.

I am looking forward to seeing this. Ironically, I am not a fan of Ghost Hunter reality television shows, but often enjoy Ghost Hunter films, generally. Go figure! For this one, the title refers to a Monday night in 1990 when 100 people in the dining room were killed by rat poison, though no one knows how, and people have been dying in that location for hundreds of years. The locals avoid the area and the hotel has been abandoned for more than 20 years, but has been recently bought and is being renovated by weird couple Frank (Anthony Skordi) and his wife, Rosemary (Maria Ioannou).

Mark Huberman, Julian Sands

If I have this right, Bruce has been hosting shows for a while, and is a skirt-chasing lothario who it seems most of the women are onto and give him the brushoff. The hot-headed director of the show-to-be, who does not seem happy to be there, is Eric (Mark Huberman). He is with his ex-, the mysterious Sofia (Marianna Rosset), who is from Cyprus and has a history with the hotel; she is also the adopted daughter of Bruce. The crew include cameraperson Jennifer (Flavia Watson) and sound tech Christine (Elva Trill). The liaison between crew and the Hotel is Anna (Kristina Godunova). And where are they all staying? At the Gula, of course. Keep the body count close.

The early tone of the film reminds me a bit of The Sentinel (1977) and Rosemary’s Baby (1968), as people keep feeding Sofia tea with “local herbs,” including the financiers of the Ghost Hunter show, Dom (Loris Curci) and Pat (Joanna Fyllidou). Something wicked this way comes, me thinks. Meanwhile, recurrent shaky POV shots show that everyone from the prospective program is being watched.

Marianna Rosset

Early on, there is the mention of the Cult of Teshub, who was the Hurrian god of sky, thunder, and storms in part, with the Iron Age Luwian and Hittite cultures during the early 13th century BCE (thank you, Wikipedia). Here, it dealt with human sacrifice. There is no subtly that this will be an important plot point going forward into the Second and Third Act, as it is stated more than once. Same with Sofia’s dreams, telegraphing that, in the words of Prof. Pretorious in From Beyond (1986), “Something is coming, Crawford!”

Eva Trill

When the killin’ finally starts, what it nice is that there is a multi-pronged and genre jumping storylines, such as slasher, monster, and cult. Of course, they all tie in together, but it made me happy that it was not just one or the others. When someone gets to meet their maker (colloquially, of course), there is a nice variety. Besides, if you cannot figure out who the bad guys are early on, and probably what is their motivation, well, you just have not seen enough genre films (is it possible to see too many? I say no). There is also a nice reference to the 1953 short story, “The Nine Billion Names of God,” by Arthur C. Clarke.

Flavia Watson

The killing effects look great and had me cheering. I did not really notice any digi-SFX, most of it being practical and very bloody. My one question is, as they all had cell phones, why at some point did anyone not call the police at any point?

With quite the international and attractive cast (including a nice and gratuitous shower scene), the action is first rate, mostly. Sands, generally a good actor, is both wooden and over-emoting at the same time, often acting with his eyes, eyebrows and a forward tilt of his head. He seems to forget he is not on the stage, but in front of the more intimate camera. However, there are some beautiful shots of the hotel lobby atrium, which is almost another character in the story.

Cyprus did good here. There is just enough of an arty tone to give this some oomph, but not enough to make it opaque or distracting. The few scenes we see outside of the hotel of the city are beautiful; visiting Cyprus is on my bucket list.

This film did not disappoint, and I look forward to more output from the island Republic of Cyprus.

IMDB listing HERE

Review: Ghostwatch

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2023
Images from the Internet

Ghostwatch
Directed by Lesley Manning
BBC; Screen One; Sonopress; MVD Entertainment
91 minutes, 1992 / 2022
www.sonopress.de
www.mvdvisual.com

Right now, there is a proliferation of Ghost Hunters type shows on cable television. I have watched a couple of them, and they suck, so obviously made up or at the very least stretching credulity. But this BBC1 film dates back to 1992, ahead of the crowded market, and is presented as a real documentary. There is little indication beyond the credits that it is fiction and exclaims itself as “live,” and comes across as a news program like ”20/20” or “60 Minutes.” This is helped by it being hosted by respected newsman Michael Parkinson and well-known celebrity Mike Smith (d. 2014).

As with Orson Wells’ radio broadcast of “War of the World” (1938), some people did not realize it was a scripted piece as this was way before the popularity of the Found Footage genre, so much of the audience was caught unawares. And like Wells’ radiocast, this was presented on October 31.

