Ghost Stories

Dir: Andy Nyman, Jeremy Dyson

2018

***

I found Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson’s 2018 horror film Ghost Stories to be quite intriguing, although it does feature rather too many horror clichés for my liking. It is based on Nyman and Dyson’s 2010 stage play and it stars Nyman reprising his role from the play as a man devoted to debunking fraudulent psychics, and who is tasked with solving three unexplained paranormal events. I have no idea how it worked as a play but I do wonder whether it worked better. The story begins with Phillip Goodman talking to camera. Goodman is a well-known professor and television presenter whose show is devoted to debunking fraudulent psychics, which he regards as his life's work in order to stop people's lives being ruined by superstition the way his family's were. We are shown an old Super-8 film of Goodman's strict Jewish father throwing his sister out of the family home for dating a South Asian man. This doesn’t quite have the effect it probably should. We learn that Goodman is single and rather lonely and even though he feels he is doing good, those that are fooled by psychics are angry at him, rather than the psychics, for shattering their illusions. He talks about his idol, a famed 1970s paranormal investigator called Charles Cameron who has been missing for decades under mysterious circumstances. Within seconds of film, Goodman is invited by Cameron to visit him. Now sick and impoverished, having lived in a squalid static caravan, the old man asks him to investigate three incidents of supposedly real supernatural ghost sightings. He believes he has been wrong all these years and that Goodman’s work is contemptible. The real identity of the man is obvious from the start due to poor make-up, which hurts the overall story somewhat. The first case is a night watchman, Tony Matthews (Paul Whitehouse), whose wife has died of cancer and who feels guilty that he stopped visiting his daughter, who suffers from locked-in syndrome. The set up and character development is brilliant and Whitehouse is on top form but unfortunately, the segment turns into run-of-the-mill wobbly camera nonsense as we see him being haunted by the spirit of a young girl while working in a disused asylum for women. It isn’t quite the clever ‘unexplained’ happening that the audience/Goodman is promised. The second victim of a supernatural sighting is a teenager, Simon Rifkind (Alex Lawther), who is obsessed with the occult and has a poor relationship with his parents. His introduction drags on with Goodman walking around his very un-spooky house. Lawther however is brilliant in his performance and is totally believable as a frightened teenager on the brink of breakdown. In his flashback, we follow him in his car as he is driving back from a late party. Said party must have been led deep in the woods as this is where Simon is driving. After a lapse in concentration, Simon hits something (the devil apparently) and his car breaks down. I think he was then attacked by a giant tree but it is a bit unclear. Goodman, although unsettled by the second case, believes that each of them had an obvious rational explanation: the supposed victims imagined them, based on their own neuroses. The third case is of a financier in the City, Mike Priddle (Martin Freeman), who was plagued by a poltergeist while awaiting the birth of his child. His wife's ghost appeared to him as she died giving birth to an (it is implied) inhuman child. It is the best and most scary of the three tales, Freeman is as good as the other three actors and you wonder how the story will end. Thankfully, the film takes a turn for the better as the financier suddenly commits suicide with a shotgun while talking to Goodman. Goodman returns to the 1970s investigator, who tears a latex mask off of his face, revealing himself to be Priddle – which was no surprise as it was clearly Freeman from the very beginning. Goodman at first believes that he is the victim of an elaborate hoax, but reality soon breaks down altogether. Priddle leads Goodman back in time to the scene of a childhood incident in which he watched two bullies entice a mentally handicapped boy into a drain, where he died of an asthma attack. A series of numbers, that have appeared throughout the film, are explained to be written inside the drain the boy died in. Goodman has felt guilty all his life about his failure to rescue the victim. The decaying corpse of the bullied boy appears, tormenting Goodman and leading him to a hospital bed, where he is made to lie down. The ghoul lies on top of him and forces his finger into Goodman's mouth as Goodman cries "no, not again", implying this is a recurring event. In the real world, Goodman is comatose in hospital with tubes in his mouth. He suffers from locked-in syndrome after a failed suicide attempt in his car. All the characters and events Goodman has experienced were inspired by the staff and objects in his hospital room. The doctors incorrectly believe that his persistent vegetative state allows him no awareness of his surroundings. The senior doctor predicts that Goodman is "here for keeps", without chance of recovery, and as he leaves the room says to his junior colleague, "I hope his dreams are sweet". It is a clever ending that makes the film worth watching but only just. The numbers thing was a bit rubbish to be honest and each story alone are nothing special. It’s a bit of a mix of ideas that don’t mix brilliantly together but the pace was quite refreshing and it certainly wasn’t predictable, even when it felt a little clichéd. The truth of it is that the film was written by the least talented member of The League of Gentleman. Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith have made similar sort of programs/film over the years that have been utterly brilliant and Ghost Stories feels like a sugarless version of the work they’ve been doing for the last ten years or so. The performances are excellent, accept from co-writer Nyman, who is just okay in the lead role. The UK TV Trailer for the film contained the spelling error ‘Ghost Storeis’ in big red letters. This was an intentional error in reference to the tagline 'the brain sees what it wants to see'. This sums up the film really: not as clever as it thinks it is and tries too hard.