In The Ghost, we follow a father and daughter turned caretaking duo. The snowy winter in a cavernous Georgian mansion - imposing and eerie from its chilly layered stillness - is not simply backdrop, even as it nudges the narrative below sunlight. Shadowy conditions and unspoken reticence unify the servants and the play's audience in a chilling, nearly existential group encounter of doom in the stillness of falling snow.
At first glance, the caretakers' duties might appear boring; however, as the story progresses, it might end up being a simple plot about human helplessness amid the unknowns of the world.
What makes the film so disturbing is not jump scares but the slow erosion of mineralised rites. Horror doesn't walk into the room, it disrupts the rhythm of mundane, usually unnoticed actions - a door opening when it shouldn't, a creak from the landing, something unexplained in a corridor or a shape seen out the corner of the eye.
From start to finish, there is an ongoing looming sense of something not right, with the ending leaving you stunned. The setting along with the use of horror set this film apart from the rest. It's unique, excellently crafted and will bring shivers down your spine.
Highly recommended viewing for any Horror fanatic, it being the first ever horror film released made in the Irish language adds to the baffling creativeness that John has put forward and displayed.
