Ghost Note

Please Justin....stop acting already. Put us all out of our misery.

So painful!

Wow, almost 600 votes from Argentina, Aruba, and Armenia, all at 7 stars or 8 stars (depending on the location) with no other ratings from those locations. And less than 200 other votes. Someone on the cast or crew has a computer savvy friend.

Sad, because this crew had potential. Some of the actors/acting was ok, even good, but as noted in the other reviews there a several cast members that should probably look into other careers. Not the greatest story, the writer could tighten up SEVERAL places, and the directing/transitions need some help. All-in all, a 3 might be pushing it.

And sorry, I HATE vote bots anywhere, so I am giving this a 1 star to pull the rating back into reality. Yeah, friends and family always sandbag the rating, but rarely enough to make a difference, and definitely not for 600 votes!

This poor flick suffers from every bad thing you can imagine. The acting is nonexistent. The camera work and filming are grade C. The storyline is inconsistent. I bet the directors filmed it in less than a week for under $400. The only thing that would be scarier than this would be if they decided to ever make another movie.

This film, in some ways, could've been salvaged. I do see a glimmer of hope and attention to detail here and there, but I have not seen such awkward staging and transitions in a long time. Truly the direction and cinematography are sometimes reminiscent of scenes found in MST3k's library. Not that the film it self would be there, as it is hardly kemp or unintentionally funny. The characters were all too simple and wooden, which is too be expected in a horror film - more slashy slashy, less character-building-y. But again: there was very little suspense in this for me. The chase scenes were boring, the buildup for the villain wasn't really all that interesting or scary and the film cuts away any suspense it has built by truly horrible cinematography. It just takes me right out. Add the spooky flash-frames popping up all the time to startle or unsettle the audience and you got a gimmick that gets tiresome quickly. It's even used as a device through the movie.

Some of the actors truly did try here and there. The "leading (young) man" and "the villain" had some truly bad scenes, but again: I think it could've been fixed with proper direction. Some, however, were clearly not actors and it showed. I believe there were some "featured" participants in this thing, but I have no idea who they are - some blues aficionados? Again, the film tells me nothing about them in particular, and quite frankly it didn't incite enough interest for me to actually Google any of the players.

All this combined makes for a sub par viewing experience. My suspense of disbelief broke many times by film 101 mistakes, like bad and awkward cinematography, off putting camera angles and especially the transitions. Some transitions left me scratching my head, wondering what the heck were they thinking on the cutting room floor. This film could've had a creep factor to it, it could've been "scary", but you're taken out of the film so many times the few scenes that actually have some weight are drained of their effect.

I didn't come in to this film with any expectations, but liked the premise of the synopsis. Heck, once I realized it was an indie film of sorts I rooted for the film. I imagined I could've suggested it to my nieces. But my nieces have seen many horror films, including "The Exorcist". They would've been underwhelmed or bored, because they are used to film making conventions that cannot be ignored - or omitted. I see my nieces as the demographic for this film, and if that fails I can't imagine recommending this film to anyone.

In short, without the right angle and right approach to film making, you're left singing the blues about how the film could've been so much better with just following simple movie making conventions.

The people in this story are fully fleshed characters and the ghost is insidious. It's a small town ghost story that reminds me of early Stephen King ghost stories, all plot, characters, and suspense. Watch it for a scary story and some thoughts and images that will stay with you for a long time.