Mike Smith, Michael Parkinson, Sarah Greene

In a regular looking home on Foxhill Drive (in England; I am assuming London), the Ghostwatch team is arriving to investigate the ghostly happenings in that house (the example they show is actually laughable for a number of reasons, but incredibly reminiscent of Paranormal Activity in 2007, nearly a decade later). Hosting the team is annoying comedian Craig Charles (of “Red Dwarf” fame). Note that most of the main characters are playing themselves. The “reporter” from the BBC and lead is Sarah Greene, who was married to Mike Smith at the time, which is acknowledged in the program, thereby giving it more credibility.

Like Geraldo Rivera and Al Capone’s vault (do you remember that?), for a while everything is pretty mundane as they switch back and forth between the house and the studio, where Parkinson and Smith interview a parapsychologist, Dr. Lin Pascone (Gillian Bevan), the owner of the house, Pam Early (Brid Brennan), and take calls from people who have possible ghostly experiences. Taking the counterpoint poo-pooing the events, is American Dr. Emilio Sylvestri (Colin Stinton).

Brid Brennan and the Wesson sisters

One of the questions in this show is whether or not the events are a poltergeist, due to the two puberty-period (no pun intended) Early daughters and real-life sisters, Kimmy (Cherise Wesson) and Suzanne (Michelle Wesson). Or, perhaps, could it be something more sinister?

Before we get to the meat of the matter, when the banging hits the walls, the film almost mocks itself with a series of red herrings that I thought was really well written (by Stephen Volk, who started his career with Gothic, the 1986 story of the creation of the Frankenstein novel).

Craig Charles, Brennan

This is the first time this has been released on Blu-ray, which looks incredibly crisp. There are some nice extras. First up is a brand-new Audio Commentary with British film historians Dr. Shellie McMurdo (University of Hertfordshire/University of Roehampton, whose interests include the horror genre, trauma theory, Found Footage horror, and torture horror) and Dr. Stella Gaynor (University of Salford; author of Made for TV Monsters: How has the rise of horror on US television impacted on the spectacle and acceptability of the genre?, as well as being a horror make-up artist). They discuss how original this TV film was at the time. The two Docs, who are personable, for quite a while discuss their reactions to the film when they saw it as young’ns. Eventually, they mention how certain scenes are culturally effective. It is a bit self-centered, but so refreshing than most of the flat and clinical, “Here is how it got started, cast stories, effect on culture” cliché commentaries.

Also new for the Blu-ray is the documentary, “Do You Believe in Ghosts?: 30 Years of Ghostwatch” (48 min). This is essentially a Making Of documentary, filled with interviews with the cast (Greene and Bevan), crew (including director Manning and writer Volk), among others. It is engaging and a bit of an historical document about the filming. It is mixed with scenes of the film that you have probably just watched, but using it as reference points to the conversations, works. It is well put together, and worth the view.

Gillian Bevan

Also on the disc is an archival commentary with writer Stephen Volk, producer Ruth Baumgarten, and director Lesley Manning. They give a bit more details about both the technical ends of the film and anecdotes. It amazes me that after all these hours of commentary, there is very little overlap of information. My guess is that this commentary was recorded for the DVD release in 2014. Last is the “Shooting Reality” featurette by director Lesley Manning (8 min). This shows parts of the script, the house floor plan, and Manning’s notes about it as she describes it, among other things. There is also the only clear and close-up picture of the ghost, Pipes (Keith Ferrari).

What kind of reaction did the audience have during the show and after? Well, the BBC announced that they received over a million phone calls that were both favorable and complaints by people who thought it was real (despite the credits at the beginning and end).

Greene

Just for the originality in its format, this is as an important television moment as Captain Kirk mixing it up with Uhura. There was no reality television frame of reference, and this makes it all the more powerful, and worth remembering when you watch this, and you really should. So much fun.

Oh, and there are reportedly 11 appearances of the ghost, Pipes. I saw four. Drinking game? Or maybe every time you see the two-liter bottle of Coke.

IMBD listing HERE

Review: Beyond the Shadows

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2020

Images from the Internet

Beyond the Shadows

Directed by David James Gustafson

Great Gus Productions

93 minutes, 2020

https://www.greatgusproductions.com/

There is an entire subgenre on the topic of a collective of ghost hunters, ranging from the big budget ones like The Haunting (1962), The Legend of Hell House (1973),  Poltergeist (1982), and The Conjuring (2013), to mostly indies like Grave Encounters (2011), Todd Sheet’s Ouija Death Trap (2014), and this one. The major differences are the smaller funded releases tend to be in the found footage (FF) style; this one is a mixture of both FF and linear (though it all appears to be hand-held camera action).

