Polterheist

One word just about sums up this movie Better Off Racing In No Gear

Your review of "polterheist" may or may not be accurate but who cares? Your blatant extortion attempt and threats to get your own way or to be right, (who knows when it comes to people like you) shows what type of person you are. You have the character similar to Veruca Salt. No shame, no dignity. Or integrity. Or any redeeming qualities whatsoever. What a waste of air and space you are.

Based upon the original short this feature length film shows the originality that UK independent film making can still provide. Taking the base premise of gangsters trying to locate missing money, the twists & narrative turns are layered well maintaining the films pace. Gritty shots of urban streets & explosive acts of violence show the influence of Get Carter (1971) The cast deliver good solid performances with Jo Mousley inhabiting the role of Alice Moon & the dead Frank exceptionally well. Sid Akbar Ali & Jamie Cymbal are a great pair of mid level gangsters. The character of Uday (played by Pushpinder Chani) is another level of deranged & outlandish violence; as such he is probably the least believable character. Gun, knife & cricket bat stand-offs pepper the drama with darkly comic dialogue & action (especially paying for parking ...) The visual effect of ghosts is particularly well conceived & executed. It is thanks to video-on-demand, Netflix, Amazon & other streaming services that smaller films like this can get the greater audience they deserve. And this is definitely a film that is worthy of viewing. It is to the great credit of the cast & crew that films like this can be made, & I look forward to seeing more from director David Gilbank. (I can only imagine what he could have done with just a tenth [£4 million] of the budget for the 2000 version of Get Carter!)

Polterheist throws two small time gangsters in to a race against the clock to recover stolen loot from one of their "colleagues". The only problem, he's dead!

Seeking the advice of a psychic medium they contact him and so the mayhem ensues. Laced with tongue in cheek humour and surprising twists this film had me laughing and guessing all the way through.

I particularly enjoyed the performance of Pushpinder as Uday, Bradford's own "bad man" who puts the pressure on the two haplessly dimwitted whilst enjoying the luxuries of his grandeur.

I would definitely recommend!

Rather like the recent "revelation" that Amazon is full of fake reviews, we find a similar ghostly phenomenon here. There are a number of glowing reviews for this title, created by persons who joined IMDB in 2018, and have submitted a single review (for this movie). One would almost suspect a master plan to promote their own movie...

Anyway, I actually enjoyed this movie. It's a great idea (reminds me a bit of "Cleaver", the movie within The Sopranos. It's not great, and the cast (I note an Emmerdale actress) have limited talent on display, but it made me chuckle, and I do enjoy bungled heist movies.