The Ghosts of Monday

Well, I wasn't exactly harboring much of any expectations or hopes for this 2022 horror movie titled "The Ghosts of Monday", yet I still opted to see it. Why? Well, first of all, the movie has Julian Sands on the cast list, and secondly it was also a horror movie that I hadn't already seen.

Now, I am pretty amazed by the fact that Francesco Cinquemani, Loris Curci, Andy Edwards, Barry Keating and Mark Thompson-Ashworth could collectively manage to compile a script so mundane and bland. I suppose it goes to say that too many writers does not make for a particularly better end result.

The storyline in director Francesco Cinquemani's 2022 movie was bland. And as the movie came to an end after 78 minutes, I must admit that I was left with a sensation of 'was that really it?'. Yeah, this wasn't by any means a memorable or outstanding horror movie experience. It was watchable, sure, but you're not in for a stellar experience.

The acting performances in the movie were adequate. Nothing outstanding here really, but then again, the actors and actresses didn't really have all that much of properly constructed material to work with.

Visually then "The Ghosts of Monday" was adequate. Though, keep in mind that this movie is not heavily relying on special effects, so you're not going to be blown away by a display of grand CGI and practical effects. There were some effects here and there, and they worked out well enough.

"The Ghosts of Monday" is the type of movie that you watch once, then shelve it and never return to it a second time.

My rating of "The Ghosts of Monday" lands on a three out of ten stars.

Having just had the misfortune to spend 1 hour 17 minutes watching this, I'm struggling to think of a movie I have watched in the last few years that could be considered worse than this.

Firstly, we have the terrible acting from the main protagonist Eric, whose acting range seems to solely based on whether he has his mouth open or not. The actress playing his wife spends the movie in some sort of trance. Let me be clear, this isn't intentional, she just can't act.

And then we have the plot, if that's the word for it. Nonsensical. Are there ghosts? Are there monsters? Do we care? No we don't. There is no build up, no scene laying or narrative.

What did impress me was there was a lift that has been the scene of a very unfortunate event can be spotlessly clean within minutes. Now that's what I call housekeeping.

And then there's Julian Sands. If he's your main actor then you know you're in trouble.. he may have been in good movies (although none spring to mind) but he tends to be the worst thing in anything he's in. Remember that cheesy scene in Anaconda of Jon Voight leering at Jennifer Lopez. Sands' character here spends this movie being new levels of sleazy. No exaggeration, he creepily delivers a line asking someone sharing a late night drink with him around 10 times in this film.

In short , a 1 hour17 minute film that is 1 hour 17 minutes too long.

Lighting: atmospheric 5/5

Plot: It could've been better. The story itself has potential but the delivery is quite awkward.

Acting: First 15 minutes was nice because it's full of mystery then comes the awkward and cliche acting to the point it was too funny. I really laughed in the cinemas (not trying to insult) because of the awkwardness is so beyond my comprehension.

You can already tell who's the antagonist and what's going on without even thinking.

Impact: No impact at all, even at the climax of the story gave me a laugh.

Sound: they use the "horror" sound too much to the point it doesn't scare the audience anymore or keep them on their toes.

The verdict: Story could've been better, Awkward delivery, acting and camera angles especially when they emphasize the antagonists.

About the only good thing about this movie is that Julian Sands was in it. A very promising premise, there are so many great directions this story could taken. Instead, it ends up being this weird slasher movie that really has nothing to do with ghosts. And the ending is...vague, at the very least. At least I can say I saw it? Hmmm. A review must have 600 characters. So I'll just add that I like the hotel's owners, even if that is the one predictable thing I guessed from the start. I've seen a lot of ghost movies over the years. I guess that's the thing about ghost movies- when one is bad, it's really, really bad!

To call this film rubbish, would be insultive to the term rubbish. This film is 1 hour and 17 minutes of pure bilge. Directed with a plot that seems to be made up, take by take, shot by shot. This 'stinker' features some supremely wooden performances by a group of rank amateurs who run the whole emotional and acting gamut from A to B. They should not give up their day jobs! The plot seems to have stolen its scenes (and executed them very badly) from the Shining, from Ghost Ship and from a myriad of hack and slash Z-list productions. The plot stinks, the actors stink, the production stinks. Confine this bilge to the 'crapper' and don't waste a minute of your time trying to endure it!