Brianna Piage Dague, Tyler Roy Roberts, Tyler Ryan

During the extended eight-minute prologue before the opening credits, we meet the ghost hunter crew who host a cable television show called, of course, “Beyond the Shadows.” Led by the dashing family man and aptly-named Drexler “Drex” Faust (Tyler Roy Roberts), they include his assistant and “ladies man” Jonathon Coxman (Sam Olive), and their cameraman, Sammy (Westin Hedin), the latter of whom talks in an annoyingly profane, “bro” and “dude” language that gets on the nerves quite quickly. You may notice that name of the roles are easily identifiable with traits related to the film; it’s a fun game to connect the meanings and the characterizations.

You can see lots of shows like this on cable, as well, such as “Ghost Hunters,” “Ghost Adventures,” and so many others. Where’s James Randi when you need him, eh? We are getting there...

Like many of those programs, “Beyond the Shadows” is a bunch of entrepreneurs (i.e., fakers) trying to cash in on peoples’ fear of the unknown, death and the afterlife. Their next gig, and the major portion of this film, deals with the Chetco River Lodge, Washington State, where a couple of white settlers apparently killed a large number of Native Americans in the mid-19th Century. And, Drex is filled with hubris that you know, if you follow these kinds of films, is going to bite him and the group in the ass.

Gabrielle Malate

For this new venture, they are bringing others along (collectively known as the body count). Of course, there is the detractors and debunkers, in this case Dr. Calvin Harding (Cameron Lee Price) in the Great Randi role, with his assistant Dr. Emma Bright (Stevie Mae), and his own cameraperson and younger brother, Keith (Alex McIntire), to give another angle for editing the film I am assuming; smart move. While most of the film crew are worried about bringing the doc along, they are to be joined by psychic Phantasma Spectre (Gabrielle Malate) and “superfans” hot-for-Drex Ashley (Brianna Paige Dague), hot-for-Drex Rooster (Tyler Ryan) who is an amateur taxidermist in his “gay-rage,” and stoner Lou (Apostolos Gliarmis), who is apparently really into deli-meat sandwiches. Also joining along are the crew’s friend, producer and on-air talent Bryan (Derrick Woodrin), and “groupies” (as Coxman calls them) Holly (Ella Anderson) and Eve (Lindsay Gustafson).

While a dark comedy, bits of it is pretty broad, such as the characterization of Monty (Ty Boice), who runs the Lodge. He is neat, tidy, particular and peculiar. You know he knows more than he is letting on, as he is quite joyous about the hauntings.

Despite the comedy, there is a serious element in here as well, and that is the European/Settlers treatment of the Native Americans. Bryan has a concentrated speech about some of that, which I’m sure will just go over the heads of many stoned and drunk viewers of the film who may consider this part a downer, but I really am glad they are addressing it. This will be a key, underlying theme to the film that will tie everything together.

About the half-way point, the film kicks into a new gear as the group convenes at the lodge, and we get to meet all the new and relevant characters at once. It is a large group of nearly a dozen, so there is a chance for lots of bodies to pile up.

Alex McIntire, Cameron Lee Price

There is tension in the four groups, between the film crew who is trying to put one over on the skeptics, the scientists who not only disbelieve in spirits but are quite perturbed about it all, the uber-fans who are excited to be there in creepy fanboy (and girl) ways, and the psychic (a group of one).

Throughout the film there are flickers to indicate video “noise,” which I am going to guess are subliminal images, but I’m watching this online and my computer doesn’t do frame-by-frame; that’s something you may look forward to doing.

The effects are… well, the physical SFX look good, but thanks to budgetary constraints, most of the killings are done out of camera sight. However, the after-effects look great. There is one major digital FX that looks kind of cartoonish, but being a micro-budget release and the fact they only do that once that I can tell, I’ll let it pass as it did not ruin the experience of the whole film for me. Most of the acting is rather good, with Roberts, Woodrin and Malate coming off the best.

This film is truly a Gustafson family affair, with a few actors and a surprising number of the crew carrying the surname. Kudos for that, as I’m sure that cut the costs enormously (if it was done right).

Anyone who is a regular reader of this blog knows that I am not necessarily a fan of FF films, but combining it with a more standardized format (though handheld), makes it more palatable. As for the story, it was surprisingly interesting and even though there is easily 10 minutes that could have been excised from the final cut (such Racoon’s taxidermy story in the driveway), this kept my interest, especially during the second half. So, dude, if you are a bro and want to see some better-than-Paranormal Activity action, this may be your slice of pie. Shall we put it on in the gay-rage? You can see the full film for free on YouTube HERE.